Project Gutenberg's The Irish Race in the Past and the Present
by Rev. Aug. J. Thebaud, S.J.
Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!
Please take a look at the important information in this header.
We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
electronic path open for the next readers.
Please do not remove this.
This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words
are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
need about what they can legally do with the texts.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
further information is included below. We need your donations.
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
As of 12/12/00 contributions are only being solicited from people in:
Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana,
Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming.
As the requirements for other states are met,
additions to this list will be made and fund raising
will begin in the additional states. Please feel
free to ask to check the status of your state.
These donations should be made to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
PMB 113
1739 University Ave.
Oxford, MS 38655-4109
Title: Irish Race in the Past and the Present
Author: Aug. J. Thebaud
Release Date: March, 2002 [Etext #3141]
[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
[The actual date this file first posted = 01/02/01]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Project Gutenberg's The Irish Race in the Past and the Present
*****This file should be named 3141.txt or 3141.zip*****
This etext was produced by Charles Franks and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
the official publication date.
Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till
midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A
preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
and editing by those who wish to do so.
Most people start at our sites at:
https://gutenberg.org
http://promo.net/pg
Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02
or
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02
Or /etext01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
as it appears in our Newsletters.
Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The
time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This
projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value
per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
manage to get some real funding.
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
We need your donations more than ever!
Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in:
Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada,
Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming.
As the requirements for other states are met,
additions to this list will be made and fund raising
will begin in the additional states.
These donations should be made to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
PMB 113
1739 University Ave.
Oxford, MS 38655-4109
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation,
EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541,
has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal
Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the extent
permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met,
additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the
additional states.
All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation. Mail to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
PMB 113
1739 University Avenue
Oxford, MS 38655-4109 [USA]
We need your donations more than ever!
You can get up to date donation information at:
https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
***
If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
you can always email directly to:
Michael S. Hart
[email protected] forwards to [email protected] and archive.org
if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
We would prefer to send you information by email.
***
Example command-line FTP session:
ftp ftp.ibiblio.org
login: anonymous
password: your@login
cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc.
dir [to see files]
get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
**The Legal Small Print**
(Three Pages)
***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical
medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
distribute it in the United States without permission and
without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
any commercial products without permission.
To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
time to the person you received it from. If you received it
on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
receive it electronically.
THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
may have other legal rights.
INDEMNITY
You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext,
[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
or [3] any Defect.
DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
or:
[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this
requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however,
if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
including any form resulting from conversion by word
processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
*EITHER*:
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
does *not* contain characters other than those
intended by the author of the work, although tilde
(~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
be used to convey punctuation intended by the
author, and additional characters may be used to
indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
form by the program that displays the etext (as is
the case, for instance, with most word processors);
OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
"Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you
don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are
payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to
let us know your plans and to work out the details.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
in machine readable form.
The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
Money should be paid to the:
"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
[email protected]
*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END*
This etext was produced by Charles Franks and the
Distributed Proofreaders Team
***********
This E-text is missing paper pages 457-472.
***********
THE IRISH RACE IN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
by Rev. Aug. J. Thebaud, S.J.
PREFACE
COUNT JOSEPH DE MAISTRE, in his "Principe Generateur des Constitutions
Politiques" (Par. LXI.), says: "All nations manifest a particular
and distinctive character, which deserves to be attentively considered."
This thought of the great Catholic writer requires some development.
It is not by a succession of periods of progress and decay only
That nations manifest their life and individuality. Taking any
one of them at any period of its existence, and comparing it with
others, peculiarities immediately show themselves which give it a
particular physiognomy whereby it may be at once distinguished
from any other; so that, in those agglomerations of men which we
call nations or races, we see the variety everywhere observable
in Nature, the variety by which God manifests the infinite activity
of his creative power.
When we take two extreme types of the human species--the Ashantee
of Guinea, for instance, and any individual of one of the great
civilized communities of Europe-the phenomenon of which we speak
strikes us at once. But it may be remarked also, in comparing
nations which have lived for ages in contiguity, and held constant
intercourse one with the other from the time they began their
national life, whose only boundary-line has been a mountain-chain
or the banks of a broad river. They have each striking peculiarities
which individualize and stamp them with a character of their own.
How different are the peoples divided by the Rhine or by the
Pyrenees! How unlike those which the Straits of Dover run between!
And in Asia, what have the conterminous Chinese and Hindoos in
common beyond the general characteristics of the human species
which belong to all the children of Adam?
But what we must chiefly insist upon in the investigation we are
Now undertaking is, that the life of each is manifested by a
special physiognomy deeply imprinted in their whole history,
which we here call character. What each of them is their history
shows; and there is no better means of judging of them than by
reviewing the various events which compose their life.
For the various events which go to form what is called the
history of a nation are its individual actions, the spontaneous
energy of its life; and, as a man shows what he is by his acts,
so does a nation or a race by the facts of its history.
When we compare the vast despotisms of Asia, crystallized into
forms which have scarcely changed since the first settlement of
man in those immense plains, with the active and ever-moving
smaller groups of Europeans settled in the west of the Old World
since the dispersion of mankind, we see at a glance how the
characters of both may be read in their respective annals. And,
coming down gradually to less extreme cases, we recognize the
same phenomenon manifested even in contiguous tribes, springing
long ago, perhaps, from the same stock, but which have been
formed into distinct nations by distinct ancestors, although they
acknowledge a common origin. The antagonism in their character is
immediately brought out by what historians or annalists have to
say of them.
Are not the cruelty and rapacity of the old Scandinavian race
Still visible in their descendants? And the spirit of organization
displayed by them from the beginning in the seizure, survey, and
distribution of land--in the building of cities and castles--in
the wise speculations of an extensive commerce--may not all these
characteristics be read everywhere in the annals of the nations
sprung from that original stock, grouped thousands of years ago
around the Baltic and the Northern Seas?
How different appear the pastoral and agricultural tribes which
have, for the same length of time, inhabited the Swiss valleys and
mountains! With a multitude of usages, differing all, more or less,
from each other; with, perhaps, a wretched administration of
internal affairs; with frequent complaints of individuals, and
partial conflicts among the rulers of those small communities--with
all these defects, their simple and ever-uniform chronicles reveal
to us at once the simplicity and peaceful disposition of their
character; and, looking at them through the long ages of an obscure
life, we at once recognize the cause of their general happiness in
their constant want of ambition.
And if, in the course of centuries, the character of a nation has
changed--an event which seldom takes place, and when it does is
due always to radical causes--its history will immediately make
known to us the cause of the change, and point out unmistakably
its origin and source.
Why is it, for instance, that the French nation, after having lived
for near a thousand years under a single dynasty, cannot now find
a government agreeable to its modern aspirations? It is insufficient
to ascribe the fact to the fickleness of the French temper. During
ten centuries no European nation has been more uniform and more
attached to its government. If to-day the case is altogether
reversed, the fact cannot be explained except by a radical change
in the character of the nation. Firmly fixed by its own national
determination of purpose and by the deep studies of the Middle
Ages--nowhere more remarkable than in Paris, which was at that
time the centre of the activity of Catholic Europe--the French
mind, first thrown by Protestantism into the vortex of controversy,
gradually declined to the consideration of mere philosophical
utopias, until, rejecting at last its long-received convictions,
it abandoned itself to the ever-shifting delusions of opinions and
theories, which led finally to skepticism and unbelief in every
branch of knowledge, even the most necessary to the happiness of
any community of men. Other causes, no doubt, might also be assigned
for the remarkable change now under our consideration. The one we
have pointed out was the chief.
To the same causes, acting now on a larger scale throughout Europe,
we ascribe the same radical changes which we see taking place in
the various nations composing it: every thing brought everywhere
in question; the mind of all unsettled; a real anarchy of intellect
spreading wider and wider even in countries which until now had
stood firm against it. Hence constant revolutions unheard of
hitherto; nothing stable; and men expecting with awe a more
frightful and radical overturning still of every thing that makes
life valuable and dear.
Are not these tragic convulsions the black and spotted types
wherein we read the altered character of modern nations; are they
not the natural expression of their fitful and delirious life?
These considerations, which might be indefinitely prolonged, show
the truth of the phrase of Joseph de Maistre that "all nations
manifest a particular and distinctive character, which deserves
to be attentively considered."
The fact is, in this kind of study is contained the only possible
philosophy of history for modern times.
With respect to ages that have passed away, to nations which have
run their full course, a nobler study is possible--the more so
because inspired writers have traced the way. Thus Bossuet wrote
his celebrated "Discours." But he stopped wisely at the coming of
our Lord. As to the events anterior to that great epoch, he spoke
often like a prophet of ancient times; he seemed at times to be
initiated in the designs of God himself. And, in truth, he had
them traced by the very Spirit of God; and, lifted by his elevated
mind to the level of those sublime thoughts, he had only to touch
them with the magic of his style.
But of subsequent times he did not speak, except to rehearse
the well-known facts of modern history, whose secret is not yet
revealed, because their development is still being worked out,
and no conclusion has been reached which might furnish the key
to the whole.
There remains, therefore, but one thing to do: to consider
each nation apart, and read its character in its history. Should
this be done for all, the only practical philosophy of modern
history would be written. For then we should have accomplished
morally for men what, in the physical order, zoologists accomplish
for the immense number of living beings which God has spread
over the surface of the earth. They might be classified according
to a certain order of the ascending or descending moral scale.
We could judge them rightly, conformably with the standard of
right or wrong, which is in the absolute possession of the Christian
conscience. Brilliant but baneful qualities would no longer
impose on the credulity of mankind, and men would not be led
astray in their judgments by the rule of expediency or success
which generally dictates to historians the estimate they form and
inculcate on their readers of the worth of some nations, and the
insignificance or even odiousness of others.
In the impossibility under which we labor of penetrating, at
the present time, the real designs of Providence with respect to
the various races of men, so great an undertaking, embracing the
principal, if not all, modern races, would be one of the most
useful efforts of human genius for the spread of truth and virtue
among men.
Our purport is not of such vast import. We shall take in
these pages for the object of our study one of the smallest and,
apparently, most insignificant nations of modern Europe--the
Irish. For several ages they have lost even what generally
constitutes the basis of nationality, self-government; yet they have
preserved their individuality as strongly marked as though they
were still ruled by the O'Neill dynasty.
And we may here remark that the number of a people and the
size of its territory have absolutely no bearing on the estimate
which we ought to form of its character. Who would say that
the Chinese are the most interesting and commendable nation
on the surface of the globe? They are certainly the most ancient
and most populous; their code of precise and formal morality is
the most exact and clear that philosophers could ever dictate,
and succeed in giving as law to a great people. That code
has been followed during a long series of ages. Most discoveries
of modern European science were known to them long before
they were found out among us; agriculture, that first of arts,
which most economists consider as the great test whereby to
judge of the worth of a nation, is and always has been carried by
them to a perfection unknown to us. Yet, the smallest European
nationality is, in truth, more interesting and instructive than
the vast Celestial Empire can ever be--whose long annals
are all compassed within a few hundred pages of a frigid
narrative, void of life, and altogether void of soul.
But why do we select, among so many others, the Irish nation,
which is so little known, of such little influence, whose history
occupies only a few lines in the general annals of the world,
and whose very ownership has rested in the hands of foreigners
for centuries?
We select it, first, because it is and always has been thoroughly
Catholic, from the day when it first embraced Christianity;
and this, under the circumstances, we take to be the best proof,
not only of supreme good sense, but, moreover, of an elevated,
even a sublime character. In their martyrdom of three centuries,
the Irish have displayed the greatness of soul of a Polycarp,
and the simplicity of an Agnes. And the Catholicity which
they have always professed has been, from the beginning, of a
thorough and uncompromising character. All modern European
nations, it is true, have had their birth in the bosom of the
Church. She had nursed them all, educated them all, made
them all what they were, when they began to think of emancipating
themselves from her; and the Catholic, that is, the Christian
religion, in its essence, is supernatural; the creed of the
apostles, the sacramental system; the very history of Christianity,
transport man directly into a region far beyond the earth.
Wherever the Christian religion has been preached, nations
have awakened to this new sense of faith in the supernatural,
and it is there they have tasted of that strong food which made
and which makes them still so superior to all other races of men.
But, as we shall see, in no country has this been the case so
thoroughly as in Ireland. Whatever may have been the cause, the
Irish were at once, and have ever since continued, thoroughly
impregnated with supernatural ideas. For several centuries after
St. Patrick the island was "the Isle of Saints," a place midway
between heaven and earth, where angels and the saints of heaven
came to dwell with mere mortals. The Christian belief was
adopted by them to the letter; and, if Christianity is truth,
ought it not to be so? Such a nation, then, which received such
a thorough Christian education--an education never repudiated
one iota during the ages following its reception--deserves a
thorough examination at our hands.
We select it, secondly, because the Irish have successfully
refused ever since to enter into the various currents of European
opinion, although, by position and still more by religion, they
formed a part of Europe. They have thus retained a character of
their own, unlike that of any other nation. To this day, they
stand firm in their admirable stubbornness; and thus, when Europe
shall be shaken and tottering, they will still stand firm. In
the words of Moore, addressed to his own country:
"The nations have fallen and thou still art young;
Thy sun is just rising when others are set;
And though slavery's cloud o'er thy morning hath hung,
The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet."
That constant refusal of the Irish to fall in with the rapid torrent
of European thought and progress, as it is called, is the strangest
phenomenon in their history, and gives them at first an outlandish
look, which many have not hesitated to call barbarism. We hope
thoroughly to vindicate their character from such a foul aspersion,
and to show this phenomenon as the secret cause of their final
success, which is now all but secured; and this feature alone of
their national life adds to their character an interest which we
find in no other Christian nation.
We select it, thirdly, because there is no doubt that the Irish
is the most ancient nationality of Western Europe; and although,
as in the case of the Chinese, the advantage of going up to the
very cradle of mankind is not sufficient to impart interest to
frigid annals, when that prerogative is united to a vivid life
and an exuberant individuality, nothing contributes more to render
a nation worthy of study than hoariness of age, and its derivation
from a certain and definite primitive stock.
It is true that, in reading the first chapters of all the various
histories of Ireland, the foreign reader is struck and almost
shocked by the dogmatism of the writers, who invariably, and with
a truly Irish assurance, begin with one of the sons of Japhet, and,
following the Hebrew or Septuagint chronology, describe without
flinching the various colonizations of Erin, not omitting the
synchronism of Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman history. A
smile is at first the natural consequence of such assertions; and,
indeed, there is no obligation whatever to believe that every thing
happened exactly as they relate.
But when the large quartos and octavos which are now published from
time to time by the students of Irish antiquarian lore are opened,
read, and pondered over, at least one consequence is drawn from
them which strikes the reader with astonishment. "There can be no
doubt," every candid mind says to itself, "that this nation has
preceded in time all those which have flourished on the earth, with
the exception, perhaps, of the Chinese, and that it remains the same
to-day." At least, many years before Christ, a race of men inhabited
Ireland exactly identical with its present population (except that
it did not enjoy the light of the true religion), yet very superior
to it in point of material well-being. Not a race of cannibals, as
the credulous Diodorus Siculus, on the strength of some vague
tradition, was pleased to delineate; but a people acquainted with
the use of the precious metals, with the manufacture of fine tissues,
fond of music and of song, enjoying its literature and its books;
often disturbed, it is true, by feuds and contentions, but, on the
whole, living happily under the patriarchal rule of the clan system.
The ruins which are now explored, the relics of antiquity which
are often exhumed, the very implements and utensils preserved by
the careful hand of the antiquarian--every thing, so different
from the rude flint arrows and barbarous weapons of our North
American Indians and of the European savages of the Stone period,
denotes a state of civilization, astonishing indeed, when we reflect
that real objects of art embellished the dwellings of Irishmen
probably before the foundation of Rome, and perhaps when Greece
was as yet in a state of heroic barbarism.
And this high antiquity is proved by literature as well as by art.
"The ancient Irish," says one of their latest historians, M.
Haverty, "attributed the utmost importance to the accuracy of their
Historic compositions for social reasons. Their whole system of
society--every question as to right of property--turned upon the
descent of families and the principle of clanship; so that it cannot
be supposed that mere fables would be tolerated instead of facts,
where every social claim was to be decided on their authority. A
man's name is scarcely mentioned in our annals without the addition
of his forefathers for several generations--a thing which rarely
occurs in those of other countries.
"Again, when we arrive at the era of Christianity in Ireland, we
find that our ancient annals stand the test of verification by
science with a success which not only establishes their character
for truthfulness at that period, but vindicates the records of
preceding dates involved in it."
The most confirmed skeptic cannot refuse to believe that at the
introduction of Christianity into Ireland, in 432, the whole island
was governed by institutions exactly similar to those of Gaul when
Julius Caesar entered it 400 years before; that this state must
have existed for a long time anterior to that date; and that the
reception of the new religion, with all the circumstances which
attended it, introduced the nation at once into a happy and social
state, which other European countries, at that time convulsed by
barbarian invasions, did not attain till several centuries later.
These various considerations would alone suffice to show the real
importance of the study we undertake; but a much more powerful
incentive to it exists in the very nature of the annals of the
nation itself.
Ireland is a country which, during the last thousand years, has
maintained a constant struggle against three powerful enemies,
and has finally conquered them all.
The first stage of the conflict was that against the Northmen.
It lasted three centuries, and ended in the almost complete
disappearance of this foe.
The second act of the great drama occupied a period of four Hundred
years, during which all the resources of the Irish clans were arrayed
against Anglo-Norman feudalism, which had finally to succumb; so
that Erin remained the only spot in Europe where feudal institutions
never prevailed.
The last part of this fearful trilogy was a conflict of three centuries
with Protestantism; and the final victory is no longer doubtful.
Can any other modern people offer to the meditation, and, we must
say, to the admiration of the Christian reader, a more interesting
spectacle? The only European nation which can almost compete with
the constancy and never-dying energy of Ireland is the Spanish in
its struggle of seven centuries with the Moors.
We have thought, therefore, that there might be some real interest
and profit to be derived from the study of this eventful national
life--an interest and a profit which will appear as we study it
more in detail.
It may be said that the threefold conflict which we have outlined
might be condensed into the surprising fact that all efforts to
drag Ireland into the current of European affairs and influence
have invariably failed. This is the key to the understanding of
her whole history.
Even originally, when it formed but a small portion of the great
Celtic race, here existed in the Irish branch a peculiarity of its
own, which stamped it with features easy to be distinguished. The
gross idolatry of the Gauls never prevailed among the Irish; the
Bardic system was more fully developed among them than among any
other Celtic nation. Song, festivity, humor, ruled there much more
universally than elsewhere. There were among them more harpers and
poets than even genealogists and antiquarians, although the branches
of study represented by these last were certainly as well cultivated
among them as among the Celts of Gaul, Spain, or Italy.
But it is chiefly after the introduction of Christianity among
them, when it appeared finally decreed that they should belong
morally and socially to Europe, it is chiefly then that their
purpose, however unconscious they may have been of its tendency,
seems more defined of opening up for themselves a path of their
own. And in this they followed only the promptings of Nature.
The only people in Europe which remained untouched by what is
called Roman civilization--never having seen a Roman soldier on
their shores; never having been blessed by the construction of
Roman baths and amphitheatres; never having listened to the
declamations of Roman rhetoricians and sophists, nor received the
decrees of Roman praetors, nor been subject to the exactions of
the Roman fisc--they never saw among them, in halls and basilicas
erected under the direction of Roman architects, Roman judges,
governors, proconsuls, enforcing the decrees of the Caesars
against the introduction or propagation of the Christian religion.
Hence it entered in to them without opposition and bloodshed.
But the new religion, far from depriving them of their characteristics,
consecrated and made them lasting. They had their primitive traditions
and tastes, their patriarchal government and manners, their ideas of
true freedom and honor, reaching back almost to the cradle of mankind.
They resolved to hold these against all comers, and they have been
faithful to their resolve down to our own times. Fourteen hundred years
of history since Patrick preached to them proves it clearly enough.
First, then, although the Germanic tribes of the first invasion,
as it is called, did not reach their shore, for the reason that
the Germans, as little as the Celts, never possessed a navy--although
neither Frank, nor Vandal, nor Hun, renewed among them the horrors
witnessed in Gaul, Spain, Italy, and Africa--they could not remain
safe from the Scandinavian pirates, whose vessels scoured all the
northern seas before they could enter the Mediterranean through
the Straits of Gibraltar.
The Northmen, the Danes, came and tried to establish themselves
among them and inculcate their northern manners, system, and
municipal life. They succeeded in England, Holland, the north of
France, and the south of Italy; in a word, wherever the wind had
driven their hide-bound boats. The Irish was the only nation of
Western Europe which beat them back, and refused to receive the
boon of their higher civilization.
As soon as the glories of the reign of Charlemagne had gone down
in a sunset of splendor, the Northmen entered unopposed all the
great rivers of France and Spain. They speedily conquered England.
On all sides they ravaged the country and destroyed the population,
whose only defence consisted in prayers to Heaven, with here and
there an heroic bishop or count. In Ireland alone the Danes found
to their cost that the Irish spear was thrust with a steady and
firm hand; and after two hundred years of struggle not only had
they not arrived at the survey and division of the soil, as wherever
else they had set foot, but, after Clontarf, the few cities they
still occupied were compelled to pay tribute to the Irish Ard-Righ.
Hence all attempts to substitute the Scandinavian social system
for that of the Irish septs and clans were forever frustrated.
City life and maritime enterprises, together with commerce and trade,
were as scornfully rejected as the worship of Thor and Odin.
Soon after this first victory of Ireland over Northern Europe, the
Anglo-Norman invasion originated a second struggle of longer
duration and mightier import. The English Strongbow replaced the
Danes with Norman freebooters, who occupied the precise spots
which the new owners had reconquered from the Northmen, and never
an inch more. Then a great spectacle was offered to the world,
which has too much escaped the observation of historians, and
to which we intend to draw the attention of our readers.
The primitive, simple, patriarchal system of clanship was
Confronted by the stern, young, ferocious feudal system, which
was then beginning to prevail all over Europe. The question was,
Would Ireland consent to become European as Europe was then
organizing herself? The struggle, as we shall see, between the
Irish and the English in the twelfth century and later on, was
merely a contest between the sept system and feudalism, involving,
it is true, the possession of land. And, at the end of a contest
lasting four hundred years, feudalism was so thoroughly defeated
that the English of the Pale adopted the Irish manners, customs,
and even language, and formed only new septs among the old ones.
Hence Ireland escaped all the commotions produced in Europe by
the consequences of the feudal system:
I. Serfdom, which was generally substituted for slavery, never
existed in Ireland, slavery having disappeared before the entry
of the Anglo-Normans.
II. The universal oppression of the lower classes, which caused
the simultaneous rising of the communes all over Europe, never
having existed in Ireland, we shall not be surprised to find no
mention in Irish history of that wide-spread institution of the
eleventh and following centuries.
III. An immense advantage which Ireland derived from her isolation,
on which she always insisted, was her being altogether freed from
the fearful mediaeval heresies which convulsed France particularly
for a long period, and which invariably came from the East.
For Erin remained so completely shut off from the rest of Europe,
that, in spite of its ardent Catholicism, the Crusades were never
preached to its inhabitants; and, if some individual Irishman
joined the ranks of the warriors led to Palestine by Richard Coeur
de Lion, the nation was in no way affected by the good or bad
results which everywhere ensued from the marching of the Christian
armies against the Moslem.
The sects which sprang from Manicheism were certainly an evil
consequence of the holy wars; and it would be a great error to
think that those heresies were short-lived and affected only for
a brief space of time the social and moral state of Europe. It may
be said that their fearfully disorganizing influence lasts to this
day. If modern secret societies do not, in point of fact, derive
their existence directly from the Bulgarism and Manicheism of the
Middle Ages, there is no doubt that those dark errors, which Imposed
on all their adepts a stern secrecy, paved the way for the conspiracies
of our times. Hence Ireland, not having felt the effect of the former
heresies, is in our days almost free from the universal contagion now
decomposing the social fabric on all sides.
But it is chiefly in modern times that the successful resistance
offered by Ireland to many wide-spread European evils, and its
strong attachment to its old customs, will evoke our wonder.
Clanship reigned still over more than four-fifths of the island
when the Portuguese were conquering a great part of India, and
the Spaniards making Central and South America a province of
their almost universal monarchy.
The poets, harpers, antiquarians, genealogists, and students of
Brehon law, still held full sway over almost the whole island,
when the revival of pagan learning was, we may say, convulsing
Italy, giving a new direction to the ideas of Germany, and
penetrating France, Holland, and Switzerland. Happy were the
Irish to escape that brilliant but fatal invasion of mythology
and Grecian art and literature! Had they not received enough of
Greek and Latin lore at the hands of their first apostles and
missionaries, and through the instrumentality of the numerous
amanuenses and miniaturists in their monasteries and convents?
Those holy men had brought them what Christian Rome had purified
of the old pagan dross, and sanctified by the new Divine Spirit.
Virgin Ireland having thus remained undefiled, and never having
even been agitated by all those earlier causes of succeeding
revolutions, Protestantism, the final explosion of them all, could
make no impression on her--a fact which remains to this day the
brightest proof of her strength and vigor.
But, before speaking of this last conflict, we must meet an objection
which will naturally present itself.
To steadily refuse to enter into the current of European thought,
and object to submit in any way to its influence, is, pretend many,
really to reject the claims of civilization, and persist in refusing
to enter upon the path of progress. The North American savage has
always been most persistent in this stubborn opposition to civilized
life, and no one has as yet considered this a praiseworthy attribute.
The more barbarous a tribe, the more firmly it adheres to its
traditions, the more pertinaciously it follows the customs of its
ancestors. They are immovable, and cannot be brought to adopt
usages new to them, even when they see the immense advantages
they would reap from their adoption. Hence the greater number of
writers, chiefly English, who have treated of Irish affairs,
unhesitatingly call them barbarians, precisely on account of their
stubbornness in rejecting the advances of the Anglo-Norman invaders.
Sir John Davies, the attorney-general of James I., could scarcely
write a page on the subject without reverting to this idea.
We answer that the Irish, even before their conversion to
Christianity, but chiefly after, were not barbarians; they never
opposed true progress; and they became, in fact, in the sixth,
seventh, and eighth centuries, the moral and scientific educators
of the greater part of Europe. What they refused to adopt they
were right in rejecting. But, as there are still many men who,
without ever having studied the question, do not hesitate, even
in our days, to throw barbarism in their teeth, and attribute to
it the pitiable condition which the Irish to-day present to the
world, we add a few further considerations on this point.
First, then, we say, barbarians have no history; and the Irish
certainly had a history long before St. Patrick converted them.
Until lately, it is true, the common opinion of writers on Ireland
was adverse to this assertion of ours; but, after the labors of
modern antiquarians--of such men as O'Donovan, Todd, E. O'Curry,
and others--there can no longer be any doubt on the subject. If
Julius Caesar was right in stating that the Druids of Gaul
confined themselves to oral teaching--and the statement may very
well be questioned, with the light of present information on the
subject--it is now proved that the Ollamhs of Erin kept written
annals which went back to a very remote age of the world. The
numerous histories and chronicles written by monks of the sixth
and following centuries, the authenticity of which cannot be denied,
evidently presuppose anterior compositions dating much farther back
than the introduction of our holy religion into Ireland, which the
Christian annalists had in their hands when they wrote their books,
sometimes in Latin, sometimes in old Irish, sometimes in a strange
medley of both languages. It is now known that St. Patrick brought
to Ireland the Roman alphabet only, and that it was thenceforth
used not merely for the ritual of the Church, and the dissemination
of the Bible and of the works of the Holy Fathers, but likewise
for the transcription, in these newly-consecrated symbols of thought,
of the old manuscripts of the island; which soon disappeared, in
the far greater number of instances at least, owing to the favor
in which the Roman characters were held by the people and their
instructors the bishops and monks. Let those precious old symbols
be called Ogham, or by any other name--there must have been something
of the kind.
If any one insists that such was not the case, he must of necessity
admit that the oral teaching of the Ollamhs was so perfect and so
universally current in the same formulas all over the island, that
such oral teaching really took the place of writing; and in this
case, also, which is scarcely possible, however, Ireland had an
authentic history. This last supposition, certainly, can hardly
be credited; and yet, if the first be rejected, it must be admitted,
since it cannot be imagined that subsequent Irish historians,
numerous as they became in time, could have agreed so well
together, and remained so consistent with themselves, and so
perfectly accurate in their descriptions of places and things in
general, without anterior authentic documents of some kind or other,
on which they could rely. Any person who has merely glanced at
the astonishing production called the "Annals of the Four Masters,"
must necessarily be of this opinion.
In no nation in the world are there found so many old histories,
annals, chronicles, etc., as among the Irish; and that fact alone
suffices to prove that in periods most ancient they were truly a
civilized nation, since they attached such importance to the
records of events then taking place among them.
But the Irish were, moreover, a branch of the great Celtic race,
whose renown for wisdom, science, and valor, was spread through
all parts, particularly among the Greeks. The few details we
purpose giving on the subject will convince the reader that among
the nations of antiquity they held a prominent position; and not
only were they possessed of a civilization of their own, not
despicable even in the eyes of a Roman--of the great Julius
himself--but they were ever most susceptible of every kind of
progress, and consequently eager to adopt all the social benefits
which their intercourse with Rome brought them. At least, they
did so as soon as, acknowledging the superior power of the enemy,
they had the good sense to feel that it was all-important to
imitate him. Hence sprang that Gallo-Roman civilization which
obtained during the first five or six centuries of the Christian
era--a civilization which the barbarians of the North endeavored
to destroy, but to which they themselves finally yielded, by
embracing Christianity, and gradually changing their language
and customs.
Everywhere--in Gaul, Italy, Britain, and Ireland--did the Celts
manifest that susceptibility to progress which is the invariable
mark of a state antagonistic to barbarism. In this they totally
differed from the Vandals and Huns, whom it took the Church such
a dreary period to conquer, and whom no other power save the
religion of Christ could have subdued.
These few words are sufficient for our present purpose. We proceed
to show that, in their stubborn opposition to many a current of
European opinion, they acted rightly.
They acted rightly, first of all, in excluding from their course
of studies at Bangor, Clonfert, Armagh, Clonmacnoise, and other
places, the subtleties of Greek philosophy, which occasioned
heresies in Europe and Asia during the first ages of the Church,
and were the cause of so many social and political convulsions.
By adhering strictly---a little too strictly, perhaps--to their
traditional method of developing thought, they kept error far from
their universities, and presented, in the sixth, seventh, and eighth
centuries, the remarkable spectacle in Ireland, France, Germany,
Switzerland, and even Northern Italy, of numerous schools wherein
no wrangling found a place, and whence never issued a single
proposition which Rome found reason to censure. They were at that
time the educators of Christian Europe, and not even a breath of
suspicion was ever raised against any one of their innumerable
teachers. If their mind, in general, did not on that account
attain the acuteness of the French, Italians, or Germans, it was
at all times safer and more guarded. Even their later hostility
to the English Pale, after the eleventh century, was most useful,
from its warning against the teachings of prelates sent from the
English Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; and Rome seems to
have approved of that opposition, by using all her power in
appointing to Irish sees, even within the Pale, prelates chosen
from the Augustinian, Dominican, Franciscan, and Carmelite orders,
in preference to secular ecclesiastics educated in the great seats
of English learning.
Thus the Irish, by opening their schools gratuitously to all Europe,
but chiefly to Anglo-Saxon England, were not only of immense service
to the Church, but showed how fully they appreciated the benefits
of true civilization, and how ready they were to extend it by their
traditional teaching. Nor did they confine themselves to receiving
scholars in their midst: they sent abroad, during those ages, armies
of zealous missionaries and learned men to Christianize the heathen,
or educate the newly-converted Germanic tribes in Merovingian and
Carlovingian Gaul, in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian England, in
Lombardian Italy, in the very hives of those ferocious tribes
which peopled the ever-moving and at that time convulsed Germany.
II. They were right in refusing to submit to the Scandinavian yoke,
and accept from those who would impose it their taste for city life,
and the spirit of maritime enterprise and extensive commerce. We
shall see that this was at the bottom of their two centuries of
struggle with the Danes; that they were animated throughout that
conflict by their ardent zeal for the Christian religion, which
the Northmen came to destroy. There is no need of dwelling on this
point, as we are not aware that any one, even their bitterest
enemies, has found fault with them here.
III. They were right in opposing feudalism, and steadily refusing
to admit it on their soil. Feudal Europe beheld with surprise the
inhabitants of a small island on the verge of the Western Continent
level to the ground the feudal castles as soon as they were built;
reject with scorn the invaders' claim to their soil, after they
had signed papers which they could not understand; hold fast to
their patriarchal usages in opposition to the new-born European
notions of paramount kings, of dukes, earls, counts, and viscounts;
fight for four hundred years against what the whole of Europe had
everywhere else accepted, and conquer in the end; so that the Irish
of to-day can say with just pride, "Our island has never submitted
to mediaeval feudalism."
And hence the island has escaped the modern results of the system,
which we all witness to-day in the terrible hostility of class
arrayed against class, the poor against the rich, the lower orders
against the higher. The opposition in Ireland between the oppressed
and the oppressor is of a very different character, is we shall see
later. But the fact is, that the clan system, with all its striking
defects, had at least this immense advantage, that the clansmen did
not look upon their chieftains as "lords and masters," but as men
of the same blood, true relations, and friends; neither did the
heads of the clans look on their men as villeins, serfs, or chattels,
but as companions-in-arms, foster-brothers, supporters, and allies.
Hence the opposition which exists in our days throughout Europe
between class and class, has never existed in Ireland. Let a son
of their old chiefs, if one can yet be found, go back to them,
even but for a few days, after centuries of estrangement, and
they are ready to welcome him yet, as a loyal nation would welcome
her long-absent king, as a family would receive a father it esteemed
lost. We knowing what manner a son of a French McMahon was lately
received among them.
All hostility is reserved for the foreigner, the invader, the
oppressor of centuries, because, in the opinion of the natives,
these have no real right to dwell on a soil they have impoverished,
and which they tried in vain to enslave. This, at least, is their
feeling. But the sons of the soil, whether rich or poor, high or
low, are all united in a holy brotherhood. This state of things
they have preserved by the exclusion of feudalism.
IV. The Irish were right in not accepting from Europe what is
known as the "revival of learning;" at least, as carried almost
to the excess of modern paganism by its first promoters.
This "revival" did not reach Ireland. Many will, doubtless,
attribute this fact to the almost total exclusion then supposed
to exist of Ireland from all European intercourse. It would be
a great error to imagine such to have been the cause. Indeed, at
that very time, Ireland was more in daily contact with Italy,
France, and Spain, than had been the case since the eighth century.
If the Irish were right in holding steadfast to the line of their
traditional studies, in rejecting the city life and commercial
spirit of the Danes, in opposing Anglo-Norman feudalism, and,
finally, in not accepting the more than doubtful advantages flowing
from the literary revival of the fifteenth century; if, in all
this, they did not oppose true progress, but merely wished to
advance in the peculiar path opened up to them by the Christianity
which they had received more fully, with more earnestness, and
with a view to a greater development of the supernatural idea,
than any other European nation--then, beyond all other modes, did
they display their strength of will and their undying national
vitality in their resistance to Protestantism--a resistance which
has been called opposition to progress, but the success of which
to-day proves beyond question that they were right.
It was, the reader may remark, a resistance to the whole of
Northern Europe, wherein their island was included. For, the
whole of Northern Europe rebelled against the Church at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, to enter upon a new road of
progress and civilization, as it has been called, ending finally
in the frightful abyss of materialism and atheism which now gapes
under the feet of modern nations--an abyss in whose yawning womb
nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror habitat. The end of that
progress is now plain enough: political and social convulsions,
without any other probable issue than final anarchy, unless nations
consent at last to retrace their steps and reorganize Christendom.
But this was not apparent to the eyes of ordinary thinkers in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Only a few great minds saw
the logical consequences of the premises laid down by Protestantism,
and predicted something of what we now see.
The Irish was the only northern nation which, to a man, opposed
the terrible delusion, and, at the cost of all that is dear, waged
against it a relentless war.
"To a man;" for, in spite of all the wiles of Henry VIII., who
brought every resource of his political talent into play, in order
to win over to his side the great chieftains of the nation--in
spite of all the efforts of Elizabeth, who either tried to overcome
their resistance by her numerous armies, or, by the allurements
of her court, strove her best, like her father, to woo to her
allegiance the great leaders of the chief clans, particularly O'Neill
of Tyrone--at the end of her long reign, after nearly a hundred
years of Protestantism, only sixty Irishmen of all classes had
received the new religion.
At first, the struggle assumed a character more political than
religious, and Queen Elizabeth did her best to give it, apparently,
that character. But for her, religion meant politics; and, had the
Irish consented to accept the religious changes introduced by her
father and herself, there would have been no question of
"rebellion," and no army would have been sent to crush it. The
Irish chieftains knew this well; hence, whenever the queen came
to terms with them, the first article on which they invariably
insisted was the freedom of their religion.
But, under the Stuarts, and later on, the mask was entirely thrown
aside, and the question between England and Ireland reduced itself,
we may say, to one of religion merely. All the political
entanglements in which the Irish found themselves involved by their
loyalty to the Stuarts and their opposition to the Roundheads, never
constituted the chief difficulty of their position. They were
"Papists:" this was their great crime in the eyes of their enemies.
Cromwell would certainly never have endeavored to exterminate them
as he did, had they apostatized and become ranting Puritans. One of
our main points in the following pages will be to give prominence to
this view of the question. If it had been understood from the first,
the army of heroes who died for their God and their country would
long ere this have been enrolled in the number of Christian martyrs.
The subsequent policy of England, chiefly after the English
Revolution of 1688 and the defeat of James II., clearly shows the
soundness of our interpretation of history. The "penal code," under
Queen Anne, and later on, at least has the merit of being free from
hypocrisy and cant. It is an open religious persecution, as, in
fact, it had been from the beginning.
We shall have, therefore, before our eyes the great spectacle of
a nation suffering a martyrdom of three centuries. All the
persecutions of the Christians under the Roman emperors pale
before this long era of penalty and blood. The Irish, by numerous
decrees of English kings and parliaments, were deprived of every
thing which a man not guilty of crime has a right to enjoy. Land,
citizenship, the right of education, of acquiring property, of
living on their own soil--every thing was denied them, and death
in every form was decreed, in every line of the new Protestant
code, to men, women, and even children, whose only crime consisted
in remaining faithful to their religion.
But chiefly during the Cromwellian war and the nine years of the
Protector's reign were they doomed to absolute, unrelenting
destruction. Never has any thing in the whole history of mankind
equalled it in horror, unless the devastation of Asia and Eastern
Europe under Zengis and Timour.
There is, therefore, at the bottom of the Irish character, hidden
under an appearance of light-headedness, mutability of feeling--nay,
at times, futility and even childishness--a depth of according to
the eternal laws which God gave to mankind. Nothing else is in
their mind; they are pursuing no guilty and shadowy Utopia. Who
knows, then, whether their small island may not yet become the
beacon-light which, guiding other nations, shall at a future day
save Europe from the universal shipwreck which threatens her?
The providential mission of Ireland is far from being accomplished,
and men may yet see that not in vain has she been tried so long in
the crucible of affliction.
Another part of the providential plan as affecting her will show
itself, and excite our admiration, in the latter portion of the
work we undertake.
The Irish are no longer confined to the small island which gave
them birth. From the beginning of their great woes, they have
known the bitterness of exile. Their nobility were the first to
leave in a body a land wherein they could no longer exist; and,
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they made the
Irish name illustrious on all the battle-fields of Europe. At the
same time, many of their priests and monks, unable longer to labor
among their countrymen, spent their lives in the libraries, of
Italy, Belgium, and Spain, and gave to the world those immense
works so precious now to the antiquarian and historian. Every one
knows what Montalembert, in particular, found in them. They may be
said to have preserved the annals of their nation from total ruin;
and the names of the O'Clearys, of Ward and Wadding, of Colgan and
Lynch, are becoming better known and appreciated every day, as
their voluminous works are more studied and better understood.
But much more remarkable still is the immense spread of the people
itself during the present age, so fruitful in happy results for
the Church of Christ and the good of mankind. We may say that the
labors of the Irish missionaries during the seventh and eighth
centuries are to-day eclipsed by the truly missionary work of a
whole nation spread now over North America, the West India Islands,
the East Indies, and the wilds of Australia; in a word, wherever
the English language is spoken. Whatever may have been the visible
causes of that strange "exodus," there is an invisible cause clear
enough to any one who meditates on the designs of God over his
Church. There is no presumption in attributing to God himself what
could only come from Him. The catholicity of the Church was to be
spread and preserved through and in all those vast regions colonized
now by the adventurous English nation; and no better, no more
simple way of effecting this could be conceived than the one whose
workings we see in those colonies so distant from the mother-country.
This, for the time being, is the chief providential mission of
Ireland, and it is truly a noble one, undertaken and executed in
a noble manner by so many thousands, nay millions, of men and
women--poor, indeed, in worldly goods when they start on their
career, but rich in faith; and it is as true now as it has ever
been from the beginning of Christianity, that haec est victoria
nostra, fides vestra.
These few words of our Preface would not suffice to prepare the
reader for the high importance of this stupendous phenomenon. We
We purpose, therefore, devoting our second chapter to the subject,
as a preparation for the very interesting details we shall furnish
subsequently, as it is proper that, from the very threshold, an
idea may be formed of the edifice, and of the entire proportions
it is destined to assume.
We have so far sketched, as briefly as possible, what the following
pages will develop; and the reader may now begin to understand
what we said at starting, that no other nation in Europe offers so
interesting an object of study and reflection.
Plato has said that the most meritorious spectacle in the eyes of
God was that of "a just man struggling with adversity." What must
it be when a whole nation, during nine long ages, offers to Heaven
the most sublime virtues in the midst of the extremest trials? Are
not the great lessons which such a contest presents worthy of study
and admiration?
We purpose studying them, although we cannot pretend to render
full justice to such a theme. And, returning for a moment to the
considerations with which we started, we can truly say that, in
the whole range of modern history, it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to find a national life to compare with that of poor,
despised Ireland. Neither do we pretend to write the history itself;
our object is more humble: we merely pen some considerations
suggested naturally by the facts which we suppose to be already
known, with the purpose of arriving at a true appreciation of the
character of the people. For it is the people itself we study;
the reader will meet with comparatively few individual names.
We shall find, moreover, that the nation has never varied. Its
history is an unbroken series of the same heroic facts, the same
terrible misfortunes. The actors change continually; the outward
circumstances at every moment present new aspects, so that the
interest never flags; but the spirit of the struggle is ever the
same, and the latest descendants of the first O'Neills and
O'Donnells burn with the same sacred fire, and are inspired by
the same heroic aspirations, as their fathers.
Happily, the gloom is at length lighted up by returning day. The
contest has lost its ferocity, and we are no longer surrounded
by the deadly shade which obscured the sky a hundred years ago.
Then it was hard to believe that the nation could ever rise; her
final success seemed almost an impossibility. We now see that
those who then despaired sinned against Providence, which waited
for its own time to arrive and vindicate its ways. And it is
chiefly on account of the bright hope which begins to dawn that
our subject should possess for all a lively interest, and fill the
Catholic heart with glowing sympathy and ardent thankfulness to God.
CONTENTS
I The Celtic Race
II The World Under The Lead Of European Races.--Mission Of The
Irish Race In The Movement
III The Irish Better Prepared To Receive Christianity Than Other Nations
IV How the Irish received Christianity
V The Christian Irish and the Pagan Danes
VI The Irish Free-Clans and Anglo-Norman Feudalism
VII Ireland separated from Europe.--A Triple Episode
VIII The Irish and the Tudors.--Henry VIII.
IX The Irish and the Tudors.--Elizabeth.--The Undaunted Nobility.--The
Suffering Church
X England prepared for the Reception of Protestantism--Ireland not
XI The Irish and the Stuarts.--Loyalty and Confiscation
XII A Century of Gloom.--The Penal Laws
XIII Resurrection.--Delusive Hopes
XIV Resurrection.--Emigration
XV The "Exodus" and its Effects
XVI Moral Force all-sufficient for the Resurrection of Ireland
CHAPTER I
The Celtic Race.
Nations which preserve, as it were, a perpetual youth, should be
studied from their origin. Never having totally changed, some of
their present features may be recognized at the very cradle of
their existence, and the strangeness of the fact sets out in bolder
relief their actual peculiarities. Hence we consider it to our
purpose to examine the Celtic race first, as we may know it from
ancient records: What it was; what it did; what were its distinctive
features; what its manners and chief characteristics. A strong light
will thus be thrown even on the Irish of our own days. Our words
must necessarily be few on so extensive a subject; but, few as
they are, they will not be unimportant in our investigations.
In all the works of God, side by side with the general order
resulting from seemingly symmetric laws, an astonishing variety
of details everywhere shows itself, producing on the mind of man
the idea of infinity, as effectually as the wonderful aspect of a
seemingly boundless universe. This variety is visible, first in
the heavenly bodies, as they are called; star differing from star,
planet from planet; even the most minute asteroids never showing
themselves to us two alike, but always offering differences in
size, of form, of composition.
This variety is visible to us chiefly on our globe; in the infinite
multiplicity of its animal forms, in the wonderful insect tribes,
and in the brilliant shells floating in the ocean; visible also
in the incredible number of trees, shrubs, herbs, down to the most
minute vegetable organisms, spread with such reckless abundance
on the surface of our dwelling; visible, finally, in the infinity
of different shapes assumed by inorganic matter.
But what is yet more wonderful and seemingly unaccountable is that,
taking every species of being in particular, and looking at any two
individuals of the same species, we would consider it an astonishing
effect of chance, were we to meet with two objects of our study
perfectly alike. The mineralogist notices it, if he finds in the same
group of crystals two altogether similar; the botanist would express
his astonishment if, on comparing two specimens of the same plant,
he found no difference between them. The same may be said of birds,
of reptiles, of mammalia, of the same kind. A close observer will
even easily detect dissimilarities between the double organs of the
same person, between the two eyes of his neighbor, the two hands
of a friend, the two feet of a stranger whom he meets.
It is therefore but consistent with general analogy that in the moral
as well as in the physical faculties of man, the same ever-recurring
variety should appear, in the features of the face, in the shape of
the limbs, in the moving of the muscles, as well as in the activity
of thought, in the mobility of humor, in the combination of passions,
propensities, sympathies, and aversions.
But, at the same time, with all these peculiarities perceptible in
individuals, men, when studied attentively, show themselves in
groups, as it were, distinguished from other groups by peculiarities
of their own, which are generally called characteristics of race;
and although, according to various systems, these characteristics
are made to expand or contract at will, to serve an _a priori_
purpose, and sustain a preconcerted theory, yet there are, with
respect to them, startling facts which no one can gainsay, and
which are worthy of serious attention.
Two of these facts may be stated in the following propositions:
I. At the cradle of a race or nation there must have been a type
imprinted on its progenitor, and passing from him to all his
posterity, which distinguishes it from all others.
II. The character of a race once established, cannot be eradicated
without an almost total disappearance of the people.
The proofs of these propositions would require long details altogether
foreign to our present purpose, as we are not writing on ethnology.
We will take them for granted, as otherwise we may say that the
whole history of man would be unintelligible. If, however, writers
are found who apply to their notion of race all the inflexibility
of physical laws, and who represent history as a rigid system of
facts chained together by a kind of fatality; if a school has
sprung up among historians to do away with the moral responsibility
of individuals and of nations, it is scarcely necessary to tell
the reader that nothing is so far from our mind as to adopt ideas
destructive, in fact, to all morality.
It is our belief that there is no more "necessity" in the leanings
of race with respect to nations, than there is in the corrupt
instincts of our fallen nature with respect to individuals. The
teachings of faith have clearly decided this in the latter case,
and the consequence of this authoritative decision carries with
it the determination of the former.
According to the doctrine of St. Augustine, nations are rewarded
or punished in this world, because there is no future existence
for them; but the fact of rewards and punishments awarded them
shows that their life is not a series of necessary sequences such
as prevail in physics, and that the manifestations or phenomena
of history, past, present, or future, cannot resolve themselves
into the workings of absolute laws.
Race, in our opinion, is only one of those mysterious forces which
play upon the individual from the cradle to the grave, which affect
alike all the members of the same family, and give it a peculiarity
of its own, without, however, interfering in the least with the moral
freedom of the individual; and as in him there is free-will, so also
in the family itself to which he belongs may God find cause for
approval or disapproval. The heart of a Christian ought to be too
full of gratitude and respect for Divine Providence to take any
other view of history.
It would be presumptuous on our part to attempt an explanation of
the object God proposed to himself in originating such a diversity
in human society. We can only say that it appears He did not wish
all mankind to be ever subject to the same rule, the same government
and institutions. His Church alone was to bear the character of
universality. Outside of her, variety was to be the rule in human
affairs as in all things else. A universal despotism was never
to become possible.
This at once explains why the posterity of Japhet is so different
from that of Sem and of Cham.
In each of those great primitive stocks, an all-wise Providence
introduced a large number of sub-races, if we may be allowed to
call them so, out of which are sprung the various nations whose
intermingling forms the web of human history. Our object is to
consider only the Celtic branch. For, whatever may be the various
theories propounded on the subject of the colonization of Ireland,
from whatever part of the globe the primitive inhabitants may be
supposed to have come, one thing is certain, to-day the race is
yet one, in spite of the foreign blood infused into it by so many
men of other stocks. Although the race was at one time on the verge
of extinction by Cromwell, it has finally absorbed all the others;
it has conquered; and, whoever has to deal with true Irishmen, feels
at once that he deals with a primitive people, whose ancestors dwelt
on the island thousands of years ago. Some slight differences may
be observed in the people of the various provinces of the island;
there maybe various dialects in their language, different appearance
in their looks, some slight divergence in their disposition or manners;
it cannot be other wise, since, as we have seen, no two individuals
of the human family can be found perfectly alike. But, in spite
of all this, they remain Celts to this day; they belong undoubtedly,
to that stock formerly wide-spread throughout Europe, and now almost
confined to their island; for the character of the same race in
Wales, Scotland, and Brittany, has not been, and could not be,
kept so pure as in Erin; so that in our age the inhabitants of
those countries have become more and more fused with their British
and Gallic neighbors.
We must, therefore, at the beginning of this investigation, state
briefly what we know of the Celtic race in ancient times, and examine
whether the Irish of to-day do not reproduce its chief characteristics.
We do not propose, however, in the present study, referring to
the physical peculiarities of the Celtic tribes; we do not know
what those were two or three thousand years ago. We must confine
ourselves to moral propensities and to manners, and for this view
of the subject we have sufficient materials whereon to draw.
We first remark in this race an immense power of expansion, when
not checked by truly insurmountable obstacles; a power of expansion
which did not necessitate for its workings an uninhabited and wild
territory, but which could show its energy and make its force felt
in the midst of already thickly-settled regions, and among adverse
and warlike nations.
As far as history can carry us back, the whole of Western Europe,
namely, Gaul, a part of Spain, Northern Italy, and what we call
to-day the British Isles, are found to be peopled by a race
apparently of the same origin, divided into an immense number of
small republics; governed patriarchally in the form of clans,
called by Julius Caesar, "Civitates." The Greeks called them Celts,
"Keltai." They do not appear to have adopted a common name for
themselves, as the idea of what we call nationality would never
seem to have occurred to them. Yet the name of Gaels in the British
Isles, and of Gauls in France and Northern Italy, seems identical.
Not only did they fill the large expanse of territory we have
mentioned, but they multiplied so fast, that they were compelled
to send out armed colonies in every direction, set as they were
in the midst of thickly-peopled regions.
We possess few details of their first invasion of Spain; but Roman
history has made us all acquainted with their valor. It was in the
first days of the Republic that an army of Gauls took possession
of Rome, and the names of Manlius and Camillus are no better known
in history than that of Brenn, called by Livy, Brennus. His celebrated
answer, "Vae victis," will live as long as the world.
Later on, in the second century before Christ, we see another army
of Celts starting from Pannonia, on the Danube, where they had
previously settled, to invade Greece. Another Brenn is at the head
of it. Macedonia and Albania were soon conquered; and, it is said,
some of the peculiarities of the race may still be remarked in many
Albanians. Thessaly could not resist the impetuosity of the invaders;
the Thermopylae were occupied by Gallic battalions, and that
celebrated defile, where three hundred Spartans once detained the
whole army of Xerxes, could offer no obstacle to Celtic bravery.
Hellas, sacred Hellas, came then under the power of the Gauls, and
the Temple of Delphi was already in sight of Brenn and his warriors,
when, according to Greek historians, a violent earthquake, the work
of the offended gods, threw confusion into the Celtic ranks, which
were subsequently easily defeated and destroyed by the Greeks.
A branch of this army of the Delphic Brenn had separated from
the main body on the frontiers of Thrace, taken possession of
Byzantium, the future Constantinople, and, crossing the straits,
established itself in the Heart of Asia Minor, and there founded
the state of Galatia, or Gallo-Greece, which so long bore their
name, and for several centuries influenced the affairs of Asia
and of the whole Orient, where they established a social state
congenial to their tastes and customs. But the Romans soon after
invading Asia Minor, the twelve clannish republics formerly
founded were, according to Strabo, first reduced to three, then
to two, until finally Julius Caesar made Dejotar king of the
whole country.
The Celts could not easily brook such a change of social relations;
but, unable to cope against Roman power, they came, as usual, to
wrangle among themselves. The majority pronounced for another
chieftain, named Bogitar, and succeeded in forming a party in
Rome in his favor. Clodius, in an assembly of the Roman people,
obtained a decree confirmatory of his authority, and he took
possession of Pessinuntum, and of the celebrated Temple of Cybele.
The history of this branch of the Celts, nevertheless, did not
close with the evil fortunes of their last king. According to
Justinus, they swarmed all over Asia. Having lost their autonomy
as a nation, they became, as it were, the Swiss mercenaries of
the whole Orient. Egypt, Syria, Pontus, called them to their defence.
"Such," says Justinus, "was the terror excited by their name, and
the constant success of their undertakings, that no king on his
throne thought himself secure, and no fallen prince imagined himself
able to recover his power, except with the help of the ever-ready
Celts of those countries."
This short sketch suffices to show their power of expansion in
ancient times among thickly-settled populations. When we have
shown, farther on, how to-day they are spreading all over the
world, not looking to wild and desert countries, but to large
centres of population in the English colonies, we shall be able
to convince ourselves that they still present the same characteristic.
If they do not bear arms in their hands, it is owing to altered
circumstances; but their actual expansion bears a close resemblance
to that of ancient times, and the similarity of effect shows
the similarity of character.
We pass now to a new feature in the race, which has not, to our
knowledge, been sufficiently dwelt upon. All their migrations in
old times were across continents; and if, occasionally, they crossed
the Mediterranean Sea, they did so always in foreign vessels.
The Celtic race, as we have seen, occupied the whole of Western
Europe. They had, therefore, numerous harbors on the Atlantic,
and some excellent ones on the Mediterranean. Many passed the
greater portion of their lives on the sea, supporting themselves
by fishing; yet they never thought of constructing and arming
large fleets; they never fought at sea in vessels of their own,
with the single exception of the naval battle between Julius
Caesar and the Veneti, off the coast of Armorica, where, in one
day, the Roman general destroyed the only maritime armament which
the Celts ever possessed.
And even this fact is not an exception to the general rule; for
M. de Penhouet, the greatest antiquarian, perhaps, in Celtic lore
in Brittany, has proved that the Veneti of Western Gaul were not
really Celts, but rather a colony of Carthaginians, the only one
probably remaining, in the time of Caesar, of those once numerous
foreign colonies of the old enemies of Rome.
Still this strange anomaly, an anomaly which is observable in no
other people living on an extensive coast, was not produced by
ignorance of the uses and importance of large fleets. From the
first they held constant intercourse with the great navigators of
antiquity. The Celtic harbors teemed with the craft of hardy seamen,
who came from Phoenicia, Carthage, and finally from Rome. Heeren,
in his researches on the Phoenicians, proves it for that very early
age, and mentions the strange fact that the name of Ireland with
them was the "Holy Isle." For several centuries, the Carthaginians,
in particular, used the harbors of Spain, of Gaul, even of Erin
and Britain, as their own. The Celtic inhabitants of those countries
allowed them to settle peaceably among them, to trade with them,
to use their cities as emporiums, to call them, in fact,
Carthaginian harbors, although that African nation never really
colonized the country, does not appear to have made war on the
inhabitants in order to occupy it, except in a few instances, when
thwarted, probably, in their commercial enterprises; but they always
lived on peaceful terms with the aborigines, whom they benefited by
their trade, and, doubtless, enlightened by the narrative of their
expeditions in distant lands.
Is it not a strikingly strange fact that, under such circumstances,
the Celts should never have thought of possessing vessels of their
own, if not to push the enterprises of an extensive commerce, for
which they never showed the slightest inclination, at least for
the purpose of shipping their colonies abroad, and crossing directly
to Greece from Celtiberia, for instance, or from their Italian colony
of the Veneti, replaced in modern times by maritime Venice? Yet
so it was; and the great classic scholar, Heeren, in his learned
researches on the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, remarks it with
surprise. The chief reason which he assigns for the success of
those southern navigators from Carthage in establishing their colonies
everywhere, is the fact of no people in Spain, Gaul, or the British
Isles, possessing at the time a navy of their own; and, finding it so
surprising, he does not attempt to explain it, as indeed it really
remains without any possible explanation, save the lack of inclination
springing from the natural promptings of the race.
What renders it more surprising still is, that individually they
had no aversion to a seafaring life; not only many of them
subsisted by fishing, but their _curraghs_ covered the sea all
along their extensive coasts. They could pass from island to
island in their small craft. Thus the Celts of Erin frequently
crossed over to Scotland, to the Hebrides, from rock to rock, and
in Christian times they went as far as the Faroe group, even as
far as Iceland, which some of them appear to have attempted to
colonize long before the Norwegian outlaws went there; and some
even say that from Erin came the first Europeans who landed on
frozen Greenland years before the Icelandic Northmen planted
establishments in that dreary country. The Celts, therefore, and
those of Erin chiefly, were a seafaring race.
But to construct a fleet, to provision and arm it, to fill it with
the flower of their youth, and send them over the ocean to plunder
and slay the inhabitants for the purpose of colonizing the countries
they had previously devastated, such was never the character of
the Celts. They never engaged extensively in trade, or what is
often synonymous, piracy. Before becoming christianized, the Celts
of Ireland crossed over the narrow channel which divided them from
Britain, and frequently carried home slaves; they also passed
occasionally to Armorica, and their annals speak of warlike
expeditions to that country; but their efforts at navigation were
always on an extremely limited scale, in spite of the many inducements
offered by their geographical position. The fact is striking when
we compare them in that particular with the Scandinavian free-rovers
of the Northern Ocean.
It is, therefore, very remarkable that, whenever they got on board
a boat, it was always a single and open vessel. They did so in pagan
times, when the largest portion of Western Europe was theirs; they
continued to do so after they became Christians. The race has always
appeared opposed to the operations of an extensive commerce, and
to the spreading of their power by large fleets.
The ancient annals of Ireland speak, indeed, of naval expeditions;
but these expeditions were always undertaken by a few persons in
one, two, or, at most, three boats, as that of the sons of Ua Corra;
and such facts consequently strengthen our view. The only fact
which seems contradictory is supposed to have occurred during
the Danish wars, when Callaghan, King of Cashel, is said to have
been caught in an ambush, and conveyed a captive by the Danes,
first to Dublin, then to Armagh, and finally to Dundalk.
The troops of Kennedy, son of Lorcan, are said to have been
supported by a fleet of fifty sail, commanded by Falvey Finn, a
Kerry chieftain. We need not repeat the story so well known to
all readers of Irish history. But this fact is found only in the
work of Keating, and the best critics accept it merely as an
historical romance, which Keating thought proper to insert in his
history. Still, even supposing the truth of the story, all that we
may conclude from it is that the seafaring Danes, at the end of
their long wars, had taught the Irish to use the sea as a battlefield,
to the extent of undertaking a small expedition in order to
liberate a beloved chieftain.
It is very remarkable, also, that according to the annals of Ireland,
the naval expeditions nearly always bore a religious character, never
one of trade or barter, with the exception of the tale of Brescan,
who was swallowed up with his fifty curraghs, in which he traded
between Ireland and Scotland.
Nearly all the other maritime excursions are voyages undertaken
with a Christian or Godlike object. Thus our holy religion was
carried over to Scotland and the Hebrides by Columbkill and his
brother monks, who evangelized those numerous groups of small
islands. Crossing in their skiffs, and planting the cross on
some far-seen rock or promontory, they perched their monastic
cells on the bold bluffs overlooking the ocean.
No more was the warrior on carnage bent to be seen on the seaboards
of Ulster or the western coast of Albania, as Scotland was then
called; only unarmed men dressed in humble monastic garb trod those
wave-beaten shores. At early morning they left the cove of their
convent; they spread their single sail, and plied their well-worn
oars, crossing from Colombsay to Iona, or from the harbor of Bangor
to the nearest shore of the Isle of Man.
At noon they may have met a brother in the middle of the strait
in his shell of a boat, bouncing over the water toward the point
they had left. And the holy sign of the cross passed from one
monk to the other, and the word of benison was carried through
the air, forward and back, and the heaven above was propitious,
and the wave below was obedient, while the hearts of the two
brothers were softened by holy feelings; and nothing in the air
around, on the dimly-visible shores, on the surface of the heaving
waves, was seen or heard save what might raise the soul to heaven
and the heart to God.
In concluding this portion of our subject, we will merely refer
to the fact that neither the Celts of Gaul or Britain, nor those
of Ireland, ever opposed an organized fleet to the numerous hostile
naval armaments by which their country was invaded. When the Roman
fleet, commanded by Caesar, landed in Great Britain, when the
innumerable Danish expeditions attacked Ireland, whenever the
Anglo-Normans arrived in the island during the four hundred years
of the colony of the Pale, we never hear of a Celtic fleet opposed
to the invaders. Italian, Spanish, and French fleets came in
oftentimes to the help of the Irish; yet never do we read that the
island had a single vessel to join the friendly expedition. We
may safely conclude, then, that the race has never felt any
inclination for sending large expeditions to sea, whether for
extensive trading, or for political and warlike purposes. They
have always used the vessels of other nations, and it is no
surprise, therefore, to find them now crowding English ships
in their migrations to colonize other countries. It is one of
the propensities of the race.
A third feature of Celtic character and mind now attracts our
attention, namely, a peculiar literature, art, music, and poetry,
wherein their very soul is portrayed, and which belongs exclusively
to them. Some very interesting considerations will naturally flow
from this short investigation. It is the study of the constitution
of the Celtic mind.
In Celtic countries literature was the perfect expression of the
social state of the people. Literature must naturally be so
everywhere, but it was most emphatically so among the Celts. With
them it became a state institution, totally unknown to other
nations. Literature and art sprang naturally from the clan system,
and consequently adopted a form not to be found elsewhere. Being,
moreover, of an entirely traditional cast, those pursuits imparted
to their minds a steady, conservative, traditional spirit, which
has resulted in the happiest consequences for the race, preserving
it from theoretical vagaries, and holding it aloof, even in our days,
from the aberrations which all men now deplore in other European
nations, and whose effects we behold in the anarchy of thought.
This last consideration adds to this portion of our subject a
peculiar and absorbing interest.
The knowledge which Julius Caesar possessed of the Druids and of
their literary system was very incomplete; yet he presents to his
readers a truly grand spectacle, when he speaks of their numerous
schools, frequented by an immense number of the youths of the
country, so different from those of Rome, in which his own mind
had been trained--"Ad has magnus adolescentium numerus disciplinae
causa concurrit:" when he mentions the political and civil subjects
submitted to the judgment of literary men--"de omnibus controversiis
publicis privatisque constituunt. ... Si de hereditate, si de
finibus controversia est, iidem decernunt:" when he states the
length of their studies--"annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina
permanent:" when he finally draws a short sketch of their course
of instruction-- "multa de sideribus atque eorum motu, de mundi
ac terrarum magnitudine, .... disputant juventutique tradunt."
But, unfortunately, the great author of the "Commentaries" had
not sufficiently studied the social state of the Celts in Gaul
and Britain; he never mentions the clan institution, even when
he speaks of the feuds--factiones--which invariably split their
septs--civitates--into hostile parties. In his eleventh chapter,
when describing the contentions which were constantly rife in
the cities, villages, even single houses, when remarking the
continual shifting of the supreme authority from the Edui to the
Sequani, and reciprocally, he seems to be giving in a few phrases
the long history of the Irish Celts; yet he does not appear to
be aware of the cause of this universal agitation, namely, the
clan system, of which he does not say a single world. How could
he have perceived the effect of that system on their literature
and art?
To understand it at once it suffices to describe in a few words
the various branches of studies pursued by their learned men;
and, as we are best acquainted with that portion of the subject
which concerns Ireland, we will confine ourselves to it. There
is no doubt the other agglomerations of Celtic tribes, the Gauls
chiefly, enjoyed institutions very similar, if not perfectly alike.
The highest generic name for a learned man or doctor was "ollamh."
These ollamhs formed a kind of order in the race, and the
privileges bestowed on them were most extensive. "Each one of
them was allowed a standing income of twenty-one cows and their
grasses," in the chieftain's territory, besides ample refections
for himself and his attendants, to the number of twenty-four,
including his subordinate tutors, his advanced pupils, and his
retinue of servants. He was entitled to have two hounds and six
horses, . . . and the privilege of conferring a temporary sanctuary
from injury or arrest by carrying his wand, or having it carried
around or over the person or place to be protected. His wife also
enjoyed certain other valuable privileges.--(Prof. E. Curry, Lecture I.)
But to reach that degree he was to prove for himself, purity of
learning, purity of mouth (from satire), purity of hand (from
bloodshed), purity of union (in marriage), purity of honesty (from
theft), and purity of body (having but one wife).
With the Celts, therefore, learning constituted a kind of priesthood.
These were his moral qualifications. His scientific attainments
require a little longer consideration, as they form the chief
object we have in view.
They may at the outset be stated in a few words. The ollamh was
"a man who had arrived at the highest degree of historical
learning, and of general literary attainments. He should be an
adept in royal synchronisms, should know the boundaries of all
the provinces and chieftaincies, and should be able to trace the
genealogies of all the tribes of Erin up to the first man.--(Prof. Curry,
Lecture X.)
Caesar had already told us of the Druids, "Si de hereditate, si de
finibus controversia est iidem decernunt." In this passage he gives
us a glimpse of a system which he had not studied sufficiently to
embrace in its entirety.
The qualifications of an ollamh which we have just enumerated, that
is to say, of the highest doctor in Celtic countries, already prove
how their literature grew out of the clan system.
The clan system, of which we shall subsequently speak more at
length, rested entirely on history, genealogy, and topography. The
authority and rights of the monarch of the whole country, of the
so-called kings of the various provinces, of the other chieftains in
their several degrees, finally, of all the individuals who composed
the nation connected by blood with the chieftains and kings,
depended entirely on their various genealogies, out of which grew
a complete system of general and personal history. The conflicting
rights of the septs demanded also a thorough knowledge of topography
for the adjustment of their difficulties. Hence the importance to
the whole nation of accuracy in these matters, and of a competent
authority to decide on all such questions.
But in Celtic countries, more than in all others, topography was
connected with general history, as each river or lake, mountain
or hill, tower or hamlet, had received a name from some historical
fact recorded in the public annals; so that even now the geographical
etymologies frequently throw a sudden and decisive light on disputed
points of ancient history. So far, this cannot be called a literature;
it might be classed under the name of statistics, or antiquarian lore;
and if their history consisted merely of what is contained in the old
annals of the race, it would be presumptuous to make a particular
alllusion to their literature, and make it one of the chief
characteristics of the race. The annals, in fact, were mere
chronological and synchronic tables of previous events.
But an immense number of books were written by many of their authors
on each particular event interesting to each Celtic tribe: and even
now many of those special facts recorded in these books owe their
origin to some assertion or hint given in the annals. There is no
doubt that long ago their learned men were fully acquainted with
all the points of reference which escape the modern antiquarian.
History for them, therefore, was very different from what the Greeks
and Romans have made it in the models they left us, which we have
copied or imitated.
It is only in their detached "historical tales" that they display
any skill in description or narration, any remarkable pictures of
character, manners, and local traditions; and it seems that in many
points they show themselves masters of this beautiful art.
Thus they had stories of battles, of voyages, of invasions, of
destructions, of slaughters, of sieges, of tragedies and deaths, of
courtships, of military expeditions; and all this strictly historical.
For we do not here speak of their "imaginative tales," which give
still freer scope to fancy; such as the Fenian and Ossianic poems,
which are also founded on facts, but can no more claim the title of
history than the novels of Scott or Cooper.
The number of those books was so great that the authentic list of
them far surpasses in length what has been preserved of the old
Greek and Latin writers. It is true that they have all been saved
and transmitted to us by Christian Irishmen of the centuries
intervening between the sixth and sixteenth; but it is also
perfectly true that whatever was handed down to us by Irish monks
and friars came to them from the genuine source, the primitive
authors, as our own monks of the West have preserved to us all
we know of Greek and Latin authors.
So that the question so long decided in the negative, whether
the Irish knew handwriting prior to the Christian era and the
coming of St. Patrick, is no longer a question, now that so much
is known of their early literature. St. Patrick and his brother
monks brought with them the Roman characters and the knowledge of
numerous Christian writers who had preceded him; but he could not
teach them what had happened in the country before his time, events
which form the subject-matter of their annals, historical and
imaginative tales and poems. For the Christian authors of Ireland
subsequently to transmit those facts to us, they must evidently
have copied them from older books, which have since perished.
Prof. E. Curry thinks that the Ogham characters, so often mentioned
in the most ancient Irish books, were used in Erin long before the
introduction of Christianity there. And he strengthens his opinion
by proofs which it is difficult to contradict. Those characters are
even now to be seen in some of the oldest books which have been
preserved, as well as on many stone monuments, the remote antiquity
of which cannot be denied. One well-authenticated fact suffices,
however, to set the question at rest: "It is quite certain," says
E. Curry, "that the Irish Druids and poets had written books before
the coming of St. Patrick in 432; since we find THAT VERY STATEMENT
in the ancient Gaelic Tripartite life of the Saint, as well as in
the "Annotations of Tirechan" preserved in the Book of Armagh, which
were taken by him (Tirechan) from the lips and books of his tutor,
St. Mochta, who was the pupil and disciple of St. Patrick himself."
What Caesar, then, states of the Druids, that they committed every
thing to memory and used no books, is not strictly true. It must
have been true only with regard to their mode of teaching, in that
they gave no books to their pupils, but confined themselves to
oral instruction.
The order of Ollamh comprised various sub-orders of learned men.
And the first of these deserving our attention is the class of
"Seanchaidhe," pronounced Shanachy. The ollamh seems to have been
the historian of the monarch of the whole country; the shanachy
had the care of provincial records. Each chieftain, in fact, down
to the humblest, had an officer of this description, who enjoyed
privileges inferior only to those of the ollamh, and partook of
emoluments graduated according to his usefulness in the state; so
that we can already obtain some idea of the honor and respect paid
to the national literature and traditions in the person of those
who were looked upon in ancient times as their guardians from age
to age.
The shanachies were also bound to prove for themselves the
moral qualifications of the ollamhs.1
(1 "Purity of hand, bright without wounding,
Purity of mouth, without poisonous satire,
Purity of learning, without reproach,
Purity of husbandship, in marriage."
Many of these details and the following are chiefly derived from
Prof. E. Curry
--(Early Irish Manuscripts.) )
A shanachy of any degree, who did not preserve these "purities,"
lost half his income and dignity, according to law, and was
subject to heavy penalties besides.
According to McFirbis, in his book of genealogies, "the historians
were so anxious and ardent to preserve the history of Erin, that
the description they have left us of the nobleness and dignified
manners of the people, should not be wondered at, since they did
not refrain from writing even of the undignified artisans, and of
the professors of the healing and building arts of ancient times
--as shall be shown below, to prove the fidelity of the historians,
and the errors of those who make such assertions, as, for instance,
that there were no stone buildings in Erin before the coming of the
Danes and Anglo-Normans.
"Thus saith an ancient authority: `The first doctor, the first
builder, and the first fisherman, that were ever in Erin were--
Capa, for the healing of the sick,
In his time was all-powerful;
And Luasad, the cunning builder,
And Laighne, the fisherman.'"
So speaks McFirbis in his quaint and picturesque style.
The literature of the Celts was, therefore, impressed with the
character of realistic universality, which has been the great boast
of the romantic school. It did not concern itself merely with the
great and powerful, but comprised all classes of people, and tried
to elevate what is of itself undignified and common in human
society. This is no doubt the meaning of the quotation just cited.
Among the Celts, then, each clan had his historian to record the
most minute details of every-day history, as well as every fact
of importance to the whole clan, and even to the nation at large;
and thus we may see how literature with them grew naturally out
of their social system. The same may not appear to hold good at
first sight with the other classes of literary men; yet it would
be easy to discover the link connecting them all, and which was
always traditional or matter-of-fact, if we may use that expression.
The next SUB-ORDER was that of File, which is generally translated
poet, but its meaning also involves the idea of philosophy or
wisdom added to that of poetry.
The File among the Celts was, after all, only an historian writing
in verse; for all their poetry resolved itself into annals, "poetic
narratives" of great events, or finally "ballads."
It is well known that among all nations poetry has preceded prose;
and the first writers that appeared anywhere always wrote in verse.
It seems, therefore, that in Celtic tribes the order of File was
anterior in point of time to that of Shanachy, and that both must
have sprung naturally from the same social system. Hence the
monarch of the whole nation had his poets, as also the provincial
kings and every minor chieftain.
In course of time their number increased to such an extent in
Ireland, that at last they became a nuisance to be abated.
"It is said that in the days of Connor McNassa--several centuries
before Christ--there met once 1,200 poets in one company; another
time 1,000, and another 700, namely, in the days of Aedh McAinmire
and Columcille, in the sixth century after our Saviour. And
between these periods Erin always thought that she had more of
learned men than she wanted; so that from their numbers and the
tax their support imposed upon the public, it was attempted to
banish them out of Erin on three different occasions; but they
were detained by the Ultonians for hospitality's sake. This is
evident from the Amhra Columcille (panegyric of St. Columba). He
was the last that kept them in Ireland, and distributed a poet to
every territory, and a poet to every king, in order to lighten the
burden of the people in general. So that there were people in their
following, contemporary with every generation to preserve the
history and events of the country at this time. Not these alone,
but the kings, and, saints, and churches of Erin preserved their
history in like manner."
From this curious passage of McFirbis, it is clear that the Celtic
poets proposed to themselves the same object as the historians did;
only that they wrote in verse, and no doubt allowed themselves more
freedom of fancy, without altering the facts which were to them of
paramount importance.
McFirbis, in the previous passage, gives us a succinct account
of the action of Columbkill in regard to the poets or bards of
his time. But we know many other interesting facts connected
with this event, which must be considered as one of the most
important in Ireland during the sixth century. The order of poets
or bards was a social and political institution, reaching back in
point of time to the birth of the nation, enjoying extensive
privileges, and without which Celtic life would have been deprived
of its warmth and buoyancy. Yet Aed, the monarch of all Ireland,
was inclined to abolish the whole order, and banish, or even outlaw,
all its members. Being unable to do it of his own authority, he
thought of having the measure carried in the assembly of Drumceit,
convened for the chief purpose of settling peacefully the relations
of Ireland with the Dalriadan colony established in Western
Scotland a hundred years before. Columba came from Iona in behalf
of Aidan, whom he had crowned a short time previously as King
of Albania or Scotland. It seems that the bards or poets were
accused of insolence, rapacity, and of selling their services
to princes and nobles, instead of calling them to account for
their misdeeds.
Columba openly undertook their defence in the general assembly of
the nation. Himself a poet, he loved their art, and could not
consent to see his native country deprived of it. Such a deprivation
in his eyes would almost have seemed a sacrilege.
"He represented," says Montalembert, "that care must be taken not
to pull up the good corn with the tares, that the general exile
of the poets would be the death of a venerable antiquity, and of
that poetry so dear to the country, and so useful to those who
knew how to employ it. The king and assembly yielded at length,
under condition that the number should be limited, and their
profession laid under certain rules."
Dallan Fergall, the chief of the corporation, composed his "Amhra,"
or Praise of Columbkill, as a mark of gratitude from the whole
order. That the works of Celtic poets possessed real literary merit,
we have the authority of Spenser for believing. The author of the
"Faerie Queene" was not the friend of the Irish, whom he assisted
in plundering and destroying under Elizabeth. He could only judge
of their books from English translations, not being sufficiently
acquainted with the language to understand its niceties. Yet he
had to acknowledge that their poems "savoured of sweet wit and
good invention, but skilled not of the goodly ornaments of poetry;
yet were they sprinkled with some pretty flowers of their natural
device, which gave good grace and comeliness to them."
He objected, it is true, to the patriotism of their verse, and
pretended that they "seldom choose the doings of good men for the
argument of their poems," and became "dangerous and desperate in
disobedience and rebellious daring." But this accusation is high
praise in our eyes, as showing that the Irish bards of Spenser's
time praised and glorified those who proved most courageous in
resisting English invasion, and stood firmly on the side of their
race against the power of a great queen.
A poet, it seems, required twelve years of study to be master of
his art. One-third of that time was devoted to practising the
"Teinim Laegha," by which he obtained the power of understanding
every thing that it was proper for him to speak of or to say. The
next third was employed in learning the "Imas Forosnadh," by which
he was enabled to communicate thoroughly his knowledge to other
pupils. Finally, the last three years were occupied in "Dichedal,"
or improvisation, so as to be able to speak in verse on all subjects
of his study at a moment's notice.
There were, it appears, seven kinds of verse; and the poet was
bound to possess a critical knowledge of them, so as to be a judge
of his art, and to pronounce on the compositions submitted to him.
If called upon by any king or chieftain, he was required to relate
instantly, seven times fifty stories, namely, five times fifty
prime stories, and twice fifty secondary stories.
The prime stories were destructions and preyings, courtships,
battles, navigations, tragedies or deaths, expeditions, elopements,
and conflagrations.
All those literary compositions were historic tales; and they
were not composed for mere amusement, but possessed in the eyes
of learned men a real authority in point of fact. If fancy was
permitted to adorn them, the facts themselves were to remain
unaltered with their chief circumstances. Hence the writers of the
various annals of Ireland do not scruple to quote many poems or
other tales as authority for the facts of history which they relate.
And such also was heroic poetry among the Greeks. The Hellenic
philosophers, historians, and geographers of later times always
quoted Homer and Hesiod as authorities for the facts they related
in their scientific works. The whole first book of the geography
of Strabo, one of the most statistical and positive works of
antiquity, has for its object the vindication of the geography
of Homer, whom Strabo seems to have considered as a reliable
authority on almost every possible subject.
Our limits forbid us to speak more in detail of Celtic historians
and poets. We have said enough to show that both had important
state duties to perform in the social system of the country, and,
while keeping within due bounds, they were esteemed by all as men
of great weight and use to the nation. Besides the field of genealogy
and history allotted to them to cultivate, their very office tended
to promote the love of virtue, and to check immorality and vice.
They were careful to watch over the acts and inclinations of their
princes and chieftains, seldom failing to brand them with infamy
if guilty of crimes, or crown them with honor when they had deserved
well of the nation. In ancient Egypt the priests judged the kings
after their demise; in Celtic countries they dared to tell them
the truth during their lifetime. And this exercised a most salutary
effect on the people; for perhaps never in any other country did
the admiration for learning, elevation of feeling, and ardent love
of justice and right, prevail as in Ireland, at least while enjoying
its native institutions and government.
From many of the previous details, the reader will easily see
That the literature of the Celts presented features peculiar to
Their race, and which supposed a mental constitution seldom found
among others. If, in general, the world of letters gives expression
In some degree to social wants and habits, among the Celts this
expression was complete, and argued a peculiar bent of mind given
entirely to traditional lore, and never to philosophical speculations
and subtlety. We see in it two elements remarkable for their
distinctness. First, an extraordinary fondness for facts and
traditions, growing out of the patriarchal origin of society
among them; and from this fondness their mind received a particular
tendency which was averse to theories and utopias. All things
resolved themselves into facts, and they seldom wandered away into
the fields of conjectural conclusions. Hence their extraordinary
adaptation to the truths of the Christian religion, whose dogmas
are all supernatural facts, at once human and divine. Hence have
they ever been kept free from that strange mental activity of other
European races, which has led them into doubt, unbelief, skepticism,
until, in our days, there seem to be no longer any fixed principles
as a substratum for religious and social doctrines.
Secondly, we see in the Celtic race a rare and unique outburst
of fancy, so well expressed in the "_Senchus Mor_," their great law
compilation, wherein it is related, that when St. Patrick had
completed the digest of the laws of the Gael in Ireland, Dubtach,
who was a bard as well as a brehon, "put a thread of poetry
round it." Poetry everywhere, even in a law-book; poetry
inseparable from their thoughts, their speech, their every-day
actions; poetry became for them a reality, an indispensable necessity
of life. This feature is also certainly characteristic of the
Celtic nature.
Hence their literature was inseparable from art; and music and
design gushed naturally from the deepest springs of their souls.
Music has always been the handmaid of Poetry; and in our modern
languages, even, which are so artificial and removed from primitive
enthusiasm and naturalness, no composer of opera would consent to
adapt his inspirations to a prose _libretto_. It was far more so
in primitive times; and it maybe said that in those days poetry
was never composed unless to be sung or played on instruments. But
what has never been seen elsewhere, what Plato dreamed, without
ever hoping to see realized, music in Celtic countries became
really a state institution, and singers and harpers were necessary
officers of princes and kings.
That all Celtic tribes were fond of it and cultivated it thoroughly
we have the assertion of all ancient writers who spoke of them.
According to Strabo, the Third order of Druids was composed of
those whom he calls _Umnetai_. What were their instruments is not
mentioned; and we can now form no opinion of their former musical
taste from the rude melodies of the Armoricans, Welsh, and Scotch.
From time immemorial the Irish Celts possessed the harp. Some
authors have denied this; and from the fact that the harp was
unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and that the Gauls of the time
of Julius Caesar do not seem to have been acquainted with it, they
conclude that it was not purely native to any of the British islands.
But modern researches have proved that it was certainly used in
Erin under the first successors of Ugaine Mor, who was monarch.
--Ard-Righ--about the year 633 before Christ, according to the
annals of the Four Masters. The story of Labhraid, which seems
perfectly authentic, turns altogether on the perfection with
which Craftine played on the harp. From that time, at least, the
instrument became among the Celts of Ireland a perpetual source
of melody.
To judge of their proficiency in its use, it is enough to know to
what degree of perfection they had raised it. Mr. Beauford, in
his ingenious and learned treatise on the music of Ireland, as
cultivated by its bards, creates genuine astonishment by the
discoveries into which his researches have led him.
The extraordinary attention which they paid to expression and
effect brought about successive improvements in the harp, which
at last made it far superior to the Grecian lyre. To make it
capable of supporting the human voice in their symphonies, they
filled up the intervals of the fifths and thirds in each scale,
and increased the number of strings from eighteen to twenty-eight,
retaining all the original chromatic tones, but reducing the
capacity of the instrument; for, instead of commencing in the lower
E in the bass, it commenced in C, a sixth above, and terminated
in G in the octave below; and, in consequence, the instrument
became much more melodious and capable of accompanying the human
voice. Malachi O'Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh, introduced other
improvements in it in the twelfth century. Finally, in later times,
its capacity was increased from twenty-eight strings to thirty-three,
in which state it still remains.
As long as the nation retained its autonomy, the harp was a universal
instrument among the inhabitants of Erin. It was found in every house;
it was heard wherever you met a few people gathered together. Studied
so universally, so completely and perfectly, it gave Irish music in
the middle ages a superiority over that of all other nations. It is
Cambrensis who remarks that "the attention of these people to musical
instruments is worthy of praise, in which their skill is, beyond
comparison, superior to any other people; for in these the modulation
is not slow and solemn, as in the instruments of Britain, but the
sounds are rapid and precipitate, yet sweet and pleasing. It is
extraordinary, in such rapidity of the fingers, how the musical
proportions are preserved, and the art everywhere inherent among
their complicated modulations, and the multitude of intricate notes
so sweetly swift, so irregular in their composition, so disorderly
in their concords, yet returning to unison and completing the melody."
Giraldus could not express himself better, never before having
heard any other music than that of the Anglo-Normans; but it is
clear, from the foregoing passage, that Irish art surpassed all
his conceptions.
The universality of song among the Irish Celts grew out of their
nature, and in time brought out all the refinements of art. Long
before Cambrensis's time the whole island resounded with music
and mirth, and the king-archbishop, Cormac McCullinan, could not
better express his gratitude to his Thomond subjects than by
exclaiming--
"May our truest fidelity ever be given
To the brave and generous clansmen of Tal;
And forever royalty rest with their tribe,
And virtue and valor, and music and song!"
Long before Cormac, we find the same mirthful glee in the Celtic
character expressed by a beautiful and well-known passage in the
life of St. Bridget: Being yet an unknown girl, she entered, by
chance, the dwelling of some provincial king, who was at the time
absent, and, getting hold of a harp, her fingers ran over the
chords, and her voice rose in song and glee, and the whole family
of the royal children, excited by the joyful harmony, surrounded
her, immediately grew familiar with her, and treated her as an
elder sister whom they might have known all their life; so that
the king, coming back, found all his house in an uproar, filled
as it was with music and mirth.
Thus the whole island remained during long ages. Never in the
whole history of man has the same been the case with any other
nation. Plato, no doubt, in his dream of a republic, had something
of the kind in his mind, when he wished to constitute harmony as
a social and political institution. But he little thought that,
when he thus dreamed and wrote, or very shortly after, the very
object of his speculation was already, or was soon to be, in
actual existence in the most western isle of Europe.
Before Columba's time even the Church had become reconciled to
the bards and harpers; and, according to a beautiful legend,
Patrick himself had allowed Oisin, or Ossian, and his followers,
to sing the praises of ancient heroes. But Columbkill completed
the reconciliation of the religious spirit with the bardic
influence. Music and poetry were thenceforth identified with
ecclesiastical life. Monks and grave bishops played on the harp
in the churches, and it is said that this strange spectacle
surprised the first Norman invaders of Ireland. To use the words
of Montalembert, so well adapted to our subject: "Irish poetry,
which was in the days of Patrick and Columba so powerful and so
popular, has long undergone, in the country of Ossian, the same
fate as the religion of which these great saints were the apostles.
Rooted, like it, in the heart of a conquered people, and like it
proscribed and persecuted with an unwearying vehemence, it has
come ever forth anew from the bloody furrow in which it was
supposed to be buried. The bards became the most powerful allies
of patriotism, the most dauntless prophets of independence, and
also the favorite victims of the cruelty of spoilers and conquerors.
They made music and poetry weapons and bulwarks against foreign
oppression; and the oppressors used them as they had used the
priests and the nobles. A price was set upon their heads. But
while the last scions of the royal and noble races, decimated
or ruined in Ireland, departed to die out under a foreign sky,
amid the miseries of exile, the successor of the bards, the
minstrel, whom nothing could tear from his native soil, was pursued,
tracked, and taken like a wild beast, or chained and slaughtered
like the most dangerous of rebels.
"In the annals of the atrocious legislation, directed by the
English against the Irish people, as well before as after the
Reformation, special penalties against the minstrels, bards, and
rhymers, who sustained the lords and gentlemen, . . . are to be
met with at every step.
"Nevertheless, the harp has remained the emblem of Ireland, even
in the official arms of the British Empire, and during all last
century, the travelling harper, last and pitiful successor of the
bards, protected by Columba, was always to be found at the side of
the priest, to celebrate the holy mysteries of the proscribed worship.
He never ceased to be received with tender respect under the thatched
roof of the poor Irish peasant, whom he consoled in his misery and
oppression by the plaintive tenderness and solemn sweetness of the
music of his fathers."
Could any expression of ours set forth in stronger light the Celtic
mind and heart as portrayed in those native elements of music and
literature? Could any thing more forcibly depict the real character
of the race, materialized, as it were, in its exterior institutions?
We were right in saying that among no other race was what is
generally a mere adornment to a nation, raised to the dignity of
a social and political instrument as it was among the Celts. Hence
it was impossible for persecution and oppression to destroy it,
and the Celtic nature to-day is still traditional, full of faith,
and at the same time poetical and impulsive as when those great
features of the race held full sway.
Besides music, several other branches of art, particularly
architecture, design, and calligraphy, are worthy our attention,
presenting, as they do, features unseen anywhere else; and would
enable us still better to understand the character of the Celtic
race. But our limits require us to refrain from what might be
thought redundant and unnecessary.
We hasten, therefore, to consider another branch of our
investigation, one which might be esteemed paramount to all others,
and by the consideration of which we might have begun this chapter,
only that its importance will be better understood after what has
been already said. It is a chief characteristic which grew so
perfectly out of the Celtic mind and aptitudes, that long centuries
of most adverse circumstances, we may say, a whole host of contrary
influences were unable to make the Celts entirely abandon it. We
mean the clan system, which, as a system, indeed, has disappeared
these three centuries ago, but which may be said to subsist still
in the clan spirit, as ardent almost among them as ever.
It is beyond doubt that the patriarchal government was the first
established among men. The father ruled the family. As long as he
lived he was lawgiver, priest, master; his power was acknowledged
as absolute. Hiis children, even after their marriage, remained
to a certain extent subject to him. Yet each became in turn the
head of a small state, ruled with the primitive simplicity of
the first family.
In the East, history shows us that the patriarchal government
was succeeded immediately by an extensive and complete despotism.
Millions of men soon became the abject slaves of an irresponsible
monarch. Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, appear at once in history as
powerful states at the mercy of a despot whose will was law.
But in other more favored lands the family was succeeded by the
tribe, a simple development of the former, an agglomeration of
men of the same blood, who could all trace their pedigree to the
acknowledged head; possessing, consequently, a chief of the same
race, either hereditary or elective, according to variable rules
always based on tradition. This was the case among the Jews, among
the Arabs, with whom the system yet prevails; even it seems
primitively in Hindostan, where modern research has brought to
light modes of holding property which suppose the same system.
But especially was this the case among the Celts, where the system
having subsisted up to recently, it can be better known in all its
details. Indeed, their adherence to it, in spite of every obstacle
that could oppose it, shows that it was natural to them, congenial
to all their inclinations, the only system that could satisfy and
make them happy; consequently, a characteristic of the race.
There was a time when the system we speak of ruled many a land,
from the Western Irish Sea to the foot of the Caucasus. Everywhere
within those limits it presented the same general features; in
Ireland alone has it been preserved in all its vigor until the
beginning of the seventeenth century, so rooted was it in the
Irish blood. Consequently, it can be studied better there. What
we say, therefore, will be chiefly derived from the study of
Irish customs, although other Gaelic tribes will also furnish
us with data for our observations.
In countries ruled by the clan system, the territory was divided
among the clans, each of them occupying a particular district,
which was seldom enlarged or diminished. This is seen particularly
in Palestine, in ancient Gaul, in the British islands. Hence their
hostile encounters had always for object movable plunder of any
kind, chiefly cattle; never conquest nor annexation of territory.
The word "preying," which is generally used for their expeditions,
explains their nature at once. It was only in the event of the
extinction of a clan that the topography was altered, and frequently
a general repartition of land among neighboring tribes took place.
It is true, when a surplus population compelled them to send abroad
swarms of their youth, that the conquest of a foreign country became
an absolute necessity. But, on such occasions it was outside of Celtic
limits that they spread themselves, taking possession of a territory
not their own. They almost invariably respected the land of other
clans of the same race, even when most hostile to them; exceptions
to this rule are extremely rare. It was thus that they sent large
armies of their young men into Northern Italy, along the Danube,
into Grecian Albania and Thrace, and finally into the very centre
of Asia Minor. The fixing of the geographical position of each tribe
was, therefore, a rule among them; and in this they differed from
nomadic nations, such as the Tartars in Asia and even the North
American Indians, whose hold on the land was too slight to offer any
prolonged resistance to invaders. Hence the position of the Gallic
_civitates_ was definite, and, so to speak, immovable, as we may see
by consulting the maps of ancient Gaul at any time anterior to its
thorough conquest by the Romans; not so among the German tribes,
whose positions on the maps must differ according to time.
We have already seen that so sacred were the limits of the clan
districts, that one of the chief duties of ollamhs and shanachies
was to know them and see them preserved.
But if territory was defined in Celtic nations, the right of
holding land differed in the case of the chieftain and the
clansman. The head of the tribe had a certain well-defined portion
assigned to him in virtue of his office, and as long only as he
held it; the clansmen held the remainder in common, no particular
spot being assigned to any one of them.
As far, therefore, as the holding of land was concerned, there
were neither rich nor poor among the Celts; the wealth of the
best of them consisted of cattle, house furniture, money, jewelry,
and other movable property. In the time of St. Columba, the
owner of five cows was thought to be a very poor man, although
he could send them to graze on any free land of his tribe. There
is no doubt that the almost insurmountable difficulty of the land
question at this time originated in the attachment of the people
to the old system, which had not yet perished in their affections;
and certainly many "agrarian outrages," as they are called, have
had their source in the traditions of a people once accustomed
to move and act freely in a free territory.
It is needless to call the attention of the reader to another
consequence of that state of things, namely, the persistence of
territorial possessions. As no individual among them could alienate
his portion, no individual or family could absorb the territory to
the exclusion of others; no great landed aristocracy consequently
could exist, and no part of the land could pass by purchase or in
any other way to a different tribe or to an alien race. The force
of arms sometimes produced temporary changes, nothing more. It is
the same principle which has preserved the small Indian tribes
still existing in Canada. Their "reservations," as they are called,
having been legalized by the British Government at the time of
the conquest from the French, the territory assigned to them would
have remained in their occupancy forever in the midst of the
ever-shifting possessions of the white race, had not the Ottawa
Parliament lately "allowed" those reservations to be divided
among the families of the tribes, with power for each to dispose
of its portion, a power which will soon banish them from the
country of their ancestors.
The preceding observations do not conflict in the least with what
is generally said of inheritance by "gavel kind," whereby the
property was equally divided among the sons to the exclusion of
the daughters; as it is clear that the property to be thus divided
was only movable and personal property.
But after the _land_ we must consider the _persons_ under the
clan-system. Under this head we shall examine briefly:
I. The political offices, such as the dignities of Ard-Righ or
supreme monarch, of the provincial kings, and of the subordinate
chieftains.
II. The state of the common people.
III. The bondsmen or slaves.
All literary or civil offices, not political, were hereditary.
Hence the professions of ollamh, shanachy, bard, brehon, physician,
passed from father to son--a very injudicious arrangement apparently,
but it seems nevertheless to have worked well in Ireland. Strange
to say, however, these various classes formed no castes as in
Egypt or in India, because no one was prevented from embracing
those professions, even when not born to them; and, in the end,
success in study was the only requisite for reaching the highest
round of the literary or professional ladder, as in China.
But a stranger and more dangerous feature of the system was that
in political offices the dignities were hereditary as to the
family, elective as to the person. Hence the title of Ard-Righ
or supreme monarch did not necessarily pass to the eldest son of
the former king, but another member of the same family might be
elected to the office, and was even designated to it during the
lifetime of the actual holder, thus becoming _Tanist_ or heir-apparent.
Every one sees at a glance the numberless disadvantages resulting
from such an institution, and it must be said that most of the
bloody crimes recorded in Irish history sprang from it.
At first sight, the dignity of supreme monarch would almost seem
to be a sinecure under the clan system, as the authority attached
to it was extremely limited, and is generally compared in its
relations to the subordinate kings, as that of metropolitan to
suffragan bishops in the Church. Nevertheless, all Celtic nations
appear to have attached a great importance to it, and the real
misfortunes of Ireland began when contention ran so high for the
office that the people were divided in their supreme allegiance,
and no Ard-Righ was acknowledged at the same time by all; which
happened precisely at the period of the invasion under Strongbow.
Some few facts lately brought to light in the vicissitudes of
various branches of the Celtic family show at once how highly all
Celts, wherever they might be settled, esteemed the dignity of
supreme monarch. It existed, as we have said, in all Celtic
countries, and consequently in Gaul; and the passage in the
"Commentaries" of Julius Caesar on the subject is too important
to be entirely passed over.
After having remarked in the eleventh chapter, "De Bello Gallico,"
lib. vi., that in Gaul the whole country, each city or clan, and
every subdivision of it, even to single houses, presented the
strange spectacle of two parties, "factiones," always in presence
of and opposed to each other, he says in Chapter XII.: --at the
arrival of Caesar in Gaul the _Eduans_ and the _Sequanians_ were
contending for the supreme authority--"The latter civitas--clan--
namely, the Sequanians, being inferior in power--because from
time immemorial the supreme authority had been vested in the
Eduans--had called to its aid the Germans under Ariovist by the
inducement of great advantages and promises. After many successful
battles, in which the entire nobility of the Eduan clan perished,
the Sequanians acquired so much power that they rallied to
themselves the greatest number of the allies of their rivals,
obliged the Eduans to give as hostages the children of their
nobles who had perished, to swear that they would not attempt
any thing against their conquerors, and even took possession of
a part of their territory, and thus obtained the supreme command
of all Gaul."
We see by this passage that there was a supremacy resting in the
hands of some one, over the whole nation. The successful tribe
had a chief to whom that supremacy belonged. Caesar, it is true,
does not speak of a monarch as of a person, but attributes the
power to the "civitas," the tribe. It is well known, however,
that each tribe had a head, and that in Celtic countries the
power was never vested in a body of men, assembly, committee, or
board, as we say in modern times, but in the chieftain, whatever
may have been his degree.
The author of the "Commentaries" was a Roman in whose eyes the
state was every thing, the actual office-holder, dictator, consul,
or praetor, a mere instrument for a short time; and he was too apt,
like most of his countrymen, to judge of other nations by his own.
We may conclude from the passage quoted that there was a supreme
monarch in Gaul as well as in Ireland, and modern historians of
Gaul have acknowledged it.
But there is yet a stranger fact, which absolutely cannot be
explained, save on the supposition that the Celts everywhere held
the supreme dignity of extreme if not absolute importance in their
political system.
To give it the preeminence it deserves, we must refer to a subsequent
event in the history of the Celts in Britain, since it happened
there several centuries after Caesar, and we will quote the words
of Augustin Thierry, who relates it:
"After the retreat of the legions, recalled to Italy to protect
the centre of the empire and Rome itself against the invasion
of the Goths, the Britons ceased to acknowledge the power of the
foreign governors set over their provinces and cities. The forms,
the offices, the very spirit and language of the Roman administration
disappeared; in their place was reconstituted the traditional
authority of the clannish chieftains formerly abolished by Roman
power. Ancient genealogies carefully preserved by the poets,
called in the British language _bairdd_ - bards - helped to discover
those who could pretend to the dignity of chieftains of tribes
or families, tribe and family being synonymous in their language;
and the ties of relationship formed the basis of their social
state. Men of the lowest class, among that people, preserved in
memory the long line of their ancestry with a care scarcely known
to other nations, among the highest lords and princes. All the
British Celts, poor or rich, had to establish their genealogy in
order fully to enjoy their civil rights and secure their claim of
property in the territory of the tribe. The whole belonging to a
primitive family, no one could lay any claim to the soil, unless his
relationship was well established.
"At the top of this social order, composing a federation of small
hereditary sovereignties, the Britons, freed from Roman power,
constituted a high national sovereignty; they created a chieftain
of chieftains, in their tongue called _Penteyrn_, that is to say,
a _king of the whole_, in the language of their old annals. And
they made him elective.--It was also formerly the custom in Gaul.
--The object was to introduce into their system a kind of
centralization, which, however, was always loose among Celtic
tribes."--(_Conquete de l'Angleterre_, liv. i.)
It is evident to us that if the Britons _constituted_ a supreme
power, when freed from the Roman yoke, it was only because they
had possessed it before they became subject to that yoke. It is,
therefore, safe to conclude that there was a supreme monarch in
Britain and in Gaul as well as in Ireland; and since the Britons,
after having lost for several centuries their autonomy of government,
thought of reestablishing this supreme authority as soon as they
were free to do so, it is clear that they attached a real
importance to it, and that it entered as an essential element
into the social fabric.
But what in reality was the authority of the Ard-Righ in Ireland,
of the Penteyrn in Britain, of the supreme chief in Gaul, whose
name, as usual, is not mentioned by Caesar?
First, it is to be remarked that a certain extent of territory was
always under his immediate authority. Then, as far as we can gather
from history, there was a reciprocity of obligations between the
high power and the subordinate kings or chieftains, the former
granting subsidies to the latter, who in turn paid tribute to
support the munificence or military power of the former.
We know from the Irish annals that the dignity of Ard-Righ was
always sustained by alliances with some of the provincial kings,
to secure the submission of others, and we have a hint of the
same nature in the passage, already quoted, from Caesar, as also
taking place in Gaul.
We know also from the "Book of Rights" that the tributes and stipends
consisted of bondsmen, silver shields, embroidered cloaks, cattle,
weapons, corn, victuals, or any other contribution.
The Ard-Righ, moreover, convened the _Feis_, or general assembly
of the nation, every third year; first at Tara, and after Tara
was left to go to ruin in consequence of the curse of St. Ruadhan
in the sixth century, wherever the supreme monarch established
his residence.
The order of succession to the supreme power was the weakest point
of the Irish constitution, and became the cause of by far the
greatest portion of the nation's calamities. Theoretically the
eldest son--some say the eldest relative--of the monarch succeeded
him, when he had no blemish constituting a radical defect: the
supreme power, however, alternating in two families. To secure
the succession, the heir-apparent was always declared during the
life of the supreme king; but this constitutional arrangement
caused, perhaps, more crimes and wars than any other social
institution among the Celts. The truth is that, after the
heir-apparent, sustained by some provincial king, supplanted the
reigning monarch, one of the provincial chieftains claimed the
crown and succeeded to it by violence.
Yet the general rule that the monarch was to belong to the race
of Miledh was adhered to almost without exception. One hundred
and eighteen sovereigns, according to the moat accredited annals,
governed the whole island from the Milesian conquest to St. Patrick
in 432. Of these, sixty were of the family of Heremon, settled
in the northern part of the island; twenty-nine of the posterity
of Heber, settled in the south; twenty-four of that of Ir; three
issued from Lugaid, the son of Ith. All these were of the race of
Miledh; one only was a _firbolg_, or plebeian, and one a woman.
It is certainly very remarkable that for so long a time--nearly
two thousand years, according to the best chronologists--Ireland
was ruled by princes of the same family. The fact is unparalleled
in history, and shows that the people were firmly attached to their
constitution, such as it was. It extorted the admiration of Sir
John Davies, the attorney-general of James I, and later of Lord Coke.
The functions of the provincial kings of Ulster, Munster,
Leinster, and Connaught, were in their several districts the same
as those which the Ard-Righ exercised over the whole country. They
also had their feuds and alliances with the inferior chieftains,
and in peaceful times there was also a reciprocity of obligations
between them. Presents were given by the superiors, tributes by
the inferiors; deliberations in assembly, mutual agreement for
public defence, wars against a common enemy, produced among them
traditional rules which were generally followed, or occasional
dissensions.
Sometimes a province had two kings, chiefly Munster, which
was often divided into north and south. Each king had his
heir-apparent, the same as the monarch. Indeed, every hereditary
office had, besides its actual holder, its Tanist, with right of
succession. Hence causes of division and feuds were needlessly
multiplied; yet all the Celtic tribes adhered tenaciously to all
those institutions which appeared rooted in their very nature, and
which contributed to foster the traditional spirit among them.
For these various offices and their inherent rights were all
derived from the universally prevailing family or clannish
disposition. Genealogies and traditions ruled the whole, and gave,
as we have seen, to their learned men a most important part and
function in the social state; and thus what the Greek and Latin
authors, Julius Caesar principally, have told us of the Celtic
Druids, is literally true of the ollamhs in their various degrees.
But the clannish spirit chiefly showed itself in the authority and
rights of every chieftain in his own territory. He was truly the
patriarch of all under him, acknowledged as he was to be the head
of the family, elected by all to that office at the death of his
predecessor, after due consultation with the files and shanachies,
to whom were intrusted the guardianship of the laws which governed
the clan, and the preservation of the rights of all according to
the strict order of their genealogies and the traditional rules
to be observed.
The power of the chieftain was immense, although limited on every
side by laws and customs. It was based on the deep affection of
relationship which is so ardent in the Celtic nature. For all the
clansmen were related by blood to the head of the tribe, and each
one took a personal pride in the success of his undertakings. No
feudal lord could ever expect from his vassals the like self-devotion;
for, in feudalism, the sense of honor, in clanship, family affection,
was the chief moving power.
In clanship the type was not an army, as in feudalism, but a
family. Such a system, doubtless, gave rise to many inconveniences.
"The breaking up of all general authority," says the Very Rev. Dean
Butler (Introduction to Clyn's "Annals"), "and the multiplication
of petty independent principalities, was an abuse _incident_ on
feudalism; it was _inherent_ in the very essence of the patriarchal
or family system. It began, as feudalism ended, with small independent
societies, each with its own separate centre of attraction, each
clustering round the lord or the chief, and each rather repelling
than attracting all similar societies. Yet it was not without its
advantages. If feudalism gave more strength to attack an enemy,
clanship secured more happiness at home. The first implied only
equality for the few, serfdom or even slavery for the many; the
other gave a feeling of equality to all."
It was, no doubt, this feeling of equality, joined to that of
relationship, which not only secured more happiness for the Celt,
but which so closely bound the nobility of the land to the inferior
classes, and gave these latter so ardent an affection for their
chieftains. Clanship, therefore, imparted a peculiar character
to the whole race, and its effect was so lasting and seemingly
ineradicable as to be seen in the nation to-day.
Wherever feudalism previously prevailed, we remark at this time
a fearful hatred existing between the two classes of the same
nation; and the great majority of modern revolutions had their
origin in that terrible antagonism. The same never existed, and
could not exist, in Celtic Countries; and if England, after a
conflict of many centuries, had not finally succeeded in destroying
or exiling the entire nobility of Ireland, we should, doubtless,
see to this very day that tender attachment between high and low,
rich and poor, which existed in the island in former ages.
This, therefore, not only imparted a peculiar character to the
people, but also gave to each subordinate chieftain an immense
power over his clan; and it is doubtful if the whole history of
the country can afford a single example of the clansmen refusing
obedience to their chief, unless in the case of great criminals
placed by their atrocities under the ban of society in former
times, and under the ban of the Church, since the establishment
of the Christian religion among them.
The previous observations give us an insight into the state of
the people in Celtic countries. Since, however, we know that
slavery existed among them, we must consider a moment what kind
of slavery it was, and how soon it disappeared without passing,
as in the rest of Europe, through the ordeal of serfdom.
At the outset, we cannot, as some have done, call slaves the
conquered races and poor Milesians, who, according to the ancient
annals of Ireland, rose in insurrection and established a king of
their own during what is supposed to be the first century of the
Christian era. The _attacotts_, as they were called, were not
slaves, but poor agriculturists obliged to pay heavy rents: their
very name in the Celtic language means "rent-paying tribes or
people." Their oppression never reached the degree of suffering
under which the Irish small farmers of our days are groaning. For,
according to history, they could in three years prepare from their
surplus productions a great feast, to which the monarch and all
his chieftains, with their retinue, were invited, to be treacherously
assassinated at the end of the banquet. The great plain of Magh Cro,
now Moy Cru, near Knockma, in the county of Galway, was required
for such a monster feast; profusion of meats, delicacies, and
drinks was, of course, a necessity for the entertainment of such
a number of high-born and athletic guests, and the feast lasted
nine days. Who can suppose that in our times the free cottiers
of a whole province in Ireland, after supporting their families
and paying their rent, could spare even in three years the money
and means requisite to meet the demands of such an occasion? But
the simple enunciation of the fact proves at least that the attacotts
were no slaves, but at most merely an inferior caste, deprived of
many civil rights, and compelled to pay taxes on land, contrary
to the universal custom of Celtic countries.
Caesar, it is true, pretends that real slavery existed among the
Celts in Gaul. But a close examination of that short passage in
his "Commentaries," upon which this opinion is based, will prove
to us that the slavery he mentions was a very different thing from
that existing among all other nations of antiquity.
"All over Gaul," he says, "there are two classes of men who enjoy
all the honors and social standing in the state--the Druids and
the knights. The plebeians are looked upon almost as slaves, having
no share in public affairs. Many among them, loaded with debt,
heavily taxed, or oppressed by the higher class, give themselves
in servitude to the nobility, and then, _in hos eadem omnia sunt
jura quoe dominis in servos_, the nobles lord it over them as, with
us, masters over their slaves."
It is clear from this very passage that among the Celts no such
servile class existed as among the Romans and other nations of
antiquity. The plebeians, as Caesar calls them, that is to say,
the simple clansmen, held no office in the state, were not summoned
to the councils of the nation, and, on that account, were nobodies
in the opinion of the writer. But the very name he gives them -
_plebs_ - shows that they were no more real slaves than the Roman
plebs. They exercised their functions in the state by the elections,
and Caesar did not know they could reach public office by application
to study, and by being _ordained_ to the rank of file, or shanachy,
or brehon, in Ireland, at least: and this gave them a direct share
in public affairs.
He adds that debt, taxation, and oppression, obliged a great many
to give themselves in servitude, and that then they were among
the Celts what slaves were among the Romans.
This assertion of Caesar requires some examination. That there
were slaves among the Gaels, and particularly in Ireland, we know
from several passages of old writers preserved in the various
annals of the country. St. Patrick himself was a slave there in
his youth, and we learn from his history and other sources how
slaves were generally procured, namely, by piratical expeditions
to the coast of Britain or Gaul. The Irish _curraghs_, in pagan
times, started from the eastern or southern shores of the island,
and, landing on the continent or on some British isle, they captured
women, children, and even men, when the crew of the craft was strong
enough to overcome them; the captives were then taken to Ireland
and sold there. They lost their rights, were reduced to the state
of "chattels," and thus became real slaves. Among the presents
made by a superior to an inferior chieftain are mentioned bondsmen
and bondsmaids. We cannot be surprised at this, since the same
thing took place among the most ancient patriarchal tribes of the
East, and the Bible has made us all acquainted with the male and
female servants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are also called
bondsmen and bondswomen. Among the Celts, therefore, slaves were
of two kinds: those stolen from foreign tribes, and those who
had, as it were, sold themselves, in order to escape a heavier
oppression: these latter are the ones mentioned by Caesar.
The number of the first class must always have been very small,
at least in Ireland and Britain, since the piratical excursions
of the Celtic tribes inhabiting those countries were almost
invariably undertaken in curraghs, which could only bring a
few of these unfortunate individuals from a foreign country.
As to the other class, whatever Caesar may say of their number
in Gaul, making it composed of the greatest part of the plebeians
or common clansmen, we have no doubt but that he was mistaken,
and that the number of real slaves reduced to that state by
their own act must have always been remarkably small.
How could we otherwise account for the numerous armies levied by
the Gaulish chieftains against the power of Rome, or by the British
and Irish lords in their continual internecine wars? The clansmen
engaged in both cases were certainly freemen, fighting with the
determination which freedom alone can give, and this consideration
of itself suffices to show that the great mass of the Celtic tribes
was never reduced to slavery or even to serfdom.
Moreover, the whole drift of the Irish annals goes to prove that
slavery never included any perceptible class of the Celtic population;
it always remained individual and domestic, never endangering the
safety of the state, never tending to insurrection and civil disorder,
never requiring the vigilance nor even the care of the masters
and lords.
The story of Libran, recorded in the life of St. Columbkill, is
so pertinent to our present purpose, and so well adapted to give
us a true idea of what voluntary slavery was among the Celtic
tribes, that we will give it entire in the words of Montalembert:
"It was one day announced to Columba in Iona that a stranger
had just landed from Ireland, and Columba went to meet him in
the house reserved for guests, to talk with him in private and
question him as to his dwelliing-place, his family, and the cause
of his journey. The stranger told him that he had undertaken this
painful voyage in order, under the monastic habit and in exile,
to expiate his sins. Columba, desirous of trying the reality of
his repentance, drew a most repulsive picture of the hardships
and difficult obligations of the new life. 'I am ready,' said the
stranger, 'to submit to the most cruel and humiliating conditions
that thou canst command me.' And, after having made confession,
he swore, still upon his knees, to accomplish all the requirements
of penitence. 'It is well,' said the abbot: 'now rise from thy
knees, seat thyself, and listen. You must first do penance for
seven years in the neighboring island of Tirce, after which I
will see you again.' 'But,' said the penitent, still agitated by
remorse, 'how can I expiate a perjury of which I have not yet
spoken? Before I left my country I killed a poor man. I was about
to suffer the punishment of death for that crime, and I was already
in irons, when one of my relatives, who is very rich, delivered me
by paying the composition demanded. I swore that I would serve
him all my life; but, after some days of service, I abandoned him,
and here I am notwithstanding my oath.' Upon this the saint added
that he would only be admitted to the paschal communion after his
seven years of penitence.
"When these were completed, Columba, after having given him the
communion with his own hand, sent him back to Ireland to his patron,
carrying a sword with an ivory handle for his ransom. The patron,
however, moved by the entreaties of his wife, gave the penitent
his pardon without ransom. 'Why should we accept the price sent
us by the holy Columba? We are not worthy of it. The request of
such an intercessor should be granted freely. His blessing will
do more for us than any ransom.' And immediately he detached the
girdle from his waist, which was the ordinary form in Ireland for
the manumission of captives or slaves. Columba had, besides,
ordered his penitent to remain with his old father and mother
until he had rendered to them the last services. This accomplished,
his brothers let him go, saying, 'Far be it from us to detain a
man who has labored seven years for the salvation of his soul with
the holy Columba!' He then returned to Iona, bringing with him the
sword which was to have been his ransom. 'Henceforward thou shaft be
called Libran, for thou art free and emancipated from all ties,' said
Columba; and he immediately admitted him to take the monastic vows."
Servitude, therefore, continued in Ireland after the establishment
of Christianity; but how different from the slavery of other
European countries, which it took so many ages to destroy, and
which had to pass through so many different stages! Although we
cannot know precisely when servitude was completely abolished
among the Celts, the total silence of the contemporary annals on
the subject justifies the belief that the Danes, on their first
landing, found no real slaves in the country; and, if the Danes
themselves oppressed the people wherever they established their
power, they could not make a social institution of slavery. It
had never been more than a domestic arrangement; it could not
become a state affair, as among the nations of antiquity.
In clannish tribes, therefore, and particularly among the Celts,
the personal freedom of the lowest clansman was the rule, deprivation
of individual liberty the exception. Hence the manners of the people
were altogether free from the abject deportment of slaves and
villeins in other nations--a cringing disposition of the lower
class toward their superiors, which continues even to this day
among the peasantry of Europe, and which patriarchal nations have
never known. The Norman invaders of Ireland, in the twelfth century,
were struck with the easy freedom of manner and speech of the
people, so different from that of the lower orders in feudal
countries. They soon even came to like it; and the supercilious
followers of Strongbow readily adopted the dress, the habits, the
language, and the good-humor of the Celts, in the midst of whom
they found themselves settled.
And it is proper here to show what social dispositions and habits
were the natural result of the clan system, so as to become
characteristic of the race, and to endure forever, as long at least
as the race itself. The artless family state of the sept naturally
developed a peculiarly social feeling, much less complicated than
in nations more artificially constituted, but of a much deeper and
more lasting character. In the very nature of the mind of those
tribes there must have been a great simplicity of ideas, and on
that account an extraordinary tenacity of belief and will. There
is no complication and systematic combination of political, moral,
and social views, but a few axioms of life adhered to with a most
admirable energy; and we therefore find a singleness of purpose,
a unity of national and religious feeling, among all the individuals
of the tribe.
As nothing is complicated and systematized among them, the political
system must be extremely simple, and based entirely on the family.
And family ideas being as absolute as they are simple, the political
system also becomes absolute and lasting; without improving, it is
true, but also without the constant changes which bring misery
with revolution to thoughtful, reflective, and systematic nations.
What a frightful amount of misfortunes has not logic, as it is
called, brought upon the French! It was in the name of logical
and metaphysical principles that the fabric of society was destroyed
a hundred years ago, to make room for what was then called a more
rationally-constituted edifice; but the new building is not yet
finished, and God only knows when it will be!
The few axioms lying at the base of the Celtic mind with respect
to government are much preferable, because much more conducive
to stability, and consequently to peace and order, whatever may
have been the local agitation and temporary feuds and divisions.
Hence we see the permanence of the supreme authority resting in
one family among the Celts through so many ages, in spite of
continual wrangling for that supreme power. Hence the permanence
of territorial limits in spite of lasting feuds, although territory
was not invested in any particular inheriting family, but in a
purely moral being called the clan or sept.
As for the moral and social feelings in those tribes, they are
not drawn coldly from the mind, and sternly imposed by the external
law, in the form of axioms and enactments, as was the case chiefly
in Sparta, and as is still the case in the Chinese Empire to-day;
but they gush forth impetuously from impulsive and loving hearts,
and spread like living waters which no artificially-cut stones
can bank and confine, but which must expand freely in the land
they fertilize.
Deep affection, then, is with them at the root of all moral and
social feelings; and as all those feelings, even the national and
patriotic, are merged in real domestic sentiment, a great purity
of morals must exist among them, nothing being so conducive
thereto as family affections.
Above all, when those purely-natural dispositions are raised to
the level of the supernatural ones by a divinely-inspired code, by
the sublime elevation of Christian purity, then can there be found
nothing on earth more lovely and admirable. Chastity is always
attractive to a pure heart; patriarchal guilelessness becomes
sacred even to the corrupt, if not altogether hardened, man.
Of course we do not pretend that this happy state of things is
without its exceptions; that the light has no shadow, the beauty
no occasional blemish. We speak of the generality, or at least of
the majority, of cases; for perfection cannot belong to this world.
Yet mysticism is entirely absent from such a moral and religious
state, on account, perhaps, of the paucity of ideas by which the
heart is ruled, and perhaps also on account of the artless
simplicity which characterizes every thing in primitively-constituted
nations. And, wonderful to say, without any mysticism there is
often among them a perfect holiness of life, adapting itself to
all circumstances, climates, and associations. The same heart of
a young maiden is capable of embracing a married life or of
devoting itself to religious celibacy; and in either case the
duties of each are performed with the most perfect simplicity and
the highest sanctity. Hence, how often does a trifling circumstance
determine for her her whole subsequent life, and make her either
the mother of a family or the devoted spouse of Christ! Yet, the
final determination once taken, the whole after-life seems to
have been predetermined from infancy as though no other course
could have been possible.
There is no doubt that sensual corruption is particularly engendered
by an artificial state of society, which necessarily fosters
morbidity of imagination and nervous excitability. A primitive
and patriarchal life, on the contrary, leads to moderation in all
things, and repose of the senses.
Herein is found the explanation of the eagerness with which the
Celts everywhere, but particularly in Ireland, as soon as
Christianity was preached to them, rushed to a life of perfection
and continence. St. Patrick himself expressed his surprise, and
showed, by several words in his "Confessio," that he was scarcely
prepared for it. "The sons of Irishmen," he says, "and the daughters
of their chieftains, want to become monks and virgins of Christ."
We know what a multitude of monasteries and nunneries sprang up
all over the island in the very days of the first apostle and of
his immediate successors. Montalembert remarks that, according to
the most reliable and oldest documents, a religious house is
scarcely mentioned which contained less than three thousand monks
or nuns. It appeared to be a consecrated number; and this took
place immediately after the conversion of the island to Christianity,
while even still a great number were pagans.
"There was particularly," says St. Patrick, "one blessed Irish girl,
gentle born, most beautiful, already of a marriageable age, whom I
had baptized. After a few days she came back and told me that a
messenger of God had appeared to her, advising her to become a virgin
of Christ, and live united to God. Thanks be to the Almighty! Six
days after, she obtained, with the greatest joy and avidity, what
she wished. The same must be said of all the virgins of God; their
parents--those remaining pagans, no doubt--instead of approving of
it, persecute them, and load them with obloquy; yet their number
increases constantly; and, indeed, of all those that have been
thus born to Christ, _I cannot give the number_, besides those
living in holy widowhood, and keeping continency in the midst of
the world.
"But those girls chiefly suffer most who are bound to service;
they are often subjected to terrors and threats--from pagan
masters surely--yet they persevere. The Lord has given his holy
grace of purity to those servant-girls; the more they are tempted
against chastity, the more able they show themselves to keep it."
Does not this passage, written by St. Patrick, describe precisely
what is now of every-day occurrence wherever the Irish emigrate?
The Celts, therefore, were evidently at the time of their conversion
what they are now; and it has been justly remarked that, of all
nations whose records have been kept in the history of the Catholic
Church, they have been the only ones whose chieftains, princes, even
kings, have shown themselves almost as eager to become, not only
Christians, but even monks and priests, as the last of their clansmen
and vassals. Every where else the lower orders chiefly have furnished
the first followers of Christ, the rich and the great being few at
the beginning, and forming only the exception.
The evident consequence of this well-attested fact is that the
pagan Celts, even of the highest rank, generally led pure lives,
and admired chastity. But there is something more. Morality rests
on the sense of duty; the deeper that sense is imprinted in the
heart of man, the more man becomes truly moral and holy. It can
be almost demonstrated that scarcely any thing gives more solidity
to the sense of duty than a simple and patriarchal life. Their
views of morals being no more complicated than their views of
any thing else; being accustomed to reduce every thing of a
spiritual, moral nature to a few feelings and axioms, as it were,
but at the same time becoming strongly attached to them on account
of the importance which every man naturally bestows on matters of
that sort; what among other nations forms a complicated code of
morality more or less pure, more or less corrupt, for the nations
of which we speak becomes compressed, so to speak, in a nutshell,
and, the essence remaining always at the bottom, the idea of duty
grows paramount in their minds and hearts, and every thing they
do is illumined by that light of the human conscience, which,
after all, is for each one of us the voice of God. False issues
do not distract their minds, and give a wrong bias to the
conscience. Hence Celtic tribes, by their very nature, were
strictly conscientious.
So preeminently was this the case with them that spiritual things
in their eyes became, as they truly are, real and substantial.
Hence their religion was not an exterior thing only. On the contrary,
exterior rites were in their eyes only symbolical, and mere emblems
of the reality which they covered.
It should, therefore, be no matter of surprise to us to find that
for them religion has always been above all things; that they have
always sacrificed to it whatever is dear to man on earth. They all
seem to feel as instinctively and deeply as the thoroughly cultivated
and superior mind of Thomas More did, that eternal things are
infinitely superior to whatever is temporal, and that a wise man
ought to give up every thing rather than be faithless to his religion.
From the previous remarks, we map conclude, with Mr. Matthew
Arnold, who has applied his critical and appreciative mind to the
study of the Celtic character, that "the Celtic genius has sentiment
as its main basis, with love of beauty, charm, and spirituality
for its excellence," but, he adds, "ineffectualness and self-will
for its defects." On these last words we may be allowed to make a
few concluding observations.
If by "ineffectualness" is understood that, owing to their impulsive
nature, the Celts often attempted more than they could accomplish,
and thus failed; or that on many occasions of less import they
changed their mind, and, after a slight effort, did not persevere
in an undertaking just begun, there is no doubt of the truth of
the observation. But, if the celebrated writer meant to say that
this defect of character always accompanied the Celts in whatever
they attempted, and that thus they were constantly foiled and
never successful in any thing; or, still worse, that, owing to
want of perseverance and of energy, they too soon relaxed in their
efforts, and that every enterprise and determination on their
part became "ineffectual"--we so far disagree with him that the
main object of the following pages will be to contradict these
positions, and to show by the history of the race, in Ireland at
least, that, owing precisely to their "self-will," they were never
_ultimately unsuccessful_ in their aspirations; but that, on the
contrary, they have always in the end _effected_ what with their
accustomed perseverance and self-will they have at all times stood
for. At least this we hope will become evident, whenever they had a
great object in view, and with respect to things to which they
attached a real and paramount importance.
CHAPTER II.
THE WORLD UNDER THE LEAD OF THE EUROPEAN RACES.--MISSION OF THE
IRISH RACE IN THE MOVEMENT.
"The old prophecies are being fulfilled; Japhet takes possession
of the tents of Sem."--(De Maistre, _Lettre au Comte d'Avaray_.)
The following considerations will at once demonstrate the importance
and reality of the subject which we have undertaken to treat upon:
It was at the second birth of mankind, when the family of Noah,
left alone after the flood, was to originate a new state of things,
and in its posterity to take possession of all the continents
and islands of the globe, that the prophecy alluded to at the
head of this chapter was uttered, to be afterward recorded by
Moses, and preserved by the Hebrews and the Christians till the
end of time.
Never before has it been so near its accomplishment as we see it
now; and the great Joseph de Maistre was the first to point this
out distinctly. Yet he did not intend to say that it is only in
our times that Europe has been placed by Providence at the head
of human affairs; he only meant that what the prophet saw and
announced six thousand years ago seems now to be on the point
of complete realization.
It will be interesting to examine, first, in a general way, how
the race of Japhet, to whom Europe was given as a dwelling place,
gradually crept more and more into prominence after having at the
outset been cast into the shade by the posterity of the two other
sons of Noah.
The Asiatic and African races, the posterity of Sem and Cham,
appear in our days destitute of all energy, and incapable not
only of ruling over foreign races, but even of standing alone and
escaping a foreign yoke. It has not been so from the beginning.
There was a period of wonderful activity for them. Asia and Africa
for many ages were in turn the respective centres of civilization
and of human history; and the material relics of their former
energy still astonish all European travellers who visit the Pyramids
of Egypt, the obelisks and temples of Nubia and Ethiopia, the
immense stone structures of Arabia, Petraea and Persia, as well
as the stupendous pagodas of Hindostan. How, under a burning sun,
men of those now-despised races could raise structures so mighty
and so vast in number; how the ancestors of the now-wretched Copt,
of the wandering Bedouin, of the effete Persian, of the dreamy
Hindoo, could display such mental vigor and such physical endurance
as the remains of their architectural skill and even of their
literature plainly show, is a mystery which no one has hitherto
attempted to solve. Nothing in modern Europe, where such activity
now prevails, can compare with what the Eastern and Southern races
accomplished thousands of years ago. Ethiopia, now buried in sand
and in sleep, was, according to Heeren, the most reliable observer
of antiquity in our days, a land of immense commercial enterprise,
and wonderful architectural skill and energy. In all probability
Egypt received her civilization from this country; and Homer sings
of the renowned prosperity of the long-lived and happy Ethiopians.
It is useless to repeat here what we have all learned in our youth
of Babylon and Nineveh, in Mesopotamia; of Persepolis, in fertile
and blooming Iran; of the now ruined mountain-cities of Idumaea
and Northern Arabia; of Thebes and Memphis; of Thadmor, in Syria;
of Balk and Samarcand, in Central Asia; of the wonderful cities
on the banks of the Ganges and in the southern districts of the
peninsula of Hindostan.
That the ancestors of the miserable men who continue to exist in
all those countries were able to raise fabrics which time seems
powerless to destroy, while their descendants can scarcely erect
huts for their habitation, which are buried under the sand at the
first breath of the storm, is inexplicable, especially when we take
into consideration the principles of the modern doctrine of human
progress and the indefinite perfectibility of man.
At the time when those Eastern and Southern nations flourished,
the sons of Japhet had not yet taken a place in history. Silently
and unnoticed they wandered from the cradle of mankind; and, if
scripture had not recorded their names, we should be at a loss
to-day to reach back to the origin of European nations. Yet were
they destined, according to prophecy, to be the future rulers of
the world; and their education for that high destiny was a rude
and painful one, receiving as they did for their share of the
globe its roughest portion: an uninterrupted forest covering all
their domain from the central plateau which they had left to the
shores of the northern and western ocean, their utmost limit.
Many branches of that bold race--_audax Japeti genus_--fell into
a state of barbarism, but a barbarism very different from that of
the tribes of Oriental or Southern origin. With them degradation
was not final, as it seems to have been with some branches at
least of the other stems. They were always reclaimable, always
apt to receive education, and, after having existed for centuries
in an almost savage state, they were capable of once more attaining
the highest civilization. This the Scandinavian and German tribes
have satisfactorily demonstrated.
It may even be said that all the branches of the stock of Japhet
first fell from their original elevation and passed through real
barbarism, to rise again by their own efforts and occupy a prominent
position on the stage of history; and this fact has, no doubt, given
rise to the fable of the primitive savage state of all men.
That the theory is false is proved at once by the sudden emergence
of all Eastern nations into splendor and strength without ever
having had barbarous ancestors. But, when they fall, it seems to
be forever; and it looks at least problematical whether Western
intercourse, and even the intermixture of Western blood, can
reinvigorate the apathetic races of Asia. As to their rising of
their own accord and assuming once again the lead of the world,
no one can for a moment give a second thought to the realization
of such a dream.
But how and when did the races of Japhet appear first in history?
How and when did the Eastern races begin to fall behind their
younger brethren?
A great deal has been written, and with a vast amount of dogmatism,
concerning the Pelasgians and their colonizations and conquests on
the shore and over the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. But nothing
can be proved with certainty in regard to their origin and manners,
their rise and fall. In fact, European history begins with that of
Greece; and the struggle between Hellas and Persia is at once the
brilliant introduction of the sons of Japhet on the stage of the
world--the Trojan War being more than half fabulous.
The campaigns of Alexander established the supremacy of the West;
and from that epoch the Oriental races begin to fall into that
profound slumber wherein they still lie buried, and which the
brilliant activity of the Saracens and Moslems broke for a time--now,
we must hope, passed away forever.
The downfall of the far Orient was not, however, contemporaneous
with the supremacy of Greece over the East. The great peninsula
of India was still to show for many ages an astonishing activity
under the successive sway of the Hindoos, the Patans, the Moguls,
and the Sikhs. China also was to continue for a long time an immense
and prosperous empire; but the existence of both these countries
was concentrated in themselves, so that the rest of the world felt
no result from their internal agitations. Life was gradually ebbing
away in the great Mongolian family, and the silent beatings of
the pulse that indicated the slow freezing of their blood could
neither be heard nor felt beyond their own territorial limits.
Nothing new in literature and the arts is visible among them after
the appearance, on their western frontiers, of the sons of Japhet,
led by the Macedonian hero. It now seems established that Sanscrit
literature, the only, but really surprising proof of intellectual
life in Hindostan, is anterior to that epoch.
As to China, the great discoveries which in the hands of the
European races have led to such wonderful results, the mariner's
compass, the printing-press, gunpowder, paper, bank-notes, remained
for the Chinese mere toys or without further improvements after
their first discovery. It is not known when those great inventions
first appeared among them. They had been in operation for ages
before Marco Polo saw them in use, and scarcely understood them
himself. Europeans were at that time so little prepared for the
reception of those material instruments of civilization, that the
publication of his travels only produced incredulity with regard
to those mighty engines of good or evil.
But those very proofs of Oriental ingenuity establish the fact of
a point of suspension in mental activity among the nations which
discovered them. Its exact date is unknown; but every thing tends
to prove that it took place long ages ago, and nothing is so well
calculated to bring home to our minds the great fact which we are
now trying to establish as the simple mention of the two following
phenomena in the life of the most remote Eastern nations:
The genius of the East was at one time able to produce literary
works of a philosophical and poetical character unsurpassed by
those of any other nation. The most learned men of modern times
in Europe, when they are in the position to become practically
acquainted with them, and peruse them in their original dialects,
can scarcely find words to express their astonishment, intimately
conversant as they are with the masterpieces of Greece and Rome
and of the most polite Christian nations. They find in Sanscrit
poems and religious books models of every description; but they
chiefly find in them an abundance, a freshness, a mental energy,
which fill them with wonder; yet all those high intellectual
endowments have disappeared ages ago, no one knows how nor precisely
when. It is clear that the nation which produced them has fallen
into a kind of unconscious stupor, which has been its mental
condition ever since, and which to-day raises puny Europe to the
stature of a giant before the fallen colossus.
Again: many ages ago the Mongolian family in China invented many
material processes which have been mainly the clause of the rise
of Europe in our days. They were really the invention of the Chinese,
who neither received them from nor communicated them to any other
nation. Ages ago they became known to us accidentally through their
instrumentality; but, as we were not at that time prepared for the
adoption of such useful discoveries, their mention in a book then
read all over Europe excited only ridicule and unbelief. As soon
as the Western mind mastered them of itself, they became straightway
of immense importance, and gave rise, we may say, to all that we
call modern civilization. But in the hands of the Chinese they
remained useless and unproductive, as they are to this day, although
they may now see what we have done with them. Their mind, therefore,
once active enough to invent mighty instruments of material progress,
long ago became perfectly incapable of improving on its own invention,
so that European vessels convey to their astonished sight what was
originally theirs, but so improved and altered as to render the
original utterly contemptible and ridiculous. And, what is stranger
still, though they can compare their own rude implements with ours,
and possess a most acute mind in what is materially useful, they
cannot be brought to confess Western superiority. The advantage
which they really possessed over us a thousand years ago is still
a reality to their blind pride.
But it is time to return to the epoch when the race of Japhet began
to put forth its power.
Roman intellectual and physical vigor was the first great force
which gave Europe that preeminence she has never since lost; and
there was a moment in history when it seemed likely that a nation,
or a city rather, was on the point of realizing the prophetic
promise made to the sons of Noah.
But an idolatrous nation could not receive that boon; and the
Roman sway affected very slightly the African and Asiatic nations,
whatever its pretensions may have been.
For, when Rome had subdued what she called Europe, Asia, and Africa
--the whole globe--whenever she found that her empire did not reach
the sea, she established there posts of armed men; colonies were
sent out and legions distributed along the line; even in some places,
as in Britain, walls were constructed, stretching across islands, if
not along continents. Whatever country had the happiness of being
included between those limits belonged to "the city and the world"
-_urbi et orbi_; beyond was Cimmerian darkness in the North, or
burning deserts in the South. Mankind had no right to exist outside
of her sway; and, if some roaming barbarians strayed over the
inhospitable confines, they could not complain at having their
existence swept off from the field of history, so unworthy were
they of the name of men. Science itself, the science of those
times, had to admit such ideas and dictate them to polished writers.
Hence, according to the greatest geographers, mankind could exist
neither in tropical nor in arctic regions; and Strabo, dividing the
globe into five zones, declared that only two of them were habitable.
We now know how false were those assertions, and indeed how
circumscribed was the power of ancient Rome. She pretended to
universal as well as to eternal dominion; but she deceived herself
in both cases. Under her sway the races of Japhet were not "to
dwell in the tents of Sem." She was not worthy of accomplishing
the great prophecy which is now under our consideration.
It is, however, undoubtedly due to her that the children of Japhet
became the dominant race of the globe, and the Eastern nations,
once so active and so powerful, were overshadowed by her glory,
and had already fallen into that slumber which seems eternal.
Egypt was reduced so low that a victorious Roman general had only
to appear on her borders to insure immediate submission.
Syria and Mesopotamia were fast becoming the frightful deserts they
are to-day. Persia dared not move in the awful presence of a few
legions scattered along the Tigris; and, if, later on, the Parthian
kings made a successful resistance against Rome, it was only owing
to the abominable corruption of Roman society at the time; but,
in fact, Iran had fallen to rise no more, save spasmodically
under Mohammedan rule.
The fact is, that, in the subsequent flood of barbarians which for
centuries overwhelmed and destroyed the whole of Europe, we behold,
on all sides, streams of Northern European races, members of the
same family of Japhet. It was the Goths that ruined Palestine even
in the time of St. Jerome. If side by side with Northern nations
the Huns appeared, no one knows precisely whence they came. Attila
called himself King of the Scythians and the Goths, as well as
grandson of Nimrod. He came with his mighty hosts from beyond the
Danube; this is all that can be said with certainty of his origin.
The East, therefore, was already dead, and could furnish no powerful
foe against that Rome which it detested. It is even in this Oriental
supineness that we can find a reason for the duration of the
inglorious empire of Constantinople. Rome and the West, though far
more vigorous, were overwhelmed by barbarians of the same original
stock sent by Providence to "renew its youth like that of the eagle."
Constantinople and the East continued for a thousand years longer to
drag out their feeble existence, because the far Orient could not
send a few of its tribes to touch their walls and cause them to
crumble into dust. It is even remarkable that the armies of Mohammed
and his successors, in the flush of their new fanaticism, did not
dare for a long time to attack the race of Japhet settled on the
Bosporus. From their native Arabia they easily overran Egypt and
Northern Africa, Syria and Palestine, Mesopotamia and Persia. But
Asia Minor and Thrace remained for centuries proof against their
fury, and, whenever their fleets appeared in the Bosporus, they
were easily defeated by the unworthy successors of Constantine
and Theodosius. This fact, which has not been sufficiently noticed,
shows conclusively that the energy imparted by Mohammedanism
to Oriental nations would have lasted but a short time, and
encountered in the West a successful resistance, had not the
Turks appeared on the scene, destroyed the Saracen dynasties,
and, by infusing the blood of Central Asia into the veins of
Eastern and Southern fanatics, prolonged for so many ages the
sway of the Crescent over a large portion of the globe.
This was the turning-point in human affairs between the East and
the West. We do not write history, and cannot, consequently, enter
into details. It is enough to say that a new element, strengthened
by a long struggle with Moslemism, was to give to the West a lasting
preponderance which ancient Rome could not possess, and whose
developments we see in our days. This new element was the Christian
religion, solidly established on the ruins of idolatry and heresy;
far more solidly established, consequently, than under the Christian
emperors of Rome, while paganism still existed in the capital itself.
The Christian religion, which was to make one society of all the
children of Adam; which, at its birth, took the name of universal
or catholic (whereas previously all religions had been merely
national, and therefore very limited in their effects upon mankind
at large); which alone was destined to establish and maintain,
through all ages, spite of innumerable obstacles, a real universal
sway over all nations and tribes--the Christian religion alone
could give one race preponderance over others until all should
become, as it were, merged into _one_.
At first it seemed that Providence destined that high calling for
the Semitic branch of the human family. The Hebrew people, trained
by God himself, through so many ages, for the highest purposes,
finally gave birth to the great Leader who, by redeeming all men,
was to gather them all into one family. This Leader, our divine
Lord, himself a Hebrew, chose twelve men of the same nation to
be the founders of the great edifice. We know how, the divine
plan was frustrated by the stubbornness of the Jews, who
_rejected the corner-stone of the building_, to be themselves
dashed against its walls and destroyed. The sons of Japhet were
substituted for the sons of Sem, Europe for Asia, Rome for
Jerusalem; and the real commencement of the lasting preponderance
of the West dates from the establishment of the Christian Church
in Rome.
See how, from Christianity, the Caucasian race, as we call it,
came to be the rulers of the world. A mighty revolution, wherein
all the branches of that great race become intermingled and
confused, sweeps over the Roman Empire. Every thing seems
destroyed by the onset of the barbarians, in order that they, by
receiving the only true religion which they found without seeking
among those whom they conquered, might become worthy of fulfilling
the designs of Providence. All the barriers are overthrown that one
institution, called Christendom, may take form and harmony. There
are to be no more Romans, nor Gauls, nor Iberians, nor Germans, nor
Scandinavians--only Christians. It is a renewed and reinvigorated
race of Japhet, imbued with true doctrine, clothed with solid
virtues, animated with an overwhelming energy. It is a colossal
statue, moulded by popes, chiselled by bishops, set on its feet by
Christian emperors and kings, chiefly by Charlemagne, Alfred, Louis
IX, and Otho. Is there not perfect unity between those great men
divided by such intervals of space and time? Is not their work a
universal republic, whose foundations they laid with their own hands?
The rest of the world, still prostrate at the feet of foolish idols,
or carried away by human errors and delusions, sinks deeper and
deeper into apathy and corruption, while Europe is reserved for
mighty purposes in centuries to come. A stream is gathering in the
West, which is destined to sweep down and bear away all obstacles,
and to cover every continent with its regenerating waters.
That stream is modern European history. It has been recorded in
thousands of volumes, many of which, however, are totally unreliable
fables of those mighty events. Those only have had the key to its
right interpretation who have followed the Christian light given from
above, as a star, to guide the wonderful giant in his course. The
chief among them were: of old, Augustine, the author of the "City
of God;" Orosius, the first to condense the annals of the world
into the formula, "_divina providentia regitur mundus et homo;_"
Otho of Freysinguen, in his work "_De mutatione rerum;_" and the
author of "_Gesta Dei per Francos;_" in modern times, Bossuet and
his followers.
The destruction of idolatry was of such vital importance in the
regeneration of the world that it sufficed as a dogma to imbue a
great branch of the Semitic family with a strong life for several
centuries. Moslemism has no other truth to support it than the
assertion of God's unity; but, by waging war against the Trinity
and, consequently, against the very foundation of Christian belief,
it became, for a long time, the greatest obstacle to the dissemination
of truth. It prevented the early triumph of the Caucasian race,
and galvanized, for a time, the nations of the East and South into
a false life.
The ravages of the Tartar hordes under Genghis Khan and his
successors were in no sense life, but only a fitful madness.
The European stream was thus impeded in its flood by the new
activity of Arabia and Turkomania. It was a struggle in which
victory, for a long time, hung in the balance: it required many
crusades of the whole of Western Europe; the long heroism of the
Spanish and Portuguese nations; the incessant attack and defence
of the Templars and the Knights of Malta over the whole surface
of the Mediterranean Sea, to secure the preponderance of the West.
It was finally decided at Lepanto. Since that great day,
Mohammedanism has gradually declined, and there now seems no
insurmountable obstacle to the free flowing of the European stream.
This stream, however, is not homogeneous: far from it. Had the
Christian element always remained alone in it, or at least supreme,
long ere this the victory would have been secure forever, and the
Catholic missions alone would have fulfilled the old prophecies
and given to the sons of Japhet possession of the tents of Sem--a
glorious work so well begun in the East, in India and Japan; in
the West, in the whole of America!
But, unfortunately, the policy of the papacy, which was also that
of Charlemagne, and of other great Christian sovereigns, was not
continued. The Norman feudalism of England and Northern France;
the Caesarism of Germany and the Capetian kings; the heresies
brought from the East by the Crusaders; the paganism and neo-Platonism
of the revival of learning; above all, the fearful upheaval of the
whole of Europe by the Protestant schism and heresy, troubled the
purity of that great Japhetic stream, and has retarded to our days
its momentous and overwhelming impetuosity.
Wonderful, indeed, that in the whole of Europe one small island
alone was forever stubbornly opposed to all these aberrations,
which has stood her ground firmly, and, we may now say, successfully.
The reader already knows that the demonstration of this stupendous
fact is the object of the present volume.
Having stood aloof so long from all those wanderings from the
right path, she has scarcely appeared in the field of European
history save as the victim of Scandinavia and of England. But
there is a time in the series of ages for the appearance of all
those called by Providence to enact a part. What is a myriad of
years for man is not a moment for God; and it would seem that we
had reached at last the epoch wherein Ireland is to be rewarded
for her steadfastness and fidelity.
The impetus now imparted to European power becomes each day more
clearly defined, and, to judge by recent appearances, Irishmen are
about to play no inglorious part in it. The power of expansion, so
characteristic of them from the beginning, has of late years assumed
gigantic proportions. The very hatred of their enemies, the measures
adopted by their oppressors to annihilate them, have only served to
give them a larger field of operations and a much stronger force.
It is not without purpose that God has spread them in such numbers
over so many different islands and continents. It is theirs to give
to the spread of Japhetism among the sons of Sem its right direction
and results. The other races of Western Europe would, had they been
left to themselves alone, have converted that great event into a
curse for mankind, and perhaps the forerunner of the last calamities;
but the Irish, having kept themselves pure, are the true instruments
in the hands of God for righting what is wrong and purifying what
is corrupt.
Had Europe remained in its entirety as steadfast to the true
Christian spirit as the small island which dots the sea on its
western border, what an incalculable happiness it would have proved
to the whole globe, resting as it does to-day under the lead of
the race of Japhet !
But where now are the pure waters which should vivify and
fertilize it? Innumerable elements are floating in their midst
which can but destroy life and spread barrenness everywhere.
Let us see what Europeans believe; what are the motives which
actuate them; what they propose to themselves in disseminating
their influence and establishing their dominion; what the real,
openly-avowed purposes of the leaders are in the vast scheme
which embraces the whole earth; what becomes of foreign races
as soon as they come in contact with them.
The bare idea causes the blood of the Christian to curdle in
his veins, and he thanks God that his life shall not be
prolonged to witness the successful termination of the vast
conspiracy against God and humanity.
For, in our days, spite of so many deviations in the course of
the great European stream, it is truly a matter of wonder what
power it has obtained over the globe in its mastery, its control,
its unification. What, then, would have been the result had its
course remained constantly under Christian guidance!
It is only a short time since the whole earth has become known
to us; and we may say that, for Europe, it has been enough only
to know it in order to become at once the mistress of it; such
power has the Christian religion given her! The first circumnavigation
of the globe under Magellan took place but yesterday, and to-day
European ships cover the oceans and seas of the world, bearing
in every sail the breath and the spirit of Japhetism. The stubborn
ice-fields of the pole can scarcely retard their course, and hardy
navigators and adventurous travellers jeopardize their lives in
the pursuit of merely theoretical notions, void almost of any
practical utility.
The most remote and, up to recently, inaccessible parts of the
earth are as open to us, owing to steam, as were the countries
bordering on the Mediterranean to the ancients. The Argonautic
expedition along the southern coast of the Black Sea was in its
day an heroic undertaking. The Phoenician colonies established
in Africa and Spain by a race trying for the first time in the
history of man to launch their ships on the ocean in order
to trade with Northern tribes as far as Ireland and the Baltic,
though never losing sight of the coast; the attempts of the
Carthaginians to circumnavigate Africa; the three years' voyages
of the ships of Solomon in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf,
were one and all far more hazardous undertakings than the long
voyages of our steamships across the Indian Ocean to Australia,
or around Cape Horn to California and the South Sea Islands,
through the Southern and Northern Pacifics.
From all large seaboard cities in any part of the globe, lines
of steamers now bear men to every point of the compass, so that
the very boards at the entrances of offices, to be found everywhere
for the accommodation of travellers, are as indices of works on
universal geography.
And the European, still unsatisfied with all he has achieved
in speed and comfort, looks to more rapid and easier modes of
conveyance. Scientific men have been for many years engaged
in experiments by means of which they hope to replace the ocean
by the atmosphere as a public highway for nations; and the currents
of air rushing in every direction with the velocity of the
most rapid winds may yet be used by our children instead of
rivers, thenceforth deserted, and of ocean-streams at last left
empty and waste as before the voyages of Columbus and De Gama.
All this constitutes a positive and stern fact staring us in the
face, and giving to the Caucasian race a power of which our ancestors
would never have dreamed. And if all this is to be the only result
of man's activity--the attainment of merely worldly purposes--God,
whose world this is, may look down on it from heaven as on the work
of Titans preparing to attack his rights, and He will know how to
turn all these mighty efforts of the sons of Japhet to his own
holy designs. He may use a small branch of that great race,
preserved purposely from the beginning unsullied by mere thrift,
and prepared for his work by long persecution, a consideration
which we shall examine later on.
Meanwhile the great mass of the European family is allowed to go
on in its wonderful undertaking; and we turn to it yet a short while.
As if to favor still more directly this work of the unification
of the globe, Providence has placed at the disposal of the prime
movers in the enterprise pecuniary means which no one could have
foreseen a few years ago.
In 1846, on a small branch of one of the great rivers of California,
a colonist discovers gold carried as dust with the sand, and soon
a great part of the country is found to be immensely rich in the
precious metal. That first discovery is followed by others equally
important, and after a few years gold is found in abundance on both
sides of a long range of the Rocky Mountains; again in the north,
nearly as high up as the arctic circle. North America, in fact,
is found to be a vast gold deposit. Australia soon follows, and
that new continent, whose exploration has scarcely begun, is said
to be dotted all over by large oases of auriferous rock and gravel.
In due time the same news comes from South Africa, where it has
been lately reported that diamonds, in addition to gold, enrich
the explorer and the workman.
It is needless to speak of mines of silver and mercury after gold
and diamonds; but the result is that the European race is straightway
provided with an enormous wealth commensurate with the immense
commercial and manufacturing enterprises required for the establishment
of its supremacy all over the globe.
There is work, therefore, for all the ships afloat; others and
larger ones have to be constructed; and modern engineering skill
places on the bosom of the deep sea vessels which few, indeed, of
the greatest rivers can accommodate in their channels and bays.
All these means of dominion and dissemination once procured,
the great work clearly assigned to the race of Japhet may proceed.
Intercourse with the most savage and uncivilized tribes is eagerly
cultivated even at the risk of life. New avenues to trade are
opened up in places where men, still living in the most primitive
state, have few if any wants; and it is considered as part of the
keen merchant's skill to fill the minds of these uncouth and
unsophisticated barbarians with the desire of every possible
luxury. Have we not lately heard that the savages of the Feejee
Islands, who were a few years ago cannibals, have now a king
seeking the protection of England, if not the annexation of his
kingdom to the British empire?
Yes, the material civilization of Europe, the new discoveries
of steam and magnetism, the untiring energy of men aiming at
universal dominion, give to the Caucasian race such a superiority
over the rest of mankind that the time seems to be fast approaching
when the manners, the dress, the look even of Europeans, will
supersede all other types, and spread everywhere the dead level
of our habits.
This fact has already been realized in America, North and South.
Geographers may give lengthened descriptions of the original tribes
which still possess a shadow of existence; foreign readers may
perhaps imagine that the continent is still in the quiet
possession of rude and uncivilized races roaming at will over its
surface, and allowing some Europeans to occupy certain cities and
harbors for the purposes of trade and barter. We know that nothing
could be more erroneous. The Europeans are the real possessors,
north and south; the Indians are permitted to exist on a few spots
contracting year by year into narrower limits. The northern and
larger half of the continent is chiefly the dwelling-place of the
most active branch of the bold race of Japhet. The first of the
iron lines which are to connect its Atlantic and Pacific coasts
has recently been laid. Cities spring up all along its track: the
harbors of California, Oregon, and Alaska, will soon swarm much
more than now with hardy navigators ready to europeanize the various
groups of islands scattered over the Pacific. Already in the Sandwich
and Tahiti groups the number of Europeans is greatly in excess of
that of the natives. Those natives who, in the Philippine Islands,
have been preserved by the Catholic Church, will too soon disappear
from the surface of the largest ocean of the globe.
Then Eastern Asia will be attacked much more seriously than ever
before. Since its discovery, Europeans could only reach it
through the long distances which divide Western Europe from China
and Japan. But within a short time numerous lines of steamships,
starting from San Francisco, Portland, Honolulu, and many other
harbors yet nameless, will land travellers in Yokohama, Hakodadi,
Yeddo, Shanghai, Canton, and other emporiums of Asia.
Nor will the Americans of the United States be alone in the race.
Several governments are preparing to cut a canal through the Isthmus
of Panama, or Darien, or Tehuantepec, as has already been done
with that of Suez; and soon ships starting from Western Europe
will, with the aid of steam, traverse the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans successively as two large lakes to land their passengers
and cargoes on the frontiers of China and India.
The Japanese, those Englishmen of the East, are ready to adopt
European inventions. They are indeed already expert in many of
them, and seem on the alert to conform to European manners. It
is said that the nation is divided into two parties on that very
question of conformity; before long they will all be of one mind.
What an impulse will thus be given to the europeanization of China
and Tartary!
In Hindostan, England has fairly begun the work; but the climate
of the peninsula offering an obstacle to the introduction of a
large number of men of the Caucasian race, it will be more probably
from the foot of the Himalaya Mountains that the spread of the race
will commence. Already the English and the Russians are concentrating
their forces on the Upper Indus. The question merely is, Which
nation will be the first to inoculate the dreamy sons of Sem with
the spirit and blood of Japhet? It seems that Central Asia will form
the rallying-ground for the last efforts of the Titans to unify their
power, as it was thence that the power of God first dispersed them.
A glance at the rest of the world as witnessing the same astonishing
spectacle, and we pass on. Australia is clearly destined to be entirely
European; the number of natives, already insignificant compared to that
of the colonists, will soon disappear utterly. Turkey, the Caucasus,
Bokhara, are rapidly taking a new shape and adopting Western manners.
The African triangle offers the greatest resistance, owing to its
deserts, its terrible climate, and the savage or childish disposition
of its inhabitants. Yet the attempt to europeanize it is at this
moment in earnest action at its southernmost cape, all along its
northern line skirting the Mediterranean, in Egypt chiefly, and
also through the Erythrean Gulf in the east; finally, on many
points of its western shore, which, strange to say, lags behind,
although it formed the first point of discovery by the Portuguese.
To condense all we have just said to a few lines: it looks as
though all races of men, except the Caucasian, were undergoing
a rapid process of unification or disappearance.
In America certainly the phenomenon is most striking.
In Asia all the native races seem palsied and unable to hold
together in the presence of the Russians and the English.
In Africa, Mohammedanism still preserves to the natives a certain
activity of life, but even that is fast on the wane.
Finally, in Australia and the Pacific Ocean the disappearance of
the natives is still more striking and more sudden in its action
than even in America.
This state of things did not exist two hundred years ago; and
when the Crusades began the reverse was the case.
We cannot believe that this immense, universal fact is merely an
exterior one resulting from new appliances, new comforts, new
outward habits; what is called material civilization. We cannot
believe that it is merely the dress, houses, culinary regime, the
popular customs of those numerous foreign tribes or nations which
are undergoing such a wonderful change. This outward phenomenon
supposes a _substratum_, an interior reality of ideas and principles
worthy our chief attention as the real cause of all those exterior
changes; a cause, nevertheless, which is scarcely thought of in
the public estimate of this mighty revolution.
It is the mind of Europe: it is the belief or want of belief,
the religious or irreligious views, the grasping ambition, the
headlong desire of an impossible or unholy happiness, the reckless
sway of unbridled passions, which try to spread themselves among
all nations, and bring them all up, or rather down, to the level
of intoxicated, tottering, maddened Europe.
If the monstrous scheme succeeds, there will be no more prayer in
the villages of the devout Maronites, no more submission to God in
the mountains of Armenia, no more simplicity of faith among the
shepherds of Chaldea, no more purity of life among the wandering
children of Asiatic deserts.
Side by side with truth and virtue many errors and monstrosities
will doubtless disappear, but not to be replaced with what is
much better.
The muezzin of the mosques will no longer raise his voice from the
minarets at noon and nightfall; the simple Lama will no longer
believe in the successive incarnations of Buddha; no longer will
the superstitious Hindoo cast himself beneath the car of Juggernaut;
many another such absurdity and crime will, let us hope, disappear
forever. But with what benefit to mankind? After all, is not
superstition even better for men than total unbelief? And, when
the whole world is reduced to the state of Europe, when what we
daily witness there shall be reproduced in all continents and
islands, will men really be more virtuous and happy?
We must not think, however, that there is nothing truly good in
the stupendous transformation which we have endeavored to sketch.
If it really be the accomplishment of the great prophecy mentioned
by us at the beginning of this chapter, it is a noble and a
glorious event. God will know how to turn it to good account, and
it is for us to hail its coming with thankfulness.
There is no doubt that the actual superiority of the race of Japhet,
by force of which this wonderful revolution is being accomplished,
is the result of Christianity, that is, of Catholicity. It is
because Europe, or the agglomeration of the various branches of
the race of Japhet, was for fifteen hundred years overshadowed
by the true temple of God, his glorious and infallible Church;
it is because the education of Europeans is mainly due to the
true messengers of God, the Popes and the bishops; it is because
the mind of Europe was really formed by the great Catholic thinkers,
nurtured in the monasteries and convents of the Church; it is,
finally, because Europeans are truly the sons of martyrs and
crusaders, that on them devolves the great mission of regenerating
and blending into one the whole world.
But, unfortunately, the work is spoiled by adjuncts in the movement
which have grown up in the centuries preceding us. In fact, the
whole European movement has been thrown on a wrong track, which
we have already pointed out as mere material civilization.
Still, in spite of all the dross, there is a great deal of pure
metal in the Japhetic movement. Underlying it all runs the
doctrine that all men are sprung from the same father, and that
all have had the same Redeemer; that, consequently, all are
brethren, and that there should be no place among them for castes
and classes, as of superior and inferior beings; that the God the
Christians adore is alone omnipotent; that idolatry of all kinds
ought to disappear, and that ultimately there should be but one
flock and one shepherd.
These are saving truths, still held to in the main by the race
of Japhet, in spite of some harsh and opposing false assertions,
truths which the Catholic Church alone teaches in their purity,
and which are yet destined, we hope, to make one of all mankind.
But her claims are yet far from being acknowledged by the
leaders in the movement. And who are those leaders? A question
all-important.
England is certainly the first and foremost. Endowed with all the
characteristics of the Scandinavian race, which we shall touch upon
after, deeply infused with the blood of the Danes and Northmen, she
has all the indomitable energy, all the systematic grasp of mind and
sternness of purpose joined to the wise spirit of compromise and
conservatism of the men of the far North; she, of all nations, has
inherited their great power of expansion at sea, possessing all
the roving propensities of the old Vikings, and the spirit of
trade, enterprise, and colonization, of those old Phoenicians of
the arctic circle.
The Catholic south of Europe, Spain and Portugal, having, through
causes which it is not the place to investigate here, lost their
power on the ocean; the temporary maritime supremacy of Holland
having passed away, because the people of that flat country were
too close and narrow-minded to grasp the world for any length of
time; France, the only modern rival of England as a naval power,
having been compelled, owing to the revolutions of the last and
the present centuries, to concentrate her whole strength on the
Continent of Europe; the young giant of the West, America, being
yet unable to grasp at once a vast continent and universal sway
over the pathways of the ocean, England had free scope for her
maritime enterprises, and she threw herself headlong into this
career. Out of Europe she is incontestably the first power of the
whole world. To give a better idea of the extent of her dominion,
we subjoin an abridged sketch from the "History of a Hundred Years,"
by Cesare Cantu:
"In Europe she has colonies at Heligoland, Gibraltar, Malta, and
the Ionian Isles.
"In Africa, Bathurst, Sierra Leone, many establishments on the
coast of Guinea, the islands of Mauritius, Rodrigo, Sechelles,
Socotora, Ascension, St. Helena, and, most important of all,
the Cape Colony.
"In Asia, where she replaced the French and Dutch, she has,
besides Ceylon, an empire of 150,000,000 of people in India,
the islands of Singapore and Sumatra, part of Malacca, and many
establishments in China.
"In America, she is mistress of Canada, New Brunswick, and other
eastern provinces; the Lucayes, Bermudas, most of the Antilles,
part of Guiana, and the Falkland Isles.
"In the Southern Ocean, the greater part of Australia, Tasmania,
Norfolk, Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, and many other groups
of Oceanica are hers.
"What other state can compete with her in the management of
colonies, and in the selection of situations from which she
could command the sea? Jersey and Guernsey are her keys of the
Straits of Dover; from Heligoland she can open or shut the mouths
of the Elbe and Weser; from Gibraltar she keeps her eye on Spain
and the States of Barbary, and holds the gates of the Mediterranean.
With Malta and Corfu she has a like advantage over the Levant.
Socotora is for her the key of the Red Sea, whence she commands
Eastern Africa and Abyssinia. Ormuz, Chesmi, and Buschir, give
her the mastery over the Persian Gulf, and the large rivers which
flow into it. Aden secures the communication of Bombay with Suez.
Pulo Pinang makes her mistress of the Straits of Malacca, and
Singapore, of the passage between China and India. At the Cape
of Good Hope her troops form an advanced guard over the Indian
Ocean; and from Jamaica she rules the Antilles and trades securely
with the rest of Central and South America.
"Englishmen have made a careful survey of the whole of the
Mediterranean Sea, of the course of the Indus, the Ganges, the
Bramaputra, the Godavery, and other rivers of India; of the
whole littoral between Cape Colony and China; England has steamships
on the Amazon and Niger, and her vessels are found everywhere on
the coast of Chili and Peru."
Other European families try to follow in her footsteps; at their
head the United States now stand. Primitively an offshoot of the
English stock, the blood of all other Japhetic races has given the
latter country an activity and boldness which will render it in
time superior in those respects to the mother-country herself.
Yet at this time, even in the presence of the United States, in
the presence of all other maritime powers, England stands at the
head of the Japhetic movement.
Unfortunately, her first aim, after acquiring wealth and securing
her power, is, to exclude the Roman Catholic Church as far as is
practicable from the benefit of the system, to oppose her whenever
she would follow in the wake of her progress, and either to allow
paganism or Mohammedanism to continue in quiet possession wherever
they exist, or to substitute for them as far as possible her
Protestantism. At all events, the Catholicity of the Church is
to be crushed, or at least thwarted, to make room for the
catholicity of the English nation.
And it looks as though such, in truth, would have been the result,
had not the stubbornness of the Irish character stood in the way;
if the Celt of Erin, after centuries of oppression and opposition
to the false wanderings of the European stream, had not insisted
on following the English lord in his travels, dogging his steps
everywhere, entering his ships welcome or unwelcome, rushing on
shore with him wherever he thought fit to land, and there planted
his shanty and his frame church in the very sight of stately
palaces lately erected, and gorgeous temples with storied windows
and softly-carpeted floors.
And after a few years the Irish Celt would show himself as active
and industrious in his new country as oppression had made him
indolent and careless on his own soil; the shanty would be replaced
by a house worthy of a man; above all, the humble dwelling which he
first raised to his God would disappear to make room for an edifice
not altogether unworthy of divine majesty; at least, far above the
pretentious structures of the oppressors of his religion. The eyes
of men would be again turned to "the city built upon a mountain;" and
the character of universality, instead of being wrested from the true
Church, would become more resplendent than ever through the steadfast
Irish Celt.
Thus the spreading of the Gospel in distant regions would be
accomplished without a navy of their own. As their ancestors did
in pagan times, they would use the vessels of nations born for
thrift and trade; the stately ships of the "Egyptians" would be
used by the true "people of God."
For them hath Stephenson perfected the steam-engine, so as to
enable vessels to undertake long voyages at sea without the necessary
help of sails; for them Brunel and others had spent long years in
planning and constructing novel Noah's arks capable of containing
all clean and unclean animals; for them the Barings and other
wealthy capitalists had embraced the five continents and the isles
of the ocean in their financial schemes; the Jews of England,
Germany, and France, the Rothschilds and Mendelssohns, had
accumulated large amounts of money to lend to ship-building
companies; for them, in fine, the long-hidden gold deposits
of California, Australia, and many other places, had been
discovered at the proper time to replenish the coffers of the godless,
that they might undertake to furnish the means of transportation
and settlement for the missionaries of God!
And, to prove that this is no exaggeration, it is enough to look
at the number of emigrants that were to be carried to foreign parts,
and that actually left England for her various colonies or for the
United States. For several years one thousand Irish people sailed
_daily_ from the ports of Great Britain; and for a great number
of years 200,000 at least did so every twelve months. When we come,
to contrast the Irish at home with the Irish abroad, we shall
give fuller details than are possible here. These few words suffice
to show the immense number of vessels and the vast sums that were
required for such an extraordinary operation.
This phenomenon is surely curious enough, universal enough, and
sufficiently portentous in its consequences, to deserve a thorough
inquiry into its causes and the way in which it was brought about.
It will be seen that it all came from the Irish having kept
themselves aloof from the other branches of the great Japhetic race
in order to join in the general movement at the right time and in
their own way, constantly opposed to all the evil that is in it,
but using it in the way Providence intended.
The chapters which follow will be devoted to the development of
this general idea; the few remarks with which we close the present
may tend to set the conclusion which we draw more distinctly before
our minds.
There is no doubt that, taking the Irish nation as a whole, we
find in it features which are visible in no other European nation;
and that, taking Europe as a whole, in all its complexity of
habits, manners, tendencies, and ways of life, we have a picture
wholly distinct from that of the Irish people. England has striven
during the last eight hundred years to shape it and make it the
creature of her thought, and England has utterly failed.
The same race of men and women inhabit the isle of Erin to-day as
that which held it a thousand years ago, with the distinction that
it is now far more wretched and deserving of pity than it was then.
The people possess the same primitive habits, simple thoughts,
ardent impulsiveness, stubborn spirit, and buoyant disposition,
in spite of ages of oppression. In the course of centuries they
have not furnished a single man to that army of rash minds which
have carried the rest of Europe headlong through lofty, perhaps,
but at bottom empty and idle theories, to the brink of that
bottomless abyss into which no one can peer without a shudder.
No heresiarch has found place among them; no fanciful philosopher,
no holder of fitful and lurid light to deceive nations and lead
them astray, no propounder of social theories opposed to those
of the Gospel, no inventor of new theogonies and cosmologies--new
in name, old in fact--rediscovered by modern students in the
Kings_ of China, the _Vedas_ of Hindostan, the _Zends_ of Persia,
or _Eddas_ of the North; no ardent explorer of Nature, seeking
in the bowels of the earth, or on the summits of mountains, or
in the depths of the ocean, or the motions of the stars, proofs
that God does not exist, or that matter has always existed, that
man has made himself, developing his own consciousness out of
the instinct of the brute, or even out of the material motions
of the zoophyte.
We would beg the reader to bear in mind those insane theories so
prevalent to-day, out of which society can hope for nothing but
convulsions and calamities, to see how all the nations of Europe
have contributed to the baneful result except the Irish; that
they alone have furnished no false leader in those wanderings
from the right path; that their community has been opposed all
through to the adoption of the theories which led to them, have
spurned them with contempt, and even refused to inquire into
them: with these thoughts and recollections in his mind, he may
understand what we mean when we assert that the Irish have
stubbornly refused to enter upon the European movement. Although,
by the reception of Christianity, they were admitted into the
European family, the Christianity which they received was so
thoroughly imbibed and so completely carried out that any thing
in the least opposed to it was sternly rejected by the whole
nation. Hence they became a people of peculiar habits. Rejecting
the harsh features of feudalism, not caring for the refinement of
the so-called revival of learning, sternly opposed at all times to
Protestantism, they would have naught to do with what was rejected
or even suspected by the Church, until in our days they offer to
the eyes of the world the spectacle we have sketched. Thus have
they, not the least by reason of their long martyrdom, become fit
instruments for the great work Providence asks of them to-day.
England, the great leader in the material part of the social
movement which has been the subject of this chapter, for a long
time hesitated to adopt principles altogether subversive to
society. In her worldly good sense she endeavored to follow what
she imagined a _via media_ in her wisdom, to avoid what seemed
to her extremes, but what is in reality the eternal antagonism
of truth and falsehood, of order and chaos. Twenty years back
there was a unanimity among English writers to speak the
language of moderation and good sense whenever a rash author of
foreign nations hazarded some dangerous novelties; and in their
reviews they immediately pointed out the poison which lay
concealed under the covering of science or imagination, and the
peril of these ever-increasing new discoveries. If any
Englishman sanctioned those theories, he could not form a school
among his countrymen, and remained almost alone of his party.
But at last England has given way to the universal spread of
temptation, and to-day she runs the race of disorganization as
ardent as any, striving to be a leader among other leaders to
ruin. Every one is astounded at the sudden and remarkable change.
It is truly inexplicable, save by the fearful axiom, _Quos Deus
vult perdere, dementat_. Hence not a few expect soon to see
storms sweep over the devoted island of Great Britain, which no
longer forms an exception to the universality of the evil we
have indicated.
Which, then, is the one safe spot in Europe, whither the tide
of folly, or madness rather, has not yet come?
Ireland alone is the answer.
CHAPTER III.
THE IRISH BETTER PREPARED TO RECEIVE CHRISTIANITY THAN
OTHER NATIONS.
The introduction of Christianity gave Europe a power over the
world which pagan Rome could not possess. All the branches of
the Japhetic family combined to form what was with justice and
propriety called Christendom. Ireland, by receiving the Gospel,
was really making her first entry into the European family; but
there were certain peculiarities in her performance of this
great act which gave her national life, already deviating from
that of other European nations, a unique impulse. The first of
those peculiarities consisted in her preparation for the great
reception of the faith, and the few obstacles she encountered in
her adoption of it, compared with those of the rest of the world.
Providence wisely decreed that redemption should be delayed
until a large portion of mankind had attained to the highest
civilization. It was not in a time of ignorance and barbarism
that the Saviour was born. The Augustan is, undoubtedly, the
most intellectual and refined age, in point of literary and
artistic taste, that the world has ever seen. A few centuries
before, Greece had reached the summit of science and art. No
country, in ancient or modern times, has surpassed the acumen of
her philosophical writers and the aesthetic perfection of her
poets and artists. Rome made use of her to embellish her cities,
and inherited her taste for science and literature.
But art and literature embody ideas only; and, as Ozanam says so
well: "Beneath the current of ideas which dispute the empire of
the world, lies that world itself such as labor has made it,
with that treasure of wealth and visible adornment which render
it worthy of being the transient sojourn-place of immortal souls.
Beneath the true, the good, and the beautiful, lies the useful,
which is brightened by their reflection. No people has more
keenly appreciated the idea of utility than that of Rome; none
has ever laid upon the earth a hand more full of power, or more
capable of transforming it; nor more profusely flung the
treasures of earth at the feet of humanity . . . .
"At the close of the second century . . the rhetorician
Aristides celebrated in the following terms the greatness of the
Roman Empire: 'Romans, the whole world beneath your dominion
seems to keep a day of festival. From time to time a sound of
battle comes to you from the ends of the earth, where you are
repelling the Goth, the Moor, or the Arab. But soon that sound
is dispersed like a dream. Other are the rivalries and different
the conflicts which you excite through the universe. They are
combats of glory, rivalries in magnificence between provinces
and cities. Through you, gymnasia, aqueducts, porticoes, temples,
and schools, are multiplied; the very soil revives, and the
earth is but one vast garden!'
"Similar, also, was the language of the stern Tertullian: `In
truth, the world becomes day after day richer and better
cultivated; even the islands are no longer solitudes; the rocks
have no more terrors for the navigator; everywhere there are
habitations, population, law, and life.'
"The legions of Rome had constructed the roads which furrowed
mountains, leaped over marshes, and crossed so many different
provinces with a like solidity, regularity, and uniformity; and
the various races of men were lost in admiration at the sight of
the mighty works which were attributed in after-times to Caesar,
to Brunehaud, to Abelard!"
It was in the midst of those worldly glories that Christ was
born, that he preached, and suffered, that his religion was
established and propagated. It found proselytes at once among
the most polished and the most learned of men, as well as among
slaves and artisans; and thus was it proved that Christianity
could satisfy the loftiest aspirations of the most civilized as
well as insure the happiness of the most numerous and miserable
classes.
But we must reflect that the advanced civilization of Greece and
Rome was in fact an immense obstacle to the propagation of truth,
and, what is more to be regretted, often gave an unnatural
aspect to the Christianity of the first ages in the Roman world--
a half-pagan look--so that the barbarian invasion was almost
necessary to destroy every thing of the natural order; that the
Church alone remaining face to face with those uncouth children
of the North, might begin her mission anew and mould them all
into the family called "Christendom." "Christianity," to
quote Ozanam again, "shrank from condemning a veneration of the
beautiful, although idolatry was contained in it; and as it
honored the human mind and the arts it produced, so the
persecution of the apostate Julian, in which the study of the
classics had been forbidden to the faithful, was the severest of
its trials. Literary history possesses no moment of greater
interest than that which saw the school with its profane
--that is to say pagan--traditions and texts received into the
Church. The Fathers, whose christian austerity is our wonder,
were passionate in their love of antiquity, which they covered,
as it were, with their sacred vestments. . . . By their favor,
Virgil traversed the ages of iron without losing a page, and, by
right of his Fourth Eclogue, took rank among the prophets and
the sibyls. St. Augustine would have blamed paganism less, if,
in place of a temple to Cybele, it had raised a shrine to Plato,
in which his works might have been publicly read. St. Jerome's
dream is well known, and the scourging inflicted upon him by
angels for having loved Cicero too well; yet his repentance was
but short-lived, since he caused the monks of the Mount of
Olives to pass their nights in copying the Ciceronian dialogues,
and did not shrink himself from expounding the comic and lyric
poets to the children of Bethlehem."
We know already that nothing of the kind existed in Ireland when
the Gospel reached her, and that there the new religion assumed
a peculiar aspect, which has never varied, and which made her at
once and forever a preeminently Christian nation.
Among the Greeks and Romans, literature and art, although
accepted by the Church, were nevertheless deeply impregnated
with paganism. All their chief acts of social life required a
profession of idolatry; even amusements, dramatic
representations, and simple games, were religious and
consequently pagan exhibitions.
We do not here speak of the attractions of an atheistic and
materialist philosophy, of a voluptuous, often, and demoralizing
literature and poetry, of an unimaginable prostitution of art to
the vilest passions, which the relics of Pompeii too abundantly
indicate.
But apart from those excesses of corruption and unbelief, which,
no doubt, virtuous pagans themselves abhorred, the approved,
correct, and so-called pure life of the best men of pagan Rome
necessitated the contamination of idolatrous worship. Apart from
the thousand duties, festivals, and the like, decreed or
sanctioned by the state, the most ordinary acts of life, the
enlisting of the soldier, the starting on a military expedition,
the assumption of any civil office or magistracy, the civil
oaths in the courts of law, the public bath, the public walk
almost, the current terms in conversation, the private reading
of the best books, the mere glancing at a multitude of exterior
objects, constituted almost as many professions of a false and
pagan worship.
How could any one become a Christian and at the same time remain
a Greek or a Roman? The gloomy views of the Montanist Tertullian
were, to many, frightful truths requiring constant care and self-
examen. For the Christian there were two courses open--both
excesses, yet either almost unavoidable: on the one side, a
terrible rigorism, making life unsupportable, next to impossible;
on the other, a laxity of thought and action leading to
lukewarmness and sometimes apostasy.
Bearing in mind what was written on the subject in the first
three ages of Christianity, not only by Tertullian, but by most
orthodox writers, St. Cyprian, Lactantius, Arnobius, and the
authors of many Acts of martyrs, we may easily understand how
the doctrines of Christianity stood in danger of never taking
deep root in the hearts of men surrounded by such temptations,
themselves born in paganism, and remaining, after their
conversion, exposed to seductions of such an alluring character.
Therefore this same "high civilization," as it is called, in the
midst of which Christianity was preached, was a real danger to
the inward life of the new disciple of Christ.
How could it be otherwise, when it is a fact now known to
all, that, even at the beginning of the fifth century, Rome was
almost entirely pagan, at least outwardly, and among her highest
classes; so that the poet Claudian, in addressing Honorius at the
beginning of his sixth consulship, pointed out to him the site of
the capitol still crowned with the Temple of Jove, surrounded by
numerous pagan edifices, supporting in air an army of gods; and
all around temples, chapels, statues, without number--in fact, the
whole Roman and Greek mythology, standing in the City of the
Catacombs and of the Popes!
The public calendars, preserved to this day, continued to note
the pagan festivals side by side with the feasts of the Saviour
and his apostles. Within the city and beyond, throughout Italy
and the most remote provinces, idols and their altars were still
surrounded by the thronging populace, prostrate at their feet.
If in the cities the new religion already dared display
something of its inherent splendor, the whole rural population
was still pagan, singing the praises of Ceres and of Bacchus,
trembling at Fauns and Satyrs and the numerous divinities of the
groves and fountains. Christianity then held the same standing
in Italy that in the United States Catholicity holds to-day in
the midst of innumerable religious sects.
This is not the place to show how far the paganism of Greece and
Rome had corrupted society, and how complete was its rottenness
at the time. It has been already shown by several great writers
of this century. Enough for our purpose to remark that even some
Christian writers, of the age immediately succeeding that of the
early martyrs, showed themselves more than half pagans in their
tastes and productions. Ausonius in the West, the preceptor of
St. Paulinus, is so obscene in some of his poems, so thoroughly
pagan in others, that critics have for a long time hesitated to
pronounce him a Christian. How many of his contemporaries
hovered like him on the confines of Christianity and paganism!
When Julian the apostate restored idolatry, many, who had only
disgraced the name of Christian, openly returned to the worship
of Jupiter and Venus, and their apostasy could scarcely be cause
for regret to sincere disciples of our Lord.
In the East the phenomenon is less striking. Strange to say,
idolatry did not remain so firmly rooted in the country, where
it first took such an alluring shape; and Constantinople was in
every sense of the word a Christian city when Rome, in her
senate, fought with such persistent tenacity for her altars of
Victory, her vestals, and her ancient worship.
Yet there, also, Christian writers were too apt to interfuse the
old ideas with the new, and to adopt doctrines placed, as it
were, midway between those of Plato and St. Paul. There were
bishops even who were a scandal to the Church and yet remained
in it. Synesius is the most striking example; whose doctrine was
certainly more philosophical than Christian, and whose life,
though decorous, was altogether worldly. The history of Arianism
shows that others besides Synesius were far removed from the
ideal of Christian bishops so worthily represented at the time
by many great doctors and holy pontiffs.
Such, in the East as well as in the West, were the perils
besetting the true Christian spirit at the very cradle of our
holy religion.
Nor was the danger confined to the mythology of paganism, its
literature and poetry. Philosophy itself became a real stumbling-
block to many, who would fain appear disciples of faith, when
they gave themselves up to the most unrestrained wanderings of
human reason.
The truth is, that Greek philosophy, divided into so many
schools in order to please all tastes, had become a wide-spread
institution throughout the Roman world. The mind of the East was
best adapted to it, and those who taught it were, consequently,
nearly all Greeks. Cicero had made it fashionable among many of
his countrymen; and although the Latin mind, always practical to
the verge of utilitarianism, was not congenial to utopian
speculations, still, as it was the fashion, all intellectual men
felt the need of becoming sufficiently acquainted with it to be
able to speak of it and even to embrace some particular school.
Those patricians, who remained attached to the stern principles
of the old republic, became Stoics; while the men of the corrupt
aristocracy called themselves, with Horace, members of the
"Epicurean herd." Hence the necessity for all to train their
minds to scientific speculation, converted the Western world
into a hot-bed of wild and dangerous doctrines.
In the opinion of some Eastern Fathers of the Church, Greek
philosophy had been a preparation for the Gospel, and could be
made subservient to the conversion of many. Thus we find St.
Justin, the martyr, all his life long glorying in the name of
philosopher, and continuing to wear, even after his conversion,
the philosopher's cloak so much derided by the scoffer, Lucian.
Still, despite this very respectable opinion, we can entertain
no doubt, in view of what happened at the time and of subsequent
events, that philosophy grew to be a stumbling-block in the path
of Christianity, and originated the worst and most dangerous
forms of heresy; that it sowed the seed, in the European mind,
of all errors, by creating that speculative tendency of
character so peculiar to most branches of the Japhetic race.
Persian Dualism, and, as many think, Pantheistic Buddhism, which
were then flourishing in Central and Eastern Asia, infected the
Alexandrian schools, and impressed philosophy with a new and
dreamy character, which became the source of subsequent and
frightful errors. The Neo-Platonism of Porphyry and Plotinus was
intended, in the minds of its originators, to lay a scientific
basis for polytheism; and, in Jamblichus finally, became an open
justification of the most absurd fables of mythology.
But, though this might satisfy Julian and those who followed him
in his apostasy, it could not come to be an inner danger to the
Church. With many, however, it assumed a form which at once
engendered the worst errors of Gnosticism; and Gnosticism was,
at first, considered a Christian heresy; so that a man might be
a pantheist, of the worst kind, and still call himself Christian.
St. John had foreseen the danger from the beginning, and it is
said that he wrote his gospel against it because the doctrine
openly denied the divinity of Christ. But the sect became much
more powerful after his death, and allured many Christians who
were disposed, from a misinterpretation of some texts of St.
Paul on the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, to
embrace a system which professed to explain the origin of that
struggle.
The Alexandrian Gnosticism failed to excite in the minds of the
holy monks of the East that aversion which we now feel for its
tenets, inasmuch as it did not openly anathematize the
Scriptures of the Old Law, nay, even preserved a certain outward
respect for them, on account of the multitude of Jews living in
Alexandria, and particularly because the open system of Dualism,
which afterward came from Syria and in the hands of Manes
established the existence of two equal and eternal principles of
good and evil, found no place in the teachings of Valentinus and
his school.
But even this frightful Syrian Gnosticism, which gave to the
principle of evil an origin as ancient and sacred as that of God
himself--Manicheism barefaced and radically immoral--so
repugnant to our feelings, so monstrous to our more correct
ideas, bore a semblance of truth for many minds, at that time
inclined toward every thing which came from the East. We know
what a firm hold those doctrines took on the great soul of
Augustine, who for a long time professed and cherished them.
Rome, under the pagan emperors, had received with open arms the
Oriental gods and the philosophy which endeavored to explain
their mythology; and many gifted minds of the third and fourth
centuries lost themselves in the contemplation of those
mysteries which from out Central Asia spread a lurid glare over
the Western world.
This first danger, however, was warded off by the writings of St.
Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, St. Epiphanius, Theodoret, and
others, long before the time of St. Augustine, the last of them.
Gnosticism was prevented from any longer imparting a wrong
tendency to Christian doctrines, and it died out, until restored
during the Crusades to revive in the middle ages in its most
malignant form.
But at the very moment of its decline, philosophy entered the
Church; almost to wreck her by inspiring Arius and Pelagius. The
teachings of the first were clearly Neo-Platonic; of the second,
Stoic: and all the errors prevalent in the Church from the third
to the sixth century originated in Arianism and Pelagianism.
In Plato, as read in Alexandria, Arius found all the material
for his doctrine, which spread like wild-fire over the whole
Church. Many things conspired to swell the number of his
adherents: the ardent love for philosophy so inherent in the
Eastern Church, to the extent of many believing that Plato was
almost a Christian, and his doctrines therefore endowed with
real authority; the natural disposition of men to adopt the new
and a seeming rational explanation of unfathomable mysteries;
the apparent agreement of his doctrine with certain passages of
Scripture, where the Son is said to be inferior to the Father;
but chiefly the satisfaction it afforded to a number of new
Christians who had embraced the faith at the conversion of
Constantine on political rather than conscientious grounds, and
who were at once relieved of the supernatural burden of
believing in a God-man, born of a woman, and dying on a cross.
Faith reduced to an opinion; religion become a philosophy; a
mere man, let his endowments be what they might, recognized as
our guide, and not overwhelming us with the dread weight of a
divine nature; all this explains the historic phrase of St.
Jerome after the Council of Rimini, "The world groaned and
wondered to find itself Arian."
Any person acquainted with ecclesiastical history knows how the
Church of Christ would have surely become converted into a mere
rational school, under the pressure of these doctrines, were it
not for the promises of perpetuity which she had received.
We know also what a time it took to establish truth: how many
councils had to meet, how many books had to be written, the
efforts required from the rulers of the Church, chiefly from the
Roman pontiffs, to calm so many storms, to explain so many
difficult points of doctrine, to secure the final victory.
And, after all had been accomplished, there still remained the
root of the evil engrafted in what we call the philosophical
turn of mind of the Western nations--that is to say, in the
disposition to call every thing in question, to seek out strange
and novel difficulties, to start war-provoking theories in the
midst of peace, to aim at founding a new school, or at least to
stand forth as the brilliant and startling expounder of old
doctrines in a new form, in fine to add a last name to the list,
already over-long, of those who have disturbed the world by
their skill in dialectics and sophism.
Pelagius followed Arius, and his errors had the same object in
view in the long-run, to strip our holy religion of all that is
spiritual and divine.
In the time of St. Augustine and St. Jerome, there existed among
Christians an extraordinary tendency to embrace all possible
philosophical doctrines, even when directly opposed to the first
principles of revealed religion; and, within the Church, the
danger of subtilizing on every question connected with well-
known dogmas was much greater than many imagine.
From the previous reflections we may learn how difficult it was
to establish, in pagan Europe, a thoroughly Christian life and
doctrine; and that, after society had come to be apparently
imbued with the new spirit, it was still too easy to disturb the
flowing stream of the heavenly graces of the Gospel. This
resulted, we repeat, from causes anterior to Christianity, from
sources of evil which the divine religion had to overcome, and
which too often impeded its supernatural action. In fact, the
ecclesiastical history of those ages is comprised mainly in
depicting the almost continual deviations from the straight line
of pure doctrine and morality, and the strenuous efforts
assiduously made by the rulers of the Church against a never-
ceasing falling away.
Having taken this glance at the early workings of Christianity
through the rest of the world, we may now turn fairly to the
immediate subject we have in hand, and trace its course in
Ireland. From the very beginning we are struck by the
peculiarities--blessed, indeed--which show themselves, as in all
other matters, in its reception of the truth. The island,
compared with Europe, is small, it is true; but the heroism
displayed by its inhabitants during so many ages, in support of
the religion which they received so freely, so generously, and
at once, in mind as well as heart, marks it out as worthy of a
special account; and, from its unique reception and adherence to
the faith, as worthy of, if possible, a natural explanation of
such action beyond the promptings of Divine grace, since its
astonishing perseverance, its unswerving faith, form to-day as
great a characteristic of the nation as they did on the day of
its entry into the Christian Church.
We proceed to examine, then, the kind of idolatry which its
first apostle encountered on landing in the island, and the ease
with which it was destroyed, so as to leave behind no poisonous
shoots of the deadly root of evil.
In order to understand the religious system of Ireland previous
to the preaching of the Gospel, we must first take a general
survey of polytheism, if it can be so called, in all Celtic
countries, and of the peculiar character which it bore in
Ireland itself.
Of old, throughout all countries, religion possessed certain
things in common, which belonged to the rites and creeds of all
nations, and were evidently derived from the primitive
traditions of mankind, and, consequently, from a true and Divine
revelation. Such were the belief in a golden age, in the fall
from a happy beginning, in the penalty imposed on sin, which
gave a reason for great mundane calamities--the Deluge chiefly--
the memory of which lived in the traditions of almost every
nation; in the necessity of prayer and expiatory sacrifice; in
the transmission of guilt from father to son, expressed in all
primitive legislations, and to this day preserved in the Chinese
laws and customs; in the existence of good and bad spirits,
whence, most probably, arose polytheism; in the hope of the
future regeneration of man, represented in Greece by the
beautiful myth of Pandora's box; and, finally, in the doctrine
of eternal rewards and punishments.
Each one of these strictly true dogmas underwent more or less of
alteration in its passage through the various nations of
antiquity, but was, nevertheless, everywhere preserved in some
shape or form.
At what precise epoch did mankind begin wrongfully to interpret
these primitive traditions? When did the worship of idols arise
and become universal? No one can tell precisely. All we know for
certain is, that a thousand years before Christ idolatry
prevailed everywhere, and that even the Jewish people often fell
into this sin, and were only brought back by means of punishment
to the worship of the true God.
But if error tainted the whole system of worship among nations,
it differed in the various races of men according to the variety
of their character. Ferocity or mildness of manners, acuteness
or obtuseness of understanding, activity or indolence of
disposition, a burning, a cold, or a temperate climate, a
smiling or dreary country, but chiefly the thousand differences
of temper which are as marked among mankind as the almost in-
finite variety of forms visible in creation, gave to each
individual religion its proper and characteristic types, which
in after-times, when truth was brought down from heaven for all,
imparted to the universal Christian spirit a peculiar outward
form in each people, an interior adaptation to its peculiar
dispositions, destined in the Divine plan to introduce into the
future Catholic Church the beautiful variety requisite to make
its very universality possible among mankind.
To enter into details on the Celtic religion would carry us
beyond due limits. The question as to whether the ancient Celts
were idolaters or not still remains undecided, though in France
alone more than six hundred volumes have been written on the
subject. Julius Caesar believed that they were worshippers of
idols in the same sense as his own countrymen; but he probably
stood alone in his opinion. Aristotle, Pythagoras, Polyhistor,
Ammianus Marcellinus, considered the Druids as monotheist
philosophers. Most of the Greek writers agreed with them, as did
all the Alexandrian Fathers of the Church in the third and
fourth centuries.
Among the moderns the majority leans to a contrary opinion;
nevertheless, many authors of weight, distinguishing the public
worship of the common people from the doctrine of the Druids,
assert the monotheism of this sacerdotal caste. Samuel F. N.
Morus particularly, who, with J. A. Ernesti, was esteemed the
master of antiquarian scholarship in Europe during the last
century, maintains, in his edition of the "Commentaries" of
Caesar, that "human beings, as well as human affairs, fortunes,
travels, and wars, were thought by the Celts to be governed and
ruled by one supreme God, and that the system of apotheosis,
common to nearly all ancient nations, was totally unknown in
ancient Gaul, Britain, and the adjacent islands."
The ancient authorities concurring with these conclusions are so
numerous and clear spoken that the great historian of Gaul,
Amedee Thierry, thinks that such a pure and mystic religion,
joined to such a sublime philosophy, could not have been the
product of the soil. In his endeavor to investigate its origin,
he supposes that it was brought to the west of Europe by the
Eastern Cymris of the first invasion; that it was adopted by the
higher classes of society, and that the old idolatrous worship
remained in force among the lower orders.
The unity and omnipotence of the Godhead, metempsychosis, or the
doctrine and the transmigration of soul --not into the bodies of
animals, as it obtained and still obtains in the East, but into
those of other human beings--the eternal duration of existing
substances, material and spiritual, consequently the immortality
of the human soul, were the chief dogmas of the Druids,
according to the majority of antiquarians.
If this be true, then it can be said boldly that, with the
exception of revealed religion in Judea, which was always far
more explicit and pure, no system can be found in ancient times
superior to that of the Druids, more especially if we add that,
in addition to religious teaching, a whole system of physics was
also developed in their large academies. "They dispute," says
Caesar, "on the stars and their motions, on the size of the
universe and of this earth, on the nature of physical things, as
well as on the strength and power of the eternal God."
To bring our question home, what were the religious belief and
worship of the Irish Celts while still pagans? Very few positive
facts are known on the subject; but we have data enough to show
what they were not; and in such cases negative proofs are amply
sufficient.
It was for a long time the fashion with Irish historians to
attribute to their ancestors the wildest forms of ancient
idolatry. They appeared to consider it a point of national honor
to make the worship of Erin an exact reflex of Eastern, Grecian,
or Roman polytheism. They erected on the slightest foundations
grand structures of superstitious and abominable rites. Fire-
worship, Phoenician or African horrors, the rankest idol-worship,
even human sacrifices of the most revolting nature, were,
according to them, of almost daily occurrence in Ireland. But,
with the advancement of antiquarian knowledge, all those
phantoms have successively disappeared; and, the more the
ancient customs, literature, and history of the island are
studied, the more it becomes clear that the pretended proofs
adduced in support of those vagaries are really without
foundation.
In the first place, there is not the slightest reason to believe
that the human sacrifices customary in Gaul were ever practised
in Ireland. No really ancient book makes any mention of them.
They were certainly not in vogue at the time of St. Patrick, as
he could not have failed to give expression to his horror at
them in some shape or form, which expression would have been
recorded in one, at least, of the many lives of the saint,
written shortly after his death, and abounding in details of
every kind. If not, then, during his long apostleship, we may
safely conclude that they never took place before, as there was
no reason for their discontinuance prior to the propagation of
Christianity.
There was a time when all the large cromlechs which abound in
the island were believed to be sacrificial stones; and it is
highly probable that the opinion so prevalent during the last
century with respect to the reality of those cruel rites had its
origin in the existence of those rude monuments. After many
investigations and excavations around and under cromlechs of all
sizes, it is now admitted by all well-informed antiquarians that
they had no connection with sacrifices of any kind. They were
merely monuments raised over the buried bodies of chieftains or
heroes. Many sepulchres of that description have been opened,
either under cromlechs or under large mounds; great quantities
of ornaments of gold, silver, or precious stones, utensils of
various materials, beautiful works of great artistic merit, have
been discovered there, and now go to fill the museums of the
nation or private cabinets. Nothing connected with religious
rites of any description has met the eyes of the learned seekers
after truth. Thus it has been ascertained that the old race had
reached a high degree of material civilization; but no clew to
its religion has been furnished.
As to fire-worship, which not long ago was admitted by all as
certainly forming a part of the Celtic religion in Ireland, so
little of that opinion remains to-day that it is scarcely
deserving of mention. There now remains no doubt that the round
towers, formerly so numerous in Ireland, had nothing whatever to
do with fire-worship. For a long time they were believed to have
been constructed for no other object, and consequently long
prior to the coming of St. Patrick. But Dr. Petrie and other
antiquarians have all but demonstrated that the round towers
never had any connection with superstition or idolatry at all;
that they were of Christian origin, always built near some
Christian church, and of the same materials, and had for their
object to call the faithful to prayer, like the _campanile_ of
Italy, to be a place of refuge for the clergy in time of war,
and to give to distant villages intimation of any hostile
invasion.
The fact in the life of St. Patrick, when he appeared before the
court of King Laeghaire, upon which so much reliance is placed
as a proof of the existence of fire-worship, is now of
proportionate weakness. It seems, to judge by the most reliable
and ancient manuscripts, that, after all, the kindling of the
king's fire was scarcely a religious act.
McGeoghegan, whose history is compiled, from the best-
authenticated documents, says: "When the monarch convened an
assembly, or held a festival at Tara, it was customary to make a
bonfire on the preceding day, and it was forbidden to light
another fire in any other place at the same time, in the
territory of Breagh."
This is all; and the probable cause of the prohibition was to do
honor to the king. Had it been an act of worship, Patrick, in
lighting his own paschal-fire, would not only have shown
disrespect to the monarch, but in the eyes of the people
committed a sacrilege, which could scarcely have missed mention
by the careful historians of the time.
But the proof that we are right in our interpretation of the
ceremony is clear, from the following passage, taken from the
work of Prof. Curry on "Early Irish Manuscripts:" "We see, by
the book of military expeditions, that, when King Dathi-- the
immediate predecessor of Laeghaire on the throne of Ire- land--
thought of conquering Britain and Gaul, he invited the states of
the nation to meet him at Tara, at the approaching feast of
Baltaine (one of the great pagan festivals of ancient Erin) on
May-day.
"The feast of Tara this year was solemnized on a scale of
splendor never before equalled. The fires of Lailten (now called
Lelltown in the north of Ireland) were lighted, and the sports,
games, and ceremonies, were conducted with unusual magnificence
and solemnity.
"These games and solemnities are said to have been instituted
more than a thousand years previously by Lug, in honor of Lailte,
the daughter of the King of Spain, and wife of MacEire, the
last king of the Firbolg colony. It was at her court that Lug
had been fostered, and at her death he had her buried at this
place, where he raised an immense mound over her grave, and
instituted those annual games in her honor.
"These games were solemnized about the first day of August, and
they continued to be observed down to the ninth century"-
therefore, in Christian times-and consequently the lighting of
the fires had as little connection with fire-worship as the
games with pagan rites.
A more serious difficulty meets us in the destruction of Crom
Cruagh by St. Patrick, and it is important to consider how far
Crom Cruagh could really be called an idol.
With regard to the statues of Celtic gods, all the researches
and excavations which the most painstaking of antiquarians have
undertaken, especially of late years, have never resulted in the
discovery, not of the statue of a god, but of any pagan sign
whatever in Ireland. It is clear, from the numerous details of
the life of St. Patrick, that he never encountered either
temples or the statues of gods in any place, although occasional
mention is made of idols. The only fact which startles the
reader is the holy zeal which moved him to strike with his
"baculus Jesu" the monstrous Crom Cruagh, with its twelve "sub-gods."
In all his travels through Ireland-and there is scarcely a spot
which he did not visit and evangelize-St. Patrick meets with
only one idol, or rather group of idols, situated in the County
Cavan, which was an object of veneration to the people. Nowhere
else are idols to be found, or the saint would have thought it
his duty to destroy them also. This first fact certainly places
the Irish in a position, with regard to idolatry, far different
from that of all other polytheist nations. In all other
countries it is characteristic of polytheism to multiply the
statues of the gods, to expose them in all public places, in
their houses, but chiefly within or at the door of edifices
erected for the purpose. Yet in Ireland we find nothing of the
kind, with the exception of Crom Cruagh. The holy apostle of the
nation goes on preaching, baptizing, converting people, without
finding any worship of gods of stone or metal; he only hears
that there is something of the kind in a particular spot, and he
has to travel a great distance in order to see it, and show the
people their folly in venerating it.
But what was that idol? According to the majority of expounders
of Irish history, it was a golden sphere or ball representing
the sun, with twelve cones or pillars of brass, around it,
typifying, probably, astronomical signs. St. Patrick, in his
"Confessio," seems to allude to Crom Cruagh when he says: "That
sun which we behold by the favor of God rises for us every day;
but its splendor will not shine forever; nay, even all those who
adore it shall be miserably punished."
The Bollandists, in a note on this passage of the "Confessio,"
think that it might refer to Crom Cruagh, which possibly
represented the sun, surrounded by the signs of the twelve
months, through which it describes its orbit during the year.
We know that the Druids were, perhaps, better versed in the
science of astronomy than the scholars of any other nation at
the time. It was not in Gaul and Britain only that they pursued
their course of studies for a score of years; the same fact is
attested for Ireland by authorities whose testimony is beyond
question. May we not suppose that a representation of mere
heavenly phenomena, set in a conspicuous position, had in course
of time become the object of the superstitious veneration of the
people, and that St. Patrick thought it his duty to destroy it?
And the attitude of the people at the time of its destruction
shows that it could not have borne for them the same sacred
character as the statue of Minerva in the Parthenon did for the
Greeks or that of Capitoline Jove for the Romans. Can we suppose
that St. Paul or St. Peter would have dared to break either of
these? And let us remark that the event we discuss occurred at
the very beginning of St. Patrick's ministry, and before he had
yet acquired that great authority over the minds of all which
afterward enabled him fearlessly to accomplish whatever his zeal
prompted him to do.
Whatever explanation of the whole occurrence may be given, we
doubt if we shall find a better than that we advance, and the
considerations arising from it justify the opinion that the
Irish Celts were not idolaters like all other peoples of
antiquity. They possessed no mythology beyond harmless fairy-
tales, no poetical histories of gods and goddesses to please the
imagination and the senses, and invest paganism with such an
attractive garb as to cause it to become a real obstacle to the
spread of Christianity.
Moreover, what we have said concerning the belief in the
omnipotence of one supreme God, whatever might be his nature, as
the first dogma of Druidism, would seem to have lain deep in the
minds of the Irish Celts, and caused their immediate
comprehension and reception of monotheism, as preached by St.
Patrick, and the facility with which they accepted it. They were
certainly, even when pagans, a very religious people; otherwise
how could they have embraced the doctrines of Christianity with
that ardent eagerness which shall come under our consideration
in the next chapter? A nation utterly devoid of faith of any
kind is not apt to be moved, as were the Irish, perhaps beyond
all other nations, at the first sight of supernatural truths,
such as those of Christianity. And so little were they attached
to paganism, so visibly imbued with reverence for the supreme
God of the universe, that, as soon as announced, they accepted
the dogma.
The simple and touching story of the conversion of the two
daughters of King Laeghaire will give point and life to this
very important consideration. It is taken from the "Book of
Armagh," which Prof. O'Curry, who is certainly a competent
authority, believes older than the year 727, when the popular
Irish traditions regarding St. Patrick must have still been
almost as vivid as immediately after his death.
St. Patrick and his attendants being assembled at sunrise at the
fountain of Clebach, near Cruachan in Connaught, Ethne and
Felimia, daughters of King Laeghaire, came to bathe, and found
at the well the holy men.
"And they knew not whence they were, or in what form, or from
what people, or from what country; but they supposed them to be
fairies--_duine sidhe_--that is to say, gods of the earth, or a
phantasm.
"And the virgins said unto them: 'Who are ye, and whence are ye?'
"And Patrick said unto them: 'It were better for you to confess
to our true God, than to inquire concerning our race.'
"The first virgin said: `Who is God?
"'And where is God?
"'And where is his dwelling-place?
"'Has God sons and daughters, gold and silver?
"'Is he living?
"'Is he beautiful?
"'Did many foster his son?
"'Are his daughters dear and beauteous to men of this world?
"'Is he in heaven or on earth?
"'In the sea?--In rivers?--In mountainous places?--In valleys?
"'Declare unto us the knowledge of him?
"'How shall he be seen?-How shall he be loved?-How is he to be found?
"'Is it in youth?-Is it in old age that he is to be found?'
"But St. Patrick, full of the Holy Ghost, answered and said:
"'Our God is the God of all men-the God of heaven and earth-of
the sea and rivers. The God of the sun, and the moon, and all
stars. The God of the high mountains, and of the lowly valleys.
The God who is above heaven, and in heaven, and under heaven.
"'He has a habitation in the heavens, and the earth, and the sea,
and all that are thereon.
"'He inspireth all things. He quickeneth all things. He is over
all things.
"'He hath a Son coeternal and coequal with himself. The Son is
not younger than the Father, nor the Father older than the Son.
And the Holy Ghost breatheth in them. The Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, are not divided.
"'But I desire to unite you to a heavenly King inasmuch as you
are daughters of an earthly king. Do you believe?'
"And the virgins said, as of one mouth and one heart: Teach us
most diligently how we may believe in the heavenly King. Show us
how we may see him face to face, and whatsoever you shall say
unto us we will do.'
"And Patrick said: 'Believe ye that by baptism you put off the
sin of your father and your mother?'
"They answered him, 'We believe.'
"'Believe ye in repentance after sin? 'We believe . . .' etc.
"And they were baptized, and a white garment was put upon their
heads. And they asked to see the face of Christ. And the saint
said unto them: 'Ye cannot see the face of Christ except ye
taste of death, and except ye receive the sacrifice.'
"And they answered: 'Give us the sacrifice that we may behold
the Son our spouse.'
"And they received the eucharist of God, and they slept in death.
"And they were laid out on one bed-covered with garments -and
their friends made great lamentations and weeping for them."
This beautiful legend expresses to the letter the way in which
the Irish received the faith. Nor was it simple virgins only who
_understood_ and _believed_ so suddenly at the preaching of the
apostle. The great men of the nation were as eager almost as the
common people to receive baptism: the conversion of Dubtach is
enough to show this.
He was a Druid, being the chief poet of King Laeghaire--all
poets belonging to the order. After the wife, the brothers, and
the two daughters of the monarch, he was the most illustrious
convert gained by Patrick at the beginning of his apostleship.
He became a Christian at the first appearance of the saint at
Tara, and immediately began to sing in verse his new belief, as
he had formerly sung the heroes of his nation. To the end he
remained firm in his faith, and a dear friend to the holy man
who had converted him. How could he, and all the chief converts
of Patrick, have believed so suddenly and so constantly in the
God of the Christians, if their former life had not prepared
them for the adoption of the new doctrine, and if the doctrine
of monotheism had offered a real difficulty to their
understanding? There was, probably, nothing clear and definite
in their belief in an omnipotent God, which is said to have been
the leading dogma of Druidism; but their simple minds had
evidently a leaning toward the doctrine, which induced them to
approve of it, as soon as it was presented to them with a solemn
affirmation.
In order to elucidate this point, we add a short description of
the labors and success of this apostle.
In the year 432, Patrick lands on the island. By that time, some
few of the inhabitants may possibly have heard of the Christian
religion from the neighboring Britain or Gaul. Palladius had
preached the year before in the district known as the present
counties of Wexford and Wicklow, erected three churches, and
made some converts; but it may be said that Ireland continued in
the same state it had preserved for thousands of years: the
Druids in possession of religious and scientific supremacy; the
chieftains in contention, as in the time of Fingal and Ossian;
the people, though in the midst of constant strife, happy enough
on their rich soil, cheered by their bards and poets; very few,
or no slaves in the country; an abundance of food everywhere;
gold, silver, precious stones adorning profusely the persons of
their chiefs, their wives, their warriors; rich stuffs, dyed
with many colors, to distinguish the various orders of society;
a deep religious feeling in their hearts, preparing them for the
faith, by inspiring them with lively emotions at the sight of
divine power displayed in their mountains, their valleys, their
lakes and rivers, and on the swelling bosom of the all-
encircling ocean; superstitions of various kinds, indeed, but
none of a demoralizing character, none involving marks of
cruelty or lust; no revolting statues of Priapus, of Bacchus, of
Cybele; no obscene emblems of religion, as in all other lands,
to confront Christianity; but over all the island, song,
festivity, deep affection for kindred; and, as though blood-
relationship could not satisfy their heart, fosterage covering
the land with other brothers and sisters; all permeated with a
strong attachment to their clan-system and social customs. Such
is an exact picture of the Erin of the time, which the study of
antiquity brings clearer and clearer before the eyes of the
modern student.
Patrick appears among them, leaning on his staff, and bringing
them from Rome and Gaul new songs in a new language set to a new
melody. He comes to unveil for them what lies hidden, unknown to
themselves, in the depths of their hearts. He explains, by the
power of one Supreme God, why it is that their mountains are so
high, their valley so smiling, their rivers and lakes teeming
with life, their fountains so fresh and cool, and that sun of
theirs so temperate in its warmth, and the moon and stars,
lighted with a soft radiance, shimmering over the deep obscurity
of their groves.
He directs them to look into their own consciences, to admit
themselves to be sinners in need of redemption, and points out
to them in what manner that Supreme God, whom they half knew
already, condescended to save man.
Straightway, from all parts of the island, converts flock to him;
they come in crowds to be baptized, to embrace the new law by
which they may read their own hearts; they are ready to do
whatever he wishes; many, not content with the strict
commandments enjoined on all, wish to enter on the path of
perfection: the men become monks, the women and young girls nuns,
that is to say, spouses of Christ. In Munster alone "it would
be difficult," says a modern writer, Father Brenan, "to form an
estimate of the number of converts he made, and even of the
churches and religious establishments he founded."
And so with all the other provinces of the island. The proof's
still stand before our eyes. For, as Prof. Curry justly remarks:
"No one, who examines for himself, can doubt that at the first
preaching in Erin of the glad tidings of salvation, by Saints
Palladius and Patrick, those _countless_ Christian churches were
built, whose sites and ruins mark so thickly the surface of our
country even to this day, still bearing through all the
vicissitudes of time and conquest the _unchanged names of their
original founders_."
According to the commonly-received opinion, St. Patrick's
apostleship lasted thirty-three years; but, whatever may have
been its real duration, certain it is that his feet traversed
the whole island several times, and, at his passing, churches
and monasteries sprang up in great numbers, and remained to tell
the true story of his labors when their founder had passed away.
Nor was it with Ireland as with Rome, Carthage, Antioch, and
other great cities of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Not the slaves
and artisans alone filled these newly-erected Christian edifices.
Some of the first men of the nation received baptism. We have
already spoken of the family of Laeghaire. In Connaught, at the
first appearance of the man of God, all the inhabitants of that
portion of the province now represented by the County Mayo
became Christians; and the seven sons of the king of the
province were baptized, together with twelve thousand of their
clansmen. In Leinster, the Princes Illand and Alind were
baptized in a fountain near Naas. In Munster, Aengus, the King
of Cashel, with all the nobility of his clan, embraced the faith.
A number of chieftains in Thomond are also mentioned; and the
whole of the Dalcassian tribe, so celebrated before and after in
the annals of Ireland, received, with the waters of baptism,
that ardent faith which nothing has been able to tear from them
to this day.
Many Druids even, by renouncing their superstitions, abdicated
their power over the people. We have mentioned Dubtach ; his
example was followed by many others, among whom was Fingar, the
son of King Clito, who is said to have suffered martyrdom in
Brittany; Fiech, pupil of Dubtach, himself a poet, and belonging
to the noble house of Hy-Baircha in Leinster, was raised by St.
Patrick to the episcopacy, and was the first occupant of the See
of Sletty.
Fiech was a regular member of the bardic order of Druids, a poet
by profession, esteemed as a learned man even before he embraced
Christianity; and during his lifetime he was, as a Christian
bishop, consulted by numbers and regarded as an oracle of truth
and heavenly wisdom.
Nevertheless, Patrick encountered opposition. Some chieftains
declared themselves against him, without daring openly to attack
him. Many Druids, called in the old Irish annals _magi_, tried
their utmost to estrange the Irish people from him. But he stood
in danger of his life only once. It was, in fact, a war of
argument. Long discussions took place, with varied success,
ending generally, however, in a victory for truth.
The final result was that, in the second generation after St.
Patrick, there existed not a single pagan in the whole of
Ireland; the very remembrance of paganism even seemed to have
passed away from their minds ever after; hence arises the
difficulty of deciding now on the character of that paganism.
After its abolition, nothing remained in the literature of the
country, which was at that time much more copious than at
present--nothing was left in its monuments or in the
inclinations of the people--to imperil the existence of the
newly-established Christianity, or of a nature calculated to
give a wrong bias to the religious worship of the people, such
as we have seen was the case in the rest of Europe.
May we not conclude, then, that Ireland was much better prepared
for the new religion than any other country; that, when she was
thus admitted by baptism into the European family, she made her
entry in a way peculiar to herself, and which secured to her,
once for all, her firm and undeviating attachment to truth?
She had nothing to change in her manners after having renounced
the few disconnected superstitions to which she had been
addicted. Her songs, her bards, her festivities, her
patriarchal government, her fosterage, were left to her,
Christianized and consecrated by her great apostle; clanship
even penetrated into the monasteries, and gave rise later on to
some abuses. But, perhaps, the saint thought it better to allow
the existence of things which might lead to abuse than violently
and at once to subvert customs, rooted by age in the very nature
of the people, some of which it cost England, later on,
centuries of inconceivable barbarities to eradicate.
As to what exact form, if any, the paganism of the Irish Celts
assumed, we have so few data to build upon that it is now next
to impossible to shape a system out of them. From the passage
of the "Confessio" already quoted, we might infer that they
adored the sun; and this passage is very remarkable as the only
mention anywhere made by St. Patrick of idolatry among the
people. If it was only the emblem of the Supreme Being, then
would there have been nothing idolatrous in its worship; and the
strong terms in which the saint condemns it perhaps need only
express his fear lest the superstition of the ignorant people
might convert veneration into positive idolatry. At all events,
there was not a statue, or a temple, or a theological system,
erected to or connected with it in any shape.
The solemn forms of oaths taken and administered by the Irish
kings would also lead us to infer that they paid a superstitious
respect to the winds and the other elements. But why should
this feeling pass beyond that which even the Christian
experiences when confronted by mysteries in the natural as well
as the supernatural order? The awe-struck pagan saw the
lightning leap, the tempest gather and break over him in
majestic fury; heard the great voice of the mighty ocean which
laved or lashed his shores: he witnessed these wonderful effects;
he knew not whence the tempests or the lightnings came, or the
voice of the ocean; he trembled at the unseen power which moved
them --at his God.
So his imagination peopled his groves and hill-sides, his rivers
and lakes, with harmless fairies; but fairy land has never
become among any nation a pandemonium of cruel divinities; and
we doubt much if such innocuous superstition can be rightly
called even sinful error.
In fact, the only thing which could render paganism truly a
danger in Ireland, as opposed to the preaching of Christianity,
was the body of men intrusted with the care of religion--the
Druids, the _magi_ of the chronicles. But, as we find no traces
of bloody sacrifices in Ireland, the Druids there probably never
bore the character which they did in Gaul; they cannot be said
to have been sacrificing priests; their office consisted merely
in pretended divinations, or the workings of incantations or
spells. They also introduced superstition into the practice of
medicine, and taught the people to venerate the elements or
mysterious forces of this world.
Without mentioning any of the many instances which are found in
the histories of the workings of these Druidical incantations
and spells, the consulting of the clouds, and the ceremonies
with which they surrounded their healing art, we go straight to
our main point: the ease and suddenness with which all these
delusions vanished at the first preaching of the Gospel --a fact
very telling on the force which they exercised over the mind of
the nation. All natural customs, games, festivities, social
relationships, as we have seen, are preserved, many to this day;
what is esteemed as their religion, and its ceremonies and
superstitions, is dropped at once. The entire Irish mind
expanded freely and generously at the simple announcement of a
God, present everywhere in the universe, and accepted it. The
dogma of the Holy Spirit, not only filling all--_complens omnia_-
- but dwelling in their very souls by grace, and filling them
with love and fear, must have appeared natural to them. Their
very superstitions must have prepared the way for the truth, a
change --or may we not say a more direct and tangible object
taking the place of and filling their undefined yearnings--was
alone requisite. Otherwise it is a hard fact to explain how,
within a few years, all Druidism and magic, incantations, spells,
and divinations, were replaced by pure religion, by the
doctrine of celestial favors obtained through prayer, by the
intercession of a host of saints in heaven, and the belief in
Christian miracles and prophecies; whereas, scarcely any thing
of Roman or Grecian mythology could be replaced by corresponding
Christian practices, although popes did all they could in that
regard. Nearly all the errors of the Irish Celts had their
corresponding truths and holy practices in Christianity, which
could be readily substituted for them, and envelop them
immediately with distrust or just oblivion. Hence we do not see,
in the subsequent ecclesiastical history of Ireland, any thing
to resemble the short sketch we have given of the many dangers
arising within the young Christian Church, which had their
origin in the former religion of other European nations.
In regarding philosophy and its perils in Ireland, our task will
be an easy one, yet not unimportant in its bearings on
subsequent considerations. The minds of nations differ as
greatly as their physical characteristics; and to study the
Irish mind we have only to take into consideration the
institutions which swayed it from time immemorial. They were of
such a nature that they could but belong to a traditional people.
All patriarchal tribes partake of that general character; none,
perhaps, so strikingly as the Celts.
People thus disposed have nothing rationalistic in their nature;
they accept old facts; and, if they reason upon them, it is to
find proofs to support, not motives to doubt them. They never
refine their discussions to hair-splitting, synonymous almost
with rejection, as seems to be the delight of what we call
rationalistic races. It was among these that philosophy was born,
and among them it flourishes. They may, by their acute
reasoning, enlarge the human mind, open up new horizons, and, if
confined within just limits, actually enrich the understanding
of man. We are far from pretending that philosophy has only been
productive of harm, and that it were a blessed thing had the
human intellect always remained, as it were, in a dormant state,
without ever striving to grasp at philosophic truth and raise
itself above the common level; we hold the great names of
Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and so many others, in too
great respect to entertain such an opinion.
Yet it cannot be denied that the excessive study of philosophy
has produced many evils among men, has often been subservient to
error, has, at best, been for many minds the source of a cold
and desponding skepticism.
No race of men, perhaps, has been less inclined to follow those
intellectual aberrations than the Celtic, owing chiefly to its
eminently traditional dispositions.
Before Christianity reached them, the intellectual labors of the
Celts were chiefly confined to history and genealogy, medicine
and botany, law, song, music, and artistic workings in metals
and gems. This was the usual _curriculum_ of Druidic studies.
Astronomy and the physical sciences, as well as the knowledge of
"the nature of the eternal God," were, according to Caesar,
extensively studied in the Gallic schools. Some elements of
those intellectual pursuits may also have occupied the attention
of the Irish student during the twelve, fifteen, or twenty years
of his preparation for being _ordained_ to the highest degree of
ollamh. But the oldest and most reliable documents which have
been examined so far do not allow us to state positively that
such was the case to any great extent.
In Christian times, however, it seems certain that astronomy was
better studied in Ireland than anywhere else, as is proved by
the extraordinary impulse given to that science by Virgil of
Salzburg, who was undoubtedly an Irishman, and educated in his
native country.
It is from the Church alone, therefore, that they received their
highest intellectual training in the philosophy and theology of
the Scriptures and of the Fathers. It is known that, by the
introduction of the Latin and Greek tongues into their schools
in addition to the vernacular, the Bible in Latin and Greek, and
the writings of many Fathers in both languages, as also the most
celebrated works of Roman and Greek classical writers, became
most interesting subjects of study. They reproduced those works
for their own use in the _scriptoria_ of their numerous
monasteries. We still possess some of those manuscripts of the
sixth and following centuries, and none more beautiful or
correct can be found among those left by the English, French, or
Italian monastic institutions of the periods mentioned.
During the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, the Irish
schools became celebrated all over Europe. Young Anglo-Saxons of
the best families were sent to receive their education in
Innisfail, as the island was then often called; and, from their
celebrated institutions of learning, numerous teachers and
missionaries went forth to England, Germany (along the Rhine,
chiefly), France, and even Switzerland and Italy.
Yet, in the history of all those intellectual labors, we never
read of startling theories in philosophy or theology advanced by
any of them, unless we except the eccentric John Scotus Erigena,
whom Charles the Bald, at whose court he resided, protected even
against the just severity of the Church. Without ever having
studied theology, he undertook to dogmatize, and would perhaps
have originated some heresy, had he found a following in Germany
or France.
But he is the only Irishman who ever threatened the peace of the
Church, and, through her, of the world. Duns Scotus, if he were
Irish, never taught any error, and remained always an accepted
leader in Catholic schools. To the honor of Erin be it said, her
children have ever been afraid to deviate in the least from the
path of faith. And it would be wrong to imagine that the
preservation from heresy so peculiar to them, and by which they
are broadly distinguished from all other European nations, comes
from dulness of intellect and inability to follow out an
intricate argumentation. They show the acuteness of their
understanding in a thousand ways; in poetry, in romantic tales,
in narrative compositions, in legal acumen and extempore
arguments, in the study of medicine, chiefly in that masterly
eloquence by which so many of them are distinguished. Who shall
say that they might not also have reached a high degree of
eminence in philosophical discussions and ontological theories?
They have always abstained from such studies by reason of a
natural disinclination, which does them honor, and which has
saved them in modern times, as we shall see in a subsequent
chapter, from the innumerable evils which afflict society
everywhere else, and by which it is even threatened with
destruction.
Thus, among the numerous and versatile progeny of Japhet one
small branch has kept itself aloof from the universal movement
of the whole family; and, in the very act of accepting
Christianity and taking a place in the commonwealth of Western
nations, it has known how to do so in its own manner, and has
thus secured a firm hold of the saving doctrines imparted to the
whole race for a great purpose--the purpose, unfortunately often
defeated--of reducing to practice and reality the sublime ideal
of the Christian religion.
The details given in this chapter on the various circumstances
connected with the introduction of our holy faith into Ireland
were necessarily very limited, as our chief object was to speak
of the nation's preparation for it. In the following we treat
directly of what could only be touched upon in the latter part
of this.
CHAPTER IV.
HOW THE IRISH RECEIVED CHRISTIANITY.
For the conversion of pagans to Christianity, many exterior
proofs of revelation were vouchsafed by God to man in addition
to the interior impulse of his grace. Those exterior proofs are
generally termed "the evidences of religion." They produce their
chief effect on inquiring minds which are familiar with the
reasoning processes of philosophy, and attach great importance
to truth acquired by logical deduction. To this, many pagans of
Greece and Rome owed their conversion; by this, in our days,
many strangers are brought, on reflection, to the faith of
Christ, always presupposing the paramount influence of divine
grace on their minds and hearts.
But it is easy to remark that, except in rare cases, those who
are gained over to truth by such a process are with some
difficulty brought under the influence of the supernatural,
which forms the essential groundwork of Christianity. This
influence, it is true, is only the effect of the operation of
the Holy Ghost on the soul of the convert; but the Holy Ghost
acts in conformity with the disposition of the soul; and we know,
by what has been said on the character of religion among the
Romans and the Greeks in the earlier days of the Church, that it
took long ages, the infusion of Northern blood, and the
simplicity of new races uncontaminated by heathen mythology, to
inspire men with that deep supernatural feeling which in course
of time became the distinguishing character of the ages of faith.
Ireland imbibed this feeling at once, and thus she received
Christianity more thoroughly, at the very beginning, than did
any other Western nation.
The fact is--whatever may be thought or said--the Christian
religion, with all the loveliness it imparts to this world when
rightly understood, though never destroying Nature, but always
keeping it in mind, and consecrating it to God, truly endowed,
consequently, with the promises of earth as well as those of
heaven--the Christian religion is nevertheless fundamentally
supernatural, full of awe and mystery, heavenly and
incomprehensible, before being earthly and the grateful object
of sense.
Without examining the various formularies which heresy compelled
an infallible Church to proclaim and impose upon her children
from time to time, the Apostles' Creed alone transfers man at
once into regions supernatural, into heaven itself. The Trinity,
the Incarnation, the Redemption, the mission of the Hold Ghost
on earth, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and
the resurrection of the dead, are all mysteries necessitating a
revelation on the part of God himself to make them known to and
believed by man. Do they not place man, even while on earth, in
direct communication with heaven?
The firm believer in those mysteries is already a celestial
citizen by faith and hope. He has acquired a new life, new
senses, as it were, new faculties of mind and will--all things,
evidently, above Nature.
And it is clear, from many passages of the New Testament, that
our Lord wished the lives of his disciples to be wholly
penetrated with that supernatural essence. They were not to be
men of the earth, earthly, but citizens of another country which
is heavenly and eternal. Hence the holiness and perfection
required of them--a holiness, according to Christ, like that of
the celestial Father himself; hence contempt for the things of
this world, so strongly recommended by our Lord; hence the
assurance that men are called to be sons of God, the eternal Son
having become incarnate to acquire for us this glorious
privilege; hence, finally, that frequent recommendation in the
Gospel to rely on God for the things of this life, and to look
above all for spiritual blessings.
That reliance is set forth in such terms, in the Sermon on the
Mount, that, taken literally, man should neglect entirely his
temporal advantages, forget entirely _Nature_, and think only of
_grace_, or rather, expect that the things of Nature would be
given us by our heavenly Father "who knows that we need them."
Nature, consequently, assumes a new aspect in this system. It is
no longer a complexity of temporal goods within reach of the
efforts of man, and which it rests with man alone to procure for
himself. It is, indeed, a worldly treasure, belonging to God, as
all else, and which the hand of God scatters profusely among his
creatures. God will not fail to grant to every one what he needs,
if he have faith. Thus God is always visible in Nature; and
redeemed man, raised far above the beasts of the field, has
other eyes than those of the body, when he looks around him on
this world.
Had Christianity been literally understood by those who first
received it, it would have completely changed the moral, social,
and even natural aspect of the universe. The change produced
throughout by the new religion was indeed remarkable, but not
what it would have been, if the supernatural had taken complete
possession of human society. This it did in Ireland, and, it may
be said, in Ireland alone.
To begin with the preaching of St. Patrick, we note his care to
impart to his converts a sufficient knowledge of the Christian
mysteries, but, above all, to make those mysteries influence
their lives by acting more powerfully on the new Christian heart
than even on the mind.
Thus, in the beautiful legend of Ethne and Felimia, the saint,
not content with instructing them on the attributes of God, the
Trinity, and other supernatural truths, goes further still; he
requires a change in their whole being--that it be spiritualized:
by deeply exciting their feelings, by speaking of Christ as
their spouse, by making them wish to receive him in the holy
Eucharist, even at the expense of their temporal life, he so
raises them above Nature that they actually asked to die. "And
they received the Eucharist of God, and they slept in death."
Again, in the hymn of Tara, the heavenly spirit, which consists
in an intimate union with God and Christ, is so admirably
expressed, that we cannot refrain from presenting an extract
from it, remarking that this beautiful hymn has been the great
prayer of all Irishmen through all ages down even to our own
times, though, unfortunately, it is not now so generally known
and used by them as formerly:
"At Tara, to-day, may the strength of God pilot me, may the
power of God preserve me, may the wisdom of God instruct me, may
the eye of God view me, may the ear of God hear me, may the word
of God render me eloquent, may the hand of God protect me, may
the way of God direct me, may the shield of God defend me, etc.
"Christ be with me, Christ before me, Christ after me, Christ in
me, Christ under me, Christ over me, Christ at my right, Christ
at my left; . . . Christ be in the heart of each person whom I
speak to, Christ in the mouth of each person who speaks to me,
Christ in each eye which sees me, Christ in each ear which hears
me!"
Could any thing tend more powerfully to make of those whom he
converted, true supernatural Christians--forgetful of this world,
thinking only of another and a brighter one?
The island, at his coming, was a prey to preternatural
superstitions. The Druids possessed, in the opinion of the
people, a power beyond that of man; and history shows the same
phenomenon in all pagan countries, not excepting those of our
time. A real supernatural power was required to overcome that of
the _magi_.
Hence, according to Probus, the magicians to whom the arrival of
Patrick had been foretold, prepared themselves for the contest,
and several chieftains supported them. Prestiges were, therefore,
tried in antagonism to miracles; but, as Moses prevailed over
the power of the Egyptian priests, so did Patrick over the
Celtic magicians. It is even said that five Druids perished in
one of the contests.
The princes were sometimes also punished with death. Recraid,
head of a clan, came with his Druids and with words of
incantation written under his white garments; he fell dead.
Laeghaire himself, the Ard-Righ of all Ireland, whose family
became Christian, but who refused to abandon his superstitions,
perished with his numerous attendants.
But a more singular phenomenon was, that death, which was often
the punishment of unbelief, became as often a boon to be desired
by the new Christian converts, so completely were they under the
influence of the supernatural. Thus Ruis found it hard to
believe. To strengthen his faith, Patrick restored to him his
youth, and then gave him the choice between this sweet blessing
of life and the happiness of heaven; Ruis preferred to die, like
Ethne and Felimia.
Sechnall, the bard, told St. Patrick, one day, that he wished to
sing the praises of a saint whom the earth still possessed.
"Hasten, then," said Patrick, "for thou art at the gates of
death." Sechnall, not only undisturbed, but full of joy, sang a
glorious hymn in honor of Patrick, and immediately after died.
Kynrecha came to the convent-door of St. Senan. "What have women
in common with monks?" said the holy abbot. "We will not receive
thee." "Before I leave this place," responded Kynrecha, "I offer
this prayer to God, that my soul may leave the body." And she
sank down and expired.
The various lives of the apostle of Ireland and his successors
are full of facts of this nature. Supposing that a high coloring
was given to some of these by the writers, one thing is certain:
the people who lived during that apostleship believed in them
firmly, and handed down their belief to their children. Moreover,
nothing was better calculated to give to a primitive people,
like the Irish, a strong supernatural spirit and character, than
to make them despise the joys of this earth and yearn for a
better country.
There are, indeed, too many facts of a similar kind related in
the lives of St. Patrick and his fellow-workers, to bear the
imputation, not of imposition, but even of delusion. The desire
of dying, to be united with Christ; the indifference, at least,
as to the prolongation of existence; the readiness, if not the
joy, with which the announcement of death was received, are of
such frequent mention in those old legends, as matters of
ordinary occurrence, surprising no one, that they must be
conceded as facts often taking place in those early ages.
And, more striking still, this feeling of accepting death,
either as a boon or as a matter of course, and with perfect
resignation to the will of God, seems to have been throughout,
since the introduction of Christianity, a characteristic of the
Irish people. It is often witnessed in our own days, and
manifested, equally by the young, the middle-aged, or the old.
The young, closing their eyes to that bright life whose
sweetness they have as yet scarcely tasted, never murmur at
being deprived of it, though hope is to them so alluring; the
middle-aged, called away in the midst of projects yet
unaccomplished, see the sudden end of all that before interested
them, with no other concern than for the children they leave
behind them; the old, among other races generally so tenacious
of life, are, as a rule, glad that their last hour has come, and
speak only of their joy that at last they "go home" to that
country whither so many of their friends and kindred have gone
before them.
This in itself would stamp the Celtic character with an
indelible mark, distinguishing it from all other, even most
Christian, peoples.
The second sign we find of the firm hold the supernatural had
taken of the Irish from the very beginning is their strong
belief in the power of the priesthood. This is so striking among
them that they have been called by their enemies and those of
the Church "a priest-ridden people." Let us consider if this is
a reproach.
If Christianity be true, what is the priesthood? Even among the
Greeks, from whom so many heresies formerly sprang before they
were smitten into insignificance by schism and its punishment--
Turkish slavery--when the great doctors sent them by Providence
spoke on the subject, what were their words, and what impression
did they make on their supercilious hearers? St. John Chrysostom
will answer. His long treatise, written to his friend Basil, is
but a glowing description of the great privileges given to the
Christian priest by the High-Priest himself--Christ our Lord.
When the great preacher of Antioch, though not yet a priest,
describes the awful moment of sacrifice, the altar surrounded by
angels descended from heaven, the man consecrated to an office
higher than any on earth, and as high as that of the incarnate
Son of God--God himself coming down from above and bringing down
heaven with him--who can believe in Christianity and fail to be
struck with awe?
Who can read the words of Christ, declaring that any one
invested with that dignity is sent by him as he was himself sent
by his Father, and not feel the innate respect due to such
divine honors? Who can read the details of those privileges with
respect to the remission of sin, the conferring of grace by the
sacraments, the infallible teaching of truth, the power even
granted to them sometimes over Nature and disease, without
feeling himself transported into a world far above this, and
without placing his confidence in what God himself has declared
so powerful and preeminent in the regions beyond?
Such, in a few words, is the Christian priesthood, if
Christianity possesses any reality and is not an imposture.
Among all nations, therefore, where sound faith exists, the
greatest respect is shown to the ministers of God; but the Irish
have at all times been most persistent in their veneration and
trust. And if we would ascertain the cause of their standing in
this regard, we shall find that other nations, while firmly
believing the words of Christ, keep their eyes open to human
frailty, and look more keenly and with more suspicion on the
conduct of men invested with so high a dignity, but subject at
the same time to earthly passions and sins; while the Irish, on
the contrary, abandon themselves with all the impulsiveness of
their nature to the feeling uppermost in their hearts, which is
ever one of trust and ready reliance.
But this statement, whatever may be its intrinsic value, itself
needs a further explanation, which is only to be found in the
greater attraction the supernatural always possessed for the
Irish nature, when developed by grace. They accept fully and
unsuspiciously what is heavenly, because they, more than others,
feel that they are made for heaven, and the earth, consequently,
has for them fewer attractions. They cling to a world far above
this, and whatever belongs to it is dear to them.
Hence, from the first preaching of Christianity among them, all
earthly dignities have paled before the heavenly honors of the
priesthood. They have been taught by St. Patrick that even the
supreme duties of a real Christian king fall far below those of
a Christian bishop.
The king, according to the apostle of Ireland - and his words
have become a canon of the Irish Church - "has to judge no man
unjustly; to be the protector of the stranger, of the widow, and
the orphan; to repress theft, punish adultery, not to keep
buffoons or unchaste persons; not to exalt iniquity, but to
sweep away the impious from the land, exterminate parricides and
perjurers; to defend the poor, to appoint just men over the
affairs of the kingdom, to consult wise and temperate elders, to
defend his native land against its enemies rightfully and
stoutly; in all things to put his trust in God."
All this evidently refers only to the exterior polity and
administration. But "the bishop must be the hand which supports,
the pilot who directs, the anchor that stays, the hammer that
strikes, the sun that enlightens, the dew which moistens, the
tablet to be written on, the book to be read, the mirror to be
seen in, the terror that terrifies, the image of all that is
good; and let him be all for all."
Under this metaphorical style we here discern all the interior
qualities of a spiritual Christian guide, teaching no less by
authority than example.
And, in the opinion of the converts of Patrick, were not the
bishops, abbots, and priests, supported by an invisible power,
stronger than all visible armies and guards of kings and princes?
"When the King of Cashel dared to contend against the holy abbot
Mochoemoc, the first night after the dispute an old man took the
king by the hand and led him to the northern city-walls; there
he opened the king's eyes, and he beheld all the Irish saints of
his own sex in white garments, with Patrick at their head; they
were there to protect Mochoemoc, and they filled the plain of
Femyn.
"The second night the old man came again and took the king to
the southern wall, and there he saw the white-robed glorious
army of Ireland's virgins, led by Bridget: they too had come to
defend Mochoemoc, and they filled the plain of Monael." 1
(1 Many quotations in this chapter are from the "Legend. Hist."
by J. G. Shea.)
In the annals of no other Christian nation do we see so many
examples of the power of the ministers of God to punish the
wicked and help and succor the good, as we do in the hagiography
of Ireland. Bad kings and chieftains reproved, cursed, punished;
the poor assisted, the oppressed delivered from their enemies,
the sick restored to health, the dead even raised to life, are
occurrences which the reader meets in almost every page of the
lives of Irish saints. The Bollandists, accustomed as they were
to meet with miracles of that kind, in the lives they published,
found in Irish hagiography such a superabundance of them, that
they refused to admit into their admirable compilation a great
number already published or in manuscript. Nevertheless, the
critics of our days, finding nothing impossible to or unworthy
of God in the large collection of Colgan and other Irish
antiquarians, express their surprise at their exclusion from
that of Bollandus.
No one at least will refuse to concede that, true or not, the
facts related in those lives are always provocative of piety and
redolent of faith. They certainly prove that at all periods of
their existence the Irish have manifested a holy avidity for
every thing supernatural and miraculous. Do they not know that
our Lord has promised gifts of this description to his apostles
and their successors? And what the acts of the Apostles and many
acts of martyrs positively state as having happened at the very
beginning of the Church, is not a whit less extraordinary or
physically impossible than any thing related in the Irish
legends.
Every Christian soul naturally abhors the unbelief of a Strauss
or of a Renan as to the former; is it not unnatural, then, for
the same Christian soul to reject the latter because they fall
under the easy sneer of "an Irish legend," and are not contained
in Holy Writ?
At all events, the faith of the Irish has never wavered in such
matters, and to-day they hold the same confidence in the
priests' power that meets us everywhere in the pages of Colgan
and Ward. The reason is, that they admit Christianity without
reserve; and in its entirety it is supernatural. The criticisms
of human reason on holy things hold in their eyes something of
the sacrilegious and blasphemous; such criticisms are for them
open disrespect for divine things; and, inasmuch as divine
things are, in fact, more real than any phenomena under natural
laws can be, skepticism in the former case is always more
unreasonable than in the latter, supposing always that the
narrative of the Divine favors reposes on sufficient authority.
It is clear, therefore, that since the preaching of Christianity
in Ireland, the world showed itself to the inhabitants of that
country in a different light to that in which other men beheld
it. For them, Nature is never separated from its Maker; the hand
of God is ever visible in all mundane affairs, and the frightful
parting between the spiritual and material worlds, first
originated by the Baconian philosophy, which culminates in our
days in the almost open negation of the spiritual, and thus
materializes all things, is with justice viewed by the children
of St. Patrick with a holy horror as leading to atheism, if it
be not atheism itself.
Without going to such extremes as the avowed infidels of modern
times, all other Christian nations have seemed afraid to draw
the logical conclusions whose premises were laid down by
revelation. They have tried to follow a _via media_ between
truth and error; they have admitted to a certain extent the
separation of God and Nature, supposing the act of creation to
have passed long ages ago, and not continuing through all time;
and thus they are bound by their system to hold that miracles
are very extraordinary things, not to be believed _prima facie_,
requiring infinite precautions before admitting the supposition
of their having taken place; all which indicates a real
repugnance to their admission, and an innate fear of supposing
God all-powerful, just, and good. It is the first step to
Manicheism and the kindred errors; and most Christian nations
having, unfortunately, imbibed the principles of those errors in
the philosophy of modern times, have almost lost all faith in
the supernatural, and reduced revelation to a meagre and cold
system, unrealized and not to be realized in human life.
Not so the Irish Religion has entered deep into their life. It
is a thing of every moment and of every place. Nature, God's
handiwork, instead of repelling them from God himself, draws
them gently but forcibly toward Him, so that they feel
themselves to be truly recipients of the blessings of God by
being sharers in the blessings of Nature.
And must God's ministers, who have received such extraordinary
powers over the supernatural world, be entirely deprived of
power over the inferior part of creation? Who can say so, and
have true faith in the words of our Lord? Who can say so, and
truly call himself the follower and companion of the saints who
have all believed so firmly in the constant action of God in
this, the lesser part of his creation?
And this faith of the Irish in the power of the priesthood is
not a thing of yesterday. It dates from their adoption of
Christianity, to continue, we hope, forever. It ought, therefore,
to be carefully distinguished from that love for every priest
of God which beats so ardently in the hearts of them all, and
which was so strengthened by a long community of persecution and
suffering.
In Ireland, as in every other Christian country, the priesthood
has always sided with the people against their oppressors.
During the early ages of Christianity in the island, the bishops,
priests, and monks, were often called upon to exercise their
authority and power against princes and chiefs of clans,
accustomed to plunder, destroy, and kill, on the slightest
pretext, and unused to control their fierce passions, inflamed
by the rancor of feuds and the pride of strength and bravery.
Some of those chieftains even opposed the progress of religion;
and it is said that Eochad, King of Ulster, cast his two
daughters, whom Patrick had baptized and consecrated to God,
into the sea.
For several centuries the heads of clans were generally so
unruly and so hard to bring under the yoke of Christ, that the
saints, in taking the side of the poor, had to stand as a wall
of brass to stem the fury of the great and powerful.
Bridget even, the modest and tender virgin, often spoke harshly
of princes and rulers. "While she dwelt in the land of Bregia,
King Connal's daughter-in-law came to ask her prayers, for she
was barren. Bridget refused to go to receive her; but, leaving
her without, she sent one of her maidens. When the nun returned:
'Mother,' she asked, 'why would you not go and see the queen?
you pray for the wives of peasants.' 'Because,' said the servant
of God, 'the poor and the peasants are almost all good and pious,
while the sons of kings are serpents, children of blood and
fornication, except a small number of elect. But, after all, as
she had recourse to us, go back and tell her that she shall have
a son; he will be wicked, and his race shall be accursed, yet he
shall reign many years.'"
We might multiply examples such as this, wherein the saints and
the ministers of God always side with the poor and the helpless;
and their great number in the lives of the old saints at once
gives a reason for the deep love which the lower class of the
Irish people felt for the holy men who were at once the servants
of God and their helpers in every distress.
The same thing is to be found in the whole subsequent history of
the island, chiefly in the latter ages of persecution. But, as
we said before, this affection and love must be distinguished
from the feeling of reverence and awe resulting from the
supernatural character of their office. The first feeling is
merely a natural one, produced by deeds of benevolence and holy
charity fondly remembered by the individuals benefited. The
second was the effect of religious faith in the sacredness of
the priestly character, and remained in full force even when the
poor themselves fell under reproof or threat in consequence of
some misdeed or vicious habit.
Hence the universal respect which the whole race entertains for
their spiritual rulers, and their unutterable confidence in
their high prerogatives. In prosperity as in adversity, in
freedom or in subjection, they always preserve an instinctive
faith in the unseen power which Christ conferred on those whom
He chose to be his ministers. This feeling, which is undoubtedly
found among good Christians in all places, is as certainly only
found among particular individuals; but among the Irish Celts it
is the rule rather than the exception.
Well have they merited, then, in this sense, from the days of St.
Patrick down, the title of a "priest-ridden" people, which has
been fixed on them as a term of reproach by those for whom all
belief in the supernatural is belief in imposture.
Another and a stronger fact still, exemplifying the extent to
which the Irish have at all times carried their devotion to the
supernatural character of the Christian religion, is the
extraordinary ardor with which, from the very beginning, they
rushed into the high path of perfection, called the way of
"evangelical counsels." Nowhere else were such scenes ever
witnessed in Christian history.
For the great mass of people the common way of life is the
practice of the commandments of God; it is only the few who feel
themselves called on to enter upon another path, and who
experience interiorly the need of being "perfect."
In Ireland the case was altogether different from the outset. St.
Patrick, notwithstanding his intimate knowledge of the leanings
of the race, expresses in his "Confessio" the wonder and delight
he experienced when he saw in what manner and in what numbers
they begged to be consecrated to God the very first day after
their baptism. Yet were they conscious that this very eagerness
would excite the greater opposition on the part of their pagan
relatives and friends. Thus we read of the fate of Eochad's
daughters, and the story of Ethne and Felimia.
The whole nation, in fact, appeared suddenly transported with a
holy impetuosity, and lifted at once to the height of Christian
life. Monasteries and nunneries could not be constructed fast
enough, although they contented themselves with the lightest
fabrics--wattles being the ordinary materials for walls, and
slender laths for roofs.
Nor was this an ephemeral ardor, like a fire of stubble or straw,
flashing into a momentary blaze, to relapse into deeper gloom.
It lasted for several centuries; it was still in full flame at
the time of Columba, more than two hundred years after Patrick;
it grew into a vast conflagration in the seventh and eighth
centuries, when multitudes rushed forth from that burning island
of the blest to spread the sacred fire through Europe.
How the nation continued to multiply, when so many devoted
themselves to a holy celibacy, is only to be explained by the
large number of children with which God blessed those who
pursued an ordinary life, and who, from what is related in the
chronicles of the time, must have been in a minority.
Of the first monasteries and convents erected not a single
vestige now remains, because of the perishable materials of
which they were constructed; yet each of them contained hundreds,
nay thousands, of monks or nuns.
But, even in our days, we are furnished with an ocular
demonstration of what men could scarcely bring themselves to
believe, or at least would term an exaggeration, did not
standing proof remain. God inspired his children with the
thought of erecting more substantial structures, of building
walls of stone and roofing them in with tiles and metal; and the
island was literally covered, not with Gothic castles or
luxurious palaces and sumptuous edifices, but with large and
commodious buildings and churches, wherein the religious life of
the inmates might be carried on with greater comfort and
seclusion from the world.
At the time of the Reformation all those asylums of perfection
and asceticism were of course profaned, converted to vile or
slavish uses, many altogether destroyed to the very foundations;
a greater number were allowed to decay gradually and become
heaps of ruins.
And what happened when the English Government, unable any longer
to resist public opinion, was compelled to consent that a survey
be made of the poor and comparatively few remains still in
existence, in order to manifest a show of interest for the past
history of the island; when commissioners were appointed to
publish lists and diagrams of the former dwellings of the
"saints," which the "zeal" of the "reformers" had battered down
without mercy? To the astonishment of all, it was proved by the
ruins still in existence that the greater portion of the island
had been once occupied by monasteries and convents of every
description. And Prof. O'Curry has stated his conviction, based
on local traditions and geographical and topographical names,
that a great number of these can be traced back to Patrick and
his first companions.
It is clear enough, then, that, from the beginning, the Irish
were not only "priest-ridden," but also very attached to
"monkish superstitions."
Yet we could not form a complete idea of that attachment were we
to limit ourselves to an enumeration of the buildings actually
erected, supposing such an enumeration possible at this time.
For we know, by many facts related in Irish hagiology, that a
great number of those who devoted themselves to a life of
penance and austerity, did not dwell even in the humble
structures of the first monks, but, deeming themselves unworthy
of the society of their brethren, or condemned by a severe but
just "friend of their soul," as the confessor was then called,
hid themselves in mountain-caves, in the recesses of woods or
forests, or banished themselves to crags ever beaten by the
waves of the sea.
Yes, there was a time when those dreadful solitudes of the
Hebrides, which frighten the modern tourist in his summer
explorations, teemed with Christian life, and every rock, cave,
and sand-bar had its inhabitant, and that inhabitant an Irish
monk.
They sometimes spent seven years on a desert islet doing penance
for a single sin. They often passed a lifetime on a rock in the
midst of the ocean, alone with God, and enjoying no communion
but that of their conscience.
Who knows how many thousands of men have led such a life,
shocking, indeed, to the feelings of worldlings, but in reality
devoted to the contemplation of what is above Nature--a life,
consequently, exalted and holy?
Passing from the solitudes to the numerous hives where the bees
of primitive Christianity in Ireland were busy at work
constructing their combs and secreting their honey, what do we
see? People generally imagine that all monastic establishments
have been alike; that those of mediaeval times were simply the
reproduction of earlier ones. An abbot, the three vows,
austerity, psalmody, study--such are the general features common
to all; but those of Ireland had peculiarities which are worthy
of examination. We shall find in them a stronger expression of
the supernatural, perhaps; certainly a more heavenly cast, a
greater forgetfulness of the world, its manners and habits, its
passions and aims.
Patrick had learned all he knew of this holy life in the
establishment of Lerins, wherein the West reflected more truly
than it ever did subsequently the Oriental light of the great
founders of monasticism in Palestine and Egypt.
The first thing to be remarked is the want, to a great extent,
of a strict system. The Danes, when Christianized, and the Anglo-
Normans, introduced this afterwards; but the genius of the Irish
race is altogether opposed to it, and the Scandinavian races in
following ages could hardly ever bring them under the cold
uniformity of an iron rule.
Did St. Patrick establish a rule in the monasteries which he
founded? Did St. Columba two centuries later? Did any of the
great masters of spiritual life who are known to have exercised
an influence on the world of Irish convents? Not only has
nothing of the kind been transmitted to us, but no mention of it
is made in the lives of holy abbots which we possess.1 (1 The
"Irish Penitentials," quoted at length in Rev. Dr. Moran's
"Early Irish Church," are not monastic rules, although many
canons have reference to monks.) St. Columbanus's rule is the
only one which has come down to us; but the monasteries founded
by him were all situated in Burgundy, Switzerland, Germany, and
Italy--that is to say, out of Ireland, out of the island of
saints. He was compelled to furnish his monasteries with a
written rule, because they were surrounded by barbarous peoples,
some of whom his establishments often received as monks, and to
whom the holiness of Ireland was unfamiliar or utterly unknown.
But why should the people of God, living in his devoted island,
redeemed as soon as born by the waters of baptism, be shackled
by enactments which might serve as an obstacle to the action of
the Holy Ghost on their free souls?
According to the common opinion, each founder of a monastery had
his own rule, which he himself was the first to follow in all
its rigor; if disciples came, they were to observe it, or go
elsewhere; if, after having embraced it, they found themselves
unable to keep it to the letter, the abbot was indulgent, and
did not impose on them a burden which they could no longer bear,
after having first proved their willingness to practise it.
Thus, it is reported that St. Mochta was the only one who
practised his own rule exactly, his monks imitating him as well
as they could. St. Fintan, who was inclined to be severe,
received this warning in a vision: "Fight unto the end thyself;
but beware of being a cause of scandal to others, by requiring
all to fight as thou doest, for one clay is weaker than another."
Thus, every founder, every abbot even, left to the guidance of
the Holy Spirit, practised austerities which in our days of self-
indulgence seem absolutely incredible, and showed themselves
severe to those under their authority. But this severity was
tempered by such zeal for the good of souls, and consequently by
such an unmistakable charity, that the penitent monk carried his
burden not only with resignation, but with joy. This, in after-
ages, became a characteristic feature of Irish monasticism.
The life of Columba is full of examples of this holy severity.
In St. Patrick's life we read that Colman died of thirst rather
than quench it before the time appointed by his master.
How many facts of a similar nature might be mentioned! Enough to
say that, after so many ages, in which, thanks to barbarous
persecutions, all ecclesiastical and monastic traditions were
lost to Ireland, through the sheer impossibility of following
them up, the Irish still show a marked predilection for the holy
austerity of penance, though the rest of the Christian world
seems to have almost totally forgotten it.
But if the Irish convents lacked system, there was at the same
time in them an exuberance of feeling, an enthusiastic impulse,
which is to be found nowhere else to the same extent, and which
we call their second peculiar feature after they received
Christianity. This is beautifully expressed in a hymn of the
office of St. Finian: "Behold the day of gladness; the clerks
applaud and are in joy; the sun of justice, which had been
hidden in the clouds, shines forth again."
As soon as this primitive enthusiasm seemed to slacken in the
least, reformers appeared to enkindle it again. Such was Bridget,
such was Gildas, such were the disciples of St. David of
Menevia in Wales, such was any one whom the Spirit of God
inspired with love for Ireland. Thus the scenes enacted in the
time of Patrick were again and again repeated.
And when a monastery was built, it was not properly a monastery,
but a city rather; for the whole country round joined in the
goodly work. As some one has said, "it looked as if Ireland was
going to cease to be a nation, and become a church."
With regard to the question of ground and the appropriation of
landed property, what matters it who is the owner? If it be clan
territory, there is the clan with nothing but welcome, applause,
and assistance. If it be private, the owner is not consulted
even; how could he think of opposing the work of God? Thus, we
never read in Irish history - in the earlier stages at least -
of those long charters granted in other lands by kings, dukes,
and counts, and preserved with such care in the archives of the
monastery. It seems that the Danes, after they became Christians,
were the first to introduce the custom; after them, the Anglo-
Normans, in the true spirit of their race, made a flourishing
business of it. The Irish themselves never thought of such at
first. There was no fear of any one ever claiming the ground on
which God's house stood. The buildings were there: the ground
needed to support them: what Irishman could think of driving
away the holy inmates and pulling the walls about their ears?
The whole surrounding population is busy erecting them. Long
rows of wattles and tessel-work are set in right order; over
them a rough roof of boards; within small cells begin to appear,
as the slight partitions are erected between them. Symmetry or
no symmetery, the position of the ground decides the question;
for there is no need of the skill of a surveyor to establish the
grade. Does not the rain run its own way, once it begins?
How far and how wide will those long rows reach? They seem the
streets of a city; and in truth they are. The place is to
receive two, three thousand monks, over and above the students
committed to their care. And, in addition to the cells to dwell
in, there are the halls wherein to teach; the museums and
repositories of manuscripts, of sacred objects; the rooms to
write in, translate, compose; the sheds to hold provisions, to
prepare and cook them, ready for the meal.
For the most important edifice--the temple of God--alone stones
are cut, shaped, and fitted each to each with care and precision.
A holy simplicity surrounds the art; yet are there not wanting
carven crosses and other divine emblems sculptured out. Within,
the heavenly mysteries of religion will be performed. Should you
ask, "Why so small?" the answer is ready. That large space empty
around holds room enough for the worshippers, whose numbers
could be accommodated in no edifice. The minds of Irish
architects had not yet expanded to the conception of a St.
Peter's. Inside is room enough for the ministers of religion;
without, at the tinkling of the bell, in the round tower
adjoining, the faithful will join in the services.
Nor was it only in the erection of those edifices that a cheerful
impulse, which overlooked or overcame all difficulties, was
displayed. The monastic life was not all the time a life of
penance and gloomy austerity, but of active work also and
overflowing feeling, of true poetry and enthusiastic exultation.
We read in the fragments we still possess how, on the arid rock
of Iona, Columba remembered his former residence at Derry, with
its woods of oaks and the pure waters of its loughs. In all the
lives of Irish saints we read of the deep attachment they always
preserved for their country, relatives, and friends; what they
did and were ready to do for them. And though all this was at
bottom but a natural feeling, the extent to which it was carried
will make us better acquainted with the Irish character, and
explain more clearly that extraordinary expansion of soul which,
in the domains of the supernatural, surpassed every thing
witnessed elsewhere.
"In a monastery two brothers had lived from childhood. The elder
died, and while he was dying the other was laboring in the
forest. When he came back, he saw the brethren opening a grave
in the cemetery, and thus he learned that his brother was dead.
He hastened to the spot where the Abbot Fintan, with some of his
monks, were chanting psalms around the corpse, and asked him the
favor of dying with his brother, and entering with him into the
heavenly kingdom. 'Thy brother is already in heaven,' replied
Fintan, 'and you cannot enter together unless he rise again.'
Then he knelt in prayer, the angels who had received the holy
soul restored it, and the dead man, rising in his bier, called
his brother: 'Come,' said he, 'but come quickly; the angels
await us.' At the same time he made room beside him, and both,
lying down, slept together in death, and ascended together to
the kingdom of God."
This anecdote may tend better than any thing else to show us how
Nature and grace were united in the Irish soul, to warm it,
purify it, exalt it above ordinary feelings and earthly passions,
and keep it constantly in a state of energy and vitality
unknown to other peoples. For, in what page of the
ecclesiastical history of other nations do we read of things
such as these?
With regard to their country, also, grace came to the aid of
Nature; the supernatural was, therefore, seldom absent from the
natural in their minds, and something of this double union has,
remained in them in every sense, and has, no doubt, contributed
to render their nationality imperishable in spite of persecution.
How ardent and pure in the heart of Columba was the love of
Ireland, from which he was a voluntary exile! Patrick, also,
though not native born, yielded to none in that sacred feeling;
one of the three things he sought of God on dying was, that Erin
should not "remain forever under a foreign yoke:" Kieran offered
the same prayer, and their reason for thus praying was that she
was the "island of saints," destined to help out the salvation
of many.
Religion has been invariably connected with that acute sentiment
ever present in the minds of Irishmen for their country; and it
is, doubtless, that holy and supernatural feeling which has
preserved a country which enemies strove so strenuously to wrest
from them.
But it was not love of country alone, of relatives and friends,
which enkindled in their hearts a spirit of enthusiasm; their
whole monastic life was one of high-spirited devotedness, and
energy, and action, more than human.
We see them laboring in and around their monastic hive. How they
pray and chant the divine office; how they study and expound the
holy doctrine to their pupils; how they are ever travelling,
walking in procession by hundreds and by thousands through the
island, the interior spirit not allowing them to stand still.
There are so many pilgrimages to perform, so many shrines to
venerate, so many works of brotherly love to undertake. Other
monks in other countries, indeed, did the same, but seldom with
such universal ardor. The whole island, as we said, is one
church. On all sides you may meet bishops, and priests, and
monks, bearing revered relics, or proceeding to found a new
convent, plant another sacred edifice, or establish a house for
the needy. The people on the way fall in and follow their
footsteps, sharers of the burning enthusiasm. Many-how many!-
were thus attracted to this mode of life, wherein there was
scarce aught earthly, but all breathing holiness and heavenly
grace!
Thus the island was from the beginning a holy island. But zeal
for God in their own country alone not being enough for their
ardor, those men of God were early moved by the impulse of going
abroad to spread the faith. Volumes might be written of their
apostleship among barbarous tribes; we have room only for a few
words.
They first went to the islands north of them, to the Hebrides,
the Faroe Isles, and even Iceland, which they colonized before
the Norwegian pirates landed there. Then they evangelized
Scotland and the north of England; and, starting from
Lindisfarne, they completed the work of the conversion of the
Anglo-Saxons, which was begun by St. Augustin and his monks in
the south.
Finally, the whole continent of Western Europe offered itself to
their zeal, and at once they were ready to enter fully and
unreservedly into the current of new ideas and energies which at
that time began to renew the face of that portion of the world
overspread by barbarians from Germany. Under the Merovingian
kings in France, and later on, under the Carlovingian dynasty,
they became celebrated in the east of France, on the banks of
the Rhine, even in the north through Germany, in the heart of
Switzerland, and the north of Italy. This is not the place to
attempt even a sketch of their missionary labors, now known to
all the students of the history of those times. But we may here
mention that at that time the Irish monarchs and rulers became
acquainted with continental dynasties and affairs through the
necessary intercourse held by the Irish bishops and monks with
Rome, the centre of Catholicity. Thus we see that Malachi II
corresponded with Charles the Bald, with a view of making a
pilgrimage to Rome.
We learn from the yellow-book of Lecain that Conall, son of
Coelmuine, brought from Rome the law of Sunday, such as was
afterward practised in Ireland.
Over and above the Irish missionaries who kept up a constant
correspondence from the Continent of Europe with their native
land, it is known that many in those early ages went on
pilgrimages to Rome; among others, St. Degan, St. Kilian, the
apostle of Franconia; St. Sedulius the younger, who assisted at
a Roman council in 721, and was sent by the Pope on a mission to
Spain; St. Donatus, afterward Bishop of Fiesole, and his
disciple, Andrew. St. Cathald went from Rome to Jerusalem, and
on his return was made Bishop of Tarento. Donough, son of Brian
Boru, went to Rome in 1063, carrying, it is said, the crown of
his father, and there died.
It has been calculated that the ancient Irish monks held from
the sixth to the ninth century thirteen monasteries in Scotland,
seven in France, twelve in Armoric Gaul, seven in Lotharingia,
eleven in Burgundy, nine in Belgium, ten in Alsatia, sixteen in
Bavaria, fifteen in Rhaetia, Helvetia, and Suevia, besides
several in Thuringia and on the left bank of the Rhine. Ireland
was then not only included in, but at the head of, the European
movement; and yet that forms a period in her annals which as yet
has scarcely been studied.
The religious zeal which was then so manifest in the island
itself burned likewise among many Continental nations, and
lasted from the introduction of Christianity to the Danish
invasion. What contributed chiefly to make that ardor lasting
was, that every thing connected with religion made a part even
of their exterior life. Grace had taken entire possession of
the national soul. This world was looked upon as a shadow,
beautiful only in reflecting something of the beauty of heaven.
Hence were the Irish "the saints." So were they titled by all,
and they accepted the title with a genuine and holy simplicity
which betokened a truer modesty than the pretended denegation
which we might expect. Thus they seemed above temptation. The
virgins consecrated to God were as numerous at least as the
monks. These had also their processions and pilgrimages; they
went forth from houses over-full to found others, not knowing or
calculating beforehand the spot where they might rest and
"expect resurrection." Such was their language. Sometimes they
applied at the doors of monasteries, and if there was no spot in
the neighborhood suitable for the sisters, the monks abandoned
to them their abode, their buildings and cultivated fields where
the crops were growing, taking with them naught save the sacred
vessels and the books they might need in the new establishment
they went forth to found elsewhere.
Who could imagine, then, that even a thought could enter their
minds beyond those of charity and kindness? Were they not dead
utterly to worldly passions, and living only to God? It would
have been a sacrilege to have profaned the holy island, not only
with an unlawful act but even with a worldly imagination. Had
not many holy men and women seen angels constantly coming down
from heaven, and the souls of the just at their departure going
straight from Ireland to heaven? Both in perpetual communication!
Had the eyes of all been as pure as those of the best among
them, the truth would have been unveiled to all alike, and the
"isle of saints" would have shown itself to them as what it
really was-a bright country where redemption was a great fact;
where the souls of the great majority were truly and actually
redeemed in the full sense of the word; where people might enjoy
a foretaste of heaven-the very space above their heads being to
them at all times a road connecting the heavenly mansions with
this sublunary world.
True is it that there were ever in the island a number of great
sinners who desecrated the holy spot they dwelt on by their
deeds of blood. The Saviour predicted that there should be
"tares among the wheat" everywhere until the day of judgment.
It was among the chieftains principally, almost entirely, that
sin prevailed. The clan-system, unfortunately, favored deadly
feuds, which often drenched all parts of the island in blood.
Family quarrels, being in themselves unnatural, led to the most
atrocious crimes. The old Greek drama furnishes frightful
examples of it, and similar passions sometimes filled the
breasts of those leaders of Irish clans. Few of them died in
their beds. When carried away by passion, they respected nothing
which men generally respect.
It would, however, be an exaggeration to suppose on this account
a distinct and complete antagonism to have existed between the
clan and the Church, and to class all the princes on the side of
evil as opposed to the "saints," whom we have contemplated
leading a celestial life. We know from St. Aengus that one of
the glories of Ireland is that many of her saints were of
princely families, whereas among other nations generally the
Gospel was first accepted by the poor and lowly, and found its
enemies among the higher and educated classes. But in Ireland
the great, side by side with the least of their clansmen, bowed
to the yoke of Christ, and the bards and learned men became
monks and bishops from the very first preaching of the Word.
The fact is, a great number of kings and chieftains made their
station doubly renowned by their virtues, and find place in the
chronicle of Irish saints. Who can read, for instance, the story
of King Guaire without admiring his faith and true Christian
spirit?
It is reported that as St. Caimine and St. Cumain Fota were one
day conversing on spiritual things with that holy king of
Connaught, Caimine said to Guaire, "O king, could this church be
filled on a sudden with whatever thou shouldst wish, what would
thy desire be?" "I should wish," replied the king, "to have all
the treasures that the church could hold, to devote them to the
salvation of souls, the erection of churches, and the wants of
Christ's poor." "And what wouldst thou ask?" said the king to
Fota. "I would," he replied, "have as many holy books as the
church could contain, to give all who seek divine wisdom, to
spread among the people the saving doctrine of Christ, and
rescue souls from the bondage of Satan." Both then turned to
Caimine. "For my part," said he, "were this church filled with
men afflicted with every form of suffering and disease, I
should ask of God to vouchsafe to assemble in my wretched body
all their evils, all their pains, and give me strength to
support them patiently, for the love of the Saviour of the world.
"1 (1 This passage is given in Latin by Colgan (Acts SS.). In
the original Irish, translated and published by Dr. Todd--Liber
Hymn--there are more details.)
Thus the most sublime and supernatural spirit of Christianity
became natural to the Irish mind in the great as well as in the
lowly, in the rich as well as in the poor. Women rivalled men in
that respect.
"Daria was blind from birth. Once, whilst conversing with
Bridget, she said: 'Bless my eyes that I may see the world, and
gratify my longing.' The night was dark; it grew light for her,
and the world appeared to her gaze. But when she had beheld it,
she turned again to Bridget. 'Now close my eyes,' said she, 'for
the more one is absent from the world, the more present he is
before God.'"
Even though one may express doubt as to the reality of this
miracle, one thing, at least, is beyond doubt: that the spirit
of the words of Daria was congenial to the Irish mind at the
time, and that none but one who had first reached the highest
point of supernatural life could conceive or give utterance to
such a sentiment.
That more than human life and spirit elevated, ennobled, and, as
it were, divinized, even the ordinary human and natural feelings,
which not only ceased to become dangerous, but became,
doubtless, highly pleasing to God and meritorious in his sight.
An example may better explain our meaning:
"Ninnid was a young scholar, not over-reverent, whom the
influence of Bridget one day suddenly overcame, so that he
afterward appeared quite a different being. Bridget announced to
him that from his hand she should, for the last time, receive
the body and blood of our Lord. Ninnid resolved that his hand
should remain pure for so high and holy an office. He enclosed
it in an iron case, and wishing at the same time to postpone, as
far as lay in his power, the moment that was to take Bridget
from the world, he set out for Brittany, throwing the key of the
box into the sea. But the designs of God are immutable. When
Bridget's hour had come, Ninnid was driven by a storm on the
Irish coast, and the key was miraculously given up by the deep."
Where, except in Ireland, could such friendship continue for
long years, without giving cause not only for the least scandal,
but even for the remotest danger? In that island the natural
feelings of the human heart were wholly absorbed by heavenly
emotions, in which nothing earthly could be found? Hence the
celebrated division of the "three orders of the Irish saints,"
the first being so far above temptation that no regulation was
imposed on the Cenobites with respect to their intercourse with
women.
"Women were welcome and cared for; they were admitted, so to
speak, to the sanctuary; it was shared with them, occupied in
common. Double, or even mixed monasteries, so near to each other
as to form but one, brought the two sexes together for mutual
edification; men became instructors of women; women of men."
Nothing of the kind was ever witnessed elsewhere; nothing of the
kind was to be seen ever after. Robert of Arbrissel established
something similar in the order, of Fontevrault in France; but
there it was a strange and very uncommon exception; in Ireland
for two centuries it was the rule. This alone would show how
completely the Christian spirit had taken possession of the
whole race from the first.
It is this which gives to Irish hagiology a peculiar character,
making it appear strange even to the best men of other nations.
The elevation of human feeling to such a height of perfection is
so unusual that men cannot fail to be surprised wherever they
may meet it.
Yet far from appearing strange, almost inexplicable, it would
have been recognized as the natural result of the working of the
Christian religion, if the spirit brought on earth by our Lord
had been more thoroughly diffused among men, if all had been
penetrated by it to the same degree, if all had equally
understood the meaning of the Gospel preached to them.
But, unfortunately, so many and so great were the obstacles
opposed everywhere to the working of the Spirit of God in the
souls of men, that comparatively few were capable of being
altogether transformed into beings of another nature.
The great mass lagged far behind in the race of perfection. They
were admitted to the fold of Christ, and lived generally at
least in the practice of the commandments; but the object
proposed to himself by the Saviour of mankind was imperfectly
carried out on earth. The life of the world was far from being
impregnated by the spirit which he brought from heaven.
In the "island of saints" we certainly see a great number open
out at once to the fulness of that divine influence. Herein we
have the explanation of the deep faith which has ever since been
the characteristic of the people. "Centuries have perpetuated
the alliance of Catholicity and Ireland. Revolutions have failed
to shake it; persecution has not broken it; it has gained
strength in blood and tears, and we may believe, after thirteen
centuries of trial, that the Roman faith will disappear from
Ireland only with the name of Patrick and the last Irishman."
NOTE.-It is known that F. Colgan, a Franciscan, undertook to
publish the "Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae." He edited only two
volumes: the first under the title of "Trias thaumaturga "
containing the various lives of St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St.
Bridget:-the second under the general title of "Acta SS."-
Barnwall, an Irishman born and educated in France, published the
"Histoire Legendaire d'Irlande," in which he collected, without
much order, a number of passages of Colgan's "Acta," and Mr. J.
G. Shea translated and published it. We have taken from this
translation several facts contained in this chapter, the work of
the Franciscan being not accessible to us.
Dr. Todd, from Irish MSS., has given a few pages showing the
accuracy of Colgan, although the good father did not scruple
occasionally to condense and abridge, unless the MSS. he used
differed from those of Dr. Todd. The whole is a rich mine of
interesting anecdotes, and Montalembert has shown what a skilful
writer can find in those pages forgotten since the sixteenth
century. Mr. Froude himself has acknowledged that the eighth was
the golden age of Ireland.
CHAPTER V.
THE CHRISTIAN IRISH AND THE PAGAN DANES.
For several centuries the Irish continued in the happy state
described in the last chapter. While the whole European
Continent was convulsed by the irruptions of the Germanic tribes,
and of the Huns, more savage still, the island was at peace,
opened her schools to the youth of all countries--to Anglo-
Saxons chiefly--and spread her name abroad as the happy and holy
isle, the dwelling of the saints, the land of prodigies, the
most blessed spot on the earth. No invading host troubled her;
the various Teutonic nations knew less of the sea than the Celts
themselves, and no vessel neared the Irish coast save the
peaceful curraghs which carried her monks and missionaries
abroad, or her own sons in quest of food and adventure.
Providence would seem to have imposed upon the nation the lofty
mission of healing the wounds of other nations as they lay
helpless in the throes of death, of keeping the doctrines of the
Gospel alive in Europe, after those terrible invasions, and of
leading into the fold of Christ many a shepherdless flock. The
peaceful messengers who went forth from Ireland became as
celebrated as her home schools and monasteries; and well had it
been for the Irish could such a national life as this have
continued.
But God, who wished to prepare them for still greater things in
future ages, who proves by suffering all whom he wishes to use
as his best instruments, allowed the fury of the storm to burst
suddenly upon them. It was but the beginning of their woes, the
first step in that long road to Calvary, where they were to be
crucified with him, to be crucified wellnigh to the death before
their final and almost miraculous resurrection. The Danes were
to be the first torturers of that happy and holy people; the
hardy rovers of the northern seas were coming to inaugurate a
long era of woe.
The Scandinavian irruption which desolated Europe just as she
was beginning to recover from the effects of the first great
Germanic wave, may be said to have lasted from the eighth to the
twelfth century. Down from the North Sea came the shock; Ireland
was consequently one of the first to feel it, and we shall see
how she alone withstood and finally overcame it.
The better to understand the fierceness of the attack, let us
first consider its origin:
The Baltic Sea and the various gulfs connected with it penetrate
deeply the northern portion of the Continent of Europe. Its
indentations form two peninsulas: a large one, known under the
name of Norway and Sweden, and a lesser one on the southwest,
now called Denmark. The first was known to the Romans as Scania;
the second was called by them the Cimbric Chersonesus. From
Scania is derived the name Scandinavians, afterward given to the
inhabitants of the whole country. Besides these two peninsulas,
there are several islands scattered through the surrounding sea.
The frozen and barren land which this people inhabited obliged
them from time immemorial to depend on the ocean for their
sustenance: first, by fishing; later on, by piracy. They soon
became expert navigators, though their ships were merely small
boats made of a few pieces of timber joined together, and
covered with the hide of the walrus and the seal.
It seems, from the Irish annals, that they belonged to two
distinct races of men: the Norwegians, fair-haired and of large
stature; the Danes dark, and of smaller size. Hence the Irish
distinguished the first, whom they called Finn Galls, from the
second, whom they named Dubh Galls. By no other European nation
was this distinction drawn, the Irish being more exact in
observing their foes.
It is the general opinion of modern writers that they belonged
to the Teutonic family. The Goths, a Teutonic tribe, dwelt for a
long period on the larger peninsula. But whether the Goths were
of the same race as the Norwegians or Danes is a question.
Certain it is that the various German nations which first
overwhelmed the Roman Empire bore many characteristics different
from those of the Danes and Norwegians, though the language of
all indicated, to a certain extent, a common origin.
The Swedes, the inhabitants of the eastern coast of Scania, do
not appear to have taken an important part in the Scandinavian
invasions; nor, indeed, have they ever been so fond of maritime
enterprises as the two other nations. Moreover, they were at
that time in bloody conflict with the Goths, and too busy at
home to think of foreign conquest.
For a long time the Scandinavian pirates seem to have confined
themselves to scouring their own seas, and plundering the coasts
as far as the gulfs of Finland and Bothnia. At length,
emboldened by success, they ventured out into the ocean,
attacked the nations of Western and Southern Europe, and in the
west colonized the frozen shores of the Shetland and Faroe
Islands, and soon after Iceland and Greenland.
For several centuries the harbors of Denmark and Norway became
the storehouses of all the riches of Europe, and a large trade
was carried on between those northern peninsulas and the various
islands of the Northern and Arctic Seas, even with the coast of
America, of which Greenland seems to form a part.
Those stern and mountainous countries and the restless ocean
which divides them were for the Scandinavian pirates what the
Mediterranean and the coasts of Spain and Africa had long before
been for the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. These peoples were
clearly destined to introduce among modern nations the spirit of
commerce and enterprise.
But here it is well to consider their religious and social state
from which nations chiefly derive their noble or ignoble
qualities. We shall find both made up of the rankest idolatry,
of cruel manners and revolting customs.
Their system of worship, with its creed and rites, is much more
precise in character and better known to us than that of the
Celts. If we open the books which were written in Europe at the
time of the irruption of these Northmen, and the poems of those
savage tribes preserved to our own days, and comprised under the
name of Edda, besides the numerous sagas, or songs and ballads,
which we still possess, we find mention of three superior gods
and a number of inferior deities, which gave a peculiar
character to this Northern worship.
They were Thor, the god of the elements, of thunder chiefly;
Wodan or Odin, the god of war; and Frigga, the goddess of lust;
the long list of others it is unnecessary to give. Their
religion, therefore, consisted mainly: 1. In battling with the
elements, particularly on the sea, under the protection of Thor;
2. In slaying their enemies, or being themselves slain, as Odin
willed --the giving or receiving death being apparently the
great object of existence; 3. In abandoning themselves at the
time of victory to all the propensities of corrupt nature, which
they took to be the express will of Frigga manifested in their
unbridled passions.
Such was Scandinavian mythology in its reality.
Modern investigators, principally in Germany and France, find in
the Edda a complete system of cosmogony and of a religion almost
inspired, so beautiful do they make it. At least they have made
it appear as profound a philosophy as that of old Hindostan and
far-off Thibet. By grouping around those three great divinities,
which are supposed to be emblematical of the superior natural
forces, their numerous progeny, that of Odin especially,
together with an incredible number of malicious giants and good-
natured _ases_--a kind of fairy--any skilful theorist, gifted
with the requisite imagination, may extract from the whole an almost
perfect system of cosmogony and ethics. Then the disgusting legends
of the Edda and the sagas are straightway transformed into
interesting myths, offsprings of poetry and imagination, and
conveying to the mind a philosophy only less than sublime, derived,
as they say, from the religion of Zoroaster.
It is, as we said, in Germany and France chiefly that these
discoveries have been made. The English, a more sober people,
although of Scandinavian blood, do not set so high a value on
what is, in the literal sense, so low.
Pity that such pleasing speculations should be mere theoretical
bubbles, unable to retain their lightness and their vivid colors
in the rude atmosphere of the arctic regions, bursting at the
first breath of the north wind! How could sensible men, under
such a complicated system of religion and physics, account for
the uncouth pirates of the Baltic?
As useless is it to say that they brought it from the place of
their origin--Persia, as these theorists affirm. To a man
uninfluenced by a preconceived or pet system, it is evident at
first sight that no mythology of the East or of the South has
ever given rise to that of Scandinavia. There is not the
slightest resemblance between it and any other. It must have
originated with the Scandinavians themselves; and their long
_religious_ tales were only the bloody dreams of their fancy, when,
during their dreary winter evenings, they had nothing to do but
relate to each other what came uppermost in their gross minds.
Saxo Grammaticus, certainly a competent authority, and Snorry
Sturleson, the first to translate the Edda into Latin, who is
still considered one of the greatest antiquarians of the nation
--both of whom lived in the times we speak of, when this
religious system still flourished or was fresh in the minds of
all-- solved the question ages ago, and demonstrated beforehand
the falsehood of those future theories by stating with old-time
simplicity that the abominable stories of the Edda and the sagas
were founded on real facts in the previous history of those
nations, and were consequently never intended by the writers as
imaginative myths, representing, under a figurative and repulsive
exterior, some semblance of a spiritual and refined doctrine.
We must look to our own more enlightened times to find ingenious
interpreters of rude old songs first flung to the breeze nine
hundred years ago in the polar seas, and bellowed forth in
boisterous and drunken chorus during the ninth and tenth
centuries by ferocious, but to modern eyes romantic, pirates
reeking with the gore of their enemies.
Because it has pleased some modern pantheist to concoct systems
of religion in his cabinet, does it become at once clear that
the mythic explanation of those songs is the only one to be
admitted, and that the odious facts which those legends express
ought to be discarded altogether? At least we hope that, when
philosophers come to be the real rulers of the world, they will
not give to their subtle and abstract ideas of religion the same
pleasant turn and the same concrete expression in every-day life
that the worshippers of Odin, Thor, and Frigga, found it
agreeable to give when they were masters of the continent and
rulers of the seas.
No! The only true meaning of this Northern worship is conveyed
in the simple words of Adam of Bremen, when relating what still
existed in his own time. (_Descript. insularum Aquil._, lib. iv.)
He describes the solemn sacrifices of Upsala in Sweden thus:
"This is their sacrifice; of each and all animals they offer
nine heads of the male gender, by whose blood it is their custom
to appease the gods. The dead bodies of the victims are
suspended in a grove which surrounds the temple. The place is in
their eyes invested with such a sacred character that the trees
are believed to be divine on account of the blood and gore with
which they are besmeared. With the animals, dogs, horses, etc.,
they suspend likewise men; and a Christian of that country told
me that he had himself seen them with his own eyes mixed up
together in the grove. But the senseless rites which accompany
the sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood are so many, and of so
gross and immoral nature, that it is better not to speak of them."
We have here the naked truth, and no meaning whatever could be
attached to such ceremonies other than that of the rankest
idolatry. To complete the picture, it is proper to state that
Thor, Odin, and Frigga, were frightful idols, as represented in
the Upsala temple, and the small statues carried by the
Scandinavian sailors on their expeditions and set in the place
of honor on board their ships, were but diminutive copies of the
hideous originals. It is known, moreover, that Odin had existed
as a leader of some of their migrations, so that their idolatry
resolved itself into hero-worship.
Having spoken of their gods, we have only a word to add on their
belief in a future state, for every one is acquainted with their
brutal and shocking Walhalla. Yet, such as it was, admittance to
its halls could only be aspired to by the warriors and heroes,
the great among them; the common herd was not deemed worthy of
immortality. Thus aristocratic pride showed itself at the very
bottom of their religion.
Of their social state, their government, we know little. They
lived under a kind of rude monarchy, subject often to election,
when they chose the most savage and the bravest for their ruler.
But blood-relationship had little or nothing to do with their
system, so different from that of the Celts. The sons of a
chieftain could never form a sept, but at his death the eldest
replaced him; the younger brothers, deprived of their titles and
goods, were forced to separate and acquire a title to rank and
honor by piracy; and that right of primogeniture, which was the
primary cause of their sea invasions, stamped the feudal system
with one of its chief characteristics, a system which probably
originated with them. Some, however, entertain a contrary
opinion, and suppose that at the death of the father his
children shared his inheritance equally.
Of their moral habits we may best judge by their religion. All
we know of their history seems to prove that with them might was
right, and outlawry the only penalty of their laws.
A man guilty of murder was compelled to quit the country, unless
his superior daring and the number of his friends and followers
enabled him, by more atrocious and wholesale murders, still to
become a great chieftain and even aspire to supreme power.
Iceland was colonized by outlaws from Norway; and the frequent
changes of dynasty in pagan times prove that among them, as
among barbarous tribes generally, brute force was the chief
source of law and authority.
That outlawry was not esteemed a stain on the character is
sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that the mere accident of
birth made outlaws of all the children of chieftains with the
exception of the eldest born; the necessity for the younger sons
abandoning their home and native country, and roaming the ocean
in search of plunder, being exactly equivalent, according to
their opinion and customs, to criminal outlawry of whatever
character. This, at least, many authors assert without
hesitation.
Their domestic habits were fit consequences of such a state of
society. There could exist no real tie of kindred, no filial or
brotherly affection among men living under such a social system.
The gratification of brutal passions and the most utter
selfishness constituted the rule for all; and even the fear of
an inexorable judge after death could not restrain them during
life, as might have been the case among other pagan nations,
since the hope of reaching their Walhalla depended for its
fulfilment on murder or suicide.
With their system of warfare we are better acquainted than with
any thing else belonging to them, as the main burden of their
songs was the recital of their barbarous expeditions. It is,
indeed, difficult for a modern reader to wade through the whole
of their Edda poems, or even their long sagas, so full is their
literature of unimaginable cruelties. Yet a general view of it
is necessary in order to understand the horror spread throughout
Europe by their inhuman warfare.
As soon as the warm breeze of an early spring thaws the ice on
his rivers and lakes, the Scandinavian Viking unfurls his sail,
fills his rude boat with provisions, and trusts himself to the
mercy of the waves. Should he be alone, and not powerful enough
to have a fleet at his command, he looks out for a single boat
of his own nation--there being no other in those seas. Urged by
a mutual impulse, the two crews attack each other at sight; the
sea reddens with blood; the savage bravery is equal on both
sides; accident alone can decide the contest. One of the crews
conquers by the death of all its opponents; the plunder is
transferred to the victorious boat; the cup of strong drink
passes round, and victory is crowned by drunkenness.
But if the two chieftains have contended from morning till night
with equal valor and success, then, filled with admiration for
each other, they become friends, unite their forces, and,
falling on the first spot where they can land, they pillage,
slay, outrage women, and give full sway to their unbridled
passions. The more ferocious they are the braver they esteem
themselves. It is a positive fact, as we may gather from all
their poems and songs, that the Scandinavians alone, probably,
of all pagan nations, have had no measure of bravery and
military glory beyond the infliction of the most exquisite
torture and the most horrible of deaths.
Plunder, which was apparently the motive power of all their
expeditions, was to them less attractive than blood; blood,
therefore, is the chief burden of their poetry, if poetry it can
be called. It would seem as though they were destined by Nature
to shed human blood in torrents--the noblest occupation,
according to their ideas, in which a brave man could be engaged.
The figures of their rude literature consist for the most part
of monstrous warriors and gods, each possessed of many arms to
kill a greater number of enemies, or of giant stature to
overcome all obstacles, or of enchanted swords which shore steel
as easily as linen, and clave the body of an adversary as it
would the air.
Then, heated with blood, the Northman is also influenced with
lust, for he worships Frigga as well as Odin. But this is not
the place to give even an idea of manners too revolting to be
presented to the imagination of the reader.
Cantu's Universal History will furnish all the authorities from
which the details we have given and many others of the same kind
are derived.
We do not propose describing here the horrors of the
devastations committed by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in England,
by the Normans in France, Spain, and Italy. All these nations,
even the first, were Scandinavians, and naturally fall under our
review. The story is already known to those who are acquainted
with the history of mediaeval Europe. The only thing which we do
not wish to omit is the invariable system of warfare adopted by
this people when acting on a large scale.
Arrived on the coast they had determined to ravage, they soon
found that in stormy weather they were in a more dangerous
position than at sea. Hence they looked for a deep bay, or,
better still, the mouth of a large river, and once on its placid
bosom they felt themselves masters of the whole country. The
terror of the people, the lack of organization for defence, so
characteristic of Celtic or purely Germano-Franco society, the
savage bravery and reckless impetuosity of the invaders
themselves, increased their rashness, and urged them to enter
fearlessly into the very heart of a country which lay prostrate
with fear before them. All the cities on the river-banks were
plundered as they passed, people of whatever age, sex, or
condition, were murdered; the churches especially were despoiled
of their riches, and the numerous and wealthy monasteries then
existing were given to the flames, after the monks and all the
inmates even to the schoolchildren, had been promiscuously
slaughtered, if they had not escaped by flight.
But, although all were slaughtered promiscuously, a special
ferocity was always displayed by the barbarous conqueror toward
the unarmed and defenceless ministers of religion. They took a
particular delight in their case in adding insult to cruelty;
and not without reason did the Church at that time consider as
martyrs the priests and monks who were slain by the pagan
Scandinavians. Their sanguinary and hideous idolatry showed its
hatred of truth and holiness in always manifesting a peculiar
atrocity when coming in contact with the Church of Christ and
her ministers. And, our chief object in speaking of the stand
made by the Irish against the pagan Danes is, to show how the
clan-system became in truth the avenger of God's altars and the
preserver of the sacred edifices and numerous temples with which,
as we have seen, the Island of Saints was so profusely studded,
from total annihilation.
Knowing that, when their march of destruction had taken them a
great distance from the mouth of the river, the inhabitants
might rise in sheer despair and cut them off on their return,
the Scandinavian pirates, to guard against such a contingency,
looked for some island or projecting rock, difficult of access,
which they fortified, and, placing there the plunder which
loaded their boats, they left a portion of their forces to guard
it, while the remainder continued their route of depredation. In
Ireland they found spots admirably adapted for their purpose in
the numerous loughs into which many of the rivers run.
This was their invariable system of warfare in the rivers of
England; in Germany along system Rhine; along the Seine, the
Loire, and the Garonne, in France, as well as on the Tagus and
Guadalquivir in Spain, where two at least of their large
expeditions penetrated. This continued for several centuries,
until at last they thought of occupying the country which they
had devastated and depopulated, and they began to form permanent
settlements in England, Flanders, France, and even Sicily and
Naples.
When that time had arrived, they showed that, hidden under their
ferocious exterior, lay a deep and systematic mind, capable of
great thoughts and profound designs. Already in their own rude
country they had organized commerce on an extensive scale, and
their harbors teemed with richly-laden ships, coming from far
distances or preparing to start on long voyages. They had become
a great colonizing race, and, after establishing their sway in
the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and
Greenland, they made England their own, first by the Jute and
Anglo-Saxon tribes, then by the arms of Denmark, which was at
that time so powerful that England actually became a colony of
Copenhagen; and finally they thought of extending their
conquests farther south to the Mediterranean Sea, where their
ships rode at anchor in the harbors of fair Sicily.
We know, from many chronicles written at the time, with what
care they surveyed all the countries they occupied, confiscating
the land after having destroyed or reduced its inhabitants to
slavery; dividing it among themselves and establishing their
barbarous laws and feudal customs wherever they went. Dudo of St.
Quentin, among other writers, describes at length in his rude
poem the army of surveyors intrusted by Rollo, the first Duke of
Normandy, with the care of drawing up a map of their conquests
in France, for the purpose of dividing the whole among his rough
followers and vassals.
Of this spirit of organization we intend to speak in the next
chapter, when we come to consider the Anglo-Norman invasion of
Ireland; but we are not to conclude that the Northmen became
straightway civilized, and that the spirit of refinement at once
shed its mild manners and gentle habits over their newly-
constructed towns and castles. For a long time they remained as
barbarous as ever, with only a system more perfect and a method
more scientific--if we may apply such expressions to the case--
in their plunderings and murderous expeditions.
Of Hastings, their last pagan sea-kong, Dudo, the great admirer
of Northmen and the sycophant of the first Norman dukes in
France, has left the following terrible character, on reading
which in full we scarcely know whether the poem was written in
reproach or praise. We translate from the Latin
According to Dudo, he was--
"A wretch accursed and fierce of heart,
Unmatched in dark iniquities;
A scowling pest of deadly hate,
He throve on savage cruelties.
Blood-thirsty, stained with every crime,
An artful, cunning, deadly foe,
Lawless, vaunting, rash, inconstant,
True well-spring of unending woe!"
Hastings never yielded to the new religion, which he always
hated and persecuted. But, even after their conversion to
Christianity, his countrymen for a long time retained their
inborn love of bloodshed and tyranny; they were in this respect,
as in many others, the very reverse of the Irish.
Of Rollo, the first Christian Duke of Normandy, Adhemar, a
contemporary writer, says:
"On becoming Christian, he caused many captives to be beheaded
in his presence, in honor of the gods whom he had worshipped.
And he also distributed a vast amount of money to the Christian
churches in honor of the true God in whose name he had received
baptism;" which would seem to imply that this transaction
occurred on the very day of his baptism.
We may now compare the success which attended the arms of these
terrible invaders throughout the rest of Europe with their
complete failure in Ireland. It will be seen that the deep
attachment of the Irish Celts for their religion, its altars,
shrines, and monuments, was the real cause of their final
victory. We shall behold a truly Christian people battling
against paganism in its most revolting and audacious form.
But, first, how stood the case in England?
"It is not a little extraordinary," says a sagacious writer in
the _Dublin Review_ (vol. xxxii., p. 203), "that the three
successive conquests of England by the Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and
Normans, were in fact conquests made by the same people, and, in
the last two instances, over those who were not only descended
from the same stock, but who had immigrated from the very same
localities. The Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, were for the most
part Danes or of Danish origin. Their invasion of England
commenced by plunder and ended by conquest. These were
overthrown by the Danes and Norwegians in precisely the same
manner.
"In the year 875, Roll or Rollo, having been expelled from
Norway by Harold Harfager, adopted the profession of a sea-kong,
and in the short space of sixteen years became Duke of Normandy
and son-in-law of the French king, after having previously
repudiated his wife. The sixth duke in succession from Rollo was
William, illegitimate son of Robert le Diable and Herleva, a
concubine. By the battle of Hastings, which William gained in
1066, over King Harold, who was slain in it, the former became
sovereign of England, and instead of the appellation of 'the
Bastard,' by which he had been hitherto known, he now obtained
the surname of 'the Conqueror.'
"Thus both the Saxon and Danish invaders were subdued by their
Norman brethren."
All the Scandinavian invasions of England were, therefore,
successful, each in turn giving way before a new one; and it is
not a little remarkable that the very year in which Brian Boru
dealt a death-blow to the Danes at Clontarf witnessed the
complete subjection of England by Canute.
The success of the Northmen in France is still more worthy of
attention. Their invasions began soon after the death of
Charlemagne. It is said that, before his demise, hearing of the
appearance of one of their fleets not far from the mouth of the
Rhine, he shed tears, and foretold the innumerable evils it
portended. He saw, no doubt, that the long and oft-repeated
efforts of his life to subdue and convert the northern Saxons
would fail to obtain for his successors the peace he had hoped
to win by his sword, and, knowing from the Saxons themselves the
relentless ferocity, audacity, and frightful cruelty, inoculated
in their Scandinavian blood, he could not but expect for his
empire the fierce attacks which were preparing in the arctic
seas. All his life had he been a conqueror, and under his sway
the Franks, whom he had ever led to victory, acquired a name
through Europe for military glory which, he dreaded, would no
longer remain untarnished. His forebodings, however, could not
be shared by any of those who surrounded him in his old age; his
eagle eye alone discerned the coming misfortunes.
Seven times had the great emperor subdued the Saxons. He had
crushed them effectually, since he could not otherwise prevent
them from disturbing his empire. The Franks, who formed his army,
were therefore the real conquerors of Western Europe. Starting
from the banks of the Rhine, they subjugated the north as far as
the Baltic Sea; they conquered Italy as far south as Beneventum,
by their victories over the Lombards; by the subjugation of
Aquitaine, they took possession of the whole of France; the only
check they had ever received was in the valley of Roncevaux,
whence a part of one of their armies was compelled to retreat,
without, however, losing Catalonia, which they had won.
Nevertheless, we see them a few years after powerless and
stricken with terror at the very name of the Northmen, as soon
as Hastings and Rollo appeared. Those sea-rovers established
themselves straightway in the very centre of the Frankish
dominion; for it was at the mouth of the Rhine, in the island of
Walcheren, that they formed their first camp. From Walcheren
they swept both banks of the Rhine, and, after enriching
themselves with the spoils of monasteries, cathedrals, and
palaces, they thought of other countries. Then began the long
series of spoliations which desolated the whole of France along
the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne.
Opposition they scarcely encountered. Paris alone, of all the
great cities of France, sustained a long siege, and finally
bought them off by tribute. The military power of the nation was
annihilated all at once, and of all French history this period
is undoubtedly the most humiliating to a native of the soil.
And now let us see how the Irish met the same piratical
invasions.
We are already acquainted with the chief defect of their
political system, namely, its want of centralization. The Ard-
Righ was in fact but a nominal ruler, except in the small
province which acknowledged his chieftainship only. Throughout
the rest of Ireland the provincial kings were independent save
in name. Not only were they often reluctant to obey the Ard-Righ,
but they were not seldom at open war with him. Nor are we to
suppose that, at least in the case of a serious attack from
without, their patriotism overcame their private differences,
and made them combine together to show a common front against a
common foe. In a patriarchal state of government there is
scarcely any other form of patriotism than that of the
particular sept to which each individual belongs. All the ideas,
customs, prejudices, are opposed to united action.
Yet an invasion so formidable as that of the Scandinavian tribes
showed itself everywhere to be, would have required all the
energies and resources of the whole country united under one
powerful chief, particularly when it did not consist of one
single fearful irruption.
During two centuries large fleets of dingy, hide-bound barks
discharge on the shores of Erin their successive cargoes of
human fiends, bent on rapine and carnage, and altogether proof
against fear of even the most horrible death, since such death
was to them the entry to the eternal realms of their Walhalla.
But, at the period of which we speak, the terrible evil of a
want of centralization was greatly aggravated by a change
occurring in the line which held the supreme power in the island.
The vigorous rule of a long succession of princes belonging to
the northern Hy-Niall line gave way to the ascendency of the
southern branch of this great family; and the much more limited
patrimony and alliances of this new quasi-dynasty rendered its
personal power very inferior to that of the northern branch, and
consequently lessened the influence possessed by the ruling
family in past times. In Ireland the connections, more or less
numerous, by blood relationship with the great families, always
exercised a powerful influence over the body of the nation in
rendering it docile and amenable to the will of the Ard-Righ.
Mullingar, in West Meath, was the abode of the southern Hy-
Nialls, and Malachy of the Shannon, the first Ard-Righ of this
line, succeeded King Niall of Callan in 843. The Danes were
already in the country and had committed depredations. Their
first descent is mentioned by the Four Masters as taking place
at Rathlin on the coast of Antrim in the year 790.
But the country was soon aroused; and religious feelings, always
uppermost in the Irish heart, supplied the deficiencies of the
constitution of the state and the particularly unfavorable
circumstances of the period. The Danes, as usual, first attacked
the monasteries and churches, and this alone was enough to
kindle in the breasts of the people the spirit of resistance and
retaliation. Iona was laid waste in 797, and again in 801 and
805. "To save from the rapacity of the Danes," says Montalembert
in his Monks of the West, "a treasure which no pious liberality
could replace, the body of S. Columba was carried to Ireland.
And it is the unvarying tradition of Irish annals, that it was
deposited finally at Down, in an episcopal monastery, not far
from the eastern shore of the island, between the great
monastery of Bangor in the North, and Dublin the future capital
of Ireland, in the South."
Ireland was first assailed by the Danes on the north immediately
after they had gained possession of the Hebrides; but the coasts
of Germany, Belgium, and France had witnessed their attacks long
before. Religion was the first to suffer; and as the Island of
Saints was at the time of their descent covered with churches
and monasteries, the Scandinavian barbarians found in these a
rich harvest which induced them to return again and again. The
first expedition consisted of only a few boats and a small body
of men. Nevertheless, as their irruptions were unexpected, and
the people were unprepared for resistance, many holy edifices
suffered from these attacks, and a great number of priests and
monks were murdered.
We read that Armagh with its cathedral and monasteries was
plundered four times in one month, and in Bangor nine hundred
monks were slaughtered in a single day. The majority of the
inmates of those houses fled with their books and the relics of
their saints at the approach of the invaders, but, returning to
their desecrated homes after the departure of the pirates, gave
cause for those successive plunderings.
But the Irish did not always fly in dismay, as was the case in
England and France. A force was generally mustered in the
neighborhood to meet and repel the attack, and in numerous
instances the marauders were driven back with slaughter to their
ships.
For the clans rallied to the defence of the Church. Though the
chieftains and their clansmen might seem to have failed fully to
imbibe the spirit of religion, though in their insane feuds they
often turned a deaf ear to the remonstrances and reproaches of
the bishops and monks, nevertheless Christianity reigned supreme
in their inmost hearts. And when they beheld pagans landed on
their shores, to insult their faith and destroy the monuments of
their religion, to shed the blood of holy men, of consecrated
virgins, and of innocent children, they turned that bravery
which they had so often used against themselves and for the
satisfaction of worthless contentions into a new and a more
fitting channel--the defence of their altars and the punishment
of sacrilegious outrage.
The clan system was the very best adapted for this kind of
warfare, so long as no large fleets came, and the pirates were
too few in number and too sagacious in mind to think of
venturing far inland. When but a small number of boats arrived,
the invaders found in the neighborhood a clan ready to receive
them. The clansmen speedily assembled, and, falling on the
plundering crews, showed them how different were the free men of
a Celtic coast, who were inspired by a genuine love for their
faith, from the degenerate sons of the Gallo-Romans.
So the annals of the country tell us that the "foreigners" were
destroyed in 812 by the men of Umhall in Mayo; by Corrach, lord
of Killarney, in the same year; by the men of Ulidia and by
Carbry with the men of Hy-Kinsella in 827; by the clansmen of Hy-
Figeinte, near Limerick, in 834, and many more.
But the hydra had a thousand heads, and new expeditions were
continually arriving. In the words of Mr. Worsaae, a Danish
writer of this century:
"From time immemorial Ireland was celebrated in the Scandinavian
north, for its charming situation, its mild climate, and its
fertility and beauty. The Kongspell--mirror of Kings--which was
compiled in Norway about the year 1200, says that Ireland is
almost the best of the lands we are acquainted with although no
vines grow there. The Scandinavian Vikings and emigrants, who
often contented themselves with such poor countries as Greenland
and the islands in the north Atlantic, must, therefore, have
especially turned their attention to the 'Emerald Isle,'
particularly as it bordered closely upon their colonies in
England and Scotland. But to make conquests in Ireland, and to
acquire by the sword alone permanent settlements there, was no
easy task.... When we consider that neither the Romans nor the
Anglo-Saxons ever obtained a footing in that country, although
they had conquered England, the adjacent isle, and when we
further reflect upon the immense power exerted by the English in
later times in order to subdue the Celtic population of the
island, we cannot help being surprised at the very considerable
Scandinavian settlements which, as early as the ninth century,
were formed in that country."
These are the words of a Dane. We shall see what the "very
considerable Scandinavian settlements" amounted to; the
quotation is worthy of note, as presenting in a few words the
motives of those who at any time invaded Ireland, and the
stubborn resistance which they met.
The Irish were not dismayed by the constant arrivals of those
northern hordes. They met them one after another without
considering their complexity and connection. They only saw a
troop of fierce barbarians landed on their shores, chiefly
intent upon plundering and burning the churches and holy houses
which they had erected; they saw their island, hitherto
protected by the ocean from foreign attack, and resting in the
enjoyment of a constant round of Christian festivals and joyful
feasts, now desecrated by the presence and the fury of ferocious
pagans; they armed for the defence of all that is dear to man;
and though, perhaps, at first beaten and driven back, they
mustered in force at a distance to fall on the victors with a
swoop of noble birds who fly to the defence of their young.
This kind of contest continued for two hundred years, with the
exception of the periods of larger invasions, when a single clan
no longer sufficed to avenge the cause of God and humanity, and
the Ard-Righ was compelled to throw himself on the scene at the
head of the whole collective force of the nation in order to
oppose the vast fleets and large armies of the Danes.
The country suffered undoubtedly; the cattle were slain; the
fields devastated; the churches and houses burned; the poets
silenced or woke their song only to notes of woe; the harpers
taught the national instrument the music of sadness; the
numerous schools were scattered, though never destroyed; as
centuries later, under the Saxon, the people took their books or
writing materials to their miserable cottages or hid them in the
mountain fastnesses, and thus, for the first time in their
history, the hedge school succeeded those of the large
monasteries. So the nation continued to live on, the energetic
fire which burned in the hearts of the people could not be
quenched. They rose and rose again, and often took a noble
revenge, never disheartened by the most utter disaster.
On three different occasions this bloody strife assumed a yet
more serious and dangerous aspect. It was not a few boats only
which came to the shores of the devoted island; but the main
power of Scandinavia seemed to combine in order to crush all
opposition at a single blow.
When the knowledge of the richness, fertility, and beauty of the
island had fully spread throughout Denmark and Norway, a large
fleet gathered in the harbors of the Baltic and put to sea. The
famous Turgesius or Turgeis--Thorgyl in the Norse--was the
leader. The Edda and Sagas of Norway and Denmark have been
examined with a view to elucidate this passage in Irish history,
but thus far fruitlessly. It is known, however, that many Sagas
have been lost which might have contained an account of it. The
Irish annals are too unanimous on the subject to leave any
possibility of doubt with regard to it; and, whatever may be the
opinion of learned men on the early events in the history of
Erin, the story of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries rests
entirely on historical ground, as surely as if the facts had
happened a few hundred years ago.
Turgesius landed with his fleet on the northeast coast of the
island, and straightway the scattered bands of Scandinavians
already in the country acknowledged his leadership and flocked
to his standard. McGeoghegan says that "he assumed in his own
hands the sovereignty of all the foreigners that were then in
Ireland."
From the north he marched southward; and, passing Armagh on his
route, attacked and took it, and plundered its shrines,
monasteries, and schools. There were then within its walls seven
thousand students, according to an ancient roll which Keating
says has been discovered at Oxford. These were slaughtered or
dispersed, and the same fate attended the nine hundred monks
residing in its monasteries.
Foraanan, the primate, fled; and the pagan sea-kong, entering
the cathedral, seated himself on the primatial throne, and had
himself proclaimed archbishop.--(O'Curry.) He had shortly before
devastated Clonmacnoise and made his wife supreme head of that
great ecclesiastical centre, celebrated for its many convents of
holy women. The tendency to add insult to outrage, when the
object of the outrage is the religion of Christ, is old in the
blood of the northern barbarians; and Turgesius was merely
setting the example, in his own rude and honest fashion, to the
more polished but no less ridiculous assumption of
ecclesiastical authority, which was to be witnessed in England,
on the part of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth.
The power of the invader was so superior to whatever forces the
neighboring Irish clans could muster, that no opposition was
even attempted at first by the indignant witnesses of those
sacrileges. It is even said that at the very time when the
Northmen were pillaging and burning in the northeast of the
island, the men of Munster were similarly employed in Bregia;
and Conor, the reigning monarch of Ireland, instead of defending
the invaded territories, was himself hard at work plundering
Leinster to the banks of the river Liffey--(Haverty.) But,
doubtless, none of those deluded Irish princes had yet heard of
the pagan devastations and insults to their religion, and thus
it was easy for the great sea-kong to strengthen and extend his
power. For the attainment of his object he employed two powerful
agents which would have effectually crushed Ireland forever, if
the springs of vitality in the nation had not been more than
usually expansive and strong.
The political ability of the Danes began to show itself in
Ireland, as it did about the same period (830) in England, and
later on in France. Turgesius saw that, in order to subdue the
nation, it was necessary to establish military stations in the
interior and fortify cities on the coast, where he could receive
reinforcements from Scandinavia. These plans he was prompt to
put into practice.
His military stations would have been too easily destroyed by
the bravery of the Irish, strengthened by the elasticity of
their clan-system, if they were, planted on land. He, therefore,
set them in the interior lakes which are so numerous in the
island, where his navy could repel all the attacks of the
natives, unused as they were to naval conflicts. He stationed a
part of his fleet on Lough Lee in the upper Shannon, another in
Lough Neagh, south of Antrim, a third in Lough Lughmagh or
Dundalk bay. These various military positions were strongholds
which secured the supremacy of the Scandinavians in the north of
the island for a long time. In the south, Turgesius relied on
the various cities which his troops were successively to build
or enlarge, namely, Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork, Waterford,
and Wexford. This first Scandinavian ruler could begin that
policy only by establishing his countrymen in Dublin, which they
seized in 836.
Up to that time the Irish had scarcely any city worthy of the
name. A patriarchal people, they followed the mode of life of
the old Eastern patriarchs, who abhorred dwelling in large towns.
Until the invasion of the Danes, the island was covered with
farm-houses placed at some distance from each other. Here and
there large _duns_ or _raths_, as they were called, formed the
dwellings of their chieftains, and became places of refuge for
the clansmen in time of danger. Churches and monasteries arose
in great numbers from the time of St. Patrick, which were first
built in the woods, but soon grew into centres of population,
corresponding in many respects to the idea of towns as generally
understood.
The Northmen brought with them into Ireland the ideas of cities,
commerce, and municipal life, hitherto unknown. The introduction
of these supposed a total change necessary in the customs of the
natives, and stringent regulations to which the people could not
but be radically opposed. And strange was their manner of
introduction by these northern hordes. Keating tells us how
Turgesius understood them. They were far worse than the
imaginary laws of the Athenians as recorded in the "Birds" of
Aristophanes. No more stringent rules could be devised, whether
for municipal, rural, or social regulations; and, as the
Northmen are known to have been of a systematic mind, no
stronger proof of this fact could be given.
Keating deplores in the following terms the fierce tyranny of
the Danish sea-kong:
"The result of the heavy oppression of this thraldom of the
Gaels under the foreigner was, that great weariness thereof came
upon the men of Ireland, and the few of the clergy that survived
had fled for safety to the forests and wildernesses, where they
lived in misery, but passed their time piously and devoutly, and
now the same clergy prayed fervently to God to deliver them from
that tyranny of Turgesius, and, moreover, they fasted against
that tyrant, and they commanded every layman among the faithful,
that still remained obedient to their voice, to fast against him
likewise. And God then heard their supplications in as far as
the delivering of Turgesius into the hands of the Gaels."
Thus in the ninth century the subsequent events of the sixteenth
and seventeenth were foreshadowed. The judicious editor of
Keating, however, justly remarks, that this description, taken
mainly from Cambrensis, is not supported in its entirety by the
contemporaneous annals of the island; that the power of the
Danes never was as universal and oppressive as is here supposed;
and that though each of the facts mentioned may have actually
taken place in some part of the country, at some period of the
Danish invasion, yet the whole, as representing the actual state
of the entire island at the time, is exaggerated and of too
sweeping a nature.
It is clear, nevertheless, that the domination of the Northmen
could not have been completely established in Ireland, together
with their notions of superiority of race, trade on a large
scale, and a consequent agglomeration of men in large cities,
without the total destruction of the existing social state of
the Irish, and consequently something of the frightful tyranny
just described.
But the people were too brave, too buoyant, and too ardent in
their nature, to bear so readily a yoke so heavy. They were too
much attached to their religion, not to sacrifice their lives,
if necessary, in order to put an end to the sacrilegious
usurpations of a pagan king, profaning, by his audacious
assumptions, the noblest, highest, purest, and most sacred
dignities of holy Church. A man, stained with the blood of so
many prelates and priests, seated on the primatial throne of the
country in sheer derision of their most profound feelings; his
pagan wife ruling over the city which the virgins of Bridget,
the spouses of Christ, had honored and sanctified so long; their
religion insulted by those who tried to destroy it--how could
such a state of things be endured by the whole race, not yet
reduced to the condition to which so many centuries of
oppression subsequently brought it down!
Hence Keating could write directly after the passage just quoted:
"When the nobles of Ireland saw that Turgesius had brought
confusion upon their country, and that he was assuming supreme
authority over themselves, and reducing them to thraldom and
vassalage, they became inspired with a fortitude of mind, and a
loftiness of spirit, and a hardihood and firmness of purpose,
that urged them to work in right earnest, and to toil zealously
in battle against him and his murdering hordes."
And hereupon the faithful historian gives a long list of
engagements in which the Irish were successful, ending with the
victory of Malachi at Glas Linni, where we know from the Four
Masters that Turgesius himself was taken prisoner and afterward
drowned in Lough Uair or Owell in West Meath, by order of the
Irish king.
This prince, then monarch of the whole island, atoned for the
apathy and the want of patriotism of his predecessors, Conor and
the Nialls. He was in truth a saviour of his country, and the
death of the oppressor was the signal for a general onslaught
upon the "foreigners" in every part of the island.
"The people rose simultaneously, and either massacred them in
their towns, or defeated them in the fields, so that, with the
exception of a few strongholds, like Dublin, the whole of
Ireland was free from the Northmen. Wherever they could escape,
they took refuge in their ships, but only to return in more
numerous swarms than before." - (M. Haverty.)
It is evident that their deep sense of religion was the chief
source of the energy which the Irish then displayed. They had
not yet been driven into a fierce resistance by being forcibly
deprived of their lands; although the Danes, when they carried
their vexatious tyranny into all the details of private life -
not allowing lords and ladies of the Irish race to wear rich
dresses and appear in a manner befitting their rank - when they
went so far as to refuse a bowl of milk to an infant, that a
rude soldier might quench his thirst with it - could have
scarcely permitted the apparently conquered people to enjoy all
the advantages accruing to the owner from the possession of land.
Yet in none of the chronicles of the time which we have seen is
any mention made of open confiscation, and of the survey and
division of the territory among the greedy followers of the sea-
kong. We do not yet witness what happened shortly after in
Normandy under Rollo, and what was to happen four hundred years
later in Ireland. The Scandinavians had not yet attained that
degree of civilization which makes men attach a paramount
importance to the possession of a fixed part of any territory,
and call in surveys, title-deeds, charters, and all the written
documents necessitated by a captious and over-scrupulous
legislation. The Irish, consequently, did not perceive that
their broad acres were passing into the control of a foreign
race, and were being taken piecemeal from them, thus bringing
them gradually down to the condition of mere serfs and
dependants.
What they did see, beyond the possibility of mistake or
deception, was their religion outraged, their spiritual rulers,
not merely no longer at liberty to practise the duties of their
sacred ministry, but hunted down and slaughtered or driven to
the mountains and the woods. They saw that pagans were actually
ruling their holy isle, and changing a paradise of sanctity into
a pandemonium of brutal passion, presided over by a
superstitious and cruel idolatry. For surely, although the Irish
chronicles fail to speak of it, the minstrels and historians
being too full of their own misery to think of looking at the
pagan rites of their enemies - those enemies worshipped Thor and
Odin and Frigga, and as surely did they detest the Church which
they were on a fair way to destroy utterly. This it was which
gave the Irish the courage of despair. For this cause chiefly
did the whole island fly to arms, fall on their foes and bring
down on their heads a fearful retribution. This it was,
doubtless, which breathed into the new monarch the energy which
he displayed on the field of Glas Linni; and when he ordered the
barbarian, now a prisoner in his hands, to be drowned, it was
principally as a sign that he detested in him the blasphemer and
the persecutor of God's church.
Thus did the first national misfortunes of this Celtic people
become the means of enkindling in their hearts a greater love
for their religion, and a greater zeal for its preservation in
their midst.
Ireland was again free; and, although we have no details
concerning the short period of prosperity which followed the
overthrow of the tyranny we have touched upon, we have small
doubt that the first object of the care of those who, under God,
had worked their own deliverance, was to repair the ruins of the
desecrated sanctuaries and restore to religion the honor of
which it had been stripped.
The Danes themselves came to see that they had acted rashly in
striving to deprive the Irish of a religion which was so dear to
their hearts; they resolved on a change of policy, as they were
still bent on taking possession of the island, which Mr. Worsaae
has told us they considered the best country in existence.
They resolved, therefore, to act with more prudence, and to make
use of trade and the material blessings which it confers, in
order to entice the Irish to their destruction, by allowing the
Northmen to carry on business transactions with them and so
gradually to dwell among them again. Father Keating tells the
story in his quaint and graphic style:
"The plan adopted by them on this occasion was to equip three
captains, sprung from the noblest blood of Norway, and to send
them with a fleet to Ireland, for the object of obtaining some
station for purpose of trade. And with them they accordingly
embarked many tempting wares, and many valuable jewels -- with
the design of presenting them to the men of Ireland, in the hope
of thus securing their friendship; for they believed that they
might thus succeed in surreptitiously fixing a grasp upon the
Irish soil, and might be enabled to oppress the Irish people
again . . . . The three captains, therefore, coming from the
ports of Norway, landed in Ireland with their followers, as if
for the purpose of demanding peace, and under the pretext of
establishing a trade; and there, with the consent of the Irish,
who were given to peace, they took possession of some sea-board
places, and built three cities thereon, to wit: Waterford,
Dublin, and Limerick."
We see, then, the Scandinavians abandoning their first project
of conquering the North to fall on the South and confining
themselves to a small number of fortified sea-ports.
The first result of this policy was a firmer hold than ever on
Dublin, once already occupied by them in 836. "Amlaf, or Olaf,
or Olaus, came from Norway to Ireland in 851, so that all the
foreign tribes in the island submitted to him, and they
extracted rent from the Gaels." - (Four Masters.)
From that time to the twelfth century Dublin became the chief
stronghold of the Scandinavians, and no fewer than thirty-five
Ostmen, or Danish kings, governed it. They made it an important
emporium, and such it continued even after the Scandinavian
invasion had ceased. McFirbis says that in his time - 1650 -
most of the merchants of Dublin were the descendants of the
Norwegian Irish king, Olaf Kwaran; and, to give a stronger
impulse to commerce, they were the first to coin money in the
country.
The new Scandinavian policy carried out by Amlaf, who tried to
establish in Dublin the seat of a kingdom which was to extend
over the whole island, resulted therefore only in the
establishment of five or six petty principalities, wherein the
Northmen, for some time masters, were gradually reduced to a
secondary position, and finally confined themselves to the
operations of commerce.
Since the attempt of Turgesius to subvert the religion of the
country, they never showed the slightest inclination to repeat
it; hence they were left in quiet possession of the places which
they occupied on the sea-board, and gradually came to embrace
Christianity themselves.
Little is known of the circumstances which attended this change
of religion on their part; and it is certain that it did not
take place till late in the tenth century. Some pretend that
Christianity was brought to them from their own country, where
it had already been planted by several missionaries and bishops.
But it is known that St. Ancharius, the first apostle of Denmark,
could not establish himself permanently in that country, and
had to direct a few missionaries from Hamburgh, where he fixed
his see. It is known, moreover, that Denmark was only truly
converted by Canute in the eleventh century, after his conquest
of England. As to Norway, the first attempt at its conversion by
King Haquin, who had become a Christian at the court of
Athelstan in England, was a failure; and although his successor,
Harold, appeared to succeed better for a time, paganism was
again reestablished, and flourished as late as 995. It was, in
fact, Olaf the Holy who, coming from England, in 1017, with the
priests Sigefried, Budolf, and Bernard, succeeded in introducing
Christianity permanently into Norway, and he made more use of
the sword than of the word in his mission.
With regard to the conversion of the Danes in Ireland, it seems
that, after all, it was the ever-present spectacle of the
workings of Christianity among the Irish which gradually opened
their eyes and ears. They came to love the country and the
people when they knew them thoroughly; they respected them for
their bravery, which they had proved a thousand times; they felt
attracted toward them on account of their geniality of
temperament and their warm social feelings; even their defects
of character and their impulsive nature were pleasing to them.
They soon sought their company and relationship; they began to
intermarry with them; and from this there was but a step to
embracing their religion.
The Danes of Waterford, Cork, and Limerick were, however, the
last to abandon paganism, and they seem not to have done so
until after Clontarf.
It is very remarkable that, during all those conflicts of the
Irish with the Danes, when the Northmen strewed the island with
dead and ruins; when they seemed to be planting their domination
in the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and even the Isle of Man, on a
firm footing; when the seas around England and Ireland swarmed
with pirates, and new expeditions started almost every spring
from the numerous harbors of the Baltic--the Irish colony of Dal
Riada in Scotland, which was literally surrounded by the
invaders, succeeded in wresting North Britain from the Picts,
drove them into the Lowlands, and so completely rooted them out,
that history never more speaks of them, so that to this day the
historical problem stands unsolved-- What became of the Picts?--
various as are the explanations given of their disappearance.
And, what is more remarkable still, is, that the Dal Riada
colony received constant help from their brothers in Erin, and
the first of the dynasty of Scottish kings, in the person of
Kenneth McAlpine, was actually set on the throne of Scotland by
the arms of the Irish warriors, who, not satisfied apparently
with their constant conflicts with the Danes on their own soil,
passed over the Eastern Sea to the neighboring coast of Great
Britain.
During the last forty years of the tenth century the Danes lived
in Ireland as though they belonged to the soil. If they waged
war against some provincial king, they became the allies of
others. When clan fought clan, Danes were often found on both
sides, or if on one only, they soon joined the other. They had
been brought to embrace the manners of the natives, and to adopt
many of their customs and habits. Yet there always remained a
lurking distrust, more or less marked, between the two races;
and it was clear that Ireland could never be said to have
escaped the danger of subjugation until the Scandinavian element
should be rendered powerless.
This antipathy on both sides existed very early even in Church
affairs, the Christian natives being looked upon with a jealous
eye by the Christian Danes; so that, toward the middle of the
tenth century, the Danes of Dublin having succeeded in obtaining
a bishop of their own nation, they sent him to England to be
consecrated by Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for a
long time the see of Dublin was placed under the jurisdiction of
Lanfranc's successors.
This grew into a serious difficulty for Ireland, as the capital
of Leinster began to be looked upon as depending, at least
spiritually, on England; and later on, at the time of the
invasion under Strongbow, the establishment of the English Pale
was considerably facilitated by such an arrangement, to which
Rome had consented only for the spiritual advantage of her
Scandinavian children in Ireland.
And the Irish were right in distrusting every thing foreign on
the soil, for, even after becoming Christians, the Danes could
not resist the temptation of making a last effort for the
subjugation of the country.
Hence arose their last general effort, which resulted in their
final overthrow at Clontarf. It does not enter into our purpose
to give the story of that great event, known in all its details
to the student of Irish history. It is not for us to trace the
various steps by which Brian Boru mounted to supreme power, and
superseded Malachi, to relate the many partial victories he had
already gained over the Northmen, nor to allude to his splendid
administration of the government, and the happiness of the Irish
under his sway.
But it is our duty to point out the persevering attempts of the
Scandinavian race, not only to keep its footing on Irish soil,
but to try anew to conquer what it had so often failed to
conquer. For, in describing their preparations for this last
attempt on a great scale, we but add another proof of that Irish
steadfastness which we have already had so many occasions to
admire.
In the chronicle of Adhemar, quoted by Lanigan from Labbe (Nova
Bibl., MSS., Tom. 2, p.177), it is said that "the Northmen came
at that time to Ireland, with an immense fleet, conveying even
their wives and children, with a view of extirpating the Irish
and occupying in their stead that very wealthy country in which
there were twelve cities, with extensive bishopries and a king."
Labbe thinks the Chronicle was written before the year 1031, so
that in his opinion the writer was a contemporary of the facts
he relates.
The Irish Annals state, on their side, that "the foreigners were
gathered from all the west of Europe, envoys having been
despatched into Norway, the Orkneys, the Baltic islands, so that
a great number of Vikings came from all parts of Scandinavia,
with their families, for the purpose of a permanent settlement."
Similar efforts were made about the same time by the Danes for
the lasting conquest of England, which succeeded, Sweyn having
been proclaimed king in 1013, and Canute the Great becoming its
undisputed ruler in 1017.
It is well known how the attempt failed in Erin, an army of
twenty-one thousand freebooters being completely defeated near
Dublin by Brian and his sons.
From that time the existence of the Scandinavian race on the
Irish soil was a precarious one; they were merely permitted to
occupy the sea-ports for the purpose of trade, and soon Irish
chieftains replaced their kings in Dublin, Limerick, Waterford,
and Cork.
The reader may be curious to learn, in conclusion, what signs
the Danes left of their long sojourn on the island. If we listen
to mere popular rumor, the country is still full of the ruins of
buildings occupied by them. The common people, in pointing out
to strangers the remains of edifices, fortifications, raths,
duns, even round-towers and churches, either more ancient or
more recent than the period of the Norse invasion, ascribe them
to the Danes. It is clear that two hundred years of devastations,
burnings, and horrors, have left a deep impression on the mind
of the Irish; and, as they cannot suppose that such powerful
enemies could have remained so long in their midst without
leaving wonderful traces of their passage, they often attribute
to them the construction of the very edifices which they
destroyed. The general accuracy of their traditions seems here
at fault. For there is no nation on earth so exact as the Irish
in keeping the true remembrance of facts of their past history.
Not long ago all Irish peasants were perfectly acquainted with
the whole history of their neighborhood; they could tell what
clans had succeeded each other, the exact spots where such a
party had been overthrown and such another victorious; every
village had its sure traditions printed on the minds of its
inhabitants, and, by consulting the annals of the nation, the
coincidence was often remarkable. How is it, therefore, that
they were so universally at fault with respect to the Danes?
A partial explanation has been given which is in itself a proof
of the tenacity of Irish memory. It is known that the Tuatha de
Danaan were not only skilful in medicine, in the working of
metals and in magic, but many buildings are generally attributed
to them by the best antiquarians; among others, the great mound
of New Grange, on the banks of the Boyne, which is still in
perfect preservation, although opened and pillaged by the Danes--
a work reminding the beholder of some Egyptian monument. The
coincidence of the name of the Tuatha de Danaan with that of the
Danes may have induced many of the illiterate Irish to adopt the
universal error into which they fell long ago, of attributing
most of the ancient monuments of their country to the Danes.
The fact is, that the ruins of a few unimportant castles and
churches are all the landmarks that remain of the Danish
domination in Ireland; and even these must have been the product
of the latter part of it.
But a more curious proof of the extirpation of every thing
Danish in the island is afforded by Mr. Worsaae, whose object in
writing his account of the Danes and Norwegians in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, was to glorify his own country, Denmark.
He made a special study of the names of places and things, which
can be traced to the Scandinavians respectively in the three
great divisions of the British Isles; and certainly the language
of a conquering people always shows itself in many words of the
conquered country, where the subjugation has been of sufficient
duration.
In England, chiefly in the northern half of the kingdom, a very
great number of Danish names appear and are still preserved in
the geography of the country. In Mr. Worsaae's book there is a
tabular view of 1,373 Danish and Norwegian names of places in
England, and also a list of 100 Danish words, selected from the
vulgar tongue, still in use among the people who dwell north of
Watling Street.
In Scotland, likewise--in the Highlands and even in the Lowlands-
-a considerable number of names, or at least of terminations,
are still to be met in the geography of the country.
Three or four names of places around Dublin, and the
terminations of the names of the cities of Waterford, Wexford,
Longford, and a few others, are all that Mr. Worsaae could find
in Ireland. So that the language of the Irish, not to speak of
their government and laws, remained proof against the long and
persevering efforts made by a great and warlike Northern race to
invade the country, and substitute its social life for that of
the natives.
As a whole, the Scandinavian irruptions were a complete failure.
They did not succeed in impressing their own nationality or
individuality on any thing in the island, as they did in England,
Holland, and the north of France. The few drops of blood which
they left in the country have been long ago absorbed in the
healthful current of the pure Celtic stream; even the language
of the people was not affected by them.
As for the social character of the nation, it was not touched by
this fearful aggression. The customs of Scandinavia with respect
to government, society, domestic affairs, could not influence
the Irish; they refused to admit the systematic thraldom which
the sternness of the Northmen would engraft upon their character,
and preserved their free manners in spite of all adverse
attempts. In this country, Turgesius, Amlaf, Sitrick, and their
compeers, failed as signally as other Scandinavian chieftains
succeeded in Britain and Normandy.
The municipal system, which has won so much praise, was
scornfully abandoned by the Irish to the Danes of the sea port
towns, and they continued the agricultural life adapted to their
tastes. Towns and cities were not built in the interior till
much later by the English.
The clan territories continued to be governed as before. The
"Book of Rights" extended its enactments even to the Danish Pale;
and the Danes tried to convert it to their own advantage by
introducing into it false chapters. How the poem of the Gaels of
Ath Cliath first found a place in the "Book of Rights" is still
unknown to the best Irish antiquarians. John O'Donovan concludes
from a verse in it that it was composed in the tenth century,
after the conversion of the Danes of Dublin to Christianity. It
proves certainly that the Scandinavians in Ireland, like the
English of the Pale later on, had become attached to Erin and
Erin's customs--had, in fact, become. Irishmen, to all intents
and purposes. Not succeeding in making Northmen of the Irish,
they succumbed to the gentle influence of Irish manners and
religion.
As for the commercial spirit, the Irish could not be caught by
it, even when confronted by the spectacle of the wealth it
conferred on the "foreigners." It is stated openly in the annals
of the race that their greatest kings, both Malachi and Brian
Boru, did not utterly expel the Danes from the country, in order
that they might profit by the Scandinavian traders, and receive
through them the wines, silks, and other commodities, which the
latter imported from the continent of Europe.
The same is true of the sea-faring life. The Irish could never
be induced to adopt it as a profession, whatever may have been
their fondness for short voyages in their curraghs.
The only baneful effects which the Norse invasion exercised on
the Irish were: 1. The interruption of studies on the large,
even universal, scale on which, they had previously been
conducted; 2. The breaking up of the former constitution of the
monarchy, by compelling the several clans which were attacked by
the "foreigners" to act independently of the Ard-Righ, so that
from that time irresponsible power was divided among a much
greater number of chieftains.
But these unfortunate effects of the Norse irruptions affected
in no wise the Irish character, language, or institutions, which,
in fact, finally triumphed over the character, language, and
institutions of the pirates established among them for upward of
two centuries.
CHAPTER VI.
THE IRISH FREE CLANS AND ANGLO-NORMAN FEUDALISM.
The Danes were subdued, and the Irish at liberty to go on
weaving the threads of their history--though, in consequence of
the local wars, they had lost the concentrating power of the Ard-
Righ--when treachery in their own ranks opened up the way for a
far more serious attack from another branch of the great
Scandinavian family--the Anglo-Norman.
The manners of the people had been left unchanged; the clan
system had not been altered in the least; it had stood the test
of previous revolutions; now it was to be confronted by a new
system which had just conquered Europe, and spread itself round
about the apparently doomed island. Of all places it had taken
deep root in England, where it was destined to survive its
destruction elsewhere in the convulsions of our modern history.
That system, then in full vigor, was feudalism.
In order rightly to understand and form a correct judgment on
the question, and its mighty issues, we must state briefly what
the chief characteristics of feudalism were in those countries
where it flourished.
The feudal system proceeded on the principle that landed
property was all derived from the king, as the captain of a
conquering army; that it had been distributed by him among his
followers on certain conditions, and that it was liable to be
forfeited if those conditions were not fulfilled.
The feudal system, moreover, politically considered, supposed
the principle that all civil and political rights were derived
from the possession of land; that those who possessed no land
could possess neither civil nor political rights--were, in fact,
not men, but villeins.
Consequently, it reduced nations to a small number of landowners,
enjoying all the privileges of citizenship; the masses,
deprived of all rights, having no share in the government, no
opportunity of rising in the social scale, were forever
condemned to villeinage or serfdom.
Feudalism, in our opinion, came first from Scandinavia. The
majority of writers derive it from Germany. The question of its
origin is too extensive to be included within our present limits,
and indeed is unnecessary, as we deal principally with the fact
and not with its history.
When the sea-rover had conquered the boat of an enemy, or
destroyed a village, he distributed the spoils among his crew.
Every thing was handed over to his followers in the form of a
gift, and in return these latter were bound to serve him with
the greatest ardor and devotedness. In course of time the idea
of settling down on some territory which they had devastated and
depopulated, presented itself to the minds of the rovers. The
sea-kong did by the land what he had been accustomed to do by
the plunder: he parcelled it out among his faithful followers--
fideles--giving to each his share of the territory. This was
called feoh by the Anglo-Saxons, who were the first to carry out
the system on British soil, as Dr. Lingard shows. Thus the word
fief was coined, which in due time took its place in all the
languages of Europe.
The giver was considered the absolute owner of whatever he gave,
as is the commander of a vessel at sea. It was a beneficium
conferred by him, to which certain indispensable conditions were
attached. Military duty was the first, but not the only one of
these. Writers on feudalism mention a great number, the
nonfulfilment of which incurred what was called forfeiture.
In countries where the pirates succeeded in establishing
themselves, all the native population was either destroyed by
them, as Dudo tells us was the case in Normandy, or, as more
frequently happened, the sword being unable to carry destruction
so far, the inhabitants who survived were reduced to serfdom,
and compelled to till the soil for the conquerors; they were
thenceforth called villeins or ascripti glebae. It is clear that
such only as possessed land could claim civil and political
rights in the new states thus called into existence. Hence the
owning of land under feudal tenure was the great and only
essential characteristic of mediaeval feudalism.
This system, which was first introduced into Britain by the
Anglo-Saxons, was brought to a fixed and permanent state by the
Normans--followers of William the Conqueror; and, when the time
came for treachery to summon the Norman knights to Irish soil,
the devoted island found herself face to face with an iron
system which at that period crushed and weighed down all Europe.
The Normans had now been settled in England for a hundred years;
all the castles in the country were occupied by Norman lords;
all bishopries filled by Norman bishops; all monasteries ruled
by Norman abbots. At the head of the state stood the king, at
that time Henry II. Here, more than in any other country in
Europe, was the king the key-stone to the feudal masonry. Not an
inch of ground in England was owned save under his authority, as
enjoying the supremum dominium. All the land had been granted by
his predecessors as fiefs, with the right of reversion to the
crown by forfeiture in case of the violation of feudal
obligations. Here was no allodial property, no censitive
hereditary domain, as in the rest of, otherwise, feudal Europe.
All English lawyers were unanimous in the doctrine that the king
alone was the true master of the territory; that tenure under
him carried with it all the conditions of feudal tenure, and
that any deed or grant proceeding from his authority ought to be
so understood.
The south-western portion of Wales was occupied by Norman lords,
Flemings for the most part. Two of these, Robert Fitzstephens
and Maurice Fitzgerald, sailed to the aid of the Irish King of
Leinster. They were the first to land, arriving a full year
before Strongbow.
Strongbow came at last. The conditions agreed on beforehand
between himself and the Leinster king were fulfilled. He was
married to the daughter of Dermod McMurrough, chief of Leinster,
acknowledged Righ Dahma, that is, successor to the crown, while
the Irish, accustomed for ages to admire valor and bow
submissively to the law of conquest, admitted the claim. The
English adventurer they looked upon as one of themselves by
marriage. Election in such a case was unnecessary, or rather,
understood, and Strongbow took the place which was his in their
eyes by right of his wife, of head under McMurrough of all the
clans of Leinster.
When, a little later, came Henry II. to be acknowledged by
Strongbow as his suzerain, and to receive the homage of the
presumptive heir of Leinster, submission to him was, in the
eyes of the Irish, merely a consequence of their own clan system.
They understood the homage rendered to him in a very different
sense from that attached to it by feudal nations; and had they
had an inkling of the real intentions of the new comers, not one
of them would have consented to live under and bow the neck to
such a yoke.
In fact, on the small territory where those great events were
enacted, two worlds, utterly different from each other, stood
face to face. Cambrensis tells us that the English were struck
with wonder at what they saw. The imperialism of Rome had never
touched Ireland. The Danes, opposed so strenuously from the
outset, and finally overcome, had never been able to introduce
there their restrictive measures of oppression. The English
found the natives in exactly the same state as that in which
Julius Caesar found the Gauls twelve hundred years before,
except as to religion--the race governed patriarchally by
chieftains allied to their subordinates by blood relationship;
no unity in the government, no common flag, no private and
hereditary property, nothing to bind the tribes together except
religion. It was not a nation properly, but rather an
agglomeration of small nations often at war each with each, yet
all strongly attached to Erin-- a mere name, including,
nevertherless, the dear idea of country --the chieftains
elective, bold, enterprising; the subordinates free, attached to
the chief as to a common father, throwing themselves with ardor
into all his quarrels, ready to die for him at any moment.
Around chief and clansmen circled a large number of brehons,
shanachies, poets, bards, and harpers--poetry, music, and war
strangely blended together. The religion of Christ spread over
all a halo of purity and holiness; large monasteries filled with
pious monks, and convents of devout and pure virgins abounded;
bishops and priests in the churches chanting psalms, each
accompanying himself with a many-stringed harp, gave forth sweet
harmony, unheard at the time in any other part of the world.
A most important feature to be considered is their understanding
of property. Hereditary right of land with respect to
individuals, and the transmission of property of any kind by
right of primogeniture, were unknown among them. If a specified
amount of territory was assigned to the chieftain, a smaller
portion to the bishop, the shanachy, head poet, and other civil
officers each in his degree, such property was attached to the
office and not to the man who filled it, but passed to his
elected successor and not to his own children; while the great
bulk of the territory belonged to the clan in common. No one
possessed the right to alienate a single rood of it, and, if at
times a portion was granted to exiles, to strangers, to a
contiguous clan, the whole tribe was consulted on the subject.
Over the common land large herds of cattle roamed--the property
of individuals who could own nothing, except of a movable nature,
beyond their small wooden houses.
This state of things had existed, according to their annals, for
several thousand years. Their ancestors had lived happily under
such social conditions, which they wished to abide in and hand
down to their posterity.
Foreign trade was distasteful to them; in fact, they had no
inclination for commerce. Lucre they despised, scarcely knowing
the use of money, which had been lately introduced among them.
Yet, being refined in their tastes, fond of ornament, of wine at
their feasts, loving to adorn the persons of their wives and
daughters with silk and gems, they had allowed the Danes to
dwell in their seaports, to trade in those commodities, and to
import for their use what the land did not produce.
Those seaport towns had been fortified by the Northmen on their
first victories when they took possession of them. Throughout
the rest of the island, a fortress or a large town was not to be
seen. The people, being all agriculturists or graziers, loved to
dwell in the country; their houses were built of wattle and clay,
yet comfortable and orderly.
The mansions of the chieftains were neither large architectural
piles, nor frowning fortresses. They bore the name of raths when
used for dwellings; of duns when constructed with a view to
resisting an attack. In both cases, they were, in part under
ground, in part above; the whole circular in form, built
sometimes of large stones, oftener of walls of sodded clay.
Instead of covering their limbs with coats of mail, like the
warriors of mediaeval Europe, they wore woollen garments even in
war, and for ornaments chains or plates of precious metal. The
Norman invaders, clad in heavy mail, were surprised, therefore,
to find themselves face to face with men in their estimation
unprotected and naked. More astonished were they still at the
natural boldness and readiness of the Irish in speaking before
their chieftains and princes, not understanding that all were of
the same blood and cognizant of the fact.
Still less could they understand the freedom and familiarity
existing between the Irish nobility and the poorest of their
kinsmen, so different from the haughty bearing of an aristocracy
of foreign extraction to the serfs and villeins of a people they
had conquered.
The two nations now confronting each other had, therefore,
nothing in common, unless, perhaps, an excessive pertinacity of
purpose. The new comers belonged to a stern, unyielding,
systematic stock, which was destined to give to Europe that
great character so superior in our times to that of southern or
eastern nations. The natives possessed that strong attachment to
their time-honored customs, so peculiar to patriarchal tribes,
in whose nature traditions and social habits are so strongly
intermingled, that they are ineradicable save by the utter
extirpation of the people.
And now the characteristics of both races were to be brought out
in strong contrast by the great question of property in the soil,
which was at the bottom of the struggle between clanship and
feudalism. The Irish, as we have seen, knew nothing of
individual property in land, nor of tenure, nor of rent, much
less of forfeiture. They were often called upon by their
chieftains to contribute to their support in ways not seldom
oppressive enough, but the contributions were always in kind.
A new and very different system was to be attempted, to which
the Irish at first appeared to consent, because they did not
understand it, attaching, as they did, their own ideas to words,
which, in the mouths of the invaders, had a very different
meaning.
With the Irish "to do homage" meant to acknowledge the
superiority of another, either on account of his lawful
authority or his success in war; and the consequences of this
act were, either the fulfilment of the enactments contained in
the "Book of Rights," or submission to temporary conditions
guaranteed by hostages. But that the person doing homage became
by that act the liegeman of the suzerain for life and
hereditarily in his posterity, subject to be deprived of all
privileges of citizenship, as well as to the possibility of
seeing all his lands forfeited, besides many minor penalties
enjoined by the feudal code which often resolved itself into
mere might--such a meaning of the word homage could by no
possibility enter the mind of an Irishman at that period.
Hence, when, after the atrocities committed by the first
invaders, who respected neither treaties nor the dictates of
humanity, not even the sanctuary and the sacredness of religious
houses, Henry II. came with an army, large and powerful for that
time, the Irish people and their chieftains, hoping that he
would put an end to the crying tyranny of the Fitzstephens,
Fitzgeralds, De Lacys, and others, went to meet him and
acknowledge his authority as head chieftain of Leinster through
Strongbow, and, perhaps, as the monarch who should restore peace
and happiness to the whole island. McCarthy, king of Desmond,
was the first Irish prince to pay homage to Henry.
While the king was spending the Christmas festivities in Dublin,
many other chieftains arrived; among them O'Carrol of Oriel and
O'Rourke of Breffny. Roderic O'Connor of Connaught, till then
acknowledged by many as monarch of Ireland, thought at first of
fighting, but, as was his custom, he ended by a treaty, wherein,
it is said, he acknowledged Henry as his suzerain, and thus
placed Ireland at his feet. Ulster alone had not seen the
invaders; but, as its inhabitants did not protest with arms in
their hands, the Normans pretended that from that moment they
were the rightful owners of the island.
Without a moment's delay they began to feudalize the country by
dividing the land and building castles. These two operations,
which we now turn to, opened the eyes of the Irish to the
deception which had been practised upon them, and were the real
origin of the momentous struggle which is still being waged
today.
Sir John Davies, the English attorney-general of James I., has
stated the whole case in a sentence: "All Ireland was by Henry
II. cantonized among ten of the English nation; and, though they
had not gained possession of one-third of the kingdom, yet in
title they were owners and lords of all, so as nothing was left
to be granted to the natives."
McCarthy, king of Desmond, had been the first to acknowledge the
authority of Henry II., yet McCarthy's lands were among the
first, if not the first, bestowed by Henry on his minions. The
grant may be seen in Ware, and it is worthy of perusal as a
sample of the many grants which followed it, whereby Henry
attempted a total revolution in the tenure of land. The charter
giving Meath to De Lacy was the only one which by a clause
seemed to preserve the old customs of the country as to
territory; and yet it was in Meath that the greatest atrocities
were committed.
Yet one difficulty presented itself to the invaders: their
rights were only on paper, whereas the Irish were still in
possession of the greatest part of the island, and once the real
purpose of the Normans showed itself, they were no longer
disposed to submit to Henry or to any of his appointed lords.
The territory had to be wrested from them by force of arms.
The English claimed the whole island as their own. They were, in
fact, masters only of the portion occupied by their troops; the
remainder was, therefore, to be conquered. And if in Desmond,
where the whole strength of the English first fell, they
possessed only a little more than one-fourth of the soil, what
was the case in the rest of the island, the most of which had
not yet seen them?
Long years of war would evidently be required to subdue it, and
the systematic mind of the conquerors immediately set about
devising the best means for the attainment of their purpose. The
lessons gathered from their continental experience suggested
these means immediately; they saw that by covering the country
with feudal castles they could in the end conquer the most
stubborn nation. A thorough revolution was intended. The two
systems were so entirely antagonistic to each other that the
success of the Norman project involved a change of land tenure,
laws, customs, dress--every thing. Even the music of the bards
was to be silenced, the poetry of the files to be abolished, the
pedigrees of families to be discontinued, the very games of the
people to be interrupted and forbidden. A vast number of castles
was necessary. The project was a fearful one, cruel, barbarous,
worthy of pagan antiquity. It was undertaken with a kind of
ferocious alacrity, and in a short time it appeared near
realization. But in the long run it failed, and four hundred
years later, under the eighth Henry, it was as far from
completion as the day on which the second Henry left the island
in 1171.
To show the importance which the invaders attached to their
system, and the ardor with which they set about putting it in
practice, we have only to extract a few passages from the old
annals of the islands; they are wonderfully expressive in their
simplicity:
"A.D. 1176. The English were driven from Limerick by Donnall
O'Brian. An English castle was in process of erection at Kells."-
-(Four Masters.)
"A.D. 1178. The English built and fortified a castle at Kenlis,
the key of those parts of Meath, against the incursions of the
Ulster men."--(Ware's Antiquities.)
"A.D. 1180. Hugh De Lacy planted several colonies in Meath, and
fortified the country with many castles, for the defence and
security of the English."--(Ibid.)
Such enumerations might be prolonged indefinitely; we conclude
with the following entry taken from the Four Masters:
"A.D. 1186. Hugh De Lacy, the profaner and destroyer of many
churches, Lord of the English of Meath (the Irish cannot call
him their lord), Breffni, and Oirghialla, he who had conquered
the greater part of Ireland for the English, and of whose
English castles all Meath, from the Shannon to the sea, was full,
after having finished the castle of Der Magh, set out
accompanied by three Englishmen to visit it . . . . One of the
men of Tebtha, a youth named O'Miadhaigh, approached him, and
with an axe severed his head from his body."
So wide-reaching and comprehensive was the plan of the invaders
from the beginning that they felt confident of holding
possession of Ireland forever; and to effect this they must
certainly have intended to destroy or drive out the native race,
or at best to make slaves of as many of them as they chose to
keep. Thus they had prophecies manufactured for the purpose, and
Cambrensis, in his second book, chapter xxxiii., says
confidently: "Prophecies promise a full victory to the English
people. . . . and that the island of Hibernia shall be subjected
and fortified with castles--literally incastellated,
incastellatam--throughout from sea to sea."
Meanwhile, together with the building of castles, the partition
of the territory was being carried out. The ten great lords,
among whom, according to Sir John Davies, Henry II. had
cantonized Ireland, saw the necessity of giving a part of their
large estates to their followers that so they might occupy the
whole. McGeohegan compiles from Ware the best view of this very
interesting and comparatively unexplored subject. Curious
details are found there, showing that, with the exception of
Ulster, not only the geography, but even the most minute
topography of the country, had been well studied by those feudal
chieftains. Their characteristic love for system runs all
through these transactions.
But the Irish had now seen enough. The whole country was in a
blaze. That kind of guerilla war peculiar to the Celtic clans
began. The newly built castles were attacked and often captured
and destroyed. Strongbow was shut up and besieged in Water- ford,
which fell into the hands of the Danes. The latter sided
everywhere with the Irish. Limerick changed hands several times,
until Donnall O'Brian, who was left in possession, set fire to
it rather than see it fall again into the hands of the invaders.
In Meath, where the numerous castles of De Lacy were situated, a
war to the knife was being waged. O'Melachlin first tried
persuasion, but in conference with De Lacy he dared inveigh
loudly against the King of England, and, as his words must have
expressed the feelings of the great majority of the people, we
give them:
"Notwithstanding his promise of supporting me in the possession
of my wealth and dignities, he has sent robbers to invade my
patrimony. Avaricious and sparing of his own possessions, he is
lavish of those of others, and thus enriches libertines and
profligates who have consumed the patrimony of their fathers in
debauchery."
This manly protest was answered by the stroke of a dagger from
the hand of Raymond Legros, and, after being beheaded,
0'Melachlin was buried feet upward as a rebel.
The monarch himself, Roderic O'Connor, finally appeared on the
scene, beat the English at Thurles, and, marching into Meath,
laid the country waste.
Henry at last saw the necessity of adopting a milder policy, and
O'Connor dispatching to England Catholicus O'Duffy, Archbishop
of Tuam, Lawrence O'Toole, of Dublin, and Concors, Abbot of St.
Brendan, the Treaty of Windsor was concluded, which was really a
compromise, and yet remained the true law of the land for four
hundred years. It may be seen in Rymer's "Foedera."
Sir John Davies justly remarks that by the treaty "the Irish
lords only promised to become tributaries to King Henry II.; and
such as pay only tribute, though they are placed by Bodin in the
first degree of subjection, yet are not properly subjects, but
sovereigns; for though they be less and inferior to the princes
to whom they pay tribute, yet they hold all other points of
sovereignty.
"And, therefore, though King Henry had the title of Sovereign
Lord over the Irish, yet did he not put those things in
execution, which are the true marks of sovereignty.
"For to give laws unto a people, to institute magistrates and
officers over them, to punish or pardon malefactors, to have the
sole authority of making war or peace, are the true marks of
sovereignty, which King Henry II. had not in Ireland, but the
Irish lords did still retain all those prerogatives to
themselves. For they governed their people by the Brehon law;
they appointed their own magistrates and officers; . . . . they
made war and peace one with another, without control; and this
they did not only during the reign of Henry II., but afterward
in all times, even until the reign of Queen Elizabeth."
By an article of the treaty the Irish were allowed to live in
the Pale if they chose; and even there they could enjoy their
customs in peace, as far as the letter of the law went. Many
acts of Irish parliaments, it is true, were passed for the
purpose of depriving them of that right, but without success.
Edmund Spenser, himself living in the Pale in the reign of
Elizabeth, speaks as an eye-witness of "having seen their meeton
their ancient accustomed hills, where they debated and settled
matters according to the Brehon laws, between family and family,
township and township, assembling in large numbers, and going,
according to their custom, all armed."
Stanihurst also, a contemporary of Spenser, had witnessed the
breaking up of those meetings, and seen "the crowds in long
lines, coming down the hills in the wake of each chieftain, he
the proudest that could bring the largest company home to his
evening supper."
Here would be the proper place to speak of the Brehon law, which
remained thus in antagonism to feudal customs for several
centuries. Up to recently, however, only vague notions could be
given of that code. But at this moment antiquarians are revising
and studying it preparatory to publishing the "Senchus Mor" in
which the Irish law is contained. It is known that it existed
previous to the conversion of Ireland to Christianity, and that
the laws of tanistry and of gavelkind, the customs of gossipred
and of fostering, were of pagan origin. Patrick revised the code
and corrected what could not coincide with the Christian
religion. He also introduced into the island many principles of
the Roman civil and canon law, which, without destroying the
peculiarities natural to the Irish character, invested their
code with a more modern and Christian aspect.
Edmund Campian, who afterward died a martyr under Elizabeth,
says, in his "Account of Ireland," written in May, 1571: "They
(the Irish) speak Latin like a vulgar language, learned in their
common schools of leechcraft and law, whereat they begin
children, and hold on sixteen or twenty years, conning by rote
the aphorisms of Hippocrates, and the Civil Institutes, and a
few other parings of these two faculties. I have seen them where
they kept school, ten in some one chamber, grovelling upon
couches of straw, their books at their noses, themselves lying
prostrate, and so to chant out their lessons by piecemeal, being
the most part lusty fellows of twenty-five years and upward."
It was then after studies of from sixteen to twenty years that
the Brehon judge--the great one of a whole sept, or the inferior
one of a single noble family--sat at certain appointed times, in
the open air, on a hill generally, having for his seat clods of
earth, to decide on the various subjects of difference among
neighbors.
Sir James Ware remarks that they were not acquainted with the
laws of England. He might have better said, they preferred their
own, as not coming from cold and pagan Scandinavia, but from the
warm south, the greatest of human law-givers, the jurisconsults
of Old Rome, and the holy expounders of the laws of Christian
Rome.
What were those laws of England of which Ware speaks? There is
no question here of the common law which came into use in times
posterior to Henry II., and which the English derived chiefly
from the Christian civil and canon law; but of those feudal
enactments, which the Anglo-Normans endeavored to introduce into
Ireland, for the purpose of supplanting the old law and customs
of the natives.
There was, first, the law of territory, if we may so call it, by
which the supreme ruler became really owner of the integral soil,
which he distributed among his great vassals, to be
redistributed by them among inferior vassals.
There was the law of primogeniture, which even to this day
obtains in England, and has brought about in that country since
the days of William the Conqueror, and in Ireland since the
English "plantations" of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
the state of things now so well known to Europe.
There was also the long list of feudal conditions to be observed,
by the fulfilment of which the great barons and their followers
held their lands. For their tenure was liable to homage and
fealty, as understood in the feudal sense, to wardships and
impediments to marriage, to fines for alienations, to what
English legists call primer seizins, rents, reliefs, escheats,
and, finally, forfeitures; this last was at all times more
strictly observed in England than in any other feudal country,
and by its enactments so many noble families have, in the course
of ages, been reduced to beggary, and their chiefs often brought
to the block. English history is filled with such cases.
The law of wardship, by which no minor, heir, or heiress could
have other guardian than the suzerain, and could not marry
without his consent, was at all times a great source of wealth
to the royal exchequer, and a correspondingly heavy tribute laid
on the vassal. So profitable did the English kings find this law,
that they speedily introduced it into Church affairs, every
bishop's see or monastery being considered, at the death of the
incumbent, as a minor, a ward, to be taken care of by the
sovereign, who enjoyed the revenues without bothering himself
particularly with the charges.
There were, finally, the hunting laws, which forbade any man to
hunt or hawk even on his own estate.
Such were the laws of England, which Sir James Ware complains
the Irish did not know.
In signing the treaty of Windsor, the English king had
apparently recognized in the person of Roderic O'Connor, and in
the Irish through him, the chief rights of sovereignty over the
whole island, except Leinster and, perhaps, Meath. But, at the
same time, a passage or two in the treaty concealed a meaning
certainly unperceived by the Irish, but fraught with mischief
and misfortune to their country.
First, Roderic O'Connor acknowledged himself and his successors
as liegemen of the kings of England; in a second place, the
privileges conceded to the Irish were to continue only so long
as they remained faithful to their oath of allegiance. We see
here the same confusion of ideas, which we remarked on the
meaning given to the word homage by either party. The natives of
the island understood to be liegemen and under oath in a sense
conformable to their usual ideas of subordination; the English
invested those words with the feudal meaning.
All the calamities of the four following centuries, and,
consequently, all the horrors of the times subsequent to the
Protestant Reformation, were to be the penalty of that
misunderstanding.
Let us picture to ourselves two races of men so different as the
Milesian Celts on the one side, and the Scandinavian Norman
French on the other, having concluded such a treaty as that of
Windsor, each side resolved to push its own interpretation to
the bitter end.
The English are in possession of a territory clearly enough
defined, but they are ever on the alert to seize any opportunity
of a real or pretended violation of it, in order to extend their
limits and subjugate the whole island. Yet they are bound to
allow the Brehon Irish to live in their midst, governed by their
own customs and laws. Moreover, they acknowledge that the former
great Irish lords of the very country which they occupy are not
mere Irish, but of noble blood; for, from the beginning, the
English recognized five families of the country, known as the
"five bloods," as pure and noble, in theory at least.
The Irish without the Pale are acknowledged as perfectly
independent, completely beyond English control, with their own
magistrates and laws, even that of war; subject only to tribute.
But, at the same time, this independence is rendered absolutely
insecure by the imposition of conditions, whose meaning is well
known and perfectly understood in all the countries conquered by
the Scandinavians, but utterly beyond the comprehension of the
Irish.
The consequence is clear: war began with the conclusion of the
treaty--a war which raged for four centuries, until a new and
more powerful incentive to slaughter and desolation showed
itself in the Reformation, ushered in by Henry VIII.
First came a general rebellion. This is the word used by
Ware, when John, a boy of twelve years of age, was dispatched by
his father Henry, with the title of Lord of Ireland, to receive
the submission of various Irish lords at Waterford, where he
landed. "The young English gentlemen," says Cambrensis, who was
a witness of the scene, "used the Irish chieftains with scorn,
because," as he says, "their demeanor was rude and barbarous."
The Irish naturally resented this treatment from a lad, as they
would have resented it from his father; and they retired in
wrath to take up arms and raise the whole land to "rebellion."
This solemn protest was not without effect in Europe. At the
beginning of the reign of Richard I., Clement III., on
appointing, by the king's request, William de Longchamps,
Bishop of Ely, as his legate in England, Wales, and Ireland,
took good care to limit the authority of this prelate to those
parts of Ireland which lay under the jurisdiction of the Earl
of Moreton-- that is, of John, brother to Richard. He had power
to exercise his jurisdiction "in Anglia,, Wallia, et illis
Hiberniae partibus in quibus Joannes Moretonii Comes potestatem
habet et dominium."--(Matth. Paris.) It would seem, then, that
Clement III. knew nothing of the bull of Adrian IV.
The war, as we said, was incessant. England finally so despaired
of conquering the country, that some lords of the court of Henry
VI. caused him to write letters to some of his "Irish enemies,"
urging the latter to effect the conquest of the island in the
king's name. This was assuredly a last resource, which history
has never recorded of any other nation warring on a rival. But
even in this England failed. Those lords--the "Irish enemies" of
King Henry VI.--sent his letters to the Duke of York, then Lord-
Lieutenant, "and published to the world the shame of England."--
(Sir John Davies.)
The result was that, at the end of the reign of Henry VI., the
Irish, in the words of the same author, "became victorious over
all, without blood or sweat; only that little canton of land,
called the English Pale, containing four small shires;
maintained yet a bordering war with the Irish, and retained the
form of English government."
Feudalism was thus reduced in Ireland to the small territory
lying between the Boyne and the Liffey, subject to the constant
annoyance of the O'Moores, O'Byrnes, and O'Cavanaghs. And this
state of affairs continued until the period of the so-called
Reformation in England.
Ireland proved itself then the only spot in Western Europe where
feudal laws and feudal customs could take no root. Through all
other nations of the Continent those laws spread by degrees,
from the countries invaded by the Northmen, into the most
distant parts, modified and mitigated in some instances by the
innate power of resistance left by former institutions. In this
small island alone, where clanship still held its own, feudalism
proved a complete failure. We merely record a fact, suggestive,
indeed, of thought, which proves, if no more, at least that the
Celtic nature is far more persevering and steady of purpose than
is generally supposed.
But a more interesting spectacle still awaits us--that of the
English themselves morally overcome and won over by the example
of their antagonists, renouncing their feudal usages, and
adopting manners which they had at first deemed rude and
barbarous.
The treaty of Windsor, which was subsequently confirmed by many
diplomatic enactments, obliged King Henry III. of England to
address O'Brien of Thomond in the following words: "Rex regi
Thomond salutem." The same English monarch was compelled to give
O'Neill of Ulster the title of Rex, after having used,
inadvertently perhaps, that of Regulus.--(Sir John Davies.) Both
O'Brien and O'Neill lived in the midst of a thickly populated
Irish district, with a few great English lords shut up in their
castles on the borders of the respective territory of the clans.
The Norman lords in many parts of the country lived right in the
midst of an Irish population, with its Brehon judges, shanachies,
harpers, and other officers, attached to their customs of
gossipred, fostering, tanistry, gavelkind, and other usages,
which the parliaments of Drogheda, Kilkenny, Dublin, Trim, and
other places, were soon to declare lewd and barbarous. The
question of the moment was: Which of the two systems, clanship
or feudalism, brought thus into close contact and antagonism,
was to prevail?
Ere long it began to appear that the aversion first felt by the
English lords at such strange customs was not entirely
invincible, and many of them even went so far as to choose wives
from among the native families. In fact, there lay a great
example before their eyes from the outset, in the marriage of
Strongbow with Eva, the daughter of McMurrough. Intermarriage
soon became the prevailing custom; so that the posterity of the
first invaders was, after all, to have Celtic blood in its veins.
Hence, a distinction arose between the English by blood and the
English by birth. The first had, indeed, an English name; but
they were born in the island, and soon came to be known as
degenerate English.--That degeneracy was merely the moral effect
of constant intercourse with the natives of their neighborhood. -
-The others were continually shifting, being always composed of
the latest new-comers from England.
It is something well worthy of remark that a residence of a
short duration sufficed to blend in unison two natures so
opposed as the Irish and the English. The latter, not content
with wedding Irish wives, sent their own children to be fostered
by their Irish friends; and the children naturally came from the
nursery more Irish than their fathers. They objected no longer
to becoming gossips for each other at christenings, to adopt the
dress of their foster-parents, whose language was in many cases
the only one which they brought from their foster-home.
Thus Ireland, even in districts which had been thoroughly
devastated by the first invaders, became the old Ireland again;
and the song of the bard and the melody of the harper were heard
in the English castle as well as in the Irish rath.1 (1 The
process of gaining over an Englishman to Irish manners is
admirably described in the "Moderate Cavalier," under Cromwell,
quoted by Mr. J. P. Prendergast in his second edition of the
"Cromwellian Settlement," p. 263. If this process were common
with the Protestant officers of Cromwell, how much more so with
Catholic Anglo-Normans!)
The nationalization of their kin, which received a powerful
impetus from the fact that the English who lived without the
Pale escaped feudal exactions and penalties from the
impossibility of enforcing the feudal laws on Irish territory,
alarmed the Anglo-Normans by birth, in whose hand rested the
engine of the government; and, looking around for a remedy, they
could discover nothing better than acts of Parliament.
We have not been able to ascertain the precise epoch in which
the first Irish Parliament was convened; indeed, to this day, it
seems a debated question. The general belief, however, ascribes
it to King John. The first mention of it by Ware is under the
year 1333, as late as Edward III., more than one hundred and
fifty years after the Conquest. But the need of stringent rules
to keep the Irish at bay, and prevent the English from
"degenerating," became so urgent that, in 1367, the famous
Parliament met at Kilkenny, and enacted the bill known as the
"Statutes of Kilkenny," in which the matter was fully elaborated,
and a new order of things set on foot in Ireland.
The Irish could recognize no other Parliament than their ancient
Feis; and, these having been discontinued for several centuries,
they showed their appreciation of the new English institution in
the manner described by Ware under the year 1413: "On the 11th
of the calends of February, the morrow after St. Matthias day, a
Parliament began at Dublin, and continued for the space of
fifteen days; in which time the Irish burned all that stood in
their way, as their usual custom was in times of other
Parliaments."
The reader who is acquainted with the enactments which go by the
name of the "Statutes of Kilkenny" will scarcely wonder at this
mode of proceeding.
Neither at that period, nor later on save once under Henry VIII.,
was the Irish race represented in those assemblies. In the
reign of Edward III. no Irish native nor old English resident
assisted at the Parliament of Kilkenny, but only Englishmen
newly arrived; for all its acts were directed against the Irish
and the degenerate English--against the latter particularly. How
the members composing these Parliaments were elected at that
time we do not know; but they were not summoned from more than
twelve counties, which number, first established by King John,
gradually dwindled, until, in the reign of Henry VII., it was
reduced to four, so that the Irish Parliament came to be
composed of a few men, and those few representatives of purely
English interests.
A true history of the times would demand an examination of the
various enactments made by these so-called Irish Parliaments, as
setting forth more distinctly than any thing else could do the
points at variance between the two nations. Our space, however,
and indeed our purpose, forbids this. In order to put the reader
in possession of at least an idea of the difficulties on either
side, we add a few extracts from the very famous "Statutes of
Kilkenny."
The preamble sets forth "that already the English in Ireland
were mere Irish in their language, names, apparel, and their
manner of living, and had rejected the English laws and
submitted to the Irish, with whom they had many marriages and
alliances, which tended to the utter ruin and destruction of the
commonwealth." And then the Statutes go on to enact --we cull
from various chapters: "The English cannot any more make peace
or war with the Irish without special warrant; it is made penal
to the English to permit the Irish to send their cattle to graze
upon their land; the Irish could not be presented by the English
to any ecclesiastical benefice; they--the Irish--could not be
received into any monasteries or religious houses; the English
could not entertain any of their bards, or poets, or shanachies,
" etc.
This extraordinary legislation proves beyond any amount of facts
to what degree the posterity of the first Norman invaders of
Ireland had adopted Irish customs, and made themselves one with
the natives.
The Irish, therefore, had, in this instance, morally conquered
their enemies, and feudalism was defeated. Another example was
given of the invariable invasions of the island. The enemy,
however successful at the beginning, was compelled finally to
give way to the force of resistance in this people; and the time-
honored customs of an ancient race survived all attempts at
violent foreign innovations. The posterity of those proud nobles,
who, with Giraldus Cambrensis, had found nothing but what was
contemptible in this nation, so strange to their eyes, who
looked upon them as an easy victim to be despoiled of their land,
and that land to be occupied by them, that posterity adopted,
within, comparatively speaking, a few years, the life and
manners of the mere Irish in their entirety. Feudalism they
renounced for the clan. Each of the great English families that
first landed in the island had formed a new sept, and the clans
of the Geraldines, De Courcys, and others, were admitted into
full copartnership with the old Milesian septs. This the two
great families of the Burkes in Connaught called their chiefs
McWilllams Either and McWilliams Oughter. The Berminghams bad
become McYoris; the Dixons, McJordans; the Mangles, McCostellos.
Other old English families were called McHubbard, McDavid, etc.;
one of the Geraldine septs was known as McMorice, another as
McGibbon; the chief of Dunboyne's house became McPheris.
Meanwhile, "it was manifest," says Sir John Davies, "that those
who had the government of Ireland under the crown of England
intended to make a perpetual separation and enmity between the
English settled in Ireland and the Irish, in the expectation
that the English should in the end root out the Irish."
There is no doubt that, if these laws of Kilkenny could have
been enforced and carried out, as they were meant to be, the
effect hoped for by these legislators might have been the
natural result. Yet even much later on, at a period, too, when
the English power was considerably increased, under Henry VIII.,
a very curious discussion of this possibility, which took place
at the time, did not by any means promise an easy realization.
The following passage of the "State Papers," under the great
Tudor, contains a rather sensible view of the subject, and is
not so sanguine of the success of the hopes cherished by the
attorney-general of James I.:
"The lande is very large--by estimation as large as Englande--so
that, to enhabit the whole with new inhabiters, the number would
be so great that there is no prince christened that commodiously
might spare so many subjects to depart out of his regions. . . .
But to enterprise the whole extirpation and totall destruction
of all the Irishmen of the lande, it would be a marvellous and
sumptuous charge and great difficulty, considering both the lack
of enhabitors, and the great hardness and misery these Irishmen
can endure, both of hunger, colde, and thirst, and evill lodging,
more than the inhabitants of any other lande."
There were, therefore, evidently difficulties in the way; yet it
is certain that the question of the total extirpation of the
Irish has been entertained for centuries by a class of English
statesmen, and confidently looked for by the English nation. Sir
John Davies, as we see, attributes no other object to the
Statutes of Kilkenny.
But could those statutes be enforced? were they ever enforced?
The same writer pretends that they were for "several years;" but
the sequel proves that they were not. The reason which he
assigns for their execution--that for a certain time after that
Parliament there was peace in the island--leads us to believe
the contrary; for if, as he himself justly remarks before, the
intention of the legislators was to create a perpetual
separation and enmity between the two races, the promulgation
and strict execution of those statutes would have immediately
enkindled a war which could have ended only with the total
extirpation of one race or the other.
And the further fact that it was thought necessary to reenact
those odious laws frequently in subsequent Irish Parliaments
proves that they were not carried into execution, since new
legislation on the subject was demanded.
It is true that events, transmitted to us either through the
Irish annals or the English chronicles, show that several
attempts were made to enforce those acts of Kilkenny, chiefly
against the Fitz-Thomases or Geraldines of Desmond, who
pretended, even after their enactment, to be as independent of
them as before, and refused to attend the Parliament when
convoked, claiming the strange privilege "that the Earls of
Desmond should never come to any Parliament or Grand Council, or
within any walled town, but at their will or pleasure." And the
Desmonds continued in their persistent opposition to the English
laws until the reign of Elizabeth.
But it was against Churchmen chiefly that they were carried out
in full; for we occasionally meet in the annals of the country
with instances where some English prelate in Ireland had been
prosecuted for having conferred orders on mere Irishmen, and
that some Norman abbots had been deposed for having received
mere Irishmen as monks into their monasteries.
With the exception of a few cases of this kind, no proof can be
furnished that any material change was brought about in the
relations of the old English settlers with their Irish neighbors.
In fact, matters progressed so favorably in this friendly
direction, that at length the descendants of Strongbow and his
followers became, as is well known, "Hibernis Hiberniores," and
the judges sent from England could hold their circuit only in
the four counties between the Liffey and the Boyne; and the name
given to the majority of the old English families was "English
rebels," while the natives were called "Irish enemies."
Sir John Davies himself is forced to admit it: "When the civil
government grew so weak and so loose that the English lords
would not suffer the English laws to be executed within their
territories and seigniories, but in place thereof both they and
their people embraced the Irish customs, then the state of
things, like a game at Irish, was so turned about, that the
English, who hoped to make a perfect conquest of the Irish, were
by them perfectly and absolutely conquered, because Victi
victoribus leges dedere."
The truth could not be expressed in more explicit terms. Yet all
has not been said. The same persevering character, making
headway against apparently insurmountable obstacles, shows
itself conspicuously in the Irish, in the preservation of their
land, which, after all, was the great object of contention
between the two races.
The first Anglo-Norman invaders, including Henry II himself, had
no other object in view than gradually to occupy the whole
territory, subject it to the feudal laws, give to Englishmen the
position of feudal lords, and reduce the Irish to that of
villeins, if they could not succeed in rooting them out.
A few years later, by the Treaty of Windsor, the king seemed to
confine his pretensions to Leinster, and perhaps Meath, and
expressly allowed the natives to keep their lands in the other
districts of the island. Yet none of his former grants, by which
"he had cantonned the whole island between ten Englishmen," were
recalled; the continued as part of and means to shape the policy
of the invaders, and subsequent Parliaments always supposed the
validity of those former grants made to Strongbow and his
followers.
It is true that those posterior Acts of Parliament did not
merely rely for their strength on the first documents, but on
the pretence that the Irish chieftains and people outside of
Leinster and Meath had justly forfeited their estates by not
fulfilling the conditions virtually contained in the Windsor
Treaty, in which they had professed homage and submission to the
English king. It is clear that, lawfully or unlawfully, the
Anglo-Normans were determined to gain possession, sooner or
later, of the whole island.
To secure their end, they declared that the natives would not be
subject to the English laws, but retain their Brehon laws, which
in their eyes were no laws at all, and which the Parliament of
Kilkenny had declared to be "lewd customs." Henceforth, then,
the natives were out of the pale of the law, could not claim its
protection, but became subject to the crown of England, without
political, civil, or even human rights.
They were soon, by reason of the constant border wars all around
the Pale, declared "alien and enemies." And these expressions
became, in the eyes of the English lawyers, identical with the
Irish race and the Irish nature; so that at all times, peace or
war, even when the Irish fought in the English ranks, aiding the
Plantagenets in their furious contests with the Scotch or the
French, they were still "Irish enemies;" "aliens" unworthy human
rights, villeins in whose veins no noble blood could flow, with
the exception of five families.
All the rest were not only ignoble, but not even men; nothing
but mere Irish, whom any one might kill, even though serving
under the English crown, at a risk of being fined five marks, to
be paid to the treasury of the King of England, for having
deprived his majesty of a serviceable tool.
This (to modern eyes) astounding social state demands a closer
examination in order to see if, at least, it had the merit of
finally procuring for the English the possession of the land
they coveted.
We find first that Henry II., John, and Henry III., would seem
on several occasions to have extended the laws of England all
over the island. But all English legists will tell us that those
laws were only for the inhabitants of English blood. The mere
Irish were always reputed aliens, or, rather, enemies to the
crown, so that it was, " by actual fact, often adjudged no
felony to kill a mere Irish in time of peace," as Sir John
Davies expressly points out.
Five families alone were excepted from the general category and
acknowledged to be of noble blood--the O'Neills of Ulster, the
O'Melachlins of Meath, the O'Connors of Connaught, the O'Briens
of Munster, and the McMurroughs of Leinster.
Those five families, numerous certainly, but forming only as
many septs, were, or appeared to be, acknowledged as having a
right to their lands, and as able to bring or defend actions at
law. We say, appeared to be, because they found themselves on so
many occasions ranked as mere Irish, that individuals of those
septs, induced by sheer necessity, were often driven, in spite
of an almost invincible repugnance, to apply for and accept
special charters of naturalization from the English kings. Thus
in the reign of Edward IV., O'Neill, on the occasion of his
marriage with a daughter of the house of Kildare, was made an
English citizen by special act of Parliament.
In reality then, even the most illustrious members of the "five
bloods" were scarcely considered as enjoying the full rights of
the lowest English vassals, although their ancestors had been
acknowledged kings by former Anglo-Norman monarchs in public
documents: "Rex Henricus regi O'Neill," etc.
But if there was some shadow of doubt with regard to the
political and social rights of those great families, such doubt
did not exist for the remainder of the Irish race. They were
absolutely without rights. Depriving them of their lands,
pillaging their houses, devastating their farms, outraging their
wives and daughters, killing them, could not subject the guilty
to any civil or criminal action at law. In fact, as we have
shown, such acts were in accordance with the spirit, even with
the letter of the law, so that the criminal, as we should
consider him, had but to plead that the man whom he had robbed
or killed was a mere Irishman, and the proceedings were
immediately stopped, if this all-important fact were proved; and
in case of homicide the murderer escaped by the payment of the
fine of five marks to the treasury.
To modern, even to English ears, all this may sound incredible.
Many striking examples of the truth of it might be produced.
They are to be found in all works which treat of the subject.
Sir John Davies, that great Irish hater, evidently takes a
genuine delight in depicting several such instances with all
their aggravating details, scarcely expecting that every word he
wrote would serve to brand forever with shame Anglo-Norman
England.
Under such legislation it was clear that life on the borders of
the Pale was not only insecure, but that the soil would remain
in the grasp of the strongest. Any Anglo-Norman only required
the power in order to take possession of the land of his
neighbor.
But it is not in man's nature to submit to such galling thraldom
as this, without at least an attempt at retaliation. Least of
all was it the nature of such a people to submit to such
measures--a nation, the most ancient in Europe, dating their
ownership of the soil as far back as man's memory could go,
civilized before Scandinavia became a nest of pirates,
Christianized from the fifth century, and the spreader of
literature, civilization, and the holy faith of Christ through
England, Scotland, Germany, France, and Northern Italy.
If we have dwelt a little, and only a little, upon the intensity
of the contest waged for four hundred years previous to the
added atrocities introduced by the Reformation, we have done so
advisedly, since it has become a fashion of late to throw a
gloss over the past, to ignore it, to let the dead bury their
dead--all which would be very well, could it be done, and could
writers forget to stamp the Irish as unsociable, barbarous, and
bloodthirsty, because with arms in their hands, and a fire
ardent and sacred in their souls, they strove again and again to
reconquer the territory which had been won from them by fraud,
and because they thought it fair to kill in open fight the men
who avowed that they could kill them even in peace at a penalty
of five marks.
The contest, therefore, never ceased; how could it ? But, in
that endless conflict between the two races, the loss of
territory leaned rather to the English side. If, with the help
of their castles, better discipline, and arms, the English at
first gained on the natives and extended their possessions
beyond the Pale, a reaction soon set in--the Irish had their day
of revenge, and entered again into possession of the land of
which they had been robbed. In order to repair their losses, the
Anglo-Normans had recourse to acts of Parliament, which could
bind not only the English of the Pale, but also those of other
districts, who, enjoying the privileges of English law, were
likewise bound by its provisions.
In order rightly to understand the need and purposes of those
enactments, we must return a moment to the days of the conquest.
The case of Strongbow will illustrate many others. He married
Eva, the daughter of McMurrough, and thus allied himself to the
best families of Leinster. On the death of his father-in-law, he
received the whole kingdom as his inheritance. The greater part
of his dominions, which he either would not or could not govern
himself, he was compelled to distribute, in the usual style,
among his followers. He distributed large estates as _fiefs_
among those who had followed his fortunes, but he could not
forget his Irish relatives, to whom he had become strongly
attached. He secured, therefore, to many Irish families the
territory which was formerly theirs, and many of his English
adherents, who, like himself, had married daughters of the soil,
did the same in their more limited territories. This explains
fully why Irish families remained in Leinster after the
settlement of the Anglo-Normans there, who established their
Pale in it, as also why they continued to possess their lands in
the midst of the English as they had formerly done in the midst
of the Danes.
The same thing took place in the kingdom of Cork, on the borders
of Connaught, and around the seaports of Ulster, wherever the
English had established themselves and erected castles and
fortifications.
But, over and above the Irish families, which, by their alliance
by marriage and fosterage with the English, retained their lands
and gradually increased them, many others, natives of the soil,
reentered into possession of their former territory by the
withdrawal of the Anglo-Norman holders of fiefs. Constant border
wars, the necessary consequence of the English policy, could not
but discourage in course of time many Englishmen, who, owning
large possessions also in England and Wales, preferred to return
to their own country rather than remain with their wives and
children in a constant state of alarm, compelled to reside
within their castles, in dread of an attack at any moment from
their Irish neighbors.
Moreover, the vast majority of the Irish, who did not enjoy the
benefit of these special privileges, who, deprived of their
lands at the first invasion, had remained really _outlaws_, and
never entered into matrimonial or social alliance with their
enemies, these men could not consent to starve and perish on
their own soil, in the island which they loved and from which
they could not--had they so chosen--escape by emigration. One
resource remained to them, and they grasped at it. They had
their own mountain fastnesses and bogs to fly to, and from those
recesses they could harass the invader, and inch by inch win
back their lawful inheritance.
They were often even encouraged in their attacks and
depredations by the English of the Pale and out of it, who,
unwilling longer to submit to the grinding feudal laws and
exactions, could prevent the English judges, sheriffs,
escheators, and other king's officers from executing the law
against them, and thus they held out in their mountains, bogs,
and rocky crags, in the midst of the invaders of their soil.
A necessity arose then, on the part of the English rulers, of
adopting measures calculated to prevent a further acquisition of
territory by the Irish, if not to extend the English settlements.
They saw no other remedy than acts of Parliament, which they
thought would at least prevent the subjects of English blood
from assisting the Irish to reenter into possession, as was then
being done on so extensive a scale.
To effect this they revived the former statutes by which the
Irish were placed without the protection of the law, were
declared aliens and enemies, and were consequently denied the
right of bringing actions in any of the English courts for
trespasses on their lands, or for violence done to their persons.
They soon advanced a step beyond this. The Irish were forbidden
to purchase land, though the English were at liberty to occupy
by force the landed property of the Irish, whenever they were
strong enough to do so. An Irishman could acquire neither by
gift nor purchase a rood of land which was the property of an
Englishman. Thus, in every charter afterward granted to the few
Irishmen who applied for them, it was expressly stated that they
could purchase land for themselves and their heirs, which,
without this special provision, they could not do; while for an
Englishman to dispose of his landed property by will, gift, or
sale to an Irishman, was equivalent to forfeiting his estate to
the crown. The officers of the exchequer were directed by those
acts of Parliament to hold inquisitions for the purpose of
obtaining returns of such deeds of conveyance, in order to
enrich the king's treasury by confiscations and forfeitures; and
the statute-rolls, preserved to this day in Dublin and London,
show that such prosecutions often took place, with the
invariable result of forfeiture.
The decision of the courts was always in favor of the crown,
even in cases where the deed of conveyance or will was of no
benefit to the person in whose favor it was drawn, but simply a
trust for a third person of English race. And the great number
of cases in which the inquisitions were set aside, as appears
from the Parliament-rolls, for the finding having been malicious
and untrue--the parties complained of not being Irish but
English-- prove what we allege, namely, that an Irishman could
not take land by conveyance from an Englishman.
Yet, as Mr. Prendergast justly says: "Notwithstanding these
prohibitions and laws of the Irish Parliament, the Irish grew
and increased upon the English, and the Celtic customs
overspread the feudal, until at length the administration of the
feudal law was confined to little more than the few counties
lying within the line of the Liffey and the Boyne."
Let us now glance, in conclusion, at the result of more than
four centuries of feudal oppression.
Ireland rejected feudalism from the beginning, and this at a
time when Europe had been compelled to adopt it, more or less,
throughout.
The distinction between lords and villeins, so marked in all
other countries, remained at the end as it was at the beginning
of the contest, a thing unknown in the island. Even in the Pale,
the presence of the O'Moores, O'Byrnes, O'Kavanaghs, and other
septs, protested against and openly denied, from moor and glen
and mountain fastness, that outrage on humanity, which bestows
on the few every thing meant for all. The Brehon law was in full
force all over the island, and if the Irish allowed the English
judges to ride on their circuits within the four counties, it
was on the full understanding that they would administer their
justice only to English subjects, and levy their feudal dues,
and pronounce their forfeitures and confiscations on such only
as acknowledged the king's right on the premises. The laws
enacted in the pretended Irish Parliament were only for such as
called themselves English by birth; for even the English by
blood, whose ancestors had long resided on the island,
frequently refused to submit to the laws of Parliament, where
they would not sit themselves, although possessing the right to
do so.
In vain was the threat of compulsion held up again and again
before the eyes of the great lords of Desmond, Thomond, and
Connaught. If they chose, they went; if they chose not, they
remained at home; and obeyed or disobeyed at will the laws
themselves, according as they were able or unable to set them at
defiance.
The castles which had been built all over the country by the
first invaders, as a means of awing into subjection the
surrounding districts, were at the beginning of the fifteenth
century no longer feudal castles. They had either been
destroyed and levelled to the ground by the Irish, or they were
occupied by Irish chieftains; or, stranger still, if their
holders were English lords, they were of those who had been won
over to Irish manners. In their halls all the old customs of
Erin were preserved. One saw therein groups of shanachies, and
harpers, and Brehon lawyers, all conversing with their chieftain
in the primitive language of the country. Hence were they called
degenerate by the "foreigners" living in Dublin Castle. The
mansions of the Desmonds, of the Burgos, of the Ormonds, were
the headquarters of their respective clans, not the inaccessible
fortresses of steel-clad warriors, who alone were possessed of
social and civil rights. If the master of the household held
sometimes the title of earl, or count, or baron, he was careful
never to use it before his retainers, whom he called his
clansmen. When he went to Dublin or to London, he donned it with
the dress of a knight or a great feudal lord; on his return home
he threw it aside, resumed the cloak of the country, and was
Irish again.
The subject of feudal titles in Ireland has not been
sufficiently studied and elucidated. A clearer light thrown on
this question would, we have no doubt, show more conclusively
than long discussions with what stubbornness the Irish refused
to submit to the reality of feudalism, even when consenting to
admit its presence and phraseology. It is a fact not
sufficiently dwelt upon, that the few Irishmen, who subsequently
consented to receive English titles from the king, were regarded
by their countrymen with greater abhorrence than the English
themselves, though in most cases the titles were empty ones,
which affected nothing in their mode of life. Yet were they
looked upon as apostates to their nation, and after the
Reformation such a step was often the first to apostasy of
religion, the deepest stain on an Irish name.
Feudalism had also its mode of taxation which failed with the
rest in Ireland.
In feudal countries the lord imposed no tax on his villeins;
these were mere chattels, ascripti gleboe, who tilled the land
for their masters, and, as good serfs, could own nothing but the
few utensils of their miserable hovels. They were just allowed
what sufficed to support their own life and that of their
families, and consequently they could bear no additional tax.
But, in the complicated state of society brought about by
feudalism, the inferior lord was taxed by his superior, a system
that ran down the whole feudal scale, and it would take a lawyer
to explain aids, talliages, wardships, fines for alienation,
seizins, rents, escheats, and finally forfeiture, the heaviest
and most common of all in England.
The Irish fought valiantly against the imposition of those
burdens, and aided the English settled among them to repudiate
them all in course of time.
It must be said, however, that they did not succeed in
preventing their own taxes, according to the Book of Rights,
from becoming heavier under the ingenuity of the English who
were established among them and admitted to all the rights of
clanship. We see by documents which have been better studied of
late, that the great Anglo-Irish lords had succeeded in
increasing the burdens in the shape of exactions, which were
never complained of by the Irish.
On this subject Dr. O'Donovan, in the preface to his edition of
the "Book of Rights," is worthy of perusal.
But it is chiefly in the very essence of feudalism that the
failure of the Anglo-Normans was most signal. Feudalism really
consisted in the status given to the land, the possession of
which determined and gave all rights, so that, according to it,
man was made for the land rather than the land for man. He was
placed on the land with the beasts of the field as far as
tillage and production went, until the system should round to
perfection and finally bring to the surface the new principles
of social economy, according to which the greater the number of
cattle and the fewer the number of men, the more prosperous and
happy might the country be said to be.
The Irish staked their existence against those principles, and
won. So complete was their victory that the feudal barons who
first came among them finally yielded to clanship, became the
chiefs of new clans, and opened their territories to all who
chose to send their horses and kine to graze in the chief's
domains. In vain did Irish Parliaments issue writs of forfeiture
against the English lords who acted thus, for between the law
and its execution the clans intervened, and no sheriff or judge
could step beyond the bounds of the four counties of the Pale to
enforce those acts.
It is told of one of the Irish chieftains that on receiving
intimation from a high English official of a sheriff's visit on
the next breach of some new law or ordinance, for the safety of
which sheriff he would be held responsible, he replied: "You
will do well to let me know at the same time what will be the
amount of his _eric_, in case of his murder, that I may
beforehand assess it on the clan."
This story may tend better than any thing else to give a clear
reason for the failure of feudalism in Ireland.
CHAPTER VII.
IRELAND SEPARATED FROM EUROPE.-A TRIPLE EPISODE.
While the struggle described in the last chapter was raging,
Ireland could have little or no intercourse with the rest of
Europe. Heaven alone was witness of the heroism displayed by the
free clans wrestling with feudal England. It was only during the
internecine wars of the Roses that Erin enjoyed a respite, and
then we read that Margaret of Offaly summoned to peaceful
contest the bards of the island, while the shrines of Rome and
Compostella were thronged with pilgrims, chiefs, and princes,
"paying their vows of faith from the Western Isle."
In the mean time Christendom had been witness of mighty events
in which Ireland could take no part. The enthusiastic impulse
which gave birth to the Crusades, the uprising of the communes
against feudal thraldom, the mental activity of numerous
universities, starting each day into life, form, among other
things, the three great progressive waves in the moving ocean of
the time:
I. When Europe in phalanx of steel hurled itself upon Asia and
saved Christendom from the yoke of Islam, when the Japhetic race
by a mighty effort asserted its right not merely to existence,
but to a preponderance in the affairs of the world, Ireland, the
nation Christian of Christians, had not a name among men. It was
supposed to be a dependency of England, and the envoys sent
abroad to all parts by the Holy See to preach the Crusades,
never touched her shores to deliver the cross to her warriors.
The most chivalrous nation of Christendom was altogether
forgotten, and in its ecclesiastical annals no mention is made
of the Crusades even by name.
The holy wars, moreover, were set on foot and carried on by the
feudal chivalry of Europe, and in fact, wherever the Europeans
established their power in the East, that power took the shape
of feudalism. But Ireland had rejected this system, and
consequently her sons could find no place in the ranks of the
knights of Flaners, Normandy, Aquitaine, and England. Their
chivalry was of another stamp, and was employed at the time in
wresting their social state and territory from the grasp of
ruthless invaders.
Hence, not even St. Bernard, the ardent friend of St. Malachi,
remembered them, when journeying through Europe to distribute
the Cross to whole armies of warriors. Not only did he fail to
cross the Channel for the purpose of rousing the Christian
enthusiasm of a people ever ready to hearken to a call to arms
when a noble cause was at stake; he did not think even of
writing a single letter to any bishop or abbot in Ireland,
asking them to preach the holy war in his name.
Thus Ireland failed to participate in any of the benefits which
accrued to the European nations from the Crusades, as she failed
likewise to participate in results less beneficial which also
accrued from that powerful agitation.
Among such results is one which has not met with all the
attention it deserves. Historians speak at length of the many
and wide-spread heresies which infected Europe during the middle
ages; but their Eastern origin has not been thoroughly
investigated, and we have no doubt that, if it had been, many of
them would be found to have come with a returning wave of the
Crusades.
All these errors bear at the outset a very Oriental appearance.
Paulicians, Petrobrusians, Albigensians, and kindred sects,
all started from the principle of dualism, and even at the
time were openly accused of Manicheistic ideas. They all
involved more or less immoral principles, and rejected, or at
least strove to weaken, the commonly-received ideas upon which
society, civil and religious, is founded. Had they succeeded in
spreading their errors through Europe, it is possible that the
invasion would have been more fatal in its consequences than
that of Islamism itself. And, even in their failure, they left
among European societies the germ of secret associations which
have existed from that time down, and which in our days have
burst forth undisguised to terrify nations, and cause them to
dread the coming of the last days.
To an attentive observer it is clear that the heresies of the
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries resemble more the
errors of our days than the Protestantism which intervened.
Luther's first principles, if carried to their legitimate
conclusion, would have inaugurated the socialism and communism
of modern times; but he shrank from the consequences of his own
doctrines, and the necessity of his standing well with the
German princes caused him, during the War of the Peasants,
almost to retract his first utterances and take his stand
midway between Catholic principles and the thorough nihilism of
later times. It is known that in the after-part of his life he
endeavored to repair the ruins of every dogma, social and
religious, which he at first had tried to subvert and destroy.
The Manicheism of the middle ages was certainly not of so
scientific and elaborate a nature as modern socialism; but it
would have been productive of like evil results to society had
it not been crushed down by the united power of the Church and
the state. If it had been successful, it is impossible to
imagine what would have become of Europe.
Of its Eastern origin historians say little. We know, however,
that, after a residence in the East, the most pious Christians
grew lukewarm and less firm in their opposition to the dangerous
errors then prevalent in Asia. Tournefort remarked this in his
own time, during the reign of Louis XIV.
It is known also that the posterity of the first crusaders in
Palestine formed a hybrid race, which, weakened by the influence
of the luxurious habits of Eastern countries, became corrupt,
and under the name of Pulani practised a feeble Christianity,
unfit to cope with the vigorous fanaticism of the Mussulman.
Many Europeans came back from those wars wavering in faith, and
no one knows how many with faith entirely lost.
It is not, therefore, too much to suppose that the Oriental
errors which suddenly burst forth at this time in Western Europe
followed in the wake of the returning pilgrims, and it is highly
probable, if not absolutely certain, that, had there been no
Crusades, Manicheism and the secret societies born of it would
never have been known in Italy and France. Hence, one of the
first and greatest champions of the Church in controversy with
the Albigenses - Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny - at the
very beginning of the heresy, found no better means of opposing
the new errors than attacking every thing coming from the East.
Thus, he wrote his long treatises against the Talmud and the
Koran, so much had the Crusades already contributed to
introducing into Western Europe the seeds of Asiatic errors. All
historians agree in giving an Eastern origin to the Paulicians,
Bulgarians, Albigenses, and others of those times.
Manicheism indeed had infested Europe long before. Some Roman
emperors had published severe edicts against it. In the fifth
century, the heresy still flourished in Italy and Africa, St.
Augustine himself being an adept for several years, and by his
writings he has made us acquainted with its strongest supporters
in his day. He was followed, in his attacks on it, by a great
number of Fathers, both Greek and Latin.
But after the barbarian invasions we hear no more of the
Manichees for upward of five hundred years. The West had
entirely forgotten them. Arianism and Manicheism had apparently
perished together. The tenth century is called a period of
darkness and ignorance; it at least possessed the advantage of
being free from heresy; the dogmas of the Church were
unhesitatingly and universally accepted. Western Europe, though
cut up by the new-born feudalism into a thousand fragments, was
at least one in faith, until that great and powerful union
having, in an outburst of enthusiasm, produced the Crusades, we
suddenly find Eastern theories and immoralities invading the
countries most faithful to the Church.
Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse, the great champion of the
Albigenses, was the near descendant of that great Raymond, one
of the chiefs of the first Crusade, who might have aspired to
the throne of Jerusalem, had not Godfrey de Bouillon won the
suffrages of the soldiers of the Cross by his ardent and pure
piety. Raymond VI. dwelt in Languedoc, in all the luxurious
splendor of an Eastern emir; and he doubtless found the
doctrines of dualistic Manicheism more congenial to his taste
for pleasure than the stern tenets of the Christian religion.
Ambition, it is true, was one of the chief motives which
prompted him to place himself at the head of the heretics; he
hoped to enrich himself through them by the spoils of the Church;
and thus the same power which later on moved the German princes
to embrace Lutheranism was already acting on the aspiring Count
of Toulouse at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Thus we
find him at the head of his troops, plundering churches,
ravaging monasteries, outraging and profaning holy things, for
the purpose of filling his coffers.
Yet it is also certain that he, the chief of the sectarians, and
a great number of the nobility of Southern France, were led to
embrace the Albigensian error by the degrading habits which they
had previously contracted.
We do not purpose entering into a lengthened discussion on the
subject; we merely wish to contrast, with the wide spread of
heresy in Western Europe, the great fact of a total absence of
it in Ireland; or rather, we should say, and by so saying we
confirm our reflection, that errors of a similar nature did
invade the Pale in Erin at this time, without touching in any
wise the children of the soil.
For, it is a remarkable fact that, at the beginning of the
fourteenth century, the name of heresy is mentioned for the
first and last time in Catholic Ireland; the new doctrines
bearing a close resemblance to some of the errors of the
Albigenses, and their chief propagators being all lords of the
Pale.
In November of 1235, Pope Benedict XII. wrote a letter on this
subject to Edward III. of England, which may be read in F.
Brenan's Ecclesiastical History.
It is clear from many things related by Ware in his
"Antiquities" that the Vicar of Christ, unable to follow freely
his inclinations with respect to the filling of the sees of Erin,
and obliged to appoint to bishoprics, at least in many parts of
the island, only men of English birth, selected for that purpose
members of the various religious orders then existing. Instead
of granting episcopal jurisdiction to the feudal nominees of the
court, when unworthy, Rome appointed a Franciscan, or a
Dominican, a member of some religious community, who was born in
England, but at least more independent of the court, of greater
sympathy with the people, less swayed by worldly and selfish
motives, and consequently readier to obey the mandates of Rome,
which were always on the side of justice and morality. Thus we
find that in the whole history of Ireland, as a general rule,
the bishops chosen from religious orders were acceptable to the
people, and true to their duty.
Such a man certainly was Richard Ledred, a Minorite, born in
London, whom the Pope made Bishop of Ossory. But on that very
account he incurred the hatred of many English officials, and
even of worldly prelates, among whom Alexander Bicknor,
Archbishop of Dublin, was the most conspicuous. Bieknor was not
only archbishop, but had been appointed Lord Justice of Ireland
by the king, and later on Lord Deputy; later still he was
dispatched by the English Parliament as ambassador to France.
"It had been well," says F. Brenan, "for the archbishop himself,
and for those immediately under his jurisdiction, had he
abstained from mixing himself up with the state affairs of those
times. Ambition formed no inferior trait in the character of
Alexander, even long before he had been exalted to a high
dignity in the Church. He advanced rapidly into power, stepping
from one office into another, until at length he found himself
in the midst of the labyrinth, without being able to make his
way, unless by means of guides as inexperienced as they were
treacherous. It was by causes such as these that he brought
himself into serious difficulties, not only with the Archbishop
of Armagh, on account of the primacy, but also with his own
suffragans, and particularly with the Bishop of Ossory."
Under these circumstances it was that the prelate last mentioned,
on visiting his diocese, found unmistakable signs of the spread
of heresy among his flock. His diocese at that time formed a
part of the English Pale, and Kilkenny, where he had his
cathedral, was often the seat of Parliament.
Among those most active for the propagation of the new doctrines
were found, the Seneschal of Kilkenny, the Treasurer of Ireland,
and the Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas--all English of the
Pale. The zealous bishop, fearless of the consequences, openly
denounced them, and publicly excommunicated the Treasurer. At
once a terrible storm was raised among their English abettors,
and, in order to screen the guilty parties, they recriminated
against the prelate, and accused him of being a sharer in the
crime of Thomas Fitzgilbert, who had burned the castle of Moy
Cahir, and killed its owner, Hugh Le Poer. The temporalities of
Ledred having been already sequestrated for his boldness in
denouncing heretics, he was compelled finally to leave his
diocese and fly to Avignon, where he remained in exile for nine
years.
The Archbishop of Dublin had been one of his bitterest enemies,
and, although not actually accused of heresy himself, he was
certainly the abettor of heretics, and had done all in his power
to have Ledred arrested for his supposed crimes.
Ware, in his lives of Bicknor and Ledred, is evidently a
partisan of the first and an enemy of the second. He pretends
that Ledred tacitly acknowledged his guilt in the affair of Le
Poer, since he sued for pardon to the king, as though readers of
English history did not constantly meet with instances of
innocent men compelled to sue for pardon of crimes which they
had never committed.
We have fortunately better judges of the characters of both
prelates in the two popes, Benedict XII. and Clement VI.: the
first believing in the existence of the heresy denounced by
Ledred; the second exempting the Bishop of Ossory from the
superior jurisdiction of Bicknor, on account of the unjust
animosity displayed toward him by this worldly prelate.
The absence of all historical documents in reference to the case
leaves us at a loss to know the effect produced on Edward III.
by the letter of the Pontiff. It is highly probable that the
king preferred to believe Bicknor rather than the Pope, and
disregarded the advice of the latter.
In such an event, how was the heresy put down? Simply by the
good sense and spirit of faith of the people, or rather by the
deep Christian feeling of the native Irish, who were always
opposed to innovation, and who remained firm in the traditional
belief inherent in the nation by the grace of God. Schism and
heresy seem impossible among the children of Erin. If at any
time certain novelties have appeared among them, they have
speedily vanished like empty vapor. They heard that, in other
parts of the Church, in the East chiefly, heresiarchs had arisen
and led away into error large numbers of people forming
sometimes formidable sects, which threatened the very existence
of the religion of Christ; but the face of a heretic they had
never beheld. Soon, indeed, they were to be at the mercy of a
whole swarm of them, to see a pretended church leagued with the
state to bring about their perversion; but as yet they had had
no experience of the kind.
Only a few heretics were pointed out to them by the finger of
one of their bishops, and his denunciations were confirmed by
the judgment of the Holy See. Hence, according to F. Brenan,
"the sensation which pervaded all classes became vehement and
frightful. The bishop and his clergy came forward, and by solid
argument, by the strength and power of truth, opposed and
discomfited the enemies of religion."
The feeling here expressed is a natural one for a true Christian
at the very mention of heresy. Yet how few nations have
experienced a sensation "vehement and frightful" at the
appearance of positive error among them! But, at all periods of
their history, such has been the feeling of the Irish people.
Fortunately for them, the number of sectarians was so small as
to become insignificant; the English of the Pale were always few
in comparison with the natives, and heresy had been, adopted by
only a small body.
Error, therefore, could not cause in the island the social and
political convulsions which it had produced in France about the
same time. There was no need of a second Albigensian war to put
it down. There was no need even of the Inquisition, as an
ecclesiastical tribunal. The sentence of the bishop, the decree
of excommunication pronounced from the foot of the altar, was
all that was required.
When we compare this single fact of Irish ecclesiastical history
with what was then transpiring in Europe--the most insidious
errors spreading throughout; the faith of many becoming
unsettled, a general preparation for the social deluge which was
impending and so soon to fall--we cannot but conclude that
Ireland, in the midst of her misfortunes, was happy in being
separated from the rest of the world. The breath of novelty
could breathe no contagion on her shores. Happy even was she in
not seeing her sons enlist in the army of the Cross, if the
result of their victories was, to bring back from the Holy Land
the Eastern corruption and the many heresies nestling there and
settled, even around the sepulchre of our Lord, during so many
ages of separation from the West and open communication with all
the wild vagaries of Arabian, Persian, and Indian philosophies.
Even in the midst of such a trial we believe that Ireland would
have held steadfast to her faith, as she did later on when
heresy came to her with compulsion or death; and this firmness
of purpose, which the Irish have always manifested when the
question was a change of religion, is worthy our consideration.
For the facility with which some nations have, in the course of
ages, yielded to the spirit of novelty, and the sturdy
resistance opposed to it by others, is a subject that would
repay investigation, but which we can only slightly touch upon.
In ancient times the Greek mind, accustomed from the beginning
to subtlety of argument, and easily carried away by a
rationalism which was innate, offers a striking contrast to the
steady traditional spirit of the Latin races in general. Except
Pelagiaism and its cognate errors, all the great heresies which
afflicted the Church during the first ten centuries, originated
in the East; and the various sects catalogued by several of the
Greek Fathers, as early as the second and third centuries,
astonish the modern reader by the slender web on which their
often ridiculous systems are spun, of texture strong enough,
however, at the time to form the groundwork for making a
disastrous impression on a large number of adherents. The
infinity almost of philosophical systems in pagan Greece had
prepared the way for the subsequent vagaries of heresy, and we
must look to our own times, so prolific of absurd theories, in
order to find a parallel to the incredible variety of dogmatic
assertions among the Greek heresiarchs of early times.
But, at the outbreak of Protestantism, in the sixteenth century,
the world witnessed a still more striking example of diversity
in the various branches of the Japhetic family - the nations
belonging to the Teutonic and Scandinavian stocks chiefly
embracing the error at once with a wonderful spontaneity. The
various remnants of the Celtic race and the totality of the
Latin nations remained, on the whole, obedient to the guiding
voice of the Church of Christ. It is customary with modern
writers, when imbued with what are called liberal ideas, to
ascribe this difference to the steady, systematic mind of
northern nations, and to their innate love of liberty, which
could not brook the yoke of spiritual despotism imposed by the
Church of Rome. But all this is mere supposition, inadequate to
accounting for the fact. The Teutonic and Scandinavian mind is
certainly more systematic and apparently more steady than the
Celtic; but it is far less so than the Latin. No nation in the
whole history of mankind has ever displayed more steadiness and
system than the Romans, and the Latin family has inherited those
characteristics from Rome. The Spanish race has no equal in
steadiness (in the sense here intended of steadfastness), and
the French certainly none in system, which it often carried to
the verge of absurdity.
As for love of liberty, as distinct from love of license, it had
absolutely nothing to do with the great revolution which has
been called the Reformation. No nation can relish despotism, and
the whole history of Ireland is a living example that her sons
are steadily opposed to it to the death. And it is now too late
to pretend that the cause of true liberty has been served by the
spread of Protestantism over a large portion of Europe. Balmez
and others have proved the falsehood of such pretensions. If any
modern writers, such as Mr. Bancroft, for instance, men
otherwise of sound mind and great ability, continue to assert
this, the assertion must proceed from prejudice deeply ingrained,
which reflection has not yet succeeded in eradicating, and
their opinions on the subject are necessarily confined to bold
assertions, of a character which in others they themselves would
stigmatize as empty and unfounded.
The reason of the difference lies deeper in the constitution of
the human mind, in the Celtic and Latin races on the one side,
in the Teutonic and Scandinavian families on the other. Any one
who has studied the Irish character in our days--a character
which was the same in former ages--will easily see something of
that great and happy cause.
The difference lies first in the good sense which enables them
to perceive instinctively that the eternal should be preferred
to the temporal. If all men kept that distinct perception ever
present to their minds, they would not only accept at all times
the truths of faith, since faith, according to St. Paul, is "the
substance of the things hoped for," but they would remain ever
faithful to the moral code given us by God. The Celt indeed will
at times lose sight of the eternal in the presence of a temporal
temptation; but he is never blind to the knowledge that faith is
the groundwork of salvation, and that hope remains as long as
that is not surrendered. Therefore he will never surrender it.
The need of reviving his faith is rarely called for, when, after
a life of sin, the shadow of death reminds him of the duty he
owes his own soul. The great truth that, after all, the ETERNAL
is every thing, remains always deeply impressed on his mind; and
half his labor is spared to the minister of God, when bringing
such a man back to a life of virtue. There is scarcely any need
of asking an Irishman, "Do you believe?" For, every word that
passes his lips, every look and gesture, every expression of
feeling, is in fact an act of faith. How easy after this is the
work of regeneration!
0 happy race, to whom this life is in truth a shadow that
passeth away! to whom the unseen is ever present, or comes back
so vividly and so readily!
This supposes, as we have said, a sound, good sense, which is
characteristic of the race. We may say that this nation
possesses the wisdom of Sir Thomas More, who esteemed it folly
to lose eternity for a life of twenty years of ease and honors.
Is not this, at bottom, the thought which has sustained the
nation in that dread martyrdom of three centuries, whose
terrible story we have still to tell? Have they not, as a nation,
one after another, generation upon generation, lived and passed
their lives in contempt, in want, in frightful misery, to die in
torments or hidden sufferings, without a gleam of hope from this
world for their race, their families, their children, their very
name, because they would not surrender their religion, that is
to say, truth, which alone could secure the eternal welfare of
their souls?
Speak to us, after this, of a steady and systematic mind! Prate
to us of the love of liberty, of self-dignity! Where are such
things to be found in their reality, on their trial, if not in
the scenes and the nation we have just pictured?
A second reason, no less effective, perhaps, than the first, and
certainly as remarkable, is the very composition of the Celtic
mind, which naturally tends to firm belief, because it is given
exclusively to traditions, past events, narratives of poets,
historians, and genealogists. Had the Irish at any time turned
themselves to criticise, to doubt, to argue, their very
existence, as a people, would have ceased. They must go on
believing, or all reality vanishes from their minds, accustomed
for so many ages to take in that solid knowledge founded, it is
true, on hearsay; but how else can truth reach us save by
hearsay? Hence, their simple and artless acquiescence in any
thing they hear from trustworthy lips - acquiescence ever
refused to a known enemy, never to a well-tried friend, even
when the facts ascertained are strange, mysterious, unaccounted
for, and incredible to minds differently constituted.
Thus, when we read their "Acta Sanctorum," we at once find
ourselves in a world so different from our every-day world - a
region of wonders, mysteries, of heavenly and supernatural deeds,
unequalled in any story of marvellous travel or fable of
imaginative romance. Yet, who will say that the writers doubted
a single phrase of what they wrote? Is it not clear, from the
very words they use, that they would have held it sacrilege to
utter a falsehood, when speaking of the blessed saints? And, can
the lives of the saints be like those of common mortals? What is
there strange in considering that the earth was mysterious and
heavenly, when heavenly beings walked upon it? Read the Litany
and Festology of Aengus, and doubt if the holy man did not
believe all therein contained. Say, if it can be possible, that
it is not all true, though apparently incredible. Who can doubt
what is asserted with such vehemence of belief? How can that
fail to be true which holy men and women have themselves
believed, and given to the world to be believed?
This thoroughly explains the simplicity of faith which still
distinguishes the Irish people. It explains why no heretic could
be found among them, and their intense horror of heresy as soon
as known. Nor is it their mind alone which bears the impress of
faith: their very exterior is a witness to it. Go into any large
city where dwell a number of Irish inhabitants; walk through the
public streets, where they walk among the children of other
races, and you will easily distinguish them, not only by the
modesty of their women and the simple bearing of their men, but
by the look of confidence and contentedness stamped on their
features. Whoever has a settled faith, is no longer an inquirer,
no longer troubled with the anxiety and restlessness of a man
plunged in doubt and uncertainty; all the lineaments of the face,
all the gestures and attitudes of the body, speak of quietude
and repose.
We might render this discussion more effective by the study of
the contrary phenomena, by showing how easily races, differently
gifted, endowed with the spirit of criticism and argument, sever
from the faith and follow the lead of deceptive teachers. Our
object here was to describe the Irish, and not to enter into a
study of the physiology of other minds; but a word on Germanic
and Scandinavian tribes and peoples may not be amiss.
There is no doubt that these races place their "good sense" in a
very different line from the Irish; that they are, also, much
more given to criticism, what they call "grumbling," and absence
of repose.
With regard to the first point - their "good sense" - it is easy
to remark their tendency to prefer the temporal to the eternal.
For their "good sense" consists in enjoying the things of this
life without troubling themselves over-much about another. And,
in this observation, there is nothing which can possibly offend
them, for such is their open profession and estimate of true
wisdom. Hence result their love of comfort, their thrift, their
shrewdness in all material and worldly affairs; hence, their
constant boasting about their civilization, understanding,
thereby, what is pleasing to the senses; hence, also, their
success in a life wherein they set their whole happiness. How
could they be expected to remain steadfast to a faith which
declares war to pleasure, and speaks only of contempt for this
world? It is not matter of surprise, then, that their great
argument, to prove that theirs is the better and the right
religion, is to compare their physical well-being with the
inferiority in that regard of Catholic nations.
With regard to the spirit of criticism and argumentation,
nothing is so opposed to the spirit of faith; and it is as clear
as day that the northern races possess this in an eminent degree.
What question, religious or philosophical, can rest intact when
brought under the microscopic vision of a German philosopher or
an English rationalist? A few years more of criticism, as now
understood and practised by them, would leave absolutely nothing
which the mind of man could respect and believe.
An attentive observer will surely conclude, after a serious
examination of the subject, that it is from petty causes of this
character that these races have so easily surrendered their
faith, rather than from their systematic minds and love of
liberty.
II. The rising of the communes, one of the greatest features of
mediaeval Europe, did not extend to Ireland, separated as it
then was from the Continent. But, by reason of this very
separation, the island remained forever free from the future
political commotions of what is known as "the third estate." A
few remarks on this subject are requisite, because of the
objection brought against the Irish, that they have never known
municipal government, and also on account of the false
assertions of some philosophical historians, who allege that the
Danes and Anglo-Normans, in turn, wrought a great good to
Ireland by bringing with them the boon of citizen rights.
What were the causes of the rising of the communes in the
eleventh and following centuries? The universality of the fact
argues identity of motives, since, without common understanding
among various nations, the risings showed themselves at about
the same time in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and England.
In ancient cities, which existed prior to the Germanic invasions,
the population, after the scourge had passed, was composed
principally of three elements: 1. Free men of the conquering
races, who were poor, and had embraced some mechanical pursuit;
2. The remnants of the Roman population, who followed some
trade; 3. Freedmen from the rural districts, who, unable to gain
a livelihood in the country, had come to reside in the cities,
where they could more easily subsist.
Thus, besides the feudal lords and the class of villeins, there
was formed everywhere a third class, that of arts and trades.
The juridical power being restricted to the lords, whose rights
extended only to the land and the men attached to it, the class
of artisans found themselves destitute of legal rights, without
a recognition or place even in the jurisprudence, as then
existing, consequently in a practically anarchical state. Hence,
they formed among themselves their own associations, elected
their own magistrates, enacted their own by-laws.
In the cities we have mentioned, the bishop alone held social
relations with the lords, whether the feudal chieftain of the
vicinity, or the Count of the city. Thus, the bishop often acted
as the mediator between the citizens and the privileged class
which surrounded them. The great object of the citizens was to
obtain a charter of rights from the suzerain, who alone could
act with justice and impartiality toward those disfranchised
burghers. To this was owed the immense number of charters
granted at that time, many of which, lately published, tend
better than any thing else to give us an insight into the origin
of municipal life in mediaeval Europe.
New cities, either founded by the invaders or springing up of
themselves around feudal castles and monasteries, soon
experienced the necessity of similar favors, which, as soon as
obtained, invested them with a social status unenjoyed before.
The number of freemen, reduced to poverty, or of recent freedmen
- freed by the emancipation everywhere set on foot and
encouraged by the Church - extended the spread of communes even
to the rural districts. Thus, many villages or small towns grew
into corporations, and a social state arose, hitherto totally
unknown in Europe.
The question has been much discussed, whether those new
municipal corporations owed their origin to the municipal system
of the Romans, or were altogether disconnected with it. The
opinion commonly now accepted is, that the two systems were
utterly distinct. In some few instances, a particular Roman
municipal city may have passed into a mediaeval corporate town
under a new charter and with extended rights; but this was
certainly the exception. In the great majority of cases, the
newly-chartered cities had never before enjoyed municipal rights.
These few words suffice to show that the communes, wherever they
arose, presupposed the existence of feudalism, and the slavery
once so widely extended, passing gradually into serfdom.
But neither feudalism nor slavery, in the old pagan sense of the
word, nor even serfdom, properly so called, as the doom of the
ascripti glebae, ever existed in Ireland. There was, therefore,
no need among the Irish for the rising of communes.
Nevertheless, we do find communes existing in Ireland and
charters granted to Irish cities by English kings. But they were
merely English institutions for the special benefit of the
English of the Pale, which were always refused to "the Irish
enemy," and which the "Irish enemy," with the exception of a few
individual cases, never demanded. Consequently the fact stands
almost universally true that the rising of the communes never
extended to Ireland, and that, if the Irish never enjoyed the
benefit of them, as little did they share in the evil
consequences resulting from them.
All those evil consequences had their root in a feeling of
bitter hostility between the higher or noble classes, and not
only the villeins, whom they ground between them, but also the
middle classes, who were dwelling in the cities, emancipating
themselves by slow degrees, and forming in course of time the
"third estate."
The workings of that hostility form a great part of the history
of Europe from the twelfth century down to the present day, and
many social convulsions, recorded in the annals of the six ages
preceding our own, may be traced to it. The frightful French
Revolution was certainly a result of it, although it must be
granted that several secondary causes contributed to render the
catastrophe more destructive, the chief among which was the
spread of infidel doctrines among the higher and middle classes.
But our days witness a still more awful spectacle, the
persistent array of the poor against the rich in all countries
once Christian, and this may be traced directly to their
mediaeval origin now under our consideration; and, the evils
preparing for mankind therefrom, future history alone will be
able to tell.
In Ireland, this has never been the danger. In the earlier
constitution of the nation, there could be no rivalry, no
hostility of class with class, as there never existed any social
distinction between them; and if, in our days, the poor there as
elsewhere seem arrayed against the rich, it is not as class
against class, but as the spoiled against the spoiler, the
victim against the robber, against the holders of the soil by
right of confiscation--a soil upon which the old owners still
live, with all the traditions of their history, which have never
been completely effaced, and which in our days are springing
into new life under the studies of patriotic antiquarians. This
fact cannot be denied.
The case of Ireland is so different in this respect from that of
other nations, that in no other country have the people been
reduced to such a degrading state of pauperism, yet in no other
country is the same submission to the existing order of society
found among the lower classes. No communism, no socialism has
ever been preached there, and, were it preached, it would only
be to deaf ears. Until the last two or three centuries, no seed
of animosity between high and low, rich and poor, had been sowed
in Ireland. The reason of this we have seen in a previous
chapter. And if, since the wholesale confiscations of the
seventeenth century, the country has been divided into two
hostile camps, the fault has never laid with the poor, the
despoiled; they have always been the victims, and never uttered
open threats of destruction against their oppressors. If in the
future men look to great calamities, Ireland is the only quarter
from which nothing of the kind is to be feared, and the
impending revolution by which she may profit will look to her
for no assistance in the subversion of society.
We now leave the reader to appreciate to its full extent the
real value of the opinion of modern writers who would justify
the successive invasions of the Danes and Anglo-Normans, and
also, we suppose, of the Puritans, as praiseworthy attempts to
introduce into Ireland the municipal system, so productive of
good elsewhere throughout Europe.
There is no doubt that municipal rights have been of immense
advantage to European society, as constituted at the time of
their introduction. They formed the germ of a new class,
destined to be the ruling class of the world, by whom human
rights were first to be understood and proclaimed, and the
necessary amount of freedom granted to all and secured by just
laws justly administered. Christianity is the true source of all
those rights, as Christian morality ought to be their standard.
But what an amount of human misery was first required, in order
that such blessed results might follow, merely because religion,
which was and ever had been steadily working to the same end,
was altogether set aside, and its assistance even despised in
the mighty change! And after all--we might say in consequence--
how limited has the boon practically become! How few are the
nations, even in our days, which understand impartiality,
moderation, justice! How soon will mankind become sufficiently
enlightened to settle down peacefully in the enjoyment of those
blessings of civil liberty proclaimed and trumpeted to the four
winds of heaven, yet in no place rightly understood and
equitably shared?
Ireland never knew those municipal rights from which have flowed
so many evils, side by side with so few blessings, because their
essential elements were never found there. What the future may
develop, no man can say. It is time, however, for all to see
that the nation is equal to any rights to which men are said to
be entitled.
III. The great intellectual movement set on foot in Europe
during the middle ages, by the numerous universities which
sprang up everywhere, under the fostering care of Popes or
Christian monarchs, failed to reach the island, in consequence
of its exclusion from the European family; yet even this was not
for her an unmitigated evil, though certainly the greatest loss
she sustained. While Europe, during the eighth and ninth
centuries, was in total darkness, Ireland alone basked in the
light of science, whose lustre, shining in her numerous schools,
attracted thither by its brightness the youth of all nations,
whom she received with a generosity unbounded. Not content with
this, she sent forth her learned and holy men to spread the
light abroad and dispel the thick darkness, to establish seats
of learning as focuses whence should radiate the light of truth
on a world buried in barbarism.
And when the warm sunshine, created or kept alive by her, sheds
its rays on Italy, on France, on Germany, and England itself,
all her own schools are closed, her once great universities
destroyed. Clonard, Clonfert, Armagh, Bangor, Clonmacnoise, are
desolate, and the wealthy Anglo-Norman prelates find their
purses empty when the question arises of restoring or forming a
single centre of intellectual development. The natural
consequences should have been darkness, barbarism, gross
ignorance. Ireland never fell to that depth of spiritual
desolation. Her sons, though deprived of all exterior help,
would still feed for centuries on their own literary treasures.
All the way down to the Stuart dynasty, the nation preserved,
not only her clans, her princes, and her brehon laws, but also
her shanachies, her books, her ancient literature and traditions.
These the feudal barons could not rob her of; and if they would
not repay her, in some measure, for what they took away, by
flooding her with the new methods of thought, of knowledge, of
scientific investigation, at least they could not destroy her
old manuscripts, wipe out from her memory the old songs, snatch
the immortal harp from the hands of her bards, nor silence the
lips of her priests from giving vent to those bursts of
impassioned eloquence which are natural to them and must out.
Hence there was no tenth century of darkness for her--let us
bear this in mind--light never deserted her, but continued to
shine on her from within, despite the refusal of her masters to
unlock for her the floodgates of knowledge.
For this reason was it not to her an unmitigated loss; but there
is another and, perhaps, a stronger still.
We should be careful not to attribute to what is good the abuse
made of it by men; yet the good is sometimes the occasion of
evil; and so it was with those great, admirable, and much-to-be-
regretted universities.
They imparted to the mind of man an impulse which the pride and
ambition of man turned to his intellectual ruin. What was
intended for the spread of true knowledge and faith became in
the end the source of spiritual pride, the natural fosterer of
doubt and negation. Modern science, so called, that incarnation
of vanity, sophistry, error, and delusion, comes indirectly from
those universities of the middle ages; and it was chiefly at the
time of what is called the revival of learning, that the great
revolution in science came about, which changed the intellectual
gold into dross, the once divine ambrosia of knowledge, served
to happy mortals in mediaeval times, into poison.
That pretended "revival of learning" can never be mentioned in
connection with Ireland; and the "idolatry of art," and
corruption of morals, never crossed the channel which God set
between Great Britain and the Island of Saints.
Another revival, though of a very different character, was,
however, actually taking place in Erin at that very period, when
the Wars of the Roses gave her breathing-time, which we relate
in the words of a modern Irish writer, as a conclusion to the
reflections we have indulged in:
"Within this period lived Margaret of Offaly, the beautiful and
accomplished queen of O'Carrol, King of Ely. She and her husband
were munificent patrons of literature, art, and, science. On
Queen Margaret's special invitation, the literati of Ireland and
Scotland, to the number of nearly three thousand, held a
"session" for the furtherance of literary and scientific
interests at her palace near Killeagh, in Offaly, the entire
assemblage being the guests of the king and queen during their
stay.
"The nave of the great church of Da Sinchell was converted for
the occasion into a banqueting-hall, where Margaret herself
inaugurated the proceedings by placing two massive chalices of
gold, as offerings, on the high altar, and committing two orphan
children to the custody of nurses to be fostered at her charge.
Robed in cloth of gold, this illustrious lady, who was as
distinguished for her beauty as for her generosity, sat in
queenly state m one of the galleries of the church, surrounded
by the clergy, the brehons, and her private friends, shedding a
lustre on the scene which was passing below, while her husband,
who had often encountered England's greatest generals in battle,
remained mounted on a charger outside the church, to bid the
guests welcome and see that order was preserved. The invitations
were issued, and the guests arranged according to a list
prepared by 0'Carrol's chief brehon; and the second
entertainment, which took place at Rathangan, was a supplemental
one, to embrace such men of learning as had not been brought
together at the former feast."--(A.M. 0'Sullivan.)
Such was the true "revival of learning" in Ireland--a return to
her old traditional teaching. If this peaceful time had been of
longer duration, there is no doubt that her old schools would
have flourished anew, and men in subsequent ages might have
compared the results of the two systems: the one producing with
true enlightenment, peace, concord, faith, and piety, though
confined to the insignificant compass of one small island; the
other resulting in the mental anarchy so rife to-day, and
spreading all over the rest of Europe.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE IRISH AND THE TUDORS.--HENRY VIII.
By losing the only bond of unity--the power vested in the Ard-
Righ--which held the various parts of the island together,
Ireland lost all power of exercising any combined action. The
nations were as numerous as the clans, and the interests as
diverse as the families. They possessed, it is true, the same
religion, and in the observance of its precepts and practices
they often found a remedy for their social evils; but religion,
not encountering any opposition from any quarter, with the
exception of the minor differences existing between the native
clergy and the English dignitaries, was generally considered as
out of the question in their wranglings and contentions. We
shall see how the blows struck at it by the English monarchs
welded into one that people, were the cause of that union now so
remarkable among them, and really constituted the only bond that
ever linked them together.
Before dwelling on these considerations, let us glance a moment
at the state of the country prior to the attempt of introducing
Protestantism there.
The English Pale was reduced at this period to one half of five
counties in Leinster and Meath; and even within those boundaries
the 0'Kavanaghs, O'Byrnes, O'Moores and others, retained their
customs, their brehon laws, their language and traditions, often
making raids into the very neighborhood of the capital, and
parading their gallowglasses and kerns within twenty miles of
Dublin.
The nobility and the people were in precisely the same state
which they had known for centuries. The few Englishmen who had
long ago settled in the country had become identified with the
natives, had adopted their manners, language, and laws, so
offensive at first to the supercilious Anglo-Normans.
But a revolution was impending, owing chiefly to the change
lately introduced into the religion of England, by Henry Tudor.
It is important to study the first attempt of the kind in
Ireland; not only because it became the occasion of establishing
for a lengthy period a real unanimity among the people--giving
birth to the nation as it were--but also for the right
understanding of the word "rebellion," which had been so freely
used before toward the natives, and which was now about to
receive a new interpretation.
The English had once deceived the Irish, exacting their
submission
in the twelfth century by foisting upon them the word homage:
they would deceive Europe by a constant use, or rather misuse,
of the words "rebel" and "rebellion." By the enactment of new
laws they pronounce the simple attachment to the old religion of
the country a denial of sovereign right, and consequently an act
of overt treason; and the Irish shall be butchered mercilessly
for the sake of the religion of Christ without winning the name,
though they do the crown, of martyrdom; for Europe is to be so
effectually deceived, that even the Church will hesitate to
proclaim those religious heroes, saints of God.
But the great fact of the birth of a nation, in the midst of
those throes of anguish, will lessen their atrocity in the mind
of the reader, and explain to some extent the wonderful designs
of Providence.
From an English state paper, published by M. Haverty, we learn
that, in 1515, a few years before the revolt of Luther, the
island was divided into more than sixty separate states, or
"regions," "some as big as a shire, some more, some less."
Had it not been for this division and the constant feuds it
engendered, in the north between the O'Neills and O'Donnells, in
the south between the Geraldines (Desmonds and Kildares) and the
Butlers (Ormonds), the authority of the English king would have
been easily shaken off. The policy so constantly adopted by
England in after-times--a policy well expressed by the Latin
adage, Divide et impera--preserved the English power in Ireland,
and finally brought the island into outward subjection at least,
to Great Britain--a subjection which the Irish conscience and
the Irish voice and Irish arms yet did not cease to protest
against and deny. But the nation was divided, and it required
some great and general calamity to unite them together and make
of them one people.
That, even spite of those divisions, they were at the time on
the point of driving the English out of the island, we need no
better proofs than the words of the English themselves. The
Archbishop of Dublin, John Allen, the creature of Wolsey, who
was employed by the crafty cardinal to begin the work of the
spoliation of convents in the island, and oppose the great Earl
of Kildare, dispatched his relative, the secretary of the Dublin
Council, to England, to report that "the English laws, manners,
and language in Ireland were confined within the narrow compass
of twenty miles;" and that, unless the laws were duly enforced,
"the little place," as the Pale was called, "would be reduced to
the same condition as the remainder of the kingdom;" that is to
say, the Pale itself, which had been brought to such
insignificant limits, would belong exclusively to the Irish.
It was while affairs were at this pass that the revolt of
"silken Thomas" excited the wrath of Henry VIII., and brought
about the destruction of almost the whole Kildare family.
It was about this time, also, that Wolsey fell, and Cromwell,
having replaced him as Chancellor of England, with Cranmer as
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Reformation began in England with
the divorce of the king, who shortly after assumed supremacy in
spirituals as a prerogative of the crown, and made Parliament --
in those days himself--supreme law-giver in Church and state.
Cromwell, known in history as the creature and friend of Cranmer,
like his protector a secret pervert to the Protestant doctrines
of Germany, and the first arch-plotter for the destruction of
Catholicity in the British Isles, undertook to save the English
power in Ireland by forcing on that country the supremacy of the
king in religious matters, knowing well that such a step would
drive the Irish into resistance, but believing that he could
easily subdue them and make the island English.
Having been appointed, not only Chancellor of England, but also
king's vicar-general in temporals and spirituals, Cromwell
inquired of his English agents in Ireland the best means of
attaining his object--the subjection of the country. Their
report is preserved among the state papers, and some of their
suggestions deserve our attentive consideration. If Henry VIII.
had consented to follow their advice, he would have himself
inaugurated the bloody policy so well carried out long after by
another Cromwell, the celebrated "Protector."
The report sets forth that the most efficient mode of proceeding
was to exterminate the people; but Henry thought it sufficient
to gain the nobility over--the people being beneath his notice.
The agents of the vicar-general were right in their atrocious
proposal. They knew the Irish nation well, and that the only way
to separate Ireland from the See of Peter was to make the
country a desert.
Their means of bringing about the destruction of the people was
starvation. The corn was to be destroyed systematically, and the
cattle killed or driven away. Their operations, it is true, were
limited to the borders of the Pale. The gentle Spenser, at a
later period, proposed to extend them to all Munster, and it was
a special glory reserved for the "Protector" to carry out this
policy through almost the whole of the island.
"The very living of the Irishry," says the report, "doth clearly
consist in two things: take away the same from them, and they
are passed for ever to recover, or yet to annoy any subject
Ireland. Take first from them their corn, and as much as cannot
be husbanded, and had into the hands of such as shall dwell and
inhabit in their lands, to burn and destroy the same, so as the
Irishry shall not live thereupon; and then to have their cattle
and beasts, which shall be most hardest to come by, and yet,
with guides and policy, they may be oft had and taken."
The report goes on to point out, most elaborately and
ingeniously, every artifice and plan for carrying this policy
into effect. But here we have, condensed, as it were, in a
nutshell, and coolly and carefully set forth, the system which
was adopted later on, and almost crowned with a fiendish success.
But the moment for the execution of this barbarous scheme had
not yet come, and we find no positive results following
immediately.
This project, complete as it was, was far from being the only
one proposed at that time for "rooting out the Irish" from
Ireland. Mr. Prendergast, in his "Introduction to the
Cromwellian Settlement," says:
"The Irish were never deceived as to the purport of the English,
and, though the Pale had not been extended for two hundred and
forty years, their firm persuasion in the reign of Henry VIII.
was, that the original design was not abandoned. 'Irishmen are
of opinion among themselves,' said Justice Cusack to the king,
'that Englishmen will one day banish them from their lands
forever.'"
In fact, project after project was then proposed for clearing
Ireland of Irish to the Shannon. Some went so far as already to
contemplate their utter extirpation; but "there was no precedent
for it found in the chronicles of the conquest. Add to this the
difficulty of finding people to reinhabit it if suddenly
unpeopled.
"The chiefs and gentlemen of the Irish only were to be driven
from their properties," according to some of those projects,
"and they only were to be driven into exile, while their lands
should be given to Englishmen."
"The king, however, seems to have been satisfied with
confiscating the estates of the Earl of Kildare and of his
family. Fierce and bloody though he was, there was something
lion-like in his nature; notwithstanding all those promptings,
he left to the Irish and old English their possessions, and
seemed even anxious to secure them, but failed to do so for want
of time."
We think Mr. Prendergast's judgment of Henry VIII. too favorable.
Generosity did not prompt him to spare the people and the
nobles, with the exception of the Kildares. We believe that he
never contemplated the extirpation of the people, because such a
political element could not enter into his mind. As for the
nobles, he wished to gain them over, because of the long wars he
foresaw necessary to bring about their utter extinction or exile.
He adopted, accordingly, a plan of his own, holding firm to his
design of having his new title of "Head of the Church"
acknowledged in Ireland as well as in England.
Cromwell commenced his work by two measures which had met with
perfect success in the latter country, but which were destined
to fire the sister isle from end to end, and make "the people,"
in course of time, really one. These measures were acts of
Parliament: 1. Establishing 'the king's spiritual supremacy; 2.
Suppressing, at once, all the monasteries existing in the
country, and giving their property to the nobles who were
willing to apostatize.
The necessity of convening Parliament resulted from the failure
of the first attempt, already made, to establish the king's
supremacy. Browne, the successor of Allen in the See of Dublin,
a rank Lutheran at heart, had been commissioned by the king and
by Cranmer, his consecrator, to establish the new doctrine at
once. His want of success, is thoroughly explained in a letter
to Cromwell, which is still preserved, and which remains one of
the proudest monuments of the steadfastness of the Irish in
their religion.
He complains that not only the clergy, but the "common people,"
were "more zealous in their blindness than the saints and
martyrs in truth, in the beginning of the Gospel," and "such was
their hostility against him that his life was in danger."
And all this in Dublin, in the heart of the Pale, where the
chief antagonist of the new doctrine, "the leader of the people"
against this first attempt at schism, was Cromer, the Archbishop
of Armagh, an Englishman himself! So that those prelates of
England, who, with the exception of the noble Fisher, had all
yielded without a murmur of opposition to the will of Henry,
could find no followers, not even of their own nation, in
Ireland, so much had their faith been strengthened by contact
with that of "the common people."
A Parliament was needed, therefore, and that one which was to be
the instrument of introducing the great English measure, met for
the first time in Dublin, on the 1st of May, 1536; but, being
prorogued, it met again in 1537, and did not complete its work
until once more summoned in 1541, when the old Irish element was
for the first and last time introduced at its sitting, in order,
if possible, to consecrate the new doctrine by having it
solemnly accepted by the old race.
This Parliament, which was first convened in Dublin, McGeoghegan
says, "adjourned to Kilkenny, thence to Cashel, after ward to
Limerick, and lastly to Dublin again." The chief cause of these
interruptions was the difficulty of bringing an Irish Parliament,
even when composed of Englishmen, as was the case up to 1541,
to pass the decrees of supremacy, denial of Roman authority, etc.,
which had been so readily accepted in England.
The Irish Parliaments, as far back as we can see, were composed
not only of lords, spiritual and temporal, and of deputies of
the Commons, but each diocese possessed also the right to send
there three ecclesiastical proctors, who, by reason of their
office, owned neither benefice nor fief, and were therefore at
liberty to vote, fearless of attainder and confiscation, in
accordance with their conscience and their sense of right.
This feature of the Irish assemblies, even when no
representative of the native race sat in them, was a fatal
obstacle to the success of the scheme devised by Browne and
executed by Cromwell. Accordingly, we are not astonished to find
that, by an act of despotism not uncommon during the reign of
Henry VIII., the proctors were excluded from Parliament, which
thus became an obedient tool in the hands of the government.
Not only, therefore, were several state measures carried in
accordance with the wish of the king, but the great object
proposed by the meeting of this assembly was finally obtained;
and, lowing the lead of the English Parliament, Henry VIII. and
his successors were confirmed in the title of "Supreme Head of
the Church in Ireland," with power of reforming and correcting
errors in religion. All appeals to Rome were prohibited, and the
Pope's authority declared a usurpation.
Henry, however, foreseeing that all these favorite measures of
his policy, being carried by English votes in a purely English
assembly, though on Irish soil, would meet with universal
opposition from all the native lords, conceived the idea of
summoning the great Irish chieftains to a new meeting of
Parliament, from which he expected that a moral revolution would
be effected in the island. Sir Anthony St. Leger, created deputy
in August, 1540, was thought a likely man to be intrusted with
so delicate a mission. He conducted it with political prudence,
that is to say, with a judicious mixture of kindness and fraud,
which succeeded beyond all expectations.
In order to prepare the way for hoodwinking the Irish chieftains,
favors of every kind were showered upon them, to wit, titles
and estates, chiefly those of suppressed monasteries; and St.
Leger, by an alternate use of force and diplomacy, at length
effected that the Irish should consent to accept titles. Con
O'Neill, the head of the house of Tyrone, went to England,
accompanied by O'Kervellan, Bishop of Ologher, and was admitted
to an audience by the king. Henry adopted toward those proud
Irishmen a policy utterly different from that he had used with
the English lords. These latter were merely threatened with his
displeasure, and with the feudal penalties he knew so well how
to inflict; the others were received at court as favorites and
dear friends; a royal courtesy, kind expressions, a smiling face-
-such were the arms he employed against the "barbarous Irish."
Tyrone, O'Donnell, and others, were not proof against his
cunning. The first renounced his title of prince and the
glorious name of O'Neill, to receive in return that of Earl of
Tyrone. Manus O'Donnell was made Earl of Tyrconnel. Both
received back the lands which they had offered to the king, and
their example was followed by a great number of inferior lords.
Among them, two Magenisses were dubbed knights; Murrough O'Brien,
of North Munster, was made Earl of Thomond and Baron of
Inchiquin; De Burgo, or McWilliams, was created Earl of
Clanricard, and a host of others submitted in like manner, and
received the new titles which henceforth became conspicuous in
Irish history.
This was the beginning of the gradual suppression of the clans.
Many of these nobles, unfortunately, not content with receiving
back, at the hands of the king, the lands which had come into
their possession from a long line of ancestors, and which really
belonged not to them personally, but to the clans whose heads
they were, greedily snatched at the estates of religious orders,
whose suppression was the first consequence of the schism in
Ireland, which will soon occupy our attention.
The Irish chieftains had already seen Wolsey, a cardinal in full
communion with Rome, suppress forty monasteries in the island.
They might therefore imagine that the confiscation of a still
greater number on the part of the king was a thing not
altogether incompatible with the religion of the monarch, and
that the fact of their sharing in the plunder was not entirely
opposed to their titles of Catholics and subjects of Rome. Such
is human conscience when blinded by self-interest.
The king thought that he had gained over the nobility,--which
was all he wished- -and the last session of the previous
Parliament of 1536 and the following years might now be held in
order to consecrate the unholy work.
"On the 12th of June, 1541," says Mr. Haverty, "a Parliament was
held in Dublin, at which the novel sight was witnessed of Irish
chieftains sitting for the first time with English lords.
O'Brien appeared there by his procurators and attorneys, and
Kavanagh, O'More, O'Reilly, McWilliams, and others, took their
seats in person, the addresses of the Speaker and of the Lord-
Chancellor being interpreted to them in Irish by the Earl of
Ormond. An act was unanimously passed, conferring on Henry VIII.
and his successors the title of King of Ireland, instead of that
of Lord of Ireland, which the English kings, since
the days of John, had hitherto borne. This act was hailed with
great rejoicings in Dublin, and on the following Sunday, the
lords and gentlemen of Parliament went in procession to St.
Patrick's Cathedral, where solemn high mass was sung by
Archbishop Browne, after which the law was proclaimed and a Te
Deum chanted."
It is worthy of remark that in the session of 1541, at which
alone the Irish chieftains appeared, not a word was said of the
supremacy of the king in spirituals. Sir James Ware, who gives
the various decrees with more detail than usual, makes no
mention of this pet measure of the king and of the Lutheran
Archbishop Browne, but it was only part and parcel of the
Parliament of 1536, prorogued successively to Kilkenny, Cashel,
Limerick, and finally again to Dublin. At its first sitting the
law of supremacy was passed and proclaimed as law of Ireland.
Nothing was said of it in the various sessions that followed,
including that of 1541; and yet the Irish chieftains were
supposed to have sanctioned it, inasmach as it was a measure
previously passed in the same Parliament: and the suppression of
various abbeys and monasteries having been openly decreed in the
final session, as a result of the king's supremacy--Rome not
having been consulted, of course--all the signers of the last
decree were supposed to have thereby sanctioned and adopted the
previous ones. Thus O'Neill, O'Reilly, O'More, and the rest,
without being aware of the fact, became schismatics, though many
of them, perhaps all, did not see the connection between the
various sessions of that long Parliament. Certainly, if, on
leaving the Dublin Cathedral, where they had heard the
archbishop's mass and assisted at that solemn Te Deum, they had
been told that that act was intended to consecrate the surrender
of the religion of their ancestors, and the commencement of a
frightful revolution, which would end in the destruction of
their national existence, almost of their very race, they would
have incredulously laughed to scorn the unwelcome prophet.
But even if, as we may well believe, those Irish lords had
really been the victims of deception, and had not, as a body,
been corrupted by the sacrilegious gift of suppressed
monasteries, the people, their clansmen, prompted by the vivid
impressions and unerring instincts of religious faith and
patriotic nationality, which were ever living in their breasts,
resented the weakness of their chieftains as a national
defection and a real apostasy, and took immediate steps to bring
the lords to their senses, and to prevent the spread of English
corruption.
All who had received titles from Henry, and surrendered to him
the deeds of their lands, as if those lands belonged to them
personally, and not to the clans collectively, all those,
particularly, who had enriched themselves by the plunder of
religious houses, and who had taken any part in the destruction
of the religious orders so dear to the Irish heart, were soon
made to feel the indignation which those events had excited
among the native clansmen, north and south. And those of the
chieftains who had really been deceived, and had preserved in
their hearts all through a strong love for their religion and
country, were recalled to a sense of their error, and brought
back to a sense of their duty by the unmistakable voice of the
"people."
While the nobles were still in England, feted by Henry in his
royal palace of Greenwich, renouncing their Irish names to
become English earls and barons, the Ulster chief, protesting
that he would never again take the name of O'Neill, but content
himself with the title of Earl of Tyrone; while O'Brien was
being created Earl of Thomond; McWilliams, Earl of Clanricard;
O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell; Kavanagh, Baron of Ballyann; and
Fitzpatrick, Baron of Ossory; the clans at home, hearing in due
time of those real treasons, were concerting plans for making
their lords repent of their weakness or treachery, and for
administering to them due punishment on their return.
O'Neill, "the first of his race who had accepted an English
title," on landing in Ireland, learned that, his people had
deposed him, and elected in his stead his son John the Proud,
better known as Shane O'Neill; O'Donnell, on his arrival, met
most, of his clan, headed by his son, up in arms against him;
the new Earl of Clanricard had already been deposed by his
people and another McWilliams, with a Gaelic name, elected in
his place; and so with the rest.
But, unfortunately, the Government of England was strong enough
to support its favorite chieftains, and it found some Irish
tools ready at hand to form the nucleus of an Irish party in
their favor. Thus, unanimity no longer marked the decisions of
the clans; two parties were formed in each of them, the one
national, comprising the great bulk of the people, the real,
true people; the other English, composed of a few apostate
Irishmen, backed by the power of England. Thus, henceforth we
hear of the O'Reilly, and the king's O'Reilly, etc.
Henry VIII. seemed, therefore, with the help of his minister, St.
Leger, to have succeeded in breaking up the clans, after the
Irish national government had been broken up long before.
Confusion of titles, property, and traditions became worse
confounded. How could the shanachies, bards, and brehons, any
longer agree in their pedigrees, songs, and legal decisions?
England had thus early adopted in Ireland the stern and
coldhearted policy which, centuries later, she used to destroy
the native and Mohammedan dynasties in Hindostan. It was not yet
divide et impera on a large scale, but the division was pushed
as far as lay in the power England, to the very last elements of
the social system.
From this time forward, then, we must not be surprised to find
England welcoming to her bosom unworthy sons of Ireland, whom
she wished to make her tools. There was always, either in Dublin
or London, a sufficient supply of materials out of which crown's
chiefs might be manufactured; the government made it part of its
policy to hold in its hands and train to its purposes certain
members of each of the ruling families--of the O'Neills,
O'Reillys, O'Donnells, O'Connors, and others.
It was no longer, therefore, the rooting out and exterminating
policy which prevailed, but one as fatal in its results, which
would have utterly destroyed Irish national feeling, to set up
in its place, not only English manners, language, and customs,
but also English schism, heresy, philosophical speculations --as
the Four Masters have it --finally, materialism and nihilism.
But, in real sober fact, the scheme proved almost an utter
failure, owing to the far-seeing good sense of the people. The
national spirit revived among the upper classes, both native and
of English descent--owing to the decided stand taken by the
inferior clansmen.
The Desmonds and Kildares, in the south, the O'Donnells,
Maguires, and others, in the north, soon showed themselves
animated by a new spirit of ardent Catholicism; created, in fact,
a new nation, quite apart from, or rather embracing, clanship,
well-nigh destroyed the English power, kept Elizabeth, during
the whole of her reign, in constant agitation and fear, and
would have succeeded in recovering their independence, and
securing freedom of worship, had not their good-nature been
imposed upon by the hypocrisy and faithlessness of the Stuarts,
to whom they always looked for freedom in the practice of their
religion, without ever obtaining it.
Thus did the people, the Irish race, thwart the policy of Henry,
who sought to gain over the nobility. Their stubborn resistance
to the vastly-increased and constantly-increasing English power,
grew at last to such proportions, and became so discouraging to
their oppressors, that the old policy of utter extermination was
resumed by Cromwell and the Orange party of the following age.
The refusal of the people, that is to say, of the bulk of the
nation, to submit to the policy of their chieftains, and the
determination to repudiate that policy by deposing its
supporters and choosing others in their stead, was most happy in
its effect on their whole future history.
The leaders, by accepting the new titles bestowed on them by the
English kings, by taking their seats in Parliament, and
concurring in the various measures there passed, subjected
themselves to a foreign rule, surrendered to this rule the tribe-
lands, which it was not in their power to surrender of
themselves, gave up, in fact, their nationality, and became
English subjects. The action of the clansmen reversed all the
fatal consequences resulting from those acts. They remained a
nation distinct from the English, whose laws they had never
either admitted or accepted. And, as the clan spirit declined,
under the policy of England, it only made way for a new and a
greater spirit--religious feeling, the bond of a common religion
assaulted--which, henceforth, lay at the bottom of the whole
struggle--which, for the first time in their history, blended
into one whole the broken clans, gave them a unity and a
consistency never known till then, and thus the real nation was
born.
They might boast, therefore, not only of not having lost their
autonomy, but of being more firmly than ever knit together; they
could conclude treaties of alliance with foreign powers, without
committing treason, and they soon began to use that power; they
could even declare war against England, and it was not rebellion.
The successors of Henry VIII. acted constantly as though the
Irish nation had really subjected itself to English kings and
English rule, as though the acceptance of a few titles by a few
chieftains (who were deposed by their people as soon as the fact
was known) signified an acknowledgment on the part of the Irish
people of their absorption by the English feudal system; they
appeared "horrified" when they saw the successors of those
chieftains reject those titles and resume their own names; and
they called the Irish "rebels" and "traitors" for going to war
with England--a country they had never acknowledged as their
ruler--and introducing into their country Spanish, Italian, and
French troops as allies.
The explanation of the whole mystery consisted in the simple
fact that the people, the nation, had steadily refused to
sanction the act of their leaders; and all the pretensions of
English kings, statesmen, and lawyers, were valueless. Those
Irishmen who subsequently entered into the various Geraldine and
Ulster confederacies, and summoned foreign armies to their aid,
were neither rebels nor traitors, but citizens of an independent
state, possessing their international rights as citizens of any
independent country. This we have seen in a previous chapter,
and Sir John Davies has been obliged to confess its truth,
admitting the difference between a tributary and a subject
nation.
A glance shows us the importance of the almost unanimous outcry
of the clansmen of Tyrone, Tyrconnell, and of other parts of
Ireland. Owing to the patriotic feeling of these, nothing
remained for the English but to punish the Irish people for
their resolve of holding to their religion, and to declare a
religious war against them, though they called them all the time
rebels and traitors. This is the view an impartial historian
should take of those mighty events.
But, it is well to look more closely at this new element, which
then showed itself for the first time in Irish national life,
the people, irrespective of clanship; the people, as influencing
the leaders, and thus becoming a living--nay, a ruling power in
the state. And, lest any of our readers should not be convinced
that such really was the case, we mention here a fact, which
will come more prominently before us in the next chapter, that,
at the end of Elizabeth's reign, the efforts of all her large
armies and her tortuous policy for changing the religion of the
country, resulted in the grand total of sixty converts to
Protestantism from the noble class, not one of the clansmen
turning apostate!
Bridget of Kildare would not have been surprised at this, to
judge by what we have previously heard from her.
In order to find the explanation of this wonderful fact, we must
compare the Irish people with other nationalities, and we may
then easily distinguish its peculiar features, so persistent, so
enduring, we may say, indestructible. We shall find that what
this people was three hundred years ago, it is to this day, with
a greater unity of feeling, devotedness to principle, and higher
aims than any people of modern times.
In antiquity, the people, in the Christian sense of the word,
never appeared in the field of history. In the despotic
countries of Asia and Africa, there was and could be no question
of such a thing; it was an inert mass used at will by the despot.
The Phoenician states, and Carthage in particular, were mere
oligarchies, with commerce for their chief object, and slaves
for mercantile or warlike purposes. In the republics of Greece
and Italy, the aristocracy ruled, and when, after centuries of
bloody struggles and revolutions, the subjects of Rome were
finally granted the rights of citizenship, the despotism of the
empire suddenly appeared, crushing both plebs and patricians.
Whenever in those ancient governments we find the lower classes
unable longer to bear the heavy yoke imposed upon them,
revolting against a despotism which had grown insupportable, and
claiming their natural rights, it was merely a surging of waves
raised to mountain-height by the fury of a sudden storm, but
soon allayed and subdued beneath the inflexible will of stern
rulers. The people was a mere mob, whose violence, when
successful, fatally carried destruction with it; and, though it
is seemingly full of a terrible power which nothing can resist,
its power lasts but for a very short time. Could it only outlast
the destruction of all superior rulers, it would end by
destroying itself.
If we would meet with the people, such as we conceive it to be
in accordance with our Christian ideas, we must come down to
that period of time which followed close upon the organization
of Christendom, namely, to the much-abused middle ages.
Feudalism, it is true, withstood its expansion for a long time,
kept alive the remnants of slavery which it had found in Europe
at its birth, or at best invented serfdom as a somewhat milder
substitute for the former degradation of man. But feudalism
itself was not strong enough to prevent the natural consequences
of the vigorous Christianity which at that time prevailed; and
kings, dukes, and feudal bishops, were compelled to grant
charters which insured the freedom of the subject. Then the
people appeared, in the cities first, afterward in the country,
where, however, the peasants had still to drag on for a weary
time the chains of secular serfdom.
Thus the people lived in Spain, where they fought valiantly
under their lords for centuries against the Crescent, so that in
some provinces all classes were ennobled, and not a single
plebeian was to be found, which simply means that the whole mass
of the citizens formed the people. Thus the people had an early
existence in Italy, where every city almost became a centre of
freedom and activity, notwithstanding strife and continual feuds.
Thus the people had its life in France, where the learned men
of Catholic universities determined with precision the limits of
kingly power, and where the outburst of the Crusades brought all
classes together to fight for Christ, forming but one body
engaged alike throughout in a holy cause. Thus, finally, the
people had its life even in Germany and England, where real
liberty, though of later birth, afterward remained more deeply
rooted in social life.
In all those countries, it was called populus Christianus; it
had its associations, its guilds, its Christian customs, its
privileges, its rights. Its existence was acknowledged by law,
and it possessed everywhere either Christian codes, or at least
local customs for its safeguards. It gradually grew into a great
power, and took the name of the "Third Estate," ranking directly
after the clergy, and nobility. Its members knew and respected
the gradations of the social hierarchy as then existing. The
monarchs in most countries, in France chiefly, sided with it
whenever the nobles sought to oppress it, and its deputies were
heard in the Parliaments of the various nations of Christendom.
How many millions of human beings lived happily during several
centuries under these great institutions of mediaeval times! And
if the members of the people at that time could seldom rise
above their order, except through the Church, this unfortunate
inability often prevented dangerous and subversive ambitions,
and was thus really the source and cause of, happiness to all.
Governments at that period lasted for thousands of years; men
could rely on the stability of things, and great enterprises
could be undertaken and carried to a successful termination.
But throughout all Europe, with the single exception of Ireland,
the people had to contend against the feudal power; and it was
only very gradually, and step by step, that it could creep up to
its rights. In Ireland, as we have seen, feudalism had failed to
strike root; so that the clansmen who represented there what the
people did elsewhere, never having been subject to slavery or
serfdom, possessed all the liberties which the ordinary class of
men can claim. They had always borne their share in the affairs
of their own territory, at least by the willing help they
afforded to their leaders, during the Danish wars chiefly, and
afterward throughout the four hundred years of struggle with the
Anglo-Normans. The people were the real conquerors under the
lead of their chieftains, and the perpetual enjoyment of their
beloved customs was the privilege of the least among them as
much as of the proudest of their nobles. They themselves were
well aware of this, and to their own efforts no less than to the
heads of the clans they attributed the advantages which they had
gained.
Thus, when the conduct of their chieftain was not in accordance
with what the clansmen considered the right, they were ready to
express their disapproval of his actions by deposing him, and
placing their allegiance at the service of the man of their
choice.
But though this course of action is true of the whole period of
their history, more especially from the date of their becoming
Christian up to the time when the blows of religious persecution
welded them into one people, yet they were divided and often at
war among themselves. But no sooner did the work of perversion
make itself felt among them, than we behold the clansmen
exhibiting a unity of feeling on many points which never marked
them before. So that thenceforth the separated clans gradually
began to merge into Irishmen.
This unity of feeling showed itself, above all, in the deep love
for their religion, which at once became universal and all-
pervading. This love had undoubtedly existed before, as it could
scarcely have originated and swollen to such proportions all at
once; but as the stroke of the hammer reveals the spark, so the
force of opposition enkindled the flame and caused it to burst
forth into view. At the first blow it showed itself throughout
the island, and thus the people became once and forever united.
This unity of feeling was displayed likewise in an ardent love
for their country in contradistinction to the special locality
of the tribe. Thus arose a true fraternal union with all their
countrymen of whatever county or city. The old antagonism
between family and family only appeared at fitful and unguarded
intervals; but in general each one grasped the hand of another
only as a Catholic and an Irishman.
This is clearly attributable to their religion. Catholicity
knows no place; its very name is opposed to restrictions of this
character. Could it carry out its purpose, which is that of its
Divine founder, it would make one of all nations; and, to a
certain extent, it has achieved this task. Differences of
character, which are deeply impressed in the nature of various
branches of the human family, are indeed never totally
obliterated by it; but such differences disappear when kneeling
at the same altar and receiving the same sacraments. The
Catholic religion is the only one which is, has ever been, and
must ever claim to be, universal; the religions of antiquity
were purely local.
Since the coming of our Lord, no heresy, no schism has ever
pretended to the reality of a catholic existence, and, if the
word is self-applied by certain sects, the world laughs at it as
a meaningless thing. The Catholic Church alone has truly claimed
and possessed such a character.
But if of all men it makes one family with respect to spiritual
matters, what unanimity of feeling must it not create in a
single nation truly imbued with its spirit, which is attacked
for its sake? Until the reign of Henry VIII., the Irish, in
their struggle with England, could summon no religious thought
to their aid, since England was Catholic also, and the Norman
nobles established among them followed the same calendar,
possessed the same churches, the same creed, the same sacraments.
But as soon as the English power was stamped with heresy, the
opposition to that power assumed a religious aspect, and no
longer restricted itself to the clans immediately attacked, but
spread throughout the whole nation.
To bring the case down to some particular point, in order to
render our meaning more clear, a priest or monk, who was hunted
down, was no longer sure of refuge in his own district, and
among men of his own sept merely, but he was equally welcomed in
the castle of the chieftain or the hut of the peasant through
the length and breadth of the land. Any Irishman, subject to
fine, imprisonment, or torture, for the sake of his religion,
did not find sympathy restricted to his own circle of friends or
acquaintances, but, even if tried and prosecuted in a corner of
the island, far away from his own home, he could count upon the
sympathy of as many friends as there were Irish Catholics to
witness his sufferings. This state of things was certainly
unknown before.
Religion, when deep, is the strongest feeling of the human heart,
and endows the nation steeped in it with an unconquerable
strength. To judge of the intensity of religious feeling in the
Irish, it should be remembered that it was the only legacy left
them after every thing else had been taken away, and, though it
was the special object of attack, they were to be stripped one
by one of their old customs, their own chieftains, their houses
of study and of prayer, their religious and secular teachers,
nay, of the chance even of educating their children, of the
right to possess not merely their own soil, but even to
cultivate a few acres of it, nay, of their very language itself,
in a word, of all that makes a country dear to man. For ages
were they destined to remain outcasts and strangers on the soil
which was their own; abject and ignorant paupers, without the
faintest possibility of rising in the social scale.
One thing only did they keep in their hearts, their faith,
though stripped of all the exterior circumstances which adorn it,
and reduced to its simplest elements. But at least it was their
religion, to deprive them of which, all the wealth, resources,
armies, laws of a powerful nation, were to be strained to the
utmost during long ages. How, then, could they fail to love and
cherish it, to cling fast to it, as to an inestimable treasure,
the only real one indeed they could possess on earth, where all
else passes away?
Here, then, always presupposing the paramount influence of the
grace of God, lay the secret of that indestructible strength and
unwearied energy manifested by Irishmen, from the middle of the
sixteenth century down, and we are enabled thus to appreciate
the value of that unity which persecution alone fastened upon
them.
To the love of religion, which was the origin of that unity,
love of country was soon added, and by love of country we here
understand the love of the whole island, not merely of the
particular sept to which the individual belonged, or of the
particular spot in which he happened to be born. Such had been
the divisions among the people and the chieftains hitherto, that
England could attack one sept without fearing the revolt of the
others, nay, was often assisted by an adverse clan. And so
thoroughly had the Anglo-Normans adopted the native manners,
that the Kildares were frequently at war with the Desmonds,
though both belonged to the same Geraldine family; and the
Ormonds kept up a constant feud with both the Geraldine branches.
When Henry VIII. almost destroyed the Kildares, we do not find
that the Desmonds felt their loss at first; perhaps they even
rejoiced at it.
It was the same with the natives, particularly with the 0'Neills
and the O'Donnells, in the north. The whole island and its
general interests seemed the concern of no one, so taken up were
they by the affairs of their own particular locality. And this
state of feeling had existed from the beginning, even among holy
men. The songs of Columba, of Cormac McCullinan, even of the
Fenian heroes of old, all celebrated the victories of one sept
over another, or the beauties of some one spot in the island, in
preference to all others.
Nay, so prevalent was this clannish spirit, even at the
beginning of the religious troubles, that Henry VIII., and
Elizabeth after him, gained their successes by directing their
attacks against particular places, so certain were they that the
other districts would not come to the rescue.
The feeling of nationality, of what we call patriotism, wrestled
along time in the throes of birth, before coming forth, and it
was only during the latter half of Elizabeth's reign that those
confederacies were formed, which included the whole country and
called in even foreign aid.
But this feeling began to appear as soon as religion was
attacked; and therefore do we call this epoch the true birth of
a people.
And as it is with the people chiefly that we are concerned, it
is to our purpose to remark here that they gradually lost sight
of their petty quarrels and local prejudices in losing their
chieftains; they began to look for leaders among themselves, and,
understanding at last that the whole island was threatened by
the invading policy of England, they were to fight for the whole,
and not for any special district.
Then, for the first time, did Ireland become a reality to them,
an existing personality, a desolate queen weeping over the fate
of her children, calling, with the voice of a stricken mother,
those who survived to her aid, and worthy, by her beauty and
misfortunes, of their most heroic and disinterested efforts.
Religious feeling, then, first made the Irish a nation, and gave
them that unity of thought which they now exhibit everywhere,
even in the remotest quarters of the globe, wherever they may
choose their place of exile. And if there still exists among
them something of that former predilection for the place where
they first saw the light, the other parts of Erin are at least
included in their deep love, and they would shed their blood for
their country, irrespective of prejudice of place.
Thus have they come at last to love each other as men of no
other nation ever did. In order to understand this thoroughly,
we must remember that for ages they, as a people, have been
oppressed and held in bondage by a stern and powerful nation.
They had to defend themselves in turn against the most open and
the most insidious attacks. Bereft in many cases of all the
means of defence, they had nothing left them, save their
religion, and the support they could afford each other.
If, by any stretch of imagination, we could place ourselves in
their position, understand their language when they met each
other in their huts, in their morasses and bogs, in their
mountain fastnesses and desolate moors, could we only enter into
their feelings and see the working of their minds, we might
catch a faint conception of the affection which they must have
felt for brothers waging the deadly fight against the same
enemies, and contending in a seemingly endless and hopeless
struggle against the same terrible odds. Union, affection,
devotedness, are words too weak to serve here.
For this reason, also, do we find the Irish people stamped with
peculiarities which we find in no others. In antiquity, as we
have said, the people could never rise to any thing greater than
a mob; in modern times such has also often been the case. With
the Irish it is not, and could not be so. Their aim has always
been too lofty, their struggle of too long duration, their
morality too genuine and too pure. For their aim has constantly
been to rescue their country; their struggle has lasted nearly
three hundred years; their morality has ever been directed by
the sweetest religion. Extreme cases of oppression such as
theirs may have occasionally given rise to violent outbreaks
inevitable in human despair; but, on the whole, it may to their
honor be fearlessly said, that they have preserved, almost
throughout, a due regard for social hierarchy and all kinds of
rights. Many of them have died of hunger, rather than touch the
property of a rich and hostile neighbor. Where else can we find
such an example?
This union of the people, which was thus brought about by
religious persecution, included not only the natives of the old
race, but the Anglo-Irish themselves, who were brought by
degrees to a unanimity of feeling which they had never known
before, although they had previously adopted Irish manners - a
unanimity which the Lutheran Archbishop Browne had foreseen and
openly denounced beforehand. This was the man who had
unwittingly borne testimony to the Irish that "the common people
of this isle are more zealous in their blindness than the saints
and martyrs were in the truth at the beginning of the Gospel;"
the same George Browne, of Dublin, had also been the first to
perceive that the religious question was beginning, even under
Henry VIII., to unite the native Irish and the descendants of
Strongbow's followers, until that time bitterly opposed to each
other.
In a letter, dated "Dublin, May, 1538," to the Lord Privy Seal,
he said: "It is observed that, ever since his Highness's
ancestors had this nation in possession, the old natives have
been craving foreign powers to assist and raise them; and now
both English race and Irish begin to oppose your lordship's
orders" (about supremacy), "and do lay aside their national old
quarrels, which, I fear, if any thing will cause a foreigner to
invade this nation, that will."
This man, who was altogether worldly and without faith,
displayed in this a keen political foresight far above that of
the ordinary counsellors of England's king. He openly announced
what actually came to pass only toward the middle of Elizabeth's
reign, and what the horrors of the Cromwellian wars were to
complete - the thorough fusion of Irish and Anglo-Norman
Catholics, both transplanted to Connaught, perishing under the
sword of the soldier, the rope of the hangman, or dying of
starvation in the recesses of their mountains - united forever
in the bonds of martyrdom.
The "birth of the Irish people" was to be insured by another
measure of the English Government - the suppression of religious
houses. We must, in conclusion, turn to this.
In the annals of the Four Masters, under the year 1537, we read:
"A heresy and a new error broke out in England, the effect of
pride, vainglory, avarice, sensual desire, and the prevalence of
a variety of scientific and philosophical speculations, so that
the people of England went into opposition to the Pope and to
Rome.
"At the same time, they followed a variety of opinions; and,
adopting the old law of Moses, after the manner of the Jewish
people, they gave the title of Head of the Church of God, during
his reign, to the king. They ruined the orders who were
permitted to hold worldly possessions, namely, monks, canons
regular, nuns, and Brethren of the Cross, etc . . . . They broke
into the monasteries, they sold their roofs and bells; so that
there was not a monastery from Arran of the Saints to the Iccian
Sea that was not broken and scattered, except only a few in
Ireland."
And, under 1540, they say: "The English, in every place
throughout Ireland, where they established their power,
persecuted and banished the nine religious orders, and
particularly they destroyed the monastery of Monaghan, and
beheaded the guardian and a number of friars."
We may add that, at the restoration of the old faith under Queen
Mary, nothing had to be restored in Ireland save the monasteries.
These establishments had, almost without exception, been
ruthlessly destroyed.
In our previous considerations, we have spoken of no other
religious houses in Ireland, save those of the old Columbian
order of monks, as it was called, which was a growth of the
country, and bore so many marks of Irish peculiarities. This
continued until, communications with Rome becoming more frequent,
the various orders established in the West were successively
introduced into Ireland. Our purpose is not to write a history
of monasticism, and therefore we do not intend entering into
details on this point, interesting though they are. But we may
add that, gradually, the old monasteries - from the Norman
invasion chiefly - as well as the new ones which were
established, were placed under the rule of the various
congregations, acknowledged by the Holy See. It seems that the
monasteries founded by St. Columba himself afterward submitted
to the rule of St. Benedict, the others, for the most part,
embracing that of the canons regular of St. Augustine; but the
precise epoch of these changes is not known. It is certain,
however, that the Benedictines, Cistercians, and Bernardines,
were introduced into the country at a very early date, together
with the four mendicant orders of Franciscans, Dominicans,
Carmelites, and Augustinians.
The pretext for their destruction was, of course, the same in
England as in all the other countries of Europe - their need of
reformation; but it does not appear that even this pretence was
put forward in the case of the Irish monasteries. The fact was,
the breath of suspicion could not rest upon those stainless
establishments in the Isle of Saints. In the idea of the natives,
their very names had ever been synonymous with holiness and all
Christian virtues, and so they continued to enjoy the most
unbounded popularity. The fact of the English Government
selecting them as a special point of attack is in itself
sufficient to vindicate their character from any aspersion. Two
measures were deemed necessary and sufficient for the purpose of
detaching Ireland from its allegiance to the Holy See, and of
introducing schism, if not heresy, into the country. One, and
certainly the most efficacious of these, was thought to be the
destruction of convents for both sexes. This, we affirm, is
ample apology for their inmates.
But this general reflection is not enough for our purpose, which
is, to delineate and bring out the true character of the nation.
It is, therefore, fitting to give an idea of the extent to which
the monastic influence prevailed, and of the nature of the
people who cherished, loved, and accepted it at all times.
It may be said that the Christian Church, as established in the
island by St. Patrick, rested mainly for its support on the
religious orders. In many cases the abbots of monasteries were
superior to bishops, and, as a general rule, the hierarchy of
the Church was, as it were, subordinate to monastic
establishments.1 (1 Vide Montalembert's "Monks of the West:
Bollandists, Oct.," tome xii., p. 888.) At the time we speak of,
indeed, such was no longer the case; but the previously-existing
state of reciprocal subordination between abbots and bishops
during several centuries, in Ireland,, had left deep traces in
the nature of the institutions and of the people itself. It may
be said that in the mind of an Irishman the existence of
Christianity almost presupposed a numerous array of convents and
religious houses. And this idea of theirs can scarcely be called
a wrong one, nor did they exaggerate the value of religious
orders, since their estimate of them was no higher than that of
Christ himself and his Church.
If with justice it was said that the French monarchy was
established by bishops, with equal justice may it be said that
the Irish people had been educated, nay, created by monks. The
monks had taken the place left vacant by the Druids, and thus
they became for the Christian what the others had been for the
pagan Irish. For a long period the Irish monks formed a very
considerable portion of the population. In their body were
concentrated the gifts of science, art, holiness, even miracles
without number, unless we are to suppose that the hagiography of
the island was intrusted to the care of idiots incapable of
ascertaining current facts. The vast literature of the island,
greater indeed than that of any other Christian country at the
time, was either the product of monastic intellect and learning,
or at least had been translated and preserved by monks. The
gifted Eugene O'Curry could fill numbers of the pages of his
great work with the bare titles of the books which are known to
have issued from the Irish monasteries, of which but a few
fragments remain; and no sensible man who has read his book can
affect to despise establishments which could produce so many
proofs of fancy, intellect, and erudition. The scattered
fragments of that rich literature, which had escaped the fury of
the Scandinavian, the ignorance and rapacity of the early Anglo-
Norman, the blind fanaticism of the Puritan, could still in the
seventeenth century furnish materials enough for the immense
compilations of the Four Masters, Ward, Wadding, Lynch, and
Colgan.
What we have here stated is the simple, unvarnished truth; yet
it is but yesterday that the subject has really begun to be
studied.
But what is chiefly worthy our attention is, that the
monasteries were not only the seats of learning and literature
in Ireland, but they constituted and comprised in themselves
every thing of value which the nation possessed. As they were
found everywhere, there was not room for much else in the
department they filled in the island. Take them away, and the
country is a blank. So well were the crafty counsellors of Henry
VIII. and Elizabeth satisfied of this, that they insisted on the
destruction of the monasteries, and turned all their efforts to
carry their purpose into effect.
Feudalism had failed in its endeavor to cover the country with
castles; the native royalty and inferior chieftainship being
engaged in constant bickerings with each other and with the
common foe, had been unable to enrich the country with monuments
of art and wealthy palaces; the Church alone had accomplished
whatever had been effected in this way, and in the Church the
monks rather than the bishops had for a long time exercised the
preponderating influence. Hence, it may be truly said that
Ireland was essentially a monastic country, more so than any
other nation of Christendom.
This fact explains how it happened that the monastic
institutions could not be destroyed. The convent-walls might be
battered down, the more valuable edifices might be converted
into dwellings for the new Protestant aristocracy, their
property might go to enrich upstarts, and feed the rapacity of
greedy conquerors, but the institution itself could not perish.
It is true that in all Catholic countries this seems also to be
the case; but wide is the difference with regard to Ireland. In
all places religious establishments have frequently been the
object of anti-Christian fury and rage. They have often been
destroyed, and seem to have utterly disappeared, when the world
has been surprised by their speedy resurrection. The fact is,
the Church needs them, and the practice of evangelical counsels
must forever be in a state of active operation upon earth, since
the grace of God always inspires with it a number of select
souls. God is the source; consequently the stream must flow,
since the life-spring is eternal and ever-running.
But in other countries besides the one under our consideration
religious houses and institutions have sometimes been
effectually rooted out, at least for a time. When the French
Constituent Assembly, by one of its destructive decrees, closed
those establishments all over France, such of them as by their
laxity deserved to die, ceased at once to exist, and poured
forth their inmates to swell the ranks of a corrupt society, and
add religious degradation to the immoral filth of the world.
Those religious houses, within whose walls the spirit of God had
not ceased to dwell, were indeed closed and emptied; but their
inmates endeavored to live their lives of religion in some
unknown and obscure spot, until the madness of the Convention,
and the Reign of Terror which soon followed, rendered the
continuation of the holy exercises of any community absolutely
impossible. But mark this well: the holy aims of the monks and
nuns found no response in the nation, and, finding themselves
almost entirely rejected by a faithless people, with no resting-
place in the whole extent of the country, a sudden and total
interruption of religious ascetic life in the once most Catholic
nation of Europe was the result.
The same may soon come to pass in our days in Italy and Spain,
until better times return to those now distracted countries, and
the extremities of evil bring them back to something of their
primitive faith.
Not so in Ireland: the communities could continue to exist even
when turned out-of-doors, because the nation wanted them, and
could afford them asylum and peace in the worst periods of
persecution. And this great fact of the mutual love between
monks, priests, and people, contributed also in no small degree
to that union among all, which henceforth became the
characteristic feature of a people hitherto split up into
hostile clans. Nothing probably tended so much toward effecting
the birth of the nation as the deep attachment existing between
the Irish and their religious orders. The latter had always
preached peace and often reconciled enemies, and brought furious
men to the practice of Christian charity and forbearance.
We have seen instances of this when the clans were all powerful
and the chieftains thought of nothing but of "preyings," as they
called them, compelling their enemies to give "hostages" and
devastating the territories of hostile clans. Then the voice of
the monk came to be heard in the midst of contending passions,
and real miracles were often performed by them in changing into
lambs men who resembled roaring lions or devouring wolves; but
their action became much more efficacious when nothing was left
to the people save their religion and the "friars." These, it is
true, could no longer reside within the walls of their convents,
but on that very account their life became more truly one with
that of the people.
Sometimes they found refuge in the large, hospitable dwellings
of the native nobility, where, during the latter part of the
reign of Henry VIII. and the whole of that of Elizabeth, the
almost independent power of the chieftains could still afford
them succor. Sometimes also the humbler dwelling of the farmer
or the peasant offered them a sure asylum, wherein they could
practise their ministry in almost perfect freedom, owing to the
sure and inviolable secrecy of the inmates and neighbors. For a
great distance around, the Catholics knew of their abode, were
often visited by them, even without mach danger of the fact
becoming known to spies and informers. And this brings naturally
before us a new feature of the Irish character.
Their nature, which was so expansive and passionate on all other
subjects, so that to keep a secret was an impossible feat to
them, wore another character when danger to their religion or
its ministers required of them to set a seal on their lips. For
years frequently, large numbers of priests and religious could
not only exist, but move and work among them, without their
place of abode becoming known to the swarms of enemies who
surrounded them. The nation was trained to prudence and
discretion by centuries of oppression and tyranny. Many facts of
this nature are known and recorded in the dark annals of those
times; but how many more will be known never!
Thus, in the year 1588, during the worst part of Elizabeth's
reign, "John O'Malloy, Cornelius Dogherty, and Walfried Ferral,
of the order of St. Francis, fell finally victims to the malice
of the heretics. They had spent eight years in administering the
consolations of religion throughout the mountainous districts of
Leinster. Many families of Carlow, Wicklow, and Wexford, had
been compelled to take a refuge in the mountains from the fury
of the English troops. The good Franciscans shared in all their
perils, travelling about from place to place, by night; they
visited the sick, consoled the dying, and offered up the sacred
mysteries for all. Oftentimes the hard rock was their only bed;
but they willingly embraced nakedness, and hunger, and cold, to
console their afflicted brethren." - (Moran's Archbishops of
Dublin.)
In these few words, we have a picture of the mountain monastery.
During those eight years, how many Irish were consoled and
comforted by those few laborers, who, driven from their holy
home, had chosen to live in the wilderness, and practise their
rule among the wandering people of three large counties,
receiving in return the substance, the love, and loving secrecy
of their flock! We have only to figure to ourselves this scene,
or similar, repeated in every corner of the land, and we may
then easily understand how the Irish people were brought to the
unanimous resolve of standing by each other, and how, from the
state of complete division which formerly prevailed, the
elements of a compact, solid, and indestructible body, began to
form.
We attribute this "birth of a nation" to Henry VIII., because
the change which he tried to introduce into the religion of the
island constituted the occasion and origin of it; and, although
his reign never witnessed that perfect union of the people which
came later on, nevertheless, it is true that then it surely
began, and its origin was the attempt to establish his spiritual
supremacy in Ireland.
This feeling of union and strength in love went on growing, and
showed itself more and more, wring the two centuries which
followed, when so many scenes similar to the one described were
enacted in the remotest parts of the island. God, in his mercy,
provided it with many high mountains, difficult of access, whose
paths were known only to the natives. In these fastnesses, the
holy men, who had been driven from their dwellings and their
churches, could rest in peace and attend to the duties of their
office. They could even recruit their shattered forces, admit
novices, and train them up; and thus their rule continued to be
observed, and their existence as a body protracted, long after
their enemies imagined that they had perished utterly. As soon
as quiet was restored, when persecution abated, and breathing-
time was given them, so that they could show themselves, with
some safety, more openly, they visited their old abodes, often
found some portions of the ruins which admitted of repair, and
dwelt again in security where their predecessors had dwelt for
centuries.
The peasant's hut would also often afford them shelter; some
solitary farm-house on the borders of a lake, or near a deep
morass, took the name of their monastery; some cranogue in the
lake, or dry spot in the thick of the morass, which they could
reach by paths known to themselves only, was their asylum in
times of extraordinary danger. In ordinary times, the farm-house,
to which they had given the name of their lost monastery, was
their convent. It was thus the brothers O'Cleary, and their
companions, lived for years, editing the work of the "Four
Masters," until, at length, they succeeded in publishing their
extraordinary "Annals." The manuscripts which, in spite of the
raging persecution, and the "penal laws," they traversed the
whole island to collect, were preserved, with a reverend care,
in a poor Irish hut. Literary treasures which have since
unfortunately perished, but which they saved for a time from the
reach of the enemy, and which they perpetuated by having them
printed, filled the poor presses and the old furniture of their
asylum, and, owing purely to the friendly help of those who had
given them shelter, they were enabled to enrich the world with
their marvellous compilation.
From the mountain and the hut, on the river-side, the monks were
sometimes allowed to move to their former dwellings, at the risk,
nevertheless, of their liberty and lives. What their ancestors
had done during the Scandinavian invasions, when the monasteries
were so often destroyed and rebuilt, that did the monks of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries likewise in many parts of
the island.
Thus, Father Mooney, a Franciscan, relates that his monastery -
that of Multifarnham - having been totally destroyed by Sir
Francis Shean, and many monks having been killed, he, with a few
others, after long and extraordinary adventures, came back to
the spot, then abandoned by the enemy, and "before the feast of
the Nativity of our Lord, we built up a little house on the site
of the monastery, and there we dwelt who were left after the
flight . . . . . Afterward, Father Nehemias Gregan, the father
guardian, began to build a church, and to repair the monastery,
and for this purpose caused much wood to be cut in the territory
of Deabhna McLochlain; and when they had roofed a chapel and
some other buildings, there came the soldiers of another Sir
Francis Ringtia, and they burned down the monastery again, and
carried off some of the brethren captive to Dublin."
This convent of Multifarnham was raised a third time; and, in
fact, remained in possession of the Franciscans throughout the
persecution, so that to this day the old church has been restored
by them, and the modern house, which now forms their convent,
is built on the site of the old monastery.
Such for a long time was the case with many other religious
establishments; for the same Father Mooney, writing as late as
1624, says: "When Queen Elizabeth strove to make all Ireland
fall away from the Catholic faith, and a law was passed
proscribing all the members of the religious orders, and giving
their monasteries and possessions to the treasury, while all the
others took to flight, or at least quitted their houses, and,
for safety's sake, lived privately and singly among their
friends, and receiving no novices, the order of St. Francis
alone ever remained, as it were, unshaken. For, though they were
violently driven out of some convents to the great towns, and
the convents were profanely turned into dwellings for seculars,
and some of the fathers suffered violence, and even death; yet,
in the country and other remote places, they ever remained in
the convents, celebrating the divine office according to the
custom of religious, their preachers preaching to the people and
performing their other functions, training up novices and
preserving the conventual buildings, holding it sinful to lay
aside, or even hide, their religious habit, though for an hour,
through any human fear. And, every three years, they held their
regular provincial chapters in the woods of the neighborhood,
and observed the rule as it is kept in provinces that are in
peace."
Thus, when the Cromwellian persecution began, the religious
orders were again flourishing in Ireland. They had obtained from
the Stuarts some relaxation in the execution of the laws, and,
as all at the time were fighting for Charles I. against the
Parliamentarians, it was only natural that the authorities did
not carry out the barbarous laws to their full extent in the
island.
It is no matter of great surprise, therefore, that, in 1641,
more than one hundred years after the decree of Henry VIII., the
Franciscan order still possessed sixty-two flourishing houses in
Ireland, each with a numerous community, besides ten convents of
nuns of the order of St. Clare. The acts of the General Chapter
of the Dominicans, held in Rome in 1656, referring to the same
persecution of Cromwell, state that, when it began, there were
forty-three convents of the order, containing about six hundred
inmates, of whom only one-fourth survived the calamity. The
Jesuits were eighty in number, in 1641, of whom only seventeen
remained when the storm had passed away. From a petition
presented to the Sacred Congregation, in 1654, we learn that all
the Capuchins had been banished, except a few who remained on
the island, where they lived as "shepherds," "herdsmen," or
"tillers of the soil."
All the decrees of the Parliaments of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth
had not succeeded, in the space of a century, in destroying
monasticism; the Cromwellian war alone seemed to have done so,
as it left the entire nation almost at the last gasp, on the
verge of annihilation. Nevertheless, a few years saw the orders
again revive and prepare to start their holy work anew. Henry
VIII. then, and his vicar, Cromwell, deceived themselves in
thinking that they had put an end to monasticism in the land
which had been the cradle of so many families of religious. They
succeeded only in intensifying the determination of Irishmen not
to allow their nationality to be absorbed in that of England. If
any thing was calculated to nourish and keep alive that
sentiment in their hearts, it was their daily communing with the
holy men who shared their distress, their mountain-retreats,
their poverty in the bogs, their wretchedness in the woods and
glens. If monasticism had created and nurtured the nation on its
first becoming Christian, it gave to the people a second birth
holier than the first, because consecrated by martyrdom.
Henceforth, divided clans and antagonistic septs were to be
unknown among them: only Catholic Irishmen were to remain ranked
around the successors of "the saints" of old, all determined to
be what they were, or die. But as laws, edicts, and measures of
fanatic frenzy cannot destroy a nation, the new people was
destined to survive for better and brighter days.
We have anticipated the course of events somewhat, in order to
pass in review the chief facts connected with the designs of the
English Government upon the religious orders. These few words
will suffice to give the reader an idea of the new character
which such events impressed upon the Irish nation. Every day saw
it more compact; every day the resolve to fight to the death for
God's cause, grew stronger; the old occasions of division grew
less and less, and that unanimity, which suffering for a noble
cause naturally gives rise to in the human heart, showed itself
more and more. A nation, in truth, was being born in the throes
of a wide-spread and long-continued calamity; but long ages were
in store in times to come to reward it for the misfortunes of
the past.
It is a remarkable thing that, when England, through fear of
civil war, was compelled to grant Catholic emancipation in 1829,
when Irish agitators succeeded in wrenching it from the enemy,
and obtaining it, not only for themselves, but likewise for
their English Catholic brethren, the British statesmen, who
finally consented to such a tardy measure of justice, steadily
refused, nevertheless, to extend the boon to the religious
orders. These remained under the ban, and so they remain still.
The "penal laws" were never repealed for them, and, even to this
day, they are, according to law, strictly prohibited from
"receiving novices" under all the barbarous penalties formerly
enacted and never abrogated.
But the nation has constantly considered this exception as not
to be taken into account. The religious orders now existing are
under the protection of the people, and England has never dared
to use even a threat against the open violation of these "laws."
Dr. Madden, in his interesting work on "Penal Laws," gives
prominence to this fact by warmly taking up the old theme of
thorough-going Irish Catholicity, by asserting, with force, that
"religious orders are necessary to the Church," and that to deny
their right to exist, even though it be only on paper in the
statute-book, is none the less an outrage against so thoroughly
Catholic a nation as the Irish.
The only fact which appears to clash with our reflections is the
one well ascertained and mentioned by us, that some native Irish
lords occupied certain monasteries and took their share in the
sacrilegious plunder. But a few chieftains cannot be said to
constitute the nation, and doubtless many of those who yielded
to the temptation, listened later to the reproving voice of
their conscience, as in the following case, given by Miles
O'Reilly, in his "Irish Martyrs:"
"Gelasius O'Cullenan, born of a noble family in Connaught . . .
joined the Cistercian order. Having competed his studies in
Paris, the monastery of Boyle was destined as the field of his
labors. On his arrival in Ireland, he found that the monastery,
with its property, had been seized on by one of the neighboring
gentry, who was sheltered in his usurpation by the edict of
Elizabeth. The abbot . . . went boldly to the usurping nobleman,
admonishing him of the guilt he had incurred; and the
malediction of Heaven, which he would assuredly draw down upon
his family. Moved by his exhortations, the nobleman restored to
him the full possession of the monastery and lands; and, some
time after, contemplating the holy life of its inmates, . . . he,
too, renounced the world and joined the religious institute."
CHAPTER IX.
THE IRISH AND THE TUDORS.--ELIZABETH.--THE UNDAUNTED NOBILITY.--
THE SUFFERING CHURCH.
On January 12, 1559, in the second year of the reign of
Elizabeth, a Parliament was convened in Dublin to pass the Act
of Supremacy; that is to say, to establish Lutheranism in
Ireland, as had already been done in England, under the garb of
Episcopalianism.
But the attempt was fated to encounter a more determined
opposition in Dublin than it had in London.
Sir James Ware says, in reference to it: "At the very beginning
of this Parliament, her Majestie's well-wishers found that most
of the nobility and Commons--they were all English by blood or
birth--were divided in opinion about the ecclesiastical
government, which caused the Earl of Sussex (Lord Deputy) to
dissolve them, and to go over to England to confer with her
Majesty about the affairs of this kingdom.
"These differences were occasioned by the several alterations
which had happened in ecclesiastical matters within the compass
of twelve years.
"1. King Henry VIII. held the ecclesiastical supremacy with the
first-fruits and tenths, maintaining the seven sacraments, with
obits and mass for the living and the dead.
"2. King Edward abolished the mass, authorizing the book of
common prayers, and the consecration of the bread and wine in
the English tongue, and establishing only two sacraments.
"3. Queen Mary, after King Edward's decease, brought all back
again to the Church of Rome, and the papal obedience.
"4. Queen Elizabeth, on her first Parliament in England, took
away the Pope's supremacy, reserving the tenths and first-fruits
to her heirs and successors. She put down the mass, and, for a
general uniformity of worship in her dominions, as well in
England as in Ireland, she established the book of common
prayers, and forbade the use of popish ceremonies."
Such is the very lucid sketch furnished by Ware of the changes
which had taken place in religion in England within the brief
space of twelve years.
The members of the Irish Parliament, although of English descent,
could not so easily reconcile themselves to these rapid changes
as their fellows in England had done; in fact, they laid claim
to a conscience--a thing seemingly unknown to the English
members, or, if known at all, of an exceedingly elastic and
slippery nature. Here lay the difficulty: how was it to be
overcome? The conversation between Elizabeth and Sussex must
have been of a very interesting character.
Returning with private instructions from the queen, the Earl of
Sussex again convened the Parliament, which only consisted of
the so called representatives of ten counties--Dublin, Meath,
West Meath, Louth, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford,
Tipperary, and Wexford. We see that the almost total extinction
of the Kildare branch of the Geraldines had extended the English
Pale. The other deputies were citizens and burgesses of those
towns in which the royal authority predominated. "With such an
assembly," says Leland, "it is little wonder that, in despite of
clamor and opposition, in a session of a few weeks, the whole
ecclesiastical system of Queen Mary was entirely reversed." It
is needless to remark that the people had nothing whatever to do
with this reversal; it merely looked on, or was already
organizing for resistance.
Nevertheless, even in that assembly the queen's agents were
obliged to have recourse to fraud and deception, in order to
carry her measures, and it cannot be said that they obtained a
majority.
"The proceedings," according to Mr. Haverty, "are involved in
mystery, and the principal measures are believed to have been
carried by means fraudulent and clandestine." And, in a note, he
adds: "It is said that the Earl of Sussex, to calm the protests
which were made in Parliament, when it was found that the law
had been passed by a few members assembled privately, pledged
himself solemnly that this statute would not be enforced
generally on laymen during the reign of Elizabeth."1 (1 Dr.
Curry, in his "Civil Wars," has collected some curious facts in
illustration of this point.)
Whatever the means adopted to introduce and carry out the new
policy, it was certainly enacted that "the queen was the head of
the Church of Ireland, the reformed worship was reestablished as
under Edward VI., and the book of common prayers, with further
alterations, was reintroduced. A fine of twelve pence was
imposed on every person who should not attend the new service,
for each offence; bishops were to be appointed only by the queen,
and consecrated at her bidding. All officers and ministers,
ecclesiastical or lay, were bound to take the oath of supremacy,
under pain of forfeiture or incapacity; and any one who
maintained the spiritual supremacy of the Pope was to forfeit,
for his first offence, all his estates, real and personal, or be
imprisoned for one year, if not worth twenty pounds; for the
second offence, to be liable to praemunire; and for the third,
to be guilty of high-treason."
It was understood that those laws would be strictly enforced
against all priests and friars, though left generally
inoperative for lay people; and, with certain exceptions,
mentioned by Dr. Curry, such was the rule observed. Thus, the
reign of Elizabeth, which was such a cruel one for ecclesiastics,
produced few martyrs among the laity in Ireland. And, for this
reason, Sir James Ware is able to boast that, in all the
"rebellions" of the Irish against Elizabeth; they falsely
complained that their freedom of worship was curtailed, as
though they could worship without either priests or churches.
But the law was passed which made it "high-treason" to assert,
three times in succession, the spiritual supremacy of the Pope;
and, henceforth, whoever should suffer in defence of that
Catholic dogma, was to be a traitor and not a martyr.
The woman, seated on the English throne, speedily discovered
that it was not so easy a matter to change the religion of the
Irish as it had been to subvert completely that of her own
people.
Deprived of religious houses and means of instruction, deprived
of priests and churches, no communication with Rome save by
stealth, the Irish still showed their oppressors that their
consciences were free, and that no acts of Parliament or
sentences of iniquitous tribunals could prevent their remaining
Catholics.
By promising to deal as lightly with the laity as severely with
the clergy, Elizabeth felt confident that the Catholic religion
would soon perish in Ireland, and that, with the disappearance
of the priests, the churches, sacraments, instruction, and open
communion with Rome, would also disappear. To all seeming, her
surmises were correct; but the people were silently gathering
and uniting together as they had never done before.
The whole of Elizabeth's Irish policy may be comprised under two
headings: 1. Her policy toward the nobles, apparently one of
compromise and toleration, but really one of destruction, and so
rightly did they understand it that they rose and called in
foreign aid to their assistance; 2. Her church policy, one of
blood and total overthrow, which priests and people, now united
forever in the same great cause, resisted from the outset, and
finally defeated; and the decrees of high-treason, which were
carried out with frightful barbarity, only served to confirm the
Irish people in that unanimity which the wily dealings of Henry
VIII. had originated.
I. With the nobility Elizabeth hoped to succeed by flattery,
cunning, deceit, finally by treachery, and sowing dissension
among them; but all her efforts only served to knit them more
firmly one to another, and to revive among them the true spirit
of nationality and patriotism.
She did not state to them that her great object was to destroy
the Catholic Church; neverthless they should have felt and
resented it from the beginning; above all, ought they to have
given expression to the contempt they entertained for the bait
held out to them that the "laws" would not be executed against
them, but against Churchmen only. Had they been truly animated
by the feelings which already possessed the hearts of the people,
they would have scornfuly rejected the compromise proposed.
But she appeared to allow them perfect freedom in religious
matters; she subjected them to no oath, as in England; the new
laws were a dead letter as far as regarded the native lords, who
lived under other laws and remained silent, as with the lords of
the Pale. Yet nothing was of such importance in her eyes as the
enforcement of those decrees; consequently, she could only
accomplish her designs by deceit. George Browne, the first
Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, had predicted that the old
Irish race and the Anglo-Irish chieftains would unite and
combine with Continental powers in order to establish their
independence. The whole policy of Elizabeth's reign would give
us reason to believe that she rightly understood the deep remark
of the worldly heretic. Hence, although (or, rather, because)
the north, Ulster, was at that time the stronghold of Catholic
feeling, and the O'Neills and O'Donnells its leaders, she
flatters them, has them brought to her court, pardons several
"rebellions" of Shane the Proud, and afterward loads with her
favors the young Hugh of Tyrone, whom she kept at her own court.
She would dazzle them by the splendor of that court, by the
royal presents she so royally lavishes upon them, and by the
prospect of greater favors still to come. Meanwhile on the south
she turns a stern eye, and makes up her mind to destroy what is
left of the Geraldine family. This was to be the beginning of
the war of extermination, and the nobility which at the time was
disunited became firmly consolidated shortly after.
It is needless to go into the glorious and romantic history of
the Geraldine family. Elizabeth chose them for the first object
of her attack, because they, as Anglo-Irish Catholics, were more
odious in her eye than the pure Irish.
She knew that the then Earl of Desmond had escaped almost by
miracle from the island with his younger brother John, when the
rest of the noble stock had been butchered at Tyburn. She knew
that Gerald, after many wanderings, had finally reached Rome,
been educated under the care of his kinsman, Cardinal Pole,
cherished as a dear son by the reigning Pontiff, had
subsequently appeared at the Tuscan court of Cosmo de Medici;
that consequently, since his return to Ireland, he might be
considered the chief of the Catholic party there, although, to
save himself from attainder and hold possession of his immense
wealth in Munster, he displayed the greatest reserve in all his
actions, appeared to respect the orders of the queen in all
things, even in her external policy against the Church; so that
if priests were entertained in his castles, it was always by
stealth, and they were compelled to lead a life of total
retirement.
But, despite all this outward show, Elizabeth knew that Gerald
was really a sincere Catholic, that he considered himself a
sovereign prince, and would consequently have small scruple
about entering into a league against her, not only with the
northern Irish chieftains, but even with the Catholic princes of
the Continent. She resolved, therefore, to destroy him.
Sidney was sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant. He travelled
first through all Munster, and complained bitterly that the
Irish chieftains were destroying the country by their divisions,
though perfectly conscious that those divisions were secretly
encouraged by England. He appeared to listen to the people, when
they complained of their lords, and yet at the holding of
assizes he hanged this same people on the flimsiest pretexts,
and had them executed wholesale. In one of his dispatches to the
home government, he makes complacent allusion to the countless
executions which accompanied his triumphant progress through
Munster: "I wrote not," he says, "the name of each particular
varlet that has died since I arrived, as well by the ordinary
course of the law, and the martial law, as flat fighting with
them, when they would take food without the good-will of the
giver; for I think it is no stuff worthy the loading of my
letters with; but I do assure you, the number of them is great,
and some of the best, and the rest tremble. For the most part
they fight for their dinner, and many of them lose their heads
before they are served with supper. Down they go in every corner,
and down they shall go, God willing."--(Sidney's Dispatches, Br. M.)
This was the man who announced himself as the avenger of the
people on their rulers. He complained chiefly of Gerald of
Desmond, and, without any pretext, summoned him with his brother
John, carried them prisoners to Dublin, and afterward sent them
to the Tower of London. The shanachy of the family relates that
then, and then only, Gerald sent a private message to his
kinsmen and retainers, appointing his cousin James, son of
Maurice, known as James Fitzmaurice, the head and leader in his
family during his own absence.
"For James," says the shanachy, "was well known for his
attachment to the ancient faith, no less than for his valor and
chivalry, and gladly did the people of old Desmond receive these
commands, and inviolable was their attachment to him who was now
their appointed chieftain."
James began directly to organize the memorable "Geraldine League,
" upon the fortunes of which, for years, the attention of
Christendom was fixed.
This, the first open treaty of Irish lords with the Pope, as a
sovereign prince, and with the King of Spain, calls for a few
remarks on the right of the Irish to declare open war with
England, and choose their own friends and allies, without being
rebels.
The English were at this very time so conscious of the weakness
of their title to the sovereignty of Ireland, that they were
continually striving to prop up their claims by the most absurd
pretensions.
In the posthumous act of attainder against Shane O'Neill in the
Irish Parliament of 1569, Elizabeth's ministers affected to
trace her title to the realm of Ireland back to a period
anterior to the Milesian race of kings. They invented a
ridiculous story of a "King Gurmondus," son to the noble King
Belan of Great Britain, who was lord of Bayon in Spain--they
probably meant Bayonne in France--as were many of his successors
down to the time of Henry II., who possessed the island after
the "comeing of Irishmen into the same lande."--(Haverty, Irish
Statutes, 2 Eliz., sess. 3, cap. i.)
These learned men who flourished in the golden reign of
Elizabeth must have thought the Irish very easily imposed upon
if they imagined they could give ear to such a fabrication, at a
time when each great family had its own chronicler to trace its
pedigree back to the very source of the race of Miledh.
The title of conquest, at that time a valid one in all countries,
had no value with the Irish who never had been and never
admitted themselves to have been conquered. Had they not
preserved their own laws, customs, language, local governments?
Had the English ever even attempted to subject them to their
laws? They had openly refused to grant their pretended benefits
to those few "degenerate Irishmen" who in sheer despair had
applied for them. This policy of separation was adopted by
England with the view of "rooting out" the Irish. The English
Government could therefore only accept the natural consequence
of such a system--that the Irish race should be left to itself,
in the full enjoyment of its own laws and local governments.
The very policy of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, as displayed in
their attempt to break down the clans by favoring "well-disposed
Irishmen" and setting them up, by fraudulent elections, as
chiefs of the various septs, proves that the English themselves
admitted the clans to be real nation--_nationes_--as they were
called at the time by Irish chroniclers and by English writers
even. It was an acknowledgment of the plain fact that the
natives possessed and exercised their own laws of succession and
election, their own government and autonomy.
The disappearance of the Ard-Righ, who had held the titular
power over the whole country, is no proof that the Irish
possessed no government: for they themselves had refused for
several centuries to acknowledge his power. The island was split
up into several small independent states, each with the right of
levying war, and making peace and alliance. Gillapatrick, of
Ossory, dispatched his ambassador to Henry VIII. to announce
that if he, the English king, did not prevent his deputy, Rufus
Pierce, of Dublin, from annoying the clans of Ossory,
Gillapatrick would, in self-defence, declare war against the
King of England. And the imperious Henry Tudor, instead of
laughing at the threat of the chieftain; was shrewd enough to
recognize its significance, and prevented it being carried into
execution by admitting the cause as valid, and submitting the
conduct of his deputy to an investigation.
Moreover, the principles by which Christendom had been ruled for
centuries, were just then being broken up by the advent of
Protestantism; and novel theories were being introduced for the
government of modern nations. What were the old principles, and
what the new; and how stood Ireland with respect to each?
In the old organization of Christendom, the key-stone of the
whole political edifice was the papacy. Up to the sixteenth
century, the Sovereign Pontiff had been acknowledged by all
Christian nations as supreme arbiter in international questions,
and if England did possess any shadow of authority over Ireland,
it was owing to former decisions of popes, who, being
misinformed, had allowed the Anglo-Norman kings to establish
their power in the island. Whatever may be thought of the bull
of Adrian IV., this much is certain: we do not pretend to solve
that vexed historical problem.
But, by rebelling against Rome, by rejecting the title of the
Pope, England threw away even that claim, and by the bull of
excommunication, issued against Elizabeth, the Irish were
released from their allegiance to her, supposing that such
allegiance had existed, solely built upon this claim.
So well was this understood at the time, that the Roman Pontiffs,
as rulers of the Papal States, the Emperors of Germany, as
heads of the German Empire, and the Kings of Spain and France,
always covertly and sometimes openly received the envoys of
O'Neill, Desmond, and O'Donnell, and openly dispatched troops
and fleets to assist the Irish in their struggle for their de
facto independence.
All this was in perfect accordance, not merely with the
authority which Catholic powers still recognized in the
Sovereign Pontiff, but even with the new order of things which
Protestantism had introduced into Western Europe, and which
England, as henceforth a leading Protestant power, had accepted
and eagerly embraced. By the rejection of the supreme
arbitration of the Popes, on the part of the new heretics,
Europe lost its unity as Christendom, and naturally formed
itself into two leagues, the Catholic and the Protestant. An
oppressed Catholic nationality, above all a weak and powerless
one, had therefore the right of appeal to the great Catholic
powers for help against oppression. And the pretension of
England to the possession of Ireland was the very essence of
oppression and tyranny in itself, doubly aggravated by the fact
of an apostate and vicious king or queen making it treason for a
people, utterly separate and distinct from theirs, to hold fast
to its ancient and revered religion.
Who can say, then, that Gregory XIII. was guilty of injustice
and of abetting rebellion when, in 1578, he furnished James
Fitzmaurice, the great Geraldine, with a fleet and army to fight
against Elizabeth? The authority greatest in Catholic eyes, and
most worthy of respect in the eyes of all impartial men--the
Pope-- thus endorsed the patent fact that Ireland was an
independent nation, and could wage war against her oppressors.
Here we have a stand-point from which to argue the question for
future times.
The rash or, perhaps, treacherous share taken by a few Irish
chieftains, in the schismatical and heretical as well as
unpatriotic decrees of the Parliament of 1541, and in the
subsequent ones of 1549, could compromise the Irish nation in
nowise, inasmuch as the people, being still even in legal
enjoyment of their own government, their chieftains possessed no
authority to decide on such questions without the full
concurrence of their clans, and these had already pronounced,
clearly enough and unmistakably, on the return of their lords
from their title-hunting expedition in England.
All the chroniclers of the time agree that "the people" was
invariably sound in faith, siding with the chieftains wherever
they rose in opposition to oppressive decrees, abandoning them
when they showed signs of wavering, even; but, above all, when
they ranged themselves with the oppressors of the Church. The
English Protestant writers of the period confirm this honorable
testimony of the Irish bards, by constantly accusing the natives
of a "rebellious" spirit.
The history of the Geraldine struggle is known to all readers of
Irish history, and does not enter into the scope of these pages.
We have, however, to consider the foreign aid which the
chieftains received, from Spain chiefly, and the causes of these
failures, which at first would seem to argue a lack of firmness
on the part of the Irish themselves. During the Geraldine wars,
and later on in what is called the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill and
Hugh O'Donnell, the King of Spain sent vessels and troops to the
assistance of the Irish. All these expeditions failed, and the
destruction of the natives was far greater than it might
otherwise have been, in consequence of the greater number of
English troops sent to Ireland to face the expected Spanish
invasion.
The same ill success attended the French fleet and army
dispatched to Limerick by Louis XIV. to assist James II., and,
later still, the large fleet and well-appointed troops sent by
the French Convention to the aid of the "United Irishmen," in
1798.
In like manner, the Vendeans, on the other side, those French
"rebels" against the Convention itself, received their death-
blow in consequence of the English who were sent to their succor
at Quiberon.
It seems, indeed, a universal historic law that, when a nation
or a party in a nation struggles against another, the almost
invariable consequence of foreign aid is failure; but no
conclusion can be deduced from that fact of lack of bravery,
steadfastness, even ultimate success, on the part of those who
rise in arms against oppression. Of the many causes which may be
assigned to that apparently strange law of history, the chief
are:
1. The difficulty of effecting a joint and simultaneous effort
between the insurgent forces and the distant friendly power.
Help comes either too soon or too late, or lands on a point of
the coast where aid is worse than useless, and where it only
throws confusion into the ranks of the struggling native forces,
whose plans are thus all disarranged, disconcerted, and thrown
into confusion. Add to this the dangers of the sea, the possibly
insufficient knowledge of the soundings and of the nature of the
coast, the differences of spirit, customs, and language, of the
two coalescing forces, and it may be easily concluded that the
chances of success, as opposed to those of failure, are but
scanty.
2. The forces against which the coalition is made are always
immeasurably increased for the very purpose of meeting it, its
purport being always known beforehand. In the case under
consideration, it were easy to show that Elizabeth was prompted
by the fear of Spain to be speedy in crushing the attempted
"rebellions" in the south and north. Historians have made a
computation of the troops dispatched from England by the queen,
and of the treasure spent in these expeditions during her reign,
and the result is astonishing for the times. In fact, the whole
strength of England was brought into requisition for the purpose
of overpowering Ireland.
In our own days, the successful insurrection of Greece against
Turkey seems at variance with these considerations. But the
independence of the Greeks was brought about rather by the
unanimous voice of Europe coercing Turkey than by the few troops
sent from France, or by the few English or Poles who volunteered
their aid to the insurgents.
The remarks we have made may be further corroborated by the
reflection that the successful risings of oppressed
nationalities, recorded in modern history, were wholly effected
by the unaided forces of the insurgents. Thus, the seven cantons
of Switzerland succeeded against Austria, the Venetian Republic
against the barbarians of the North, the Portuguese in the
Braganza revolution against Spain, and the United Provinces of
the Low Countries against Spain and Germany.
The only historical instance which may contravene this general
rule is found in the Revolution of the United States of America,
where the French cooperation was timely and of real use, chiefly
because the foreign aid was placed entirely under the control
and at the command of the supreme head of the colonists, General
Washington.
These few words suffice for our purpose.
The policy of Elizabeth toward the Irish nobility is well known
to our readers. The fate of the house of Desmond was, in her
mind, sealed from the beginning. It is now an ascertained fact
that she drove the great earl into rebellion, who, for a long
time, refused openly to avow his approbation of the
confederates' schemes, and even seemed at first to cooperate
with the queen's forces, in opposition to them. It was only
after his cousin Fitzmaurice and his brother John had been
almost ruined that, convinced of the determination of the
English Government to seize and occupy Munster with his five or
six millions of acres, he boldly stood up for his faith and his
country, and perished in the attempt.
It was then that "Protestant plantations" began in Ireland. The
confiscated estates of Desmond--which, in reality, did not
belong to him but to his tribe--were handed over to companies of
"planters out of Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, out
of Lancashire and Cheshire, organized for defence and to be
supported by standing forces."--(Prendergast.)
Then the work set on foot by Henry II. in favor of Strongbow, De
Lacy, De Courcy, and others, was resumed, after an interval of
four hundred years, to be carried through to the end; that is to
say, to the complete pauperizing of the native race.
Among the "undertakers" and "planters" introduced into Munster
by Elizabeth, a word may not be out of place on Edmund Spenser
and Walter Raleigh, the first a great poet, the second a great
warrior and courtier. They both united in advocating the
extermination of the native race, a policy which Henry VIII. was
too high-minded to accept, and Elizabeth too great a despiser of
"the people" to notice. To Henry and Elizabeth Tudor the people
was nothing; the nobility every thing. Spenser, Raleigh, and
other Englishmen of note, who came into daily contact with the
nation, saw very well that account should be taken of it, and
thought, as Sir John Davies had thought before them, that it
ought to be "rooted out." That great question of the Irish
people was assuming vaster proportions every day; the people was
soon to show itself in all its strength and reality, to be
crushed out apparently by Cromwell, but really to be preserved
by Providence for a future age, now at hand to-day.
Spenser and Raleigh, being gifted with keener foresight than
most of their countrymen, were for the entire destruction of the
people, thinking, as did many French revolutionists of our own
days, that "only the dead never come back."
The author of the "Faerie Queene," who had taken an active part
in the horrible butcheries of the Geraldine war, when all the
Irish of Munster were indiscriminately slaughtered, insisted
that a similar policy should be adopted for the whole island. In
his work "On the State of Ireland," he asks for "large masses of
troops to tread down all that standeth before them on foot, and
lay on the ground all the stiff-necked people of that land." He
urges that the war be carried on not only in the summer but in
the winter; "for then, the trees are bare and naked, which use
both to hold and house the kerne; the ground is cold and wet,
which useth to be his bedding; the air is sharp and bitter, to
blow through his naked sides and legs; the kine are barren and
without milk, which useth to be his food, besides being all with
calf (for the most part), they will through much chasing and
driving cast all their calf, and lose all their milk, which
should relieve him in the next summer."
Spenser here employs his splendid imagination to present
gloatingly such details as the most effective means for the
destruction of the hated race. All he demands is, that "the end
should be very short," and he gives us an example of the
effectiveness and beauty of his system "in the late wars in
Munster." For, "notwithstanding that the same" (Munster) "was a
most rich and plentiful country, full of corne and cattle, . . .
yet ere one yeare and a half they" (the Irish) "were brought to
such wretchednesse as that any stony heart would have rued the
same. Out of every corner of woods and glynnes, they came
creeping forthe upon their hands, for their legges could not
beare them; they looked like anatomies of death; they spoke like
ghosts crying out of their graves . . . . that in short space
there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful
country suddenly left void of man and beast."
Such is a picture, horribly graphic, of the state to which
Munster had been reduced by the policy of England as carried out
by a Gilbert, a Peter Carew, and a Cosby; and to this pass the
"gentle" Spenser would have wished to see the whole country come.
Even Mr. Froude is compelled to denounce in scathing terms the
monsters employed by the queen, and his facts are all derived,
he tells us, from existing "state papers."
Writing of the end of the Geraldine war, he says: "The English
nation was at that time shuddering over the atrocities of the
Duke of Alva. The children in the nurseries were being inflamed
to patriotic rage and madness by the tales of Spanish tyranny.
Yet, Alva's bloody sword never touched the young, defenceless,
or those whose sex even dogs can recognize and respect.
"Sir Peter Carew has been seen murdering women and children, and
babies that had scarcely left the breast; but Sir Peter Carew
was not called on to answer for his conduct, and remained in
favor with the deputy. Gilbert, who was left in command at
Kilnallock, was illustrating yet more signally the same tendency.
" Nor "was Gilbert a bad man. As time went on, he passed for a
brave and chivalrous gentleman, not the least distinguished in
that high band of adventurers who carried the English flag into
the western hemisphere . . . . above all, a man of 'special
piety.' He regarded himself as dealing rather with savage beasts
than with human beings (in Ireland), and, when he tracked them
to their dens, he strangled the cubs, and rooted out the entire
brood.
"The Gilbert method of treatment has this disadvantage, that it
must be carried out to the last extremity, or it ought not to be
tried at all. The dead do not come back; and if the mothers and
babies are slaughtered with the men, the race gives no further
trouble; but the work must be done thoroughly; partial and
fitful cruelty lays up only a long debt of deserved and ever-
deepening hate.
"In justice to the English soldiers, however, it must be said
that it was no fault of theirs if any Irish child of that
generation was allowed to live to manhood."--(Hist. of Engl.,
vol. x., p. 507.)
These Munster horrors occurred directly after the defeat of the
Irish at Kinsale. Cromwell, therefore, in the atrocities which
will come under our notice, only followed out the policy of the
"Virgin Queen." And it is but too evident that the English of
1598 were the fathers or grandfathers of those of 1650. Both
were inaugurating a system of warfare which had never been
adopted before, even among pagans, unless by the Tartar troops
under Genghis Khan; a system which in future ages should shape
the policy, which was followed, for a short time, by the French
Convention in la Vendee.
Raleigh, as well as Spenser, seems to have been a vigorous
advocate of this system. It is true that his sole appearance on
the scene was on the occasion of the surrender of Smerwick by
the Spanish garrison; but the Saxon spirit of the man was
displayed in his execution of Lord Grey's orders, who, after,
according to all the Irish accounts, promising their lives to
the Spaniards, had them executed; and Raleigh appears to have
directed that execution, whereby eight hundred prisoners of war
were cruelly butchered and flung over the rocks in the sea. From
that time out the phrase "Grey's faith" (Graia fides) became a
proverb with the Irish.
After having succeeded in crushing Desmond and "planting "
Munster, the attention of Elizabeth was directed to the 0'Neills
and O'Donnells of Ulster. That thrilling history is well known.
It is enough to say that O'Donnell from his youth was designedly
exasperated by ill-treatment and imprisonment; and that as soon
as O'Neill, who had been treated with the greatest apparent
kindness by the queen, that he might become a queen's man,
showed that he was still an Irishman and a lover of his country,
he was marked out as a victim, and all the troops and treasures
of England were poured out lavishly to crush him and destroy the
royal races of the north.
In that gigantic struggle one feature is remarkable--that,
whenever the English Government felt obliged to come to terms
with the last asserters of Irish independence, the first
condition invariably laid down by O'Neill and O'Donnell was the
free exercise of the Catholic religion. For we must not lose
sight of the well-ascertained fact that the English queen, who
at the very commencement of her reign had had her spiritual
supremacy acknowledged by the Irish Parliament under pain of
forfeiture, praemunire, and high-treason, insisted all along on
the binding obligation of this title; and though at first she
had secretly promised that this law should not be enforced
against the laity, she showed by all her measures that its
observance was of paramount importance in her eyes.
Had the Irish followed the English as a nation, and accepted
Protestantism, Elizabeth would scarcely have made war upon them,
nor introduced her "plantations." All along the Irish were
"traitors" and "rebels" simply because they chose to remain
Catholics, and McGeoghegan has well remarked that, "not-
withstanding the severe laws enacted by Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
and Elizabeth, down to James I., it is a well-established truth
that, during that period, the number of Irishmen who embraced
the 'reformed religion' did not amount to sixty in a country
which at the time contained two millions of souls." And
McGeoghegan might have added that, of these sixty, not one
belonged to the people; they were all native chieftains who sold
their religion in order to hold their estates or receive favors
from the queen.
Sir James Ware is bold enough to say that, in all her dealings
with the Irish nobility, Elizabeth never mentioned religion, and
their right of practising it as they wished never came into the
question. She certainly never subjected them to any oath, as was
the case in England. Technically speaking, this statement seems
correct. Yet it is undeniable that Elizabeth allowed no Catholic
bishops or priests to remain in the island; permitted the Irish
to have none but Protestant school-teachers for their children;
bestowed all their churches on heretical ministers; closed, one
by one, all the buildings which Catholics used for their worship,
as soon as their existence became known to the police; in fact
obliged them to practise Protestantism or no religion at all.
In the eyes of Elizabeth a Catholic was a "rebel." Whoever was
executed for religion during her reign was executed for
"rebellion." The Roman emperors who persecuted the Church during
the first three centuries, might have advanced the same
pretences And indeed the early Christians were said to be
tortured and executed for their "violation of the laws of the
empire."
This point will come more clearly before us in considering the
second phase of the policy of Elizabeth, her direct interference
with the Church.
II. If the policy of England's queen had been one of treachery
and deceit toward the nobility, toward the Church it was
avowedly one of blood and destruction.
Well-intentioned and otherwise well-informed writers, among them
Mr. Prendergast, seem to consider that the main object of the
atrocious proceedings we now proceed to glance at was "greed,"
and that the English Government merely connived at the covetous
desires of adventurers and undertakers, who wished to destroy
the Irish and occupy their lands; for, as Spenser says "Sure it
was a most beautiful and sweete country as any under heaven,
being stored throughout with many goodly rivers, replenished
with all sorts of fish most abundantly; sprinkled with many very
sweete islands, and goodly lakes like little inland seas;
adorned with goodly woods; also full of very good ports and
havens opening upon England as inviting us to come into them."
Such, according to those writers, was the policy of England from
the first landing of Strongbow on the shores of Erin, and even
during the preceding four centuries, when both races were
Catholic, and the conversion of the natives to Protestantism
could not enter the thoughts of the invaders.
This, to a certain extent, is true. Still, it seems very
doubtful to us that Elizabeth should have undertaken so many
wars in Ireland, which lasted through her whole reign, and on
which she employed all the strength and resources of England,
merely to please a certain number of nobles who wished to find
foreign estates whereon to settle their numerous offspring.
The chief importance, in her eyes, of the conquest was clearly
to establish her spiritual superiority in that part of her
dominions. She would have left the native nobles at peace, and
even conferred on them her choicest favors, had they only
consented, as English subjects, to break with Rome. Rome had
excommunicated her; Pius V. had released her subjects from their
allegiance because of her heresy, and Ireland did not reject the
bull of the Pope. This in her eyes constituted the great and
unpardonable offence of the Irish. And that, for her, the whole
question bore a religious character, will appear more clearly
from her conduct toward the Catholic Church throughout her reign.
Into this part of our subject the examination of the step taken
by Pius V. naturally enters, and, in examining it, we shall see
whether, and how far, the Irish can be called rebels and
"traitors."
In his history of the Reformation, Dr. Heylin says of Elizae's
supremacy could not stand together, and she could not possibly
maintain the one without discarding the other." This is
perfectly true, and furnishes us with the key to all her church
measures.
She pretended to be a Catholic during Mary's reign; but it was
merely pretence. To persevere in Catholicity required of her the
sacrifice of her political aspirations; for the Church could not
admit of her legitimacy, and consequently her title to the crown
of England. Hence, upon the death of Mary Tudor, the Queen of
Scots immediately assumed the title of Queen of England; and
although the Pope, then Pius IV., did not immediately declare
himself in favor of Mary Stuart, but reserved his decision for a
future period, nevertheless, the view of the case adopted by the
Pontiff could not be mistaken. Elizabeth's legitimacy, or, as
Heylin has it, "legitimation and the Pope's supremacy could not
stand together." No course was left open to her, then, than to
reject the pontifical authority, and establish her own in her
dominions, as she did not possess faith enough to set her soul
above a crown; and the success of her father, Henry VIII., and
of her half-brother, Edward VI., encouraged her in this step.
This fully explains her policy. It became a principle with her
that, to accept the Pope's supremacy in spirituals, was to deny
her legitimacy, and consequently to be guilty of treason against
her. This made the position of Catholics in England and Ireland
a most trying one. But their moral duty was clear enough, and
every other obligation had to give way before that. In the
persecution which followed they were certainly martyrs to their
duty and their religion.
That the question of the succession in England was an open one,
must be admitted by every candid man. Who was the legitimate
Queen of England at the death of Mary Tudor? The Queen of Scots
assumed the title, and, as the legitimate offspring of the
sister of Henry VIII., she had the right to it as the nearest
direct descendant in the event of Elizabeth's pretensions not
being admitted by the nation. The nation at the time was in fact,
though not in right, the nobles, who enriched themselves at the
expense of the Church, and were therefore deeply interested in
the exclusion of Catholic principles. A Parliament composed of
the nobles had already acknowledged Elizabeth to the exclusion
of the Queen of Scots, and the former decision was reaffirmed as
against a "female pretender" supported by a foreign power,
namely, France.
England, that is to say, the corrupt nobility of the kingdom, by
taking upon itself that decision, refused to submit the question
to the arbitration of the Pope; and thus, for the first time,
the principles which had guided Christendom for eight hundred
years, were discarded. Yet, under Mary, the Catholic Church had
been declared the Church of the state; at her death, no change
took place; the mass of the people was still Catholic. It took
Elizabeth her whole reign to make the English a thoroughly
Protestant people. The great mass of the nation came
consequently then, even legally, under the law of mediaeval
times, which surrendered the decision of such cases into the
hands of the Roman Pontiff.
Again, when we reflect that our preset object is the
consideration of who was the legitimate Queen of Ireland, the
question becomes clearer and simpler still. The supremacy of
Henry VIII. had never been acknowledged in the island, even by
those who had subscribed to the decrees of the Parliament of
1541 and 1569. The Irish chieftains had not only never assented,
but had always preserved their independence in all, save the
suzerainty of the English monarchs, and they were at the time,
without exception, Catholics. For them, therefore, the Pope was
the expounder of the law of succession to the throne, as, up to
that time, he had been generally recognized in Europe. Elizabeth,
consequently, as an acknowledged illegitimate child, could not
become a legitimate queen without a positive declaration and
election by the true representatives of the people, approved by
the Pope. Her assumption, then, of the supreme government was a
mere usurpation. The theory of governments de facto being obeyed
as quasi-legitimate had not yet been mooted among lawyers and
theologians. With respect to the whole question, there can be no
doubt as to the conclusion at which any able constitutional
jurist of our days would arrive.
Could usurped rights such as these invest Elizabeth with
authority to declare herself paramount not only in political but
also in religious matters? And, because she was called queen,
can it be considered treason for an Irishman to believe in the
spiritual supremacy of the Pope? Yet, unless we look upon as
martyrs those who died on the rack and the gibbet in Ireland
during her reign, because they refused to admit in a woman the
title of Vicar of Christ, to such decision must we come.
The policy of the English queen toward Catholic bishops, priests,
and monks, presents the question in a still stronger light. Its
chief feature will now come before us, and will show how all of
these suffered for Christ. We say all, because not only those
are included in the category who held aloof from politics and
confined themselves to the exercise of their spiritual functions,
but those also who, at the bidding of the Pope, or following
the natural promptings of their own inclinations, favored the so-
called rebellion of the Geraldine and of the Ulster chieftains.
The lives and death of both are now well known, and to both we
award the title of heroes and Christian martyrs.
As it would be too long to present here a complete picture of
those events, and trace the biography of many of those who
suffered persecution at that time, we content ourselves with two
faithful representatives of the classes above mentioned--Richard
Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. Hurley, Archbishop of
Cashel. The case of the great Oliver Plunkett, who suffered
under Charles II., and who was the victim of the entire English
nation, is beyond our present discussion.
The biography of the first of these has been written by several
authors, who, agreeing as to the main facts of his history,
differ only in their chronology. Dr. Roothe's account is the
longest of all and is intricate, and subject to some confusion
with regard to dates; but a sketch of that life, which appeared
in the Rambler of April, 1853, is the most consistent and easily
reconciled with the well-known facts of the general history of
the period, and therefore we follow it:
Richard Creagh, proposed for the See of Armagh by the nuncio,
David Wolfe, arrived at Limerick in the August of 1560, at the
very beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. Pius IV., who was then
Pontiff, had not come to any conclusion respecting the
sovereignty of England, and did not openly declare himself in
favor of the right of Mary Stuart to the crown. The Pope, not
having given any positive injunctions to Archbishop Creagh, with
regard to his political conduct, the latter was left free to
follow the dictates of his conscience. He came only with a
letter, to Shane O'Neill, who, at the time, was almost
independent in Ulster.
Not only did the archbishop not take any part in the political
measures of the Ulster chieftain, who was often at war with
Elizabeth, but he soon came to a disagreement with him on purely
conscientious grounds, and finally excommunicated him. In the
midst of the many difficulties which surrounded him, he resolved
to inculcate peace and loyalty to Elizabeth throughout Ulster,
asking of Shane only one favor, that of founding colleges and
schools, and thinking that, by remaining loyal to the queen, he
might obtain her assistance in founding a university. The good
prelate little knew the character of the woman with whom he had
to deal, imagining probably that the decree of her spiritual
supremacy would remain a dead letter for the priesthood, as had
been falsely promised to the laity.
But he was not left long to indulge in these delusions; for, in
the act of celebrating mass in a monastery of his diocese, he
was betrayed by some informer, and was arrested by a troop of
soldiers, who conducted him before the government authorities,
by whom he was sent to London and confined in the Tower on
January 18,1565. He was there several times interrogated by
Cecil and the Recorder of London, who could easily ascertain
that the prelate was altogether guiltless of political intrigue.
He escaped miraculously, passed through Louvain, went to Spain,
at the time at peace with England, and, wishing to return to
Ireland, wrote, through the Spanish ambassador, to Leicester,
then all-powerful with the queen, to protest beforehand that, if
the Pope should order him to return to his diocese, he intended
only to render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is
God's. Even then, after his prison experience of several months,
he thought that, if he could persuade Elizabeth that he was
truly loyal to her, she would forgive him his Catholicity.
Receiving no answer, he set sail for his country, where he
landed in August, 1566, and shortly after wrote to Sir Henry
Sidney, then lord-deputy, in the very terms he had used with
Leicester, and proposing in addition to use his efforts in
inducing Shane O'Neill to conclude peace.
What Sidney and his masters in London, Cecil and Leicester, must
have thought of the simplicity of this good man, it is
impossible to say. They condescended to return no answer to his
more than straightforward communication, save the short verbal
reply concerning O'Neill: "We have given forth speach of his
extermination by war."
The good prelate, after having so clearly defined his position,
thought he might safely follow the dictates of his conscience,
and govern his flock in peace; but he was soon taken prisoner,
in April, 1567, by O'Shaughnessy, who received a special letter
of thanks from Elizabeth for his services on this occasion.
Bv order of the queen, he was tried in Dublin; but, so clear was
the case before them, that even a Protestant jury could not
convict him. The honest Dublin jurors were therefore cast into
prison and heavily fined, while the prelate was once again
transferred to London, whence he a second time escaped by the
connivance of his jailor.
Retaken in 1567, he was handed over to the queen's officers,
under a pledge that his life would be spared. And, in
consequence of this pledge alone, was he never brought to trial,
but kept a close prisoner in the Tower for eighteen years, until
in 1585 he was, according to all reliable accounts, deliberately
poisoned.
This simple narrative certainly proves that in Elizabeth's eyes,
the mere sustaining the Pope's spiritual supremacy was treason,
and every Catholic consequently, because Catholic, a traitor
deserving death. True, the Irish prelates, monks, and people,
might have imitated the majority of the English nobles and
people in accepting the new dogma. In that case, they would have
become truly loyal and dutiful subjects, and been admitted to
all the rights of citizenship; the nobles would have retained
possession of their estates, the gentry obtained seats in the
Irish Parliament; while the common people, renouncing clanship,
absurd old traditions, the memory of their ancestors, together
with their obedience to the See of Rome, would not have been
excluded from the benefits of education; would have been allowed
to engage in trades and manufactures; would have been permitted
to keep their land, or hold it by long leases; would have
enjoyed the privilege of dwelling in walled towns and cities, if
they felt no inclination for agriculture. They would have become
no doubt "a highly-prosperous" nation, as the English and Scotch
of our days have become, partakers of all the advantages of the
glorious British Constitution, cultivating the fields of their
ancestors, and converting their beautiful island into a paradise
more enchanting than the rich meadows and wheat-fields of
England itself.
On the other hand, they would have obtained all those temporal
advantages at the expense of their faith, which no one had a
right to take from them; in their opinion, and in that of
millions of their fellow-Catholics, they would have forfeited
their right to heaven, and the Irish have always been
unreasonable enough to prefer heaven to earth. They have
preferred, as the holy men of old of whom St. Paul speaks, "to
be stoned, cut asunder, tempted, put to death by the sword, to
wander about in sheep-skins, in oat-skins; being in want,
distressed, afflicted, of whom the word was not worthy;
wandering in deserts, in mountains, in dens, and in the caves of
the earth, being approved by the testimony of faith:" that is to
say, having the testimony of their conscience and the approval
of God, and considering this better than worldly prosperity and
earthly happiness.
Turning now to those prelates, monks, and priests, who during
Elizabeth's reign took part in Irish politics against the queen,
can we on that account deny them the title of martyrs to their
faith?
Dr. Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, whose memoirs were published
by Miles O'Reilly, may be taken as a type of this class. Suppose,
as well grounded, although never proved, the suspicion of the
English Government with regard to his political mission.
Prelates and priests, generally speaking, were put to death
under Elizabeth, or confined to dungeons on mere suspicion, and,
as we have seen in the case of the Archbishop of Armagh, even
clear proofs of their innocence would not save them.
On his father's side, Dr. Hurley was naturally in the interest
of James Geraldine, Earl of Desmond; and, on his mother's, he
belonged to the royal family of O' Briens of Munster.
Consecrated Archbishop of Cashel at Rome in 1550, under Gregory
XIII., during the Geraldine rebellion, he was compelled to use
the utmost precaution in entering Ireland. The police of
Elizabeth was particularly active at that time in hunting up
priests and monks throughout the whole island, but particularly
in the south.
The archbishop escaped all these dangers, and he avoided the
certain denunciation of Walter Baal, the Mayor of Dublin
probably, who was then actually persecuting his mother, Dame
Eleanor Birmingham; he fled to the castle of Thomas Fleming, who
concealed him in a secret chamber in his house and treated him
as a friend. But when everybody thought the danger past, and
that it was no longer imprudent for him to mix in the society of
the castle, he was suspected by an Anglo-Irishman of the name of
Dillon, denounced by him, and finally surrendered by Thomas
Fleming, and conveyed to Dublin, where proceedings were set on
foot against him by the Irish Council and the queen's ministers
in England.
His imprisonment was coincident with the suppression of the
rising in Munster, and the Earl of Desmond was beginning that
frightful outlaw-life which only ended with his miserable death.
The object of the archbishop's accusers was to connect him with
the designs of Rome and the Munster insurrection; and the state
papers preserved in London have disclosed to us the
correspondence between Adam Loftus, the Protestant Archbishop of
Dublin, on the one side, and Walsingham and Cecil on the other.
The only proofs of the Archbishop's having joined the southern
confederacy were: 1. Suspicions, as he was consecrated in Rome
about the time of the sailing of the expedition under James
Fitzmaurice; 2. The information of a certain Christopher
Barnwell, then in jail, who was promised his life if he could
furnish proofs enough to convict the prelate. The value of the
testimony of an "informer" under such circumstances is
proverbial; yet all Barnwell could allege was, that "he was
present at a conversation in Rome between Dr. Hurley and
Cardinal Comensis, the Pope's secretary, and, the result of the
whole conversation was, "that the doctor did not know nor
believe that the Earl of Kildare had joined the rebellion of
Fitzmaurice and Desmond, and he was rebuked by the cardinal for
not believing it."
This was considered overwhelming proof against him, in spite of
his positive denial. Torture was applied, but the most awful
sufferings could not wring from him the acknowledgment of having
taken part in the conspiracy. Yet Loftus and Wallop were of
opinion that he was a "rebel" and ought to be put to death. The
only difficulty which presented itself to the "Lords Justices"
of Ireland was, that there was no statute in Ireland against
"traitors" who had plotted beyond the seas, and they asked that
the archbishop should either be sent to be tried in England, or
tried in Ireland by martial law, which would screen them from
responsibility.
This last favor was granted them; and the holy archbishop was
taken from prison at early dawn, on a Friday, either in May or
June, 1584. He was barbarously hanged in a withey (withe)
calling on God, and forgiving his torturers with all his heart.
Our purpose is not to inveigh against this judicial murder, and,
by further details, increase the horror which every honest man
must feel at the narrative of such atrocious proceedings. We
will suppose, on the contrary, that the cooperation of the
Archbishop of Cashel with Fitzmaurice and Desmond, and even with
the Pope and King of Spain, had been clearly proved--as it is
certain that, if not in this case, at least in some others,
during the reign of Elizabeth, the bishops or priests accused
had really taken part in the attempt of the Irish to free
themselves from such tyranny--and insist that, even then, the
murdered Catholic ecclesiastics really died for their religion,
and could be called "rebels" in no sense whatever.
First, the question might arise as to how far the Irish were
subject to the English crown. We have seen how, a few years
before, Gillapatrick, of Ossory, asserted his right of making
war on England, when he felt sufficient provocation. Under
Elizabeth the case was still clearer, at least for Catholics,
after the excommunication of the queen by Pius V. As we have
seen, the chief title of England to Ireland rested on two
pretended papal bulls: another Pope could and did recall the
grant, which had been founded on misrepresentation. Up to that
time, there had been no real subjection by conquest, outside of
the Pale, which formed but an insignificant part of the island.
Under such circumstances, it must at least be admitted that a
radically and clearly unjust law, imposed by a foreign though
perhaps suzerain power, could be justly resisted by force of
arms. And such was the case in Ireland. The Queen of England--
the Irish Parliament of 1539 had no other authority than that of
the queen, and represented no part of the people--had made it
rebellion for the Irish to remain faithful to their religion.
What could prevent the Irish from resisting such pretension,
even at the cost of effusion of blood? The early Christians,
under the Roman Empire, it is true, never rose in arms against
the bloody edicts of the Caesars or the Antonines; but the cases
are not parallel.
Suppose that Greece or Asia Minor had never succumbed to the
Roman power, and had become entirely Christian: no one would
refuse to admit their right to offer armed resistance to the
extension of the edicts of persecution into their territory. On
the contrary, it would have been their duty to do so: and every
one of their inhabitants, who was taken and executed as a rebel,
would have been crowned with the martyr's crown.
At this point, indeed, comes in the consideration of the special
motive which animated each belligerent, even when fighting on
the right side. We are far from saying that all the Irishmen,
particularly the leaders and chieftains who at that time ranged
themselves under the banners of the Desmonds or the O'Neills,
fought purely for Christ and religion. Many of them, no doubt,
engaged in the contest from mere worldly motives, perhaps even
for purposes unworthy of Christians; and in this case, those who
fell in the struggle were in no sense soldiers of Christ.
But how many such are to be found among the bishops, priests, or
monks, who perished under Elizabeth? May it not be said of them
that, to a man, they fell for the sake of religion? We may even
be bold enough to say that the majority of the common Irish
people who lost their lives in those wars may be placed in the
same category as their spiritual rulers, being in reality the
upholders of right and the champions of Catholicity.
Let it be remembered that, at the period of which we speak, the
only real question involved in the contest was gradually
assuming more and more a religious character. Henry VIII. and
his deputy, St. Leger, had struck a fatal blow at clanship and
Irish institutions in general, by bestowing on and compelling
the chieftains to accept English titles, and by investing them
with new deeds of their lands under feudal tenure. By Elizabeth,
the same policy was steadily and successfully pursued, her court
being always graced by the presence of young Irish lords,
educated under her own eyes, and loaded with all her royal
favors. All she asked of them in return was that they should
become Queen's men. The repugnance once felt by Irishmen for
that gilded slavery was each day becoming less marked. But,
while every thing was seemingly working so well for the
attainment of Elizabeth's object at the commencement of her
reign, a new feature suddenly shows itself, and grows rapidly
into prominence --the attachment of the Irish to their religion,
and the violent opposition to the change always kept foremost in
view by the queen, namely the substitution of her spiritual
supremacy for that of the Pope.
Thus we find the Irish leaders, when proclaiming their
grievances, either on the eve of war, or the signing of a treaty
of peace, always giving their religious convictions the first
place on the list. The religious question, then, was becoming
more and more the question, and, notwithstanding all her fine
assurances that she would not infringe upon the religious
predilections of the laity, Elizabeth's great purpose, in
Ireland and in England, was to destroy Catholicity, by
destroying the priesthood, root and-branch.
The nobles showed how fully convinced they were of this, when
they carne to adopt a system of concealment, even of duplicity,
to which Irishmen ought never to have been weak enough to submit.
Not only were the practices of their religion confined to
places where no Englishman or Protestant could penetrate, but
gradually they allowed their houses--those sanctuaries of
freedom--to be invaded by the pursuivants of the queen,
searching for priests or monks "lately arrived from Rome."
Secret apartments were constructed by skilful architects in
noblemen's manors; recesses were artfully contrived under the
roofs, in roomy staircases, or even in basements and cellars.
There the unfortunate minister of religion was confined for
weeks and months, creeping forth only at night, to breathe the
fresh air at the top of the house or in the thick shrubbery of
the adjoining park. All the means of evading the law used by the
Christians of the first centuries were reproduced and resorted
to in Catholic Ireland by chieftains who possessed the "secret
promise" of the queen that their religion should not be
interfered with, and that her supremacy should not be enforced
against them.
Not thus did the people act: their keen sense of injustice took
in at once all the circumstances of the case. It was a religious
persecution, nothing else; and this the nobles also felt in
their inmost souls. The people saw the ministers of religion
hunted down, seized, dragged to prison, tried, convicted,
barbarously executed; they recognized it in its reality as a
sheer attempt to destroy Catholicity, and as such they opposed
it by every means in their power. They beheld the monks and
friars treated as though they had been wild beasts; the soldiers
falling on them wherever they met them, and putting them to
death with every circumstance of cruelty and insult, without
trial, without even the identification required for outlaws. Mr.
Miles O'Reilly's book, "Irish Martyrs," is full of cases of this
kind. Hence the people frequently offered open resistance to the
execution of the law; the soldiers had to disperse the mob; but
the real mob was the very troop commanded by English officers.
When at length the Irish lords no longer dared offer asylum to
the outlawed priesthood in their manors and castles, the hut of
the peasant lay open to them still. The greater the quantity of
blood poured out by the executors of the barbarous laws, the
greater the determination of the people to protect the oppressed
and save the Lord's anointed.
Then opened a scene which had never been witnessed, even under
the most cruel persecutions of the tyrants of old Rome. The
whole strength of the English kingdom had been called into play
to crush the Irish nobility during the wars of Ulster and
Munster; the whole police of the same kingdom was now put in
requisition for the apprehension and destruction of church-men.
Nay, from this very occupation, the great police system which
since that time has flourished in most European states, arose,
being invented or at least perfected for the purpose.
Then, for the first time in modern history, numbers of "spies"
and "informers" were paid for the service of English ministers
of state. Not only did the cities of England and Ireland, harbor
cities chiefly, swarm with them, but they covered the whole
country; they were to be found everywhere: around the humble
dwelling of the peasant and the artisan, in the streets and on
the highways, inspecting every stranger who might be a friar or
monk in disguise. They spread through the whole European
Continent--along the coast and in the interior of France and
Belgium, Italy and Spain, in the churches, convents, and
colleges, even in the courts of princes, and, as we have seen in
the case of Dr. Hurley, in the very halls of the Vatican. The
English state papers have disclosed their secret, and the whole
history is now before us.
To support this army of spies and informers, the soldiers of
that other army of England, who were employed either in keeping
England under the yoke or in crushing freedom and religion out
of Ireland, did not disdain to execute the orders which
converted them into policemen and sbirri. And it may be said, to
their credit, that they executed those orders with a ferocious
alacrity unequalled in the annals of military life in other
countries. If, during the most fearful commotions in France, the
army has been employed for a similar purpose, it must be
acknowledged that, as far as the troops were concerned, they
performed their unwelcome task with reluctance, and softened
down, at least, their execution, by considerate manners and
respectful demeanor. But these soldiers of Elizabeth showed
themselves, from first to last, full of ferocity. They generally
went far beyond the letter of their orders; they took an inhuman
delight in adding insult to injury, uniting in their persons the
double character of preservers of public order and ruffianly
executioners of innocent victims. Many and many a record of
their barbarity is kept to this day. We add a few, only to
justify our necessarily severe language:
"The Rev. Thaddeus Donald and John Hanly received their martyr's
crown on the 10th of August, 1580. They had long labored among
the suffering faithful along the southwestern coast of Ireland.
When the convent of Bantry was seized by the English troops,
these holy men received their wished-for crown of martyrdom.
Being conducted to a high rock impending over the sea, they were
tied back to back, and precipitated into the waves beneath."
"In the convent of Enniscorthy, Thaddeus O'Meran, father-
guardian of the convent, Felix O'Hara, and Henry Layhode, under
the government of Henry Wallop, Viceroy of Ireland, were taken
prisoners by the soldiers, for five days tortured in various
ways, and then slain."
"Rev. Donatus O'Riedy, of Connaught, and parish priest of
Coolrah, when the soldiers of Elizabeth rushed into the village,
sought refuge in the church; but in vain, for he was there
hanged near the high altar, and afterward pierced with swords,
12th of June, 1582."
"While Drury was lord-deputy, about 1577, Fergal Ward, a
Franciscan, . . . fell into the hands of the soldiery, and,
being scourged with great barbarity, was hanged from the
branches of a tree with the cincture of his own religious habit."
In order to find a parallel to atrocities such as these, we must
go back to the record of some of the sufferings of the early
martyrs--St. Ignatius of Antioch, for instance, who wrote of the
guards appointed to conduct him to Italy: "From Syria as far as
Rome, I had to fight with wild beasts, on sea and on land, tied
night and day to a pack of ten leopards, that is to say, ten
soldiers who kept me, and were the more ferocious the more I
tried to be kind to them."
Instances of such extreme cruelty are rare, even in the Acts of
the early martyrs, but they meet us every moment in the memoirs
of the days of Elizabeth. Both the police-spies and the soldier-
police were animated with the rage and fury which must have
possessed the soul of the queen herself; for, after all, the
cruelty practised in her reign, and mostly under her orders, was
not necessary in order to secure her throne to her, during life;
and, as she could hope for no posterity of her own, it was not
the desire of retaining the crown to her children which could
excuse so much bloodshed and suffering. She evidently followed
the promptings of a cruel heart in those atrocious measures
which constitute the feature of the home policy of her reign.
The persecution which raged incessantly throughout her long
career, in Ireland and England, is surely one of the most bloody
in the annals of the Catholic Church.
CHAPTER X.
ENGLAND PREPARED FOR THE RECEPTION OF PROTESTANTISM--IRELAND NOT.
It cost Elizabeth the greater part of her reign in time, and all
the growing resources of a united England in material, to
establish her spiritual supremacy in Ireland; and yet, when, at
her death, Mountjoy received orders to conclude peace on
honorable terms with the Ulster chieftains, her darling policy
was abandoned; and failure, in fact, confessed.
On the 30th of March, 1603, Hugh O'Neill and Mountjoy met by
appointment at Mellifont Abbey, where the terms of peace were
exchanged. O'Neill, having declared his submission, was granted
amnesty for the past, restored to his rank, notwithstanding his
attainder and outlawry, and reinstated in his dignity of Earl of
Tyrone. Himself and his people were to enjoy the "full and free
exercise of their religion;" new letters-patent were issued
restoring to him and other northern chieftains almost the whole
of the lands occupied by their respective clans.
O'Neill, on his part, was to renounce forever his title of
"O'Neill," and allow English law to prevail in his territory.
How this last condition could agree with the full and free
exercise of the Catholic religion, the treaty did not explain;
but it is evident that the new acts of Parliament respecting
religion were not to be included in the English law admitted by
the Ulster chiefs.
Meanwhile, the descendants of Strongbow's companions had been
completely subdued in the south, Munster having been devastated,
and the Geraldines utterly destroyed. Yet, even there,
Protestantism was not acknowledged by such of the inhabitants as
were left.
It may be well to compare here the different results which
attended the declaration of the queen's supremacy in England and
Ireland:
At the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, England was still,
outwardly at least, as Catholic as Ireland. Henry VIII. had only
aimed at starting a schism; the Protestantism established under
Edward had been completely swept away during Mary's short reign.
Could Elizabeth only have hoped to be acknowledged queen by the
Pope, there can be little doubt that, even for political motives,
she would have refrained from disturbing the peace of the
country for the sake of introducing heresy. Religion was nothing
to her--the crown every thing.
It was not so easy a matter for her to establish heresy as for
Henry to introduce schism. All the bishops of Henry's reign,
with the exception of Fisher, had renounced their allegiance to
Rome, in order to please the sovereign; all the bishops of
Mary's nomination remained faithful to Rome; and so difficult
was it to find somebody who should consecrate the new prelates
created by Elizabeth, that Catholic writers have, we believe,
shown beyond question that no one of the intruding prelates was
really consecrated.
Nevertheless, at the end of Elizabeth's reign, there is no doubt
that the English people, with a few individual exceptions, were
Protestant; and Protestants they have ever since remained.
In Dr. Madden's "History of the Penal Laws," we read "Father
Campian was betrayed by one of Walsingham's spies, George Eliot,
and found secreted in the house of Mr. Yates, of Lyford, in
Berkshire, along with two other priests, Messrs. Ford and
Collington. Eliot and his officers made a show of their
prisoners to the multitude, and the sight of the priests in the
hands of the constables was a matter of mockery to the unwise
multitude. This was a frequent occurrence in conveying captured
priests from one jail to another, or from London to Oxford, or
vice versa, and it would seem, instead of finding sympathy from
the populace, they met with contumely, insult, and sometimes
even brutal violence. This is singular, and not easily accounted
for; of the fact, there can be no doubt."
Dr. Madden probably considered that, within a few years after
the change of religion, the English people ought to have shown
themselves as firm Catholics as did the Irish. But the
explanation of the contumely and violence is easy: it was an
English and not an Irish populace. The first had altogether
forgotten the faith of their childhood, the second could not be
brought to forsake it. The difficulty, in accounting for the
difference between them, is in getting at its true cause; and to
us it seems that one of the chief causes was the difference of
race.
The English upper classes, as a whole, were utterly indifferent
to religion; the one thing which affected them, soul and body,
was their temporal interests, and, to judge by their ready
acquiescence in all the changes set forth at the commencement of
the last chapter, they would as soon have turned Mussulmen as
Calvinists. The lower classes, at first merely passive, became
afterward possessed by a genuine fanaticism for the new creed
established by the Thirty-nine Articles; so that, from that
period until quite recently--and the spirit still lives--an
English mob was always ready to demolish Catholic chapels, and
establishments of any kind, wherever the piety of a few had
succeeded in erecting such, however quietly.
It is evident from the facts mentioned that, prior even to that
extraordinary religious revolution called the Reformation, the
Catholic faith did not possess a firm hold upon the English mind
and heart, whatever may have been the case in previous ages. It
is clear that even "the people" in England were not ready to
submit to any sacrifice for the sake of their religion.
There is small doubt that Elizabeth foresaw this, and expected
but little opposition on the part of the English nobility and
people to the changes she purposed effecting. Had she imagined
that the nation would have been ready to submit to any sacrifice
rather than surrender their religion, she would at least have
been more cautious in the promulgation of her measures, even
though she had determined to sever her kingdom from Rome. She
might have rested content with the schism introduced by her
father, and this indeed would have sufficed for the carrying out
of her political schemes.
But she knew her countrymen too well to accredit them with a
religious devotion which, if they ever possessed, had long ago
died out. She saw that England was ripe for heresy, and the
result confirmed her worldly sagacity. How came it, then, that
the change which was absolutely impossible in Ireland, was so
easily effected in the other country? Or, to generalize the
question: How is it that, to speak generally, the nations of
Northern Europe embraced Protestantism so readily, while those
of Southern Europe refused to receive it, or were only slightly
affected by it? Ranke has remarked that, when, after the first
outbreak in the North, the movement had reached a certain point
in time and space, it stopped, and, instead of advancing further,
appeared to recede, or at least stood still.
Many Protestant writers have attempted a weak and flippant
solution of the question, and we are continually told of the
superior enlightenment of the northern races, of their
attachment to liberty, of their higher civilization, and other
very fine and very easily-quoted things of the same kind, which,
at the present moment, are admitted as truths by many, and
esteemed as unanswerable explanations of the phenomenon.
According to this opinion, therefore, the southern races were
more ignorant, less civilized, more readily duped by priestcraft
and kingcraft; above all, readier to bow to despotism, and
indifferent to freedom.
Catholic writers, Balmez principally, have often given a
satisfactory answer to the question; yet, the replies which they
have made to the various sophisms touched upon, have seemingly
produced no effect on the modern masses, who continue steadfast
in their belief of what has been so often refuted. It would be
presumptuous and probably quite useless, on our part, to enter
into a lengthened discussion of the question. But, when confined
to England, it is a kind of test to be applied to all those
subjects of civilization and liberty, and is so clear and true
that it cannot leave the least room for doubt or hesitation:
moreover, as it necessarily enters into the inquiry which forms
the heading of this chapter, it cannot be entirely laid aside.
All that we purpose doing is, discovering why the northern
nations fell a prey more readily to the disorganizing doctrines
of Protestantism than the southern. The general fickleness of
the human mind, which is so well brought out by the great
Spanish writer, does not strike us as a sufficient cause; for
the mind of southern peoples is certainly not less fickle, on
many points at least, than that of other races.
In our comparison between the North and the South, we class the
Irish with the latter, although, geographically, they belong to
the former, and, indeed, constitute the only northern nation
which remained faithful to the Church.
First, let us state the broad facts for which we wish to assign
some satisfactory reasons.
After the social convulsions which attended the change of
religion had subsided somewhat, it was found that Protestantism
had invaded the three Scandinavian kingdoms, to the almost total
exclusion of Catholicism, to such an extent, indeed, that, until
quite recently, it was death or transportation for any person
therein to return to the bosom of the mother Church.
The same statement is true, to almost the same extent, of
Northern Germany, where open persecution, or rather war, raged
until the establishment of "religious peace" toward 1608. Saxony,
whence the heresy sprang, was its centre and stronghold in
Germany; and the Saxons were Scandinavians, having crossed over
from the southern-borders of the Baltic, where, for a long time,
they dwelt in constant intercourse with the Danes, Norwegians,
and Swedes.
Saxon and Norman England was found to be, at the end of the
sixteenth century, almost entirely Protestant, and the
persecution of the comparatively few Catholics who survived
flourished therein full vigor.
A singular phenomenon presented itself in the Low Countries.
That portion of them subsequently known as Holland, which was
first invaded and peopled by the Northmen of Walcheren, became
almost entirely Protestant, while Belgium, which was originally
Celtic, remained Catholic.
Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland, were divided between
Protestantism and Catholicity, and the division exists to this
day.
In France a section only of the nobility, which was originally
Norman as well as Frank, and under feudalism had become
thoroughly permeated by the northern spirit, was found to have
embraced the new doctrines, which were repudiated by the people
of Celtic origin. It is true that, later on, the Cevennes
mountaineers received Protestantism from the old Waldenses; but
we are presenting a broad sketch, and do not deny that several
minor lineaments may not fall in with the general picture.
In Italy only literary men, in Spain a few rigorist prelates and
monks, showed any inclination toward the "reform" party.
On the whole, then, it is safe to conclude that the Scandinavian
mind was congenial to Protestantism.
We say the Scandinavian mind, because the Scandinavian race
extended, not only through Scandinavia proper, but also through
Northern Germany, along the Baltic Sea and German Ocean; through
Holland by Walcheren; through a portion of Central and Southern
Germany, as far down as Switzerland, which was invaded by Saxons
at the time of Charlemagne, and after him, until Otto the Great
gave them their final check, and subdued them more thoroughly
than the great Charles had succeeded in doing.
Common opinion traces the Scandinavians and Germans back to the
same race. In the generic sense, this is true; and all the Indo-
Germanic nations may have originally belonged to the same parent
stock; but, specifically, differences of so striking a nature
present themselves in that immense branch of the human family,
that the existence of sub-races of a definite character,
presupposing different and sometimes opposite tendencies, must
be admitted.
Who can imagine that the Germans proper are identical with the
Hindoos, although by language they, in common with the greater
part of European nations, may belong to the same parent stock?
In like manner, the Germanic tribes, although possessing many
things in common with the Scandinavian race, differ from it in
various respects.
The best ethnographic writers admit that the Scandinavian race,
which they, in our opinion improperly, name Gothic, differed
greatly in its language from the Teutonic. The language of the
first, retained in its purity in Iceland to this day, soon
became mixed up with German proper in Denmark, Sweden, and even
in Norway to a great extent. The languages differed therefore
originally, as did, consequently, the races. Even at this very
moment an effort is being made by Scandinavians to establish the
difference between themselves and the Teutons with respect to
language and nationality.
How far the religion of both was identical is a difficult
question. We believe it very probable that the worship of Thor,
Odin, and Frigga, was purely Scandinavian, and penetrated
Germany, as far as Switzerland, with the Saxons. Hertha,
according to Tacitus, was the supreme goddess of the Germans.
She had no place in Scandinavian mythology. Ipsambul, so
renowned among the Teutons, was quite unknown in Scandinavia.
The Germans, in common with the Celts, considered the building
of temples unworthy the Deity; whereas, the Scandinavian temples,
chiefly the monstrous one of Upsala, are well known. Many other
such facts might be brought out to show the difference of their
religions.
The Germans showed themselves from the beginning attached to a
country life; and we know how the Frankish Merovingian kings
loved to dwell in the country. The Scandinavians only cared for
the sea, and manifested by their skill in navigation how they
differed from the Germans, who were less inclined even than the
Celts for large naval expeditions.
All this is merely given as strong conjecture, not as proof
positive amounting to demonstration, of the real difference
between the two races--the Germanic and Scandinavian.
But how was Protestantism congenial to the Scandinavian mind?
This second question is of still greater importance than the
first.
In the earlier portion of the book, we passed in review the
character of the tribes, once clustered around the Baltic, with
the exception of the Finns, who dwelt along the eastern coast;
and, grounding our opinion on unquestionable authorities, we
found that character to consist mainly of cruelty, boldness,
rapacity, system, and a spirit of enterprise in trade and
navigation.
When they embraced Christianity, it undoubtedly modified their
character to a great extent, and many holy people lived among
them, some of whom the Church has numbered among the saints. But
the conquest of these ferocious pirates was undoubtedly the
greatest triumph ever achieved by the holy Spouse of Christ.
Yet, even after becoming Christian, they preserved for a Iong
time--we speak not now of the present day--deep features of
their former character, among others the old spirit of rapacity,
and that systematic boldness which, when occasion demands, is
ever ready to intrench upon the rights of others. They soon
displayed, also, a general tendency to subject spiritual matters
to individual reason, and the great among them to interfere and
meddle with religious affairs. The Dukes of Normandy, the Kings
of England, and the Saxon Emperors of Germany, seldom ceased
disputing the rights of spiritual authority; and the learned
among them were forward to question the supremacy of Rome in
many things, and to argue against what other people, more
religiously inclined, would have admitted without controversy.
That spirit of speculation, to which the Irish Four Masters
partly ascribed the introduction of Protestantism into England,
was rampant in the schools of these northern nations, when a
superior civilization gave rise to the erection of universities
and colleges in their midst.
But over and above that systematic philosophical spirit, their
character was deeply imbued with a material rapacity which,
after all, has always constituted the great vice of those
northern tribes. It is unnecessary to remind the reader that, in
England chiefly, Protestantism was particularly grateful to the
avaricious longings of the courtiers of Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth. The confiscation of ecclesiastical property and its
distribution among the great of the nation was the chief
incentive which moved them to adopt the convenient doctrines of
the new order, and subvert the old religion of the country. This
rapacious spirit showed itself also in Germany, though not so
conspicuously as in England; and certainly, in both countries,
the universal confiscation of the estates of religious houses,
and the robbery of the plate and jewels of the churches, are
prominent features in the history of the great Reformation.
William Cobbett has written eloquently on this subject, and
marshalled an immense array of facts so difficult of denial that
the defenders of Protestantism were compelled to resort to the
petty subterfuge of retorting that the great English radical was
a mere partisan, who never spoke sincerely, but always supported
the theory he happened to take up by exaggerated and distorted
facts, which no one was bound to admit on his responsibility.
Such was their reply; but the awkward facts remained and remain
still unchallenged.
But, since Cobbett, men who could not be accused of partisanship
and exaggeration have published authentic accounts of the
unbounded rapacity of the Reformers of the sixteenth century, in
England particularly, which all impartial men are bound to
respect, and not attribute to any unworthy motive, since they
are supported even by Protestant authorities. We quote a few,
taken from the "History of the Penal Laws" by Dr. R. R. Madden:
"The Earl of Warwick, afterward Duke of Northumberland, was the
first of the aristocracy in England who inveighed publicly
against the superfluity of episcopal habits, the expense of
vestments and surplices, and ended in denouncing altars and the
'mummery' of crucifixes, pictures and images in churches.
"The earl had an eye to the Church plate, and the precious
jewels that ornamented the tabernacles and ciboriums. Many
courtiers soon were moved by a similar zeal for religion--a lust
for the gold, silver, and jewels of the churches. In a short
time, not only the property of churches, but the possession of
rich bishopries and sees, were shared among the favorites of
Cranmer and the protector (Somerset): as were those of the See
of Lincoln, 'with all its manors, save one;' the Bishoprie of
Durham, which was allotted to Dudley, Duke of Northumberland; of
Bath and Wells, eighteen or twenty of whose manors in Somerset,
were made a present of to the protector, with a view of
protecting the remainder."
A number of similar details are to be found in the pages of the
same author.
Dr. Heylin, a Protestant, says: "That the consideration of
profit did advance this work--of the Reformation--as much as any
other, if perchance not more, may be collected from an inquiry
made two years after, in which (inquiry) it was to be
interrogated: `What jewels of gold, or silver crosses,
candlesticks, censers, chalices, copes, and other vestments,
were then remaining in any of the cathedral or parochial
churches, or, otherwise, had been embezzled or taken away? '. . .
The leaving," adds Dr. Heylin, "of one chalice to every church,
with a cloth or covering for the communion-table, being thought
sufficient. The taking down of altars by command, was followed
by the substitution of a board, called the Lord's Board, and
subsequently of a table, by the determination of Bishop Ridley.
"Many private persons' parlors were hung with altar-cloths,
their tables and beds covered with copes, instead of carpets and
coverlets, and many made carousing cups of the sacred chalices,
as once Belshazzar celebrated his drunken feasts in the
sanctified vessels of the Temple. It was a sorry house, not
worth the naming, which had not something of this furniture in
it, though it were only a fair large cushion made of a cope or
altar-cloth, to adorn their windows, and to make their chairs
appear to have somewhat in them of a chair of state."
Could such scenes as these have been surpassed by what took
place during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, in the
rude towns of Norway and Denmark, at the return of a powerful
seakong, with his large fleet, from a piratical excursion into
Southern Europe, when the spoils of many a Christian church and
wealthy house went to adorn the savage dwellings or those
barbarians? Adam of Bremen relates how he saw, with his own eyes,
the rich products of European art and industry accumulated in
the palace of the King of Denmark, and in the loathsome
dwellings of the nobility, or exposed for sale in the public
markets of the city.
But rapacity formed only one characteristic of the Scandinavians;
the mind of the people, moreover, showed itself,
notwithstanding the intricate and monstrous mythology which it
had created when pagan, of a rationalistic and anti-supernatural
tendency. Their mind was naturally systematic and reasoning; it
discussed spiritual matters in all their material aspects, and
thus gave rise to those speculations which soon became the
source of heresy. Hence, in England and the north of Germany,
the power of Rome was always called in question; and as the
English mind was altogether Scandinavian, while that of the
Germans was mixed with more of a southern disposition, the chief
trouble in Germany, between the empire and the Roman Church, lay
in the question of investitures, which combined a material and
spiritual aspect, whereas, in England, the quarrel was almost
invariably of a pecuniary nature, as, for instance, Peter's
pence.
Even in the most Catholic times, the English made a bitter
grievance of the levying of Peter's pence among them, and of the
giving of English benefices to prelates of other nations, which
also resolved itself into a question of revenue or money. And so
characteristic was the grievance of the whole nation that it was
restricted to no class, churchmen and monks being as loud in
their denunciations of Rome as the king and the nobles; and thus
the theological questions of the papal supremacy and of
ecclesiastical authority generally took with them quite a
material form. The diatribes of the Benedictine monk Matthew
Paris are well known, and their worldly spirit can only excite
in us pity that they should have been the chief cause of the
destruction of his own order in England and Ireland, and of the
total spoliation of the religious houses in whose behalf he
imagined that he wrote.
If the harms done by those contemptible wranglings about Peter's
pence and benefices had been confined to depriving the
pontifical exchequer of a revenue which was cheerfully granted
by other nations to aid the Father of the Faithful, the result
was to be regretted; but, after all, Christendom would not have
suffered in a much more sensible quarter. But in England the
question passed immediately to the election of bishops and
abbots, and thus the opposition to Rome gradually assumed much
vaster proportions.
The nation, also, in the main, sided with the kings against the
popes. Every burgher of London, York, or Canterbury, got it into
his head that Rome had formed deep designs of spoliation against
his private property, and purposed diving deep into his private
purse. In such a state of public opinion, respect for spiritual
authority could not fail to diminish and finally die out
altogether; and, when the voice of the Pontiff was heard on
important subjects in which the best interests of the nation
were involved, even the clearest proof that Rome was right, and
desired only the good of the people, could not entirely dispel
the suspicious fears and distrusts which must ever lurk in the
mind of the miser against those he imagines wish to rob him.
It is not possible to enter here into further details, but, if
the reader wish for stronger proofs of the "questioning spirit,"
"reasoning mistrust," and "systematic doggedness," natural to
the Scandinavian mind, he has only to reflect on what took place
in England at the time of the Reformation. Every question
respecting the soul, every supernatural aspiration of the
Christian, every emotion of a living conscience, appears to be
altogether absent from all those English nobles, prelates,
theologians, learned university men, even simple priests and
monks often, save a very few who, with the noble Thomas More,
thought that "twenty years of an easy life could not without
folly be compared with an eternity of bliss." The reasoning
faculty of the mind, nourished on "speculations," had replaced
faith, and, every thing of the supernatural order being
obliterated, nothing was left but worldly wisdom and material
aspirations for temporal well-being.
By reviewing other characteristics of the Scandinavian race, we
might arrive at the same conclusion; but our space forbids us to
go into them. After what has been said, however, it is easy to
see how well prepared was the English nation for accepting the
change of religion almost without a murmur.
There was, indeed, some expression of indignation on the part of
the people at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., when the
desecration of the churches began. "Various commotions," says Dr.
Madden, "took place in consequence of the reviling of the
sacrament, the casting it out of the churches in some places,
the tearing down of altars and images; in one of which tumults,
one of the authorities was stabbed, in the act of demolishing
some objects of veneration in a church.
"The whole kingdom, in short, was in commotion, but particularly
Devonshire and Norfolk. In the former county, the insurgents
besieged Devon; a noble lord was sent against them, and, being,
reenforced by the Walloons--a set of German mercenaries brought
over to enable the government to carry out their plans--his
lordship defeated these insurgents, and many were executed by
martial law."
But this remnant of affection for the religion of their fathers
seems to have soon died out, since at the death of Edward the
people appeared to have become thoroughly converted to the new
doctrines. At the very coronation of Mary, a Catholic clergyman
having prayed for the dead and denounced the persecutions of the
previous reign, a tumult took place; the preacher was insulted,
and compelled to leave the pulpit. What wonder, then, that, at
the death of Elizabeth, England was thoroughly Protestant?
We are very far from ignoring the noble examples of attachment
to their religion displayed by Christian heroes of every class
in England during those disastrous days. The touching
biographies of the English martyrs, told in the simple pages of
Bishop Challoner, cannot be read without admiration. The feeling
produced on the Catholic reader is precisely that arising from a
perusal of the Acts of the Christian martyrs under the Roman
emperors, which have so often strengthened our faith and drawn
tears of sorrow from our eyes. At this moment, particularly when
so many details, hitherto hidden, of the lives of Catholics,
religious, secular priests, laymen, women, during those times,
are coming to light in manuscripts religiously preserved by
private families, and at last being published for the
edification of all, the story is moving as well as inspiring of
the heroism displayed by them, not only on the public scaffold,
but in obscure and loathsome jails, in retreats and painful
seclusion, continuing during long years of an obscure life, and
ending only in a more obscure death, when the victim of
persecution was fortunate enough to escape capture. There is no
doubt that, when the whole story of the hunted Catholics in
England shall be known, as moving a narrative of their virtues
will be written as can be furnished by the ecclesiastical annals
of any people.
Nevertheless, what has been said of the nation, as a nation,
remains a sad fact which cannot be doubted. Those noble
exceptions only prove that the promptings of race are not
supreme, and that God's grace can exalt human nature from
whatever level.
How different were the nations of the Latin and Celtic stock!
With them the attachment to the religion of their fathers was
not the exception, but the rule, and it is only necessary to
bear in mind what the Abbe McGeoghegan has said--that, at the
death of Elizabeth, scarcely sixty Irishmen, take them all in
all, had professed the new doctrines--in order at once to
comprehend the steady tendency toward the path of duty imparted
by true nobility of blood. Nor did the Irish stand alone in this
steadfastness; it is needless to call to mind how the people
generally throughout France, and particularly in Paris, acted at
the time when the Huguenot noblemen would have rooted in the
soil the errors planted there before, and already bearing fruit
in Germany, Switzerland, and England.
It looks as though we had lost sight of the interesting question
proposed at the outset, and of which so far not a word has been
said--whether Protestantism spread so readily in the North,
because it found that region peopled with races better disposed
for civilization, if not taking the lead already in that respect,
and men ardent for freedom and impatient of servitude of any
kind. We stated that the solution of this question, particularly
in the case of England, is clear, and consequently not to be
discarded on account of previous solutions of the same question,
which have scarcely met with any attention from the adverse side.
One thing certainly undeniable is, that neither in its origin,
nor even in its consequences, can Protestantism be esteemed as
in any sense the promoter of freedom and civilization in the
British islands.
It has always struck us as strange that sensible men, acquainted
with history, could maintain that an aspiration after freedom
and a higher civilization gave to Germany and England a leaning
toward Protestantism. We can understand how the state of Europe
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries may give a coloring
to the statement of a partisan writer, desirous of explaining in
these modern times the greater amount of freedom really enjoyed
in England, and the advanced material prosperity visible
generally among Protestant Northern nations. So much we can
understand. But, to make Protestantism the origin of freedom and
civilization, and ascribe to it what happened subsequent to its
spread indeed, but what really resulted from very different
causes, passes our comprehension.
As far as freedom goes, the most superficial reader must know
that there was not a particle of it left in England when
Protestantism commenced; and it were easy to show that there was
less of it in Germany than in Italy, Spain, and even France.
Who can mention English freedom in the same breath with Henry
and Elizabeth Tudor? How could the actions of those two members
of the family advance it in the least degree, and was it not
precisely the slavish disposition of the English people at the
time which prepared them so admirably for the reception of
German heresy? The people were treated like a set of slaves, and
stood for nothing in the designs of those great political rulers.
In the very highest of the aristocracy, there lingered not a
spark of the old brave spirit which wrung Magna Charta from the
heart of a weak sovereign. The king or queen could fearlessly
trample on every privilege of the nobility, send the proudest
lords of the nation to the block, almost without trial, and
confiscate to the swelling of the royal purse the immense
estates of the first English families. There is no need of
proofs for this. The proofs are the records, the headings, as it
were, of the history of the times which one may read as he runs;
it constitutes the very essence of their history; and events of
the sixteenth century in England scarcely present us with any
thing else. This state of things was the natural result of the
general anarchy which prevailed during the "Wars of the Roses."
A more interesting and intricate question still might be raised
here: how to explain the appearance of such a phenomenon in so
proud a nation? Had the Catholic religion, which, up to that
time, had been the only religion of the country, anything to do
with the matter? These questions might furnish material for a
very animated discussion. But, with regard to the fact itself--
the slavish disposition of Englishmen at that time under kingly
and queenly rule--no doubt can possibly exist.
To show that Catholicity had nothing to do with the introduction
of such a despotism, would give rise to a dissertation too long
for us to enter upon. We merely offer a few suggestions, which,
we think, will prove sufficient and satisfactory for our purpose
to every candid reader:
I. Catholic theology had certainly never brought about such a
state of affairs. In all Catholic schools of the day, in England
as on the Continent, St. Thomas was the great authority, and his
work, "De Regimine Principum," was in the hands of all Catholic
students. Luther was the first to reject St. Thomas.
In this book, all were taught that, if, among the various kinds
of government, "that of a king is best," in the opinion of the
author, "that of a tyrant is the worst." And a tyrant he defines
as "any ruler who despises the common good, and seeks his
private advantage."
In that book of the great doctor, all may read: "The farther the
government recedes from the common weal, the more unjust is it.
It recedes farther from the common weal in an oligarchy, in
which the welfare of a few is sought, than in a democracy, whose
object is the good of the many. . . . But farther still does it
recede from the common weal in a tyrannous government, by which
the good of one alone is sought."
The general consequence which St. Thomas draws from this
doctrine is, that, "if a ruler governs a multitude of freemen
for the common good of the multitude, the government will be
good and just as becomes freemen."
Such was the political doctrine taught in the Catholic
universities of Europe until the sixteenth century; but, in all
probability, this golden work, "De Regimine Principum," was no
longer the text-book in the English schools of the time of Henry
Tudor.
But, when, entering into details, the holy and learned author
goes on to contrast the contrary effects produced by freedom and
despotism on a nation, how could Henry willingly permit the
circulation of such words as the following?
"It is natural that men brought under terror" (a tyrannical
government) "should degenerate into beings of a slavish
disposition, and become timid and incapable of any manly and
daring enterprise--an assertion which is proved by the conduct
of countries which have been long subjected to a despotic
government. Solomon says: 'When the imperious are in power, men
hide away' in order to escape the cruelty of tyrants, nor is it
astonishing; for a man governing without law, and according to
his own caprice, differs in nothing from a beast of prey. Hence,
Solomon designates an impious ruler as a roaring lion and a
ravenous bear.'
"Because, therefore, the government of one is to be preferred --
which is the best--and because this government is liable to
degenerate into tyranny--which has been proved to be the worst --
hence, the most diligent care is to be taken so to regulate the
establishment of a king over the people, that he may not fall
into tyranny."
Finally, St. Thomas epitomizes the doctrines of this whole book
in his "Summa," as follows: "A tyrannical government is unjust,
being administered, not for the common good, but for the private
good of the ruler; therefore, its overthrow is not sedition,
unless when the subversion of tyranny is so inordinately pursued
that the multitude suffers more from its overthrow than from the
existence of the government."
The subject might be illustrated by any quantity of extracts
from the writings of other great theologians of the middle ages;
but what we have said is enough for our purpose. It is manifest
that Catholic doctrine cannot have brought about the state of
England under the Tudors.
II. Another, and a very important suggestion, is the following:
it certainly was not the Catholic hierarchy, least of all the
pontifical power, which produced it.
Whatever may have been written derogatory to the institutions
existing in Europe during the mediaeval period, several great
facts, most favorable to the Catholic religion, have been
commonly admitted by Protestant writers, from which we select
two. The first of these was originally stated by M. Guizot, in
his "Civilization in Europe," namely, that the kingdom of France
was created by Christian bishops. Since that first admission,
other non-Catholic writers have gone further, and have felt
compelled to admit that, as a general rule, the modern European
nations have all been created, nurtured, fostered, by Catholic
bishops, and that the first free Parliaments of those nations
were, in fact, "councils of the Church," either of a purely
clerical character and altogether free from the intermixture of
lay elements, such as the Councils of Toledo, in Spain, or
acting in concert with the representatives of the various
classes in the nations.
The clergy, as all readers know, the clerks, were the first to
take the lead in civil affairs, being more enlightened than the
other classes, and holding in their body all the education of
the earlier times. It is unnecessary to add to this fact that,
among really Christian people, the voice of religion is listened
to before all others. And is it not to-day a well-ascertained
fact that, in the main, the influence exerted by the clergy on
the formation of modern European kingdoms was in favor of a well-
regulated freedom based on the first law--the law of God--that
primal source of true liberty and civilization? To the clergy,
certainly, and to the monks, is chiefly due the abolition of
slavery; and the bishops took a very active and prominent part
in the movements of the communes, to which the Third Estate owes
its birth.
A malignant ingenuity has been displayed by many writers, in
ransacking the pages of history, in order to fasten on certain
prelates of the Church charges of despotism and oppression. But,
apart from the fact that the narratives so carefully compiled
have, in many cases, turned out to be perversions of the truth,
and granting even that all these allegations are impartial and
true, the general tenor and tendency of the history of those
times is now admitted to be ample refutation of such accusations,
and impartial writers confess that the ecclesiastical influence,
during those ages, was clearly set against the oppression of
the people, and finally resulted in the formation of those
representative and moderate governments which are the boast of
the present age; and that the principles enunciated by the great
schoolmen, led by Thomas Aquinas, founded the order of society
on justice, religion, and right. The more history is studied
honestly, investigated closely, and viewed impartially, the more
plainly does the great fact shine forth that the Catholic
hierarchy, in the various European nations, constituted the
vanguard of true freedom and order.
With regard to the papal power, it is a curious instance of the
reversal of human judgment, and a very significant fact, that
those very Popes who, a hundred years ago, were looked upon,
even by Catholic writers, as the embodiment of supercilious
arrogance and sacrilegious presumption, namely, Gregory VII.,
Innocent III., and Boniface VIII., are now acknowledged to have
been the greatest benefactors to Europe in their time, and true
models of supreme Christian bishops.
But, if these two facts be admitted, the question recurs, How is
it that the governments of several kingdoms, and that of England
in particular, had, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
merged into complete and unalloyed despotism? As our present
interest in the question is restricted to England, we confine
ourselves to that country, and proceed to treat of it in a few
words.
Under the Tudors, the government grew to be altogether
irresponsible, personal, and despotic, chiefly because under
previous reigns, and constantly since the establishment of the
Norman line of kings, the authority of Rome, which formed the
only great counterpoise to kingly power at the time, had been
gradually undermined, while the bishops, being deprived of the
aid of the supreme Pontiff, had become mere tools in the hands
of the monarchs.
The particular shape which the opposition to Rome took in
England, compared with a similar opposition in Germany, has been
already touched upon; it was found to be involved chiefly in the
question of tribute-money and benefices, the latter being also
reduced to a money difficulty. It was seen that the monks and
the people sided generally with the kings, and gradually took a
dislike and mistrust to every thing coming from Rome; the
authority of the monarch, though not precisely strengthened
thereby, was left without the control of a superior tribunal to
direct him, and consequently the kings, if they chose, were left
to follow the impulse of their own caprice, which, according to
St. Thomas, forms the characteristic of tyranny.
Other causes, doubtless, contributed to pave the way for and
consolidate the despotism of the Kings of England. Among such
causes may be mentioned the extraordinary successes which
attended the English arms, led by their warrior kings in France,
and the frightful convulsions subsequently arising from the Wars
of the Roses; but we doubt not the one mentioned above was the
chief, and, of itself, would in the long-run have brought about
the same result.
Protestantism, therefore, was neither the growth of freedom in
England, nor did it plant freedom there at its introduction,
inasmuch as the royal power became more absolute than ever by
its predominance, and by the first principle which it laid down,
that the king was supreme in Church as well as in state. Can its
origin in England, then, be accounted for by the existence of a
higher civilization, anterior to it in point of time, out of
which it grew, or, at least, by a true aspiration toward such.
This question is as easy of solution as the first: There can be
no doubt that the nations which remained either entirely or in
the main faithful to the Church, in point of learning and
civilization, ranked far beyond the Northern nations, where
heresy so early found a permanent footing, and that in the South
also the tendencies toward a higher civilization were at that
time of a most marked and extraordinary character, so much so
that the reign of Leo X. has become a household phrase to
express the perfection of culture.
England, as a nation, was at that period only just beginning to
emerge from barbarism, and in fact was the last of the European
nations to adopt civilized customs and manners in the political,
civil, and social relations of life.
In politics she was, until that epoch, plunged in frightful
dynastic revolutions, and as yet had not learned the first
principles of good government. In civil affairs, her code was
the most barbarous, her feudal customs the most revolting, her
whole history the most appalling of all Christendom. In social
habits, she had scarcely been able to retain a few precious
fragments of good old Catholic times; and the fearful scenes
through which the nation had passed, which, according to J. J.
Rousseau, for once expressing the truth, render the reading of
that period of her history almost impossible to a humane man,
had sunk her almost completely in degradation. The reader will
understand that the England here spoken of is the England of
three centuries ago, and not of to-day.
If by civilization is understood learning and the fine arts,
what, in general phrase, is expressed by culture and refinement,
how could England compare at the time with Italy, Flanders,
Spain, France, all Latin or Celtic nations? How can it be
pretended that she was better fitted for the reception of a more
spiritual and elevating religion than any of the countries
mentioned?
Two great names may be brought forward as proving that the
expressions used are harsh and ill-founded--Shakespeare and
Milton; a third, Bacon, we omit for reasons which our space
forbids us to give.
Shakespeare, whose name may rank with those of Homer and Dante,
was not a product of those times. He was a gift of Heaven. At
any other epoch he would have been as great, perhaps greater.
What he received from his surroundings and from the
"civilization" with which he was blessed, he has handed down to
us in the uncouth form, the intricacy of plot and adventures,
which would have rendered barbarous a poet less naturally gifted.
And, although the question has never been definitely settled,
it is probable that he was born and lived a Catholic; and it is
strange how Elizabeth, who, tradition tells us, was present at
some of his plays, could endure his faithful portrayal of friars
and nuns, while she was persecuting their originals so
barbarously at the time; strangest of all, how she could bear to
look upon the true and noble image of Katherine of Aragon, whom
Henry in his good moment pronounces "the queen of earthly queens,
" contrasted with her own mother, to whom the shrewd old court
lady tells the story:
"There was a lady once ('tis an old story), That would not be a
queen, that would she not, For all the mud in Egypt :--Have you
heard it?"
Thus did Shakespeare contrast Elizabeth's wanton mother with the
noble woman whom Henry discarded for a toy. And some critics can
only find a reason for the composition of the "Merry Wives of
Windsor" and the "Sonnets" as an offering to the lewd queen.
Nothing more did he owe to his time.
And Milton, who, though his father was a Catholic, was himself a
rank Puritan, something of what we have said of Shakespeare may
be said of him. At all events, all his cultivation and taste
came from Italy. The poets of that really civilized country had
polished his uncouth nature, as it were in spite of itself, and
added to the depth of his wonderful genius the beauty and soft
harmony of verse that ever flowed freely, and the strength of a
nervous and sonorous prose.
Now comes the question: If the origin of Protestantism in
England cannot be attributed to freedom and civilization, may it
not, at least, be maintained that the natural result of
Protestantism was the acquisition of true freedom and of a
higher civilization? Is it not true that to-day Protestant
nations are in advance of others in both these respects? And to
what other cause can such advancement be ascribed than to the
"reformed religion?" Is it not the freedom which has come to the
human mind, after the rejection of the yoke of spiritual
authority, and the proclamation of the rights of individual
reason, that has brought about the present advanced state of
affairs
We know all these fine-sounding phrases which are so
continuously dinned into our ears, and republished day after day
in a thousand forms. The question, we admit, is not so easy of
solution as the first, and might, indeed, without suspicion of
evasion, be discarded as not coming under the head of this
chapter, which spoke of origin and not of consequences.
Nevertheless, a few words may be devoted to the subject, to
prove that the answer must still be in the negative.
The first result of Protestantism was undoubtedly to extinguish
as completely as possible the remaining sparks of truly liberal
thought promulgated in Europe by the Catholic doctors of the
middle ages. Wherever the new doctrines spread, secular rulers
were not only freed from pontifical control, but were themselves
invested with supreme ecclesiastical power. The effective check
which the paternal and bold voice issuing from the Vatican had
exercised on kings and princes was in a moment taken away. In
Germany, England, and Scandinavia, the kings and petty princes,
and dukes even, became each so many popes in their own dominions.
And this took place with the consent and frequently at the
earnest request of the Reformers.
Even the European states which did not fall away from the old
faith of Christendom took advantage, it might almost be said, of
the difficult position in which the Holy Father found himself,
to countenance new doctrines with respect to the limits of the
authority of the Supreme Pontiff; and the new errors which so
suddenly appeared in France and elsewhere, during the prevalence
and at the extinction of the great schism, limiting the power of
the Popes in many matters where it had been considered binding,
broke out again, in France principally, under the lead of
Protestant or Erastian parliamentarians and legists, under the
name of Gallican liberties--pretended liberties, which would
really make the Church a subordinate adjunct of the State,
instead of what it is, a spiritual living body ruled exclusively
by a spiritual head.
How could the cause of true liberty in Europe be promoted by
such altered circumstances as these?--to say nothing of the
disastrous imprudence with which those blind rulers and so-
called theologians took away the key-stone of the European
social edifice, which grew weaker from that day forth, until now
we see it tottering to its fall.
The introduction of Protestantism, then, was one of the chief
causes of the change by which a much greater personal power was
transferred to the hands of the sovereign than he had ever
before held, and it is no surprise to see the absolutism of
emperors and kings, in Christian Europe, date from its coming.
As time passed on, the cause acting on a larger scale, embracing
a wider circumference, and drawing within its circle vaster
territories, the world saw absolute rule established in England,
France, Spain, and Germany. Previous to the sixteenth century,
the word 'absolutism' was unknown in Christendom, as was the
doctrine of the "divine right of kings" understood and preached
as it has since been in England.
But, to furnish details which should render these reflections
more striking, would require an unravelling of the whole tangled
skein of history during those times.
Nevertheless, we must come to consider the last refuge of
Protestant liberalism. Did not the Reformation really emancipate
modern nations, and gradually bring about the whole system of
representative governments, which, starting from England, have
now, in fact, become, more or less, general throughout Europe?
Our answer is, Yes and No. It may be granted that Protestantism
did give rise to a certain kind of liberalism very prevalent in
our days; but such liberalism is very far from bestowing on
nations true liberty and stability; hence their constant
agitation, and the perils of society which threaten all, even
the specially favored Protestant nations themselves as much as
any.
It was indeed the new doctrines which brought about the
"Commonwealth" in England, and the subsequent Revolution of 1688;
between which two events, however, great differences exist.
The destruction of monarchy under and in the person of Charles I.
was the just retribution dealt by Providence to the English
kings, who had been the first openly to shake off from a great
nation the wise and beneficent yoke of Rome. At all events, one
thing is certain, that under the "Protector," the child of the
Revolution, as little as under the Protestant Tudors, could the
English scarcely be regarded as freemen.
Cromwell banished from their hall the representatives of the
people. He could scarcely find epithets opprobrious enough for
Magna Charta, which the people considered, and rightly, as the
palladium of English liberty. In his scornful order to "take
away that bawble," though the "bawble" immediately referred to
was the Speaker's mace, the word meant the freedom of the nation.
He was as absolute a monarch as ever ruled England. The liberty
enjoyed under his regime was as meaningless for every class as
for the Catholics, whom he more immediately oppressed, and was
ill compensated for by the material prosperity which his genius
knew so well how to secure.
It was his despotic rule, in fact, and the fear of anarchy which
affrighted the minds of the people at his death--the dread of a
government of rival soldiers--which rendered so easy the
triumphant restoration of the worthless Stuarts, in the person
of the most worthless of them all, Charles II.
The true constitutional liberty of which England may fairly
boast was the work of a long series of years subsequent to the
Revolution of 1688. It was the work of the whole eighteenth
century, in fact, and was grounded on the fragments of old
Catholic doctrines and customs. In no sense can it be called the
result of Protestantism, save as coming after it in point of
time.
Whoever is acquainted with the state of religion and society in
England, during the latter part of the seventeenth and the whole
of the eighteenth century, needs not to be told that, among the
ruling classes, faith in a revealed religion had ceased to exist.
The yoke of Rome once shaken off, the human mind was quick to
draw all the consequences of the principle of entire
independence in religious matters. Tindal, Collins, Hobbes,
Shaftesbury, and other philosophers, had openly denounced
revelation, and that portion of the nation which esteemed itself
enlightened embraced their new doctrines. It would be false to
imagine that, in 1700 and afterward, the English were as firm
believers in the Church of England's Thirty-nine Articles as
they seemed to be at the beginning of this century. The whole of
the last century was for all Europe, with the exception of the
two peninsulas of Italy and Spain, a period of avowed disbelief.
Even Presbyterian Scotland did not escape the contagion, and
some theologians and preachers of the Kirk at that time are now
praised for their liberal views of religion, that is, for their
want of real faith. The influence of Wesley and his fellow-
workers on the English mind, and the dread of the spread of
French infidelity and jacobinism, were more extensive and
effectual than people are apt to imagine; and there is no doubt
that, seventy years ago England was far more of a believing
country than she had been for a hundred years before.
But, if even Scotch Presbyterian ministers and Church of England
men, such as Laurence Sterne, were unworthy of the name of
Christian, what are we to think of those who had to profess no
outward faith in Christianity, because of ministerial offices?
There is no doubt that, in the mass, they were almost completely
void of any faith in revealed religion.
To such men as these is England indebted for the development of
her constitution. If Protestantism had any share in it at all,
it did not go beyond preparing the way for the destruction of
Christianity in the mind and heart of the people; or, rather,
constitutional liberty in England has no connection whatever
with religion. The English, left to their own ingenuity and
skill, displayed a vast amount of statesmanlike qualities in
devising for themselves a system of check and counter-check,
which protected the subject and defined the rights of the ruler;
and this gave the nation an undoubted superiority over their
neighbors on the Continent. But it cannot be attributed, except
in a very remote manner, to the Protestant doctrine of the
independence of the human mind.
Were we to examine the effect which the example of England
produced on other nations, we should find that, instead of
spreading liberty, it was the cause of the diffusion of an
unbridled license under the name of liberalism.
In England itself; the lower orders of society having been kept
in ignorance, and consequently in subjection to the ruling
classes, and the latter finding it to their interest to preserve
order and stability in the state, no frightful commotions could
ensue to threaten the destruction of society.
In Continental countries, the middle and even the lowest classes
were more readily caught by doctrines which, when kept within
due bounds, may be promotive of exterior prosperity, but which,
pushed to their extremes and logical consequences, may embroil
the whole nation in revolution and calamities.
Such has been the case in our own days, and in days immediately
preceding our own; and England is now experiencing the recoil of
those convulsions, and seems on the eve of being convulsed
herself more terribly, perhaps, than any other nation has yet
been.
These few reflections must suffice, as to extend them would go
beyond our present scope. But now comes the question, Why was
Ireland unprepared for the reception of Protestantism? Why did
she reject it absolutely and permanently?
According to the theorists who attribute the success of
Protestantism in the North of Europe to a higher civilization
and a more ardent love of freedom, the contrary characteristics
should distinguish those nations which remained faithful to the
Church, and particularly the Irish. Was the lack of a higher
civilization and more ardent love for freedom really the cause,
then, for Ireland's undergoing so many fearful sacrifices merely
for the sake of her religion?
We should not dread entering upon a comparison of the
Scandinavian and Celtic races in these two articular points, as
they existed at the time of the Tudors. We are confident that a
detailed survey of both would result in a glorious vindication
of the Irish character, although, owing to six hundred years of
cruel wars with Dane and Anglo-Norman, the actual prosperity of
the country was far inferior to that of England. But the outline
of so vast a subject must content us here.
In judging of the elevation of a nation's sentiments, the first
thing that strikes us is the motive assigned by the Irish
representatives for refusing to pass the bill of supremacy.
"Five or six changes of religion in twelve years were too much
for conscientious people." Such was the answer sent back to
Elizabeth, and spoken as though easy of comprehension. Had they
deemed that their language could have been misunderstood, they
would undoubtedly have expressed themselves in stronger terms.
Strange that such an obvious and common-sense remark had never
occurred to the intelligent and highly-civilized members of the
English Parliament--those ardent lovers of freedom--when applied
to by a new English monarch to acknowledge and confirm, as law,
the religious system he had determined to establish!
Apparently, then, at this time, Ireland possessed a conscience
which England either laid no claim on, or made no pretensions to;
and it might not be too much to lay this down as the first
reason why Ireland remained faithful to her religion. In fact,
the whole history of the period bears out this general
observation. The subserviency of the proud English aristocracy,
of those pretended statesmen and legislators, in matters so
intimately connected with the soul, its convictions and its
morality, shows conclusively that the word "conscience" had no
meaning for them, or that, if they were aware of the existence
of such a thing, they made so little account of it that they
were ready at all times to barter it for position, what they
considered honor, and wealth.
On the other hand, the constant, unshaken, and emphatic refusal
of the Irish to renounce their religion for the novel
"speculations" of pretended theologians-- in reality, heretical
teachers --at the beck of king or queen; their willingness to
submit to all the rigor of extreme penal laws rather than
disobey their sense of right, proves too well that they
possessed a conscience, knew what it meant, and resolved to
follow it. There is not a single fact of their, history, general
or particular, taking them collectively as a nation, when, by
their actions, they spoke as one people or individually, when
priest and friar, great man or mean man, chose to lose position,
property, name--life itself--rather than be false to their
religion and God--which does not prove that they owned a
conscience and obeyed its voice.
Can a nation, deprived of this, be esteemed really free and
truly civilized? and can a nation which possesses it be
considered barbarous? The answer cannot be doubtful, and is of
itself a sufficient solution of the question under examination.
But, to come to more special details. The Irish idea of
civilization was certainly of a very different character from
that of the English; but was it the less true? From the landing
of the first invasion, the Norman nobles and prelates looked
down on the invaded people as barbarous and uncouth, as they
previously looked down upon the Anglo-Saxons. Later on, they
spoke of the Irish customs as "lewd;" and, later still, the
majority of them adopted those "lewd customs."
If the question be merely one of refinement of outward manners,
and aquaintance with the artificial code established by a
society with which the Irish, up to that time, had never come in
contact, the Normans may be granted whatever benefit may accrue
to them from such, though, even here, the Irish chieftains might
later on compare favorably with their foes. For instance, if is
doubtful whether Hugh O'Donnell and O'Sullivan Beare, one of
whom went to Spain, and the other to Portugal--and the second,
Philip II. commanded to be treated as a Spanish grandee --were
not as courteous and dignified as Cecil or Walsingham, or Essex
or Raleigh, at the court of Elizabeth. And, if we take the case
of the descendants of Strongbow's warriors, who became "more
Irish than the Irish," there is no reason why we should not
prefer the manners and bearing of young Gerald Desmond, when,
after leaving Rome, he appeared at the court of Tuscany, to
those of the young lords who danced at Windsor, under the eyes
of Henry, with Anne Boleyn. But, treating the subject seriously,
and examining it more closely, we may find a necessity for
reversing the opinion which is too commonly entertained.
Civilization does not consist only, or chiefly, in refinement of
manners, but in all things which exalt a nation; and, after the
"conscience" of which we have spoken, nothing is so important in
making a nation civilized as the institutions under which it
lives.
The laws are the great index of a people's civilization, chiefly
as regards their execution. Nothing can be more indicative of it
than the criminal code of a people.
The law of England at that time compares poorly with the Irish
compilation known as the "Senchus Mor," which scholars have only
recently been able to study, and which is being printed as we
write, and to be illustrated with learned notes. From all
accounts given by competent reviewers, it is clear that wisdom,
sound judgment, equity, and Christian feeling, constitute the
essence of those laws which Edmund Campian found the young
Irishmen of his day studying under such strange circumstances
and with such ardor and application as to spend sixteen or
eighteen years at it.
And in what manner were those very Christian enactments which
lay at the foundation of the English legislation executed at the
same period? What, for instance, were the features of its
criminal code? It is unnecessary to depict what all the world
knows.
In extenuation of the barbarous blood-thirstiness which
characterized it, it may be said that torture, cruel punishments,
and fearful chastisement for slight offences, formed the
general features of the criminal code of most Christian nations.
They had been handed down by barbarous ancestors, the relics of
Scandinavian cruelty for the most part, added to the Roman slave
penalties, which were the remnants of pagan inhumanity. This
answer would be insufficient when comparing the English with the
Brehon law, but it does not hold good even with reference to
other Continental nations. In no country at that time was
punishment so pitiless as in England. The details, now well
known, can only be published for exceptional readers; to find a
comparison for them Dr. Madden says:
"We must come down to the reign of terror in France, to the
massacres of September, to the wholesale executions of
conventional times; to find the mob insulting the victims, and
the executioner himself adding personal affront to the
disgusting fulfilment of his horrible office."
Passing from the laws to the usages of warfare, and chiefy to
domestic strife, here the most vulnerable point in the Irish
character shows itself. The constant feuds resulting from the
clan system furnish a never-failing theme to those who accuse
the Irish of barbarism. Yet is there no parallel to them in the
horrors of those dynastic revolutions which preceded the Tudors
in England, and which the Tudors only put an end to by the
completest despotism, and by shedding the best blood of the
country in torrents? The Irish feuds never depopulated the
country. It is even admitted by most reliable historians that,
while those dissensions were rifest, the land was really teeming
with a happy people, and rich in every thing which an
agricultural country can enjoy. The great battles of the various
clans resulted often in the killing of a few dozen warriors.
Such, in fact, was the manner in which chroniclers estimated the
gains or losses of each of those victories or defeats.
But, in the Wars of the Roses, England lost a great part of her
adult population; so much so, that she was altogether
incapacitated from waging war with any external nation. She
could not even afford to send any reenforcements to the English
Pale in Ireland--not even a few hundred which at times would
have proved so serviceable. It was in fact high time and almost
a happy thing for England that the crushing despotism of the
Tudors came in to save the nation from total ruin.
Finally, can it be said that the Irish were inferior in
civilization to the English by reason of their social habits,
when Danes, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, in turn, invariably
adopted Irish manners in preference to their own, after living a
sufficient time in the country to be able to appreciate the
difference between the one and the other?
The writers of whom we speak ascribe the spread of Protestantism
not only to a higher civilization, or at least a special aptness
and fitness for it, but also say that it was due to the greater
love for freedom which possessed those who accepted it; whereas
the Irish, as they allege, have been forever priest-ridden and
cowered under the lash.
The connection between English Protestantism and freedom has
been sufficiently touched upon. But in Ireland the whole
resistance of the Irish people to the change of religion is the
most conspicuous proof which could be advanced of their inherent
love for freedom.
What is the meaning of this word "priest-ridden?" If, as
attached to the Irish, it means that they have remained
faithfully devoted to their spiritual guides, and protected them
at cost of life and limb against the execution of barbarous laws,
this epithet which is flung at them as a reproach is a glory to
them, and a true one.
Are they to be accused of cowardice because they were never bold
enough to demolish a single Catholic chapel--a favorite
amusement of the English mobs from Elizabeth's reign to
Victoria's--or because they could not find the courage in their
hearts to mock a martyr at the stake, or imbrue their hands in
his blood, as did the nation of a higher civilization and a more
ardent love for freedom?
The Irish cower under the lash! It could never be applied, until
calculating treachery had first rendered them naked and
defenceless, and removed from their reach every weapon of
defence. And the man who in such a case receives the lash is a
coward, while he who safely applies it is a hero!
Our observations so far have cleared the ground for the right
solution and understanding of the present question. It may now
be said that the Irish were not prepared for the reception of
Protestantism, and remained firm in their faith because--
1. They possessed a conscience.
2. There had existed no religious abuses, worthy of the name, in
their country which called for reform. Such abuses had in
England and Germany furnished the pretext for a change of
religion. It was a mere pretext, for the alleged abuses might
all be remedied without intrenching on the domain of faith, and
unsettling the religious convictions of the whole nation. There
is no greater crime possible than to introduce among people
enjoying all the benefits resulting from a firm belief in holy
truth a simple doubt, a simple hesitating surmise, calculated to
make them waver in the least in what had previously been a solid
and well-grounded faith. But to consider that crime carried to
the extent of so sapping the foundation of Christian belief as
to bring about the inevitable consequence of opening under
nations the fearful abyss of atheism and despair--there is no
word sufficiently strong to express the indignation which such a
course of action must naturally excite. And that the ultimate
result of the new heresy was to carry men to the very brink of
the abyss is plain enough to-day, and was foreseen by Luther
himself. In all probability he had a clear perception of it,
since the latter half of his life was devoted to propping up the
crumbling walls of his hastily-erected edifice by whatever
supports he could steal from the old faith, and fighting hard
against all those who had already drawn the ultimate conclusions
of his own principles.
For those, then, who in the sixteenth century set in motion the
chaos which threatens to overwhelm us to-day, the religious
abuses existing at the time can offer no excuse for their
destruction of Religion, because stains happened to sully the
purity of her outward garment.
But in Ireland no such abuses existed; and consequently there
was there not even a pretext for the introduction of
Protestantism, and by the very reason of their sense of good and
right the Irish were unprepared for heresy.
3. Even had it entered into their minds to wish for a
reformation of some kind, they were certainly unprepared for the
one offered them. The first reform of the new order was to close
the religious houses which the people loved, which were the
seats of learning, holiness, and education. Their Catholic
ancestors had founded those religious houses; they themselves
enjoyed the spiritual and even temporal advantages attached to
them, for they constituted in fact the only important and useful
establishments which their country possessed; they had been
consecrated by the lives and deaths of a thousand saints within
their walls; and they suddenly beheld pretended ministers of a
new religion of which they knew nothing, backed by ferocious
Walloon or English troopers, turn out or slay their inmates,
close them, set them on fire, pillage them, or convert them into
private dwellings for the convenience of an imported aristocracy.
This was the first act of the "introduction " of the
"Reformation " into Ireland. The people were enabled to judge of
the sanctity of the new creed at its first appearance among them.
And this alone, apart from their firm adherence to the faith of
their fathers, was quite enough to justify them in their
resistance to such a substitute.
But, above all, when they beheld how the inmates of those holy-
houses were treated, when they saw them cast out into the world,
penniless, reduced to penury and want, persecuted, declared
outcasts, hunted down, insulted by the soldiery, arrested,
cruelly beaten, bound hand and foot, and hung up either before
the door of their burning monastery, or even in the church
itself before the altar--what wonder that they were unprepared
to receive the new religion?
The barbarity displayed throughout England and Ireland toward
Catholicism was specially fiendish when directed against
religious of both sexes; and, as in Ireland no class of persons
was more justly and dearly loved, what wonder that the Irish
literally hated the religion that came to them from beyond the
sea?
Without going over the other aspects of the religious question
of the time, and comparing article with article of the new and
old beliefs, this single feature of the case alone is sufficient.
The process might be carried out with advantage, but is not
necessary.
4. The new order of things, in one word, resolved itself into
rapacity and wanton bloodshed. And, despite whatever may be said
of Irish outrages by those who are never tired of alluding to
them, Irish nature is opposed to such excesses. If they are ever
guilty of such, it is only when they have previously been
outraged themselves, and in such cases they are the first to
repent of their action in their cooler moments. On the other
hand, the men who first set all these outrages going never find
reason to accuse themselves of any thing, are even perfectly
satisfied with and convinced of their own perfection; and, as
from the first they acted coolly and systematically, their self-
equanimity is never disturbed, they continue unshaken in the
calm conviction that they have always been in the right,
whatever may have been the consequences of the initiative
movement and its steady continuance.
But we repeat advisedly--the Irish nature is opposed to rapacity
and wanton shedding of blood, and this formed another strong
reason for their opposition to the religious revolution which
immersed them in so bloody a baptism.
5. Yet perhaps the most radical and real cause of their
persistent refusal to embrace Protestantism lies in their
traditional spirit, of which we have previously spoken. There is
no rationalistic tendency in their character.
And all the points well considered, which, after all, is the
better, the simply traditional or strictly rationalistic nature?
What has been the result of those philosophical speculations
from which Protestantism sprang? Whither are men tending to-day
in consequence of it? Would it not have been better for mankind
to have stood by the time-honored traditions of former ages,
independently of the strong and convincing claims which
Catholicity offers to all? This is said without in the least
attributing the fault to sound philosophy, without casting the
slightest slur on those truly great and illustrious men who have
widened the limits of the human intellect, and deserved well of
mankind by the solid truths they have opened up in their works
for the benefit and instruction of minds less gifted than their
own.
CHAPTER XI.
THE IRISH AND THE STUARTS.--LOYALTY AND CONFISCATION.
Upon the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, the son of the unfortunate
Mary Stuart was called to the throne of England, and for the
first time in their history the Irish people accepted English
rule, gave their willing submission to an English dynasty, and
afterward displayed as great devotedness in supporting the
falling cause of their new monarchs, as in defending their
religion and nationality.
This feeling of allegiance, born so suddenly and strangely in
the Irish breast, cherished so ardently and at the price of so
many sacrifices, finally raising the nation to the highest pitch
of heroism, is worth studying and investigating its true cause.
What ought to have been the natural effect produced on the Irish
people by the arrival of the news that James of Scotland had
succeeded to Elizabeth? The first feeling must have been one of
deep relief that the hateful tyranny of the Tudors had passed
away, to be supplanted by the rule of their kinsmen the Stuarts--
kinsmen, because the Scottish line of kings was directly
descended from that Dal Riada colony which Ireland had sent so
long ago to the shores of Albania, to a branch of which
Columbkill belonged.
For those who were not sufficiently versed in antiquarian
genealogy to trace his descent so far back, the thought that
James was the son of Mary Stuart was sufficient. If any people
could sympathize with the ill-starred Queen of Scots, that
people was the Irish. It could not enter into their ideas that
the son of the murdered Catholic queen, should have feelings
uncongenial to their own. It is easy, then, to understand how,
when the news of Elizabeth's death and of the accession of James
arrived, the sanguine Irish heart leaped with a new hope and
joyful expectation.
As for the real disposition of that strangest of monarchs, James
I,, writers are at variance. Matthew O'Connor, the elder, who
had in his hands the books and manuscripts of Charles O'Connor
of Bellingary, is very positive in his assertions on his side of
the question:
"James was a determined and implacable enemy to the Catholic
religion; he alienated his professors from all attachment to his
government by the virulence of his antipathy. One of his first
gracious proclamations imported a general jail-delivery, except
for 'murderers and papists.' By another proclamation he pledged
himself 'never to grant any toleration to the Catholics,' and
entailed a curse on his posterity if they granted any."
Turning now to Dr. Madden's "History of the Penal Laws," we
shall feel disposed to modify so positive an opinion. There we
read:
"It is very evident that his zeal for the Protestant Church had
more to do with a hatred of the Puritans than of popery, and
that he had a hankering, after all, for the old religion which
his mother belonged to, and for which she had been persecuted by
the fanatics of Scotland."
Hume seems to support this judgment of Dr. Madden when he says
that "the principles of James would have led him to earnestly
desire a unity of faith of the Churches which had been separated."
Both opinions, however, agree in the long-run, since Dr. Madden
is obliged to confess that "new measures of severity, as the
bigotry of the times became urgent, were wrung from the timid
king. He had neither moral nor political courage."
Still, on the day of his coronation, the Irish could little
imagine what was in store for them at the hands of the son of
Mary Stuart; hence their great rejoicing, till the first stroke
of bitter disappointment came to open their eyes, and awaken
them to the hard reality. This was the flight of Tyrone and
Tyrconnell, which had been brought about by treachery and low
cunning. These chieftains were, as they deserved to be, the
idols of the nation. They were compelled to fly because, as Dr.
Anderson, a Protestant minister, says, "artful Cecil had
employed one St. Lawrence to entrap the Earls of Tyrone and
Tyrconnell, the Lord of Devlin, and other Irish chiefs, into a
sham plot which had no evidence but his."
The real cause of their flight was that adventurers and
"undertakers" desired to "plant" Ulster, though the final treaty
with Mountjoy had left both earls in possession of their lands.
That treaty yielded not an acre of plunder, and was consequently
in English eyes a failure. The long, bloody, and promising wars
of Elizabeth's reign had ended, after all, in forcing coronets on
the brows of O'Neill and O'Donnell, with a royal deed added, securing
to them their lands, and freedom of worship to all the north.
James was met by the importunate demand for land. O'Neill,
O'Donnell, and several other Irish chieftains, were sacrificed
to meet this demand; they were compelled to fly; and they had
scarcely gone when millions of acres in Ulster were declared to
be forfeited to the crown, and thrown open for "planting."
And here a new feature in confiscation presents itself, which
was introduced by the first of the Stuart dynasty, and proved
far more galling to Irishmen than any thing they had yet
encountered in this shape.
In the invasion led by Strongbow, in the absorption of the
Kildare estates by Henry VIII., in the annexation of King's and
Queen's Counties under Philip and Mary, even in the last
"plantation" of Munster by Elizabeth's myrmidons at the end of
the Desmond war, the land had been immediately distributed among
the chief officers of the victorious armies. The conquered knew
that such would be the law of war; the great generals and
courtiers who came into possession scarcely disturbed the
tenants. A few of the great native and Anglo-Irish families
suffered sorely from the spoliation; the people at large
scarcely felt it, except by the destruction of clanship and the
introduction of feudal grievances. Moreover, the new proprietors
were interested in making their tenants happy, and not
unfrequently identified themselves with the people--becoming in
course of time true Irishmen.
But, with the accession of the first of the Stuarts to the
English throne, a great alteration took place in the disposal of
the land throughout Ireland.
The Tyrone war had ended five years before, and those who had
taken part in the conflict had already received their portion;
the vanquished, of misfortune--the conquerors, of gain. James
brought in with him from Scotland a host of greedy followers;
and all, from first to last, expected to rise with their king
into wealth and honor. England was not wide enough to hold them,
nor rich enough to satiate their appetites. The puzzled but
crafty king saw a way out of his difficulties in Ireland. He no
longer limited the distribution of land in that country to
soldiers and officers of rank chiefly. He gave it to Scotch
adventurers, to London trades companies. He settled it on
Protestant colonies whose first use of their power was to evict
the former tenants or clansmen, and thus effect a complete
change in the social aspect of the north.
Well did they accomplish the task assigned them. Ulster became a
Protestant colony, and the soil of that province has ever since
remained in the hands of a people alien to the country.
Yet the Ulstermen had been led to believe that James purposed
securing them in their possessions; for, according to Mr.
Prendergast, in his Introduction to the "Cromwellian settlement:"
"On the 17th of July, 1607, Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy,
accompanied by Sir John Davies and other commissioners,
proceeded to Ulster, with powers to inquire what land each man
held. There appeared before them, in each county they visited,
the chief lords and Irish gentlemen, the heads of creaghts, and
the common people, the Brehons and Shanachies, who knew all the
septs and families, and took upon themselves to tell what
quantity of land every man ought to have. They thus ascertained
and booked their several lands, and the Lord-Deputy promised
them estates in them. 'He thus,' says Sir John Davies, 'made it
a year of jubilee to the poor inhabitants, because every man was
to return to his own house, and be restored to his ancient
possessions, and they all went home rejoicing.'
"Notwithstanding these promises, the king, in the following year,
issued his scheme for the plantation of Ulster, urged to it, it
would seem, by Sir Arthur Chichester, who so largely profited by
it. . . . It could not be said that the flight of the earls gave
occasion for this change, inasmuch as the king, immediately
after, issued a proclamation--which he renewed on taking
possession of both earls' territories--assuring the inhabitants
that they should be protected and preserved in their estates."
It looks, indeed, as though the whole transaction, including the
promises and the call for ascertaining the quantity of land
occupied by each inhabitant, as also the sham plot into which
the earls were inveigled, was but a cunning device to bring
about the plantation, in which manors of one thousand, fifteen
hundred, and three thousand acres, were offered to such English
and Scotch as should undertake to plant their lots with British
Protestants, and engage that no Irish should dwell upon them.
Meanwhile, all who had been in arms during Tyrone's war were to
be transplanted with their families, cattle, and followers, to
waste places in Munster and Connaught, and there set down at a
distance from one another.
Over and above this, the Irish were indebted to James for a new
project--a most ingenious invention for successful plunder. He
was the real author of the celebrated "Commission for the
investigation of defective titles."
It would seem that the province of Ulster was too small for the
rapacity of those who were constantly urging upon the king a
greater thoroughness in his plans. It was clear, moreover, that
the English occupation of the other three provinces had hitherto
proved a failure. The island had failed to become Anglicised,
and it was necessary to begin the work anew.
The new commission was presented to the Irish people in a most
alluring guise. That political hypocrisy, which to-day stands
for statesmanship, is not a growth of our own times. The
intention of James confined itself to putting an end to all
uncertainty on the subject of titles, and bestowing on each land-
owner one which, for the future, should be unimpeachable. But
the result went beyond his intention. This measure became, in
fact, an engine of universal spoliation. It failed to secure
even those who succeeded in retaining a portion of their former
estates in possession, as Strafford made manifest, who, despite
all the unimpeachable titles conferred by James, managed to
confiscate to his own profit the greater part of the province of
Connaught.
It is fitting to give a few details of this new measure of James,
in order to show the gratitude which the Irish owed the Stuarts,
if on that account only. In "Ireland under English Rule," the
Rev. A. Perraud justly remarks: "Most Irish families held
possession of their lands but by tradition, and their rights
could not be proved by regular title-deeds. By royal command, a
general inquiry was instituted, and whoever could not prove his
right to the seat of his ancestors, by authentic documents, was
mercilessly but juridically despoiled of it; the pen of the lawyer
thus making as many conquests as the blade of the mercenary."
The advisers of James--those who aided him in this scheme --were
fully alive to its efficiency in serving their ends. A few years
previously, Arthur Chichester and Sir John Davies had only to
consult the Brehon lawyers and the chroniclers of the tribes,
whose duty it was to become thoroughly acquainted with the
limits of the various territories, and keep the records in their
memory, in order to procure from the Ulster men the proofs of
their rights to property. Up to that time the word of those who
were authorized, by custom, to pronounce on such subjects, was
law to every Irishman. And, indeed, the verdict of these was all-
sufficient, inasmuch as the task was not overtaxing to the
memory of even an ordinary man, since it consisted in
remembering, not the landed property of each individual, but the
limits of the territory of each clan.
The clan territories were as precisely marked off as in any
European state to-day; and, if any change in frontier occurred,
it was the result of war between the neighboring clans, and
therefore known to all. To suppose, then, under such a state of
land tenure, that the territory of the Maguire clan, for
instance, belonged exclusively to Maguire, and that he could
prove his title to the property by legal documents, was
erroneous--in fact, such a thing was impossible. Yet, such was
the ground on which the king based his establishment of the
odious commission.
The measure meant nothing less than the simple spoliation of all
those who came under its provisions at the time. Matthew
O'Connor has furnished some instances of its workings, which may
bring into stronger light the enormity of such an attempt.
"The immense possessions of Bryan na Murtha O'Rourke had been
granted to his son Teige, by patent; in the first year of the
king's reign, and to the heirs male of his body. Teige died,
leaving several sons; their titles were clear; no plots or
conspiracies could be urged to invalidate them. By the medium of
those inquisitions, they were found, one and all, to be bastards.
The eldest son, Bryan O'Rourke, vas put off with a miserable
pension, and detained in England lest he should claim his
inheritance. Yet, in this case, the title was actually in existence.
"In the county of Longford, three-fourths of nine hundred and
ninety-nine cartrons, the property of the O'Farrells, were
granted to adventurers, to the undoing and beggary of that
princely family. Twenty-five of the septs were dispossessed of
their all, and to the other septs were assigned mountainous and
barren tracts about one-fourth of their former possessions.
"The O'Byrnes, of Wicklow, were robbed of their property by a
conspiracy unparalleled even in the annals of those times;
fabricated charges of treason, perjury, and even legal murder,
were employed; and, though the innocence of those victims of
rapacious oppression was established, yet they were never restored."
With regard to the Anglo-Irish, and even such of the natives as
had consented to accept titles from the English kings, those
titles, some of which went back as far as Strongbow's invasion,
were brought under the "inquiry" of the new commission--with
what result may be imagined. An astute legist can discover flaws
in the best-drawn legal papers. In the eye of the law, the
neglect of recording is fatal; and it was proved that many
proprietors, whose titles had been bestowed by Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth, were not recorded, simply by bribing the clerks who
were charged with the office of recording them.
This portion of our subject must present strange features to
readers acquainted with the laws concerning property which
obtain among civilized nations. In making the necessary studies
for this most imperfect sketch, the writer has been surprised at
finding that not one of the authors whom he has consulted has
spoken of any thing beyond the cruelty of compelling Irish
landowners to exhibit title-deeds, which it was known they did
not and could not possess. Not a single one has ever said a word
of "prescription;" yet, this alone was enough to arrest the
proceedings of any English court, if it followed the rules of
law which govern civilized communities.
Most of the estates, then declared to be escheated to the king,
had been in possession of the families to which the holders
belonged, for centuries; we may go so far, in the case of some
Irish families and tribes, as to say for thousands of years. But,
to disturb property which has been held for even less than a
century, would convulse any nation subjected to such a revolutionary
process. No country in the world could stand such a test; it would
loosen in a day all the bonds that hold society together.
If the commission set on foot by James did not go to the extreme
lengths to which it was carried by those who came after him, he
it was who established what bore the semblance of a legal
precedent for the excesses of Strafford, under Charles I., which
reached their utmost limits in the hands of Cromwell's
parliamentary commissioners. James set the engine of destruction
in action: they worked it to its end. The Irish might justly lay
at his door all the woes which ensued to them from the
principles emanating from him. Even during his reign they saw,
with instinctive horror, the abyss which he had opened up to
swallow all their inheritance. The first commission of James
commenced its operations by reporting three hundred and eighty-
five thousand acres in Leinster alone as "discovered," inasmuch
as the titles "were not such as ought " (in their judgment) "to
stand in the way of his-Majesty's designs."
Hence, long before the death of James, all the hopes which his
accession had raised in the minds of the Irish had vanished; yet,
strange to say, they were not cured of their love for the
Stuart dynasty. They hailed the coming of Charles, the husband
of a Catholic princess, with joy. His marriage took place a year
previous to the death of his father; and, to know that Henrietta
of France was to be their queen, was enough to assure the Irish
that, henceforth, they would enjoy the freedom of their religion.
The same motive always awakes in them hope and joy. Men may
smile at such an idea, but it is with a profound respect for the
Irish character that such a sentence is written. Hope of
religious freedom is the noblest sentiment which can move the
breast of man; and if there be reason for admiration in the
motive which urges men to fight and die for their firesides and
families, how much more so in that which causes them to set
above all their altars and their God!
This time their hope seemed well-founded; for the treaty
concluded between England and France conferred the right on the
Catholic princess of educating her children by this marriage
till the age of thirteen. And, in addition, conditions favorable
to the English Catholics were inserted in the same treaty.
But people were not then aware of the reason for the insertion
of those conditions. Hume, later on, being better acquainted
with what at the time was a secret, states in his history that
"the court of England always pretended, even in the memorials to
the French court, that all the conditions favorable to the
English Catholics were inserted in the marriage treaty merely to
please the Pope, and that their strict execution was, by an
agreement with France, secretly dispensed with."
The Irish rejoiced, however; and Charles and his ministers
encouraged their expectations. Lord Falkland, in the name of the
king, promised that, if the Catholic lords should present
Charles, who needed money, with a voluntary tribute, he would in
return grant them certain immunities and protections, which
acquired later on a great celebrity under the name of "graces."
The chief of these were--to allow "recusants" to practise in the
courts of law, and to sue out the livery of their land, merely
on taking an act of civil allegiance instead of the oath of
supremacy; that the claims of the crown should be limited to the
last sixty years--a period long enough in all conscience; and
that the inhabitants of Connaught should be allowed to make a
new enrolment of their estates, to be accepted by the king. A
Parliament was promised to sit in a short time, in order to
confirm all these "graces."
The subsidy promised by the Irish lords amounted to the then
enormous sum of forty thousand pounds sterling, to be paid
annually for three years. Two-thirds of it was paid, according
to Matthew O'Connor, but no one of the "graces" was forthcoming,
the king finding he had promised more than he could perform.
Instead of enabling the land-owners of Connaught to obtain a new
title by a new enrolment, Strafford, with the connivance of
Charles, devised a project which would have enabled the king to
dispose of the whole province to the enriching of his exchequer.
This project consisted in throwing open the whole territory to
the court of "defective titles." To legalize this spoliation,
the parchment grant, five hundred years old, given to Roderic
O'Connor and Richard de Burgo, by Henry II., was set up as
rendering invalid the claims of immemorial possession by the
Irish, although confirmed by recent compositions.
In the counties of Roscommon, Mayo, and Sligo, juries were found
for the crown. The honesty and courageous resistance of a Galway
jury prevented the carrying out of the measure in that county.
Strafford resented this rebuff deeply; and the brave Galway
jurors were punished without mercy for their "contumacy," for
they had been told openly to find for the king. Compelled to
appear in the Castle chamber, they were each fined four thousand
pounds, their estates seized, and themselves imprisoned until
their fines should be paid; while the sheriff, who was also
fined to the same amount, not being able to pay, died in prison.
Such were a few of the "graces" granted the Irish on the
accession of Charles I.
Meanwhile, the king's difficulties with his English subjects
drove him to turn for hope to the Scotch, upon whom he had
attempted to force Episcopalianism. The resistance of the Scotch,
and the celebrated Covenant by which they bound themselves, are
well known. Charles, finally, granted the Covenanters not only
liberty of conscience, but even the religious supremacy of
Presbyterianism, paying their army, moreover, for a portion of
the time it passed under service in the rebellion against
himself.
The example of the Scotch was certainly calculated to inflame
the Irish with ardor, and drive them likewise into rebellion.
What was the oppression of Scotland compared to that under which
Ireland had so long groaned? Surely the final attempt of the
chief minister of Charles to rob them of the one province which
had hitherto escaped, was enough to open their eyes, and convert
their faith in the Stuart dynasty into hatred and determined
opposition. Yet were they on the eve of carrying their devotion
to this faithless and worthless line to the height of heroism.
The generosity of the nature which is in them could find an
excuse for Charles. "He would have done us right," they thought,
"had he been left free." From the rebellion of his subjects, in
England and Scotland, they could only draw one conclusion--that
he was the victim of Puritanism, for which they could entertain
no feeling but one of horror; and it is a telling fact that
their attachment to their religion kept them faithful to the
sovereign to whom they had sworn their allegiance, however
unworthy he might be.
Thus in the famous rising of 1641, when in one night Ireland,
with the exception of a few cities, freed herself from the
oppressor (the failure of the plan in Dublin being the only
thing which prevented a complete success; the English of the
Pale still refusing to combine with the Irish), the native Irish
alone, left to their own resources, proclaimed emphatically in
explicit terms their loyalty to the king, whom they credited
with a just and tolerant disposition, if freed from the
restraints imposed upon him by the Puritanical faction. A
further fact stranger still, and still more calculated to shake
their confidence in the monarch, occurred shortly after, which
indeed raises the loyalty of the nation to a height
inconceivable and impossible to any people, unless one whose
conscience is swayed by the sense of stern duty.
When the Scottish Covenanters, whose rebellion had secured them
in possession of all they demanded, heard of the Irish movement,
they were at once seized with a fanatical zeal urging them to
stamp out the Irish "Popish rebellion." King Charles, who was
then in Edinburgh, expressed his gratification at their proposal,
and no time was lost in shipping a force of two thousand Scots
across the Channel. They landed at Antrim, when they began those
frightful massacres which opened by driving into the sea three
thousand Irish inhabitants of the island Magee.
When, according to M. O'Connor's "Irish Catholics," "letters
conveying the news of the intended invasion of the Scots were
intercepted; when the speeches of leading members in the English
Commons, the declaration of the Irish Lord-Justices, and of the
principal members of the Dublin Council, countenanced those
rumors; when Mr. Pym gave out that he would not leave a Papist
in Ireland; when Sir Parsons declared that within a twelvemonth
not a Catholic should be seen in the whole country; when Sir
John Clotworthy affirmed that the conversion of the Papists was
to be effected with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the
other," and the King all the while seemed to allow and consent
to it, the Irish were not in the least dismayed by those rumors,
but set about establishing in the convulsed island a sort of
order in the name of God and the king!
Then for the first time did native and Anglo-Irish Catholics
take common side in a common cause. This was the union which
Archbishop Browne had foreseen, which had shown itself in
symptoms from time to time, but which had oftener been broken by
the old animosity. But, at last, convinced that the only party
on which they could rely, and the party which truly supported
the reigning dynasty, was that of the Ulster chiefs, the
Catholic lords of the Pale threw themselves heart and soul into
it, and, under the guidance of the Catholic bishops who then
came forward, together they formed the celebrated "Confederation
of Kilkenny" in 1642.
Had Charles even then possessed the courage, honesty, or wisdom
to recognize and acknowledge his true friends, he might have
been spared the fate which overtook him; but all he did was
almost to break up the only coalition which stood up boldly in
his favor.
A circumstance not yet touched upon meets us here. Protestantism
was at this time effecting a complete change in the rules of
judgment and conduct which men had hitherto followed. In place
of the old principles of political morality which up to this
period had regulated the actions of Christians, notions of
independence, of subversion of existing governments, of
revolutions in Church and state, were for the first time in
Christian history scattered broadcast through the world, and
beginning that series of catastrophes which has made European
history since, and which is far from being exhausted yet. The
Irish stood firm by the old principles, and, though they became
victims to their fidelity, they never shrank from the
consequences of what they knew to be their duty, and to those
principles they remain faithful to-day.
To return from this short digression: The Irish hierarchy, the
native Irish and the Anglo-Irish lords of the Pale, had combined
together to form the "Confederation of Kilkenny," in which
confederation lay the germ of a truly great nation. Early in the
struggle the Catholic hierarchy saw that it was for them to take
the initiative in the movement, and they took it in right
earnest. They could not be impassive spectators when the
question at issue was the defence of the Catholic religion,
joined this time with the rights of their monarch. They met in
provincial synod at Kells, where, after mature deliberation, the
cause of the confederates, "God and the king," freedom of
worship and loyalty to the legitimate sovereign, was declared
just and holy, and, after lifting a warning voice against the
barbarities which had commenced on both sides, and ordaining the
abolition and oblivion of all distinctions between native Irish
and old English, they took measures for convoking a national
synod at Kilkenny.
It met on the 10th of May, 1643. An oath of association bound
all Catholics throughout the land. It was ordained that a
general assembly comprising all the lords spiritual and temporal
and the gentry should be held; that the assembly should select
members from its body to represent the different provinces and
principal cities, to be called the Supreme Council, which should
sit from day to day, dispense justice, appoint to offices, and
carry on the executive government of the country.
Meanwhile the Irish abroad, the exiles, had heard of the
movement, and several prominent chieftains came back to take
part in the struggle; while those who remained away helped the
cause by gaining the aid of the Catholic sovereigns, and sending
home all the funds and munitions of war they could procure.
Among these, one of the most conspicuous was the learned Luke
Wadding, then at Rome engaged in writing his celebrated works,
who dispatched money and arms contributed by the Holy Father.
John B. Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo, sent by the Pope as
Nuncio, sailed in the same ship which conveyed those
contributions to Ireland.
The Catholic prelates thus originated a free government with
nothing revolutionary in its character, but combining some of
the forms of the old Irish Feis with the chief features of
modern Parliamentary governments. Matthew O'Connor makes the
following just observations on this subject in his "Irish
Catholics:"
"The duty of obedience to civil government was so deeply
impressed on the Catholic mind, at this period, in Ireland, that
it degenerated into passive submission. These impressions
originated in religious zeal, and were fostered by persecution.
The spiritual authority of the clergy was found requisite to
soften those notions, and temper them with ideas of the
constitutional, social, and Christian right of resistance in
self-defence. The nobility and gentry fully concurred in those
proceedings of the clergy, and the nation afterward ratified
them in a general convention held at Kilkenny, in the subsequent
month of October. The national union seemed to be at last
cemented by the wishes of all orders, and the interests of all
parties."
The fact is, the nation had been brought to life, and took its
stand on a new footing. When the general assembly met, in
October, eleven bishops and fourteen lay lords formed what may
be called the Irish peerage; two hundred and twenty-six
commoners represented the large majority of the Irish
constituencies; a great lawyer of the day, Patrick Darcy, was
elected chancellor; and a Supreme Council of six members from
each province constituted what may be called the Executive.
This government, which really ruled Ireland without any
interference until Ormond succeeded in breaking it up, was
obeyed and acknowledged throughout the land. It undertook and
carried out all the functions of its high office, such as the
coining of money, appointing circuit-judges, sending ambassadors
abroad, and commissioning officers to direct the operations of
the national army. Among these latter, one name is sufficient to
vouch for their efficiency: that of Owen Roe O'Neill, who had
returned, with many others, from the Continent, in the July of
that year, and formally, assumed the command of the army of
Ulster.
Owen Roe O'Neill was grand-nephew to Hugh of Tyrone. Unknown,
even now, to Europe, his name still lives in the memory of his
countrymen. "The head of the Hy-Niall race, the descendant of a
hundred kings, the inheritor of their virtues, without a taint
of their vices, he would have deserved a crown, and, on a larger
theatre, would have acquired the title of a hero."--(M. O'Connor.)
Had Charles recognized this government, which proclaimed him
king, discharged from office the traitors, Borlase and Parsons,
who plotted against him, and not surrendered his authority to
Ormond, Ireland would probably have been saved from the horrors
impending, and Charles himself from the scaffold. Whatever the
issue might have been, the fact remains that the Irish then
proved they could establish a solid government of their own, and
that it is an altogether erroneous idea to imagine them
incapable of governing themselves.
It is impossible to enter here upon the details of the intricate
complications which ensued--complications which were chiefly
owing to the plots of Ormond; but, it may be stated fearlessly
that, the more the history of those times is studied, the more
certainly is the "national" party, with the Nuncio Rinuccini for
head and director, recognized as the one which, better than any
other, could have saved Ireland. At least, no true Irishman will
now pretend that the "peace party," headed by Ormond, which was
pitted against the "Nuncionists," could bring good to the
country; on the contrary, its subsequent misfortunes are to be
ascribed directly to it.
To stigmatize it as it deserves, needs no more than to say that
among its chief leaders were Ormond, its head and projector, and
Murrough O'Brien, of Inchiquin, to this day justly known as
Murrough of the burnings. These two men were the product of the
"refined policy" of England to kill Catholicism in the higher
classes by the operation of one of the laws that governed the
oppressed nation--wardship.
Both Inchiquin and Ormond were born of Catholic fathers, and all
their relations, during their lives, remained Catholics. But,
their fathers dying during the minority of both, the law took
their education out of the hands of the nearest kin, to give it
to English Protestant wardens, in the name of the king, who was
supposed by the law to be their legitimate guardian. This was
one of the fruits of feudalism. They were duly brought up by
these wardens in the Protestant religion, and received a
Protestant education. They grew up, fully impressed with the
idea that the country which gave them birth was a barbarous
country; the parents to whom they owed their lives were
idolaters; and their fellow-countrymen a set of villains, only
fitted to become, and forever remain, paupers and slaves.
There is no exaggeration in these expressions, as anybody must
concede who has studied the opinions and prejudices entertained
by the English with regard to the Irish, from that period down
almost to our own days. At any rate, to one acquainted with the
workings of the "Court of Wards," there is nothing surprising in
the fact that Ormond, the descendant of so many illustrious men
of the great Butler family--a family at all times so attached to
the Catholic faith, and which afterward furnished so many
victims to the transplantation schemes of Cromwell--should
himself become an inveterate enemy to the religion of his own
parents, and to those who professed it; and that he should
employ the great gifts which God had granted him, solely to
scheme against this religion, and prevent his native countrymen
from receiving even the scanty advantages which Charles at one
time was willing to concede to them, through Lord Glanmorgan.
It was Ormond who prevented the execution of the treaty between
that lord and the confederates, the provisions of which were--
1. The Catholics of Ireland were to enjoy the free and public
exercise of their religion.
2. They were to hold, and have secure for their use, all the
Catholic churches not then in actual possession of Protestants.
3. They were to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the
Protestant clergy.
But, thanks to his education, such provisions were too much for
Ormond, the son of a Catholic father, and whose mother, at the
very time living a pious and excellent life, would have rejoiced
to see those advantages secured to her Church and herself, in
common with the rest of her countrymen and women.
In like manner, Murrough O'Brien, the Baron of Inchiquin, the
descendant of so many Catholic kings and saints, whose name was
a glory in itself, and so closely linked to the Catholic glories
of the island, was converted, by the education which he had
received, into a most cruel oppressor of the Church of his
baptism. His expeditions, through the same country which his
ancestors had ruled, were characterized by all the barbarities
practised at the time by Munro, Coote, and all the parliamentary
leaders of the Scotch Puritans, and would have fitted him as a
worthy compeer of Cromwell and Ireton, who were soon to follow.
The name of Cashel and its cathedral, where he murdered so many
priests, women, and children, around the altar adorned by the
great and good Cormac McCullinan, would alone suffice to hand
his name down to the execration of posterity.
Ormond and Murrough being the two chiefs of the "peace party,"
what wonder that the prelates, who had so earnestly labored at
the formation of the Kilkenny Confederation, and the Nuncio at
their head, refused to have aught to do with projects in which
such men were concerned, when it is borne in mind also that
several provisions of that "peace treaty" were directly opposed
to the oath taken by the Confederates? But, unfortunately,
Ormond was a skilful diplomat, had been dispatched by the king,
and was supposed to be carrying out the ideas suggested to him
by the unhappy monarch. His representations, therefore, could
not fail to carry weight, principally with the Anglo-Irish lords
of the Pale, many of whom, influenced by his courtly manners and
address, declared openly for the proposed peace.
Thus did the peace sow the germs of division and even war among
the Irish. The unity among the Catholics, so full of promise,
was soon broken up; and those who had met each other in such a
brotherly spirit in the day when the native chiefs and Anglo-
Irish lords assembled together at Tara, who swore then that the
division of centuries should exist no longer, began to look upon
each other again as enemies. Without going at length into the
vicissitudes of those various contentions, it is enough to say
that in the end war broke out between those who had so recently
taken the oath of confederation together. Owen Roe O'Neill, the
victor of Benburb, and the only man who could direct the Irish
armies, was attacked by Preston and other lords of the Pale, and
died, as some historians allege, of poison administered to him
by one of them.
This was the result of the intrigues of Ormond; nevertheless,
Charles continued to place confidence in him, and though he had
been twice obliged to resign his lieutenancy, and once to fly
the country, the infatuated sovereign sent him back once more.
If was only at the end of the struggle, when the ill-fated king
was at length in the hands of his enemies, that Ormond could be
brought to consent to conditions acceptable to the national
party. But then it was too late; the parliamentary forces had
carried every thing before them in England; England was already
republican to the core; and the armies which had been employed
against the Cavaliers, once the efforts of the latter had ceased
with the death of the king, were at liberty to leave the country,
now submissive to parliamentary rule, and cross over to Ireland,
with Cromwell at their head, to crush out the nation almost,
and concentrate on that fated soil, within the short space of
nine months, all the horrors of past centuries.
By the death of Owen Roe O'Neill just at that time, Ireland was
left without a leader fit to cope with the great republican
general. The country had already been devastated by Coote, Munro,
St. Leger, and other Scotch and English Puritans; but the
massacres which, until the coming of Cromwell, had been, at
least, only local and checked by the troops of Owen Roe, soon
extended throughout the island, unarrested by any forces in the
field. The Cromwellian soldiers, not content with the character
of warriors, came as "avengers of the Lord," to destroy an
"idolatrous people."
That their real design was to exterminate the nation, and use
the opportunity which then presented itself for that purpose,
there can by no doubt. It was only after a fair trial that the
project was found to be impossible, and that other expedients
were devised. Coote had previously acted with this design in
view, as is now an ascertained fact, and had been encouraged in
the course he pursued by the Dublin government. 1 (1 See Matthew
O'Connor's "Irish Catholics.") The same might be shown of St.
Leger, in Munster, toward the beginning of the insurrection. At
all events, all doubt in the matter, if any existed, ceased with
the landing of Cromwell in 1649, when the real object of the war
at once showed itself everywhere.
The result of this man's policy has been painted by Villemain,
in his "Histoire de Cromwell," in a sentence: "Ireland became a
desert which the few remaining inhabitants described by the
mournful saying, 'There was not water enough to drown a man, not
wood enough to hang him, not earth enough to bury him.'"
The French writer attributes to the whole island what was said
of only a part of it. To this day, the name of Cromwell is
justly execrated in Ireland, and "the curse of Cromwell " is one
of the bitterest which can be invoked upon a person's head. But,
at present, the fidelity of the Irish to the Stuarts concerns us,
and a few reflections will put it in a strong but true light
before us.
Ever since the restoration of Charles II., many Englishmen have
professed great reverence for the memory of the "martyr-king."
Even the subsequent Revolution of 1658 left the monument erected
to him untouched. Many British families continued steady in
their devotion to the Scotch line, and the name of Jacobite was
for them a title of honor. Yet what were their sufferings for
the cause of the king during his struggle with the Parliament,
and after his execution? A few noblemen lost their lives and
estates; some went into exile and followed the fortunes of the
Pretenders who tried to gain possession of the throne. But the
bulk of the nation--England--may be said to have suffered
nothing by the great revolution which led to the Commonwealth.
On the contrary, it is acknowledged that the administration of
Cromwell at least brought peace to the country, and raised the
power of Great Britain to a higher eminence in Europe than it
had ever known before. As usual, the English made great
profession of loyalty, but, as a rule, were particularly careful
that no great inconvenience should come to them from it.
Treated with contempt and distrust by Charles and his advisers,
so insulted in every thing that was dear to her that it is still
a question for historians if, in many instances, the king and
the royalists did not betray her, Ireland alone, after having
taken her stand for a whole decade of years for God and the king,
resolved to face destruction unflinchingly in support of what
she imagined to be a noble cause.
After the landing of Cromwell, when to any sensible man there no
longer remained hope of serving the cause of the king, when the
desire which is natural to every human heart, of saving what can
be saved, might, not only without dishonor, but with justice and
right, have dictated the necessity of coming to terms with the
parliamentarians, and of abandoning a cause which was hopeless,
"on the 4th of December, 1649, Eber McMahon, Bishop of Clogher,
a mere Irishman by name, by descent, by enthusiastic attachment
to his country, exerted his great abilities to rouse his
countrymen to a persevering resistance to Cromwell, and to unite
all hearts and hands in the support of Ormond's administration. .
. . All the bishops concurred in his views, and subscribed a
solemn declaration that they would, to the utmost of their power,
forward his Majesty's rights, and the good of the nation. . . .
Ormond, at last, either sensible that no reliance could be
placed on them, or that the treachery of Inchiquin's troops was,
at least, on the part of the Irish, a fair ground of distrust
and suspicion of the remainder, consented to their removal."--
("Irish Catholics.")
"At last!" will be the reader's exclamation, while he wonders if
another people could be found forbearing enough to wait eight
years for the adoption of such a necessary measure.
And the only reward for their fidelity to King Charles I. could
under the circumstances be destruction. They waited with
resignation for the impending gloom to overshadow them. Terrible
moment for a nation, when despair itself fails to nerve it for
further resistance and possible success! Such was the position
of the Irish at the death of Charles.
Who shall describe that loyalty? After Ormond had met with the
defeat he deserved in the field; after the cities had fallen one
after another into the hands of the destroyer, who seldom
thought himself bound to observe the conditions of surrender;
after the chiefs, who might have protracted the struggle, had
disappeared either by death or exile, the doom of the nation was
sealed; yet it shrank not from the consequences.
The barbarities of Cromwell and his soldiers had depopulated
large tracts of territory to such an extent that the troops
marching through them were compelled to carry provisions as
through a desert. The cattle, the only resource of an
agricultural country, had been all consumed in a ten years' war.
It was reported that, after every successful engagement, the
republican general ordered all the men from the age of sixteen
to sixty to be slaughtered without mercy, all the boys from six
to sixteen to be deprived of sight, and the women to have a red-
hot iron thrust through their breasts. Rumors such as these,
exaggerated though they may be, testify at least to the terror
which Cromwell inspired. As for the captured cities, there can
be no doubt of the wholesale massacres carried out therein by
his orders. Of the entire population of Tredagh only thirty
persons survived, and they were condemned to the labor of slaves.
Hugh Peters, the chaplain of Fairfax, wrote after this
barbarous execution: "We are masters of Tredagh; no enemy was
spared; I just come from the church where I had gone to thank
the Lord."
The same fate awaited Wexford, and, later on, Drogheda. Cromwell,
when narrating those bloody massacres, concluded by saying,
"People blame me, but it was the will of God."
The Bible, the holy word of God, misread and misunderstood by
those fanatics, persuaded them that it would be a crime not to
exterminate the Irish, as the Lord punished Saul for having
spared Agag and the chief of the Amalekites. Whoever wishes for
further details of these sickening atrocities, committed in the
name of God, may find them in a multitude of histories of the
time, but chiefly in the "Threnodia" of Friar Morrison.
Certain modern Irish historians would seem not to understand the
heroism of their own countrymen. "Bitterly," says A. M.
O'Sullivan, "did the Irish people pay for their loyalty to an
English sovereign. Unhappily for their worldly fortunes, if not
for their fame, they were high-spirited and unfearing, where
pusillanimity would certainly have been safety, and might have
been only prudence."
But the verdict of posterity, always a just one, calls such a
high-spirited and unfearing attitude true heroism, and spurns
pusillanimity even when it insures safety and may be called
prudence, if its result is the surrender of holy faith and
Christian truth. Safety and prudence characterized the conduct
of the English nation under the iron rule of Cromwell, as under
the tyranny of the Tudors. Can the reader of history admire the
nation on that account? Who shall affirm that the result of the
craven spirit of the English was the prosperity which ensued,
and that of Irish heroism destruction and gloom? The history of
either nation is far from ended yet; and bold would be the man
who dare assert that the prosperity of England is everlasting,
and the humiliation of Ireland never to know an end.
However that may be, this at least is undeniable: the opinion
current of the Irish character is demonstrated to be altogether
an erroneous one by the incontrovertible facts cursorily
narrated above. Determination of purpose, adherence to
conscience and principle, consistency of conduct, are terms all
too weak to convey an idea of the magnanimity displayed by the
people, and of their heroic bearing throughout those stirring
events.
At last, after a bloody struggle with Cromwell and Ireton, on
May 12, 1652, "the Leinster army of the Irish surrendered at
Kilkenny on terms which were successively adopted by the other
principal bodies of troops, between that time and the September
following, when the Ulster forces came to composition." Then
began the real woes of Ireland. Never was the ingenuity of man
so taxed to destroy a whole nation as in the measures adopted by
the Protector for that purpose. It is necessary to present a
brief sketch of them, since all that the Irish suffered was
designed to punish them for their attachment to their religion,
and, be it borne in mind, their devotion to the lawful dynasty
of the Stuarts.
First, then, to render easy of execution the stern and cruel
resolve of the new government, the defenders of the nation were
not only to be disarmed, but put out of the way. Hence Cromwell
was gracious enough to consent that they be permitted to leave
the country and take service in the armies of the foreign powers
then at peace with the Commonwealth. Forty thousand men,
officers and soldiers, adopted this desperate resolution.
"Soon agents from the King of Spain, the King of Poland, and the
Prince de Conde, were contending for the service of the Irish
troops. Don Ricardo White, in May, 1672, shipped seven thousand
in batches from Waterford, Kinsale, Galway, Limerick, and Bantry,
for the King of Spain. Colonel Christopher Mayo got liberty in
September to beat his drums, to raise three thousand more for
the same destination. Lord Muskerry took with him five thousand
to the King of Poland. In July, 1654, three thousand five
hundred went to serve the Prince de Conde. Sir Walter Dungan and
others got liberty to beat their drums in different garrisons
for various destinations."--(Prendergast.)
To prove that the desperate resolution of leaving their country
did not originate with the Irish, notwithstanding what some have
written to the contrary, it is enough to remark that their
expatriation was made a necessary condition of their surrender
by the new government. For instance, Lord Clanrickard, according
to Matthew O'Connor, "deserted and surrounded, could obtain no
terms for the nation, nor indeed for himself and his troops,
except with the sad liberty of transportation to any other
country in amity with the Commonwealth."
To prove, if necessary, still further that the expatriation of
the Irish troops was part of a scheme already resolved upon, it
is enough to remember the indisputable fact that from the
surrender at Kilkenny in 1652, until the open announcement in
the September of 1653, that the Parliament had assigned
Connaught for the dwelling-place of the Irish nation, whither
they were to be "transplanted" before the 1st of May, 1654, the
various garrisons and small armies which had fought so gallantly
for Ireland and the Stuarts were successively urged (and urged
by Cromwell meant compelled) to leave the country; and it was
only when the last of the Irish regiments had departed that the
doom of the nation was boldly and clearly announced.
But these forced exiles were not restricted to the warrior class.
"The Lord Protector," says Prendergast, "applied to the Lord
Henry Cromwell, then major-general of the forces of Ireland, to
engage soldiers . . . . and to secure a thousand young Irish
girls to be shipped to Jamaica. Henry Cromwell answered that
there would be no difficulty, only that force must be used in
taking them; and he suggested the addition of fifteen hundred or
two thousand boys of from twelve to fourteen years of age. . . .
The numbers finally fixed were one thousand boys and one
thousand girls."
The total number of children disposed of in the same way, from
1652 to 1655, has been variously estimated at from twenty
thousand to one hundred thousand. The British Government at last
was compelled to interfere and put a stop to the infamous
traffic, when, the mere Irish proving too scarce, the agents
were not sufficiently discriminating in their choice, but
shipped off English children also to the Tobacco Islands.
At last the island was left utterly without defenders, and
sufficiently depopulated. It is calculated that, when the last
great measure was announced and put into execution, only half a
million of Irish people remained in the country, the rest of the
resident population being composed of the Scotch and English,
introduced by James I., and the soldiers and adventurers let in
by Cromwell.
The main features of the celebrated "act of settlement" are
known to all. It was an act intended to dispose quietly of half
a million human beings, destined certainly in the minds of its
projectors to disappear in due time, without any great violence--
to die off --and leave the whole island in the possession of
the "godly."
Connaught is famed as being the wildest and most barren province
of Ireland. At the best, it can support but a scanty population.
At this time it had been completely devastated by a ten years'
war and by the excesses of the parliamentary forces. This
province then was mercifully granted to the unhappy Irish race;
it was set apart as a paradise for the wretched remnant to dwell
in all Connaught, except a strip four miles wide along the sea,
and a like strip along the right bank of the Shannon. This
latter judicious provision was undoubtedly intended to prevent
them from dwelling by the ocean, whence they might derive
subsistence or assistance, or means of escape in the event of
their ever rising again; and, on the other hand, from crossing
the Shannon, on the east side of which their homes might still
be seen. This cordon of four miles' width was drawn all around
what was the Irish nation, and filled with the fiercest zealots
of the "army of the Lord" to keep guard over the devoted victims.
Surely the doom of the race was at last sealed!
But let all justice be done to the Protector. The act was to the
effect that, on the first day of May, 1654, all who, throughout
the war, had not displayed a constant good affection to the
Parliament of England in opposition to Charles I., were to be
removed with their families and servants to the wilds of a poor
and desolated province, where certain lands were to be given
them in return for their own estates. But, who of the Irish
could prove that they had displayed a "constant good affection"
to the English Parliament during a ten years' war? The act was
nothing less than a proscription of the whole nation. The
English of the Pale were included among the old natives, and
even a few Protestant royalists, who had taken of the cause of
the fallen Stuarts. The only exception made was in favor of
"husbandmen, ploughmen, laborers, artificers, and others of the
inferior sort." The English and Scotch--constituted by this act
of settlement lords and masters of the three richest provinces
of Ireland-- could not condescend to till the soil with their
own hands and attend to the mechanical arts required in civil
society. Those duties were reserved for the Irish poor. It was
hoped that, deprived of their nobility and clergy, they might be
turned to any account by their new masters, and either become
good Protestants or perish as slaves. Herein mentita est
iniquitas sibi.
The heart-rending details of this outrage on humanity may be
seen in Mr. Prendergast's "Cromwellian Settlement." There all
who read may form some idea of the extent of Ireland's
misfortunes.
It is a wonder which cannot fail to strike the reader, how,
after so many precautions had been taken, not only against the
further increase of the race, but for its speedy demolition, how,
reduced to a bare half million, penned off on a barren tract of
land, left utterly at the mercy of its persecutors, without
priests, without organization of any kind, it not only failed to
perish, but, from that time, has gone on, steadily increasing,
until to-day it spreads out wide and far, not only on the island
of its birth, but on the broad face of two vast continents.
In the space at our disposal, it is impossible to satisfy the
curiosity of the reader on this very curious and interesting
topic. A few remarks, however, may serve to broadly indicate the
chief causes of this astonishing fact, taken apart from the
miraculous intervention of God in their favor.
First, then, Connaught became more Irish than ever, and a
powerful instrument, later on, to assist in the resurrection of
the nation. In fact, as will soon be seen, it preserved life to
it. Again, the outcasts, who were allowed to remain in the other
three provinces as servants, or slaves, rather, were not found
manageable on the score of religion; and, although new acts of
Parliament forbade any bishop or priest to remain in the island,
many did remain, some of them coming back from the Continent,
whither they had been exported, to aid their unfortunate
countrymen in this their direst calamity.
As Matthew O'Connor rightly says : "The ardent zeal, the
fortitude and calm resignation of the Catholic clergy during
this direful persecution, might stand a comparison with the
constancy of Christians during the first ages of the Church. In
the season of prosperity they may have pushed their pretensions
too far"--this is M. O'Connor's private opinion of the
Confederation of Kilkenny-- "but, in the hour of trial, they
rose superior to human infirmities. . . . Sooner than abandon
their flocks altogether, they fled from the communion of men,
concealed themselves in woods and caverns, from whence they
issued, whenever the pursuit of their enemies abated, to preach
to the people, to comfort them in their afflictions, to
encourage them in their trials;. . . their haunts were objects
of indefatigable search; bloodhounds, the last device of human
cruelty, were employed for the purpose, and the same price was
set on the head of a priest as on that of a wolf."--(Irish
Catholics.)
But, the expectation that the Irish of the lower classes, bereft
of their pastors as well as of the guidance of their chieftains,
would fall a prey to proselytizing ministers, and lose at once
their nationality and their religion, was doomed to meet with
disappointment.
Perhaps the cause more effective than all others in preserving
the Irish nation from disappearing totally, came from a quarter
least expected, or rather the most improbable and wonderful.
No device seemed better calculated to succeed in Protestantizing
Ireland than the decree of Parliament which set forth that not
only the officers, but even the common soldiers of the
parliamentary army should be paid for their services, not in
money, but in land; and that the estates of the old owners
should be parcelled out and distributed among them in payment,
as well as among those who, in England, had furnished funds for
the prosecution of the war. Although many soldiers objected to
this mode of compensation, some selling for a trifle the land
allotted to them and returning to their own country, the great
majority was compelled to rest satisfied with the government
offer, and so resolved to settle down in Ireland and turn
farmers. But a serious difficulty met them: women could not be
induced to abandon their own country and go to dwell in the
sister isle, while the Irish girls, being all Catholics, a
decree of Parliament forbade the soldiers to marry them, unless
they first succeeded in converting them to Protestantism. After
many vain attempts, doubtless, the Cromwellian soldiers soon
found the impossibility of bringing the "refractory" daughters
of Erin to their way of thinking, and could find only one mode
of bridging over the difficulty--to marry them first, without
requiring then to apostatize; and secure their prize after by
swearing that their wives were the most excellent of Protestants.
Thus while perjury became an every-day occurrence, the
victorious army began to be itself vanquished by a powerful
enemy which it had scarcely calculated upon, and was utterly
unprepared to meet, and finally resting from its labors, enjoyed
the sweets of peace and the fat of the land.
But woman, once she feels her power, is exacting, and in course
of time the Cromwellian soldiers found that further sacrifices
still were required of them, which they had never counted upon.
Their wives could, by no persuasion, be induced to speak English,
so that, however it might go against the grain, the husbands
were compelled to learn Irish and speak it habitually as best
they might. Their difficulties began to multiply with their
children, when they found them learning Irish in the cradle,
irresistible in their Irish wit and humor, and lisping the
prayers and reverencing the faith they had learned at their
mothers' knees. So that, from that time to this, the posterity
of Cromwell's "Ironsides," of such of them at least as remained
in Ireland, have been devoted Catholics and ardent Irishmen.
The case was otherwise with the chief officers of the
parliamentary army, who had received large estates and could
easily obtain wives from England. They remained stanch
Protestants, and their children have continued in the religion
received with the estates which came to them from this wholesale
confiscation. But the bulk of the army, instead of helping to
form a Protestant middle class and a Protestant yeomanry, has
really helped to perpetuate the sway of the Catholic religion in
Ireland, and the feeling of nationality so marked to-day. This
very remarkable fact has been well established and very plainly
set forth, a few years ago, by eminent English reviewers.
Meanwhile, Ireland was a prey to all the evils which can afflict
a nation. Pestilence was added to the ravages of war and the
woes of transplantation, and it raged alike among the conquerors
and the conquered. Friar Morrisson's "Threnodia" reads to-day
like an exaggerated lament, the burden of which was drawn from a
vivid imagination. Yet can there be little doubt that it
scarcely presented the whole truth; an exact reproduction of all
the heart-rending scenes then daily enacted in the unfortunate
island would prove a tale as moving as ever harrowed the pitying
heart of a reader.
And all this suffering was the direct consequence of two things--
the attachment of the Irish to the Catholic religion, and their
devotion to the Stuart dynasty. Modern historians, in
considering all the circumstances, express themselves unable to
understand the constancy of this people's affection for a line
of kings from whom they had invariably experienced, not only
neglect, but positive opposition, if not treachery. In their
opinion, only the strangest obliquity of judgment can explain
such infatuation. Some call it stupidity; but the Irish people
have never been taxed with that. Even in the humblest ranks of
life among them, there exists, not only humor, but a keenness of
perception, and at times an extraordinary good sense, which is
quick to detect motives, and find out what is uppermost in the
minds of others.
There is but one reading of the riddle, consistent with the
whole character of the people: they clung to the Stuarts because
they were obedient to the precepts and duties of religion, and
labored under the belief, however mistaken, that from the
Stuarts alone could they hope for any thing like freedom. Their
spiritual rulers had insisted on the duty of sustaining at all
hazard the legitimate authority of the king, and they were
firmly convinced that they could expect from no other a
relaxation of the religious penal statutes imposed on them by
their enemies. The more frequent grew their disappointments in
the measures adopted by the sovereigns on whom they had set
their hopes, the more firmly were they convinced that their
intentions were good, but rendered futile by the men who
surrounded and coerced them.
Religion can alone explain this singular affection of the Irish
people for a race which, in reality, has caused the greatest of
their misfortunes.
The subsequent events of this strange history are in perfect
keeping with those preceding. A few words will suffice to sketch
them.
On the death of Oliver Cromwell, his son Richard, being unable
and indeed unwilling to remain at the head of the English state,
the nation, tired of the iron rule of the Protector, fearful
certainly of anarchy, and preferring the conservative measures
of monarchy to the ever-changing revolutions of a commonwealth,
recalled the son of Charles I. to the throne.
But a kind of bargain had been struck by him with those who
disposed of the crown; and he undertook and promised to disturb
as little as possible the vested interests created by the
revolution, that is to say, he pledged himself to let the
settlement of property remain as he found it. In England that
promise was productive of little mischief to the nation at large,
though fatal to the not very numerous families who had been
deprived of their estates by the Parliament. But, in Ireland, it
was a very different matter; for there the interests of the
whole nation were ousted to make room for these "vested
interests" of proprietors of scarcely ten years' standing.
The Irish nobility and gentry, at first unaware of the existence
of this bargain, were in joyful expectation that right would at
last be done them, as it was for loyalty to the father of the
new king that they had been robbed of all their possessions.
They were soon undeceived. To their surprise, they learned that
the speculators, army-officers, and soldiers already in
possession of their estates, were not to be disturbed, short as
the possession had been; and that only such lands as were yet
unappropriated should be returned to their rightful owners,
provided only they were not papists, or could prove that they
had been "innocent papists."
The consequences of this bargain are clear. The Irish of the old
native race who had been, as now appeared, so foolishly ardent
in their loyalty to the throne, were to be abandoned to the fate
to which Cromwell had consigned them, and could expect to
recover nothing of what they had so nobly lost. So flagrantly
unjust was the whole proceeding, that after a time many
Englishmen even saw the injustice of the decision, and lifted up
their voices in defence of the Irish Catholics who alone could
hope for nothing from the restoration of royalty. To put a stop
to this, the infamous "Oates" fabrication was brought forward,
which destroyed a number of English Catholic families and
stifled the voice of humanity in its efforts to befriend the
Irish race; and so sudden, universal, and lasting, was the
effect of this plot in closing the eyes of all to the claims of
the Irish, that when its chief promoter, Shaftesbury, was
dragged to the Tower and there imprisoned as a miscreant, and
Oates himself suffered a punishment too mild for his villany,
nevertheless no one thought of again taking up the cause of the
Irish natives.
It is almost impossible in these days to realize what has
occupied our attention in this chapter. The unparalleled act of
spoliation by which four-fifths of the Irish nation were
deprived of their property by Cromwell because of their devotion
to Charles I., for the alleged reason that they could not prove
a constant good affection for the English regicide Parliament,
that spoliation was ratified by the son of Charles within a few
years after the rightful owners, who had sacrificed their
property for the sake of his father, had been dispossessed,
while the parliamentarians, who by force of arms had broken down
the power of Charles and enabled the members of the Long
Parliament to try their king and bring him to the block, those
very soldiers and officers were left in possession of their ill-
gotten plunder, at a time when many of the owners were only a
few miles away in Connaught, or even inhabiting the out-houses
of their own mansions, and tilling the soil as menial servants
of Cromwell's troopers.
The case, apparently similar, which occurred in after-years, of
the French emigrant nobility, cannot be compared with the result
of this strange concession of Charles II. In fact, it may be
said that the spoliations of 1792-'93 in France would probably
never have taken place but for the successful example held up to
the eyes of the legislators of the French Republic by the
English Revolution.
As for the share which Charles II. himself bore in the measure,
it is best told by the fact that the work of spoliation was
carried on so vigorously during the reign of the "merry monarch,"
that when a few years later William of Orange came to the
throne there was no land left for him to dispose of among his
followers save the last million of acres. All the rest had been
portioned off. Well might Dr. Madden say: "The whole of Ireland
has been so thoroughly confiscated that the only exception was
that of five or six families of English blood, some of whom had
been attainted in the reign of Henry VIII., but recovered
flourished ever since. Yet did they not refuse the accessory
with the principal. Deluded men they may be called by many; but
people cannot ordinarily understand the high motives which move
men swayed only by the twofold feeling of religion and nationality.
Nothing in our opinion could better prove that the Irish were
really a nation, at the time we speak of, than the remarks just
set forth. When all minds are so unanimous, the wills so ready,
the arms so strong and well prepared to strike together, it must
be admitted that in the whole exists a common feeling, a
national will. Self-government may be wanting; it may have been
suppressed by sheer force and kept under by the most unfavorable
state of affairs, but the nation subsists and cannot fail
ultimately to rise.
In those eventful times shone forth too that characteristic
which has already been remarked upon of a true conservative
spirit and instinctive hatred for every principle which in our
days is called radical and revolutionary. Had there existed in
the Irish disposition the least inclination toward those social
and moral aberrations, productive to-day of so many and such
widespread evils, surely the period of the English Revolution
was the fitting time to call them forth, and turn them from
their steady adherence to right and order into the new channels,
toward which nations were being then hurried, and which would
really have favored for the time being their own efforts for
independence. Then would the Irish have presented to future
historians as stirring an episode of excitement and activity as
was furnished by the English and Scotch at that time, by the
French later on, and which to-day most European nations offer.
The temptation was indeed great. They saw with what success
rebellion was rewarded among the English and Scotch. They
themselves were sure to be stamped as rebels whichever side they
took; and, as was seen, Charles II. allowed his commissioners in
his act of settlement so to style them, and punish them for it--
for supporting the cause of his father against the Parliament.
Would it not have been better for them to have become once, at
least, rebels in true earnest, and reap the same advantage from
rebellion which all around them reaped? Yet did they stand proof
against the demoralizing doctrines of Scotch Covenanter and
English republican. Hume, who was openly adverse to every thing
Irish, is compelled to describe this Catholic people as "loyal
from principle, attached to regal power from religious education,
uniformly opposing popular frenzy, and zealous vindicators of
royal prerogatives."
All this was in perfect accord with their traditional spirit and
historical recollections. Revolutionary doctrines have always
been antagonistic to the Irish mind and heart. This will appear
more fully when recent times come under notice, and it may be a
surprise to some to find that, with the exception of a few
individuals, who in nowise represent the nation, the latest and
favorite theories of the world, not only on religion, science,
and philosophy, but likewise on government and the social state,
have never found open advocates among them. They, so far,
constitute the only nation untouched, as yet, by the blight
which is passing over and withering the life of modern society.
Thus, it may be said that the exiled nobility still rules in
Ireland by the recollection of the past, though there can no
longer exist a hope of reconstructing an ancient order which has
passed away forever. The prerogatives once granted to the
aristocratic classes are now disowned and repudiated on all
sides; in Ireland they would be submitted to with joy tomorrow,
could the actual descendants of the old families only make good
their claims. It must not be forgotten that the Irish nobility,
as a class, deserved well of their country, sacrificed
themselves for it when the time of sacrifice came, and therefore
it is fitting that they should live in the memory of the people
that sees their traces but finds them not. The dream of finding
rulers for the nation from among those who claim to be the
descendants of the old chieftains, is a dream and nothing more;
but, even still to many Irishmen, it is within the compass of
reality, so deeply ingrained is their conservative spirit, and
so completely, in this instance, at least, are they free from
the influx of modern ideas.
The Stuarts, then, were supported by the Irish, not merely from
religious, but also from national motives, inasmuch as that
family was descended from the line of Gaelic kings, and, however
unworthy they themselves may have been, their rights were upheld
and acknowledged against all comers. But, the Stuarts gone,
allegiance was flung to the winds.
The success of Cromwell and his republic was the doom of all
prospects of the reunion of the two islands; and the subsequent
Revolution of 1688, which commenced so soon after the death of
the Protector, left the Irish in the state in which the
struggles of four hundred years with the Plantagenets and Tudors
had placed and left them in relation to their connection with
England--a state of antagonism and mutual repulsion, wherein the
Irish nation, the victim of might, was slowly educated by
misfortune until the time should come for the open
acknowledgment of right.
CHAPTER XII.
A CENTURY OF GLOOM.--THE PENAL LAWS.
William III., of Orange, was inclined to observe, in good faith,
the articles agreed upon at the surrender of Limerick, namely,
to allow the conquered liberty of worship, citizen rights, so
much as remained to them of their property, and the means for
personal safety recognized before the departure of Sarsfield and
his men.
The lords justices even issued a proclamation commanding "all
officers and soldiers of the army and militia, and all other
persons whatsoever, to forbear to do any wrong or injury, or to
use unlawful violence to any of his Majesty's subjects, whether
of the British or Irish nation, without distinction, and that
all persons taking the oath of allegiance, and behaving
themselves according to law, should be deemed subjects under
their Majesties' protection, and be equally entitled to the
benefit of the law."--(Harris, "Life of William.")
This first proclamation not having been generally obeyed,
another was published denouncing "the utmost vengeance of the
law against the offenders;" and the author above quoted adds
that "the satisfaction given to the Irish was a source of
lasting gratitude to the person and government of William."
It is even asserted that, not only did the new monarch thus
ratify the treaty of Limerick, but that "he inserted in the
ratification a clause of the last importance to the Irish, which
had been omitted in the draught signed by the lords justices and
Sarsfield. That clause extended the benefits of the capitulation
to "all such as were under the protection of the Irish army in
the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo. A great
quantity of Catholic property depended on the insertion of this
clause in the ratification, and the English Privy Council
hesitated whether to take advantage of the omission. The honesty
of the king declared it to be a part of the articles."
The final confirmation was issued from Westminster on February
24, 1692, in the name of William and Mary.
But the party which had overcome the honest leanings of James I.,
if he ever had any, and of his son and grandson, was at this
time more powerful than ever, and could not consent to extend
the claims of justice and right to the conquered. This party was
the Ulster colony, which Cromwell's settlement had spread to the
two other provinces of Leinster and Munster, and which was
confirmed in its usurpation by the weakness of the second
Charles. The motives for the bitter animosity which caused it to
set its face against every measure involving the scantiest
justice toward its fellow-countrymen may be summed up in two
words--greed and fanaticism.
Until the time when the first of the Stuarts ascended the
English throne, all the successive spoliations of Ireland, even
the last under Elizabeth, at the end of the Geraldine war, were
made to the advantage of the English nobility. Even the younger
sons of families from Lancashire, Cheshire, and Dorsetshire, who
"planted" Munster after the ruin of the Desmonds, had noble
blood in their veins, and were consequently subject more or less
to the ordinary prejudices of feudal lords. The life of the
agriculturist and grazier was too low down in the social scale
to catch their supercilious glance. The consequence of which was,
that the Catholic tenants of Munster were left undisturbed in
their holdings. Instead of the "dues" exacted by their former
chieftains, they now paid rent to their new lords.
But the rabble let loose on the island by James I. was afflicted
with no such dainty notions as these. To supercilious glances
were substituted eyes keen as the Israelites', for the "main
chance." The new planters, intent only on profit and gain,
thought with the French peasant of an after-date, that, for
landed estate to produce its full value, "there is nothing like
the eye of a master." The Irish peasant was therefore removed
from at least one-half the farms of Ulster, and driven to live
as best he might among the Protestant lords of Munster. And in
order to have an entirely Protestant "plantation," it became
incumbent on the new owners so to frame the legislation as to
deprive the Irish Catholics of any possibility of recovering
their former possessions. Thus, laws were passed declaring null
and void all purchases made by "Irish papists."
Who has not witnessed, at some period in his life, the effect
produced on the people in his neighborhood by one avaricious but
wealthy man, intent only on increasing his property, and
profiting by the slavish labor of the poor under his control?
Who has not detested, in his inmost soul, the grinding tyranny
of the miser gloating over the hard wealth which he has wrung
from the misery and tears of all around him, and who boasts of
the cunning shrewdness, the success of which is only too visible
in the desolation that encircles him? Imagine such scenes
enacted throughout a large territory, beginning with Ulster,
spreading thence to Munster and Connaught, and finally through
the whole island, and we have an exact picture of the effects of
the Protestant "plantation." Each year, almost, of the
seventeenth century witnessed fresh swarms of these foreign
adventurers settling on the island, interrupted in their
operations only by the Confederation of Kilkenny, but
multiplying faster and faster after the destruction of that
truly national government, until at the time now under our
consideration, "Scotch thrift," as it is called, had become the
chief virtue of most of the owners of land--Scotch thrift, which
is but another name for greed.
It were easy to show, by long details, that this great
characteristic of the new "plantation" would suffice to explain
that general and terrible pauperism which has since become the
striking feature of once-happy Ireland. But only a few words can
be allowed.
It is the fanaticism of the new "planters" which will chiefly
occupy our attention. These were composed, first, of the Scotch
Presbyterians of Knox, whom James I. had dispatched, and
afterward of the ranting soldiers and officers of Cromwell's
army, more Jew than Christian, since their mouths were ever
filled with Bible texts of that particular character wherein the
wrath of God is denounced against the impious and cruel tribes
of Palestine. It is doubtful whether the ideas of God and man,
promulgated and spread among the people by Calvin and Knox, have
ever been equalled in evil consequences by the most
superstitious beliefs of ancient pagans. Let us look well at
those teachings. According to them, God is the author of evil:
he issues forth his decrees of election or reprobation,
irrespective of merit or demerit; inflicting eternal torments on
innumerable souls which never could have been saved, and for
whom the Son of God did not die. What any rational being must
consider as the most revolting cruelty and injustice, these men
called acts of pure justice executed by the hand of God. God
saves blindly those whom he saves, and takes them home to his
bosom, though reeking with the unrepented and unexpiated crimes
of their lives--unexpiable, in fact, on the part of man--merely
because they persuade themselves that they are of "the elect."
In that system, man is a mere machine, unendowed with the
slightest symptom of free-will, but inflated with the most
overbearing pride; deeming all others but those of his sect the
necessary objects of the blind wrath of God, cast off and
reprobate from all eternity in the designs of Providence; for
whom "the elect" can feel no more pity or affection than
redeemed men can for the arch-fiend himself, both being alike
redeemless and unredeemed.
No system of pretended religion, invented by the perverted mind
of man, under the inspiration of the Evil One, could go further
in atrocity than this.
Yet such was the pure, undiluted essence of Calvinism in its
beginning. In our times its doctrines have been radically
modified, as its adherents could not escape the soothing
operations of time and calm reason. But, at the period of which
we speak, its absurd and revolting tenets were fresh, and taken
religiously to the letter.
The new colonists, therefore, believed, and acted on the belief,
that all men outside of their own body were the enemies of God
and had God for their enemy. What a convenient doctrine for men
of an "itching palm! " The papists, in particular, were worse
than idolaters, and to "root them out" was only to render a
service to God. In the event of this holy desire not being
altogether possible of execution, the nearest approach to the
goodly work was to strip them of all rights, and render the life
of such reprobates more miserable than the death which was to
condemn them to the eternal torments planned out for them in the
eternal decrees, and so give them a foretaste here of the life
destined for them hereafter.
The reader, then, may understand how the Scotch Presbyterians of
the time, overflowing as they were with free and republican
ideas as far as regarded their own welfare, when it came to a
question of extending the same to their Catholic fellow-men, if
they would have admitted the term, scouted such a preposterous
and ungodly idea. These latter were unworthy the enjoyment of
such benefit. And thus the hoot of Protestant ascendancy,
"Protestant liberty and right! " came up as war-cries to stifle
out all efforts tending to extend even the most ordinary
privileges of the liberty which is man's by nature, to any but
Protestants of the same class as themselves.
Here a curious reflection, full of meaning, and causing the mind
almost to mock at the type of a free constitution, presents
itself. The eighteenth century witnessed the development of the
British Constitution as now known. It embraced in its bosom all
British citizens, raising up the nation to the pinnacle of
material prosperity, while at the same time and all through it,
whole classes of citizens of the British Empire, both in Great
Britain and Ireland, were openly, unblushingly, legally, without
a thought of mercy or pity--not to mention such an ugly word as
logic--denied the protection of the common charter and the
common rights.
Under Cromwell the doctrines of Calvin and Knox did not show
themselves quite so obtrusively. The officers and soldiers of
his armies, in common with their general, thought the
Presbyterian Kirk too aristocratic and unbending. They formed a
new sect of Independents, now called Congregationalists. But the
chief feature of the new religious system became as productive
of evil to Ireland as the stern dogmas of Calvin ever could be.
The principle that the Scriptures constituted the only rule of
faith was beginning to bear its fruits. It is needless to remark
that Holy Scripture, when abandoned to the free interpretation
of all, becomes the source of many errors, as it may be the
source of many crimes. The historian and novelist even have ere
now frequently told us to what purpose the "Word of God " was
manipulated by Scottish Covenanter and Cromwellian freebooter.
The Covenanter, or freebooter, saw in the antagonists of his
"real rebellion" and opposers of the designs of his dark policy,
only the enemies of God and the adversaries of his Providence.
He believed himself divinely commissioned to destroy Catholics
and butcher innocent women and children, as the armies of Joshua
were authorized to fight against Amalek, and possess themselves
of a country occupied by a people whose cruel idolatry was
ineradicable, and rendered them absolutely irreconcilable. Thus
to the stern and odious tenets of Calvinism the new invaders
joined the fanaticism of self-deluded Jews, never having
received any commission from the God whom they blasphemed, yet
bearing themselves with all the solemnity of his instruments.
There is consequently nothing to surprise us in the atrocities
committed by the Scotch troops in 1641, when they first invaded
the island from the north, as little as there is in the numerous
massacres which first attended the march of the troops of
Cromwell, Ireton, and other leaders, and which were only
discontinued when the voice of Europe rose up in revolt at the
recital, and they themselves became thoroughly convinced that
the complete destruction of the people was impossible, and the
only next best thing to be done was to export as many as could
be exported and reduce the rest to slavery.
Thus did the new colony commence its workings, and it is easy to
comprehend how such intensely Protestant doctrines, remaining
implanted in the breasts of the people who came to make Ireland
their home, could not fail to oppose an insurmountable barrier
to the fusion of the new and the old inhabitants, and impart a
fearful reality to the theory of "Protestant ascendancy" and
"Protestant liberty and right "--the liberty and right to
oppress those of another creed.
These watchwords form the key to the understanding of all the
miseries and woes of Irishmen during the whole of the eighteenth
century. We now turn to contemplate the commencement of the
workings of this fanatic intolerance which ushered in the
century of gloom.
The lords justices had just returned, after concluding the
treaty of peace with Sarsfield, when the first mutterings of the
thunder were heard that presaged the coming storm. Dr. Dopping,
the Protestant Bishop of Meath, while preaching before them on
the Sunday following their return to Dublin, reproached them
openly in Christ Church for their indulgence to the Irish, and
urged that no faith was to be kept with such a cruel and
perfidious race. This sort of doctrine has been heard before,
and from men of the stamp of Dr. Dopping; it is still heard
every day, but it is generally thrown into the teeth of
Catholics and saddled on them as their doctrine, however
frequently refuted.
The doctor stated broadly that with such people no treaties were
binding, and that therefore the articles of Limerick were not to
be observed.
William and his Irish government endeavored to check this
intemperance; but the feelings of the sectarians were too ardent
to be thus easily smothered, and the greater the opposition they
encountered, the more they insisted on proclaiming their views,
to which naturally they gained many adherents among the
colonists of the Protestant plantation.
The Irish Parliament soon assembled in Dublin. The majority,
imbued with the gloomy Calvinism of the times, and fearing to
face the opposition of the respectable minority of Catholic
members, who had come to take their seats, passed an act
imposing a new oath, in contradiction to one of the articles of
the treaty. That oath included an abjuration of James's right de
jure, a renunciation of the spiritual authority of the Pope, and
(as though that were not enough to exclude Catholics) a
declaration against the doctrine of transubstantiation and other
fundamental tenets of their creed. Persons who refused to take
this oath were debarred from all offices and emoluments, as well
as from both Houses of the Irish Parliament.
The Catholic members were compelled to withdraw at once; and no
Catholic ever took part in the legislation of his own country
from that day until the Emancipation in 1829.
After this withdrawal, which in the times of the French
Convention would have been called an epuration, the Irish
Parliament became the bane of the country. In fact, it only
represented parliamentary England, and subjected Ireland to
every measure required by English ultraists for the attainment
of their selfish purposes. Possessed by a gloomy fanaticism, its
main object was to root out of the island every vestige that
remained of the religion which had once flourished there. All
its legislative spirit was concentrated in the two questions:
Are the laws already in existence against the further growth of
Popery rigidly enforced? and, cannot some new law be introduced
to further the same object.?
Many a time were these two questions put in the assembly called
the Irish Parliament, until near the end of the eighteenth
thunder were heard that presaged the coming storm. Dr. Dopping,
the Protestant Bishop of Meath, while preaching before them on
the Sunday following their return to Dublin, reproached them
openly in Christ Church for their indulgence to the Irish, and
urged that no faith was to be kept with such a cruel and
perfidious race. This sort of doctrine has been heard before,
and from men of the stamp of Dr. Dopping; it is still heard
every day, but it is generally thrown into the teeth of
Catholics and saddled on them as their doctrine, however
frequently refuted.
The doctor stated broadly that with such people no treaties were
binding, and that therefore the articles of Limerick were not to
be observed.
William and his Irish government endeavored to check this
intemperance; but the feelings of the sectarians were too ardent
to be thus easily smothered, and the greater the opposition they
encountered, the more they insisted on proclaiming their views,
to which naturally they gained many adherents among the
colonists of the Protestant plantation.
The Irish Parliament soon assembled in Dublin. The majority,
imbued with the gloomy Calvinism of the times, and fearing to
face the opposition of the respectable minority of Catholic
members, who had come to take their seats, passed an act
imposing a new oath, in contradiction to one of the articles of
the treaty. That oath included an abjuration of James's right de
jure, a renunciation of the spiritual authority of the Pope, and
(as though that were not enough to exclude Catholics) a
declaration against the doctrine of transubstantiation and other
fundamental tenets of their creed. Persons who refused to take
this oath were debarred from all offices and emoluments, as well
as from both Houses of the Irish Parliament.
The Catholic members were compelled to withdraw at once; and no
Catholic ever took part in the legislation of his own country
from that day until the Emancipation in 1829.
After this withdrawal, which in the times of the French
Convention would have been called an epuration, the Irish
Parliament became the bane of the country. In fact, it only
represented parliamentary England, and subjected Ireland to
every measure required by English ultraists for the attainment
of their selfish purposes. Possessed by a gloomy fanaticism, its
main object was to root out of the island every vestige that
remained of the religion which had once flourished there. All
its legislative spirit was concentrated in the two questions:
Are the laws already in existence against the further growth of
Popery rigidly enforced? and, cannot some new law be introduced
to further the same object.?
Many a time were these two questions put in the assembly called
the Irish Parliament, until near the end of the eighteenth
Popery, and, in the next place, it makes evident the necessity
there is of cultivating and preserving a good understanding
among all Protestants in this kingdom."'
Let the reader bear in mind that language such as this, and its
result in the shape of atrocious legislation, continued
throughout the whole of the eighteenth century in Ireland, and
he will find no difficulty in understanding the meaning of
Edmund Burke's words when he said : "The code against the
Catholics was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance; and
as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and
degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human
nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of
man." And, elsewhere: "To render men patient under the
deprivation of all the rights of human nature, every thing which
could give them a knowledge and feeling of those rights was
rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be insulted, it
was fit that it should be degraded."
But it is very pertinent to our purpose to give a sketch of
those good laws, as Wharton calls them, before seeing how the
Irish preferred to submit to them rather than lose their faith
by "conforming." The subject has been already investigated by
many writers, and of late far more completely than formerly. But
the authors never presented the laws as a whole, contenting
themselves, for the most part, by transcribing them in the
chronological order in which they were enacted, or, if
occasionally they endeavored to combine and thus present a more
striking idea of the effect which such laws must have produced
on the people, they were never, as far as is known to the writer,
reduced to a plan, and consequently fail to bring forth the
effect intended to be produced by them.
It is impossible here to give the text of those various laws--
impossible even to give a fairly accurate idea of the whole.
They shall be classified, however, to the best of our ability,
and as fully as circumstances permit.
Mr. Prendergast seems to consider their ultimate object always
to have been the robbing of the Irish of their lands, or
securing the plunder if already in possession. That this was one
of the great objects always kept in view in their enactment, we
do not feel inclined to contest; but that it was their only or
even chief cause, we may be allowed to question, with the
greatest deference to the opinion of the celebrated author of
the often-quoted "Cromwellian Settlement."
We believe those laws to have been produced chiefly by sectarian
fanaticism; or, if some of their framers, such as Lord Wharton,
possessed no religious feelings of any kind, and could not be
called fanatics, their intent was to pander to the real
fanaticism of the English people, as it existed at the time, and
particularly of the colony planted in Ireland, which hated
Popery to the death, and would have given all its possessions
and lands for the destruction of the Scarlet Woman.
In order to attain the great result proposed, the aim of the
"penal statute" was one in its very complexity. For it had to
deal with complex rights, which it took away one after another
until the unity of the system was completed by the suppression
of them all.
We classify these under the heads of political, civil, and human
rights. The result of the whole policy was to degrade the Irish
to the level of the wretched helots under Sparta, with this
difference: while the slaves of the Lacedaemonians numbered but
a few thousands, the Irish were counted by millions.
The system, as a whole, was the work of time, and, under William
of Orange--even under Queen Anne--it had not yet attained its
maturity, though the principal and the severest measures were
carried and put in force from the very beginning. The ingenious
little devices regarding short and small leases, the possession
of valuable horses, etc., were mere fanciful adjuncts which the
witty and inventive legislators of the Hanoverian dynasty were
happy enough to find unrecorded in the statute-books, and which
they had the honor of setting there, and thus adding a new
piquancy and vigorous flavor to the whole dish.
Toward the middle of the eighteenth century, the system may be
said to have reached its perfection. After that time it would,
in all likelihood, have been impossible to improve further, and
render the yoke of slavery heavier and more galling to the Irish.
The beauty and simplicity of the whole consisted in the fact
that the great majority of these measures were not decreed in so
many positive and express terms against Catholics in the form of
open and persecuting statutes. It was merely mentioned in the
laws that, to enjoy such and such a particular right, it was
necessary that every subject of the crown should take such and
such an oath, which no Catholic could take. Thus, the entire
Irish population was set between their religion and their rights,
and at any moment, by merely taking the oath, they were at
liberty to enjoy all the privileges which rendered the colonists
living in their midst so happy and contented, and so proud of
their "Protestant ascendency."
It was hoped, no doubt, that, if at first and for a certain time,
the faith of the Irish would stand proof and prompt them to
sacrifice every thing held dear in life, rather than surrender
that faith, nevertheless, worn out at length, and disheartened
by wretchedness, unable longer to sustain their heavy burden,
they would finally succumb, and, by the mere action of such an
easy thing as recording an oath in accordance with the law,
though against their conscience, become men and citizens. It was
what the French Conventionalists of 1793 called "desoler la
patience" of their victims.
This unholy hope was disappointed; and, with the exception of a
comparatively few weak Christians among their number, the nation
stood firm and preferred the "ignominy of the cross of Christ"
to the enjoyments of this perishable life.
Their political rights were, as was seen, the first to be taken
away. The Parliament of 1691 required of its members the oath
referred to, and for the repudiation of which, all the Catholic
members were compelled at once to withdraw. But the contrivance
of swearing being found such an excellent instrument to use
against men possessed of a conscience, the ruling body--now
reduced to the former Protestant majority--required that the
same oath be taken by all electors, magistrates, and officers of
whatever grade, from the highest to the lowest in the land.
The oath itself was an elastic formula, capable of being
stretched or contracted, according to circumstances, so that, by
the addition of an incidental phrase or two, it might be framed
to meet new exigencies, and give expression to the lively
imagination of ingenious members of Parliament. It would be
curious to collect an account of the variety of shapes it
assumed, and to comment on the different occasions which gave
rise to these different developments. A long history of
persecuting frenzy might thus be condensed into a commentary of
a comparatively few pages. Even at the so-called Catholic
Emancipation it was not abolished; on the contrary, it was
sacredly preserved, and two new formulas drawn up, the one for
the Protestant and the other for the Catholic members of the
legislature, Lords and Commons, and so it remains, to this day,
except that the most offensive clauses of the last century have
disappeared.
Imagine, then, the spectacle offered by the island whenever an
election for representatives, magistrates, or petty officers,
took place; whenever those entitled to select holders of offices
which were not subject to election, made known the persons of
their choice. This vast array of aristocratic masters was chosen
from the ranks of the English colonists, and had for its avowed
object to preserve the Protestant ascendency, and consequently
grind under the heel of the most abject oppression the whole
mass of the population of the island. There was no other meaning
in all these political combinations and changes, recurring
periodically, and heralded forth by the voice of the press and
the thunder of the hustings. Politics in Ireland was nothing
else than the expression given to the despotism of an
insignificant minority over almost the entire body of the people.
For, despite all their repressive measures, the enemies of the
Catholic faith could never pretend even to a semblance in point
of numbers, much less to a majority, over the children of the
creed taught by Patrick. Ireland remained Catholic throughout;
and its oppressors could not fail to feel the bitter humiliation
of their constant numerical inferiority. Hence the words quoted
in the speech of Wharton, the lord-lieutenant.
This has always been the case, in spite of the combination of a
multitude of circumstances adverse to the spread of the Catholic
population. It may not be amiss to give room for the statistics
and remarks of Abbe Perraud on this most interesting subject,
contained in his book on "Ireland under British rule."
"In 1672, the total population of Ireland was 1,100,000 (it is
to be remembered that this was after the massacres and
transportations of Cromwell's period). Of that number
800,000 were Catholics.
50,000 " Dissenters.
150,000 " Church-of-Ireland men.
"In 1727, the Anglican Primate of Ireland, Boulter, Archbishop
of Armagh, wrote to his English colleague, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, that 'we have, in all probability, in this kingdom,
at least five Papists for every Protestant.' Those proportions
are confirmed by official statistics under Queen Anne.
"In 1740, according to a kind of official census, confirmed by
Wakefield, the number of Protestant heads of families did not
exceed 96,067.
"Twenty-six years later, the Dublin House of Lords caused a
comparative table of Protestant and Catholic families to be
drawn up for each county. The result was the following:
Protestant families . . 130,263
Catholic families . . 305,680
"In 1834, exact statistical returns being made of the members of
each communion, the following was the result: The total
population being estimated at 7,943,940, the Church-of-Ireland
members amounted only to the number of 852,064. The remaining 7,
091,876 were thus divided:
Presbyterians . . . . . . 642,350
Other Dissenters . . . . 21,808
Catholics . . . . . . . 6,427,718
"The censuses of 1841 and 1851 contained no information upon
this important question. Thirty years had therefore elapsed
since official figures had given the exact proportions of each
Church.
"This silence of the Blue Books had given rise, among the
Protestant press of England and Ireland, to the opinion, too
hastily adopted on the Continent by publicists of great weight,
that emigration and famine had resulted in the equalization of
the numbers of Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. The evident
conclusion joyfully drawn from this supposed fact by the
defenders of the Anglican Church was, that the scandal of a
Protestant establishment in the midst and at the expense of a
Catholic people was gradually dying away.
"The forlorn hope of the Tory and Orange press went still
further. They boldly disputed Ireland's right to the title of
Catholic. So, although, ten years and twenty years before, these
same journals furiously opposed the admission of religious
denominations into the statistics of the census, yet, when the
census of 1861 drew near, they quite as loudly demanded its
insertion. They made it a matter of challenge to the Catholics.
"The ultramontane journals accepted the challenge. The Catholics
unanimously demanded a denominational census. The results were
submitted to the representatives of the nation in July, 1861. No
shorter, more decisive, or more triumphant answer could have
been given to the sarcasms and challenges of the old Protestant
party."
We confine ourselves here to the total sums, leaving out minor
details:
Catholics . . . . . . . . 4,490,583
Establishment . . . . . . 687,661
Dissenters . . . . . . . 595,577
Jews . . . . . . . . . . 322
Thus in this century, as throughout the whole of the century of
gloom, the island is truly and really Catholic.
By way of contrast, a few words on the same subject may not be
out of place with reference to England. We have already stated,
and given some of the reasons for so doing, that, at the death
of Elizabeth, England was already Protestant to the core.
In his "Memoirs," vol. ii., Sir John Dalrymple has published a
curious official report of the numbers of Catholics in England,
in the reign of William of Orange, found after his death in the
iron chest of that vigilant monarch. From this authentic
document we take the following extract:
Number of Freeholders in England.1 (1 Dr. Madden's "Penal Laws.")
Conformists. Papists. Non-Conformists.
Province of
Canterbury, 2,123,362 93,151 11,878
Province of
York, 353,892 15,525 1,978
Totals 2,477,254 108,676 13,856
It is known also that, under George III., the number of
Catholics in the whole of Great Britain did not exceed sixty
thousand, so thorough had been the separation of England from
the true Church.
To return to the ostracism of a whole nation from its political
rights. No individual really belonging to it could take the
slightest share in the administration of its affairs. They were
all left to the control of aliens, whose boast it was that they
were English; and whose chief object was to secure English
ascendency, and subject every thing Irish to the rule of force.
Yet all this while a new era was dawning on the world; a
multitude of voices were proclaiming new social and political
doctrines; all were to be free, to possess privileges that might
not be intrenched upon--to wit, a voice in the affairs of the
nation, trial by their peers, no taxation without due
representation, and the like--while a whole nation by the
unanimous consent of the loudest of these freedom-mongers was
excluded from every benefit of the new ideas, was literally
placed in bondage, and left without the possibility of being
heard and admitted to the enjoyment of the common rights,
because the one voice which would have declared in their favor,
which in former times had so often and so loudly spoken, when so
to speak was to offend the powers of this world, was deprived of
the right of being heard. The doctrine that the Papal supremacy
was a usurpation, and the Pope himself an enemy of freedom, was
laid down as a cardinal principle. After such public
renunciation of former doctrines, all these new and so-called
liberal theories were a mere delusion and a snare. There was no
possibility of effectually securing freedom, in spite of so much
promised to all and granted to some; no possibility of really
protecting the rights of all. The public right newly proclaimed
ended finally in might. Majorities ruled despotically over the
minorities, and, as the despotism of the multitude is ever
harsher and more universal than that of any monarch, the reign
of cruel injustice was let in upon Ireland. And in her case the
injustice was peculiarly aggravated, inasmuch as it was a small
alien minority which trampled under foot the rights of a great
native majority.
But, although the deprivation of political rights is perhaps
more fatal to a nation than that of any other, on account of
what follows in its train, particularly in the framing of the
laws, nevertheless the deprivation of civil rights is generally
more acutely felt, because the grievances resulting from it meet
man at every turn, at every moment of his life, in his household
and domestic circle. In fact, the penal laws stripped Catholics
of every civil right which modern society can conceive, and it
was chiefly there that the ingenuity of their oppressors labored
during the greater part of a century to make a total wreck of
Irish welfare.
Those rights may be classified generally as the right of
possessing and holding landed property, the right of earning an
honorable living by profession or trade, the right of protection
against injustice by equal laws, the right of fair trial before
condemnation: such are the chief. It is doubtful if there is any
thing of importance left of which a citizen can be deprived,
unless indeed he be openly and unjustly deprived of life.
It has been already indicated how the policy of England, with
regard to Ireland, from that first invasion, in the time of
Henry II., was prompted by the desire of gaining possession of
the soil, and how after seven hundred years of struggle it
succeeded in attaining its object; so that the whole island had
been confiscated, and in some instances two or three times over.
The object of the penal laws, therefore, could not be to deprive
the Irish of the land which they no longer possessed, but to
prevent them acquiring any land in any quantity whatever, and
from reentering into possession, by purchase or otherwise, of
any portion of their own soil and of the estates which belonged
to their ancestors. So harsh and cunning a design, we doubt not,
never entered the minds of any former legislators, even in pagan
antiquity.
The great stimulus to exertion in civil society consists of the
acquisition of property, chiefly of land. In feudal times
seignorial estates could be purchased by none but those of noble
blood; but with allodial estates it was different all through
Europe. Yet just at the time when feudal laws were passing into
disuse the Irish were prevented, by carefully-drawn enactments,
from purchasing even a rood of their native soil. "The
prohibition had been already extended to the whole nation by the
Commonwealth government, and when the lands forfeited by the
wars of 1690 came to be sold at Chichester House in 1703, the
Irish were declared by the English Parliament incapable of
purchasing at the auction, or of taking a lease of more than two
acres."--(Prendergast.)
The same author adds in a note: "But it was when the estate was
made the property of the first Protestant discoverer, that
animation was put into this law. Discoverers then became like
hounds upon the scent after lands secretly purchased by the
Irish. Gentlemen fearing to lose their lands, found it now
necessary to conform--namely, to abjure Catholicism. Between
1703 and 1709 there were only thirty-six conformers in Ireland;
in the next ten years (after the Discovery Act), the conformists
were one hundred and fifty."
But the full object was not only to prevent the Irish from
becoming even moderately rich in land; they were to be reduced
to actual pauperism. Hence the prohibitory laws did not stop at
this first outrage; almost impossible occurrences were supposed
and provided for, lest there might be a chance of their
realization at some time. It was actually provided that, if the
produce of their farms brought a greater profit to the Irish
than was expected, notwithstanding all these measures against
the possible occurrence of such an evil, the lease was void, and
the "discoverer" should receive the amount.
There was no loop-hole by which the people might escape from
this degradation. But there was still the chance left of
engaging in trade, acquiring personal property by its practice,
and becoming the owners of a sum of money in bank, or of a
dwelling-house in the city. The English law of succession was
understood to be a law for all, and consequently, in some out-of-
the-way cases, a stray Irish family might be found in course of
time with an elder branch possessed of a fair amount of property,
and able to emerge from the dead level of the common misery.
Such a possibility could not of course be permitted by the
English colonists who ruled the land. So the law of gavelkind,
to which the Irish had at one time been so attached, was now to
be forced upon them, and upon them alone of all the British
subjects. It was decreed that, upon the death of every Irishman,
whatever of personal property he left behind him was to be
divided equally among all his children, who, being generally
numerous, would each receive but a trifle, and so perpetrate the
pauperism of the race.
Where the surprise, then, in finding the whole nation reduced
since that time to a state of the most abject poverty? It was
the will of the rulers that so it should be, and their scheme,
guarded and enforced by so many legislative acts, could not fail
to succeed in producing the effect intended. Granting even the
smallest amount of truth in what is so often flung at the Irish
as a reproach--their carelessness and want of foresight--how
could it be otherwise, to what cause can such failings, even if
they exist, be assigned, save to the utter impossibility of
succeeding in any effort which they chose to make?
The true origin of the state in which the Irish at home now
appear to the eyes of foreign travellers, is the deliberate
intention, sternly acted upon for more than a century, to make
the island one vast poorhouse.
The wretched situation in which they have ever since remained,
confessed by all to be without parallel on earth, is certainly
not to be laid at the door of the present population of England,
nor even to the colony still intrenched on Irish soil; but with
what right can it be brought forward as a reproach against the
Irish themselves, when its real cause is so evident, and when
history speaks so plainly on the subject?
All sensible Englishmen of our days will readily acknowledge
that, without indulging in mutual recrimination, the duty of all
is to repair the injuries of the past, and to do away with the
last remnants of its sad consequences. Wounds so deep and many
in a nation cannot be healed by half measures; and it is only a
thorough change of system, and a complete reversal of
legislation, that can leave the English of to-day without
reproach.
Pauperism, then, is the necessary misfortune, not the crime of
Ireland; we may even go further, and assert that, if millions of
Irishmen have lived and died paupers, owing to the barbarous
laws enacted for that special purpose, few indeed among them
have been reduced even by hard necessity and the extreme of
misery to manifest a pauper spirit and a miserly bent.
There is no doubt that the almost invariable result of suffering
and want is to create selfishness in the sufferer, and cause him
to cling desperately to the little he may possess. Self
preservation and self-indulgence, in such a case, form the law
of human nature, and no one even expects to find a really poor
man generous, when he can scarcely meet his bare necessities and
the imperious wants of his family. It is the peculiarity of the
Irish to know how to combine generosity with the deprivation
almost of the common necessaries of life. When masters of their
own soil, a large hospitality and a free-handed "bestowing of
gifts"--such, we believe, was the Irish expression--was
universal among them; the poorest clansman would have been
ashamed not to imitate, in his degree, the liberal spirit of his
prince. They often gave all they had, regardless of the future;
and, when their chieftains demanded of the clansmen what the
Book of Rights imposed upon them, their exclamation was, "Spend
me but defend me."
Though the people of Erin have been reduced to the sad necessity
of forgetting that old proverb of the nation, the spirit which
gave rise to it lives in their hearts and is proved by their
deeds. What other nation, even the richest and most prosperous,
could have accomplished what the world has seen them bring to-
pass during this century? The laws which, so long ago, forbade
them to be generous, and prohibited them from providing openly
for the worship of their God, for the education of their
children, for the help of the sick and needy among them, have at
last been made inoperative by their oppressors. But, when they
were at length left free to follow the freedom and generosity of
their hearts, they found--what? In their once beautiful and
Christian country, a universal desolation; the blackened ruins
of what had been their abbeys, churches, hospitals, and asylums;
the very ground on which they stood stolen away from them, and
the Protestant establishment in full enjoyment of the revenues
of the Catholics. They found every thing in the same state that
they had known for centuries. Nothing was restored to them. They
were at liberty to spend what they did not possess, since they
were as poor as men could be. Every thing had to be done by them
toward the reestablishing of their churches, schools, and
various asylums, and they had nothing wherewith to do it.
There is no need of going item by item over what they did. The
present prosperous state of the Irish Catholic public
institutioris-- churches, schools, and all--is owing to their
poorly-filled pockets. God alone knows how it all came about. We
can only see in them the poor of Christ, rich in all gifts,
"even alms-deeds most abundant."
It is only too evident that the degradation which the English
wished to fasten upon them forever, could not be accomplished
even by the measures best adapted to debase a people. The Celtic
nature rose superior to the dark designs of the most ingenious
opponents, and continued as ever noble, generous, and
openhearted. Nevertheless, the sufferings of the victims were at
times unutterable; and one of the inevitable effects of such
tyrannical measures soon made itself fearfully active and
destructive in the shape of those periodical famines which have
ever since devastated the island.
In the days of her own possession, there was never mention of
famine there. The whole island teemed with the grain of her
fields, consumed by a healthy population, and was alive with
vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. What were the heca-
tombs of ancient Greece compared with the thousands of kine
prescribed annually by the Book of Rights? Who ever heard of
people perishing of want in the midst of abundance such as this?
Even during the fiercest wars, waged by clan against clan, we
often see the image of death in many shapes, but never that of a
large population reduced to roots and grass for food.
When, later on, the wars of the Reformation transformed Munster
into a wilderness, and we read for the first time in Irish
history of people actually turning green and blue, according to
the color of the unwholesome weeds they were driven to devour in
order to support life, at least it was in the wake of a terrible
war that famine came. It was reserved for the eighteenth century
to disclose to us the woful spectacle of a people perishing of
starvation in the midst of the profoundest peace, frequently of
the greatest plenty, the food produced in abundance by the labor
of the inhabitants being sold and sent off to foreign countries
to enrich absentee landlords. Nay, those desolating famines at
last grew to be periodical, so that every few years people
expected one, and it seemed as though Ireland were too barren to
produce the barely sufficient supply of food necessary for her
scanty population. The people worked arduously and without
intermission; the land was rich, the seasons propitious; yet
they almost constantly suffered the pangs of hunger, which
spread sometimes to wholesale starvation. This was another
result of those laws devised by the English colonists to keep
down the native population of the island, and prevent it from
becoming troublesome and dangerous. Such was the effect of the
humane measures taken to preserve the glory of Protestant
ascendency, and secure the rights and liberties of a handful of
alien masters.
It is proper to describe some of those awful scourges, which
have never ceased since, and at sight of which, in our own days,
we have too often sickened. For the Emancipation of 1829 was far
from removing all the causes of Irish misery. On the 17th of
March, 1727, Boulter, the Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, wrote
to the Duke of Newcastle: "Since my arrival in this country, the
famine has not ceased among the poor people. The dearness of corn
last year was such that thousands of families had to quit their
dwellings, to seek means of life elsewhere; many hundred perished."
At the same period Swift wrote: "The families of farmers who pay great
rents, live in filth and nastiness, on buttermilk and potatoes."
The following is a short and simple description of the famine of
1741, given by an eye-witness, and copied by Matthew O'Connor
from a pamphlet entitled "Groans of Ireland," published in the
same year:
"Having been absent from this country some years, on my return
to it last summer, I found it the most miserable scene of
distress that I ever read of in history. Want and misery on
every face, the rich unable to relieve the poor, the roads
spread with dead and dying bodies; mankind the color of the
docks and nettles which they fed on; two or three, sometimes
more, on a car, going to the grave for want of bearers to carry
them, and many buried only in the fields and ditches where they
perished. The universal scarcity was followed by fluxes and
malignant fevers, which swept off multitudes of all sorts, so
that whole villages were laid waste. If one for every house in
the kingdom died--and that is very probable--the loss must be
upward of four hundred thousand souls. If only half, a loss too
great for this ill-peopled country to bear, as they are mostly
working people. When a stranger travels through this country,
and beholds its wide, extended, and fertile plains, its great
flocks of sheep and black cattle, and all its natural wealth and
conveniences for tillage, manufacture, and trade, he must be
astonished that such misery and want should be felt by its
inhabitants."
At the time these lines were written, the astonishment was
sincere, and the answer to the question "How can this be?"
seemed impossible; the phenomenon utterly inexplicable. In our
own days, when this same picture of woe has been so often presented
in the island, the reasons for it are well known; and what seems
inexplicable is that, the cause being so clear, and the remedy
so simple, the remedy has not yet been thoroughly applied.
In 1756 and 1757, the same scenes were repeated, with the same
frightful results. Charles O'Connor, at that time the champion
of his much- abused countrymen, wrote thus, in his letter to Dr.
Curry, May 21, 1756:
"Two-thirds of the inhabitants are perishing for want of bread;
meal is come to eighteen-pence a stone, and, if the poor had
money, it would exceed by--I believe--double that sum. Every
place is crowded with beggars, who were all house-keepers a
fortnight ago, and this is the condition of a country which
boasts of its constitution, its laws, and the wisdom of its
legislature."
These words, although sweeping enough, and universally
applicable, are far from conveying to our minds, to-day, the
real picture of the state of the country. When the writer speaks
of "meal," it must be understood to mean rye, oats, and, barley;
and even this coarse and heavy food being, as he remarks,
inaccessible to the poor, potatoes had become the only bread of
the country, and the inhabitants were perishing for the want of it.
For the first time in the history of the two nations, the
English Government thought of relieving the distress of the
people, and to this purpose applied the magnificent sum of
twenty thousand pounds. Such was the generous amount granted by
a wealthy and prosperous country to procure food for the
inhabitants of an island as large as Ireland is known to be. As
to effecting any change in the laws, which were really the cause
of this unutterable misery, such an idea never entered into the
heads of the legislators. Hence it is not surprising to hear
that "the distress in the interior of the country revived the
frightful image of the miseries of 1741, nor did the calamity
cease, until the equilibrium between the population and the
means of subsistence was restored by the accumulated waste of
famine and pestilence;" that is to say, until all those had been
destroyed whom the laws of the time could, as they had been
designed to do, destroy.
These details appear calculated only to shock the feelings of
the reader, already sufficiently acquainted with the lot of the
Irish cottier and laborer, from the beginning of the last
century. Nevertheless, we cannot close this part of our subject
without giving publicity to the following description of the
mass of the Irish population in 1762, by Matthew O'Connor:
"The popery laws had, in the course of half a century,
consummated the ruin of the lower orders. Their habitations,
visages, dress, and despondency, exhibited the deep distress of
a people ruled with the iron sceptre of conquest. The lot of the
negro slave, compared with that of the Irish helot, was
happiness itself. Both were subject to the capricious cruelty of
mercenary task-masters and unfeeling proprietors; but the negro
slave was well-fed, well clothed, and comfortably lodged. The
Irish peasant was half starved, half naked, and half housed; the
canopy of heaven being often the only roof to the mud-built
walls of his cabin. The fewness of negroes gave the West India
proprietor an interest in the preservation of his slave; a
superabundance of helots superseded all interest in the comfort
or preservation of an Irish cottier. The code had eradicated
every feeling of humanity, and avarice sought to stifle every
sense of justice. That avarice was generated by prodigality, the
hereditary vice of the Irish gentry, and manifested itself in
exorbitant rack-rents wrung from their tenantry, and in the low
wages paid for their labor. Since the days of King William, the
price of the necessaries of life had trebled, and the day's hire-
-fourpence-- had continued stationary. The oppression of tithes
was little inferior to the tyranny of rack-rents; while the
great landholder was nearly exempt from this pressure, a tenth
of the produce of the cottier's labor was exacted for the
purpose of a religious establishment from which he derived no
benefit. . . . The peasant had no resource: not trade or
manufactures--they were discouraged; not emigration to France--
the vigilance of government precluded foreign enlistment; not
emigration to America --his poverty precluded the means. Ireland,
the land of his birth, became his prison, where he counted the
days of his misery in the deepest despondency."
Is it to be wondered at that conspiracies, secret associations,
and insurrections, were the result; or should the wonder be that
such commotions were less universal and prolonged?
The craving of hunger is perpetual in Ireland. Multitudes of
details from a multitude of different and independent sources
might be brought forward to show this.
Duvergier de Hauranne, a Frenchman who visited the island in
1826, writes: "Ireland is the land of anomalies; the most
deplorable destitution on the richest of soils. . . . Nowhere
does man live in such wretchedness. The Irish peasant is born,
suffers, and dies--such is life for him."
In 1836, Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare, being asked what was the
state of the population, wrote: "What it has always been; people
are perishing as usual."
In 1843, Mr. Thackeray, as little a friend to Ireland as he was
a foe to his own country, recounting what he saw in his travels,
said that, in the south and west of the island, the traveller
had before him the spectacle of a people dying of hunger, and
that by millions, in the very richest counties.
There is no need of repeating what has been written of the
fearful scourge that swept over the country in 1846 and 1847.
The details are too harrowing. At last even the London Times had
to acknowledge the cause of these calamities: "The ulcer of
Ireland drains the resources of the empire. It was to be
expected that it should be so. The people of England have most
culpably and foolishly connived at a national iniquity. Without
going back beyond the Union (in 1800), and only within the last
half-century, it has been notorious all that time that Ireland
was the victim of an unexampled social crime. The landlords
exercise their rights there with a hand of iron, and deny their
duty with a brow of brass. Age, infirmity, sickness, every
weakness, is there condemned to death. The whole Irish people is
debased by the spectacle and contact of beggars and of those who
notoriously die of hunger; and England stupidly winked at this
tyranny. We begin now to expiate a long curse of neglect. Such
is the law of justice. If we are asked why we have to support
half the population of Ireland, the answer lies in the question
itself; it is that we have deliberately allowed them to be
crushed into a nation of beggars!"
The writers of the Times laid the true cause of that appalling
misfortune at the door of the landlords. They would not trace
back the origin of the evil beyond 1800: they could not or would
not appreciate the Christian heroism displayed by the nation
while under the infliction of such a fatal scourge. But it must
not be forgotten by all admirers of virtue that, in the midst of
a distress which baffles description, many of the victims of
famine were at the same time martyrs to honesty and faith. "Come
here and let us die together," said a wife to her husband,
"rather than touch what belongs to another."
The civil right of acquiring land and enjoying its products has
so far been the only one considered by us; and the subject has
been entered upon at some length, as agriculture has at all
times formed the chief occupation of the Irish people. But the
penal laws embraced many other objects; and, as their intent was
evidently to debase the people and reduce it to a state of
actual slavery and want, other civil rights were equally invaded
by their tyrannical provisions.
A portion of the population in all countries devotes itself to
the intellectual pursuits necessary for the life of every
cultivated nation. Whoever chooses must have the right of
devoting his life to the professions of medicine and law, of
entering the Church or the army, if his tastes run in any one of
those directions. Not so in Catholic Ireland. The oath to be
taken by every barrister prevented the Catholic Irishman from
devoting his powers to such a purpose. There was only one Church
for him, and that one proscribed. In the army not only could he
not attain to any rank, but he was not allowed to enter it even
as a private, the holding of a musket being prohibited to him.
So that, through mere fanatical hatred of every thing Catholic,
England deprived herself for a whole century of the services of
a people, forming to-day more than half of her army and navy,
whose efforts have helped to cover her flag with honor, and
whose memorable absence from the English ranks at Fontenoy wrung
that bitter expression from the heart of George II. when the
victorious tide of the English battle was rolled back by the Irish
brigade, "Cursed be the laws which deprive me of such subjects!"
These few words are enough to show that the penal laws were in
reality a decree of outlawry against the Irish--stamping them,
not as true subjects, but as mere slaves and helots, fit only to
be hewers of wood and drawers of water at the bidding of their
lords and masters.
But there are mere human rights, inalienable in man, and sacred
among all nations, which were trampled upon in that desolated
land together with all inferior rights. Such are the rights of
worshipping God, of properly educating children, of preserving a
just subordination in the family and promoting harmony and
happiness among its members. These natural rights were more
openly and shamelessly violated, if that were possible, than all
others; and this in itself would have made the eighteenth
century one of gloom and woe for Irishmen.
It was for their religion chiefly that the Irish had undergone
all the calamities and scourges which have been described. Had
they only, at the very beginning of the Reformation, bowed to
the new dogma of the spiritual supremacy of the English kings;
had they a little later accepted the Thirty-nine Articles of
Queen Elizabeth; had they, at a subsequent epoch, opined in
chorus with the Scotch Presbyterians, and given the Bible as
their authority for all kinds of absurdities and atrocities,
mental and moral; had they, in a word, as they remarked to
Sussex, changed their religion four times in twelve years, they
would have escaped the wrath of Henry VIII., the crafty and
cruel policy of Elizabeth, the shifty expediency of the Stuarts,
the barbarity of the Cromwellian era, and finally the ingenious
atrocities of the penal laws.
Even if, in the midst of some of the extremities to which they
had been reduced, they had at any time resolved to conform and
take the oaths prescribed, all their miseries would have been at
an end, and their immediate admission to all the rights and
privileges of British citizens secured. From time to time, in
individual cases, they witnessed the sudden and magical effect
produced by conformity on the part of those who gave up
resistance altogether, and who, from whatever motive, bowed to
the inevitable conditions on which men were admitted to live
peaceably on Irish soil, and to the enjoyment of the blessings
of this life; such condition being the abjuration of Catholicity.
But so few were found to take advantage of this easy chance
forever held out to them, that a man might well wonder at their
constancy did he not reflect that they set their duty to God
above all things. The fact is patent--they had a conscience, and
knew what it meant.
Having then surrendered their all for the sake of their religion,
the free exercise of that might at least have been left them;
and since the choice lay between the two alternatives of
enjoying the natural right of worshipping their God or
submitting to all the sacrifices previously mentioned (seemingly
the meaning of the various oaths prescribed by law), it can only
be looked upon as an additional cruelty to violently deprive
them of what they chose to preserve at all cost. But the authors
of the statutes did not see the matter in this light. They could
not lose such an opportunity of inflicting new tortures on their
victims; on the contrary, they would have considered all their
labor lost had they not endeavored to coerce the very thing
least subject to coercion, the religious feeling of the human
soul. Accordingly, the resolution was taken to deprive them of
every possible facility for the exercise of their religion, that
the fire within might give no sign of its warmth.
True, the Irish Catholics were not, as the Christians under the
edicts of old Rome, to be summoned before the public courts and
there abjure their religion or die. It is strange that the
rulers of Ireland stopped short at this; that they invented
nothing in their laws at least equivalent, unless the statutes
that compelled every person under fine to be present at
Protestant worship on Sundays be interpreted to mean, what it
very much resembles, an attempt at coercion of the very soul.
Still there was no edict openly proscribing the name of Catholic,
and punishing its bearer with death.
But the measures adopted and actually enforced were in reality
equivalent, and would more effectually than any pagan edict have
produced the same result, if the Irish race had shown the least
wavering in their traditional steadiness of purpose.
The first of the measures devised for this end would have been
completely efficacious with any other people or race. It was a
twofold measure: 1. All bishops, priests, and monks, were to
depart from the kingdom, liable to capital punishment should
they return. 2. All laymen were to be compelled to assist at the
Protestant service every Sunday, under penalty of a fine for
each offence: the fine mounting with the repetition of the
offence, so that, in the end, it would reach an enormous sum.
Only let such a policy as this be persevered in for a quarter of
a century in any country on earth except Ireland, and, in that
country the Catholic religion will cease to exist.
"The Catholic clergy," says Matthew O'Connor--and the reader
will remember he was a witness of what he described-- "submitted
to their hard destiny with Christian resignation. They repaired
to the seaport towns fixed for their embarcation, and took an
everlasting farewell of their country and friends, of every
thing dear and valuable in this world. Many of them were
descending in the vale of years, and must have been anxious to
deposit their bones with the ashes of their ancestors; they were
now transported to foreign lands, where they would find no fond
breast to rely upon, no 'pious tear' to attend their obsequies.
Yet their enemies could not deprive them of the consolations of
religion: that first-born offspring of Heaven still cheered them
in adversity and exile, smoothed the rugged path of death, and
closed their last faltering accents with benedictions on their
country, and prayers for their persecutors.
"Such as were apprehended after the time limited for deportation,
were loaded with irons and imprisoned until transported, to
attest, on some foreign shore, the weakness of the government,
and the cruelty of their countrymen. Some few, disabled from age
and infirmities from emigration, sought shelter in caves, or
implored and received the concealment of Protestants, whose
humane feelings were superior to their prejudices, and who
atoned, in a great degree, by their generous sympathy, for the
wanton cruelty of their party.
"The clause inflicting the punishment of death on such as should
return from exile was suited only for the sanguinary days of
Tiberius or Domitian, and shocked the humanity of an enlightened
age. William of Orange, whose necessities compelled him to give
his sanction to the clause, would never consent to its execution."
Nevertheless, it was afterward enforced on several occasions,
and, during the whole century of penal laws, it not only
remained on the statute-book ad terrorem, but whatever clergyman
disregarded it could only expect to be treated with its utmost
rigor. From Captain South's account, it appears that in 1698 the
number of clergy in Ireland consisted of four hundred and ninety-
five regulars and eight hundred and ninety-two seculars; and the
number of regulars shipped off that year to foreign parts
amounted to four hundred and twenty-four--namely, from Dublin,
one hundred and fifty-three; from Galway, one hundred and ninety;
from Cork, seventy-five; and twenty-six from Waterford.
But such a measure was of too sweeping a character to be carried
out to the letter; many of the proscribed priests, seculars for
the most part, escaped the pursuit of the government spies, and
remained concealed in the country. The bishops had all been
obliged to fly; but a few years later, under Anne, several
returned, for they knew that, without the exercise of their
religious functions, the Catholic religion must have perished;
and, in order that they might continue the succession of the
priesthood, confirm the children, and encourage the people to
stand firm in their faith, they ran the hazard of the gibbet. Of
this fact the persecutors soon became aware, and the Commons of
Ireland declared openly that "several popish bishops had lately
come into the kingdom, and exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction
within the same, and continued the succession of the Romish
priesthood by ordaining great numbers of popish clergymen, and
that their return was owing to defect in the laws."
To cover this defect, they invented the "registry law." They did
not state in express terms their intention of exporting them
again, but their object was clearly manifested by the subsequent
enactment of 1704. By the registry law "all popish priests then
in the kingdom should, at the general quarter sessions in each
county, register their places of abode, age, parishes, and time
of ordination, the names of the respective bishops who ordained
them, and give security for their constant residence in their
respective districts, under penalty of imprisonment and
transportation, and of being treated as 'high traitors' in case
of return."
It is clear that, with the execution of this law, the exertions
of the police and of informers would have been superfluous, as
the clergy were compelled to act as their own police and inform
on themselves. The act, moreover, seems to have been prepared
with a view to another bill, which was soon after passed, for
total expulsion. It was therefore nothing else than a
preliminary measure devised to insure the success of this second
act, and prevent the recurrence of the former "defect in the
laws."
A new explanatory statute was accordingly drawn up, requiring
the clergy to take the oath of abjuration before the 23d of
March, 1710, under the penalties of transportation for life, and
of high-treason if ever after found in the country. This bill,
then, set them the alternative of abandoning either their
country or their principles.
At the same time, for the encouragement of informers, the
Commons resolved that "the prosecuting and informing against
papists was an honorable service." Never before had a like
declaration issued from any body in any nation, least of all by
legislators, in favor of the confessedly meanest of all
occupations; and it is doubtful if the most tyrannical of the
Roman Caesars would ever have thought of mentioning the
"honorable service" of the delatores whom they employed for the
speedy destruction of those whose wealth they coveted. "Genus
hominum," says Tacitus, "publico exitio repertum."
While on this subject, it has been remarked that most of the
Irish informers amassed wealth by their bills of "discovery,"
whereas those of the days of Tiberius generally fell victims to
their own artifices.
The eagerness for blood-money tracked the clergy to their
loneliest retreats, and dragged them thence before persecuting
tribunals, by whose sentence they were doomed to perpetual
banishment. They must all have finally disappeared from the
island, if the people, at last grown indignant at such baseness
and cruelty, had not, by the loudness of their execrations,
checked the activity of the priest-hunters. Wherever they dared
show themselves, they were pelted with stones, and exposed to
the summary vengeance of a maddened people.
The detestable "profession" became at last so infamous and
unprofitable that foreign Jews were almost the only ones found
willing to undertake this "honorable service;" and it is stated
in the "Historia Dominicana," that one Garzia, a Portuguese Jew,
was the most active of those human blood-hounds, and that, in
1718, he contrived to have seven of the proscribed clergy
detected and apprehended.
We cannot speak of the most revolting measure ever intended to
be taken against Catholic priests; namely mutilation, so long
and with such energy denied by Protestants, who were themselves
indignant at the mere mention of it, but now clearly proved by
the archives of France, where documents exist showing that the
non-enactment of such an infamy was solely due to the severe
words of remonstrance sent to England by the Duke of Orleans,
regent of France during the minority of Louis XV.
As late as the middle of the century, in 1744, a sudden increase
of rigor took place; intentions of conspiracy were ascribed to
Catholics as usual, and without any motive whatever, unless it
was caused by the sight of some religious houses, which had been
quietly and unobtrusively reopened during the few years previous.
All at once the government issued a proclamation for "the
suppression of monasteries, the apprehension of ecclesiastics,
the punishment of magistrates remiss in the execution of the
laws, and the encouragement of spies and informers by an
increase of reward."
It was a repetition of the old story; a cruel persecution broke
out in every part of the island. From the country priests fled
to the metropolis, seeking to hide themselves amid the multitude
of its citizens. Others fled to mountains and caverns, and the
holy sacrifice was again offered up in lone places under the
bare heavens, with sentinels to watch for the "prowling of the
wolf," and no other outward dignity than that the grandeur of
the forest and the rugged mountains gave.
In the cities the Catholics assisted at the celebration of the
divine mysteries in stable-yards, garrets, and such obscure
places as sheltered them from the pursuit of the magistrates. On
one occasion, while the congregation (assembled in an old
building) was kneeling to receive the benediction, the floor
gave way, and all were buried beneath the ruin; many were killed,
the priest among others; some were maimed for life, and
remained to the end of their lives monuments of the cruelty of
the government. The dead and dying, and the wounded, were
carried through the streets on carts; and the sad spectacle at
last moved the Protestants themselves to sympathy. The
government was compelled to give way, and allow the persecuted
Catholics to enjoy without further molestation the private
exercise of their religion.
But that this was not a willing concession on the part of the
reigning power is manifest enough from the steady, unswerving,
contrary policy pursued until that time. It was simply forced to
give way to outraged public opinion, then openly opposed
throughout Europe to persecution for conscience' sake.
With religion education was also proscribed. Already, under
William of Orange, had papist school-masters been forbidden to
teach, but the penalty of their disobedience to the law did not
go beyond a fine of a few pounds. So that the Irish youth could
still, with some precautionary prudence, find teachers of the
Greek and Latin languages, of mathematics, history, and
geography. In Munster particularly schools and academies of
literature flourished; the ardor of the people for the
acquirement of knowledge could not be balked by such paltry
obstacles as the laws of William III.
But the Irish Parliament under Anne could not rest satisfied
with such mild measures. By the "Explanatory Act" of 1710, the
school-master in Ireland was subjected to the same punishment as
the priest whom he accompanied everywhere. Prison,
transportation, death itself, became the reward of teaching. And
in proportion as other laws, severer yet, prevented the people
from sending their children abroad to be educated, and these
laws were renewed occasionally and made more stringent and
effective, the result was the total impossibility of Catholic
children receiving any education higher than that of the house.
The final result is known to all. The "hedge-school" was
established, that being the only way left of imparting
elementary knowledge; and it required Irish ingenuity and Irish
aptitude for shifts to invent such a system, for system it was,
and carry it through for so long a time.
But even the last sanctuary of home was yet to be sacrilegiously
invaded; the most sacred of human rights could not be left to
the persecuted people, and the strongest bonds of family
affection were if possible to be broken asunder. What tyranny
had never yet dared attempt in any age or country was to become
a law in Ireland; and that holy feeling by which the members of
a family are held together, in obedence to one of the most
necessary and solemn commandments of God, could not be left
undisturbed in the bosom of an Irish child. The father's rule
over his children and the honor and love due by the child to its
parent, were, in fact, declared by English legislation of no
value, and fit subjects for cruel interference, introducing
irresistible temptation.
Yes, by the laws enacted in the reign of Anne, the son was to be
set against the father, and this for the sake of religion! It
was a part of the Irish statutes, and for a long time it took
occasional effect, that any son of a Catholic who should turn
Protestant at any age, even the tenderest, should alone succeed
to the family estate, which from the day of the son's conversion
could neither be sold nor charged even with a debt of legacy.
From that same day the son was taken from his father's roof and
delivered into the custody of some Protestant guardian. No tie,
however sacred, no claim, however dear, was respected by those
statesmen, who at the very time were the loudest to boast of
their love for freedom, while trampling under foot the most
indispensable rights of Nature.
The wickedest ingenuity of man could certainly not go beyond
this to debase, degrade, and destroy a nation. After
unprecedented calamities of former ages, we find millions of men
reduced by other men, calling themselves Christians, to a
condition of pagan helots, deprived of all rights and treated
more barbarously than slaves. And all the while they were
allowed, induced, encouraged to put an end to their misery by
simply saying one word, taking one oath, "conforming " as the
expression had it. Nevertheless they steadily refused to speak
that word, to take that oath, to conform; that is to say, to
abjure their religion. A few, weak in faith, or carried away by
sudden passion, a burst of despair, subscribe to the required
oath, assist as demanded at the religious services on Sunday,
suddenly rise to distinction, are sure of preserving their
wealth, or even enter into sole possession of the family
property, to the exclusion of all its other members. But such
rare examples, instead of rousing the envy of the rest, excite
only their contempt and execration. To them they are henceforth
apostates, renegades to their faith, cast out from the bosom of
the nation; and their countrymen hug their misery rather than
exchange it for honors and wealth purchased by broken honor,
lost faith, and cowardly desertion of the cause for which their
country was what it was.
While the cowards were so few, and the brave men so many, the
latter constituting indeed the whole bulk of the people, they
were knit together as a band of brethren, never to be estranged
from each other. If any thing is calculated to form a nation, to
give it strength, to render it indestructible, imperishable, it
is undoubtedly the ordeal through which they passed without
shrinking, and out of which they came with one mind, one purpose,
animated by one holy feeling, the love of their religion, and
the determination to keep it at all hazard.
Yes, at any moment throughout this long century, they might have
changed their condition and come out at once to the enjoyment of
all the rights dear to men, by what means is best expressed in
the few words of Edmund Burke:
"Let three millions of people" (the number of Irishmen at the
time he spoke) "but abandon all that they and their ancestors
have been taught to believe sacred, and forswear it publicly in
terms most degrading, scurrilous, and indecent, for men of
integrity and virtue, and abuse the whole of their former lives,
and slander the education they have received, and nothing more
is required of them. There is no system of folly, or impiety, or
blasphemy, or atheism, into which they may not throw themselves,
and which they may not profess openly and as a system,
consistently with the enjoyment of all the privileges of a free
citizen in the happiest constitution in the world."
Thus does the reason of man commend their constancy; but that
constancy required something more than human strength. God it
was who supported them. He alone could grant power of will
strong enough to uphold men plunged for so long a time in such
an abyss of wretchedness. To him could they cry out with truth:
"It is only owing to Divine mercy that we have not perished;"
misericordias Domini, quod non sumus consumpti!
But human reason can better comprehend the effect produced on a
vast multitude of people by oppression so unexampled in its
severity. An immense development of manhood and self-dependence,
an heroic determination to bear every trial for conscience' sake,
and a certainty of succeeding, in the long-run, in breaking the
heavy chain and casting off the intolerable yoke --such was the
effect.
It has been asserted by some authors, who have written on that
terrible eighteenth century in Ireland, that the spirit of the
people was entirely broken, that there was no energy left among
them, and that the imposition of burdens heavier still, were
such a thing possible, could scarcely elicit from them even the
semblance of remonstrance. It was only natural to think so; but,
in our opinion, this is only true of the external despondency
under which the people was bowed, but utterly false with respect
to a lack of mental energy.
There certainly was no general attempt at insurrection on their
part; nor did they take refuge in that last resource of despair--
death after a vain vengeance. If the writers referred to would
have preferred this last fatal resource of wounded pride, they
are right in their estimate of the Irish; but they forget that
the victims were Christians, and could lend no ear to a
vengeance which is futile and a despair which is forbidden.
There was a better course open before them, and they followed it:
to resign themselves to the will of a God they believed in and
for whom they suffered, and wait patiently for the day of
deliverance. It was sure to come; and if those then living were
doomed not to see that happy day, they knew that they would
leave it as an inheritance to their children.
Those writers would doubtless have been satisfied of the
existence of a will among the people, and their conduct would
have met with greater approval, had the attempts of some
individuals at private revenge been more general and successful;
if the bands of Rapparees, White Boys, and others, had wrought
more evil upon their oppressors, although they could not prepare
them to renew the struggle on a large scale with better prospect
of success.
But this could not be; success could never have been reached by
such a road, and it was useless to attempt it. At that time,
there existed no possibility of the Irish recovering their
rights by force. Meanwhile Providence was not forgetful of those
who were fighting the braver moral battle of suffering and
endurance for their religion. It was preparing the nation for a
future life of great purposes, by purifying it in the crucible
of affliction, and preserving the people pure and undebased.
Nowhere has the period of calamity been so protracted and so
severe. Ireland stands alone in a history of wretchedness of
seven centuries' duration. She stands alone, particularly
inasmuch as, with her, the affliction has gone on continually
increasing until quite recently, unrefreshed by periods of
relief and glimpses of bright hope. The sinking spirits of the
people, it is true, have been buoyed up from time to time by
sanguine expectations; but only to find their expectations
crowned with bitter disappointment and sink deeper again in the
sea of their afflictions.
Nevertheless, through all that time the Irish continued morally
strong, and ready at the right moment to leap into the stature
of giants in strength and resolution. How they did so will be
seen, and the simplicity of the explanation will be matter for
surprise. But it is fitting first to set in the strongest light
the assertion that the Irish were really debased by the
calamities of that age, that they possessed no self-dependence
at a time when that was the only thing left to them.
This view is thus expressed in Godkin's "History of Ireland:"
"Too well did the penal code accomplish its dreadful work of
debasement on the intellects, morals, and physical condition of
a people sinking in degeneracy from age to age, till all manly
spirit, all virtuous sense of personal independence and
responsibility was nearly extinct, and the very features--vacant,
timid, cunning, and unreflective--betrayed the crouching slave
within."
And the writer, a well-disposed Protestant, did not see how it
could well be otherwise, and took it for granted that every one
would admit the truth of his assertions without the slightest
hesitation.
For he adds, a little farther on: "Having no rights of franchise-
-no legal protection of life or property--disqualified to handle
a gun, even as a common soldier or a game-keeper-- forbidden to
acquire the elements of knowledge at home or abroad--forbidden
even to render to God what conscience dictated as his due--what
could the Irish be but abject serfs? What nature in their
circumstances could have been otherwise? Is it not amazing that
any social virtue could have survived such an ordeal--that any
seeds of good, any roots of national greatness could have
outlived such a long tempestuous winter? "
Still Mr. Godkin was mistaken; the Irish had suffered no
"debasement of the intellects, of the morals, not even of the
physical condition," notwithstanding the plenitude of causes
existing to bring such results about.
Their intellect had been kept in ignorance. Unable to procure
instruction for their children, except by stealth and in
opposition to the laws, few of them could acquire even the first
elements of mental culture. But the intellect of a nation is not
necessarily debased on that account. As a general rule, it is
true that ignorance begets mental darkness and error, and will
often debase the mind and sink the intellectual faculties to the
lowest human level. But this happens only to people who, having
no religious substratum to rest upon, are left at the mercy of
error and delusions. One great thought, at least, was ever
present to their minds, and that thought was in itself
sufficient to preserve their intellect from being degraded; it
was this "Man is nobler than the brute and born to a higher
destiny." This truth was deeply engraved in their minds; and in
defence of it they battled, and fought, and bled, all down the
painful course of their history.
Had the intellect of the nation been really debased, would not
their religious principles have been the first things to be
thrown overboard? Would they not have adopted unhesitatingly all
the tenets successively proposed to them by the various
"reformers" of England? What is truth, when there is no mind to
receive it? It requires a strong mind indeed to say, "I will
suffer every thing, death itself, rather thin repudiate what I
know comes from God." It is useless to dwell longer on these
considerations. The man who sees not in such an heroic
determination proof of a strong and noble mind may be possessed
of a great, but to common-sense people it will look like a very
limited intelligence.
Mr. Godkin cannot have duly weighed his expressions when he
spoke of the debasement of morals among the Irish. It is no
hyperbole to speak of the nation as a martyr; a martyr in any
sense of the word: to the Christian, a Christian martyr. And yet
it is by that fact guilty of immorality, or, as he puts it,
debased in morals! The point is not worth arguing. But in
contrasting the two nations, the nation debased and the nation
that wrought its debasement, we are irresistibly reminded of the
words used by Our Lord in reference to John the Baptist, then in
prison and liable at any moment to be condemned to death: "What
went ye out in the desert to see? A man clothed in soft
garments? Lo! they that are clothed in soft garments dwell in
the houses of kings."
If we would find a people really debased in morals, we must go
to those whose material prosperity breeds corruption and gives
to all the means of satisfying their evil passions. The orgies
of the Babylonians under their last king, of the effeminate
Persians later on, of the Roman patricians during the empire,
need no more than mention. The cause of the immorality
prevailing at these several epochs is well known, and has been
told very plainly by conscientious historians, some of them
pagans themselves. But, that a people ground down so long under
a yoke of iron, gasping for very breath, yet refusing to
surrender its belief and the worship of its God as its countless
saints worshipped him, to follow the wild vagaries of sectarians
and fanatics, should at the same time be accused of corruption
and debasement of its morals, is too much for an historian to
assert or a reader to believe.
But, beyond all argument, it has been generally conceded, in
spite of prejudices, that the Irish, of all peoples, had been
preeminently moral and Christian. No one has dared accuse them
of open vice, however they may have been accused of folly.
Intemperance is the great foible flung at them by many who,
careful to conceal their own failings, are ever, ready to "cast
the first stone" at them. It would be well for them to ponder
over the rebuke of the Saviour to the accusers of the woman
taken in adultery; when perhaps they may think twice before
repeating the time-worn accusation.
Coming to the "people sinking in degeneracy from age to age;" if
by this is meant that, for a whole century, many of them have
suffered the direst want and died of hunger, that scanty food
has impressed on many the deep traces of physical suffering and
bodily exhaustion, no one will dispute the fact, while the blame
of it is thrown where it deserves to be thrown. But it will be a
source of astonishment to find that, despite of this, the race
has not degenerated even physically; that it is still, perhaps,
the strongest race in existence, and that no other European, no
Englishman or Teuton, can endure the labor of any ordinary
Irishman. In the vast territory of the United States, the public
works, canals, roads, railways, huge fabrics, immense
manufactories, bear witness to the truth of this statement, and
the only explanation that can be satisfactorily given for this
strange fact is, that their morals are pure and they do not
transmit to their children the seeds of many diseases now
universal in a universally corrupt society.
There remains the final accusation of the "very features--
vacant, timid, cunning, and unreflective--betraying the
crouching slave within."
Granting the truth of this--which we by no means do, every
school-geography written by whatever hand attesting the contrary
to-day--where would have been the wonder that they, subjected so
long to an unbending harshness and never-slumbering tyranny,
accustomed to those continual "domiciliary visits" so common in
Ireland during the whole of last century, dragged so often
before the courts of "justice," to be there insulted, falsely
accused, harshly tried and convicted without proof--were obliged
to be continually on their guard, to observe a deep reserve, the
very opposite to the promptings of their genial nature, to
return ambiguous answers, full, by the way, of natural wit and
marvellous acuteness? It was the only course left them in their
forlorn situation. They pitted their native wit against a
wonderfully devised legislation, and often came off the victors.
Suppose it were true, was it not natural that, under such a
system of unrelaxing oppression and hatred toward them, their
faces should be "vacant, timid, cunning, and unreflective,
betraying the crouching slave within?"
Could they give back a proud answer, when a proud look was an
accusation of rebellion? Are prudence, cunning, and just reserve,
vacancy and want of reflection? The man who penned those words
should remember the choice of alternatives ever present to the
mind of an Irishman, however unjustly suspected or accused--the
probability of imprisonment or hanging, of being sent to the
workhouse or transported to the "American plantations."
The Irishman must have changed very materially and very rapidly
since Mr. Godkin wrote. The features he would stamp upon him
might be better applied to the Sussex yokel or the English
country boor of whatever county. The generality of travellers
strangely disagree with Mr. Godkin. They find the Irishman the
type of vivacity, good humor, and wit; and they are right. For,
under the weight of such a load of misery, under the ban of so
terrible a fate, the moral disposition of the Irishman never
changed; his manhood remained intact. To-day, the world attests
to the same exuberance of spirits, the same tenacity of purpose,
which were ever his. This indeed is wonderful, that this people
should have been thus preserved amid so many causes for change
and deterioration. Who shall explain this mystery? What had they,
all through that age of woe, to give them strength to support
their terrible trials, to preserve to them that tenacity which
prevented their breaking down altogether? Something there was
indeed not left to them, since it was forbidden under the
severest penalties; something, nevertheless, to which they clung,
in spite of all prohibitions to the contrary.
It was the Mass-Rock, peculiar to the eighteenth century, now
known only by tradition, but at that time common throughout the
island. The principal of those holy places became so celebrated
at the time that, on every barony map of Ireland, numbers of
them are to be found marked under the appropriate title of
"Corrigan-Affrion"--the mass-rock.
Whenever, in some lonely spot on the mountain, among the crags
at its top, or in some secret recess of an unfrequented glen,
was found a ledge of rock which might serve the purpose of an
altar, cut out as it were by Nature, immediately the place
became known to the surrounding neighborhood, but was kept a
profound secret from all enemies and persecutors. There on the
morning appointed, often before day, a multitude was to be seen
kneeling, and a priest standing under the canopy of heaven, amid
the profound silence of the holy mysteries. Though the surface
of the whole island was dotted with numerous churches, built in
days gone by by Catholics, but now profaned, in ruins, or
devoted to the worship of heresy, not one of them was allowed to
serve for a place where a fraction even of the bulk of the
population might adore their God according to the rites approved
of by their conscience. Shut off from these temples so long
hallowed by sweet remembrance as the spots once occupied by the
saints and consecrated to the true worship of their God, this
faithful nation was consecrating the while by its prayers, by
its blood, and by its tears, other places which in future times
should be remembered as the only spots left to them for more
than a century wherein to celebrate the divine rites.
This was the only badge of nationality they had preserved, but
it was the most sacred, the surest, and the sweetest. Who shall
tell of the many prayers that went up thence from devoted minds
and hearts, to be received by angels and carried before the
throne of God? Who shall say that those prayers were not
hearkened to when to-day we see the posterity of those holy
worshippers receiving or on the point of receiving the full
measure of their desires?
There, indeed, it was that the nation received its new birth; in
sorrow and suffering, as its Saviour was born, but for that very
reason sacred in the eyes of God and man. Their enemies had
sworn complete separation from them, eternal animosity against
them; the new nation accepted the challenge, and that complete
separation decreed by their enemies was the real means of their
salvation and of making them a People.
As has already been observed, the various attempts to make
Protestants of them, attempts sometimes cunning and crafty, at
others open and cruel, always persevered in, never lost sight of,
began to imbue the people with a new feeling of nationality,
never experienced before, and constantly increasing in intensity.
This was witnessed under the Tudors. Their infatuation for the
Stuart dynasty served the same end, and it may be said that,
from all the evils which that attachment brought upon them,
burst forth that great recompense of national sentiment which
almost compensated them for the terrible calamities which
followed in its train. It was under Charles I. that the
Confederation of Kilkenny first gave them a real constitution,
better adapted for the nation than the old regime of their Ard-
Righs.
But it was chiefly under the English Commonwealth, when they
were so mercilessly crushed down by Cromwell and his brutal
soldiery, when there seemed no earthly hope left them, that the
solid union of the old native with the Anglo-Irish families,
which had already been attempted--and almost successfull by the
Confederation of Kilkenny yet never consummated was finally
brought about once for all; their common misery uniting them in
the bonds of brotherly affection, blotting out forever their
long-standing divisions and antipathies which had never been
quite laid aside.
It was thus that the nation was formed and prepared by martyrdom
for the glorious resurrection, the greater future kept in store
for it by Providence; the people all the while remaining
undebased under their crushing evils.
Lastly, the intensity of the suffering produced by the penal
laws, during the eighteenth century, linked the nation in closer
bonds of union still, and this time gave them a unanimity which
became invincible. Their final motto was then adopted, and will
stand forever unchanged. In the clan period it was "Our sept and
our chieftain;" under the Tudors, "Our religion and our native
lords;" under the Stuarts it suddenly became "God and the King;
"--it changed once more, never to change again: it was embraced
in one word, the name of Him who had never deserted them, who
alone stood firm on their side--"Our God!"
CHAPTER XIII.
RESURRECTION.-DELUSIVE HOPES.
By delusive hopes are here meant some of the various schemes in
which Irishmen have indulged and still indulge with the view of
bettering their country. This chapter will aim at showing that,
for the resurrection of Ireland, the reconstruction of her past
is impossible; parliamentary independence or "home rule,"
insufficient, physical force and violent revolution, in
conjunction with European radicals particularly, is as unholy as
it is impracticable.
The resurrection of the Irish nation began with the end of last
century. As, to use their own beautiful expression, "'Tis always
the darkest the hour before day," so the gloom had never settled
down so darkly over the land, when light began to dawn, and the
first symptoms of returning life to flicker over the face of the,
to all seeming, dead nation. Its coming has been best described
in the "History of the Catholic Association" by Wyse. On reading
his account, it is impossible not to be struck with the very
small share that men have had in this movement; it was purely a
natural process directed by a merciful God. As with all natural
processes, it began by an almost imperceptible movement among a
few disconnected atoms, which, by seeming accident approaching
and coming into contact, begin to form groups, which gather
other groups toward them in ever-increasing numbers, thus giving
shape to an organism which defines itself after a time, to be
finally developed into a strong and healthy being. This process
differed essentially from those revolutionary uprisings which
have since occurred in other nations, to the total change in the
constitution and form of the latter, without any corresponding
benefit arising from them.
Before entering upon the full investigation of this uprising, it
may be well to dispel some false notions too prevalent, even in
our days, among men who are animated with the very best
intentions, who wish well to the Irish cause, but who seem to
fail in grasp in the right idea of the question. Reconstruction,
say they, is impossible-at least as far as the past history of
the country goes. Where are her leaders, her chieftains, her
nobility? Feudalism broke the clans, persecution put an
effectual stop to the labors of genealogists and bards. Where,
to-day, are the O'Neill, the O'Brien, the O'Donnell, and the
rest? Until new leaders are found, offshoots, if possible, of
the old families, more faithful and trustworthy than those who
so far have volunteered to guide their countrymen, how is it
possible to expect a people such as the Irish have always been,
to assume once more a corporate existence, and enjoy a truly
national government?
I. That the Irish nobility has disappeared forever may be
granted. In giving our reasons for believing in the
impossibility of connecting the present with the past through
that class, and thus restoring a truly national government, and
in strengthening this opinion by what follows, we shall show at
the same time that, in that regard, Ireland is on a par with all
other nationalities, among whom the aristocratic classes have
quite lost the prestige that once belonged to them, and can no
longer be said to rule modern nations.
The question of nobility is certainly an important one for the
Irish--nay, for all peoples. Up to quite recently, profound
thinkers never imagined it possible for a people to enjoy peace
and happiness save under the guidance of those then held to be
natural guides with aristocratic blood in their veins, who were
destined by God himself to rule the masses. We are far from
falling in with the fashion, so common nowadays, of deriding
those ideas. Men like Joseph de Maistre, who was certainly an
upholder of the theory, and who could not suppose a nation to
exist without a superior class appointed by Providence to guide
those whose blood was less pure, have a right to be listened to
with respect, and none of their deliberate opinions should be
treated with levity.
And, in truth, no nobility ever existed more worthy of the title,
as far as the origin of its power went, than the Irish. Its
last days were spent, like those of true heroes, fighting for
their country and their God. It is a remarkable fact that they,
the truest, were the first of the aristocratic classes to fall.
After them, all the aristocracies of Europe, with the exception
perhaps of the English, which still exists at least in name,
gradually saw their power wrested from them, so that, to-day, it
may be said with truth that the "noble" blood has lost its
prerogative of rule.
Various are the theories on these superior classes; a few words
on some of them may be as appropriate as interesting.
Of all those advanced, Vico's are the least defensible, though
they seem to rest on a deep knowledge of antiquity. No Christian
can accept his view of a universal savage state of society after
the Flood; and his explanation of the origin of aristocratic
races, and of the plebeians, their slaves, is purely the work of
imagination, however well read in classic lore may have been the
author of "Scienza Nuova." To suppose with him that the primeval
"nobles" reached the first stage of civilization by inventing
language, agriculture, and religion, and by imposing the yoke of
servitude on the "brutes" who were not yet possessed of the
first characteristics of humanity, is revolting to reason, and
contradictory to all sound philosophy and knowledge of history.
His aristocracy is a brutal institution which he does well to
doom to extinction as soon as the plebs is sufficiently
instructed and powerful enough to seize upon the reins of
government, before it, in its turn, is brought under by the
progressive march of monarchy, with which his system culminates.
The feudal ideas concerning "noble" blood rested on an entirely
different basis. The feudal monarch is but the first of the
nobles, and the possession of land is the true prerogative and
charter of nobility. The inferior classes being excluded from
that privilege, are also excluded from all political rights, and
are nothing more nor less than the conquered races which were
first reduced to slavery. Christianity was the only power which
effected a change, and a deep one, in the relations of these two
classes to each other; the rigorous application of the system by
the Northmen being entirely opposed to the elementary teachings
of our holy religion.
From the change thus brought about resulted the Christian idea
of aristocratic and monarchical government which had the support
of some gifted writers of the last and present centuries. It was
in fact a return to the old system realized by Charlemagne in
the great empire of which he was the founder--a system whose
glorious march was interrupted by the invasion of feudalism in
its severest form, which, according to what was before said,
came down from Scandinavia in the time of Charlemagne's
immediate successors. Under the regime of the noble emperor, the
Church, the Aristocracy, and the People, formed three Estates,
each with its due share in the government. This mode of
administering public affairs became general in Europe, and stood
for nearly a thousand years.
But is it the particular form of government necessary for the
happiness of a nation, as it was held to be by some powerful
minds? If it is, then are we born, indeed, in unhappy times; for
the corner-stone of the edifice, the aristocratic idea, has
crumbled away, and is apparently gone forever.
Any one, looking at Europe as it stands to-day, must feel
constrained to admit that its history for the last hundred years
may be summed up in the one phrase: admission of the middle
classes of society to the chief seat of government. Russia now
makes the solitary exception to this rule; for in England, which
seems the most feudal of all nations, the middle classes have
attained to a high position, and, through their special
representatives, have often taken the chief lead in public
affairs, ever since the Revolution of 1688, a lead which is now
uncontested. And as individuals of the middle class are often
admitted into the ranks of the aristocracy, it would indeed be a
hard thing to find purely "noble" blood in the vast majority of
aristocratic families now existing in Great Britain.
The history of the gradual decline of what is called the
nobility in the various states of Europe would require volumes.
In many instances it would certainly be found to have been
richly merited, in France particularly, perhaps, where the
corruption of that class was one of the chief causes which led
to the first French Revolution.
But in Ireland the original idea of nobility was different from
that entertained elsewhere; the action of the institution on the
people at large was peculiar in its character; and if, in early
times, those rude chieftains were often guilty of acts of
violence and outrage against religion and morality, they atoned
for this by that last long struggle of theirs, so nobly waged in
defence of both. But the destruction of the order was final and
complete, and seems to have left no hope of resurrection.
In our first chapter, when treating of the clan system, the
origin of chieftainship among the Celts was referred back to the
family: all the chieftains, or nobles, were each the head of a
sept or tribe, which is the nearest approach to a family; all
the clansmen were related by blood to the chieftain. The order
of nobility among the Celts was therefore natural and not
artificial; being neither the result of some conventional
understanding nor of brute force. Nature was with them the
parent of nobility and chieftainship; and the ennobling, or
raising a person by mere human power to the dignity of noble,
was unknown to them: a state of things peculiar to the race.
In Vico's system, aristocracy sprang from physical force or
skill; consequently, nobility was founded on no natural right,
although the author does his best to prove the contrary, chiefly
by ascribing to the aristocratic class the discovery or
invention of right (jus) which thus becomes a mere derivative of
force.
In feudalism, pure and unmixed, after it had penetrated farther
south, under the lead of the Scandinavians, nobility was derived
from conquest and armed force. It is true that, by this system,
the viking, monarch, or sovereign lord, was the one who
distributed the territory, won from conquered nations, among his
faithful followers, and thus land and its consequence, nobility,
were apparently the award of merit; but the merit in question
being equivalent to success in battle, it again resolved itself
into armed force. In fact, the power of feudalism proper rested
in the army; the chief nobles were duces or combats (dukes or
counts), the inferior nobles were equites (knights) and milites
(men-at-arms). All power and title began and ended with force of
arms, which was the only foundation of right: jus captionis et
possessionis--the right of taking and of keeping.
Eventually feudal ideas underwent considerable change among the
aristocracy of Christendom, by the gradual spread of Christian
manners; and the first establishment of nobility by Charlemagne,
which was anterior to pure feudalism, afterward revived, and
lasted a thousand years. Then it was conferred by the monarch on
merit of any kind, and it was understood that those whom
superior authority had raised to the dignity had won their title
by their deeds, which were sufficient to prove their noble blood,
and that they were empowered to transmit the title to their
posterity. The idea was a grand one, and gave proof of its vast
political and social usefulness in the immense benefits which it
brought upon Europe during so many ages. Unfortunately, the
inroad of the Scandinavians, following closely on the death of
its great founder, introduced feudalism as better known to us,
interfered with the institution which Charlemagne had
established in such admirable equipoise, and added to it many
barbarous adjuncts, which for a long time entered into the idea
of nobility itself. Thus the titles of feudal lords were
retained--duce, comites, equites, milites--with, all the
paraphernalia of brute force which the harsh mind of northern
despotism had made divine. Thus was the holding of landed
property allowed to the nobles alone; the great mass of the
population being composed of men--ascripti glebae-- who were
incapable from their position of rising in the social scale; so
that all were duly impressed with the idea that the mass of the
people had been conquered and reduced, if not to slavery, to
what greatly resembled it--serfdom. From this order of things
arose that fruitful source of all modern revolutions, the
division of Europe into two great classes antagonistic to each
other and separated by an almost impassable gulf--the lords and
the "villeins."
To be sure, the supreme lord had the power to raise even a
villein to the rank of noble, after he had proved his superior
elevation of mind by heroic achievements; but what superhuman
exertions did not those achievements call for; what a concourse
of fortuitous circumstances rarely occurring, so as to render
almost illusory the hope of rising held out by the feudal theory!
The Church alone opened her highest grades to all
indiscriminately; and, in her, true merit was really an
assurance of advance.
Further details are not needed. The difference between the idea
of the nobility entertained in Celtic countries, and that held
by the rest of Europe, is already in favor of the former.
For this reason the action of the Irish aristocracy on the
people at large was happily altogether free from those causes of
irritation so common in feudal countries. A close intimacy and
personal devotion naturally existed between the chieftain of a
clan and his men--an intimacy manifested by the free manners of
the humblest among them, and that ease of social intercourse
between all classes of people, which was a matter of so much
surprise to the Norman barons at their primitive invasion.
At first sight, the Celtic system appears, in one respect at
least, inferior to that which prevailed throughout the rest of
Europe: the simple clansmen could never indulge in the hope of
attaining to the chieftainship, being naturally excluded from
that high office. Only the actual members of the chieftain's own
family could hope to succeed him after his death, by election,
and take the lead of the sept; thus nobility was entirely
exclusive, and regulated by the very laws of Nature. The office
was really not transferable, and no degree of exertion, of
whatever nature, could win it for any person born out of the one
family. But the difference was scarcely one in fact; and we know
how illusory, often was that ambition which the system of merit
inspired in the man born of an inferior class in other races
than the Celtic. The broad assertion, that no man could rise
from the condition in which he happened to be born, remains true
for nearly all cases.
But, on the other hand, there were motives of ambition besides
that of becoming chieftain, or entering on the road thereto, by
being admitted into the ranks of the nobility, which lay open to
the Celt; and if the desire of a mere clansman to become a
chieftain lay within the bounds of possibility, the social state
of Celtic countries would have been broken up and become
intolerable, and society would have been dissolved into its
primitive elements. Two considerations of importance:
The whole of Irish history teaches one lesson, or, rather,
impresses one fact: that every member of a clan took as much
pride in the sept to which he belonged, and labored as zealously
for its head, as he could have done had the advantage turned all
to himself. The peculiar features engendered by the system were
such that each man identified himself with the whole tribe and
particularly with its leader; and this is easily understood, as
we see the same sort of feeling existing to-day among families.
It is in the very essence of natural ties to merge the
individual in the community to which he belongs, as in questions
which affect the whole family to merge self in the whole, to
forget one's own identity, to be ready for any sacrifice,
particularly when the sacrifice is called forth in defence of a
beloved parent.
To judge by the ancient annals of Ireland which are accessible,
this was undoubtedly the sentiment pervading Celtic clans, and
it is easy to conceive how, under such conditions, ambitious
thoughts of the chieftainship or nobility could not well enter
there. Moreover, we repeat, had such ambitious thoughts been
within the compass of realization, the whole system would have
been destroyed.
The greatest source of quarrels, feuds, wars, and general
calamities among the Irish people, was the insane aspiration
among the inferior members of a chieftain's family after supreme
power. The institution of Tanist, or heir-apparent, particularly,
which was general for all offices, from the highest to the
lowest, was a constant source of trouble and contention to septs
which, without it, would have remained united and in harmony.
Montalembert has well said that it seems as if an incurable
fatality accompanied the Irish everywhere, and condemned nearly
all the highest among them to have their blood shed either by
others or by their own hand, and that few indeed are those
renowned chieftains and kings who died quietly in their beds.
Their annals are filled throughout with tales of blood; and,
when we know of their strong attachment to religion, of their
tenderheartedness for women, children, old and feeble men, it is
hard to conceive how they came to shed blood so often, and show
themselves proof against the simplest claims of humanity.
But the difficulty is sufficiently explained by their own annals
and the state of society under which they lived. The Tanistry
was the great source of all those evils. The position of a
chieftain was so honorable, so influential, and powerful, that
all natural sentiments, even those of family affection, were
often extinguished by the insane ambition of attaining to it, in
those whom Nature had set on the road toward it.
It looks like a contradiction, yet nothing is so well
established as their deep affection for their near relatives and
the fury engendered against their nearest of kin when allured by
the prospect of the chieftainship. What the case might have been,
had all the inferior clansmen been influenced by the same
motive, one shudders to think. Happily the possibility of such a
position was denied them, and thus were they spared all the
crime and horrors which it entailed. Let us now turn to the fall
of the Irish nobility, in order to see how that fall was final
and decisive, leaving little or no room for the hope of their
resurrection.
The great wars of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth upon the island
often drove some of the Irish chieftains to quit their country
for a time; a thing scarcely ever known before, where the Pale
was so contracted and the power of the English kings so limited.
But those first voyages of Irish lords to foreign countries had
generally no other destination than England itself, whither they
sometimes repaired to justify themselves in the presence of the
sovereign against the imputations of their enemies, or to pay
court to him for the purpose of obtaining some coveted object.
Occasionally their children were brought up at the English court,
either with the view of instilling Protestantism into their
artless minds, or to make them friends of England, so that many
of them thus became king's or queen's men. In this manner the
Irish nobility first came to look out beyond their own country.
When, as events went on, some great family was crushed or nearly
so, as were the Kildares by Henry Tudor and the Geraldines by
Elizabeth, the outraged nobility began to think of foreign
alliances, and cast their eyes abroad over Spain, Belgium, or
France, above all toward Rome, which was the centre of their
religion, attachment to which was one of their chief crimes,
where the Holy Father was ever ready to encourage and receive
them with open arms, Thus history tells us of the narrow escape
of young Gerald Desmond.
He was still a child of twelve years, and the sole survivor of
the historic house of Kildare, when his life was sought after
with an eagerness which resembled that of Herod, but the
devotion of his clansmen defeated all attempts at his capture.
"Alternately the guest of his aunts, married to the daughter of
the chief of Offaly and Donegal, the sympathy everywhere felt
for him lead to a confederacy between the northern and southern
chieftains, which had long been felt wanting, and never could be
accomplished. A loose league was formed, including the O'Neills
of both branches, O'Donnell, O'Brien, the Earl of Desmond, and
the chiefs of Moylurg and Breffni. The child, object of so much
natural and chivalrous affection, was harbored for a time in
Munster; then transported, through Connaught, into Donegal; and
finally, after four years, in which he engaged more the minds of
the statesmen than any other individual under the rank of
royalty, he was safely landed in France."-(A. M. O'Sullivan.)
But the intercourse between the Irish nobility and foreign
powers was chiefly increased during the reign of Elizabeth, when
by the great league of the Desmond Geraldines in the south,
which was followed by that of the O'Neills and O'Donnells in the
north, they entered into open treaty with the Popes and the
Kings of Spain; and, when reverses came, no other resource was
left to the outlawed chieftains than flight to the Continent,
where they abode till the storm blew over, sometimes for the
remainder of their lives.
James Fitzmaurice stayed a long time in Italy, where, on hearing
of the imprisonment of his cousins, the Desmonds, he planned the
first great league in defence of religion, no longer for the
purpose only of righting family wrongs, but of waging a holy war
which might draw the cooperation of all the Catholic powers.
These few details are here furnished, because they mark a new
starting-point in the history of the race, when the nobility of
the land first went abroad to live with a view of finding allies
for the Irish cause; while the Irish at home looked anxiously to
their chieftains abroad to return to them with the promised
succor.
A few words on the policy exercised toward the Irish nobility by
Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James I., at the beginning of his
reign, will give us a sufficiently clear insight into the means
adopted for the gradual attack upon them, which resulted first
in their partial subjugation, finally in their total destruction.
Those monarchs thought that, to reduce Ireland to an English
colony, all they had to do was to destroy the chieftains, and
the subjugation of the country was complete. They were
strengthened in this opinion by the outbreak of Protestantism,
which had deprived the lower classes not only of their material
comfort and religious consolations, but of all the immunities
and liberties which the middle ages had left to them. While the
mass of the nation was not only denied all political influence,
but even all right to any consideration whatsoever on the part
of the state, when the highest nobles were cowering at the feet
of royalty, utterly at the mercy of the Tudor despots, how could
the plebs of England and Ireland dare show its front even to
testify to mere existence?
The English monarchs were aware that the spirit of the Irish
nobles was not broken like that of their English vassals; and
they resolved on bringing the proud lords of the Pale and the
chieftains of the old race to a like submission with their own
nobles. But of the common clansmen they made no more account
than of the English rabble, and herein lay their great mistake.
Subsequent history proved that the national leaders of the Irish
race might be utterly annihilated, and yet the Irish question
remain as great a difficulty as ever, owing to the stubborn,
though sometimes passive resistance of the peasantry. But at
that time such a thing was not contemplated.
All the cunning of diplomacy, all the artifice of the law,
finally all the material resources of England, were called in,
one after the other, or together, to achieve that great object
of the policy of the Tudors and of the first Stuart. It is not
necessary to go over what every person conversant with the
history of the time knows by heart; it is only proper to
indicate, as briefly as possible, the gradual results of that
crafty and stern policy.
The Geraldine war ended with the total destruction of the
Catholic Anglo-Irish nobles of the south, whose place was filled
by the younger sons of Protestant nobles from England. With the
Geraldines, or shortly after them, fell the O'Sullivans of Beare,
the McGeohegans, the O'Driscolls, and O'Connors of Kerry, whom
Spain and Portugal received.
Then the whole efforts of Elizabeth were turned to the
destruction of the native chieftains of the north. She failed;
and the war resulted in a peace which left their lands and the
open practice of their religion to the Ulster chiefs.
But James I., though he seemed willing to abide by the articles
of the treaty, was driven by hard pressure to employ deceit,
fraud, intimidation, and force, to bring the northern nobility
into his power, and "the flight of the earls" was the
consequence.
From this date the "Irish exiles" began in good earnest,
originally consisting, for the most part, of families belonging
to the first blood of the land, with minor chiefs and captains
in their retinue. Many letters written at the time, which have
been preserved, as well as reports of spies and informers,
dispatched to the court of England from Spain, Portugal, Belgium,
France, and Italy, give us an insight into the life led by
those noblemen in foreign countries. They were sometimes
supported by the sovereigns who received them; but at others
neglected and reduced to shifts for a living.
The "flight" itself and all its details are given by the Rev. C.
P. Meehan. The entire number of souls on board the small vessel
which bore them away was, according to Teigue O'Keenan, Ollamh
of Maguire, "ninety-nine, having little sea-store, and being
otherwise miserably accommodated." This was indeed the first
emigration of the Irish nobles and gentry, which was to be
followed by many another, to their final extinction.
Sir John Davies took an English view of the subject when he
wrote, about that time, to Lord Salisbury: "We are glad to see
the day wherein the countenance and majesty of the law and civil
government hath banished Tyrone out of Ireland, which the best
army in Europe, and the expense of two million pounds sterling,
did not bring to pass. And we hope his Majesty's government will
work a greater miracle in this kingdom than ever St. Patrick did;
for St. Patrick did only banish the poisonous worms, but
suffered the men full of poison to inhabit the land still; but
his Majesty's blessed genius will banish all those generations
of vipers out of it, and make it, ere it be long, a right
fortunate island."
Davies's prophecy ought to have been accomplished long ago, for
it is long since all the Irish nobility, "those generations of
vipers," has been destroyed; yet the poor island is still far
from being "right fortunate."
The chief means employed at the time to encompass the
destruction of the nobles was the infamous revelations of spies
and informers. The existence of these agents has long been known
to all; but the extent of their workings was not suspected even
until the state papers and the correspondence of political men,
and holders of offices at the time, came to be examined by
writers desirous of investigating the whole truth.
It was then found that every man in the English Government,
beginning from the highest, the king's ministers, through the
Lords-Lieutenants and Chief-Justices of Ireland, down to the
lowest officials, one and all kept in their pay men of all ranks
of life, who, at the bidding of their employers, were ready to
circumvent the victims of an odious policy, and under the guise
of friendship, interest, common acquaintance, to discover, and
even, if needed, to invent facts and circumstances which might
be turned against them, or against any other persons obnoxious
to England, with the view of destroying them. So that, to
England in Europe, and to Elizabeth in England, belongs the
dubious honor of having invented that great agent of modern
governments--the secret police.
But the operations of those informers were not confined to
England and Ireland alone, although those two kingdoms may be
said to have literally swarmed with them; all foreign countries
were made the scenes of their infamous machinations, wherever in
fact the Irish nobles or English Catholics fled for refuge from
persecution. At the courts of Spain and Rome they were to be
found; in Brussels and Louvain, in Paris and Rheims, as well as
in the by-lanes of London and the lowest quarters of Dublin. The
ecclesiastical establishments particularly, which were founded
by the Irish Catholics for the education of their priesthood,
were infested with them: they found means to penetrate into
their most secluded recesses, and sometimes the vilest and most
shameful hypocrisy was resorted to in order to gain admittance
into those holy cloisters devoted to science and virtue.
All the great houses and hotels in foreign countries, where the
banished nobility of Ireland passed the tedious hours, months,
and years, of their exile, were the places easiest of access to
those base tools of the English Government.
On the reports furnished by these men the British policy was
based, and the nobility and gentry still left in the island fell
into the meshes so cautiously spread around them. How many of
their number were cast into the Tower of London or the Castle of
Dublin, on the mere word of these pests of society! How many,
suddenly warned of the treachery intended, had to fly in haste
lest they should fall into the hands of their enemies! We know
that the first "flight of the earls" was brought about by such
means as these, but our readers would be mistaken in imagining
that that was an exceptional case, scarcely ever repeated. It
was in reality the ordinary way of getting rid of this hated
race of Irishmen.
The great misfortune was that, even among the Irish themselves,
nay, among friars and priests belonging to the race, the English
Government sometimes, though Heaven be thanked! rarely, found
ready tools and most useful informers. Mean and sordid souls are
to be found everywhere; our Lord himself was betrayed by an
apostle, while giving him the kiss of peace; but among the Irish,
people this class was confined to a few needy adventurers,
sometimes to men who, from some personal grievance, real or
imaginary, were blinded by the spirit of revenge to deliver
those whose destruction they thirsted for into the hands of
their common enemies, to their own eternal shame and perdition.
The common people were too noble-hearted ever to join in such
infamy, and to those who would have tempted them with gold to
betray the men concealed by them, the response was ever ready:
"The King of England is not rich enough to buy me!"
Thus, piecemeal, as it were, during the reign of Elizabeth and
James I., and a part, at least, of that of Charles I., numbers
of the Irish nobles were imprisoned or slain at home, or
compelled to go into exile.
Nor, when James I., going lower in the social scale, began to
dispossess the ordinary people, the clansmen, the tenants of
Ulster, in order to make room for his Scotch Presbyterians, was,
the war on the nobility discontinued on that account. The most
prominent and, in its results, universal feature of his reign,
was the breaking up of the clans all over the island, whereby he
effected a complete change in the social state of the country.
But the most efficacious means of bringing that result about was
the total destruction of the nobility and gentry. The crafty
monarch knew that so long as the Irish could see and converse
with their natural chieftains and lords, so long would it be
impossible to extinguish or abate, in the slightest degree, the
clan-spirit. It was only when the key-stone which held their
social edifice together-the head of the sept-had disappeared,
that the whole fabric would tumble into ruins.
After a long trial of this policy of treachery and craft, came
Cromwell to complete the work with violence and brutal force.
There still remained in the island a great number of noble
families, and the ollamhs and genealogists kept clear the rolls
of the respective pedigrees. There is no doubt, at the time of
Cromwell's war of extermination, even when the English
Parliament had passed the Act of Settlement, that all the Irish
septs still knew where to find their lawful natural chiefs, who,
if no longer on the island, were at the head of some regiment in
Flanders, France, Austria, or Spain. But, as time went on, the
Irish brigades naturally came to identify themselves more and
more with the countries into whose service they had passed, and
where they had taken up their permanent abode; while in the
island itself, force came to degrade what was left of the nobles,
and to annihilate forever the national state institutions
preserved by the genealogists and bards.
One of the features which most forcibly strikes the reader of
the history of those times is, what took place all over the
island when the English Parliament issued that celebrated
proclamation in which it was declared that "it was not their
intention to extirpate this whole nation."-(October 11, 1652.)
By that time the chief officers of Cromwell's army had already
taken possession of a great number of the castles and estates of
the nobility who had not left the country. The rest had fallen
into the hands of the adventurers of 1641, who had advanced
money for the purpose of raising a private army to conquer lands
for themselves; while the body of Cromwell's troops looked on,
awaiting the small pittance of a few hundred acres; which was to
be their share of the spoil. Here is the strange and awe-
inspiring picture of the conquered island in the seventeenth
century:
The nobles, who had survived the fighting and defeat, were
allowed to remain a short time until their transportation to
Connaught. But, driven away from their mansions, where the new
"landlords"-the word then came into use for the first time--
occupied what had been their apartments, they had to live in
some ruinous out-buildings, and to till with their own hands a
few roods of land for the support of their perishing families. A
few garans (dray-horses), and a few cows and sheep, were the
only aid in labor and production left to them. They were allowed,
by sufferance; to raise some small crops of grain and roots,
but all their time had to be occupied in purely manual labor.
Such is the image which fixes itself indelibly on the memory of
any one who reads attentively the common occurrences of those
days. It was a picture presented in every province of the island;
in the most distant mountain-fastnesses as well as in the still
smiling plains of the lowlands.
The nobles were, as a class, utterly destroyed; few of them fell
to the inferior rank of yeomen; while the mass of the people--
was at once plunged to the dead level of common peasants and
laborers. If some of the former class still retained a few
faithful servants, their help was required for the drudgery
about the farm or the miserable dwelling. None of them could be
spared to keep up "the glory of the house." Would it not have
been bitter irony to talk to this remnant of pedigree and their
long line of ancestors? And would their enemies, who were now
their masters, have countenanced the proscribed offices of files
and shanachies, when laws against them specially had been so
long enacted if not enforced? Now was the exact time for the
rigid execution of those laws so evidently designed for the
transformation of the freeborn natives into feudal serfs.
Hence, when the bitter day at last came, which was to deprive
them of even the sight of the hereditary territory of the family,
which was to transplant them to Connaught-among countrymen,
indeed, but none the less strangers to them, whose presence
could not fail to be unwelcome, and bring disturbance, confusion,
and disorder-how, in such a case, could they hope to retain or
revive their prestige as the old lords of the country? It is
said that, for this, many of the Munster chieftains preferred to
go into exile to Spain, or even to the islands of America,
rather than take up their abode in Connaught, where they were
sure to find bitter enemies in the old inhabitants of that
desolate province.
This state of things knew no change, except with a very few of
the Anglo-Irish, when Charles II. came to the throne, after the
death of the Protector. He was in truth merely the executor of
the great Act of Settlement, and carried into effect what had
been enacted by the Parliament which had brought his father to
the block, and driven himself into exile.
He only restored their estates to a few families of "innocent
papists." Such was the phrase applied to them in derision,
doubtless. The generality of the old families continued to sink
deeper and deeper in degradation, and the forgetfulness of all
they had once been.
It took the greater part of a century, from 1607 to 1689, to
effect the almost total disappearance of the Irish nobility. As
Colonel Myles Byrne, in his "Irish at Home and Abroad," says:
"Few facts in history are more surprising than the rapidity and
completeness of the fall of the Irish families stricken down by
the penal laws. Reduced to beggary at once, and with habits
acquired in affluence, surrounded only by contemporaries
similarly crushed, or by the despoilers revelling and rioting in
possession of their forfeited lands, friendless and unpitied,
regarded as 'suspects' from the reasons for discontent so
abundantly furnished them, they seemed struck with stupor, and
utterly incapable of any effort to rise out of the abyss into
which they had been precipitated. Dispirited, heart-broken,
unmanned, they suffered the little personal property left them
to melt away; and, on its exhaustion, were compelled to resort
to the most humiliating means to prolong existence, and to
accept for their helpless offspring the humblest condition which
promised them a maintenance. A 'trade' was the general resort
sought for the son of the chief of a clan, landholder, or
gentleman.
"This gave rise to Swift's observation to Pope: 'If you would
seek the gentry of Ireland, you must look for them on the coal-
quay or in the liberty.'
"Thus, in my youth, 'the Devoy,' the head of one of the most
powerful and distinguished of our septs, was a blacksmith, I
have often seen a mechanic, named James Dungan, who was said to
be a descendant of James Dungan, Earl of Limerick; and 'the
Chevers' (Lord Mount Leinster) was the clerk of Mrs. Byrnes, who
carried on the business of a rope-maker.
"Maddened and embittered by humiliation and suffering,
renouncing all hope of recovering their stolen lands, those
victims of 'bills of discovery,' or of confiscation, burned or
destroyed, or threw aside, as worse than useless, the records of
their former possessions, the proofs of their former
respectability, and seemed, in fact, desirous to efface all
evidence of it. I know one case in which the title-deeds of an
estate were searched for an important occasion, and in which it
appeared that they had been given to tailors to cut into strips
or measures for purposes of their trade.
"A claim was set up to a dormant peerage, and a relation of mine
having been applied to for information in support of it, he said:
'You are positively in remainder; but you are in the condition
of the descendants of many Irish families, whose great
difficulty is to prove who was their grandfather.'"
The reader is naturally struck, when the sudden appearance of
James II. on the island presents to his eyes another Irish army,
and a new Irish nation, fighting again for God and the king, but
with few of the old names among those who then appeared on the
scene. The leaders throughout the three years' struggle, which
decided the ultimate fate of the country, for the most part have
names unknown to Ireland, and unassociated with its former
history, so completely had the aristocracy of the island
perished and disappeared.
It may be well imagined, then, that, after the passage of
another century of woe such as was described in the last chapter,
it would be impossible to reconstruct the genealogies of the
old families who might be entitled to lead the rising generation.
Some few names are still advanced as entitled to the hereditary
honors of once noble families, and thus we still hear of
pretensions to title of "the O'Brien," "the O'Donaghue," and a
few others. That such pretensions are acknowledged by the
generality of the nation, it would be questionable to assert.
To think, then, of reconstructing the Irish nation out of its
former elements, as they once existed, would be an idle dream.
Those elements are dissolved and forever destroyed, and all that
the nation can do with respect to its past is to preserve in
pious remembrance the former race of men who once shed down such
a glory over Irish annals. It was a happy and patriotic thought
of the antiquarian societies of the island to investigate the
old national records; to illustrate, explain, and bring them
before the public in a language intelligible to the present
generation. It is doubtful if in any other country the
aristocracy fell with a heroism and glory so pure and unalloyed.
Among all modern nations, as was said previously, the old class
of noblemen has either passed out of sight, or is fast
disappearing from living history. Ireland, then, does not stand
alone in that respect. She was the first to lose her nobility,
and she lost it more utterly than any other nation. But in the
variety of movements, complications, revolutions, which now go
to form the daily current of events in Europe, where do we find
the nobles regarded as a power, as an element calculated to
restore or even to preserve? The "noblemen" are well enough
satisfied nowadays, if they are not persecuted, proscribed, or
destroyed; if they are enabled to take their stand amid the
crowd of men of inferior rank and share in the affairs of their
country; content to see their names once so exclusively glorious,
set on a par with those of plebeians, to lead the modernized
peoples into the new paths whither they are rapidly drifting.
Nay, so low have the mighty fallen, that even dethroned kings
and princes sometimes ask to be admitted as simple citizens in
the countries which they or their ancestors once ruled.
Here the thought will naturally occur: If the phenomenon is
universal with respect to the position allotted now to men of
"noble blood"--since it is evident that for those nations which
feel no veneration for it a future history is designed, and that
future is to be utterly independent of such an idea--then
Ireland is no worse off than any other country in that regard,
nay, the veneration for noble blood perhaps exists, in its right
sense, now in her bosom alone, and, though no longer available
for any purpose, is still an element of conservatism worthy of
preservation and far from despicable.
Therefore, when we number among false hopes the one entertained
by a few Irishmen whose thoughts still cling fondly to the past,
and who would fain reconstruct it, it is not with the intention
of treating those aspirations slightingly, which we ought to
honor and would share, were there only the faintest possibility
of calling again to life what we cannot but consider passed away
forever.
II. Let us move on to the consideration of our second delusive
hope, one of a much deeper import, which to-day of all others
occupies public attention--a separate Irish Parliament and home-
rule government.
The desire for a separate Irish Parliament is certainly a
national aspiration, it may even be called a right; for the
people of the island can justly complain of being at the mercy
of a rival nation, of which they are supposed to form a part,
and are consequently heavily taxed for the support of it without
any adequate return. The day may not be far distant when this
wish of theirs will have to be complied with, as were so many
other rights once as strenuously denied.
Nevertheless it is our opinion, and we say it advisedly, there
is no reason for believing that this would prove a universal
panacea for Ireland's woes, sure to bring health, happiness, and
prosperity to the nation, uniting in itself all blessings, all
future success, all germs of greatness; nor is there reason to
believe that with it the resurrection of the nation is assured,
as without it, it would remain dead.
To speak still more clearly--the representation of a people by
its deputies being according to modern ideas an element of free
constitution for all nations, and Ireland having for so long a
time enjoyed a privilege very similar to it under her own
national monarchs, our object cannot be understood to depreciate
a political institution which seems to have become a necessity
of the times, owing to the eager aspiration of all minds and
hearts toward it. But we think it a delusion to imagine that, by
its possession, national happiness is necessarily and fully
secured.
Whatever may be the general experience of parliamentary rule,
its record for Ireland is a sad one. The old Feis of the nation
are not here alluded to; they had very little in common with
modern Parliaments, being merely assemblies of the chief heads
of clans, to which were added in Christian times the prelates of
the Church. Neither is the "General Assembly," which was
intrusted with legislative and executive powers by the
Confederation of Kilkenny, alluded to; this could not be
reproduced to-day exactly as it then existed.
The Parliament here meant is such as presents itself at once to
the mind of a man of the nineteenth century, with its members of
both Houses elected by the people, as in America, or those of
the Upper House in the nomination of the crown; its opposing
parties often degenerating into mere factions; its views limited
to material progress, and its aims and aspirations altogether
worldly; deeply imbued with the modern ideas of liberalism, yet
knowing very little, if any thing, of true liberty; often
following the lead of a few talented members, whose real merits
are seldom an index of conscience and sense of right.
Such a liberal institution as this, which, if proposed to-day
for Ireland by the English Government, would be hailed with
unbounded joy by all ranks of people in that country, would
nevertheless be no sure harbinger of happiness to the nation,
and, to repeat what was said above, the record of such an
institution in Ireland is a sad one.
There is no need of entering upon a history of Irish Parliaments.
If an impartial and fair-minded author were to take up such a
work, it might serve to open the eyes of many, and show them
that it is after all better to rely on Divine Providence than on
such an aid to national prosperity.
Dr. Madden, in his "Connection of Ireland with England,"
conclusively shows that the right of a free and independent
Parliament similar to that of England was granted to Ireland by
King John at the very beginning of the "Conquest." Such a
Parliament was granted to the handful of Anglo-Normans, who were
already busy in building their castles for the purpose of
reducing the whole mass of the clans to feudal slavery after
having deprived them of all their free national assemblies and
customs. For nearly four hundred years the Irish Parliaments,
when not completely subjected to English control, as they
finally were by "Poyning's Act," were mere legislative machines
devised for the purpose of subduing, cowing, and finally rooting
out every thing Irish in the land. The language of Sir John
Davies was very clear on this subject.
This being such a well-known fact to-day, it seems strange that
a writer who is so well informed, so acute and discerning, and
so thoroughly Catholic, as Dr. Madden undoubtedly is, should
attach such great importance to the institution of Parliament as
first granted by the English monarchs. They had in their eye
only the small English colony settled on the island, with all
their feudal customs, and no thought of granting liberty to the
mass of the nation. The case of Molyneux, which is so often
quoted and praised by Irish writers, should be set aside and
forgotten by any man animated by a true love for Irish
prosperity. It was merely a revival of the old parties of
English by blood and English by birth, without a single thought
of the rights of Irishmen. It was a case of siding with one
English party against another, both aiming at making Ireland a
colony of England, the while the unfortunate country was crushed
between them, certain in either case to be the victim. The
native race had nothing to say or do in the matter, beyond
assisting at the spectacle of their enemies wrangling among
themselves.
The same remarks will apply to the pamphlets of Dr. Lucas, which
created so much interest at the time, and which Dr. Madden
quotes at such length. Lucas, it will be remembered, was a
violent anti-Catholic, and consequently anti-Irish partisan.
Yet the Catholic Association made all the use they could of the
arguments of Molyneux and Lucas, because these possessed some
vestige of the national spirit, inasmuch as they spoke for
Ireland, whose very name was hated by the opposite party; and at
that time the Association was perfectly right: but matters have
altered since then.
It is certainly strange that, when serious attempts were made by
Henry VIII. to introduce Protestantism into Ireland, not only
were Anglo-Irish Catholics summoned to Parliament, but even
native chieftains also, some of whom spoke nothing but Irish, so
that their speeches required translating.
But, as was previously shown, this was nothing more nor less
than a crafty device to make genuine Irishmen unconsciously
confirm, by what was called their vote, former decrees in which
the Act of Supremacy had been passed; to make it appear that
they had abjured their religion, and were now good Protestants;
and, worse still, to set in the statute-book, as acknowledged by
all, the law of spiritual supremacy vested in the king, of
abjuration of papal authority, of submission to all decrees
passed in England with the purpose of effecting an entire change
in the religion of the nation.
To such vile uses was the machinery of Parliament reduced.
Thenceforth it became an engine for the issuing of decrees of
persecution. Catholic members occasionally appeared in it when a
lull in the execution of the laws occurred, and they could take
their seats without being guilty of apostasy. But, by making
close boroughs of his Protestant colonies, James I. secured,
once for all, the majority of representatives on the side of the
Protestants, and, as a natural consequence, nothing more
grinding, sharp, piercing, and strong, could be imagined than
this engine of law called the Irish Parliament, as it existed
under the Stuarts. "Nothing" would be incorrect: there was
something worse; it came in with the Revolution of 1688, and its
results have been witnessed in a previous chapter.
Owing to the various oaths imposed upon members in the time of
William of Orange, no Catholic could any longer sit in the Irish
Parliament without abjuring his faith. And, thence-forth, the
state institution sitting in Dublin became more than ever a
persecuting and debasing power, intent only on making, altering,
improving, and enforcing laws designed for the complete
degradation of the people.
There came, however, a period of eighteen years, called "the
Rise of the Irish Nation" by Sir Jonah Barrington. It would be a
pleasure to set this down as a real exception to the whole
previous or later history of Ireland; but such pleasure cannot
be indulged in.
At the period referred to France had embraced the cause of the
North American colonies of Great Britain, and the English
vessels were not the only ones upon the seas. Large French
fleets were conveying troops to their new allies, and in 1779
the English Government sent warning to Ireland that American or
French privateers were to be expected on the Irish coast, and no
troops could be dispatched for the protection of the island.
Then arose the great volunteer movement. Every Irishman entitled
to bear arms enrolled himself in some regiment raised with the
ostensible design of opposing a hostile landing, but really
intended by the patriots to force the repeal of Poyning's Act
from England, to obtain for the Parliament in Dublin real
independence of English dictation.
The result is well known. One hundred thousand Irishmen were
soon under arms, who not only took the field as soldiers, and
formed themselves into regiments of infantry, troops of horse,
and artillery, but, strange to say, as citizens, sent delegates
to conventions, and demanded with a loud voice that England
should not only grant free trade to the sister isle, but
likewise invest the Irish Parliament with independent powers.
This political open-air contest lasted two years, and, on the
receipt of the news that the British army had capitulated at
Yorktown, and that the American War had come to a successful
termination on the side of the colonists, the Ulster volunteers
decided to hold a national convention of delegates from every
city in the province. On Friday, February 15, 1782, the meeting
took place at Dungannon, County Tyrone, and there the delegates
swore allegiance to a new and as yet unwritten charter, refusing
to acknowledge "the claim of any body of men, other than the
King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this
kingdom."
The same resolution was adopted in successive meetings of
volunteer delegates, municipal corporations, and citizens
generally, all over the island.
The English Government could not resist the pressure. After some
attempt at temporizing and delaying the concession, on April 15,
1782, by the firmness of Grattan and his supporters in the
Dublin House of Commons, the great measure was finally carried
unanimously:
"That the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a
Parliament of her own, the sole legislature thereof; that there
is no body of men competent to make laws to bind the nation, but
the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, nor any Parliament
which has any authority or power of any sort whatever in this
country, save only the Parliament of Ireland; that we humbly
conceive that in this right the very essence of our liberty
exists, a right which we, on the part of all the people of
Ireland, do claim as their birthright, and which we cannot yield
but with our lives." The italics are our own.
"The news," says Sir Jonah Barrington, "soon spread through the
nation; every city, town, or village, in Ireland blazed with the
emblems of exultation, and resounded with the shouts of triumph."
Within a month the whole had been accepted by the new British
administration. "The visionary and impracticable idea had become
an accomplished fact; the splendid phantom had become a glorious
reality; the heptarchy-the old Irish constitution-had not been
restored; yet Ireland had won complete legislative independence."
Thus does the kind-hearted author of the "Rise and Fall of the
Irish Nation" commemorate the great event. It is a pity that it
so soon ended, as it deserved to end, in smoke; for the
"unanimous vote" of the Dublin House of Commons was not sincere,
but intended to exclude from the benefit of the newly-acquired
liberty the great mass of the people; that is, all Catholics,
without exception.
Already, during the volunteer excitement, Catholics had looked
on at the movement with pleasure and hope that, at least, some
relaxation of the barbarous code enacted against them might
ensue. Unable to take an active part in the movement, the laws
not allowing them to bear arms and enlist, they willingly
brought such muskets as they possessed to give to their
Protestant neighbors. When the final burst of enthusiasm came at
the news that a free and independant Parliament was to meet at
Dublin, surely they were justified in expecting that, at last,
their natural and civil rights might be restored them in an age
so enlightened. They had heard too of the success of the
American colonies in winning those rights for all in their happy
country, beyond the Atlantic; and we may be sure that not a few
of them had heard how, at the conclusion of the War of
Independence, the chief officers of the American army had gone
in state with their French allies to the Catholic Church in
Philadelphia, there to join in thanksgiving to the Almighty,
before a Catholic altar. Moreover, they had Grattan and many of
the volunteers on their side.
The all-comprehensive phrase, too, had been inserted in the
resolution so unanimously carried, and made law by the British
Government: "We humbly conceive that, in this right, the very
essence of our liberty consists, a right which we, on the part
of all the people of Ireland, do claim as their birthright, and
which we cannot yield but with our lives."
Was it possible for the originators and successful promoters of
this great change in the government of the nation to interpret
such a phrase in a restricted sense? Did not the Irish Catholics,
the great bulk of the people, form a part, at least, of "all in
Ireland?" One would imagine so: yet what followed soon after
showed the preposterousness of such an idea.
The new Parliament met; several measures favorable to the trade
and manufactures of the island had been carried; but it was soon
found that the electoral law, as it stood, failed to correspond
with the altered circumstances of the time. The legislative body
was returned by an antiquated electoral system which could not
be said to represent the nation. Boroughs and seats were openly
and literally owned by particular families or private persons;
the voting constituency sometimes not numbering more than a
dozen. As a matter of fact, less than one hundred persons owned
seats or boroughs capable of constituting a majority in the
Commons!
As everywhere else in revolutionary times, the question of
parliamentary reform was not debated in the Parliament only;
every man in the nation, each in his own sphere, took part in
the stormy contest which began to rage all over the island. The
volunteers were still in their glory. Flushed with victory, they
did not cease from their political agitations. In September,
1783, they met once more in convention at Dungannon, the
specific object of which, Dr. Madden tells us, was parliamentary
reform, and they then determined "to hold another grand national
convention of volunteer delegates in Dublin, in the month of
November following."
In that extraordinary assembly, the question of the rights of
Catholics was naturally brought up, and, to his honor be it said,
the Protestant Bishop of Derry proposed to extend the elective
franchise to them.
That some fanatics would oppose this motion was only to be
expected; and it would have caused no surprise to find the
opposition confined to a number of men of inferior station,
still deeply imbued with narrow Protestant ideas. But when the
leaders of the movement for national independence, Lord
Charlemont and Mr. Flood, appeared in the ranks of the
determined opponents of the proposition, it was cause for wonder
indeed. It was chiefly owing to the exertions and influence of
Lord Charlemont that the efforts of the revolution had been
finally turned to the side of freedom; while Flood was a greater
nationalist than Grattan himself, whose eloquence was so
memorable in the last momentous debates of the Irish House of
Commons. Flood carried his patriotism so far as to suspect the
British Government of not being sincere in its concessions, when
Grattan thought that "nothing dishonorable and disgraceful ought
to be supposed in motives until facts render them suspicious."
Nevertheless, it was Charlemont and Flood who stood firm for the
exclusion of Catholics from the franchise demanded for them by a
Protestant bishop; and Flood's plan was the one finally adopted.
In order to make a stronger impression on the public mind, a
number of delegates, who were also members of Parliament,
proceeded, on November 29th, directly from the convention to the
House of Commons, some of them dressed in their volunteer
uniforms, for the purpose of supporting the plan of Mr. Flood to
exclude the Catholics from the franchise.
In the midst of the tumult, the bill of reform failed, seventy-
seven voting for, and one hundred and fifty against it. There
was therefore no change in the Parliament, and Catholics
remained in their old position, in consequence of the blunders
of the chiefs of the volunteer movement for independence.
It is true that, at the same time, the whole volunteer movement
itself fell to the ground. From that moment it dragged on a
doomed life. "One would have thought," says Dr. Madden, "there
was national vigor in it for more than an existence of fifteen
years, and power to effect more than an ephemeral independence
which lasted only eighteen years."
But the Catholics had their eyes opened; they saw that the day
of resurrection was not yet come for them. It was not to be
brought about by any Irish Parliament. So far, therefore, we
were right in stating that the parliamentary record for Ireland
is a sad one. It should be said, however, that, from that time,
many Protestants, like the Bishop of Derry, Grattan, and others,
have always been firm in their demand for freedom to all, and
have remained the stanchest supporters of Catholic rights. What
we have hitherto called James I's Ulster colony, thus was
reduced to the Orange party; and, in that sense, the volunteer
movement was a real and permanent benefit to the country. There
is no need to mention the names of many distinguished Protestants
of our own times, whose whole life has been devoted by act, or
speech, or both, to the service of all. All honor to them!
But it is alleged that the Irish Legislature, as framed by the
Constitution of 1782, gave to the country an uninterrupted flow
of prosperity for eighteen years, and hence the volunteer
movement was of great benefit to the race, at least temporarily.
We will present the case in the strongest light possible
contrary to our own opinion, and for this we can do no better
than borrow the arguments of Mr. W.J. O'N. Daunt, in his
pamphlet on the "Irish Question" (1869):
"Accustomed as we are," he says, "since the Union-in 1800-to the
national distress and chronic disturbance attested by the Devon
Commissions, Famine Reports, and other official sources of
information, there seems something scarcely credible in the
account of Irish pre-Union prosperity-a prosperity which
contrasted so strongly with the condition of Ireland under a
Parliament which is called 'Imperial,' but which is essentially
and overwhelmingly English. But the accounts are given on
unimpeachable authority.
"Mr. Jebb, member for Callan in the Irish Parliament, thus
speaks of the advance of the country in prosperity, in a
pamphlet published in 1798:
"'In the course of fifteen years, our commerce, our agriculture,
and our manufactures, have swelled to an amount that the most
sanguine friends of Ireland would not have dared to
prognosticate.'
"The bankers of Dublin, tolerably competent witnesses, held a
meeting on the 18th of December, 1798, at which they resolved,
'that, since the renunciation of Great Britain, in 1782, to
legislate for Ireland, the commerce and prosperity of this
kingdom have eminently increased.'
"The Dublin Guild of Merchants did the same on the 14th of
January, 1797."
But this testimony and that of others whom we could quote was
the testimony of men opposed to the "Union." Let us look at a
few admissions made by the supporters of that measure:
"First comes its author, Mr. Pitt, who, in his speech in the
English House of Commons, January 31, 1799, having alluded to
the prosperous condition of Irish commerce in 1785, goes on to
say: 'But how stands the case now? The trade is at this time
infinitely more advantageous to Ireland.'
"Lord Clare, one of Mr. Pitt's chief instruments in effecting
the Union, published, in 1798, a pamphlet containing, as quoted
by Grattan, the following account of Irish progress subsequently
to 1782: 'There is not a nation on the habitable globe which has
advanced in cultivation and commerce, in agriculture and
manufactures, with the same rapidity in the same period.'
"Finally, Mr. Secretary Coke, in a Unionist pamphlet, said at
that time: 'We have had the experience of these twenty years;
for it is universally admitted that no country in the world ever
made such rapid advances as Ireland has done in these respects.'"
All this was undoubtedly true; and it is not our intention to
admire what was called the Union, nor to advocate it. Those of
the various writers cited, who spoke so dogmatically in the
above passages, had in their minds only material and external
prosperity, and that even of only one class of citizens. Those
who wish well to Ireland cannot be satisfied with this.
Not a single name of the favorers or opposers of the Union, here
quoted as witnesses, is Celtic. It would be interesting to know
what the Celts of the island, that is, the greater part of its
inhabitants, thought at the time, not of the Union, but of their
own Parliament, and how much of this great material prosperity
fell to their portion.
Surely they were all opposed to a Union which for a variety of
reasons had grown odious in their sight; but, did they, could
they, approve of the acts of their Legislature prior to the
Union with England? Were they satisfied with those tokens of
prosperity in favor of a class which had systematically
oppressed them? Even granting that they were Christian enough
not to feel envy at the success of their Protestant fellow-
countrymen, did they not, and were they not right to, rue the
day which, by an act of that same Legislature, shut them off as
a body from all those advantages.
For it must be remembered that it was at the instigation of many
of those volunteers who had been so ready to receive the muskets
from their Catholic neighbors, for the purpose of striking a
blow for liberty, that none of the penal statutes were repealed,
and the Irish Catholics continued to groan, at least as far as
the law went, under the fearful oppressions of which the last
chapter furnished a feeble sketch. Hence, to speak in their
presence of their commerce, of their manufactures, of their
agriculture, of the increase of their wealth, and so on, was a
bitter mockery, which they could not but resent in their inmost
soul.
Was the cause of all their miseries removed by such a free and
independent Parliament? Where could be the agricultural
prosperity of a people which was not entitled, legally, to own
an inch of their soil, or lease more than two acres of it? How
could they engage in prosperous trade when, at the suit of a
"discoverer," they were liable to be compelled to hand over to
him the surplus of a paltry income? How could they even
contemplate engaging in any manufactures, when the laws reduced
them to the frightful state of pauperism which we have
shudderingly glanced at? And those laws were preserved, and
retained on the statute-book, by the very men who vaunted of the
prosperity of Ireland!
It cannot, then, be too strongly reasserted that the social
position of Ireland had experienced no change whatever, and that
the separation of classes, spoken of with such well-merited
rebuke by Edmund Burke, still stood unaltered:
"They divided the nation into two distinct parties, without
common interest, sympathy, or connection. One of these bodies
was to possess all the franchises, all the property, all the
education; the other was to be composed of drawers of water and
cutters of turf for them.
Every measure was pleasing and popular just in proportion as it
tended to harass and ruin a set of people who were looked upon
as enemies to God and man; and, indeed, as a race of bigoted
savages, who were a disgrace to human nature itself.
"To render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that it
should be degraded."
And, even supposing the prosperity of which so much talk was
made to have been universal, so that all had a real share in it,
how long would it have remained so, if the Irish Parliament had
continued to exist, and not become merged in the English, or, as
it was termed, Imperial Legislature? How long could the two
separated bodies, sitting, the one in Dublin, the other in
Westminster, have acted in concert, without breaking out into
violent and mutual recrimination, with all its attendant evils?
The difficulty showed itself at the very outset, and when the
first question of the relative status of both Legislatures arose.
Mr. Fox, the great Liberal minister of the king, endeavored to
solve this difficulty by making a distinction between internal
and external legislation: Ireland was never to be interfered
with in her Parliament, with respect to her internal questions,
while the English legislative body possessed the right to step
in in all measures regarding external legislation. This seems
very much like what is now proposed by home-rule.
Here is the answer given to this in the tribune of Dublin by Mr.
Walsh: "With respect to the fine-spun distinction of the English
minister between the internal and external legislation, it seems
to me the most absurd position, and at the same time the most
ridiculous one, that possibly could be laid down, when applied
to an independent people.
"Ireland is independent, or she is not; if she is independent,
no power on earth can make laws to bind her, internally or
externally, but the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland."
Mr. Walsh, a very influential member of the Irish House of
Commons, saw, as doubtless did many others, cause of disturbance
already for the mutual tranquillity of the two nations. And,
indeed, his fears soon showed themselves only too well grounded.
Dr. Madden tells the story;
"A month had scarcely elapsed since the opening of the new Irish
Parliament in 1782, before Lord Abingdon, in the British House
of Peers, moved for leave to bring in a declaratory bill, to
reassert the right of England to legislate externally for
Ireland, in matters appertaining to the commerce of the latter.
A similar motion was made in the British House of Commons by Sir
George Young.
"One clause of Lord Abingdon's bill stated that Queen Elizabeth,
having formerly forbade the King of France to build more ships
than he then had, without her leave first obtained, it is
enacted that no kingdoms, as above stated, Ireland as well as
others, should presume to build a navy or any ships-of-war,
without leave from the Lord High Admiral of England."
It is easy to foresee the pretty quarrel preparing. Once again,
then, it may be asserted that the record of Irish Parliaments is
a sad one.
But could more have been expected of it? Is the scope of
measures, within the capabilities of any legislative assembly of
modern times, comprehensive enough to embrace every thing of
importance to a Catholic people, such as the Irish nation has
ever been?
The general question of parliamentary rule is a very complicated
one. The modern Parliament is a very different thing from the
old assemblies of the representatives of various orders in any
state. With the Church originated those ancient institutions,
which in certain parts of Europe partook at once of the twofold
nature of councils and political assemblies.
This order has passed away, and no one thinks to-day of reviving
those time-honored institutions, however much political writers
may be inclined to favor despotism on the one hand, or anarchy
on the other. What, then, is the origin of the modern
Parliament? It grew into being in England during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, emanating as it were, slowly, out of
the decomposition of the old Parliaments; the aristocracy, and
the Church chiefly, losing more and more the influence once
belonging to them, which, in old times, made them paramount in
those state deliberations. This is one of the chief features of
the newly-modelled British Constitution, which is of very recent
growth, and became fixed and settled only after the downfall of
the Stuart dynasty, receiving additional modifications in the
contest of parties under the Brunswick and Hanover lines of
kings.
It is, consequently, an altogether British growth of recent date,
particularly well adapted for England, whose prosperity since
its establishment has ever been on the increase. But it is very
doubtful whether other countries have derived equal benefit from
its adoption.
Toward the end of last century, some few Frenchmen of note
attempted, with Mounier at their head, to reproduce a feeble
copy of it in France. Their failure is too well known to the
world: how their English ideas were scouted by the people, while
a far more radical revolution swept away every vestige of the
old French Constitution, without substituting in its stead any
thing save crude and infidel ideas, which resulted in anarchy.
The lamentable failure of the first attempt was no
discouragement to other political theorists; and the century has
witnessed and still witnesses every day essays at English
legislation, as embodied in the constitution of its Parliaments
chiefly, all over Europe; and all, as sanguine writers would
have us believe, to serve as the stepping-stone for the
"Universal Republic," which is to regenerate the world.
The great questions in all those assemblies are of material
interests, material prosperity, material projects. Of the moral
well-being of the people seldom or never a word is heard; and,
whenever a moral question does come up for discussion, the
vagueness of the theories advanced and discussed, the indecision
of the measures proposed, the want of unity in the views
developed, show how unfit are modern legislators for even
touching on what concerns the soul of man. The legislators
themselves feel that their character is far from being a sacred
one, and that the spiritual element is not comprehended in their
world. And they are certainly right.
Even the measures of external policy are not universally
successful in securing the material well-being of the people. In
France, at least, the various legislatures which have succeeded
one another have perhaps been productive of as much harm in that
regard as the liberty of the press and freedom of public
discussion, which have always had and always will have their
ardent advocates, and the existence of which is compatible with
public order in some countries, but not in others.
The same, with certain reservations, is true of the Spanish-
American republics, Brazil, and now of Spain, Italy, and other
European nations. The legislative machine which is found to work
so well in England, and what were or still are her colonies,
seems to get out of order in climates and among nations
unaccustomed to it, even as far as material prosperity is
concerned.
But it is neither our object to write a history of Parliaments,
nor absolutely to condemn those modern institutions by the few
words devoted to them. All we wish to insist upon is, that all
the evils of nations are not cured by them, and that they should
not be taken as in themselves absolutely desirable and all-
sufficient.
As to their probable fate in the future, their modern dress is
not yet two centuries old, and the seeds of decay already appear
in many places. A few questions are sufficient to demonstrate
this: Can a Parliament, as understood to-day, last for any
length of time and work successfully, when composed for a great
part of corrupt legislators who have been returned by corrupt
electors? Has not the progress of corruption on both sides,
elected and electors, been of late alarmingly on the increase?
What space of time is requisite for legislation to come to a
stand-still, and prove to modern nations the impossibility of
carrying on even material affairs with such corrupt machinery?
It requires no great foresight to reply to these questions.
And yet it is on this tottering institution that the Ireland of
our days has set her hope. She imagines that, this once gained,
prosperity and happiness are insure; that, without it, she
cannot but be discontented, as she is and must be if she
possesses any feeling. And such is the anomaly of her position
that, with this conviction firmly set before us, we believe she
is right in demanding home-rule, and that by insisting upon it
she will eventually attain it; yet are we convinced that, having
obtained it, her evils will not be cured, nor her happiness
served. We prize her highly enough to think her worthy of
something better, which "something" we are sure God keeps in
reserve for her.
Suppose her earnest wish granted, and a home Parliament given
her. Suppose even the old question of her relations with the
English Legislature determined. A great difficulty has been
settled satisfactorily, though it is difficult to see how this
may come about. But supposing the questions for her discussion
and free-determination being clearly defined, home-rule becomes
possible without exciting the opposition of the rival Parliament
of Great Britain.
What is likely to be the composition of her state institution?
and what the programme of its labors?
In the composition of her two Houses, if she have two, the
Catholics will not be excluded as they were in 1782; a great
change certainly, and fraught no doubt with great benefit to the
country. But will the English element cease to predominate? The
native race has been kept so long in a state of bondage that few
members of it certainly will take a leading part in the
discussions. How many even will be allowed to influence the
election of members by their votes or their capacity? Universal
suffrage can scarcely be anticipated, perhaps even it would not
be desirable. The question is certainly a doubtful one. Of one
thing are we certain regarding the composition of an Irish
Parliament: it would not really represent the nation.
For the nation is Catholic to the core; the sufferings of more
than two centuries have made religion dearer to her than life;
all she has been, all she is to-day, may be summed up in one
word--Catholic. Nothing has been left her but this proud and
noble title, which of all others her enemies would have wrested
from her. The nation exists to-day, independently of
parliamentary enactments, in spite of the numberless
parliamentary decrees of former times; she is living, active,
working, and doing wonders, which shall come under notice. See
how busy she has been since first allowed to do. Her altars, her
religious houses, her asylums, every thing holy that was in
ruins--all have been restored.
Not satisfied with working so energetically on her own soil, she
has crossed over to England, where the great and unexpected
Catholic revival, which has struck such awe and fear into the
hearts of sectarians, is in great measure due to her.
Cross the broad Atlantic, and even the vast Southern Ocean, and
the contemplation of Irish activity in North America, Australia,
and all the English colonies, the intense vitality displayed by
this so long down-trodden people is amazing. But all this
activity, all this vitality, is employed in establishing on a
firm and indestructible basis everywhere the holy Catholic
Church.
Looking on all this, say then whether Ireland is truly Catholic,
whether the nation is any thing but Catholic.
But can her new Parliament be Catholic?
No! No one imagines such a thing possible; no one thinks, no one
dreams of it. It is clear, then, that it cannot represent the
nation.
Who will go to compose it? Men who will discard-such is the
modern expression-discard their creed, and leave it at the door.
Nothing better can be expected. It is true that the bitter
feeling engendered for so long a time by religious questions is
not likely to show itself again; or though, to speak more
correctly, a religious question never was raised in Ireland, the
whole people being one on that subject; but it may be hoped that
the bitter persecution against every thing Catholic is not
likely to recur, whatever may be the composing elements of the
new Houses of Parliament.
In the impossibility of even guessing at the probable opinions
of the men who are to have the future fate of Ireland in their
hands, it may be fairly predicted that, within their legislative
halls, religious and consequently moral questions will only be
approached in the spirit of liberalism. Probably, the only thing
attempted will be the rendering of the people externally happy
and prosperous, supposing the majority of the members animated
by true patriotic principles; and indeed the aspirations of all
who wish well to Ireland are limited to external or material
prosperity; and, for our own part, we do not consider this of
slight moment. But is this all that the Irish people require?
They have been brought so low in the scale of humanity that
every thing has to be accomplished to bring about their
resurrection; and the "every thing" is comprised in substituting
flesh-meat for potatoes and good warm clothing for rags. Whoever
says that the Irish people can be contented with such a
restoration as this, knows little of their noble nature, and has
never read their heart.
Assuredly, they have a right to those worldly blessings of which
they have been so long deprived; and we would not be understood
as saying that one of the primary objects of good government is
not to confer those material blessings on the people; nay, it is
our belief that, when a whole nation has been so long subjected
to all the evils which not only render this life miserable, but
absolutely intolerable, it is incumbent on those intrusted with
the direction of affairs to remedy those evils instantly, and
endeavor to make the people forget their misfortunes by, at
least, the enjoyments of this life's ordinary comforts.
Forgetfulness of the past can be obtained by no other means. And
this is a very simple, but, at the same time, very satisfactory
answer to the question so often put and so often replied to in
such a variety of ways, "Why is Ireland discontented?"
But, while admitting the truth, nay, the necessity of all this,
the government of a Catholic people has not fulfilled its whole
duty when it has exerted itself to the utmost to procure, and
finally succeeded in procuring, the temporal happiness of the
nation. In addition to this, it must consult its moral and
religious wants, or a great part of its duty remains neglected.
This, indeed, does not nowadays occur to the minds of the
majority of men, who have, it would appear, agreed among
themselves to consider it an axiom of government that the rulers
of a people should have no other object in view than the
material comfort and welfare of the masses. They do not reflect
that the wants of a nation must be satisfied in their entirety,
and that its moral and religious needs are of no less importance,
to say the least, than the temporal. This is evident in all
those countries where, in imitation of England, or at her
instigation, parliamentary governments are now in operation--
countries which include not only Europe, without excepting
Greece and her chief islands, but Southern Africa at the Cape,
America, North and South, Australia, and the, large islands of
Jamaica, Tasmania, New Zealand, and several groups of Polynesia,
preparing Asia for the boon which, probably, is destined to show
itself in Japan first, spreading thence all over the largest
continent of the world.
Wherever modern Parliaments flourish, there material interests
alone are consulted. This is a new feature of Japhetism; and God
alone knows how long nations will be satisfied with such a state
of things!
But if non-Catholic nations thus limit their aspirations, there
is all the more reason why a Catholic people cannot imitate them
in such a course, particularly if that people has for centuries
submitted to every evil of this life in order to preserve its
religion, showing that, in its eyes, religious blessings rank
far above all imaginable material advantages; and we all know
such to be the case for Ireland.
But, it may be asked, what are those religious wants which must
be satisfied, and how are we to know them? The answer, to a
Catholic, is plain, and nothing is easier of recognition. What
the spiritual guides of the nation consider of paramount
importance and of absolute necessity, is of that character, and
the government which neglects to listen to remonstrances coming
from such a quarter, shows thereby that it is ignorant of, or
slights, its plain duty. Ever since the load of tyranny, which
weighed down the Irish people, has been removed, if not entirely,
at least suffered a very appreciable reduction, since the
rulers of the Church in that unhappy country have been able to
lift up their voice, and proclaimed what they considered of
supreme importance to those under their charge, is it not a
strange truth that their voice has never ceased remonstrating,
and that, at this very moment, it is as loud in protestation as
ever? When has it been listened to as it should be? Is it likely
to meet more regard if Ireland obtains home-rule? It grieves us
to say that the only answer which can be given to this last
question is still an emphatic "No!"
And for the very simple reason, already given, that Ireland
cannot have a truly Catholic Parliament, and that all the great
measures which would occupy the attention of the Catholic
members, in the event of their meeting at Dublin, would be
shemes for the advancement of manufactures, trade, the
construction of ships, tenant-right laws, etc.; all very
excellent things in their way, and to which Ireland has an
undoubted right, which will be strongly contested, and in the
struggle for which she may again be worsted; which, even if she
obtains, will not enable her to compete with England, and which,
after and above all, do not correspond to the heart-beat of the
nation--the restoration complete and entire of the Catholic
Church all over her broad land.
It may be well to remark that the broad assertion just laid down
involves no reprisals against the rights of the minority. That
minority, backed by the English Government, has enjoyed nearly
three centuries of oppression and tyranny, has taxed human
ingenuity to the utmost for the purpose of concocting schemes of
destruction against the majority: it has failed. The majority,
which at last breathes freely, can well afford not to raise a
finger in retaliation, and to leave what is called freedom of
conscience to those who so long refused it. The result may be
left to the operation of natural laws and the holy workings of
Providence. But their religious rights ought, at east, to be
secured to them entire; the rights of their Church to be left
forever perfectly free and untrammelled.
But, how much has been done against this, even of late? Why has
a Protestant university so many privileges, while a similar
Catholic institution is refused recognition? To answer what
purpose have the Queen's Colleges been established? The Catholic
bishops certainly possess rights with regard to the education of
their flocks; with what persistence have not those rights been
either attacked or circumvented! If the Protestant Establishment
has been finally abolished, have not its ministers obtained by
the very act of abolition concessions which give them still
great weight, morally and materially, in the scale opposed to
Catholic proselytism, nay, preservation? Is it not a stain even
yet, if not in the eye of the law, at least in that of the
English colonized in Ireland, to be a "Roman Catholic?" Is
"souperism" so completely dead that it never can revive? How
many means are still left in the hands of the Protestant
minority to vex, annoy, and impoverish the supposed free
majority?
Whoever considers the matter seriously cannot but acknowledge
that in Ireland there exists still a vast amount of open or
silent opposition to the Church of the majority, and a Church
which the majority loves with such deep affection that, so long
as the least remnant of the old oppression remains, so long must
Ireland remain discontented.
And it is more than doubtful whether home-rule would be a
sufficient remedy for such a state of things, owing to the fact,
already insisted upon, that the new Parliament could not be a
Catholic Parliament.
The reader may easily perceive what was meant by saying that the
entire restoration of the Catholic Church in the island does not
suppose the consequent extirpation of heresy; but it clearly
supposes the perfectly free exercise of all her rights by the
Church. Nothing short of this can satisfy the Irish people.
III. We pass on to the consideration of a third delusive hope,
that of the people regaining all their rights by the
overwhelming force of numbers and armed resistance to tyranny--
the advocacy of physical force, as it is called; in other words,
the right and necessity of open insurrection, or underhand and
secret associations, evidently requiring for success the
cooperation of the numerous revolutionary societies of Europe: a
criminal delusion, which has brought many evils upon the country,
and which is still cherished by too many of her sons. Though we
purpose speaking freely on this subject, we hope that our
language may be that of moderation and justice.
To a Catholic, who has either witnessed or heard of the
frightful evils brought on modern nations by the doctrine of the
right of insurrection, of armed force, of open rebellion,
against real or fancied wrong, that doctrine cannot but be
loathsome and detestable.
True, there is for nations, as for individuals, something
resembling the right of self-defence. No Catholic theologian can
assert that a people is bound to bow under the yoke of tyranny,
when it can shake that tyranny off; and it is this truth which
affords a pretext to many advocates of what is called the right
of insurrection. Moreover, there is no doubt that, in the case
of Ireland particularly, the Irish had for many centuries a
legitimate government of their own, and when attacked by
foreigners, who landed on their shores under whatever pretext,
they had a perfect right, nay, it was the duty of the heads of
clans, the provincial kings and princes, to protect the whole
nation, and the part of it intrusted to their special care in
particular, against open or covert foes. The name of "rebels"
was given them by the invaders, with no shadow of possible
pretext, and the name was as justly resented as it was unjustly
applied.
Under the Stuart dynasty the state of the case is still more
clear: for then they were fighting on the side of the English
sovereigns to whom they had submitted; and, in waging war
against the enemies of their king and country, they were not
only enforcing their right, but performing a highly-meritorious
and in some cases heroic duty. Yet the name of "rebels" was
again applied to them, and its penalty inflicted upon them, as
has been seen.
After their complete subjugation, the right of retaliating on
their oppressors, even if justifiable in theory, was often
illusory and indefensible in fact, because of the impossibility
of successful resistance; and the secret associations known
under the names of "Tories," "Rapparees," "White Boys,"
"Ribbonmen," were, with the exception of the first, condemned by
the Church.
But in modern times the right of insurrection cannot possibly be
defended, if, as can scarcely be avoided, the cause of a
Catholic nation is linked with the various revolutionary
societies and conspiracies which disgrace modern Europe,
endanger society, and have all been condemned by the sovereign
Pontiff.
An extensive discussion of both cases--the stubborn resistance
made after the fall of the Stuarts, and some of the attempts at
independence of later times--would show at once the difference
between the two cases, and prevent thinking men from ranking the
"Tories" of ancient times with the avowed revolutionists of our
days. Mr. Prendergast has given a fair sketch of the former in
the second edition of his "Cromwellian Settlement."
The reader who may peruse this very interesting account can
notice a remarkable coincidence; one, however, which to our
knowledge has not yet been pointed out: the very scenes enacted
in Ireland, during the long resistance offered to oppression
after the downfall of the Stuart dynasty, were reenacted in
France during the Reign of Terror, and for some time after,
throughout the districts which had risen in insurrection against
the tyranny of the Convention, and both cases were certainly
examples of right warring against might.
In fact, to a person acquainted with the history of the violent
changes which, during the last century, modern theories,
metaphysical systems, and, above all, the working of secret
societies, have caused, the reading of the history of England
and Ireland, from the Reformation down, offers new sources of
interest, by showing how the last frightful convulsion in France
was merely a copy of the first in England, at least as far as
the means employed in each go, if not in the ultimate object.
In England the revolution was begun by the monarch himself, with
a view of rendering his power more absolute and universal by the
rejection of the papal supremacy, and, consequently, the
destruction of the Catholic Church. In France the revolution was
begun by the leaders of the middle classes, who made use of the
immense power given them by the secret societies which then
flourished, and the influence of an unbridled press, to destroy
royalty and aristocracy, that they might themselves obtain the
supreme power and rule the country. The object of the two
revolutions was therefore widely different; but the means
employed in bringing them about, when considered in detail, are
found to have been perfectly identical.
In both countries, on the side of the revolutionary party or of
the National Assembly, various oaths were imposed and enforced,
troops dispatched, battles fought, devastating bands ravaged the
country while in a state of insurrection, the same barbarous
orders in La Vendee as in Ireland, so that the language even
employed in the second case is an exact counterpart of that in
the first. There is destruction resolved upon; then the
authorities desisting and resolving on a change of policy,
though with a rigid continuance of the police measures,
including in both cases "domiciliary visits," inquests by
commissioners, courts-martial in the first case, revolutionary
tribunals in the second--consequent wholesale executions on both
sides. There were the decrees of confiscation carried out with
the utmost barbarity, resulting in sudden changes of fortune,
the class that was aristocratic being often reduced to beggary,
while its wealth was enjoyed by the new men of the middle
classes. The peasants derive very little benefit from the
revolution in France--none whatever, or rather the very reverse
of benefit, in Ireland. And, to go into the minutest details,
there are the same informers, spies, troops of armed police, or
adventurers on the hunt to discover, prosecute, and destroy the
last remnants of the insurgents in France as well as in Ireland.
In considering the religious side of the question, the parallel
would be found still more striking, as the proscribed ministers
of religion were of the same faith in France as in the British
Isles, while the means adopted for their destruction were
exactly similar.
On the side of the insurgents the same comparison holds good. In
both cases there is the first refusal to obey unjust decrees,
the same stubborn opposition to more stringent acts of
legislature, the emigration of the aristocratic classes, the
devotedness of the clergy, with here and there an unfortunate
exception, the same mode of concealment resorted to--false doors,
traps, secret closets, disguise, etc.; the flying to the
country and concealment in woods, caves, hills, or mountains;
and, when the burden grows intolerable, and open resistance,
even without hope of success, becomes inevitable, there are the
same resources, method of organization, attack, call to arms,
call to Heaven, the same heroism: yes, and the same approval of
religion and admiration of all noble hearts throughout the world.
The only difference consists in the fact that in France the
struggle lasted a few years only; in Ireland, centuries. In
France the fury of the revolution soon spent itself in horrors;
in Ireland the sternness of the persecuting power stood grim and
unrelaxing for ages, adding decree to decree, army to army. In
France, numerous hunters of priests and of "brigands," as they
were called, flourished only for a short decade of years; in
Ireland similar hunters of priests and of "Tories" carried on
their infamous trade for more than a century.
In the case of the latter country, too, the confiscation was
much more thorough and permanent, the emigration complete and
final; but, in both cases, the Catholic religion outlived the
storm, and lifted up her head more gloriously than ever as soon
as its fury had abated.
Finally, to come to the point, which calls now more immediately
for attention, if the campaigns of Owen Roe O'Neill, of
Brunswick, and Sarsfield, were the models of the great
insurrection of La Vendee and Brittany, the bands of "Tories"
and "rebels," scattered through Ireland at the time of the
Cromwellian settlement, gave an example for the "Chouan" raids
which in France followed the blasted hopes of the royalists.
How ought both cases to be considered with reference to the
general rules of morality? How were they considered at the time
by religious and conscientious men?
There is no doubt that excesses were committed by Tories in
Ireland, and Chouans in France, which every Christian must
condemn; but there can also be little doubt that such of them as
were not deranged by passion, but allowed their inborn religious
feelings to speak even in those dreadful times, were restrained,
either by their own consciences or by the advice of the men of
God whom they consulted, from committing many crimes which would
otherwise have resulted from their unfortunate position. All
this, however, resolves itself into a consideration of
individual cases which cannot here be taken into account.
Our only question is the cause of both Tories and Chouans in the
abstract. From the beginning it was clearly a desperate cause,
and, admitting that the motive which prompted it was generous,
honorable, and praiseworthy, nothing could be expected to ensue
from its advocacy but accumulated disaster and greater
misfortunes still. Of either case, then, abstractly considered,
religion cannot speak with favor.
But, when an impartial and fair-minded man takes into
consideration all the circumstances of both cases, particularly
of that presented in Ireland, as given by Mr. Prendergast, with
all the glaring injustice, atrocious proceedings, and barbarous
cruelty of the opposing party taken into account, who will dare
say that men, driven to madness by such an accumulation of
misery and torture, were really accountable before God for all
the consequences resulting from their wretched position?
In the words quoted by the author of the "Cromwellian Settlement:"
"Had they not a right to live on their own soil? were they
obliged in conscience to go to a foreign country, with the
indelible mark left on them by an atrocious and originally
illegitimate government?" And, if the simple act of remaining in
their country, to which they had undoubtedly a right, forced
them to live as outlaws, and adopt a course of predatory warfare,
otherwise unjustifiable, but in their circumstances the only
one possible for them, to whom could the fault be ascribed? Are
they to be judged harshly as criminals and felons, worthy only
of the miserable end to which all of them, sooner or later, were
doomed? Is all the reproach and abuse to be lavished on them,
and not a breath of it to fall on those who made them what they
were? Who of us could say whether, if placed in the same position,
he would not have considered the life they led, and the inevitable
death they faced, as the only path of duty and honor?
We are thoroughly convinced that the first Irish "Tories" deemed
it their right to make themselves the avengers of Ireland's
wrongs, and consider themselves as true patriots and the heroic
defenders of their country, and that many honorable and
conscientious men then living agreed with them. And the people,
who always sided with and aided them, had after all certainly a
right to their opinion as the only true representatives of the
country left in those unfortunate times.
Thus far we have considered the right of resistance on the part
of the old "Tories;" we now come to what has been called the
second case--the right of insurrection advocated by modern
revolutionists, chiefly when connected with the unlawful
organizations so widely spread to-day. This, indeed, is the
great delusive hope of to-day, which must be gone into more
thoroughly, in order to show that Ireland, instead of
encouraging among her children the slightest attachment to the
modern revolutionary spirit, ought to insist on their all, if
faithful to the noble principles of their forefathers, opposing
it, as indeed the great mass of the nation has opposed it,
strenuously, though it has met with the almost constant support
of England, who has spread it broadcast to suit her own purposes.
Ireland's hope must come from another quarter.
Let us look clearly at the origin and nature of this
revolutionary spirit, so different from the lawful right of
resistance always advocated by the great Catholic theologians.
The nature of this spirit is to produce violent changes in
government and society by violent means; and it originated in
first weakening and then destroying the power of the Popes over
Christendom. Two words only need be said on both these
interesting topics--words which, we hope, may be clear and
convincing.
The very word revolutionary indicates violence; and it is so
understood by all who use it with a knowledge of its meaning. A
revolutionary proceeding in a state, is one which is sanctioned
neither by the law nor the constitution, but is rapidly carried
on for any purpose whatever. Violence has always been used in
the various revolutions of modern times, and, when people talk
of a peaceful revolution, it is at once understood that the term
is not used in its ordinary significance.
On this point, probably, all are agreed; and, therefore, there
is no need of further explanation. On the other hand, many will
be inclined to controvert the second proposition; and, therefore,
its unquestionable truth must be shown.
That the position held by the Popes at the head of Christendom
for many ages was of paramount influence, and that to them, in
fact, is due the existence of the state of Europe, known as
Christendom, is now admitted almost by all since the
investigations of learned and painstaking historians,
Protestants as well Catholics, have been given to the world. But
had the Popes any particular line of policy, and did they favor
one kind of government more than another? This is a very fair
question, and well worthy of consideration.
Any kind of government is good only according to the
circumstances of the nation subjected to it. What may suit one
people would not give happiness to another, and democratic,
aristocratic, or monarchical governments, have each their
respective uses, so that none of them can be condemned or
approved absolutely. No one will ever be able to show that the
Roman Pontiffs held any exclusive theory on this subject, and
adopted a stern policy from which they did not recede.
But a positive line of policy they did hold to, namely, the
insuring the stability of society by securing the stability of
governments.
Whoever reads the life of Gregory VII side by side with that of
William the Conqueror, is at first astonished to find Hildebrand,
who, though not yet Pope, was already powerful in the counsels
of the Papacy, favoring the Norman king, although William
eventually proved far from grateful. But, when the reader comes
to inquire what can have moved the great monk to take up this
line of action, he will find that a deep political motive lay at
the bottom of it, which throws a flood of light over the policy
of the Popes and the history of Europe during the middle ages.
He finds Hildebrand persuaded that William of Normandy possessed
the true hereditary right to the crown of England, and the
policy of the Popes was already in favor of hereditary right in
kingdoms, thereby to insure the stability of dynasties, and
consequently that of society itself.
Harold, son of Godwin, belonged in no way to the royal race of
Anglo-Saxon kings. The Dukes of Normandy had contracted
alliances by marriage with the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, and were
thought to be more nearly related to Edward the Confessor than
Harold, whose only title was derived from his sister.
What had been the state of Europe up to that time? Since the
establishment and conversion of the northern races, a constant
change of rulers, an ever-recurring moving of territorial limit,
and consequently an endless disturbance in all that secures the
stability of rights, was common everywhere: in England, under
the heptarchy; in France, under the Carlovingians; in the
various states of Germany; everywhere, except, perhaps, in a
part of Italy, where small republics were springing up from
municipal communes, which were better adapted to the wants of
the people.
The great evils of those times were owing to these perpetual
changes, which all came from the undefined rights of succession
to power, as left by Charlemagne; a striking proof that a
monarch may be a man of genius, a great and acceptable ruler,
and still fail to see the consequences to future times of the
legacy he leaves them in the incomplete institutions of his own
time. Well has Bossuet said, that "human wisdom is always short
of something."
Those rapid, and, to us, wonderful partitions of empires and
kingdoms; those loose and ill-defined rules of succession in
Germany, France, England, and elsewhere; productive of
revolution at the death of every sovereign, and often during
every reign, showed the Popes that hereditary rights ought to be
clear and fixed, and confined to one person in each nation. From
that period, date the long lines of the Capetians in France, the
Plantagenets in England; while rights of a similar kind are
introduced into Spain and Portugal; likewise into the various
states of Northern Germany, or Scandinavia; and Southern Italy,
or Norman Sicily--the rest of Italy and Germany are placed on a
different footing, the empire and the popedom being both
elective.
Such was the grand policy of the Popes inaugurated by Hildebrand,
which came out in all its strong features, at the same time,
under his powerful influence. Such was the policy which insured
the stability of Europe for upward of six hundred years; a set
of views to which a word only can be devoted here, but on which
volumes would not be thrown away.
In consequence of it, for six hundred years dynasties seldom
changed; the territorial limits of each great division of Europe
remained, on the whole, settled; and an order of society ensued,
of such a nature that any father of a family might rest assured
of the state of his children and grandchildren after him.
In this respect, therefore, as in many others, the papacy was
the key-stone of Christendom.
But as soon as Protestantism came to contest, not only the
temporal, but even the spiritual supremacy of the Popes; when,
taking advantage of the trouble of the Church, the so-called
Catholic sovereigns, while pretending to render all honor to the
spiritual supremacy of the sovereign Pontiffs, refused to
acknowledge in them any right of lifting their warning voice,
and calling on the powers of the world to obey the great and
unchangeable laws of religion and justice, then did the long-
established stability of Europe begin to give way, while the
whole continent entered upon its long era of revolution, which
is still in full way, and, as yet, is far from having produced
its last consequences.
England, the most guilty, was the first to feel the effect of
the shock. The Tudors flattered themselves that, by throwing
aside what they called the yoke of Rome, they had vastly
increased their power, and so they did for the moment, while the
dynasty that succeeds them sees rebellion triumphant, and the
head of a king fall beneath the axe of an executioner.
She is said to have benefited, nevertheless, by her great
revolution, and by the subsequent introduction of a new dynasty.
She has certainly chanted a loud paean of triumph, and at this
moment is still exultant over the effects of her modern policy,
from the momentary success of the new ideas she has disseminated
through the world, and above all from that immense spread of
parliamentary governments which have sprung into existence
everywhere under her guidance, and mainly through her agency.
And the cause of her triumph was that, after a few years of
commotion, she seemed to have obtained a kind of stability which
was a sufficiently good copy of the old order under the Popes,
and won for her apparently the gratitude of mankind; but that
stability is altogether illogical, and cannot long stand. There
is an old, though now trite, saying to the effect that when you
"sow the wind you must reap the whirlwind," and no one can fail
to see the speedy realization of the truth of this adage on her
part. Over the full tide of her prosperity there is a mighty,
irresistible, and inevitable storm visibly gathering. At last
she has come to nearly the same state of mental anarchy which
she has been so powerful to spread in Europe. After reading
"Lothair," the work of one of her great statesmen, all
intelligent readers must exclaim, "Babylon! how hast thou fallen!
" Within a few years, possibly, nothing will remain of her
former greatness but a few shreds, and men will witness another
of those awful examples of a mighty empire falling in the midst
of the highest seeming prosperity.
When a nation has no longer any fixed principle to go by, when
the minds of her leaders are at sea on all great religious and
moral questions, when the people openly deny the right of the
few to rule, when a fabric, raised altogether on aristocracy,
finds the substratum giving way, and democratic ideas seated
even upon the summit of the edifice, there must be, as is said,
"a rattling of old bones," and a shaking of the skeleton of what
was a body.
How long, then, will the mock stability established by the deep
wisdom of England's renowned statesmen have stood? A century or
two of dazzling material prosperity succeeded by long ages of
woe, such as the writer of the "Battle of Dorking," with all his
imagination, could not find power enough to describe; for no
Prussian, or any other foreign army, will bring that catastrophe
about, but the breath of popular fury.
But our purpose is not to utter prophecies--rather to rehearse
facts already accomplished.
England, then, was the first to feel the shock of the earthquake
which was to overthrow the old stability of Europe. It is known
how Germany has ever since been a scene of continual wars,
dynastic changes, and territorial confusion. What evils have not
the wars of the present century brought upon her! Yet, owing to
the phlegmatic disposition, one might call it the stolidity of
the majority of Germans, the disturbances have been so far
external, and the lower masses of society have scarcely been
agitated, except by the first rude explosion of Protestantism,
and the sudden patriotic enthusiasm of young plebeians, in 1814.
But mark the suddenness with which, in 1848, all the thrones of
Germany fell at once under the mere breath of what is called
"the people!" It is almost a trite thing to say that, where
religion no longer exists, there no longer is security or peace.
Impartial travellers, Americans chiefly, have observed of late
that, in certain parts of France, there is, in truth, very
little religious feeling; while in all Protestant Germany,
particularly in that belonging to Prussia, there is none at all.
How long, then, is the "new Germanic Empire," so loudly trumpeted
at Versailles, and afterward so gloriously celebrated at Berlin,
without the intervention of any religion whatever, likely to stand?
How long? Can it exist till the end of this century? He would be
a bold prophet who could confidently say, "Yes."
As to France, formerly the steadiest of all nations, so deeply
attached to her dynasty of eight hundred years, although some of
her kings were little worthy true affection; many of whose
citizens have been born in houses a thousand years old, from
families whose names went back to the darkness of heroic times;
which was once so retentive of her old memories, living in her
traditions, her former deeds of glory, even in the monuments
raised in honor of her kings, her great captains, her
illustrious citizens; which was chiefly devoted to her time-
honored religion, mindful that she was born on the day of the
baptism of Clovis; that she grew up during the Crusades; that a
virgin sent by Heaven saved her from the yoke of the stranger;
that, on attaining her full maturity, it was religion which
chiefly ennobled her; and that her greatest poets, orators,
literary men, respected and honored religion as the basis of the
state, and, by their immortal masterpieces, threw a halo around
Catholicism--France, which still retains in her external
appearance something of her old steadiness and immutability, so
that to the eye of a stranger, who sees her for the first time,
solidity is the word which comes naturally to his mind, as
expressive of every thing around him, has only the look of what
she was in her days of greatness, and on the surface of the
earth there is not to-day a more unsteady, shaky, insecure spot,
scarcely worthy of being chosen by a nomad Tartar as a place
wherein to pitch his tent for the night, and hurry off at the
first appearance of the rising sun on the morrow. Can the
shifting sands of Libya, the ever-shaking volcanic mountains of
equatorial America, the rapidly-forming coral islands of the
southern seas, give an idea of that fickleness, constant
agitation, and unceasing clamor for change, which have made
France a by-word in our days? Who of her children can be sure
that the house he is building for himself will ever be the
dwelling of his son; that the city he lives in to-day will
tomorrow acknowledge him as a member of its community? Who can
be certain that the constitution of the whole state may not
change in the night, and he wake the next day to find himself an
outlaw and a fugitive?
It is a lamentable fact that for the last hundred years a great
nation has been reduced to such a state of insecurity, that no
one dares to think of the future, though all have repudiated the
past, and thus every thing is reduced for them to the present
fleeting moment.
And what is likely to be the future destiny of a nation of forty
million souls, when their present state is such, and such the
uncertainty of their dearest interests? They are unwilling to
quit the soil; for they have lost all power of expansion by
sending colonies to foreign shores; it is difficult for them to
take a real interest in their own soil, for the great moving
spring of interest is broken up by the total want of security.
May God open their eyes to their former folly; for the folly was
all of their own making! They have allowed themselves to be thus
thoroughly imbued with this revolutionary spirit--the first
revolution they hailed with enthusiasm; when they saw it become
stained with frightful horrors, they paused a moment, and were
on the point of acknowledging their error; but scribblers and
sophists came to show them that it failed in being a glorious
and happy one only because it was not complete; another and then
another, and another yet, would finish the work and make them a
great nation. Thus have they become altogether a revolutionary
people; and they must abide by the consequences, unless they
come at last to change their mind.
But the worst has not been said. This terrible example, instead
of proving a warning to nations, has, on the contrary, drawn
nearly all of them into the same boiling vortex. England and
France have led the whole European world captive: people ask for
a government different to the one they have; revolution is the
consequence, and, with the entry of the revolutionary spirit,
good-by to all stability and security. Let Italy and Spain bear
witness if this is not so.
And the great phenomenon of the age is the collecting of all
those revolutionary particles into one compact mass, arranged
and preordained by some master-spirits of evil, who would be
leaders not of a state or nation only, but of a universal
republic embracing first Europe, and then the world. So we hear
to-day of the Internationalists receiving in their "congresses"
deputies not only from all the great European centres, not only
from both ends of America, which is now Europeanized, but from
South Africa, from Australia, New Zealand, from countries which
a few years back were still in quiet possession of a
comparatively few aborigines.
To come back, then, to the point from which we started, it is in
this revolutionary spirit, in those conspiracies for revolutions
to come, that some Irishmen set their hopes for the regeneration
of their country. It would be well to remind them of the sayings
of our Lord: "Can men gather grapes from thorns?" "By their
fruits ye shall know them."
Let the Irish who are truly devoted to their country reflect
well on the kind of men they would have as allies. What has
Ireland in common with these men? If they know Ireland at all,
they detest her because of her Catholicism; and, if Ireland
knows them, she cannot but distrust and abominate them.
It has seemed a decree of kind Providence that all attempts at
rebellion on her part undertaken with the hope of such help,
have so far not only been miserable failures, but most
disgracefully miscarried and been spent in air, leaving only
ridicule and contempt for the originators of and partakers in
the plots.
If the vast and unholy scheme which is certainly being organized,
and which is spreading its fatal branches in all directions,
should ever succeed, it could not but result in the most
frightful despotism ever contemplated by men. Ireland in such an
event would be the infinitesimal part of a chaotic system worthy
of Antichrist for head.
But we are confident that such a scheme cannot succeed and come
to be realized, unless indeed it enter for a short period into
the designs of an avenging God, who has promised not to destroy
mankind again by another flood, but assured us by St. Peter that
he will purify it by fire.
As a mere design of man, intended for the regeneration of
humanity and the new creation of an abnormal order of things, it
cannot possibly succeed, because it is opposed to the nature of
men, among whom as a whole there can be no perfect unity of
external government and internal organization, owing to the
infinite variety of which we spoke at the beginning, which is as
strong in human beings as elsewhere. No other body than the
Catholic Church can hope to adapt itself to all human races, and
govern by the same rules all the children of Adam. The decree
issued of old from the mouth of God is final, and will last as
long as the earth itself. It is contained in Moses' Canticle:
"When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the
sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of each people, according
to the number of the children of Israel," or, as the Hebrew text
has it, "He fixed the limits of each people." On this passage
Aben Ezra remarks that interpreters understand the text as
alluding to the dispersion of nations (Genesis xi.). Those
interpreters, were clearly right, although only Jewish rabbies.
When God deprived man of the unity of language, he took away at
the same time the possibility of unity of institutions and
government; and it will be as hard for men to defeat that design
of Providence as for Julian the apostate to rebuild the Temple
of Jerusalem, of which our Saviour had declared that there
should not remain "a stone upon a stone."
But, though the monstrous scheme cannot ultimately succeed, it
can and will produce untold evils to human society. By alluring
workmen and other people of the lower class, it draws into the
intricate folds of conspiracy, dark projects, and universal
disorder, an immense array of human beings, whom the
revolutionary spirit had not yet, or at least had scarcely,
touched; it undermines and disturbs society in its lowest depths
and widest-spread foundations, since the lower class always has
been and still is the most numerous, including by far the great
majority of men. It consequently renders the stability of order
more difficult, if not absolutely impossible; it opens up a new
era of revolutions, more disastrous than any yet known; for, as
has already been remarked, and it should be well borne in mind,
in order that the whole extent of the evil in prospect may be
seen, so far, all the agitations in Europe, all the convulsions
which have rendered our age so unlike any previous one, and
productive of so many calamities, private as well as public,
have been almost exclusively confined to the middle classes, and
should be considered only as a reaction of the simple
bourgeoisie against the aristocratic class. Those agitations and
convulsions are only the necessary consequence of the secular
opposition, existing from the ninth and tenth centuries and
those immediately following, between the strictly feudal
nobility, which arrogated to itself all prerogatives and rights,
and the more numerous class of burghers, set on the lower step
of the social ladder. These latter wanted, not so much to get up
to the level of their superiors, as to bring them down to their
own, and even precipitate them into the abyss of nothingness
below. They have almost succeeded; and the prestige of noble
blood has passed away, perhaps forever, in spite of Vico's well-
known theory. But the now triumphant burgher in his turn sees
the dim mass, lost in the darkness and indistinctness of the
lowest pool of humanity, rising up grim and horrible out of the
abyss, hungry and fierce and not to be pacified, to threaten the
new-modelled aristocracy of money with a worse fate than that it
inflicted upon the old nobility.
And, to render the prospect more appalling, the chief means,
which so eminently aided the bourgeoisie to take their position,
namely, the wide-spread influence of secret societies, whose
workings even lately have astonished the world by the facile and
apparently inexplicable revolutions effected in a few days, are
now in the full possession of the lower classes, who, no longer
rude and unintelligent, but possessed of leaders of experience
and knowledge, can also powerfully work those mighty engines of
destruction.
In the presence of those past, present, and coming revolutions,
the face of heaven entirely clouded, the presence of God
absolutely ignored, his rights over mankind denied, the designs
of his Providence openly derided, and man, pretending to decide
his own destiny by his own unaided efforts, scornfully rejecting
any obligation to a superior power, not looking on high for
assistance, but taking only for his guide his pretended wisdom,
his unbounded pride, and his raging passions; such is now our
world.
Is Ireland to launch herself on that surging sea of wild impulse,
in whose depths lies destruction and whose waves never kiss a
peaceful coast? When she claimed and exercised a policy of her
own, she wisely persisted in not mixing herself up with the
troubles of Europe, content to enjoy happiness in her own way,
on her ocean-bound island, she thanked God that no portion of
her little territory touched any part of the Continent of Europe,
stretching out vainly toward her shores. So she stood when,
under God, she was mistress of her own destiny. If ever she
thought of Europe, it was only to send her missionaries to its
help, or to receive foreign youth in her large schools which
were open to all, where wisdom was imparted without restriction
and without price. But to follow the lead of European theorists
and vendors of so-called wisdom and science; to originate new
schemes of pretended knowledge, or place herself in the wake of
bold adventurers on the sea of modern inventions, she was ever
steadfast in her refusal.
And now that her autonomy is almost once again within her grasp,
now that she can carve out a destiny of her own, would she hand
over the guidance of herself to men who know nothing of her, who
have only heard of her through the reports of her enemies, and
who will scarcely look at her if she is foolish enough to ask to
be admitted within their ranks?
Every one who wishes well to Ireland ought to thank God that so
far few indeed, if any, of her children have ever joined in the
plots and conspiracies of modern times, and that in this last
scheme just referred to, not one of them, probably, has fully
engaged himself. In the late horrors of the Paris Commune, no
Irish name could be shown to have been implicated, and, when the
contrary was asserted, a simple denial was sufficient to set the
question at rest. Let them so continue to refrain from sullying
their national honor by following the lead of men with whom they
have nothing in common.
After all, the great thing which the Irish desire is, with the
entire possession of their rights, to enjoy that peace and
security in their own island, which they relish so keenly when
they find it on foreign shores. But no peace or security is
possible with the attempt to subvert all human society by wild
and impracticable theories, in which human and divine laws are
alike set at naught. Further words are unnecessary on this
subject, as the simple good sense and deep religious feeling of
the Irish will easily preserve them from yielding to such
temptation.
Yet, a last consideration seems worthy of note. When, later on,
we present our views, and explain by what means we consider that
the happiness of the Irish nation may be secured, and its
mission fulfilled, a more fitting opportunity will be presented
of speaking of the ways by which Providence has already led them
through former difficulties, and the consideration of those holy
designs and past favors may enable us better to understand what
may be hoped and attempted in the future.
Here it is enough to observe that, in whatever progress the
Irish have made of late in obtaining a certain amount of their
rights, insurrection, revolution, plots, and the working of
secret societies condemned by the Church, have absolutely gone
for nothing, and the little of it all, in which Irishmen have
indulged, really formed one of the main obstacles to the
enjoyment of what they had already obtained, and to the securing
of a greater amount for the future.
There is no doubt that revolutions abroad and dangers at home
have been the greatest inducements to England to relax her grasp
and change her tyrannical policy toward Ireland. The success of
the revolt of the North American colonies was the main cause of
the volunteer movement of 1782, and of the concessions then
temporarily granted. The fearful upheaval of revolutionary
France, which filled the English heart with a wholesome dread,
was also a great means of obtaining for Ireland the concession
of being no longer treated as though it were a lair of wild
beasts or a nest of outlaws. The act of Catholic Emancipation in
1829 was certainly granted in view of immediate revolutions
ready to burst forth, one of which did explode in France in the
year following. But, in all those outbursts of popular fury,
Ireland never joined; and if she found in them new ground for
hope, if she awaited anxiously the anticipated result turning in
her favor, she never took any active part whatever in them. She
only relied on God, who always knows how to draw good from evil;
she, however, profited by them, and saw her shackles fall off of
themselves, and herself brought back, step by step, to liberty.
But so soon as any body of Irishmen entered into a scheme of a
similar nature, imitating the secret plottings and deeds of
European revolutionists, Ireland never gained a single inch of
ground, nor reaped the slightest advantage from such attempts.
On the contrary, ridicule, contempt, increase of burdens,
penalties, and harsh treatment, were the only result which ever
came from them, and, worst of all, no one pitied the victims of
all those foolish enterprises. There is no need of entering here
into details. The first of those attempts failed long ago; the
last is still on record, and cannot be yet said to belong to
past history.
CHAPTER XIV.
RESURRECTION.-EMIGRATION.
To the eye of a keen beholder, Ireland to-day presents the
appearance of a nation entering upon a new career. She is
emerging from a long darkness, and opening again to the free
light of heaven. Whoever compares her present position with that
she occupied a century ago, cannot fail to be struck with wonder
no less at the change in her than at the agencies which brought
that change about. And when to this is added the further
reflection that she is still young, though sprung from so old-an-
origin-young in feeling, in buoyancy, in aspirations, in purity
and simplicity-the conclusion forces itself upon the mind that a
high destiny is in store for her, and that God proposes a long
era of prosperity and active life to an ancient nation which is
only now beginning to live.
In such cases, whether it be a people or an individual, which is
entering upon its life, crowds of advisers are ever to be found
ready to display their wisdom and lay down the plans whose
adoption will infallibly bring prosperity and happiness to the
individual or people in question.
Ireland, to-day, suffers from no lack of wise counsellors and
ardent well-wishers. Unfortunately, their various projects do
not always harmonize; indeed, they are sometimes contradictory,
and, as their number is by no means small, the only difficulty
is where to choose which road the nation should take in order to
march in the right direction.
In entering upon this portion of our work, where we have to deal
with actual questions of the day, and if not to draw the
horoscope of the future, at least to give utterance to our ideas
for the promotion of the welfare of the nation, we shall appear
to come under the same catalogue of advisers, fully persuaded,
with the rest, that our advice is the right, our voice the only
one worthy of attention.
Our purpose is far humbler; our reflections take another shape;
we merely say
During the last hundred years, Ireland has changed wonderfully
for the better; and although the old wounds are not yet quite
healed up, though they still smart, though she is still poor and
disconsolate, and her trials and afflictions far from being
ended; nevertheless, though sorely tried, Providence has been
kind to her. Many of her rights have been restored, and she is
no longer the slave of hard task-masters. When she now speaks,
her voice is no longer met by the gibe and sneer, but with a
kind of awe akin to respect, her enemies seeming to feel
instinctively that it is the voice of a nation which no longer
may be safely despised.
This fact being indisputable, the conviction forces itself upon
us that her improved condition is mainly, perhaps solely, due to
Providence; and that the career upon which she has entered, and
which she is now pursuing with a clear determination of her own,
has been marked out, designed, and already partially run, under
the guidance of that God for whom alone she has suffered, and
who never fails in his own good time to dry up the tears shed
for his sake, and crown his martyrs with victory.
Our task is merely to examine the progress made, the manner of
its making, the direction toward which it tends, with the aim,
if possible, of adding to its speed. We have no new plan to
offer, no gratuitous advice to give. The plan is already
sketched out--God has sketched it; and our only aim is to see
how man may cooperate with designs far higher than any proposed
by human wisdom.
The first thing that strikes us, standing on the verge of this
new region, opening out dimly but gloriously before our eyes, is
one great fact which is plain to all; which is greater than all
England's concessions to Ireland, more fruitful of happy
consequences, not alone to the latter country itself, but to the
world at large; a fact which is the strongest proof of the
vitality of the Irish race, which now begins to win for it
respect by bringing forth its real strength, a strength to
astonish the world; which began feebly when the evils of the
country were at their height, but has gone on constantly
increasing until it has now grown to extraordinary proportions;
and which instead of, as their enemies fondly supposed, wresting
Ireland from the Irish, has made their claim to the native soil
securer than ever, by spreading strong supporters of their
rights through the world. This great fact is emigration.
At this moment, Irishmen are scattered abroad over the earth. In
many regions they have numbers, and form compact bodies.
Wherever this occurs, they acquire a real power in the land
which they have made their new home. That power is certainly
intended by Almighty God to be used wisely, prudently, but
actively and energetically; not only for the good of those who
have been thus transplanted in a new soil, but also for the good
of the mother-country which they cannot, if they would, forget.
How can they utilize for such a purpose the power so recently
acquired, the wealth, the influence, the consideration they
enjoy, in their new country? How may such a course benefit the
land of their nativity as of their origin? These are important
questions; they are not airy theories, but rise up clearly from
a standing and stupendous fact. The turning their power of
expansion to its right use, the reproduction with Christian aim
of that old power of expansion peculiar to the Celtic race three
thousand years ago, is what we call the first true issue of the
Irish question:- Emigration and its Possible Effects.
In order to judge with proper understanding of the prospective
effects of Irish emigration, it is fitting to study the fact in
all its bearings; to examine the origin and various phases of
the mighty movement, the religious direction it has invariably
taken, the immediate good it has produced, and the special
consideration of the vast proportions which it has finally
assumed. The task may be a long one; but it is certainly
important and interesting; and it is only after the details of
it have been thoroughly sifted that one may be in a position to
judge rightly of the aid it has already furnished, and which it
is destine to furnish in a still greater degree, to the uprising
of the nation.
The movement originated with the Reformation. It began with the
flight of a few of the nobility in the reign of Henry VIII.;
their number was increased under Elizabeth, and grew to larger
proportions still under James I.; but a far greater number,
sufficient to make a very sensible diminution in the population
of the country, was doomed to exile by Cromwell and the Long
Parliament. It then became a compulsory banishment.
The next following movement on a large scale occurred after the
surrender of Kilkenny, when the Irish commanders, Colonel
Fitzpatrick, Clanricard, and others, could obtain no better
terms than emigration to any foreign country then at peace with
England. The Irish troops were eagerly caught up by the various
European monarchs, so highly were their services esteemed. The
number that thus left their native land, many of them never to
return, amounted, according to well-informed writers, to forty
thousand men, of noble blood most of them, many of the first
nobility of the land, and almost all children of the old race.
The details of this first exodus are to be found in the pages of
many modern authors, particularly in Mr. Prendergast's
"Cromwellian Settlement."
The example thus given was followed on many occasions. The
Treaty of Limerick, October 3, 1691, gave the garrison under
Saarsfield liberty to join the army of King William or enter the
service of France. Mr. A.M. O'Sullivan has given a spirited
sketch of the making of their choice by the heroic garrison as
it defiled out of the city:
"On the morning of the 5th of October the Irish regiments were
to make their choice between exile for life or service in the
armies of their conqueror. At each end of a gently-rising ground
beyond the suburbs were planted on one side the royal standard
of France, and on the other that of England. It was agreed that
the regiments, as they marched out with all the honors of war,
drums beating, colors flying, and matches lighted, should, on
reaching the spot, wheel to the left or to the right, beneath
that flag under which they elected to serve. At the head of the
Irish marched the Foot Guards, the finest regiment in the
service, fourteen hundred strong. All eyes were fixed on this
splendid body of men. On they came, amid breathless silence and
acute suspense; for well both the English and Irish generals
knew that the choice of the first regiment would powerfully
influence all the rest. The Guards marched up to the critical
spot, and in a body wheeled to the colors of France, barely
seven men turning to the English side! Ginckle, we are told, was
greatly agitated as he witnessed the proceeding. The next
regiment, however (Lord Iveagh's), marched as unanimously to the
Williamite banner, as did also portions of two others. But the
bulk of the Irish army defiled under fleur-de-lys of King Louis,
only one thousand and forty-six, out of nearly fourteen thousand
men, preferring the service of England."
From that time out a large number of the Irish nobility and
gentry continued to enlist under French, Spanish, or Austrian
colors; and the several Irish brigades became celebrated all
over Europe until the end of the eighteenth century. It is said
by l'abbe McGeohegan that six hundred thousand Irishmen perished
in the armies of France alone. The abbe is generally very
accurate, and from his long residence in France had every means
at his disposal of arriving at the truth. Some pretend that
double the number enlisted in foreign service. There is no doubt
that in all a million men left the island to take service under
the banners of Catholic sovereigns, and it is needless to dwell
on the bravery and devotion of those men whom the persecution of
an unwise and cruel Protestant government drove out of Ireland
during the eighteenth century-it is needless to dwell upon it,
for the record is known to the world.
Without following the fortunes of the Irish brigades, the
history of one of which, that in the service of France, has been
given us in the very interesting and valuable narrative of John
R. O'Callaghan-its various fortunes and final dissolution at the
breaking out of the French republic, when the English Government
was glad to receive back the scattered remnants of it-the
question which bears most on our present subject is: What was
the occupation of those Irishmen on the Continent when not
actually engaged in war? What service did their voluntary or
compulsory exile do their native country? Was that long
emigration of a century productive of something out of which
Providence may have drawn good?
The first departure of a few under Hugh O'Neill and Hugh
O'Donnell had already spread the name of Ireland through Spain,
Italy, and Belgium. The reports of the numerous English spies,
employed to dog their steps and watch their movements, reports
some of which have been finally brought to light, conclusively
prove that most of the exiles held honorable positions in Spain
and Portugal, at Valladolid and Lisbon, where the O'Sullivans
and O'Driscolls lived; at the very court of Spain, or in the
Spanish navy, like the Bourkes and the Cavanaghs.
In Flanders, under the Austrian archdukes, were stationed the
McShanes, on the Groyne; the Daniells at Antwerp; the posterity
of the earls themselves with that of their former retinue. All
held rank in the Austrian army, and even in times of peace were
occupied in thinking of possible entanglements whereby they
might serve their country, while they made the Irish name
honored and respected all over that rich land. In Italy, at
Naples, Leghorn, Florence, and Rome, in the great centres of the
peninsula, the same thing was taking place, and there, at least,
the calumnies, everywhere so industriously circulated about
Ireland, could not penetrate, or, if they did, only to be
received with scorn.
But, when the next emigration, at the end of the Cromwellian and
Williamite wars, landed forty thousand soldiers, and twelve
thousand more a few years afterward, on the European Continent,
these armed men proved to the nations, by their bravery, their
deep attachment to their religion, their perfect honor and
generosity, that the people from which a persecuting power had
driven them forth could not be composed of the outlaws and blood-
thirsty cutthroats which the reports of their enemies would make
them. How striking and permanent must have been the effect
produced on impartial minds by the contrast between the aspect
of the reality and the base fabrications of skilfully-scattered
rumor!
And be it borne in mind that those men founded families in the
countries where they settled; as well as those who continued to
flock thither during the whole of the eighteenth century. They
carried about with them, in their very persons even, the history
of Ireland's wrongs; and the mere sight of them was enough to
interest all with whom they came in contact in favor of their
country. Hence the esteem and sympathy which Ireland and her
people have always met with in France, where the calumnies and
ridicule lavished on them could never find an entrance.
It would be a great error to imagine that they were to be found
only in the camp or in the garrisons of cities. They made
themselves a home in their new country, and their children
entered upon all the walks of life opened up to the citizens of
the country in which they resided. Thus, at least, the name of
Ireland did not die out altogether during that age of gloom,
when their native isle was only the prison of the race, where it
was chained down in abject misery, out of the sight of the world,
the life of it stifled out in the deep dungeon of oblivion.
In all honorable professions they became distinguished-in the
Church and in trade, as in the army. Thus, speaking only of
France, an Irishman-Edgeworth-was chosen by Louis XVI. to
prepare him for death and stand by him during his last ordeal of
ignominy; another-Lally Tollendal-would have wrested India from
England, if his ardent temperament had not brought him enemies
where he ought to have met with friends; another yet-Walsh-
during the American War, employed the wealth acquired by trade,
in sending cruisers against the English to American waters.
It would take long pages to record what those noble exiles
accomplished for the good of their country and religion, quite
apart from the heroism they displayed on battle-fields, and
their fidelity to principle during times of peace. Their very
presence in foreign countries was, perhaps, the best protest
against the enslavement of their own. They showed by their
bearing that they owed no allegiance to England, and that brute
force could never establish right. By identifying themselves
with the nations which offered them hospitality and a new right
of citizenship, they proved to the world that their native isle
could be governed by native citizens. Their honorable conduct
and successful activity in every pursuit of life showed that, as
they were capable of governing themselves, so likewise could
they claim self-government for their country.
The moral condition of France during the eighteenth century, and
the depths of corruption into which the higher class sank in so
short a time, are known to all. To the honor of the Irish
nobility and gentry then in France, not a single Irish name is
to be met with in that long list of noble names which have
disgraced that page of French history. Not in the luxurious
bowers and palaces of Louis XV. were they to be found, but on
the battle-fields of Dettingen and Fontenoy. It was a Scotchman-
Law-who infected the higher circles of the natives with the rage
for speculation, and the folly of gambling in paper. It was an
Italian- Cagliostro-who traded on the superstitious credulity of
men who had lost their faith. It was an Englishman-Lord
Derwentwater-and another Scotchman-Ramsay-who, by the
introduction of the first Masonic Lodge into France, opened the
floodgates of future revolutions.
Among those of foreign birth, no Irishman was found in France to
contribute to the corruption of the nation, and give his aid to
set agoing that long era of woe not yet ended.
And needless is it to add that never is one of them mentioned,
among those who were so active in propagating that broad
infidelity peculiar to that age. If a few of them shared to some
extent in the general delusion, and took part with the vast
multitude in the insane derision, then so fashionable, of every
thing holy, their number was small indeed, and none of them
acquired in that peculiar line, the celebrity which crowned so
many others. -the Grimms, the Gallianis, and later on the Paines,
the Cloots, and other foreigners.
As a body, the Irish remained faithful to the Church of their
fathers, honoring her by their conduct, and their respectful
demeanor toward holy names and holy things. Eventually they, in
common with all Frenchmen, had to share in the misfortunes,
brought on by the subversion of all the former guiding
principles; but, though sharing in the punishment, they took no
part in the great causes which called it down.
These few words will suffice for the emigration of the Irish
nobility, and its effects on foreign countries; as well as
Ireland itself.
But another class of noblemen had emigrated to the Continent
side by side with those of whom we have just spoken; namely,
bishops, priests, monks, and learned men. England would not
suffer the Catholic clergy in Ireland; she was particularly
careful not to allow Irish youth the benefit of any but a
Protestant education. Irish clergymen were compelled to fly and
open houses of study abroad. Their various colleges in Spain,
France, Belgium, and Italy, are well known; they have already
been referred to, and it is not necessary to enlarge on the
subject. But, though mention has been made of the renown thus
acquired by Irishmen then residing on the Continent, it is
fitting to speak of them again in their character of emigrants.
They took upon themselves the noble task of making the
literature and the history of their nation known to all people;
and in so doing they have preserved a rich literature which must
otherwise have perished.
What was their situation on the Continent? They had been driven
by persecution from their country, sometimes in troops of exiles
to be cast on some remote shore; sometimes escaping singly and
in disguise, they went out alone to end their lives under a
foreign sky. Behind them they left the desolate island; their
friends bowed down in misery, their enemies triumphant and in
full power. The convents, where they had spent their happiest
days, were either demolished or turned to vile uses; their
churches desecrated; heresy ruling the land, truth compelled to
be silent. All the harrowing details given by the "Prophet of
Lamentations" might be applied to their beloved country.
True, they could find peace and rest among those who offered
them their hospitality; at least, the worship of God would be
free and untrammelled there. But it was not the place of their
birth, where they had received their first education; it was not
the mission intrusted to them when they consecrated their lives
to God. They would bear another language, see around them
different manners, begin life anew, perhaps, in their old age.
What a contrast to their former hopes! What a sad ending to the
closing days of their life!
Nevertheless, they might be of use to their countrymen. It was
not for them now to convert Europe, and preach Christianity to
barbarous tribes, as did their ancestors of old. The world which
received them was languishing with excess of refined
civilization; corruption had entered in, and was fast destroying
it; and they could scarcely hope to hold it back from its
downward career. But, at least, they might open houses for the
reception of the youth of their own country, where they should
receive an education according to the teachings of the true
Church, which was denied them at home. So they went to Salamanca,
to Valladolid, to Paris, Louvain, Douai, Rheims, Rome, wherever
there was hope or possibility of directing Irish youth in the
ways of true piety and learning.
The labors to which they devoted themselves, though unknown to
posterity, were of great utility at the time. They saw the youth
they educated grow up under their care; when their studies were
concluded, they sent them to labor in the ministry among their
countrymen; they heard of them from time to time of their
arduous life, the dangers they braved, the many persecutions
they underwent, their imprisonment when captured, their
conviction, torture often, and death by martyrdom. And thus,
through the exertions of those emigrant monks and priests, the
true Gospel was preached in Ireland, and the faith of the people
kept alive and strong.
A few of them chose another path, and consecrated the remainder
of their days to literary labors, which have shed down on their
persecuted country a halo of immortal glory.
Some Franciscan friars (two of them the brothers O'Cleary) had
already begun this work in the island itself, when driven from
their quiet homes to take refuge in the obscure "convents," that
is, out-of-the-way farm-houses mentioned before, where they were
received and hidden away from the world. The literature of
Ireland was fast perishing; the rage of their enemies being as
violently directed against their books as against their houses
and churches. Precious manuscripts were every day given to the
flames and wantonly destroyed, seemingly for the mere pleasure
of destruction. A very few years would have sufficed to render
the former history of the country a perfect blank. In no spot of
the same size on earth had so many interesting books ever been
written and treasured up; but before long there would remain no
friars on the island to preserve them, no library to contain
them, no one to care for them in the least. The brothers
O'Cleary saw this with dismay; and they, with two companions,
became known as the "Four Masters." They interested in their
work the faithful Irish who still retained possession of a farm,
or a cabin with a few acres of ground attached; the men, and
women even, were to search the country round for every volume
concealed or preserved, for every parchment and relic, for
vellum manuscripts, even a stray solitary page, did one remain
alone. The annals of Ireland were thus saved by the literary
patriotism of poor and unknown peasants. All that remains of
Irish lore was collected together in the rural convent of the
O'Clearys, and an ardent flame was enkindled which lasted the
whole of the seventeenth century.
To this initiative must be referred the subsequent labors of
Ward, Colgan, Lynch, and others; herculean labors truly, which
have enabled antiquarians of our days to resume the thread, so
near being snapped, of that long and tangled web of history
wherein is woven all that can interest the patriot and the
Christian of the island.
Knowing the position in which the writers found themselves, it
is astonishing to see what they wrote. It was not a work of
fancy to which their pens were devoted: A strong, feeling heart
and an active imagination were certainly theirs; but of little
service could either prove to them in the ungrateful task of
collecting manuscripts, classifying, reading them through,
ascertaining their age and authenticity, and finally using them
for the purpose of preserving the annals and hagiography of the
nation.
The large libraries they found in the various cities which
received them could be of little use to them. They had first to
collect their own libraries, to summon their authorities from
distant lands; many books were to be procured from Ireland
itself. With what precautions! It was real, (though lawful)
smuggling; for the export of Irish books was not only under
tariff, but strictly prohibited; the mere sight of them was more
hateful to a British custom-house officer of those days than the
sight of a crucifix to a Japanese official of Nagasaki. It would
be interesting to know the various stratagems devised to conceal
them, tarry them away, and convey them triumphantly to Louvain,
Paris, or Rome.
But Ireland was not the only repository of Irish books. Many
letters, official documents, copies of old MSS., interesting
relics of antiquity, had been gathered ages before and during
all the intervening time, in convents, churches, houses of
education, on the Continent, along the Rhine chiefly. It is said
that even to-day the richest mines of yet unexplored lore of
this character are scattered along both sides of the great
German river. The frequent movements of various armies, the
sieges of cities, the horrors of war which have raged there
constantly from the days of Arminius and Varro down, have not
destroyed every thing, could not exhaust the rich deposit of
Irish manuscripts there concealed. But the labor of striking the
mine!-of' opening those musty pages falling to pieces between
the fingers and leaving in the hand nothing but illegible
fragments of half-blackened parchment; and the further labor of
deciphering them, of discovering what they speak about, and if
they are likely to prove useful to the purposes.
It is needless to descant on such a theme. It is impossible to
give any true idea of the literary labors of those men, without
having seen and perused their huge folios, many of which have
not yet been published to the world. Poor Colgan could give us
little more than his "Trial Thaumaturga and that was only
destined to form the portal of the edifice he purposed erecting
as a shrine to the memory of the whole host of saints nurtured
in the island-the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae
The grand idea, which first germinated in the minds of those men,
expanded afterward in others under circumstances more favorable.
Did they not suggest to Bollandus and his fellows the thought
whose realization has immortalized them?
In tasks such as these were the Irish emigrant monks of the time
employed.
There was yet another class of involuntary Irish exiles those
shipped to the " plantations" of America, to the 11 tobacco" and
11 sugar" islands, to Virginia and Jamaica, but principally to
the Barbadoes. The origin of this new kind of emigration,
already touched upon, is worthy of the times and of the men who
called it forth.
After forty thousand soldiers had been allowed, or rather
compelled, by Cromwell to enlist in foreign armies, it was found
that many had left behind them their wives and children. What
was to be done with these " widows" whose husbands and numerous
offspring were still living ? They could not be sent to Coff as
women, with children only, could not be expected to "plant" that
desolate province; they could not be expected to "plant" that
desolate province; they could not be allowed to remain in their
native place, as the decree had gone forth that all the Irish
were to "transplant" or be transported: it would have been
inconvenient and inexcusable to do what had been so often done
in the war-massacre them in cold blood-as the war was over.
To relieve the government of this difficulty, Bristol merchants,
and merchants probably from other English cities, trading with
the new British colonies of North America, thought it a
providential opening for a great profit to accrue to the soils
of the benighted Irish women and children, and likely at the
same time to add something to their own purses and those of
their friends, the West India planters.
It was only under Elizabeth that permanent colonies were sent
out from England to the continent and islands of the New World.
The Cavaliers of Virginia are as well known in the South as the
Puritans of New England in the North. This last colony dated
only from the time of the Stuart dynasty. The great question for
all those transatlantic establishments was that of labor; but in
the South it was more difficult of solution than in the North,
where Europeans could work in the fields, a thing scarcely
possible in the tropics. The natives as we know, were first
employed in the South by the Spaniards, and soon succumbed to
the demands of European rapacity.
In the West Indies, natives of two different races existed: the
soft and delicate Indian of Hayti and Cuba, and the ferocious
Caribs of many other islands. The first race soon disappeared;
the other continued refractory, indomitable, choosing to perish
rather than labor; and some remnants of it still remain, saved
by the Catholic Church. As yet, African negroes had not been
conveyed there in sufficient numbers.
A brilliant thought struck the minds, at once pious, active, and
business-like, of those above-mentioned Bristol merchants-a
thought which was the doom of thousands of Irish women and
children.
The names of a few of those Bristol firms deserve to be handed
down. Those of Messrs. James Sellick and Leader, Mr. Robert
Yeomans, Mr. Joseph Lawrence, Dudley North, and John Johnson,
are furnished by Mr. Prendergast, who tells us that-
"The Commissioners of Ireland under Cromwell gave them orders
upon the governors of garrisons to deliver them prisoners of war
. . . . upon masters of work-houses, to hand over to them the
destitute under their care, `who were of an age to labor,' or,
if women, those 'who were marriageable, and not past breeding;'
and gave directions to all in authority, to seize those who had
no visible means of livelihood, and deliver them to these agents
of the Bristol merchants; in execution of which latter
directions, Ireland must have exhibited scenes in every part
like the slave-hunts in Africa."
A contract was signed on September 14, 1653, by the Com
missioners of Ireland and Messrs. Sellick and Leader, "to supply
them (the merchants) with two hundred and fifty women of the
Irish nation, above twelve years and under the age, of forty-
five."
The fate reserved for the human cattle, as they must have been
looked upon by the godly gentlemen who bartered over them, may
be well imagined. It is calculated that, in four years, those
English firms of slave-dealers had shipped six thousand and four
hundred Irish men and women, boys and maidens, to the British
colonies of North America.
The age requisite for the females who were thus shipped off may
be noted; the boys and men were not to be under twelve or over
fifty. These latter were condemned to the task of tilling the
soil in a climate where the negro only can work and live. As all
the cost to their masters was summed up in the expense of
transportation, they were not induced to spare them, even by the
consideration of the high price which, it is said, caused the
modern slave-owners of America to treat their slaves with what
might be called a commercial humanity. It is easy to imagine,
then, the life led by so many young men forced to work in the
open fields, under a tropical sun. How long that life lasted, we
do not know; as their masters, on whom they entirely depended,
were interested in keeping the knowledge of their fate a secret.
It is well understood that, when the unfortunate victims, had
once left the Irish harbor from which they set sail, no one ever
heard of them again; and, if the parents still lived in the old
country, they were left to their conjectures as to the probable
situation of their children in the new.
Sir William Petty says that "of boys and girls alone "-exclusive,
consequently, of men and women-" six thousand were thus
transplanted; but the total number of Irish sent to perish in
the tobacco-islands, as they were called, was estimated in some
Irish accounts at one hundred thousand."
The "Irish accounts" may have been exaggerated, but the English
atoned for this by certainly falling below the mark, as is clear
from the fact that, according to them, the Commissioners of
Ireland required the "supply" for New England alone to come from
"the country within twenty miles of Cork, Youghall, Kinsale,
Waterford, and Wexford;" that "the hunt lasted four years," and
was carried on with such ardor by the agents of many English
firms that those men-catchers employed persons "to delude poor
people by false pretenses into by-places, and thence they forced
them on board their ships; that for money sake they were found
to have enticed and forced women from their husbands, and
children from their parents, who maintained them at school; and
they had not only dealt so with the Irish, but also with the
English." For this reason, the order was revoked, and the "hunt"
forbidden.
When agents were reduced to such straits after the government
had used force, as Henry Cromwell acknowledged, the large extent
of country mentioned above must have been well scoured and
depopulated; and certainly a far greater number of victims must
have been secured by all those means combined than is given in
the English accounts. We believe the Irish.
One other source of supply deserves mention. Not only women and
children, but priests also, were hunted down and shipped off to
the same American plantations; so that persons of every class
which is held sacred in the eyes of God and man for its
character and helplessness, were compelled to emigrate, or
rather to undergo the worst possible fate that the imagination
of man can conceive.
In 1656 a general battue for priests took place all over Ireland.
The prisons seem to have been filled to overflowing. "On the 3d
of May, the governors of the respective precincts were ordered
to send them with sufficient guards, from garrison to garrison,
to Carrickfergus, to be there put on board of such ships as
should sail with the first opportunity to the Barbadoes. One may
imagine the sufferings of this toilsome journey by the petition
of one of them. Paul Cashin, an aged priest, apprehended at
Maryborough, and sent to Philipstown, on the way to
Carrickfergus, there fell desperately sick; and, being also
extremely aged, was in danger of perishing in restraint from
want of friends and means of relief. On the 27th of August, the
commissioners having ascertained the truth of his petition, they
ordered him sixpence a day during his sickness, and (in answer,
probably, to this poor prisoner's prayer to be saved from
transplantation) their order directed that the sixpence should
be continued to him in his travel thence (after his recovery) to
Carrickfergus, in order to his transplantation to the Barbadoes.
"-- (Cromwellian Settlement.)
In that burning island of the West Indies, deprived of all means,
not only of exercising their ministry among others, but even of
practising their religion themselves, of fulfilling their holy
obligation of prayer and sacrifice, these victims of such an
atrocious persecution were employed as laborers in the fields:
their transplantation had cost money, and the money had to be
repaid a hundred-fold by the sweat of their brow.
Ship-loads of them had been discharged on the inhospitable shore
of that island; each with a high calling which he could no
longer carry out; each, therefore, tortured in his soul, with
all the sweet or bitter memories of his past life crowding on
his mind, and the dreary prospect spreading before him, to the
end of his life, of no change from his rude and slavish
occupation under the burning sun, hearing no voice but that of
the harsh taskmaster; his eyes saddened and his heart sickened
by the open and daily spectacle of immorality and woe, with no
ending but the grave.
It seems, however, that these holy men found some means of
fulfilling their sacred duty as God's ministers, for the inhuman
traffic in such slaves as these to the Barbadoes lasted but one
year. In 1657 it was decreed that this island should no longer
be their place of transportation, but, instead, the desolate
isles of Arran, opposite the entrance to the bay of Galway, and
the isle of Innisboffin, off the coast of Connemara. Mr.
Prendergast thinks that this change of policy in their regard
may have been caused by the price of their transportation, which
probably mounted to a high aggregate sum. But he must be
mistaken. They certainly cost no more than women and children,
and their labor in the West Indies surely covered this expense.
The reason for the change is more plainly visible in the nature
of the site substituted for the Barbadoes as their place of
exile. The "holy isles" of Arran and the isle of Innisboffin
were then, as now, bare of every thing--almost of inhabitants.
The priests could be there kept as in a prison, and, though they
might be of no profit to their masters, they could not hear a
voice or see a face other than those of their fellow-captives.
In the West India islands there existed an already thick
population, and the very women and children who had been
transported thither before them would be consoled by their
ministry, though practised by stealth, and strengthened in their
faith, which might thus have not only been kept alive among them,
but spread over the whole country.
Who can say if the faith, preserved among the many Irish living
in the island until quite recently, was not owing to their
exhortations?
"The first Irish people who found permanent homes in America,"
says Thomas D'Arcy McGee, "were certain Catholic patriots
banished by Oliver Cromwell to Barbadoes. . . . In this island,
as in the neighboring Montserrat, the Celtic language was
certainly spoken in the last century,1 (1 The Celtic language--
that sure sign of Catholicity--was not only spoken there last
century, but is still to-day. The writer himself heard last year
(1871), from two young American seamen, who had just returned
from a voyage to this island, that the negro porters and white
longshoremen who load and unload the ships in the harbor, know
scarcely any other language than the Irish, so that often the
crews of English vessels can only communicate with them by signs.)
and perhaps it is partly attributable to this early Irish
colonization, that Barbadoes became 'one of the most populous
islands in the world.' At the end of the seventeenth century, it
was reported to contain twenty thousand inhabitants."
Although Barbadoes is the chief island concerned in the present
considerations, nevertheless nearly all the British colonies
then existing in America, received their share of this
emigration. Several ship-loads of the exiles were certainly sent
to New England, at the very time that New-Englanders were
earnestly invited by the British Government to "come and plant
Ireland;" Virginia, too, paid probably with tobacco for the
young men and maidens sent there as slaves. The "Thurloe State
Papers" disclose the fact that one thousand boys and one
thousand girls, taken in Ireland by force, were dispatched to
Jamaica, lately added to the empire of England by Admiral Penn,
father of the celebrated Quaker founder of Pennsylvania.
Thus, then, began the first extensive emigration of the Irish to
various parts of British America--a movement quite compulsory,
which in our days has become voluntary, and is productive of the
wonders soon to claim our attention.
The involuntary emigration of soldiers and clergymen to the
Continent of Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, was, as has been seen, the cause of great advantages
to Ireland, and became, in the designs of a merciful Providence,
a powerful means of drawing good from evil. At first sight, it
seems impossible to discover a similar advantage in this other
most involuntary emigration to the plantations of America.
A pagan has declared that "there is no spectacle more grateful
to the eyes of God than a just man struggling with adversity;"
and where, except in the first ages of Christianity, could more
innocent victims, and a more cruel persecution, be witnessed?
After the horrors of a civil war, horrors unparalleled perhaps
in the annals of modern nations, the children and young people
of both sexes are hunted down over an area of several Irish
counties, dragged in crowds to the seaports, and there jammed in
the holds of small, uncomfortable, slow-going vessels. What
those children must have been may be easily imagined from the
specimens of the race before us to-day. We do not speak of their
beauty and comeliness of form, on which a Greek writer of the
age of Pericles might have dilated, and found a subject worthy
of his pen; we speak of their moral beauty, their simplicity,
purity, love of home, attachment to their family, and God, even
in their tenderest age. We meet them scattered over the broad
surface of this country--boys and girls of the same race, coming
from the same counties, chiefly from sweet Wexford, the
beautiful, calm, pious south of Ireland. Who but a monster could
think of harming those pure and affectionate creatures, so
modest, simple, and ready to trust and confide in every one they
meet? And what could be said of those maidens, now so well known
in this New World, of whom to speak is to praise, whom to see is
to admire? Such were the victims selected by the Bristol firms,
by "Lord" Henry Cromwell, Governor-General of Ireland, or by
Lord Thurloe, secretary and mouth-piece of the "Protector." They
were to be violently torn from their parents and friends, from
every one they knew and loved, to be condemned, after surviving
the horrible ocean-passage of those days, the boys to work on
sugar and tobacco plantations, the girls to lead a life of shame
in the harems of Jamaica planters!
Such of them as were sent North, were to be distributed among
the "saints" of New England, to be esteemed by the said "saints"
as "idolaters," "vipers," "young reprobates," just objects of
"the wrath of God;" or, if appearing to fall in with their new
and hard task-masters, to be greeted with words of dubious
praise as "brands snatched from the burning," "vessels of
reprobation," destined, perhaps, by a due imitation of the
"saints," to become some day "vessels of election," in the mean
time to be unmercifully scourged by both master and mistress
with the "besom of righteousness" probably, at the slightest
fault or mistake.
Such was the sorrowful prospect held out to them; there was no
possibility of escape, no hope of going back to the only country
they loved. In the South they soon, very soon, sank into an
obscure grave. In the North a prolonged life was only a
prolongation of torment. For, who among them could ever think of
becoming a "convert?" They had been taken from their island-home
when over twelve years of age; they had already received from
their mothers and hunted priests a religious education, which
happily could never be effaced; they were to bury in their
hearts all their lives long the conviction of their holy faith,
supported by the only hope they now had, the hope of heaven.
Could the eyes of God, looking down over the earth, and marking
in all places with deep pity his erring children, find souls
more worthy of his vast paternal love? Can we imagine that the
ears of Heaven were deaf to their prayers poured out unceasingly
all those long days and nights of trials and of tears? Can we
read in the designs of Providence the blessed decrees which such
scenes called forth? Blind that we are, unable often to judge
rightly of our own thoughts, often an enigma to ourselves, how
shall we dare to judge of what is so far above us? No Christian
at least can pretend that all those miseries, accumulated on the
heads of so many innocent victims, had no other object than to
make them suffer. Ireland will yet profit by all the merits,
unknown and untold, gained by so many thousand human hearts and
souls and bodies given over to misfortunes which baffle
expression.
And as yet we have said nothing of those cargos of priests
shipped from Carrickfergus to Barbadoes, and afterward to Arran
and Innisboffin. Deprived of all means of making their new
country in America a witness of Catholic prayer and worship--not
one of them probably being able to offer the holy sacrifice even
for a single day, nor administer any sacrament unless perhaps
that of penance-by stealth; not one dared open his mouth and
preach the truth publicly to all. What could they do? They
offered the sacrifice of themselves; the very sight of them
possessed almost the virtue of a sacrament, and their lives
preached a sermon more eloquent than any of those which entrance
the vastest audience of a solemn cathedral.
No! the first emigration of 'the Irish to America was not
unfruitful in its results. And were we to attribute the great
progress made by Catholicity on the American Continent in the
present age to the merits of those numerous victims of
persecution, who could prove us to be in error, and say that
between the sufferings of innocence in the seventeenth and the
glorious success of their countrymen in the nineteenth century
there is no connection? The old phrase of Tertullian, "Sanguis
martyrum, semen Christianorum," has been proved true too often
in the annals of the Catholic Church to be falsified in this one
instance; yet, if what our days witness be not the result of
former sufferings and sacrifices, those trials were barren, and
are consequently inexplicable. Every cause must have its effect;
and it is a truth which no Christian can hesitate to admit, that
the most efficacious source of blessings is the tear of the
innocent, the anguish of the pure of heart, the humble prayer of
the persecuted servant of God.
When we come to speak of the emigration of the race to the
American Continent, which is now in progress, the stupendous
facts which will make our narrative and excite our admiration
must be regarded and accounted for from a religious and Catholic
stand point, and we shall then be able to refer to this first
and apparently barren emigration. Many losses, spiritual as well
as temporal, may stagger the unreflecting, particularly when the
whole designs of Providence are as yet scarcely in their
inceptive stage; but the more they are developed before our eyes,
the more the truth is made clear; every difficulty vanishes;
and the soul of the beholder exclaims "Yes, God is truly wise
and merciful!"
But it is time at last to enter on the consideration of what we
esteem the first great issue involved in the resurrection of
Ireland, namely, all the probable consequences of the present
emigration, which is the true point we are aiming at, as our
purpose is to show the benefit that Ireland has already derived,
and is sure to derive later on, from that incessant flow of the
great human wave starting from her shore to oversweep vast
continents and islands of the sea. What aid will it afford to
her own resurrection at home, in order to render that complete
and lasting? This may be said to have been our main object in
writing these pages; for, although it may be impressive enough
for those who regard the subject attentively, and although it
will certainly be a source of wonder to those who come after us,
nevertheless it fails to strike as it ought the great mass of
beholders.
Often in the history of nations, while the mightiest revolutions
are in progress, they are scarcely perceptible to the actors in
them; all their circumstances, their most active and effective
operations, being like the silent workings of Nature, scarcely
sensible to those around, until the end comes and the great
result is achieved; then history records the event as one
fraught with the greatest blessings, or misfortunes, to mankind.
So will it be, we have no doubt, with that strange concatenation
of small domestic facts which now form the universal phenomenon
of all English-speaking countries: the spread of the Irish
everywhere.
What were its beginnings? Nothing at all. What good effects
followed it? None perceptible for a long time. These two
reflections claim our attention first, for we must study the
phenomenon, in all its circumstances and bearings.
This new emigration we call voluntary, to distinguish it from
the first, which was forced upon large portions of the Irish
race. But, in reality, the Irish undertook it at the beginning
with reluctance; the intolerable state of existence which they
were compelled to undergo in their own land acting upon them
with a kind of moral compulsion amounting to an almost
irresistible force. For it was either the famine or persecution
of the century preceding which first drove them to emigrate.
Necessity of expansion is a great characteristic of their race,
an instinctive impulse which three thousand years ago carried a
part of it into the heart of Asia. But this particular branch
had been rooted to the soil for so many centuries, by the stern
necessity of repelling a series of successive invasions, that
this great characteristic appeared for a long time to be totally
extinct in it. They seemed neither to know nor care any more for
foreign countries; and no race in Europe, from the ninth to the
eighteenth century, showed itself so completely wedded to the
soil, and incapable of the thought of spreading abroad.
At last they began to move. And what was the first origin of the
new movement? No one can say precisely. Only, in various
accounts of occurrences taking place in the island during the
last century, we occasionally meet with such entries as the
following by Matthew O'Connor, in his "Irish Catholics:"
"The summer of 1728 was fatal. The heart of the politician was
steeled against the miseries of the Catholics; their number
excited his jealousy. Their decrease by the silent waste of
famine must have been a source of secret joy; but the Protestant
interest was declining in a proportionate degree by the ravages
of starvation. . .
"Thousands of Protestants took shipping in Belfast for the West
Indies. . . . The policy that would starve the Catholics at home
would not deny them the privilege of flight."
This is the first mention of emigration, on any extensive scale,
which we could find in the records of last century; and, at the
time when the Protestant Irish went to America, where they
doubtless met with congenial minds in the Puritans of New
England, the Catholics still turned, as before, to Spain and
France.
But a new entry in 1762 unfolds a new aspect. This time
Catholics alone are spoken of: "No resource remained to the
peasantry but emigration. The few who had means sought an asylum
in the American plantations; such as remained were allowed
generally an acre of ground for the support of their families,
and commonage for a cow, but at rents the most exorbitant."
This is the first instance we meet with of Irish Catholics
emigrating to America, at least in comparatively large bodies.
They were no doubt encouraged to take this step by the accounts
which reached them of the success of the Ulster Protestants who
had gone before, and whose posterity is now to be found in the
South chiefly, as low down as Carolina and Georgia.
But the relative prospects of the Protestants and Catholic were
at that time far from being equally good. The first, driven from
home by famine, found a land of plenty awaiting them, a genial
climate, perfect toleration of their religious tenets everywhere,
and in some districts they gained real political influence.
They were received with open arms by the colonists, who were
unable to occupy the land alone, and ready to welcome new fellow-
citizens, who would aid them in their contests with the Indians,
and add materially to their prosperity and resources. All
persons and all things then smiled on the new-comer, and within
a very short time he found himself possessed of more than he had
ever expected. Thus others were induced to follow from the north
of Ireland, and famine was no longer the only motive power which
impelled them to leave their native land. Mr. Bancroft tells us
they were called Scotch-Irish.
On the other hand, the Irish Catholics found a fertile soil and
an inviting climate; Nature welcomed them, but man recoiled,
inflamed by a bitter hostility against their faith and their
very name. This feeling of opposition, on both accounts, was
already fast wearing away in Europe; but the "liberality"
springing up in the Old World, owing to a variety of
circumstances, had not yet penetrated into the British colonies
of North America. They were still, in this respect, in the state
in which the Revolution of 1688 had left them: Catholicity was
proscribed everywhere, and the penal laws of the Old World were
attempted to be enforced in the New, as far as the different
state of the country would permit. A few details, taken mainly
from Mr. Bancroft's history, will give us a tolerably exact idea
of the situation in which the newly-arrived Irish Catholic found
himself in that future land of liberty.
The consequences of the downfall of James II. were soon fully
accepted by the British colonies, throughout which changes of
greater or less degree took place in the laws, not only without
any great opposition, but in the main with the full applause of
all parties. The Stuart dynasty was thrown over more easily in
America than it had been in the British Isles.
It is universally admitted that one of the greatest consequences
of that downfall was the renewed persecution of Catholics in
England and Ireland. In the words of Mr. Bancroft:
"The Revolution of 1688, narrow in its principles, imperfect in
its details, frightfully intolerant toward Catholics, forms an
era in the liberty of England and of mankind."
It will be no surprise, then, on coming to review the various
colonies, to find the oppression of the Catholic Church common
to all without one exception.
Beginning with the South, we find the new governor of South
Carolina, Archdale, a Quaker, and, on that account, personally
well disposed toward all, desirous of showing that a Quaker
could respect the faith of a "Papist," commencing his
administration by sending back to the Spanish Governor of
Florida four Indian converts of the Spanish priests, who were
exposed as slaves for sale in Carolina. He likewise enfranchised
the Huguenots of South Carolina, who, up to this time, had been
kept under by the High Church oligarchy. Yet, when he came to
urge the adoption of liberal measures toward all in the state,
the colonial Legislature consented to confer liberty of
conscience on all Christians, with the exception of "Papists."
In North Carolina, the Church of England was actually made the
state Church, in 1704, and the Legislature enacted that "no one
who would not take the oath prescribed by law should hold a
place of trust in the colony."
Of Virginia, Spotswood, the governor, could write to England, in
1711: "This government is in perfect peace and tranquillity,
under a due obedience to royal authority, and a gentlemanly
conformity to the Church of England."
Of Maryland, Mr. Bancroft writes that the English Revolution was
a Protestant revolution.
"A convention of the associates 'for the defence of the
Protestant religion' assumed the government, and, in an address
to King William, denounced the influence of the Jesuits, the
prevalence of popish idolatry, the connivance by the previous
government at murders of Protestants, and the danger from plots
with the French and Indians."
Hence, a little farther on, we read: "The Roman Catholics alone
were left without an ally, exposed to English bigotry and
colonial injustice. They alone were disfranchised on the soil
which, long before Locke pleaded for toleration, or Penn for
religious freedom, they had chosen, not as their own asylum only,
but, with Catholic liberality, as the asylum of every
persecuted sect. In the land which Catholics had opened for
Protestants, the Catholic inhabitant was the sole victim to
Anglican intolerance. Mass might not be said publicly. No
Catholic priest or bishop might utter his faith in a voice of
persuasion. No Catholic might teach the young. If the wayward
child of a Papist would but become an apostate, the law wrested
for him from his parents a share of their property. The
disfranchisement of the proprietary related to his creed, not to
his family. Such were the methods adopted 'to prevent the growth
of Popery.'"
Mr. Bancroft adds with much truth and force: "Who shall say that
the faith of the cultivated individual is firmer than the faith
of the common people? Who shall say that the many are fickle,
that the chief is firm? To recover the inheritance of authority,
Benedict, the son of the proprietary, renounced the Catholic
Church for that of England; the persecution never crushed the
faith of the humble colonists."
Pennsylvania appears to form an exception to that universal
animosity against Catholics. It is said that, owing to William
Penn, "religious liberty was established, and every public
employment was open to every man professing faith in Jesus
Christ. . . . In Pennsylvania human rights were respected: the
fundamental law of William Penn, even his detractors concede,
was in harmony with universal reason, and true to the ancient
and just liberties of the people."
Such may have been the written law--the theory; but the law as
executed--the fact--was far from realizing those fine promises.
As late as the end of the Revolutionary War, the Catholics of
Philadelphia were compelled to hide away their worship in a
small chapel, surrounded by buildings whose only access was a
dark and winding alley still in existence a few years back.
It is known, moreover, that Penn himself, in 1708, forbade mass
to be celebrated in the colony. According to T. D. McGee,
Governor Gordon, in 1734, prohibited the erection of a Catholic
church in Walnut Street; and, in 1736, a private house having
been purchased at the corner of Second and Chestnut streets for
the same object, it was again prohibited.
New Jersey showed her liberality in the form sacred to all the
other colonies: "Liberty of conscience was granted to all but
papists."
There was as yet no homogeneity in New York, the Dutch still
preserving great power, and, consequently, "the idea of
toleration was still imperfect in New Netherlands; equality
among religious sects was unknown." If this was the case with
several Protestant organizations, what must it have been with
the Catholics? It is well known that no one dared openly avow
his faith in the true Church, and that John Ury was hanged in
1741 for being a priest, though whether he was a priest or not
is still a question.
Rhode Island had proclaimed in the beginning "entire freedom of
mind;" but, after the Revolution of 1688, the colony
"interpolated into the statute-book the exclusion of papists
from the established equality."
The spirit of Connecticut is well expressed in the words of the
address sent by the colony to King William of Orange, on his
accession: "Great was the day when the Lord who sitteth upon the
floods did divide his and your adversaries like the waters of
Jordan, and did begin to magnify you like Joshua, by the
deliverance of the English dominions from popery and slavery."
We wonder how the taciturn Hollander received this effusion of
Connecticut? There is nothing more to add on the situation of
the Catholics in the land of the "blue laws."
In Massachusetts it will be no surprise to hear that "every form
of Christianity, except the Roman Catholic, was enfranchised."
This short sketch is eloquent enough with reference to the
position in which the poor Irish immigrant found himself on
landing on the shores of the New World. His faith he found
proscribed as severely almost as in his own country. He was
compelled to conceal it; and, even had he been free to make open
profession of it, he could find no minister of his creed
tolerated anywhere. The country was a perfect blank as far as
the ceremonies of his religion went. In his native land he knew
where to find a priest; he was advised of the day and of the
precise place where he might assist at the sacred mysteries of
his religion; and, were it in the cave or on the mountain-top,
in the bog or the morass, he knew that there he could adore and
receive his God as truly and as worthily as in the magnificent
domes looking proudly to heaven under Catholic skies. But in
British North America, except in a few counties of Maryland,
where the true faith had once been openly planted and taken root,
where some clergymen of his own creed were even still to be
found, though forced to conceal, or at least not expose
themselves too freely, he knew that elsewhere it was useless for
him to inquire, not only for a sacred edifice where he might go
to thank his God on landing, but even to look for a priest
should he find himself at the point of death.
At the present day it is almost impossible to give any details
and move the reader by a picture of the complete spiritual
destitution of the Irish immigrant in his new home. Here and
there, however, we meet, in reading, facts apparently
insignificant in themselves, which at first sight seem to have
no connection whatever with the subject on hand, yet which, with
the aid of reflection, throw quite a flood of light on it, as
convincing as it is unexpected. Take, for instance, the
following:
"In the last year of the administration of Andros in
Massachusetts," says Mr. Bancroft, "the daughter of John Goodwin,
a child of thirteen years, charged a laundress with having
stolen linen from the family. Glover, the mother of the
laundress, a friendless immigrant, almost ignorant of English,
like a true woman, with a mother's heart, rebuked the false
accusation. Immediately, the girl, to secure revenge, became
bewitched. The infection spread. Three others of the family, the
youngest a boy of less than five years old, soon succeeded in
equally arresting public attention. . . . Cotton Mather went to
pray by the side of one of them, and, lo! the child lost her
hearing till prayer was over. What was to be done? The four
ministers of Boston and the one of Charlestown assembled in
Goodwin's house, and spent a whole day of fasting in prayer. In
consequence, the youngest child, the little one of five years
old, was 'delivered.' But if the ministers could thus by prayer
'deliver' a possessed child, there must have been a witch. The
honor of the ministers required a prosecution of the affair; and
the magistrates, William Stoughton being one, with a 'vigor'
which the united ministers commended as 'just,' made 'a
discovery of the wicked instrument of the devil.' The culprit
was evidently a wild Irishwoman, of a strange tongue. Goodwin,
who made the complaint, 'had no proof that could have done her
any hurt;' but the 'scandalous old hag,' whom some thought
'crazed in her intellectuals,' was bewildered, and made strange
answers, which were taken as confessions, sometimes, in
excitement, using her native dialect. . . . It was plain the
prisoner was a Roman Catholic; she had never learned the Lord's
Prayer in English; she could repeat the Pater Noster fluently
enough, but not quite correctly; so, the ministers and Goodwin's
family had the satisfaction of getting her condemned as a witch
and executed."
The position of this poor woman, who had never openly declared
herself a Catholic, but which fact the people were led to infer
from various circumstances, expresses the condition of all Irish
immigrants at the time. A further fact recorded by the same
historian shows what the feeling toward Catholics was at the
time in Massachusetts:
"The girl, who knew herself to be a deceiver, had no remorse,
and to the ministers it never occurred that vanity and love of
power had blinded their judgment."
The reason was plain: Glover was a Catholic. How could the girl
be expected to feel remorse for having brought about her death?
How could the ministers feel the least concern because their
"vanity and love of power" had effected the hanging of such a
creature?--"a vessel of wrath," in any case; a "predestined
reprobate," beyond doubt, whose ignominious death on earth and
eternal punishment afterward were "a true source of joy in
heaven and an increase of glory for the infinite justice of God,
" if there was any truth in Calvinism.
Another fact, as suggestive as the above, is found in McGee's
"Irish Settlers in America:" "The first Catholic church that we
find in Pennsylvania, after Penn's suppression of them in 1708,
was connected with the house of a Miss Elizabeth McGauley, an
Irish lady, who, with several of her tenantry, settled on land
on the road leading from Nicetown to Frankfort. Near the site of
this ancient sanctuary stood a tomb, inscribed, 'John Michael
Brown, ob. 15th December, A. D. 1750. R. I. P.' He had been a
priest residing there incognito."
Miss E. McGauley was not poor, like Glover. On coming to America
with some of her tenantry, she secured herself beforehand
against the difficulty of practising her religion; and, knowing
well that no priest was to be found in the country, she brought
one with her. All the remainder of his life did this minister of
God reside in her house incognito, keeping the ministry
intrusted to him for the service of all a profound secret. He
never attempted, probably, to enlighten his prejudiced and
ignorant neighbors; the knowledge of his character and the
benefits arising from his presence were confined to the lady of
the house and her faithful tenantry. Even after his death the
secret was still kept, and only the cabalistic characters "R. I.
P." remain to tell an intelligent reader that he was neither
Quaker nor Protestant; and, probably, tradition alone, preserved
doubtless in the neighborhood, could assure us that he was a
priest.
How many Catholics scattered over the broad colony of
Pennsylvania, immigrants like Miss McGauley, but unlike her in
their poverty, and therefore unable to hire a clergyman, never
knew that they might unburden their consciences and enjoy the
consolations of their religion, by travelling a hundred miles or
so to the house "on the road leading from Nicetown to
Frankfort?" How many lived and died within a short distance, and
never knocked at the door, owing to their ignorance of the class
of inmates? Thus, although there were some ministers of God in
the country, their number was so small, and they were so far
distant from each other, that their labors were utterly
unavailing for the great body of the Catholic immigrants, who
would have rejoiced to throw themselves at their feet, and ease
their hearts and purify their souls by confession.
Some Irishmen, it is true, had emigrated before such concealment
was requisite, in Maryland at least, where an asylum for all had
been opened by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic. Thus, the Carrolls
had settled in Prince George County. They were at liberty to
make open use of the services of the English fathers of the
Society of Jesus, who for a long time officiated undisguisedly
among their English Catholic flocks; but, as was seen, after the
Revolution of 1688, Catholics were disfranchised in Maryland
even, their religious rites proscribed, and penalties enacted
against the open profession of their worship.
Thus, concealment became a necessity, there also; the policy of
keeping the existence of clergymen and the celebration of the
holy mysteries secret had to be adopted there as in other
colonies. The Carroll family, like Miss Elizabeth McGauley, gave
refuge in their house to a minister of their own religion, and
it was in such a chapel-house that John Carroll was born, on the
8th of January, 1735--the first Bishop and Archbishop of
Baltimore.
It is therefore no matter for wonder that the number of children
of the Church in North America did not increase in proportion to
the number of Catholic immigrants; on the contrary, the
posterity of the majority of those who chose the British
colonies, for their home was lost to her. The immigrants
themselves, we are confident, never lost their faith. Although
living for years without any exterior help, without receiving a
word of instruction or advice, without the celebration of any
religious rite whatever, or the reception of any sacrament, yet,
faith was too deeply rooted in their minds and hearts to be ever
eradicated, or shaken even.
But, though they themselves clung fast to their faith in the
midst of so many adverse circumstances, what of their children?
There is no doubt that many of them did, individually, every
thing possible to transmit that faith to their children; but all
they could do was to speak privately, to warn then against
dangers, and set up before them the example of a blameless life.
Not only was there no priest to initiate them into the mysteries,
granted by Christ to the redeemed soul; there was not even a
Catholic school-master to instruct them. Even the "hedge-school"
could not be set on foot. Books were unknown; Catholic
literature, in the modern sense, had not yet been born; there
was no vestige of such a thing beyond, perhaps, an occasional
old, worn, and torn, yet dearly-prized and carefully-concealed
prayer-book, dating from the happy days of the Confederation of
Kilkenny.
There is no reason, then, for surprise in the fact that,
although the families of those first Irish settlers were
numerous and scattered over all the district which afterward
became the Middle and Southern States, only a faint tradition
remained among many of them that they really belonged to the old
Church and "ought to be Catholics." How often was this the case
thirty years ago, particularly in the South!
It would not be right to conclude that all this was a pure and
unmitigated loss to the Church of Christ. Later on, we shall
have to speak of more numerous and serious losses: but a few
words on this first one may not be thrown away.
As in the material world an infinite number of germs are lost,
and quantities of seeds, wafted on the breeze from giant trees
and humble plants, fall and perish on a barren rock, in the
eddies of a swift-running brook, or, oftener still, on the hard
and unkind soil on which they have happened to alight; so that,
out of a thousand germs, a few only find every thing congenial
to their growth, and attain to the full size allotted them by
Nature --nevertheless, despite this loss, the species is not
only preserved, but so multiplied as to produce on the beholder,
in after-time, the impression that, not only no loss has been
sustained, but that much has been gained. So is it with the
Catholic Church in general, and in particular with the momentous
events now being considered.
The cultivated field of the "father of the family" was about to
be extended over a new and vast area. A whole continent was to
be "fenced around," and "olive-trees," and "fig-trees," and all
plants useful and ornamental, were destined to flourish in that
vast garden to the end of time. The great and eternal Father was,
by his providence, directing the mighty operation from above,
and marking the various points of the compass to which the
floating germs were to be wafted. He knew that he was planting a
new garden for his Son, who would, as usual, be the first
husbandman, and employ many workmen to help him.
How could it be expected that all would be gain without loss,
when the harvest-time had not yet arrived, and the "enemy" was
busy sowing "tares" in all directions? Was not the work human as
well as divine? and, as human, did not the work partake of the
imperfection of human things?
The continent had evidently been predestined to form one of the
strongest branches of the great Catholic tree. Discovered before
the modern heresies of Protestantism had shown themselves, it
was to bring into the fold of Christ new nations, when some old
ones were to be cut off and wither away. This has long ago been
pointed out; but another mighty design of Providence there was
which only now begins to show itself.
Columbus was in search of Asia and the holy sepulchre when he
stumbled on the New World. Nor was the idea of his great mind
altogether a delusion. The new continent was in future ages to
be used as the highway from Europe to the Orient; China, Japan,
India, vast regions filled with innumerable multitudes of human
beings, had, so far, scarcely been touched, could scarcely be
touched, by Catholicism coming from Europe. In fact it was too
far away, and the means of intercommunication were too
inadequate. The holy Catholic Church increases as "things which
grow;" a few husbandmen--missionaries--are required to set the
first seedlings and plants in the soil, to water them, watch
over them, and see that they thrive and flourish; the rest of
the process is a matter of seeds wafted by the wind, falling and
taking root in a fertile soil, which has been already prepared
for their reception. If there were no other means of propagation
than the toil and sweat of the husbandman, how long would it
take to cover the whole earth with vegetation? The first
propagation of Christianity was done in this way; hence it took
more than ten centuries to Christianize Europe. In the fifth
century, Rome was still thoroughly pagan. Were the vast regions
of that dim, far-away East to undergo a similar slow and painful
process, necessitating an immense amount of labor, centuries and
centuries in duration? God hastened the process by adding to it
the wafting of seeds, and America was to be the vast nursery
from which those seeds were to come. It was from that long and
alternately widening and narrowing belt of land, running down
the sea from north to south, that the Japhetic race was to
invade the "tents of Sem."
Thus was the dream of Columbus to be realized. Asia would be
reached by Europe, of which America would form a part. The east
of Asia would become contiguous to a real European population,
large masses of which would easily come in contact with the
Mongolian and Malay races of their immediate neighborhood, steam
and modern improvements in travel reducing the intervening
distance to a matter of a few days. Thus the Japhetic movement
could be carried out on a large scale, and European civilization
come to supersede the obsolete manners of those old and effete
races of Eastern Asia. The unity of mankind would be vindicated
against its blasphemers; and, to crown the whole, Christianity
would find its way back to the cradle of man, then, to its own
birthplace, Calvary and the sepulchre of Christ. Thus would the
conjectural vision of the great Genoese become only an
explanation of the old prophecy of the second father of mankind.1
(1 The reader will understand that all this is merely "a view,
" and not given as a pure interpretation of Scripture or past
history.)
Thus would the Church at last become rigorously Catholic, and
not as some theologians imagined, in their desire to make actual,
incomplete facts coincide with a far wider theory, only
Catholic by approximation.
If it were allowed us to read the designs of Providence
reverently, we might say, without presumption, that it seems
such is to be future history, although simple conjecture may
produce too strong an impression on our minds. But, at the
period of which we speak, shortly after the middle of the last
century, any one who would have spoken thus would have been
justly deemed a visionary. The south of America, though
possessed of the true religion, seemed inert; the North was
already showing signs of an intense future activity, but all
opposed to the truth. God was about to change those appearances,
and, by infusing the Irish element into the North, produce, in a
comparatively short space of time, the wonderful phenomenon
which we witness.
Yet, so short-sighted are we, that some are almost staggered in
their faith, because the children of the earliest Irish
emigrants to this country, were apparently lost to the Church.
Nevertheless, several circumstances might be brought forward to
show that a real gain accrued to the Church from these lost
children of the first Irish settlers. How many prejudices, so
deeply rooted in the country as to seem ineradicable, owe their
destruction to them! How many harsh and uncharitable feelings
against Catholics were smoothed away or softened down by their
instrumentality!
Those men who, in after-life, remembered that they "ought to be
Catholics," were not ready to accept, on the word of a "minister,"
all the absurd calumnies spread against the Church throughout
those vast regions. They had heard, by a kind of tradition, kept
alive in their families, of what their ancestors had formerly
suffered, and they at least were not inclined to join in the
universal denunciation of a creed which they were conscious
"ought to be" their own.
Who shall say whether it is not the old Catholic blood, running
in the veins of these children of Irish Catholic parents, which
has been mainly instrumental in creating that spirit of true
liberality which inspires the honorable conduct of the majority
of the American people, and in which the Church has at all times
found her safety?
It is certain that there is a vast difference between that
American spirit and the atmosphere of distrust pervading other
countries, and that the rapid spread of the Church throughout
the broad regions of the Union has been singularly favored by
the soft breeze of a liberal and kindly feeling so common to
those even who are not born within the fold. And that the
children of Irish parents, themselves lost to the Church, have
exercised great influence from the start, in that regard, cannot,
we think, be denied.
But, perhaps, too much space has been devoted to that first
emigration from Ireland; it is time to come to a more recent
period of which there are more certain and positive accounts.
There is no need to speak of the happy change effected in the
position of the Catholic Church in America by the Revolution;
Washington, in his reply to the address of the Catholics of the
country, has given expression to the feelings of the nation in
terms so well known that they require no comment.
From that date commences the real history of the Catholic Church
in North America, outside of the provinces originally settled by
the French and Spaniards. The influx of Irish immigrants now
attracts our chief attention.
From the year 1800, when the "Union" was effected between
England and Ireland, the number of immigrants increased suddenly
and rapidly, and the situation of the new-comers on their
arrival was very different from that of their predecessors. They
found liberty not only proclaimed, but established; few churches
indeed, but, such as there were, known and open, and a bishop
and clergymen already practising their ministry.
Before entering upon the extent, nature, and effects of this
second Irish immigration--which may be studied from documents
existing--it will be well to say a few words on the elements
which constituted the Catholic body when first organized. We are
concerned, it is true, with the new element introduced by the
great movement of which we begin to speak; but we are far from
undervaluing other sources of life, which not only affected the
Church at its birth in the United States, but have continued to
act upon her ever since with more or less of energy. The reader
should not imagine that, by not speaking of them, we are unjust
or blind to their efficiency; they simply lie without the scope
of our plan.
In the North the French, and in the South the Spanish
missionaries, had imparted to Catholicity a vitality which could
not be extinguished; but its operations were almost entirely
confined to limits outside those which circumscribe the field of
our investigations. The French element, however, grew into
prominence even at the outset within those limits, either
through the acquisition of Louisiana, or in consequence of the
French immigration during the terrible revolution of last
century. It is only necessary to open the pages of Mr. R. H.
Clarke's recently-published "Lives of the American Bishops," to
be struck with the importance of that element. It may be said
that, for the first twenty-five years of the republic, French
prelates and clergymen, together with several American
Marylanders, were intrusted with the care of the infant Church.
Ireland seems to have had scarcely any office to fulfil in that
great work, save through the humble exertions of a few devoted
but almost unknown missionaries; so that, when bishops of Irish
birth were first chosen, they were either taken from Ireland
itself, as was Dr. England, Bishop Kelly, of Richmond, or
Conwell, of Philadelphia, or from the monasteries of Rome, as
were Bishops Connolly and Concanen, of New York. Bishop Egan, of
Philadelphia, can scarcely be called an exception, as he had
only spent a very few years in this country when he was elevated
to the episcopal dignity. The German element showed itself only
in Pennsylvania.
It was under circumstances such as these that that stream of
desolate people began to flow, spreading gradually through
immense regions, and bringing with it only its unconquerable
faith.
From the "mustard-seed" a noble tree was to spring up; but as
yet it was only a weak sapling. In 1785, Bishop Carroll made an
estimate of the Catholic population of the States: "In Maryland,
seventeen thousand; in Pennsylvania, over seven thousand; and,
as far as information could be obtained, in other States, about
fifteen hundred." New York City could not yet boast of a hundred
Catholics.
Like all things durable and mighty, the first swelling of that
great wave was slow and silent, and scarcely perceptible, until
little by little the ripple spread over the vast ocean.
The first apparent causes have been well expressed by T. D.
McGee, in his "Irish Settlers:" "The breaking out of the French
War in 1793, and the degrading legislative Union of 1800, had
deprived many of bread, and all of liberty at home, and made the
mechanical as well as the agricultural class embark to cross the
Atlantic.
"Hitherto the Irish had colonized, sowed and reaped, fought,
spoken, and legislated in the New World, if not always in
proportion to their numbers, yet always to the measure of their
educational resources. Now they are about to plant a new emblem -
-the Cross--and a new institution--the Church--throughout the
American Continent. For, the faith of their fathers they did not
leave behind them; nay, rather, wheresoever six Irish roof-trees
rise, there you will find the cross of Christ reared over all,
and Celtic piety and Celtic enthusiasm, all sighs and tears,
kneeling before it."
Let us look at a few particular signs of the coming of this
great wave in its first scarcely perceptible movement.
"John Timon was born at Conewago, Pennsylvania, February 12,
1797, and baptized on the 17th of the same month; his parents,
James Timon and Margaret Leddy, had quite recently arrived in
this country from Ireland, and were from Belturbet, County Cavan.
A family of ten children, of whom John was the second son,
blessed the Catholic household of these pious parents."--(Lives
of American Bishops.)
"Francis Xavier Gartland was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1805;
he came to America, while yet a child, and made his studies at
Mount St. Mary's, Emmettsburg."--(Ibid.)
"John B. Fitzpatrick was born in Boston, November 1, 1812. His
parents emigrated from Ireland, and settled in Boston in 1805."--
(Ibid.)
What did the parents of the future bishop find on their arrival
at Boston? In the year previous, the first Catholic congregation
was assembled in that city by the Abbe La Poitre, a French navy-
chaplain, who had remained in America after the departure of the
French fleet, which rendered such powerful assistance in the
struggle for American independence. In 1808, four years before
the birth of him who was destined to wear the mitre, the
Catholics had obtained the old "French Church" in School Street,
which was probably a Calvinist meeting house.
Another wavelet of a precious kind was the following: "Bishop
Lanigan was meditating" (in Ireland) "the establishment of a
religious community in the city of Kilkenny, and designed Miss
Alice Lalor for one of its future members. But, in 1797, her
parents emigrated from Ireland and settled in America, and she
felt it to be her duty . . . . to accompany them. But she
promised the bishop to return in two years. On arriving at
Philadelphia, she became acquainted with the Reverend Leonard
Neale. . . . Feeling convinced that it was not the design of
Providence that she should abandon America for Ireland, Father
Neale released her from her promise to return to Kilkenny, in
order that she might become his cooperator in the foundation of
a religious order in the United States (the Visitation Nuns)."--
(Ibid.)
Already was the young church robbing the old of some of its best
members, who were to give some weight to the Irish element in
this country.
"George A. Carrell was born at Philadelphia. . . . He was the
seventh child of his Irish parents, and the house they occupied,
and in which he was born, was the old mansion of William Penn,
at the corner of Market Street and Letitia Court."-- (Ibid.)
Two short observations naturally present themselves here.
Philadelphia is the city oftenest mentioned whenever foreigners
are spoken of as landing in North America at that time. It was
then the great harbor of the country, New York not having
attained the preeminence she now enjoys. Hence, the Church
counted seven thousand children in Pennsylvania; but very few
north of that city. Thither came the German Catholics, also, in
great numbers to spread themselves chiefly West and South. Such
was the direction then taken by the Catholic wave.
Our second remark only concerns the house in which he who became
Bishop Carrell was born. It seemed only fitting that an Irish
Catholic family should thus early take possession of the very
dwelling-place of the founder of the colony, as the Catholic
Church was destined, through the Irish element chiefly, to
supplant and outlive the little church of the "Friends."
All the facts, however, just quoted are exceptional, and regard
only the select few. What became of the mass, meanwhile? As
usual, history for the most part is silent with regard to it. A
very few words constitute the only record which can afford us a
glimpse of the real situation of the vast majority of those poor,
friendless, obscure immigrants, on whom, nevertheless, the
great hopes of the future were built.
We have, happily, some means left us of forming an opinion; and
it will be seen that their situation was much the same as that
of their earlier compatriots. For instance, in the "Lives of
American Bishops" we read the following startling story:
"The Abbe Cheverus very frequently made long journeys to convey
the consolations of religion or perform acts of charity. About
this time (1803) he received a letter from two young Irish
Catholics confined in Northampton prison, who had been condemned
to death without just cause, as was almost universally believed,
imploring him to come to them and prepare them for their sad and
cruel fate. He hastened to their spiritual relief, and inspired
them with the most heroic sentiments and dispositions, which
they persevered in to the last fatal moment of their execution.
According to custom, the prisoners were carried to the nearest
church, to hear a sermon preached immediately before their
execution; several Protestant ministers presented themselves to
preach the sermon; but the Abbe Cheverus claimed the right to
perform that duty, as the choice of the prisoners themselves,
and, after much difficulty, he was allowed to ascend the pulpit.
His sermon struck all present with astonishment, awe, and
admiration."
Here, in 1803, we have almost a repetition of the death of the
poor woman Glover; and, had it not been for the high character
of the admirable man who hastened to their assistance, those two
young Irish Catholics would have had for their only religious
preparation before death a sermon from one or more Protestant
ministers; and, as the great and good Cheverus could not be
everywhere in New England, there is little doubt but that such
was the fate of more than one of the newly-arrived immigrants.
In 1800 and the following years a comparatively large number of
Irishmen landed at New York, and the future terrible scourge of
their race, ship-fever, soon broke out among them. Dr. Bailey,
the father of Mrs.Seton, was Health Physician to the port of New
York at the time, and he allowed his daughter to visit and do
good among them. She was deeply impressed by the religious
demeanor of the Irish just landed. The Rev. Dr. White relates in
her "Life:" "'The first thing,' she said, 'the poor people did
when they got their tents was to assemble on the grass, and all,
kneeling, adore our Master for his mercy; and every morning sun
finds them repeating their praises.' In a letter to her sister-
in-law she describes their sufferings under the 'plague' in the
following golden words:
"'Rebecca, I cannot sleep; the dying and the dead possess my
mind--babies expiring at the empty breast of their mother. And
this is not fancy, but the scene that surrounds me. Father says
that such was never known before; that there are actually twelve
children that must die from mere want of sustenance, unable to
take more than the breast, and from the wretchedness of their
parents deprived of it, as they have laid ill for many days in
the ship, without food, air, or changing. Merciful Father! Oh,
how readily would I give them each a turn of my child's treasure,
if in my choice! But, Rebecca, they have a provider in heaven,
who will soothe the pangs of the suffering innocent.'"
When she wrote the above, Mrs. Seton was not yet professedly a
Catholic; but how truly animated with the spirit of the Church
of Christ! Happy would the poor immigrants have been had they
only met with Protestants of her stamp on landing, and of her
father's, who, although he prevented her becoming foster-mother
to those poor children, as her first duty regarded her own child,
died himself, a victim to his charity toward their parents,
contracting, in the fulfilment of his office, the fever they had
brought with them, which he was striving to allay!
The following fact, which will conclude this portion of our
inquiry, happened a little later, but, on that very account,
will serve as a connecting link with the considerations which
are to follow, and will open our eyes to the real position of
that already swelling mass of immigrants.
"During the year 1823, Bishop Connolly (of New York) made the
visitation of his entire diocese. . . . He extended his journey
along the route of the Erie Canal, which was commenced in 1819,
where large numbers of Irish laborers had been attracted, and
among whom the bishop labored with indefatigable zeal." At that
time the clergy of the whole diocese consisted of eight priests
with their bishop.
At last we find the "Irish people" at work. The spectacle is
full of sadness; and the only emotion which can fill the heart
is one of deep pity. In that vast wilderness of the West, for
such it then was, along public works extending hundreds of miles,
large gangs of men--such is the expression we are compelled to
use--are hard at work along that dreary Mohawk River; blasting
rocks, digging in the hard clay, uprooting trees, clearing the
ground of briars, tangled bushes, and the vast quantity of
debris of animal and vegetable matter accumulated during
centuries. This was the work which "attracted" large numbers of
Irish laborers. They had left their country, crossed the ocean
under circumstances that should come under our notice, and
landed on these (at that time) inhospitable shores, to find work;
and they found the occupation just mentioned. We can picture
the "shanties" in which they lived, the harpies who thrived on
them, the innumerable extortions to which they were subjected.
Bearing in mind that, in the immense State of New York and in
one-half of New Jersey, there were just eight priests with their
bishop, we may form some idea of the way in which they lived and
died.
How they must have blessed this bishop, who had left Rome, his
second country, and the noble associations which surrounded him
in the Eternal City, to come to the succor of his unfortunate
countrymen scattered away in a New World! And well did he
deserve that blessing!
But his passage along the Erie Canal could be nothing more than
a veritable passage--a transient sojourn of a few days or weeks
at most. What became of those gangs of men after, what had
happened to them before, no one has said, no one has told us, no
one now can ascertain; we are only left to conjecture, and the
spectacle, as we said, is too sad to dwell upon.
But, hidden within this melancholy view, lies a great and
glorious fact. It was the beginning of an "apostolic mission" on
the part of a whole people, a mission which will form one of the
most moving and significant pages of the ecclesiastical history
of the nineteenth century. Every Christian knows that apostolic
work is rough work; the brunt of the battle must be borne by the
earliest in the field, that it may be said of their successors
in the words of the Gospel: "Vos in labores eorum introistis."
Such being the hard lot of the immigrants in the interior of the
country, was that of those who remained in the cities much more
enviable? On this point we are enabled to judge, at least as
regards New York. In a letter written by Bishop Dubois, and
published in vol. viii. of the "Annals of the Propagation of the
Faith," we meet with the following exhaustive description:
"At the beginning of this century, the newly-arrived immigrants
were employed as day-laborers, servants, journeymen, clerks, and
shopmen. Now, the condition of this class here is precisely the
same as its condition in England; it is entirely dependent upon
the will of the trader: not because by law are they forced
thereto, but because the rich alone, being able to advance the
capital necessary for factories, steam-engines, and workshops,
the poor are obliged to work for them upon the masters' own
conditions. These conditions, in the case of servants especially,
sometimes degenerate into tyranny; they are frequently forced
to work on Sundays, permission to hear even a low mass being
refused them; they are obliged betimes to assist at the prayers
of the sect to which their masters belong, and they have no
other alternative than either to do violence to their conscience,
or lose their place at the risk of not finding another. Add to
this the insults, the calumnies against Catholics, which they
are daily forced to hear--a kind of persecution at the hands of
their masters, who do every thing to turn them away from their
religion; consider the dangers to which are exposed numbers of
orphans who lose their fathers almost immediately upon landing;
add to this the want of spiritual succor, a necessary
consequence of the scarcity of missionaries; and you will have a
feeble idea of the obstacles of every kind which we have to
surmount. . . . Supposing an immigrant, the father of a family,
to die, the widow and orphans have no other resources but public
charity; and if a home is found for the children, it is nearly
always among Protestants, who do every thing in their power to
undermine their faith."
This picture of immigrant-life in New York was certainly
repeated through all the other large cities. Under such a
combination of adverse circumstances it is most probable that
men and women of any other nation would have entirely lost their
faith. Such, then, was the dreary prospect for the new-comers.
Who at that time would have dared hope to witness the consoling
spectacle which followed soon after? To begin with the dawn of
that bright day, we must pass on to a new period of immigration,
commencing in 1815 or shortly after, and continuing down to the
"exodus" of 1846.
It may be well, before entering upon it, to look at the causes
which drove so many to leave the shores of Ireland. From the
year 1815 the number of immigrants increased considerably and
kept on a steady increase until it swelled to the startling
proportions of 1850 and the following years.
It is easy to demonstrate that the causes were twofold: 1. The
wretched state of the vast majority of the Irish at the best of
times. 2. The periodical famines which have regularly visited
the island since the beginning of last century. At any time it
was in the power of the English to remedy both causes by
effecting certain changes in the existing laws. The first of
these is evidently the necessary result of the penal laws which
had converted the Irish, designedly and with the wilful intent
of the legislators, into a nation of paupers. The second can
only be the result of the laws affecting the tenure of land and
the trade and manufactures of the country.
To attribute the pauperism which now seems a part and parcel of
the Irish nation while in their own country to the indolence and
want of foresight on the part of the natives themselves, as it
is a fashion with English writers to do, is wilfully to close
the eyes to two very important things: their past history in
their own land, and their present history outside of it.
As to their past history in their own land, it is an established
fact that pauperism was unknown in the island, until Protestant
legislators introduced it by their confiscations and laws with
the manifest intent of destroying, rooting out, or driving away
the race. What has been previously stated on this point cannot
be gainsaid; and it suffices for the vindication of a falsely-
accused people. There might be some hope for a speedier and
happier solution of the vexed "Irish difficulty" did the
grandsons of those who wrought the evil only honestly
acknowledge the faults of their ancestors--the least that might
be expected of them; and it would not be too much to imagine
them honest enough to repair those faults in these days of
severe reckoning and self-scrutiny.
As to the present history of the race outside their own land,
now that it has been scattered, by these grievous calamities,
all over the world, whatever characteristics its children may
present, indolence and want of foresight can scarcely be
numbered among them, in view of the success which attends their
march everywhere. And if these qualities would seem to be rooted
in the native soil, they are only "importations" like the men
who fastened them there, and due only to the cramped position in
which their legislators so carefully confined them. Where should
there be energy, when every motive that could urge it has been
taken away? How is it possible to improve their condition, when
every improvement only imposes an additional burden upon them in
the shape of rack-rent or eviction?
In his work on "The Social Condition of the People," Mr. Kay
quotes from the Edinburgh Review of January, 1850, the evidence
on this point given by English, German, and Polish witnesses
before the Committee of Emigration, and the proofs gathered from
every source as to the rapid improvement of the Irish emigrant,
wherever he goes, are certainly convincing.
As for the foolish (for it is nothing else, unless it be wicked)
assertion that those frightful famines referred to are to be
attributed to the sufferers themselves, it is only necessary to
say in refutation that in the very years when thousands were
being swept away daily by their ravages in Ireland--1846 and
1847-- the harbors of the island were filled with English
vessels, loaded with cargoes of provisions of every kind to be
transported to England in order to pay the rents due to absentee
landlords: and all these provisions were the product of the
famine-stricken land, won by the toil of the famine-stricken
nation. This has invariably been the case when famine has swept
over the island: the island's riches were in her harbors, stored
in the holds of foreign vessels, to be carried away and
converted into money that these noble Anglo-Irish landlords
might be enabled to "sustain" life
Others have ascribed these periodical visitations to a surplus
population; but, without entering into a discussion on the
subject, Sir Robert Kane, in his "Industrial Resources of
Ireland," shows that, taking the island in her present state and
under the existing system of cultivation, she could support with
ease eighteen million inhabitants; that, if the best methods of
farming were generally adopted, the soil, by double and even
triple crops, could feed without difficulty, not only twenty-
five million, the figure stated by Mr. Gustave de Beaumont, a
French publicist of eminence, but as many as from thirty to
thirty-five million inhabitants.
But, as the same judicious writer observes, "the enormous
quantity of cattle annually shipped off from Ireland to England
would, in that case, be consumed in the country which produces
it."
It is clear, therefore, that the pretended surplus population of
Ireland is, as Sir Robert Kane says, a piece of pure imagination,
perfectly ideal, and that it is its unequal and not its
aggregate amount which is to be deplored.
But no one has presented the question more clearly and solved it
more precisely than Mr. Gustave de Beaumont in his admirable
work on Ireland, from which we note one or two telling passages,
as given in Father Perraud's "Ireland under English Rule."
"The celebrated French publicist, who was the first to present
to us (in France) a complete picture of the condition of Ireland,
examining in 1829 how emigration might or might not do away
with all the misery he had witnessed, proposed to himself the
following questions:
"I. To what extent ought emigration to be carried, in order to
bring about a material change in the general state of Ireland?
namely, by taking away the pretended surplus population.
"II. Would it be possible to carry it out to the proposed extent?
"III. Supposing it practicable, would it be a radical and final
solution of existing difficulties?
"The advocates of emigration replied to the first question by
estimating at a minimum of two million the number of individuals
who would have to leave Ireland, at one time, in order to
produce there that kind of vacuum which would improve the
conditions of labor and the existence of the rest of the
agricultural population.
"Upon these data the solution of the second question was easy.
It was by no means difficult to prove that the system was
impracticable on so large a scale; impracticable on account of
the insufficiency of the means of transport at disposal;
impracticable on account of the enormous sums required to carry
it out.
"In fact, supposing an emigrant-ship to carry a thousand
passengers--a very high figure--two thousand vessels would be
required to attain the end in view, namely, the sudden and
universal emigration of the whole so-called surplus population.
That is to say, the whole merchant navy of Great Britain would
have to be drawn off from the commerce of the world, and
chartered for the execution of this very chimerical plan. Where
was the sum required for the most necessary expenses and urgent
wants of two million passengers to be got? And what country in
the world would have submitted to a monster invasion like those
of barbarous times? Unless, indeed, these two million
individuals were beforehand coldly devoted to death by hunger,
was there a single country in which it could be hoped they would
immediately find work or the means of subsistence?"
All those impossibilities, genuine indeed and at the time, 1829,
of unforeseen solution, became, under Providence, possible by
extending the period of transportation from one year to twenty;
so that, instead of two, in reality three million and a half
were thus transported.
But, where M. de Beaumont displayed all his talent for
appreciation and keen reasoning was, when he came to consider
the third and most embarrassing question of all. Was it certain
that, the system of renting and cultivating land always
remaining the same, emigration would suffice to heal those
inveterate sores, and effect, in conformity with the wishes of
its partisans, a social transformation?
On this point, he showed, in a manner admitting of no reply,
that the emigration of a third or even of half the population
would not radically put an end to the misery of the country. The
difficulty with Ireland does not consist in being unable to
produce wherewith to feed her population; it lies in the manner
in which landed property is managed, a system which no amount of
emigration can possibly modify; for, "if one of the first
principles of the landlord be that the farmer should gain by
tilling no more than is strictly necessary to support him--if,
in addition, this principle is, as a general rule, rigidly
followed out, and all economical means of living resorted to by
the farmer necessarily induce a rise in the rent--what, upon
this supposition (of the sad reality of which every one knowing
Ireland is perfectly conscious), can be the consequence of a
decrease of population?"
Always obliged to live as sparingly as possible, in order to
escape a rise in the rent, and forced to undergo daily
privations in order to meet his engagements, how is the Irish
farmer to gain by the departure of his neighbor? "Thus, after
millions of Irishmen have disappeared, the fate of the
population which remains is in no wise changed; it will forever
be equally wretched."
Then, glancing at the past, making a sad enumeration of
Ireland's losses during the last three centuries, and evoking
from these too eloquent figures the accents of a touching
eloquence, the writer asks himself how far so much bloodshed,
such armies of individuals, stricken down by death, or hurried
out of the country by transportation--so many families extinct,
and the like--had contributed to restore and save Ireland?
"Open the annals of Ireland, and see the small amount of
influence which all those violent enterprises and all those
extraordinary accidental causes of depopulation have had upon
the social state of the country. Calculate the number of souls
that perished during the religious wars; count the thousands of
Irishmen that perished under the sword of Cromwell; to all that
the victor massacred add the myriads that he transported; think
of the hundreds of thousands who sank under famine, the number
of whom exceeded in one year, 1741, forty thousand; do not
overlook the formerly considerable number who yearly died by the
hand of the executioner; in fine, to this add the twenty-five or
thirty thousand individuals who emigrate from the country every
year" (this was written before 1830); "and, having laid down
these facts, you look for the consequences: when, in the midst
of these different crises, you see Ireland always the same,
always equally wretched, always crammed with paupers, always
bearing about with her the same hideous and deep wounds, you
will then recognize that the miseries of Ireland do not arise
from the number of her inhabitants; you will conclude that it is
the nature of her social condition to generate unmitigated
indigence and infinite distress; that, supposing millions of
poor swept out of her by a stroke of magic, others would be seen
rising up in abundance out of a well-spring of misery, which in
Ireland never dries up; and that the fault does not lie in the
number of her population, but in the institutions in force in
the country."
The celebrated French writer had certainly pointed out what were
the real causes of the distress in Ireland. He had shown how
false were the pretended causes then assigned for it by
Englishmen; he touched the key-note--the land tenure; and, as a
well-wisher to Ireland, deprecating any new calamities, he was
firmly opposed to those various fancy projects of emigration en
masse, suggested by numerous British writers, many of whom, such
as the editors of the London Times, were induced to promulgate
them by their deep hatred for the old race, which led them to
represent under a modern garb the old Norman and Puritan
philanthropic desires of rooting out and sweeping off the Irish
from the land.
The projects of emigration, therefore, were most eagerly
advanced by the enemies of the Irish, their real friends being,
on the whole, opposed to the movement at the time. But, the true
causes of Irish misery being either unseen or unappreciated, or,
if known, studiously fostered, with a view of bringing about the
one aim which ran all through the English policy, of emptying
the island and destroying the race, eventually it did actually
become a dire necessity for the people to fly; and therefore,
from 1815 to 1845, the wave of emigration began to rise fast,
and go on swelling in volume and widening in extent from year to
year. Midway between the two extreme points, about 1830, it
amounted to between twenty-five and thirty thousand. M. de
Beaumont could not see how two millions could be transported at
once. Nor were they. But he did not foresee that in the twenty
years succeeding that in which he wrote more than three millions
and a half would actually be shipped from the island; and all
the difficulties that he anticipated--the number of ships
requisite, the immense amount of money needed, the countries
where such numbers might be received--were furnished by
Providence for the spread of the Irish in many lands. But these
considerations can only be briefly touched upon here; they will
form the interesting subject of the next chapter. What we have
now to consider is the commencement of the great exodus,
confined so far to Canada and the United States, but already
working wonders over the vast stretch of country which spreads
away between the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the official records of emigration from the "United
Kingdom," from 1815 to 1860 inclusive, we find that, in general,
the greater number emigrated to Canada up to 1839; from that
epoch, but chiefly after 1845, the greater number went directly
to the United States. Let us first look for a reason for this
change of destination, and afterward for its result.
Homer, wiser than many modern philosophers, tells us that "there
are beings which have a certain name among men and another quite
different among the gods." What is true of names, is true
likewise of what they represent, motives and things in general.
Men often assign to actions motives far different from those
known to God; and, in like manner, the motives of men, visibly
impelled by the Spirit of God, are often far beyond the
comprehension of "philosophers." We are far from presuming to
dive into the divine thoughts with the certainty of bringing to
the surface what lies hidden in their mysterious depths; but
every Christian should endeavor humbly to penetrate them, and
modestly set forth what he gathers from them.
What object can be assigned for the Irish emigrating in such
large numbers to Canada for a quarter of a century, from 1815 to
1840? It cannot be because Canada is, as it then was, a British
colony: the English Emigration Commissioners had the honesty to
confess, later on, that the rush to the United States was in
consequence of their desire to avoid dwelling under the English
flag. It was not because, in Canada, a greater facility opened
up for obtaining good land; for, in Lower Canada, where they
tarried for a long time, the land was already occupied by French-
Canadians, and, in that severe climate, the soil is not over-
productive. It cannot have been the facility for transportation--
during about six months of every year, the mouth of the St.
Lawrence is closed to ships, and travel through a frozen land is
not the most desirable thing, particularly to homeless and
moneyless immigrants. Last of all, it was not the similarity of
climate and language with those of their own island. What, then,
can it have been?
In our own opinion, the human motive of the Irish can have been
no other than a religious one; in the Divine mind, the motive
was of a still higher and more merciful character. The Irish had
heard, from the few of their countrymen who had already
emigrated to the United States, of the great difficulty they
experienced in practising their religion. On the other hand,
they knew that, throughout Lower Canada, there was not a village
without its Catholic church and priest, and that Quebec and
Montreal were important and entirely Catholic cities. This great
fact blinded them to the many disadvantages they would have to
undergo in emigrating to such a country; or, rather, they saw
the disadvantages, but the thought that their religion and that
of their children would be safe in Canada was enough for them.
It is the same people ever, in the nineteenth century as in
those which preceded it, and all noble minds must respect them
for thus first looking to the supernatural.
But, had the Almighty a design in directing them to the north of
the continent, and establishing so great a number of them
permanently in that country? We are fully persuaded that the
Irish race is now, and ever has been, predestined to fulfill a
high mission on this earth. What is now transpiring under our
eyes is too clear to be denied by any Christian; and admitting
the general fact that the race must be an instrument in the
hands of God to spread his Church throughout, in English-
speaking countries particularly, to correct, by their presence
and influence in every quarter of the globe, the evil effects of
the spread of what we call Japhetism among Oriental races--let
us endeavor to see how their coming to settle in Canada served
for that great end.
The Gospel of our Lord was first preached in those dreary
regions by religious of the Gallic race. The labors of Catholic
missionaries in Canada, of the members of the Society of Jesus
particularly, are now well known and appreciated. The French
colony in Canada was from the first a Catholic colony: It was
not a conquest; it was not a commercial enterprise; it was not a
transatlantic garden for luxurious Frenchmen: it was what Mr.
Bancroft has well called it, "a mission." The desire of winning
souls to Christ had begun the work, had run all through it
almost to the end. The blood of martyrs had consecrated it; that
of Rasles, shed by heretics; of Lallemant, Brebeuf, and Jogues,
by pagans. But, after the surrender of the colony to England,
although the terms of the cession were as favorable to religion
as could be desired, and the British power could not introduce
there any of the penal laws still pressing so hard on English
and Irish Catholics, nevertheless, a great danger arose in
consequence, which is particularly visible now after more than a
century has passed away. Though Catholicity could not be
persecuted, and, for once, England faithfully observed the terms
of a capitulation which involved a religious side, as little
could heresy be excluded or denied some of the privileges which
it enjoys in the mother country. The government was to be
administered mostly by Protestant officials; the new-comers from
England would be composed, for the greater part, of Protestant
merchants and artisans. The Anglican Church would soon gain the
prestige of wealth and influence. The country in the east, it is
true, thickly settled by Catholic farmers, would long remain
Catholic; but in the large towns, Quebec and Montreal chiefly,
an influx of Protestants of every sect was to be expected; while
in the west, where the French had scarcely occupied the country,
the numerical majority would soon lean to the side of the new
arrivals from England and Scotland. The English tongue would
gradually supersede the French, and it might have been foreseen
from the beginning that, within a given time, notwithstanding
the rapid increase of French-Canadians by birth, Catholicity
would lose first its preeminence, and, perhaps, after a while,
occupy a very inferior rank.
The religion professed by the many millions connected with the
centre of unity has never shrunk from an equal contest, and is
sure of victory when left free and untrammelled; but in Canada
it should be observed that, had it not been for the coming of
the Irish, the whole of the Catholic population would have
spoken French, being surrounded and absorbed almost by
sectarians of every hue, all speaking English. The strange
spectacle would there have shown itself--a spectacle, perhaps,
never witnessed hitherto-- of a Catholic and Protestant language.
The separation of the two camps would have rested chiefly upon
this peculiar basis; and there can be no doubt that, with the
vigorous youth of the United States, developing so rapidly in
the South, and destined to carry with it the English tongue over
all the Northern continent, together with the spread of the
English and Scotch North and West, the French language was
destined to become circumscribed within narrower and narrower
limits, and its final disappearance in America would be probably
only a work of time.
If it is permitted us to study, love, and admire the designs of
Providence among men, who shall say that it is presumption to
assert that God's was the hand which directed the Irish exiles
and set them in their place, in order to prevent the sad
spectacle of a land settled by holy people, belonging almost
exclusively to God and to Christ, endeared to the true Church by
so many labors endured for the spread of truth, and memorable by
so many heroic virtues practised in those frozen wilds and
dreary forests, from falling sooner or later into the hands of
the most unrelenting enemies of the papacy?
It cannot be presumptuous to attribute it to the designs of
Providence, as otherwise it is impossible to discover any reason
whatever which might influence the Irish in selecting that
desolate spot for their place of exile. They came, therefore, in
great numbers, to set themselves under the spiritual control of
priests unable to understand either their native language or the
borrowed English they brought with them; they came, confident
that all the Catholic churches built prior to their coming would
be open to them, and that the pastors of those French
congregations would receive them, not as strangers, but as long-
lost children, at last let loose from a land of bondage, come to
share the freedom secured by the settlers.
The statistics of immigration having been accurately kept since
1815, it is easy to ascertain the number of Irish people who
landed in Canada during the precise period under investigation.
And, although a certain number, which increased with the years,
did not remain in the country where they first landed, but pushed
on immediately, or shortly after, south to the United States, still,
a large proportion settled permanently in the country.
Half a million English-speaking persons arrived in Canada
between the years 1815 and 1839. At that time there was no
distinction made between the three different classes coming
respectively from England, Scotland, and Ireland; but, when this
classification afterward came to be made, the Irish formed a
steady three-fourths of the whole. Applying this proportion to
the time under consideration, we have the large amount of three
hundred and seventy-five thousand. The number was afterward
considerably increased, although a greater number still went
directly to the United States; so that it is ascertained that
within ten years, from 1839 to 1849, four hundred and twenty-
eight thousand Irish people arrived in Canada; that is to say,
at a rate of fifty thousand a year.
The country in which they settled was certainly large, as it
comprised not only Canada proper, but also the British provinces
of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the large islands in the
vicinity. But, as the Irish, contrary to their former custom, now
prefer to dwell in large towns and assemble together rather than
find themselves, as it were, lost in a sparsely-peopled district,
the population of important cities, such as Quebec and Montreal,
and of the growing western towns of Toronto, Kingston, and others,
was very sensibly affected by their arrival. The English was no
longer to be an exclusively Protestant tongue; and, as the more
rapid increase of the Irish by birth would soon equalize numbers,
and give them eventually the preponderance, it was clear that the
country would ultimately remain Catholic, even supposing that the
French tongue should be finally forgotten.
The first extensive emigration to the large cities of Canada was
also owing to the fact that, the eastern provinces not having
come under the stipulation of the capitulation treaty, the penal
laws were still unrepealed in that district. Toward the
beginning of this century we find Father Burke, wishing to open
a school for Catholic children at Halifax, Nova Scotia,
threatened with the enforcement of the law by the then governor
of the province, if he persevered in his attempt, a threat which
was only prevented from being carried into execution by the
liberal spirit of the Protestant inhabitants. The flow of
emigration to the colonies south and east of the St. Lawrence
was, consequently, of a much later, in fact, for the most part,
of quite recent date.
In Newfoundland the case was still worse. That region had been
ceded to Great Britain by France, in 1713, at the Treaty of
Utrecht; and, although that treaty stipulated that freedom of
worship should be guaranteed, nevertheless, the country remained
closed to Catholic clergymen, the stipulation being nullified by
the treacherous clause "as far as the laws of England permitted.
"Hence, the French Catholics with their clergy were soon
obliged to leave the colony, and as late as 1765, according to
Mr. Maguire ("Irish in America"), the governor of the island was
issuing orders worthy of the reign of Queen Anne. In the words
of Dr. Murdock, Bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland, "the Irish
had not the liberty of the birds of the air to build or repair
their nests; they had behind them the forest or the rocky soil,
which they were not allowed, without license difficultly
obtained, to reclaim and till. Their only resource was the
stormy ocean, and they saw the wealth they won from the deep
spent in other lands, leaving them only a scanty subsistence."
The Irish had therefore to fall back on the cities of Lower
Canada, where, moreover, they found numerous churches and
priests. Hence, Quebec was their first place of refuge, and they
soon formed a large percentage of the population. Montreal was
their choice from the first, where they arrived in crowds,
attracted by the intense pleasure they felt at the happy chance
of living and dying in a really Catholic city, where, turn in
what direction they would, their eyes were gladdened by the
sight of magnificent churches, colleges, convents, hospitals,
with the cross, the symbol of their faith, surmounting nearly
all the public edifices of the city.
Western Canada was as yet an uninviting field for the Irish. A
large number of Scotchmen and "Orangemen" had already settled
there, when the British Government, having adopted the scheme of
emigration for Ireland, offered them favorable conditions for
transport and settlement. It was on the west chiefly that an
invasion of English Protestantism threatened, and the Catholics
of Ireland were, in the dispensation of Providence, to meet that
danger. It is no surprise, then, to find the English Government
itself made subservient to designs very different from its own,
offering in 1825 to bear the whole expense of establishing large
bodes of Irishmen on these wilds--wilds then, but full of
promise for the future. Among other colonies transported bodily,
Mr. Maguire tells of four hundred and fifteen families,
comprising two thousand individuals, all from the south of
Ireland, genuine "Irish in birth and blood," transported from
Cork harbor to Western Canada, on board British ships, under the
auspices of the government. Their story will well repay the
reading, and above all their remonstrance to the governor of the
province, after they had surmounted the first difficulties of
their new position: "We labor under a heavy grievance, which, we
confidently hope, your Excellency will redress, and then we will
be completely happy, viz., the want of clergymen to administer
to us the comforts of our holy religion, and good schoolmasters
to instruct our children."
In spite, however, of the efforts made by British statesmen to
direct the flow of Irish emigration to the northern part of the
American Continent, the number of those who voluntarily crossed
the Atlantic to settle directly in the United States was
steadily increasing. Not only did they find there perfect
freedom of religion, but the absence of clergymen was being
gradually less felt, and each new bishopric created became a
centre of religious life and vigor.
Moreover, the new republic had turned out to be the most
energetic and enterprising nation which the world had yet seen.
A whole continent lay before it to subdue, and at once the young
giant prepared to grapple with the truly gigantic difficulty.
With the arrival of every "packet-boat," Europe was astonished
to hear of the amazing vitality displayed by a nation of
yesterday, composed of a few millions of individuals, who had
already spread their frontiers as far north as the whole line of
the great lakes, as far west as the Pacific coast, and southward
to the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana fell in, and, from a state of
torpidity in which it had slumbered, the vast territory which
then went by that name waked suddenly into a prodigiously active
life. At the very beginning of the century, the Missouri had
been navigated to its source, and Lewis and Clarke, crossing the
high ridge of the Rocky Mountains, had descended the Columbia to
its mouth, and settled the boundary of the United States along
the far-spreading Pacific. The mighty Mississippi, in the midst
of that splendid domain, belonged from source to mouth to the
republic, and, with its tributaries, was already alive with
numerous steamboats, passing up and down, bearing their life and
all its belongings with them, and the (at that time more
numerous still) flatboats, carried down the stream, to reach, in
due time, New Orleans.
There was small thought of hindering "foreigners" from coming to
take a share in the giant enterprise. All the inhabitants were
in fact foreigners to the soil; and the new-comers, no matter
from what country they came, had just as good a right to sit at
the common board as the first-landed. It was felt and wisely
acknowledged to be the real interest of the young nation to
welcome as great a number as Europe could send.
Thus have we already seen large numbers of Irishmen laboring
along the Erie Canal. There was not a public work undertaken at
the time in which they did not bear a welcome hand. And what
race of men could be found better fitted for such work? It would
indeed be interesting to show from good statistical tables what
share Irishmen have really had in building up the prosperity of
the Union by their labor, skilled and unskilled.
At the period we have now come to, they were already crowding in
at the harbors of the Atlantic, so astonishing to the newly-
arrived European by the extraordinary activity which
characterizes them; they were numerous in the factories just
starting into life, from the desire of not depending on England
for all manufactured goods; they were multiplying in large
hotels, in private families, in the fields outside the large
cities. Above all, the buildings erected at the time, in such
great numbers, employed many of them as mechanics and laborers;
and whenever some grand undertaking, which looked to the future
welfare of the country, demanded a large draft of men, there
were they to be seen as they had never been seen before, even in
their own country, where all labor was reduced to the individual
efforts of each, just sufficient to eke out a miserable life.
At this time, about 1820, the Irish immigrants settled, for the
most part, on the Atlantic seaboard; few had yet crossed even
the ridge of the Alleghanies. In the Eastern States they found
occupation enough, and the steady growth of the country required
their willing aid. From that time the North formed their chief
point of attraction, and the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and New York, were their great resorts. Even New England was no
longer forbidden ground to them, and they began to spread
themselves over its rocky and unpromising surface, to effect
there a greater moral change than probably anywhere else in the
country. In 1827, during the first pastoral visitation of Bishop
Fenwick, when he erected, on the spot made memorable by the
apostolic labors of Father Rasles, a monument to the memory of
that saintly man, we read that "he then went in search of some
Irish Catholics living at Belfast, Maine, whom he found
suffering both for the necessaries of life and for the
sustenance of the soul. He relieved both their temporal and
spiritual wants, and imparted them his blessing, and some
wholesome advice."
He was enabled to do more for them in the following year at
Charlestown, Massachusetts. On the 15th of October, 1828,
according to the Boston Gazette, "he laid the corner-stone of a
Catholic church near Craigie's Point, designed to accommodate
the Catholics of that place and of Charlestown, who were said to
be already numerous." There is no doubt that the several
churches built about that time in Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, were filled rather
by Irish immigrants than by American converts, although not a
few consoling examples of this latter method of the Church's
increase took place about this period.
But New York was taking the lead as the landing of predilection
for the desolate children of Ireland. Thus, at the installation
of Bishop Dubois, in St. Patrick's Cathedral, November 9, 1826,
he addressed himself particularly to the Irish portion of his
congregation, observing that "he entertained for them the
liveliest feelings of affection. He reminded them of the
persecutions they had undergone in defence of their religion, of
the sacrifices many of them had made on leaving their native
country, and conjured them always to manifest that attachment to
the religion of their forefathers which had hitherto so
prominently distinguished them among their brother Catholics."
The whole State was beginning to swarm with new arrivals from
the Green Isle. This detachment, however, only formed the
scarcely perceptible head of the great army which was to follow.
We shall soon return to see its masses steadily treading their
way on toward the West, and never halting till they reached the
Pacific coast; we will see for what purpose.
Meanwhile, it is fitting to look at another wing of this army
taking its position directly south of Asia, the great continent
which holds the first dwelling of man on earth, and toward which
all the tendencies of modern civilization seem to turn.
An immense island, to which geographers have now given the name
of the fifth continent, from the dawn of creation lay sleeping
between the seas known as the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A few
thousand savages, said to be the lowest type of the human family,
roamed aimlessly over its extensive wilds. Out of the ordinary
route of circumnavigating explorers, few European ships had
reached its coast, when the Dutch attempted to form
establishments on its southern and western sides, giving it the
name of New Holland. At the end of last century the English
Captain Cook formed the first successful European settlement--
Botany Bay--in what he called New South Wales, at the south-
eastern extremity of the island. The French surveyed a
considerable portion of the western coast at the beginning of
this century. But finally, as has so far generally been the case
with other colonies, the English remained in possession of the
whole, and, though their first thought was to use it merely as a
penal settlement, they soon saw the importance of removing their
convicts to Van Diemen's Island, and now no less than four or
five distinct British colonies embrace the entire coast-line of
the continent, the interior still remaining an unknown desert.
Immigration, other than the transport of criminals, began only
in 1825; and the white population of New South Wales, which in
1810 was only eight thousand three hundred, in 1821 only thirty
thousand, increased rapidly after the discovery of the gold-
fields in 1851, so that in 1861 more than seven hundred thousand
free colonists had been landed from British ships on the
continent and large islands of Van Diemen and New Zealand,
notwithstanding their enormous distance from Great Britain.
The importance of this vast colony, or, rather, of this
agglomeration of colonies, should not be estimated from their
extent and productions alone, but chiefly from their proximity
to Asia toward the north, and to America toward the east.
Already lines of steamers connect the new continent with China
on the one side and San Francisco on the other; and when we
reflect that the English tongue is the only one spoken
throughout that vast territory; that English political
institutions, with all their attendant machinery of parliaments,
elections, municipal governments, and liberties, toleration, a
free press and free discussion, are day by day becoming more
deeply rooted in the habits of the people, it is easy to
perceive how soon the peculiarities of Japhetism, starting from
that centre, will invade the whole line of Southern and Eastern
Asia and the countless island-groups of Polynesia. The Catholic
reader will at once perceive how the true religion must have
been left to struggle, hopelessly almost, in its mission of
enlightenment and mercy, surrounded as it was by so many adverse
circumstances, had not the Irish element been at hand to fall
back on.
Our information on this important branch of the subject is
unfortunately not extensive; nor is this to be wondered at,
since it is only from 1851 that Irish immigration really began
to show itself in Australia, and take an active part in the
European rush toward that quarter of the world, or, rather, to
use the phrase of Holy Writ, "to dwell in the tents of Sem."
When Great Britain sent out her first cargoes of convicts to
Australia, it never entered into the ideas of that enlightened
power that such an attendant as a minister of religion might be
wanted, and, as Mr. Marshall says in his book on "Christian
Missions:" "The first ship which bore away its freight of
despair, of bruised hearts, and woful memories, and fearful
expectations, would have left the shores of England without even
a solitary minister of religion, but for the timely remonstrance
of a private individual. The civil authorities had deemed their
work complete, when they had given the signal to raise the
anchor and unloose the sails; the rest was no concern of theirs.
"He adds something more extraordinary and more to our purpose
still:
"Among the emigrants to the new continent, soon some of those
children of Ireland, whom Providence seems to have dispersed
through all the homes of the Saxon race, that they might one day
rekindle among them the light of faith, which their own long
misfortunes have never been able to quench, were carried as the
first fruitful seeds of the ever-blooming tree of the Church."
To these exiles it was necessary to convey the succors of
religion. The first Catholic priest who arrived in Australia on
his mission of charity, and whom the policy of self-interest, at
least, might have prompted the authorities to greet with eager
welcome, was treated with derision, and "was directed," as one
of his most energetic successors relates, "to produce his
permission," or "hold himself in readiness for departure by the
next ship." He was alone, and consequently a safe victim; and
though, as the latest historian of the colony observes, "his
ministrations would have been not less valuable in a social than
in a religious point of view," he was seized, put in prison, and
finally sent back to England, because his presence was irksome
to men who seem to have felt instinctively that his proffered
ministry was the keenest rebuke to their own cruelty and
profaneness.
This first Catholic priest was the Rev. Mr. Flynn, on whom the
Holy See had conferred the title of archpriest, with power to
administer confirmation. Arrived at Sydney in 1818, he did much
good there in a short time. Mr. Marshall has told us how the
colonial authorities treated him.
But a circumstance, not mentioned in this clever author's work
on "Missions," shows who and what were those Irish exiles whom
the priest had come to serve and direct in his spiritual
capacity. When suddenly carried off to prison, he left the
Blessed Sacrament in their little church at Sydney. There the
faithful frequently assembled during the two years which
followed his departure, as large a number as could muster, to
offer up their prayers to God, and look for consolation in their
affliction. The visible priest had been violently snatched away
from them; the Archpriest of souls, Christ, remained.
The Rev. W. Ullathorne, now Bishop of Birmingham, England, was
afterward made Vicar-General Apostolic of that desolate mission
by the Holy See. He informs us, in a letter published among the
"Annals of the Propagation of the Faith," how these poor Irish
people were treated by their "masters" in Australia.
"It was forbidden them to speak Irish, under pain of fifty
strokes of the whip; and the magistrates, who for the most part
belonged to the 'Protestant clergy,' sentenced also to the whip and
to close confinement those who refused to go hear their sermons,
and to assist at a service which their consciences disavowed."
In 1820 two fresh missionaries replaced Mr. Flynn. They found
the little church where their predecessor had left our Lord two
years before still in the same state; and soon the insignificant
flock, which ever multiplies under persecution, began to
increase wonderfully, so that twelve years later, out of the
whole population of the colony--one hundred thousand--there were
from twenty to thirty thousand Catholics.
Meanwhile, their emancipation in England had secured their
rights in the British colonies. There was no longer the threat
of the whip hanging over those who refused to hear Protestant
sermons; there was no longer fear of their missionary being sent
back by the first ship to England. Hence the Holy See immediately
established the hierarchy of the Church, on a regular and permanent
basis, there, Dr. Polding being the first bishop.
This may be called an era in the history of the Catholic Church.
A hierarchy, independent of the state in heretic and even
infidel countries, is a modern thought inspired by the Holy
Spirit to the rulers of the flock of Christ to meet modern
requirements. By this new system the long list of so-called
Protestant countries was at once swept away. For no country can
be called Protestant which has its regularly-established bishops
of Holy Church, with their authority permanently secured. Their
dioceses cover the land, and the land consequently belongs to
the Church, however great may be the number of heretics or
infidels, and however powerful the organizations antagonistic to
Catholicity. The "people of God" is there, to multiply with the
years, and finally absorb all heterogeneous bodies. The Church,
as we saw, is a growth; other bodies are crystallized and do not
grow; more, they become materially and necessarily disintegrated
by the action of time and the friction of surrounding bodies, of
spreading roots and living organisms.
This plain, unmistakable, eventual truth was the real cause
which brought about the violent explosion of fear and hatred
following directly the reestablishing of the Catholic hierarchy
in England. The opposing forces felt that their hour was come,
and they could not but shiver at their approaching annihilation,
small as was the body of the English Catholics at the time. But
it is not for us to enter here on these considerations, which
would call for long developments, and which belong more
fittingly to the general history of the Church than to Irish
emigration to Australia.
The few facts glanced at above afford ample grounds for
picturing the state of the first Irish exiles who set foot on
that broad island of the Antipodes. It was only a repetition of
the scenes witnessed at the same time wherever the Irish strove
to propagate the true faith. Later on it will be our pleasure to
come back to this field and wonder at the growth of a blooming
garden which has replaced the old sterility.
Of the other British colonies wherein a certain number of
Irishmen began to settle at the time of the present
investigation, no details can yet be furnished. It is easy to
suppose, however, without fear of mistake, that the spiritual
destitution and state of more or less open persecution which we
have found existing in America and Australia, prevailed also at
the Cape Colony, at Natal, in Guiana, Labuan, Ceylon, etc. A
very different spectacle is about to be unfolded before our eyes,
and we hasten on to behold its wondrous development and
splendor--a splendor, however, ushered in by scenes of extreme
woe.
CHAPTER XV.
THE "EXODUS" AND ITS EFFECTS.
The stream of Irish emigrants, starting from the one source,
separated now and continued flowing to the four quarters of the
globe, and, at length, its influence was beginning to be felt in
England itself, the last of the lands whither the Irish exiles
could think of turning. The poorest, unable to pay their passage-
money to North America, began to show themselves among the thick
populations of the great manufacturing centres of Great Britain.
More than fifty thousand departed annually to settle in other
climes and plant Catholicity in regions that, from a religious
point of view, were wildernesses.
In 1846 came an awful calamity, to impart to the movement an
impetus of which no one could have dreamed, and which went very
far to realize what M. de Beaumont had a few years before
declared to be an impossibility--the almost sudden
transportation of millions of starving Irish. This was the great
famine, still so fresh in memory, and now appearing to those who
witnessed its effects like that terrible passage of the
destroying angel in the night.
There is no better mode of accounting for this visitation than
that given by T. D. McGee, in his "Irish Settlers in America:"
"The famine (of 1846) is to be thus accounted for: The act of
Union in 1800 deprived Ireland of a native legislature. Her
aristocracy emigrated to London. Her tariff expired in 1826, and,
of course, was not renewed. Her merchants and manufacturers
withdrew their capital from trade and invested it in land. The
land! the land! was the object of universal, unlimitable
competition. In the first twenty years of the century, the
farmers, if rack-rented, had still the war prices. After the
peace, they had the monopoly of the English provision and
produce markets. But in 1846 Sir Robert Peel successfully struck
at the old laws imposing duties on foreign corn, and let in
Baltic wheat and American provisions of every kind, to compete
with and undersell the Irish rack-rented farmers.
"High rents had produced hardness of heart in the 'middleman,'
extravagance in the land-owner, and extreme poverty in the
peasant. The poor-law commission of 1839 reported that two
million three hundred thousand of the agricultural laborers of
Ireland were 'paupers;' that those immediately above the lowest
rank were ' the worst-clad, worst-fed, and worst-lodged '
peasantry in Europe. True indeed! They were lodged in styes,
clothed in rags, and fed on the poorest quality of potato.
"Partial failures of this crop had taken place for a succession
of seasons. So regularly did those failures occur, that William
Cobbett and other skilful agriculturists had foretold their
final destruction years before. Still, the crops of the summer
of 1846 looked fair and sound to the eye. The dark-green, crispy
leaves, and yellow-and-purple blossoms of the potato-fields,
were a cheerful feature in every landscape. By July, however,
the terrible fact became but too certain. From every town-land
within the four seas tidings came to the capital that the
people's food was blasted--utterly, hopelessly blasted.
Incredulity gave way to panic, panic to demands on the Imperial
Government to stop the export of grain, to establish public
granaries, and to give the peasantry such productive employment
as would enable them to purchase food enough to keep soul and
body together. By a report of the ordnance-captain, Larcom, it
appeared there were grain-crops more than sufficient to support
the whole population --a cereal harvest estimated at four
hundred millions of dollars, as prices were. But to all
remonstrances, petitions, and proposals, the imperial economists
had but one answer: 'They could not interfere with the ordinary
currents of trade.' O'Connell's proposal, Lord Georga Bentinck's,
O'Brien's, the proposals of the society called 'The Irish
Council,' all received the same answer. Fortunes were made and
lost in gambling over this sudden trade in human subsistence,
and ships laden to the gunwales sailed out of Irish ports, while
the charities of the world were coming in.
"In August, authentic cases of death by famine, with the verdict,
'starvation,' were reported. The first authentic case thrilled
the country, like an ill wind. From twos and threes they rose to
tens, and, in September, such inquests were held, and the same
sad verdict repeated, twenty times in a day. Then Ireland, the
hospitable among the nations, smitten with famine, deserted by
her imperial masters, lifted up her voice, and uttered that cry
of awful anguish which shook the ends of the earth.
"The Czar, the Sultan, and the Pope, sent their rubles and their
pauls. The Pacha of Egypt, the Shah of Persia, the Emperor of
China, the Rajahs of India, conspired to do for Ireland what her
so-styled rulers refused to do--to keep her young and old people
living in the land. America did more in this work of mercy than
all the rest of the world."
The sudden effect of this fearful trial was to increase the
total emigration from the British Isles from ninety-three
thousand in 1845 to one hundred and thirty thousand in 1846; to
three hundred thousand in 1849; to nearly four hundred thousand
in 1852. In ten years from 1846, two million eight hundred
thousand had fled in horror from the country once so dear to
them. From May, 1847, to the close of 1866, the number of
passengers discharged at New York alone amounted to three
million six hundred and fifty-nine thousand!
Those immense fleets of transports, which M. de Beaumont thought
necessary, but not to be found, were found. On such a sudden
emergency, every kind of tub afloat was thought suitable for the
purpose; and, all being sailing-vessels, the voyage was
proportionately long, the provision made for such numbers
insufficient, and the emigrants, already weakened by privations,
were fit subjects for the plague which, under the form of ship-
fever, rapidly spread among those receptacles of human misery,
so that, when the great caravan arrived in the St. Lawrence,
whither that first year all seemed to tend, the following was
the picture presented:
"On the 8th of May, 1847, the Urania, from Cork, with several
hundred immigrants on board, a large proportion of them sick and
dying of the ship-fever, was put into quarantine at Grosse Isle,
thirty miles below Quebec. This was the first of the plague-
smitten ships of Ireland which that year sailed up the St.
Lawrence. But, before the first week of June, as many as eighty-
four ships, of various tonnage, were driven in by an easterly
wind; and of that enormous number of vessels there was not one
free from the taint of malignant typhus, the offspring of famine
and of the foul ship-hold."
The effects of that awful misfortune may be found vividly
described in Mr. Maguire's book, from which the above extract is
taken, on the long line of march of that desolate army of
immigrants, leaving its thousands of victims at Grosse Isle,
near Quebec, at Pointe St. Charles, a suburb of Montreal, in
Kingston, in Toronto, Upper Canada, and, finally, at Partridge
Island, cpposite St. John's, New Brunswick.
America was thus destined to witness some of those scenes so
often enacted on the soil of Ireland, to compassionate the
people of the holy isle, to open her friendly bosom for the
reception of the unfortunate beings, who in return gave her all
they possessed--their faith.
But what M. de Beaumont so emphatically insisted upon, although
at first seemingly contradicted by the event, was nevertheless
true. England, the mighty mistress of the seas, did not possess
ships enough for the purpose of transportation; and her entire
navy added to all her merchant-vessels would scarcely have
sufficed. Ships had to be built, steamers chiefly, in order to
effect the transportation speedily, and diminish the dangers of
the passage.
Then Providence worked upon the ingenuity of worldly-wise men,
and set them planning and studying the question in all its
bearings, to devise new schemes of transportation on a scale not
dreamed of hitherto. Watt, the Stephensons, Brunel, A. Maury,
and others, rose up to perfect the various steam-machines
already known and in use; to investigate the currents of the
ocean, the different qualities of its waters, its depth and
soundings, in order to make the paths of the deep easier and
surer to navigators. The ingenuity of ship-builders effected a
revolution in naval architecture, and rendered possible the
construction of vessels of from ten thousand to twenty-five
thousand tons burden. Merchant companies and capitalists arose
to embrace the whole world in their mighty speculations,
studying the capabilities of all countries for trade, the most
desolate as well as the most inviting, the meanest as keenly as
the mightiest, linking the whole world in one vast commercial
circle, that the European race might be borne on to the
mercantile conquest of the universe; and all this came about,
doubtless, to effect its deeper and more permanent moral
conquest by the despised, doom-trodden, starving, dying Irishman,
who laid claim to one arm, one possession only--his faith and
the blessing of the Church.
Was not the Irish exodus intimately connected with all those
events? Was it not one of the mightiest causes of all those
gigantic enterprises?
But where were the funds to be found for such immense
undertakings? The treasury of nations is continually drained of
vast sums at home, and dare not draw away a part of its metallic
basis sufficient for such a purpose. Moreover, it is limited,
and needs the precious metals as a solid foundation whereon to
rest, or the fabric built upon it will be the fabric of a dream,
as was that of Law in France at the beginning of the eighteenth
century. The gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru seem
exhausted; the new ones of the Ural Mountains in Northern Asia,
of the Atlantic coast of North America, were not adequate to
meet the demands of such mighty operations.
Suddenly, in the year 1846, a Swiss captain, transformed into a
California settler, while endeavoring to turn a water-fall in
his new home to some account, discovers gold-dust in the sand.
As if by magic, the coast of California, hitherto neglected,
difficult of access at the time, and consequently ignored by
mankind, notwithstanding its wealth in mineral and vegetable
productions, becomes at once the cynosure of all eyes, the hope
of all hearts, the most renowned of all countries. Thither they
flock in crowds prom all parts of Europe and America, and a
steady flow of seventy million dollars annually is secured as a
basis for the new designs of capitalists and merchants.
Other gold-fields are soon discovered all along the American
coast, on the Pacific, from Lower California to Alaska, inviting
men to go thither and settle, just opposite to the Asiatic
Continent, separated from it only by the broad but easily-
navigated Pacific Ocean.
Soon also, far away south in the antipodes, opposite to another
portion of Asia, rich gold-fields are opened up in the newly-
discovered Continent of Australia, attracting immigration toward
another spot, whence the Asiatic nations may also be reached
with greater facility and dispatch.
Whoever believes that Providence has something to do with the
affairs of men; whoever is wise enough to see that this universe
is not the result of chance, and that its destinies are ruled by
a superior power, must admit that when events as unexpected as
they are unprepared by man come to pass--events which are so
connected together as to reveal the workings of a single mind
and a great object at once, foreshadowed if not positively
foretold, God is the designer, and a stronger hand is at work
than the combined power of men and devils could successfully
oppose. This is a truth which was not unknown to Homer,
centuries ago, when he described Jove holding our globe
suspended in space at the end of a chain, and defying all the
inferior gods to move the world in a direction contrary to that
given by his mighty arm.
The image, striking and poetical as it is, for a Christian is
too material. We speak more correctly when we say that Mind --
the Divine Mind--is the great invincible and invisible Force of
which all material forces are but the created agents, and by
which all inferior minds must stand or fall, conquer or fail. A
man must be blind with that incurable blindness--of will--who
cannot see it acting in and on the universe, and even
controlling the lower designs of puny intellects. The reverent
eye which sees the vastness of the plan, the multitude of its
agents, aiding and seconding it consciously and unconsciously,
recognizes it, and the supreme object of its workings, Love,
infinite Love.
And we distinguish with grateful surprise all those
circumstances visibly appearing in the great fact which has just
been so imperfectly sketched, and which will come home to us
still more forcibly when the workings of its lesser details come
to be examined. Here, for instance, at the moment of writing
these lines (March, 1872) we learn from the morning newspapers
of the recent arrival of the Japanese embassy at San Francisco;
that its members had been dispatched to this country to study
European, or, as we call them, Japhetic institutions, for the
purpose of copying and adapting them to their own wants. The
embassy, detained at Salt Lake City by the snow-blockade on the
Pacific Railroad, refused to go back, temporarily, to California,
and made up their mind to wait in Utah, until it is possible
for them to proceed.
Pacific Railroad, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Japanese
embassy, adoption of European manners by the Mikado and daimios--
who can fail to gather from these words and details the
conception of means to an end, and that end the one we now begin
to study?
The first circumstance coming under our review and indicative of
a loving design on the part of Providence, a circumstance not
marked sufficiently at the time, is the preservation by the
English themselves of the poor remnants of the Irish race, which
the first working of the plan had so frightfully decimated and
left in danger of being utterly wiped out. Had they disappeared,
would Japhetism have become a blessing to the Asiatic nations?
The Catholic, looking abroad and casting his mind's eye over the
vast European field, to all seeming so rich in every production,
yet in reality so sterile morally, peering with awe and horror
into the Japhetic caldron--for such it is--seething and bubbling
to the brim, full of the most deadly poisons and noxious
substances, ready at any moment to overflow in infected waves
and sweep over the unfortunate countries which look to it so
anxiously for blessings, a torrent of black destruction,
spreading around naught but desolation and barrenness--the
Catholic eye, seeing all this, can find but one answer to our
query. The Asiatic races cannot hope to be benefited by the
introduction of European manners among them, unless the same
great movement carries in its train the holy Catholic Church:
and as that introduction must be brought about by English-
speaking leaders, the only English-speaking Catholics of
numerical significance must be the instruments of the adorable
designs of Providence.
That this assertion may not appear too sweeping, it is only
enough to instance the example of India, which England has held
long enough to convert, at least in part, had she so desired and
been moved by the Spirit of God, yet to-day India stands in a
worse relation toward Protestantism than when Protestantism in
the name of Christianity, but in the person of a British trader,
settled down in its midst. What good has Hindostan derived?
But, at this very moment, the whole Irish race is at the mercy
of the English Government and people. Only let the same kind of
vessels continue to be dispatched filled with Irish emigrants,
and the whole race must disappear within a short period, or
become so reduced in numbers that its operations as a race, on a
large scale, will be unproductive of sufficient results.
And it is well to mark that at the time of this outpouring of
the race, as long before, and almost constantly since, there
were Englishmen rejoicing at the glorious result which death by
plague and famine was about to produce. It were easy to quote
many a barbarous passage from the London Times, expressive of
the most satanic joy, not only at the departure of the Irish
from the "United Kingdom," but at the prospect of their ultimate,
or rather proximate disappearance out of the world altogether.
Yet it was the same English Government and people which, feeling,
let us hope, some compassion at the sight of this new woe of
the "Niobe of nations," determined to try and save her children,
as, if they must cast them out, at least it should he alive and
full of health on a foreign shore.
Laws, therefore, were passed, regulating the quantity and
quality of provisions, particularly of drinkable water, the
number of the crew and working-men, the ventilation of the
vessel, the number of passengers to be received, etc.
Still, these first attempts at humanity seem to have been rather
faint-hearted, as the following passage from Mr. Maguire's
"Irish in America," showing how they were carried out, and how
inadequate was the remedy applied in 1848, will explain:
"The ships, of which such glowing accounts were read on Sunday
by the Irish peasant near the chapel-gate, were but too often
old and unseaworthy, insufficient in accommodation, not having
even an adequate supply of water for a long voyage, and, to
render matters worse, they, as a rule, were shamefully
underhanded. True, the provisions and the crew must have passed
muster in Liverpool; . . . but there were tenders and lighters
to follow the vessel out to sea; and over the sides of that
vessel several of the mustered men would pass, and casks, and
boxes, and sacks would be expeditiously hoisted, to the
amazement of the simple people who looked on at the strange and
unaccountable operation. And, thus, the great ship, with its
living freight, would turn her prow toward the West, depending
on her male passengers, as on so many impressed seamen, to
handle her ropes or to work her pumps in case of accident. What
with bad or scanty provisions, scarcity of water, severe
hardship, and long confinement in a foul den, ship-fever reaped
yet a glorious harvest between-decks, as frequent splashes of
shot-weighted corpses into the deep but too terribly testified.
Whatever the cause, the deaths on board the British ships
enormously exceeded the mortality on the ships of any other
country. According to the records of the Commissioners of
Emigration for the State of New York, the quota of sick per
thousand stood thus in 1848 British vessels, 30; American, 9 3/5;
German, 8 3/5. It was yet no unusual occurrence for the survivor of
a family of ten or twelve to land alone, bewildered and broken-
hearted, on the wharf at New York; the rest, the family, parents,
and children, had been swallowed in the sea, their bodies
marking the course of the ship to the New World."
It would seem, then, that those first English regulations, by
which British ships were to pass muster at Liverpool before
sailing, were not very efficient; the figures of mortality
quoted by Mr. Maguire are too eloquent; and it would be a
pleasure to us to be able to say with certainty that the more
stringent and better executed laws afterward enforced did not
proceed from the Commission of Emigration, which originated in
New York with some generous-hearted Irish-Americans.
Our readers will have noticed that, even in 1848, with all the
apparent desire on the part of England to save the remnants of
the Irish nation, the mortality on board British ships was more
than three times that on board American vessels, and nearly four
times greater than that on board German ships. Why this
difference? And why should it be so enormous?
It is possible that to the Legislature of New York State chiefly,
and soon after to the Congress of the United States at
Washington, which enacted stringent laws for the protection of
immigrants at sea, belong the chief honor of saving hundreds of
thousands of Irish lives, and that England, whether urged by the
effects of good example, or for very shame, soon followed in
their wake.
But, whatever the cause may have been, it is a heart-felt
pleasure to record the fact that from 1849, when an act of
Parliament, entitled the "Passengers Act," imposed on ship-
owners and captains of vessels strict conditions for the welfare
of emigrants, government control on this subject became every
year more immediate and severe.
Not only were the vessels, provisions, water, medicine chests,
etc., more carefully examined, but the passengers themselves
were compelled to undergo a careful inspection as to their
health and wardrobe.
And, a thing which had never been done before, the space
allotted to each emigrant on deck and between-decks was
determined and subjected to serious control, so that no
overcrowding of passengers should take place. The penalties,
also, on delinquents became even severe; heavy fines were
imposed, and in some cases transportation to a penal settlement
was decreed against the more offensive outrages on humanity.
If all abuses failed to be corrected by such laws, it is because
the most stringent enactments can, to a greater or less extent,
always be evaded by those desirous of evading them; but there is
every reason to believe that the legislators were honest in
their intent of remedying the glaring evils which previously
obtained, and, to a great extent, their efforts met with success,
as is evidenced by the fact that the mortality on board of
British vessels has shown yearly a remarkable diminution since
that time. According to the "Twenty-fourth General Report," the
mortality was: In 1854, 0.74 per cent., already a very
remarkable diminution on previous averages; in 1860, it was
reduced to 0.15 per cent. This was the percentage for vessels
going to North America only.
The first operation of the missionary people was to plant the
living tree of Catholicism in the United States, and so
powerfully forward its growth, that other spiritual plants of a
noxious kind, and weeds that go by the name of creeds, should
gradually be choked up; finally, let us hope, to disappear.
While speaking on this subject, and laying before the reader the
necessary details, we desire not to be held forgetful of the
efforts made in a like direction by Catholic immigrants of other
nationalities. A word has already been said of the early
influence of the French in the North and of the Spaniards in the
South, in establishing the Church in North America. The German
children of the true Church, though at first not so conspicuous,
have for a long time taken, and are now particularly taking, an
active part in the dissemination of the faith, and there can be
no doubt that, with the daily increase of German immigration,
their large numbers must in course of time make a lasting
impression on the territory where they settle. But the French,
the Spaniards, and the Germans, must forget their language
before they become widely useful in the great work before them;
and thus the Irish form the only English-speaking people on whom
the brunt of the battle must fall. Moreover, we treat only of
the Irish race.
The wonderful history of the spread of Catholicity in North
America by the Irish, in the northern part of the United States
particularly, would call for an array of details which it would
be impossible to furnish here in extenso. An imperfect sketch
must suffice.
First comes the consideration that, when the wave of immigration
touched the continent, it might have been feared that, by its
absorption into a dry and parched soil, the aggregate loss would
have reduced to a mere nothing the ultimate gain. There were no
churches for the new worshippers, no priests to administer to
them the sacraments of Christ, no Catholic school-teachers to
train their children. That is to say, these means of
preservation and of propagation were so few and so far between,
that many of the newly-arrived immigrants were forced to
establish themselves in places where they could find none of
those, to them, priceless advantages.
The spiritual dearth was not indeed so great as that previously
described. The zeal of bishops and priests, and teachers from
regular orders, had been so active in its labors, that, aided by
the liberty which the institutions of the country afforded,
results, astonishing indeed, had already rewarded their efforts.
But, after all, what were these compared with the demands so
suddenly laid upon them by such a rapid increase of numbers? It
might be said with truth of multitudes of immigrants, that the
position in which they then found themselves was very little
different from that of their predecessors at the beginning of
the century.
As late as 1834, Archbishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, wrote:
"There are places in which there are Catholics of twenty years
of age, who have not yet had an opportunity of performing one
single public act of their religion. How many fall sick and die
without the sacraments! How many children are brought up in
ignorance and vice! How many persons marry out of the Church,
and thus weaken the bonds that held them to it!"-- (Annals of
the Propagation of Faith, Vol. viii.)
To the same annals, three years later, Dr. England, of
Charleston, sent the long letter in which he detailed the
innumerable losses sustained by the Church in America in
consequence of the want of spiritual assistance. The letter was,
in fact, a cry of anguish wrung from him by the sight he
witnessed.
Such was the universal feeling among those who could rightly
appreciate the fatal consequences of the rush of Catholics to
the New World without any provision prepared for their reception.
And yet all these laments and apprehensions preceded the vast
inpouring of immigrants subsequent to the year 1846. What must
have been the consequent losses then? Yet, looking now, in 1872,
at the present state of the Church in the Union, who can say
that this inpouring and rush, unprepared as the country was for
its reception, was not one of the greatest means devised by
Providence, not only for establishing the Catholic Church in
this country for all time, but likewise as a preparation for
further developments, not only on this continent, but on the
part of many a nation now sitting in "the shadow of death!"
Deplorable, indeed, were the losses, but permanent and wonderful
the gain.
The first effect of the great calamity which occurred along the
St. Lawrence and its tributaries, in 1847, was to reduce the
immigration to Canada to insignificant numbers, and,
proportionately increase that to the United States in a
quadruple ratio. Massachusetts and Connecticut, in New England,
and the great States of New York and Pennsylvania, were now the
chief places of resort for the new-comers; and from New York,
principally, they began to pour, in a long, steady stream, away
by the Erie Canal, westward to the great lakes.
All along these lines, congregations were, providentially,
already formed; and, in the passage of the stream, they were
immediately, as by magic, increased in some instances, to a
tenfold proportion. The labors of the clergy were
correspondingly multiplied, and efforts were immediately made to
obtain new recruits for its ranks. Then appeared a very strange
fact, which, at the time, was remarked upon by everybody, but
has never been satisfactorily explained. Wherever the number of
worshippers in a church induced the chief pastors to have
another constructed in the neighborhood, upon the completion of
the new edifice, the old one seemed to suffer no diminution in
attendance, and the congregation attending the new one gave no
evidence of having hitherto been uncared for. This very
remarkable fact was of such frequent occurrence that it could
not be a delusion, or an exceptional case having its origin in
some extraordinary cause; it was evidently a providential
dispensation, akin, in a spiritual sense, to the miraculous
multiplication of loaves, twice mentioned in the Gospel.
There have certainly been numerous examples of this, in the city
of New York particularly, for more than twenty years; and
probably the same thing is occurring at the time of the present
writing.
Then, another fact occurred, deplored by many, chiefly by Mr.
Maguire, in the interesting work already quoted from, yet,
evidently of a providential character also, and consequently
eminently fruitful, and, it may be said, adorable in its depth.
The Catholic immigrants, although in their own country
agriculturists for the most part, forgot the tilling of the soil
as soon as they reached their new home, and settled down in
great numbers in all the large cities, on the line they pursued
toward the West. Many special evils resulted from this, detailed
at length by those whose wonder it excited, and who strove, for
excellent motives, to thwart this providential movement. But the
immense good which immediately followed from it, and which,
within a short time, was to be greatly increased, was never
mentioned in reply to the reasons advanced by these well-meaning
complainants. The first result of it was the sudden and
necessary creation of many new episcopal sees in all large
cities, where churches were being rapidly built, or had already
been erected in astonishing numbers.
Suppose the Catholics had, following the old bent, turned
themselves chiefly to the tillage of the soil, and buried
themselves away in scattered country villages and farms, how
long would the creation of those new sees have been delayed? Who
is ignorant of the effect of a new see on the propagation of
Catholicity? Cities which otherwise would have numbered among
their population only a few hundred Catholics, scarcely
sufficient for the filling of one small edifice, saw at once one-
third, one-half, or even the larger portion of their population
clamoring for a Catholic bishop, and all the institutions a
bishopric brings in its train. It is unnecessary to furnish
examples of this; they are around us.
Yet one difficulty seems to cast some doubt on this view of the
subject, and strengthen the opposition of those who ardently
advocated the country as the true home for Irish Catholics; and,
as the point involves a universal interest, it is better to
discuss it at once in its chief bearings.
At the time when those wonderful events were being enacted, any
one opening a copy of those general State Directories, with
which New England is particularly blessed, wherein not only the
great commercial and industrial enterprises of each State are
enrolled, but also correct lists of the educational
establishments and various churches of all cities, towns, and
villages, are given --a cursory glance, even, would show him the
striking fact that, as far as the great centres of population
were concerned, Catholic churches, educational establishments,
and primary schools were found in respectable numbers; but many
a page had to be turned when the reader came to places of lesser
importance, to rural populations chiefly, before he met with any
indication of the Catholic Church entering yet upon that large
country domain. This experience was encountered by the writer at
the time, and caused him a moment of doubt.
But beyond the reflection that, in matters of this kind (of the
propagation of a doctrine or a creed), the first thing to be
looked to is the centre, and that this, once mastered, will in
course of time draw under its influence the outer circles; that
all things cannot be effected at once, and the best thing to be
done is to begin with the most important; that, moreover, those
statistics are often incorrect with respect to Catholic matters,
whether from malicious design, or inadvertence, or want of
knowledge, on subjects to which the compilers attached very
little importance, so that, if their statements be compared with
Catholic official intelligence with regard to the same places,
it will be found that many towns and villages which, according
to the State Directories would seem to have been altogether
forgotten by the Church, were actually in her possession, at
least by periodical or occasional visits; apart from all these
considerations, there is one more important remark to be made,
which includes in its bearing not only the present point of
consideration, but, it may be said, the whole life of the Church
from the beginning; so that it is really a law of her birth,
existence, and propagation.
To illustrate our meaning, let us see how the Christian religion
first forced its way in heathen lands, throughout the whole
Roman Empire, whether in its Oriental division where Greek was
spoken, or among its Western, Latin-speaking populations.
All the apostles fixed their sees in the largest or most
important cities of the ancient world; St. Peter, under the
special guidance of God, taking possession of the capital and
mistress of the whole. All the bishops ordained by the first
apostles did the same by their direction; and it is needless to
add that the like law has been followed down to our own times
whenever the Church has had to spread herself in a new country.
In accordance with this plan, the cities of the Roman world were
the first to be evangelized, and their populations were
converted with greater or less difficulty, according to the
dispositions of the inhabitants, before almost an effort had
been made for the conversion of the rural populations, except as
they happened to come in the way of the "laborers in the
vineyard." Hence the result, so well known: heathenism remained
rooted in the country for a much longer time than in the cities,
so that the heathen were generally called pagans--pagani--as if
it were enough, when desiring to convey the intimation that a
man was a worshipper of idols, to designate him as a dweller in
the country. 1 (1 Another meaning is given to the word paganus
by some writers; but the old and common interpretation is the
surest, and is confirmed by the best authorities.) And if the
word "pagans" became synonymous with heathens in all European
countries, it is a proof that the fact underlying the name was
universal wherever Christianity spread. It is known, moreover,
that the dissemination of the Gospel in those rural districts
was a work of centuries, and that, for nearly a thousand years
after Christ, pagans were to be found in villages of countries
already Christian.
The fundamental reason which governs and regulates these strange
facts is that already given, namely, that Christianity-- that is,
Catholicity--is a growth, and follows the laws of every thing
that grows. True, its first increase is from without, by the
conversion of infidels or erring men; but even in that first
stage of its existence, its growth is the faster where the
numbers are greater; hence its establishment invariably in large
cities. But when it has passed beyond this first stage, it
increases from within, like all growths, and the work is
accomplished by the increase of families agglomerated in the
same large towns.
How true is it that the Church, once firmly planted in the midst
of one of those agglomerations of men called cities, is sure in
the end to invade the whole as "the yeast that leavens the whole!
"How easy is it to see that in the course of time those cities
of the Union, among which a large proportion of Catholics is
found, will belong almost exclusively to the true Church, if for
no other reason by the births in families, even supposing that
the flow of immigration should finally cease! If any one
entertains some doubt on this point, he has only to consult the
records containing the number of children baptized in her bosom,
and compare it with the corresponding number in families still
outside her.
Hence the really astonishing fact, whose truth is recognized to-
day in all the Northern States along the Atlantic coast, that
suddenly almost in the cities of New England, for instance,
where the number of Catholics was simply insignificant, they
took an apparently unaccountable prominence, and in the course
of a few years, increasing steadily by birth as well as by
immigration, the fact became the most curious though evident of
the times, completely changing the moral and social aspect of
the country, and foretelling still greater changes to come. For,
in the face of this wonderful increase to the ranks of
Catholicity, appears another significant fact, but very
different as to direction and energy-- the gradual disappearance
of names once prominent in those parts, and the daily narrowing
area of Protestantism in the numerous sects of which it is
composed.
At the same time a great danger was averted (or at least
wonderfully lessened and modified), from the whole country, by
the settlement of those immigrants in the large centres of
population. The manufacturing enterprises, which at that time
assumed such vast developments in North America, received among
their workers, men and women, a large proportion of Catholics,
and the fear of future political and social peril to the peace
and security of society at large could never, on this continent,
reach the extreme point witnessed in Europe to-day. The great
danger of the European future nestles principally in those vast
hives of industry with which that continent abounds. Our eyes
have witnessed, our ears have been affrighted at those
stupendous plans and projects in which, not only the great
questions of capital and labor are involved, but the whole
fabric of society is threatened with downfall. Religion,
government, property, the family, the state--all those great
principles and facts on which the security of mankind depends,
enter now into the programme of artisans and laborers enlisted
in gigantic and many-ramified secret societies, while the whole
world trembles at the awful aspect of this unwelcome phantom,
that no government, however powerful, can lay.
Suppose that on this continent the numerous bands of workingmen,
so actively engaged everywhere in developing the resources of
the country, should aim at extending their solicitude beyond
their immediate and material welfare to the reformation and
reorganization of mankind on a new basis; and suppose that, with
this aim in view, they should combine with those of Europe, and
enter into an unholy compact with them, what hope or refuge
would remain in the whole world for harmony, peace, justice, and
happiness? And when the great upheaval, so generally expected in
Europe, and which sooner or later must take place, shall come to
pass, where could those men fly, who cannot but look upon those
satanic schemes with horror? Where on this earth would be found
a spot consecrated to the acknowledgment of the only social
principles which can secure the real good of mankind, by
rendering safe the stability of society?
It is our firm belief that the vast number of true children of
the Church, occupied honestly and actively in the many factories
of the North, will, when the contest commences, even before it
commences, when the question of connecting the "unions" of this
country in a band of brotherhood with those of Europe shall be
gravely mooted, make their voices loudly and unmistakably heard
on the right side.
Enough has now been said on the locality chosen by preference as
the dwelling- place of the Irish immigrants at the period under
consideration. Let us now see those armies of new-comers at work.
They have been called a missionary people; let us see how they
understand their "mission."
In this new country every thing had to be done for the
establishment of religion, education, help for the poor, the
aged, the infirm, on a lasting and sufficiently broad basis. And,
strange to remark, it was found that the previous persecutions
they had undergone fitted them admirably for their work, not
only by giving them a strong faith, the true foundation of
Christian energy, but in a manner more curious, if not more
effective. It fitted them to give money freely and abundantly,
poor as they were! One may smile incredulously at the conceit;
but it has become a most powerful and incontestable fact.
Suppose the Irish never to have been persecuted in their own
country: suppose that they had found there a benevolent
government to supply them with churches, schools, hospitals--
homes for the poor--every thing that they, as Catholics, could
desire. Suppose them to have been in a similar position with the
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians, of those days, how bitterly
would they have felt the inconvenience of building all these
things up for themselves in their new homes with the labor of
their own hands, by their own individual efforts, unaided by the
government! Their ardor would have been damped, their energy
cramped, their inclination to give would have fallen far below
the necessities of the time: for money was sorely needed--no
niggard offerings, but immense sums.
But happily--happily in the result, not in the fact--not only
had the British Government never done any thing of the kind for
them in their old home; not only, on the contrary, had it been
particularly careful to rob them of all the buildings and
estates left by their ancestors for those great objects; but,
until very recently, the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1829,
it had studiously and most persistently hindered them from
doing voluntarily for themselves what it refused to do for them.
There were numerous penal statutes enacted, in the course of two
centuries, to prevent them from building churches, opening
schools, erecting asylums and hospitals of their own, nay, from
possessing consecrated graveyards for their dead. Thus did
fanatic hatred pursue them even to the grave, and, as far as it
could, beyond the gates of death. Every one had to surrender the
mortal remains of his relatives to the Protestant minister for
burial; as though what the government called its religion would
snatch from them whatever it could lay hands on--the body at
least since the soul had escaped and passed beyond its reach.
But in their new country they found every thing altered. Not
only was prohibition of this kind utterly unknown, but there
existed there the greatest amount of liberty ever enjoyed by man
for acting in concert with a religious, educational, or
charitable object in view. No law devised by the old Greek
republics, by the Roman fisc, by modern European intermeddling
was ever attempted in the country which with justice boasted of
being the "asylum of the oppressed." Thus as the liberty so long
denied to the Irish was at last opened up, as no barrier existed
to cramp and confine the natural generosity of their hearts, no
sooner did they find that they might contribute as they chose to
those great and holy objects, than they rushed at the chances
offered them with what looked like recklessness.
We hope that the reader may understand, from this, our meaning
in saying that persecution had admirably fitted them for the
mighty work that lay before them. It was the first time for
centuries that they were allowed to give for such sacred
purposes.
Another thing which disposed than toward it was, the lingering
fondness for the old customs of clanship, still harbored in
their inmost soul, never entirely dead and ready to revive
whenever an opportunity presented itself. There can be no doubt
of this; the great adjuration of the clansman to his chieftain--
"Spend me, but defend me"--tended wonderfully to consecrate in
their eyes the act of giving and giving constantly, as though
their purse could never be exhausted. The chieftain has been
replaced by the bishop, the priest, the educator; the nobility
has gone, but these have come; and unconsciously perhaps, but
none the less really, does this feeling lie at the bottom of
their hearts, which are ever ready to burst out with the old
expression, though in other form: "Spend me, eat me out, but
help my soul, and save my children."
This feeling has always run in the blood of the race. St. Paul
long ago detected it in the Galatians, a branch of the Celtic
tribes, when he wrote to them: "You received me as an angel of
God, even as Christ Jesus. . . . I bear you witness that, if it
could be done, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and
given them to me."--Epistle to the Galatians, iv. 15.
Few, perhaps, have reflected seriously on the large sums
required for the establishment of the Catholic Church in so vast
a country, with all her adjunct institutions; therefore the
stupendous result has scarcely struck those who have witnessed
and lived in the midst of it. The same is the case, though on a
much smaller scale, with respect to the money sent back to
Ireland by newly-arrived immigrants. People were aware that the
Irish, women as well as men, were in the habit of forwarding
drafts of one, two, or three pounds to their relatives and
friends, but in such small amounts that the whole could not
reach a very high figure. But when it came to be discovered that
many banking associations were drawing large dividends from the
operation, that new banks were continually being opened which
looked to the profit to be derived from such transmission as
their chief means of support, some curious people set to work
collecting information on the subject and instituting inquiries,
when it was found that the aggregate sum amounted to millions,
and would have become a serious item in the specie exports of
the country, if what was transmitted did not in the main come
back with those to whom it had been forwarded.
So was it, but in much larger proportions with respect to the
amounts annually spent in the purchase of real estate, the
building of churches, schools, asylums, hospitals, for the
support of clergymen, school-teachers, clerks, officials,
servants, which were called for all at once, over the surface of
an extensive territory, for the service of hundreds of thousands
of Catholics arriving yearly with the intention of settling
permanently in the country. Could the full statistics be
furnished, they would excite the surprise of all; the few
details which we would be enabled to gather from directories,
newspapers, the reports of witnesses, and other sources, could
give but a faint idea of the whole, and are consequently better
omitted.
One single observation will produce a more lasting impression on
the reader's mind than long statistics, and the enumeration of
buildings and other undertakings. It is a fact, without the
least tinge of exaggeration, that in the States of Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and several other Western
States, nearly every clergyman, who had the care of a single
parish before 1840, if alive to-day, could show in his former
district from ten to twenty parishes, each with its own pastor
and church, now flourishing, and attached to each a much larger
number of useful educational and charitable establishments than
he could have boasted of in his original charge. Let one reflect
on this, and then imagine to himself the sums requisite to
purchase such an amount of real estate, for the erection of so
many edifices, and for placing on an efficient footing so many
different establishments.
It is true that, to-day, a number of these institutions are
still in debt; but, if the list of what is actually paid for be
made out, and separated from what still remains indebted, the
result would stand as a most wonderful fact.
The question will naturally present itself, "How was it possible
for newly- arrived immigrants, who often landed without a penny
in their pockets, to become all at once so easy in their
circumstances as to be enabled to contribute, so generously and
enormously, to so gigantic an enterprise?" The details in reply
to this might be given very simply and satisfactorily; but, as
it is a real work of God, who always acts simply and
satisfactorily, though in a manner worthy of the deepest
attention and gratitude, it is proper to examine the question in
all its bearings, and then even those who have seen, and can
account for it very easily, will wonder, admire, and thank, the
infinite Providence of God.
First, it is certain that nowhere else in this world could it
have been accomplished at all; and nowhere else in this world
has any thing like it been accomplished in a like manner. This
may appear strange, but it is so; let us see.
All know how, in infidel countries, every thing necessary for
the material help of Catholic missions must be supplied by the
missionaries themselves; that, in fact, they have not only their
own support to consider, but, often also, the feeding, clothing,
and education of the natives at their own expense. It is thus in
all the barbarous countries of Asia, Africa, and the new
continent and islands in the South Sea. It is thus in the old,
effete, but once civilized countries of Asia, such as Syria,
Hindostan, China, and others. In all those countries, money must
come from without, not only to begin, but to continue, the work
of evangelization, even when it has been going on for centuries.
Details on this subject are unnecessary, the truth of what has
just been said is so well known.
In Christian countries, as in Europe, the various governments
have so far contributed to the aid of the mission of
Christianity, or have been gracious enough to allow such of the
wealthy classes as were willing to take this task off their
shoulders and set it up on their own, the lower classes being
scarcely able to help toward it. What the case will be when the
halcyon days come of the separation of Church and state, and the
latter succeeds in the object at which it seems so earnestly
striving now, of making the people godless like itself, when the
rich will no longer be willing to undertake this work, God only
knows. But in those countries, as is well known, the government,
formerly, and latterly up to quite recent times, or rich
families by large contributions laid down at once, have built
churches, founded universities, colleges, and schools, erected
hospitals and asylums; founded-- such was the expression--all
the religious, charitable, or literary institutions in existence.
The "people" have scarcely effected any thing in this direction,
for the very good reason that they were unable to do so.
In the United States alone, and among Catholics alone, it is
"the people," the poor, who have taken and been able to take
this matter into their own hands.
That they--the Irish particularly--have done this, redounds to
their honor, and it will receive its reward from God; nay, has
already in a great measure received it, by filling the land with
the temples of their faith, with schools where their children
are still taught to believe in God and grow up a moral race, and
with the various Catholic asylums and institutions established
for the glory of religion, or the comfort of those who are
comfortless. That they have been able to do this is owing to the
unique, exceptional, marvellous prosperity of the country which
offered them an asylum. And let us add with reverence that the
country owes this singular prosperity, which has been the source
of so many blessings, to the designs of a loving Providence, who
looks to the welfare of the whole of mankind, and has therefore
endowed this young and gigantic nation with the necessary
qualities of energy, activity, "go-aheaditiveness," as it is
called, added to the fixed principle that every individual
throughout these vast domains shall enjoy liberty, facility of
acquiring a competency, and the right to make what use of it he
pleases, as well as generosity enough to applaud the one who
devotes his surplus earnings to useful public undertakings.
In no other country of the world has this been the case, and in
no other country is it the case at the present moment. And, as
the fact is mighty in its results, unprepared by man, unlooked
for a hundred years ago, requiring for its fulfilment a thousand
agencies far beyond the control of any man or inferior mind,
following the line of reasoning previously indicated, we ascribe,
are constrained to ascribe, it all to the great infinite Mind,
to God himself, and to him alone!
And now we turn to the workings of the Irish, and to a
consideration of a few of the details. The first crying need was
churches and orphan asylums: churches for the all-important
worship of God; orphan asylums to receive the numbers of
children left homeless by the death of immigrants soon after
their arrival, and who were immediately snatched up by the
proselytizing sects.
The style of architecture displayed in those first temples of
the great God was homely indeed and humble. Nevertheless, it
might favorably compare with similar buildings erected by
wealthy Protestant congregations. This fact alone is sufficient
to convict Protestantism of want of faith, namely, that its
adherents have never been struck by the thought that the majesty
of God, if really felt, calls for a profusion of gifts on the
part of those who have superabundant means. Not that man can by
his feeble exertions in that regard give adequate honor to the
divine Omnipotence, but that love and gratitude are naturally
profuse in their demonstrations, and whoever loves ardently is
ever ready to give all he has for the object of his love, even
to the sacrifice of himself. The reflection that God is too
great, and that it is useless, even presumptuous, to offer to
him what must seem so infinitely mean in the light of his
greatness, is but the flimsy pretext of an avaricious soul, and
can be nothing but a lie, even in the eyes of those who utter it.
From the beginning all truly religious nations have endeavored
to make their external worship correspond with their internal
feeling, and give expression, as far as man can do, to their
idea of the worth and majesty of God; and that thought is a true
measure of a religion; for, when the external is but a cold and
sordid worship, we may be sure that the internal corresponds;
and, when little or nothing is done in that way, it is clear
that the heart feels not, and the mind is empty of true
convictions and of faith.
And what has been the invariable conduct of Protestant nations
in this regard? They became possessed of splendid churches built
by their Catholic ancestors, and, after stripping them of all
their beauty, they retained them as "preaching-halls" or
"meeting- houses." The number of those who remained attached to
a frigid and unattractive service gradually diminished; the
edifices were found to be too large, and in many instances what
had been the sanctuary, where art had exhausted itself in
embellishment, partitioned off from the rest of the church, was
kept for their dwindling congregations, while the vast aisles
and roomy naves went slowly to ruin, or became deserted
solitudes. As for the idea of building new religious edifices,
the old ones were already too numerous for them, or if, as was
not unfrequent, a new sect started into spasmodic life, and its
votaries found it necessary to open a new "place of worship,"
the temple they erected to God generally took the form of a
hired hall. Let the floor be carpeted and the benches covered
with soft, slumber-inviting cushions, the room wear a general
air and aspect of comfort, the "acoustics" duly considered, so
that the voice of the preacher might reach to the door and half-
way to the galleries, and nothing more was required. The man who
asked for something more solemn, and answering better to the
cravings of a religious heart, would be laughed at as a
visionary, if his person did not distil, to the keen-scented
organs of these religious folk, a strong flavor of "popery " and
of "the man of sin."
So that in the United States at the time spoken of, although the
number of churches was extraordinary, because of the number of
sects, they were mere shells of buildings, capable of
accommodating from three to eight hundred people (very few of
the latter capacity); and, although many of the members of the
congregations who built them were rich men, adding to their
wealth daily, one seldom encountered any of the structures, then
common, showing much more than four walls, enclosing four lines
of clumsy pews.
Consequently, the Catholic Church had no reason to blush by
comparison at the poverty of her children; nay, the extreme
simplicity of the edifices raised by them was in keeping with
every thing around, and what they did in the hurry of the moment,
with the scanty means at their disposal, at least might vie
with what wealthy Protestants had done deliberately with all the
leisure and wealth at their command.
Already, even at that epoch, in the centre of Catholicity in
this country, the love of the true worshipper of God began to
display something of that feeling which is naturally alive in
the heart of the sincerely religious man; and the Cathedral of
Baltimore, long since left so far behind by other monuments of
true devotion, created throughout the country a genuine
excitement and admiration, when its doors were first opened for
the worship of God. It was clear, from the universal acclaim of
the people, non-Catholics included, that at least one class of
men in the country had a true idea of what was worthy of God in
his worship, and what was worthy of themselves in their worship
of him.
But, though, with some rare exceptions, the architecture
displayed in those edifices constructed by the children of the
true Church was poor indeed, the number of those which were
commenced and so speedily completed and devoted to their holy
use was so extraordinary, that it is doubtful if the annals of
Catholicity have ever recorded the same thing occurring on the
same scale, in the same extent of country. If the ecclesiastical
history of the United States ever comes to be written, it is to
be hoped that, in the archives of the various episcopal sees,
authentic documents have been preserved, which may furnish
future writers with comprehensive statistics on the subject,
that the posterity of the noble-hearted men and women who
undertook and carried out, with such a wonderful success, so
arduous a task, may be stimulated to religious exertion of the
same kind by the memory of what their forefathers have
accomplished. The reflection already suggested by another idea
may serve here likewise, and be usefully repeated. If, in the
course of twenty-five years, over the surface of at least ten of
the largest Northern States, every clergyman who, at the
beginning of that period, officiated in a very small church, is,
to-day, supposing him living, gladdened by the sight of ten to
twenty collaborators, with a corresponding number of newly-built
churches, it is easy to judge of the vastness of the effort made
by the greatness of the undertaking and the unexampled success
with which God has been pleased to crown it. The other States of
the Union are omitted here, not because the Catholics residing
in them were then idle, but because, their growth being less
remarkable, the external result could not be so striking.
Nevertheless, the actual increase among them would compare
favorably with that of other growing Catholic countries.
Could details, at this present time, only be gathered from all
the States, in the area referred to, the vast diffusion of
Catholicity by the influence of immigration would come home to
us with far greater force, as would the conception of the
corresponding work demanded of the immigrants for the creation
of all the objects of worship, charity, and education. Let the
reader look to what is related in the "Life of Bishop Loras,"
who was at that time charged with the founding of religion in
Iowa and Minnesota. It will at the same time bring under our
notice the march of the Irish toward the West, after having seen
them solidly established in the Atlantic States.
"He was consecrated at Mobile by Bishop Portier, assisted by
Bishop Blanc, of New Orleans, on December 10, 1837. His diocese
was a vast region unknown to him. The unfinished Church of St.
Raphael, at Dubuque, was the only Catholic church in the
Territory, and the Rev. Sam. Mazzuchelli, its pastor, was the
only Catholic priest. The Catholic population of Dubuque was
about three hundred. . . . But there must be, thought the new
bishop, some members of the flock in distant, isolated, and
unfrequented localities, who were in danger of wandering from
the faith; besides, the future waves of population would
certainly set in toward this fine expanse of meadow, prairie,
and forest. . . . With prudent foresight he purchased land . .
. . three acres at Dubuque; later, St. Joseph's Prairie, one mile
square, near the same city. . . . A valuable property was
acquired in Davenport, on the Mississippi, with the view of
applying the revenue from it to the support of the missions.
"To his regret he saw large numbers of the European immigrants
tarrying in the Atlantic cities, where want, sickness, and crime,
beset their path, and he became deeply interested in giving to
this worth population the more healthful and vigorous direction
of the West. . . . Articles were prepared and published, setting
forth the attractions of the country. . . . An immense
correspondence, with persons in this country and in Europe,
resulted from the well-known interest Bishop Loras took in these
subjects. . . . He undertook the settlement of colonies. . . .
Germans in New Vienna, in 1846 . . . Irish on the Big-Maquokety.
. . . He organized them in congregations and commenced in person
the work of building for them churches. . . . establishing
schools and academies, laboring for the temporal and eternal
welfare of the people."
Thus did the tide of Catholic population begin to flow into Iowa
and Minnesota, to be brought under the influence of the Church
as soon as it arrived.
Meanwhile associations were being formed in the East, in New
York chiefly, for the purpose of inducing Irishmen to go west as
far as Illinois, and the Territories west of the Mississippi.
Several zealous clergymen placed themselves at the head of the
movement. Their main object was to rescue the Catholic
immigrants from the dangers surrounding them in large cities,
and to make farmers of them. We have seen why these plans,
though prompted by the best intentions, failed to succeed; their
immediate effect was to give a fresh impetus to the great
movement westward, and, by relieving the Atlantic coast of a
sudden excess of population, to extend the Church along the line
marked out by Providence toward the coast of the Pacific.
At the same time, on the very shores of that vast ocean,
California was receiving directly from Europe large detachments
of the voluntary exiles who were then leaving Ireland in a
compact body in the full tide of the "Exodus." The Catholic
Church was thus early taking up a commanding position at the
extreme point whither the main "army" was tending, and soon to
arrive with the completion of the great Pacific Railroad.
The following extract, taken from the "Life of Bishop Loras,"
will be sufficient to give an idea of the rapid increase of the
Catholic population in the West, in consequence of the workings
of so many agencies employed by God's providence for his own
holy ends:
"In 1855, the Catholic population of Iowa increased one hundred
and fifty per centum in a single year. It seems almost
incredible to relate, that the churches and stations, provided
for their accommodation, increased in the same time nearly one
hundred per centum. The Catholic population reported in 1855 was
twenty thousand, and the churches and stations fifty-two; the
Catholic population in 1856 was rated at forty-nine thousand,
and the churches and stations at ninety-seven.
"Bishop Loras commenced his episcopate (in 1837) with one church,
one priest, and the only Catholic population reported, that of
Dubuque, was three hundred. In 1851, Minnesota was taken from
his diocese, yet in 1858, the year of his death, the diocese of
Dubuque alone possessed one hundred and seven priests, one
hundred and two churches and stations, and a Catholic population
of fifty-five thousand."
There can be little doubt that, if similar statistics were drawn
up for all the Western States of the Union during a
corresponding period, they would give very similar results; and
it is only by reflecting and pondering over such astonishing
facts as these, that the mind can come to grasp the idea of the
magnitude of the work assigned by Providence to the Irish race.
This, we have no hesitation in saying, will form one of the most
remarkable features of the future ecclesiastical history of the
age, and will appear the more clearly when all the consequences
of this stupendous movement shall stand out fully developed, so
as to strike the eyes of all.
It may be well to reflect a moment upon the activity displayed
by that zealous hive of busy immigrants, who, soon after landing,
when the thoughts of other men would have been exclusively and,
as men would think, naturally, occupied by the thousand
necessities arising from a new establishment on a foreign soil--
while not neglecting those necessities--found time to enter
heart and soul into projects set on foot everywhere for buying
up landed property, making contracts with builders, supervising
the work already going on, attending above all to the collection
of money, forming lists of subscribers to that end, visiting
round about for the same purpose, and attending to the
fulfilment of promises sometimes made too hastily, or with too
sanguine an expectation of being able to accomplish what in the
future was never realized to the extent expected.
But, much sooner than might have been hoped, the desire, so
congenial to the Catholic heart, of beholding more suitable
dwellings erected to the honor of God and to the reception of
his Divine presence, was fulfilled, or aroused, rather, in a
quarter least expected, and consequently more in accordance with
the (to man) mysterious ways of Providence. The sudden increase
of the Church in England, in consequence of remarkable
conversions and principally of the little-remarked flow of
emigrants thither from the sister isle, induced some pious and
wealthy English Catholics, now that they found themselves free
to follow their inclinations unmolested, to devote their means
to the construction of churches worthy of the name. The splendid
structures, now the lifeless monuments of the old faith, which
their fathers had raised, rested in the hands of the spoiler,
and they could not worship, save privately and inwardly, at the
shrine of Thomas of Canterbury, or before the tomb of Edward the
Confessor. Yet were their eyes ever afflicted with the presence
of those noble edifices, that resembled the solemn tombs of a
buried faith, yet still cast their lofty spires heavenward,
while the structure beneath them covered acres of ground with
the most profuse and elaborate architecture. They looked around
them for a builder, who might raise them such again. But there
was none to be found capable of conceiving, much less building
such vast fabrics as the old churches, which owed their
existence not to the ingenuity of a designer, but to the
inspired enthusiasm of a living faith. Nevertheless, a man, full
of energy and reverence and love for the beauty of the house of
God, came forward at the very moment he was wanted. Welby Pugin
soon became known to the world, and was still in the full vigor
of his enterprising life, when all over the American Continent
the immigrants were engaged in satisfying the first cravings of
their hearts, and covering the country with unpretending
edifices crowned, at least, by the symbol of salvation. Among
them arrived pupils of Pugin, who speedily found Irish hearts to
respond to theirs, and Irish purses ready to carry their designs
into execution.
There is no need of going into details. Puritan New England even
has seen its chief cities one by one adorned with true temples
of God, and its small towns embellished by stone edifices
devoted to Catholic worship, their form pleasing to the eye, and
their interior spacious enough, at least temporarily, for the
constantly-increasing congregations. But perhaps the most
remarkable result of all has been the sudden zeal which sprang
up among the sectarians themselves, who had hitherto expressed
such contempt for any thing of the kind, of outstripping the
Catholics in Christian architecture. They have even gone so far
as to discover that the cross, the emblem of man's salvation, is
not such a very inappropriate ornament, after all, to the summit
of a Christian temple, and that the statues of angels and of
saints are possessed of a certain beauty. So that what in their
eyes hitherto had borne the semblance of idolatry--such,
according to themselves, was their way of looking at it--
suddenly became an aesthetic feeling, if not an act of true
devotion.
And, singularly enough, it was just at the time when the
erection of so many episcopal sees necessitated the building of
cathedrals, that the thought, natural to the Catholic heart, of
making the house of God a place of beauty and magnificence,
could begin to be realized by the arrival of true artists and
the increasing wealth of the Catholic body.
It is in the true Church only that the meaning of a cathedral
can be fully grasped. Those sects which acknowledge no bishops
and deride the title certainly can form no conception of it, and
even those who imagine that they have a bishop at their head,
have so little idea of what are true episcopal functions, of the
greatness of the position which a see occupies, of the
importance of the place where it is established, that in their
eyes the pretended dignitary can scarcely rank much higher,
either in position or degree, than a wealthy parish minister,
and the church wherein "his lordship" officiates is very much
the same as an ordinary parish church. If in England a show of
dignitaries is attached to each of those establishments, it is
merely a form well calculated to impress the solemn Anglo-Saxon
character; but even that very form would scarcely have existed
were it not one of those few semblances of the Catholic reality
which the wily founders of the Protestant religion found it
convenient to retain for the purpose hinted at. The Catholic
Church alone can understand what a cathedral ought to be.
This is not the occasion to enter upon an explanation of all the
meanings and uses of a cathedral, least of all to penetrate the
sublime mystical significance embodied in its conception. Here
it is enough to insist upon the least important, yet most
sensible and more easily-recognized object of the building,
which is, not simply the seat of honor of the first pastor of
the diocese, who is a successor of the apostles, but likewise
the place of adoration and sacrifice common to all the faithful
of the diocese. Strictly speaking, no special congregation is
attached to it; but it is the spiritual home of all the faithful;
its doors are open to all the congregations of that part. There
the common father resides and officiates; there his voice is
generally to be heard; there he is to be found surrounded by all
those whose duty it is to assist him in his sublime functions.
When he appears in any parish church, the clergy of that special
temple are his only attendants, unless others flock thither to
do him honor. But the cathedral is his fixed seat and permanent
abode; there the appointed dignitaries of the diocese find their
allotted places, and there alone are his officers permanently
attached to him by their functions.
Hence it is the cardinal church upon which the whole spiritual
edifice called the diocese is hinged. Therefore is it the
natural resort of the whole flock, as well as of the pastor
himself. This will explain the vastness of those edifices which
strike us with wonder in old established Catholic countries. In
accordance with their primitive intention and purpose, there
should be in them standing and kneeling room for all who have a
right to enter there; and it is purely on account of the
impossibility of exactly fulfilling this intent that the edifice
is allowed to be built smaller. We are thus enabled to
understand why the great temple which is the centre-spot of
Catholic worship can contain only fifty thousand worshippers at
a time, and why many other sacred edifices consecrated to
episcopal functions can find room for no more than twenty or
thirty thousand.
But even those structures, which strike with wonder the puny
minds of this "advanced" age, have consumed centuries in their
construction, and the number and the faith of those who raised
them were, we may say, exceptional in the life of the Church.
There were no dissenters in those days; and, as all were
possessed of a firm faith, all labored with a common will and
contributed with a common pleasure to their construction.
Times having changed for the worse, the same ardor and
generosity could not be looked for; but something at least was
required which should give some idea of the old, splendor and
vastness. So, throughout all the new dioceses projects were set
on foot for raising real cathedrals, which should quite
overshadow the buildings hitherto known by that name.
Thus, a cathedral was promised to New York City, three hundred
and thirty feet in length, and one hundred and seventy-two in
breadth across the transept; while that of Philadelphia was soon
completed, and all might gaze on the massive and majestic
edifice, by the side of which every other public building in a
city containing eight hundred thousand souls appeared dwarfish
and unsubstantial. Boston was soon to behold within its walls a
Catholic cathedral, three hundred and sixty-four feet long, and
one hundred and forty broad in the transept, though the same
diocese was already filled with large stone churches, built
solely by the resources of the immigrants.
The Archbishop of New York, when preaching the sermon at the
laying of the foundation-stone of this edifice in 1867, was able
to say in the presence of many who might have borne personal
testimony to the truth of his words: "There are those most
probably within the sound of my voice who can remember when
there was but one Catholic church in Boston, and when that
sufficed, or had to suffice, not alone for this city, but for
all New England; and how is it now? Churches and institutions
multiplied, and daily continuing to multiply on every side, in
this city, throughout this State, in all or nearly all the
cities and States of New England; so that at this day no portion
of our country is enriched with them in greater proportionate
number, none where they have grown up to a more flourishing
condition, none where finished with more artistic skill, or
presenting monuments of more architectural taste and beauty."
Had any one predicted this to the good and gifted Bishop
Cheverus, when leaving America for France, he might perhaps have
not refused altogether to believe or hope for it, but he would
certainly have pronounced it a real and undoubted miracle of God,
to happen within a century.
But the Archbishop of New York, in that same sermon, pointed out
the true cause, when he attributed it to "God's blessing," and
to "the never-ceasing tide of immigration that has been and
still continues to be setting toward the American shores."
The history of the Church certainly contains many a page where
the traces of the finger of God are clearly marked; nay, we may
say that such traces are apparent throughout, as we know that
God alone could have originated, spread out, supported,
multiplied, and perpetuated the Church through all the centuries
of her existence; but it is doubtful if in all her annals a
single page shows where the action of Providence is more clearly
visible, as it was least expected, than in the few facts just
cursorily and briefly enumerated.
Yet have we mentioned only a part of the work to which the poor
immigrants were called to contribute immediately after their
arrival, and at the vastness of which they never murmured nor
lost heart, as though a greater burden had been laid upon them
than human shoulders could endure.
The worship of God and the care of souls were the first things
to be attended to, and, with these, other necessary objects were
not to be neglected. There was the care of the poor, whom the
Church of Christ was the first public body to think of relieving;
the tending of the sick in hospitals, where their own clergy
might not only have access, but where it should be made sure
that the management be one of true Christian charity and
tenderness; the orphan children, always so numerous under
circumstances like those of the present, were to be saved from
falling into the hands of sectarians, and being educated by them,
as were formerly the Catholic wards, in hatred of their own
faith, and of the customs, habits, and modes of thought of their
ancestors. This last great and incalculable source of loss to
the Church was to be put a stop to at once, if not completely--
for that was then impossible--at least as perfectly as zeal,
generosity, and true love of souls, could effect. All these
works required money, an incalculable amount; as it was not in a
single city, not in a small particular State, but throughout the
whole Union, through as many cities as it contains, that the
undertaking was to be straightway set on foot and simultaneously
acted upon.
Nor was the question one of the erection of buildings merely,
but also of the support of an immense number of inmates, and of
their constant support without a single day's intermission. Who
can calculate the sums required for such immediate and most
pressing needs?
In a nation where Christianity has been long established, taxes
imposed upon all for the constructing, repairing, maintaining,
and carrying on so many and such large establishments are easily
collected. For all are bound by law to contribute to such
purposes, and the question generally reduces itself merely to a
continuance of the support of institutions long standing, and
which can be no longer in need of the large disbursements
necessary at the first period of their existence. But here it
was a question of providing, without any other law than that of
love, without the help of any other tax-gatherer than the
voluntary collector, for all those necessities at once,
including the vast outlays requisite for the first establishment
of those institutions, and imposing, by that very act, the
necessity and duty of supporting forever all the inmates
gathered together at the cost of so much care and expense,
within those walls consecrated to religion and charity. The
government had no share whatever in it; too happy were they at
the government interposing no obstacle to its carrying out! That
was all they asked for on its part--non-interference.
On this subject, Mr. Maguire remarks justly, without, however,
bringing the matter of expenditure into sufficient prominence:
"For the glorious Church of America many nations have done their
part. The sacred seed first planted by the hand of the
chivalrous Spaniard has been watered by the blood of the
generous Gaul; to the infant mission the Englishman brought his
steadfastness and resolution, the Scotchman, in the northeast,
his quiet firmness, . . . the Irishman his faith, the ardor of
his faith. And, as time rolled on, and wave after wave of
immigration brought with it more and more of the precious life-
blood of Europe, from no country was there a richer contribution
of piety and zeal, of devotion and self-sacrifice, than from
that advanced outpost of the Old World, whose western shores
first break the fury of the Atlantic; to whose people Providence
appears to have assigned a destiny grand and heroic--of carrying
the civilization of the Cross to remote lands and distant
nations. What Ireland has done for the American Church, every
bishop, every priest, can tell. Throughout the vast extent of
the Union there is scarcely a church, an academy, a hospital, or
a refuge, in which the piety, the learning, the zeal, the self-
sacrifice, of the Irish--of the priest or the professor, of the
Sisters of every order or denomination--are not to be traced;
there is scarcely an ecclesiastical seminary for English-
speaking students in which the great majority of those now
preparing for the service of the sanctuary do not belong, if not
by birth, at least by blood, to that historic land to which the
grateful Church of past ages accorded the proud title, Insula
Sanctorum."
To this may be added the remark that it is still further beyond
doubt that all the establishments mentioned, almost without one
exception, owe their existence, at least partially, and very
often entirely, to the generous and never-failing contributions
of the Irish.
The Rev. C. G. White, in his "Sketch of the Origin and Progress
of the Catholic Church in the United States of America," which
is appended to the translation of Darras's "History of the
Catholic Church," says still more positively:
"In recording this consoling advancement of Catholicity
throughout the United States, especially in the North and West,
justice requires us to state that it is owing in a great measure
to the faith, zeal, and generosity of the Irish people who have
immigrated to these shores, and their descendants. We are far
from wishing to detract from the merit of other nationalities;
but the vast influence which the Irish population has exerted in
extending the domain of the Church is well deserving of notice,
because it conveys a very instructive lesson. The wonderful
history of the Irish nation has always forced upon us the
conviction that, like the chosen generation of Abraham (previous
to their rejection of the Messiah, of course), they were
destined, in the designs of Providence, to a special mission for
the preservation and propagation of the true faith. This faith,
so pure, so lovely, so generous, displays itself in every region
of the globe. To its vitality and energy must we attribute, to a
very great extent, the rapid increase in the number of churches
and other institutions which have sprung up and are still
springing up in the United States, and to the same source are
the clergy mainly indebted for their support in the exercise of
their pastoral ministry. It cannot be denied, and we bear a
cheerful testimony to the fact, that hundreds of clergymen, who
are laboring for the salvation of souls, would starve, and their
efforts for the cause of religion would be in vain, but for the
generous aid they receive from the children of Erin, who know,
for the most part, how to appreciate the benefits of religion,
and who therefore joyfully contribute of their worldly means to
purchase the spiritual blessings which the Church dispenses."
To this we may add that what Mr. White so expressly states of
the generous support given by the Irish people to the clergy is
equally true when extended to the thousand inmates of orphan
asylums, reformatories, schools, convents, and of all the
charitable institutions generally which are specially fostered
by the Church for the common good of humanity. To quote only one
fact recorded in a note to Mr. Maguire's book, a Sister of Mercy
tells us what the Irish working-class has done for the order in
Cincinnati: "The convent, schools, and House of Mercy, in which
the good works of our Institute are progressing, were purchased
in 1861 at a considerable outlay. This, together with the
repairs, alterations, furnishing, etc., was defrayed by the
working-class of Irish people, who have been and are to us most
devoted, and by their generosity have enabled us up to the
present time to carry out successfully our works of mercy and
charity."
It may be stated, without fear of contradiction, that the same
thing might be asserted by the superior of almost every Catholic
establishment in the country, were an opportunity afforded them
of coming forward in like manner.
All this is well known to those who are in the least acquainted
with the history and workings of those institutions; but very
little noise is made about it, according to the rule of the
Gospel which recommends us to do good in such a manner that "the
left hand may not know what the right hand doeth." Nothing is
more Christian than such silent approval, and the eternal reward,
which must follow, is so overwhelmingly great that the applause
of the world may well be disregarded. But as constant good
offices are apt to beget indifference in those who benefit most
by them, there are not wanting some good people who seem to
labor under the impression that really the Irish deserve
scarcely any thanks; that every thing which they do comes so
naturally from them, it is only what one could expect as a
matter of course, and that, it being nothing more, after all,
than their simple duty, it becomes a very ordinary thing.
It may be superfluous to say that if all this was expected from
them, and if it be, as it really is, after all only a very
ordinary thing on _their_ part, this fact is precisely what
makes them a most extraordinary people, as expectations of this
nature which may be most natural are of that peculiar kind of
"great expectations" magnificent in prospect, but very delusive
in fact; and certainly they would not be looked for as a matter
of course in any other nation. Let any one reflect on the few
details here furnished, let him add others from his own
information, and the whole thing will appear, as it truly is,
most wonderful, and only to be explained by the great and
merciful designs of God, as Dr. White has just indicated--
designs intrusted on this occasion to faithful servants whose
generous hearts and pure souls opened up to the mission
intrusted to them, to its glorious fulfilment so far, and to a
greater unfolding still in time to come.
In order to understand, as ought to be understood, more fully
the weight of the burden they so cheerfully undertook to bear, a
few reflections on the subject of religious and charitable
institutions will not be considered out of place.
The Romans--those master-organizers, who reduced to a perfect
system every branch of government, legislation, war, and
religion--never abandoned, never intrusted to the initiative of
the people, the care of providing the means for any thing which
the state ought to supply. The public religious establishments
were all endowed, the colleges of the priests enjoyed large
revenues, and the expenses of worship were supplied from the
same source. To the fisc in general belonged the duty of
supporting the armories, the courts of law, and the large
establishments provided for the comfort and instruction of the
people, the baths, libraries, and regular amusements. The
private munificence of emperors, great patricians, and
conquerors, undertook to supply occasional shows of an
extraordinary character in the theatres, amphitheatre, and the
circus.
There was no room left for charity in the whole plan. Indeed,
the meaning of that word was unknown to them; for it cannot be
properly applied to the regular distribution of money or cereals
to the plebs; as this was one of those generosities which are
necessary, and was only practised in order to keep the lower
orders of citizens in idle content and out of mischief, as you
would a wild animal which you dare not chain: you must feed
him. The really poor, the saves, the maimed, the helpless, were
left to their hard fate, they being apparently unworthy of pity
because they excited no fear.
Yet the system was fruitful in its results. As soon as
Christianity was seated on the throne, nothing was easier than
to transfer the immense sums contributed by regular funds, or
which were the product of taxes, from one object to another; and
thus the Christian clergy and churches were supported as had
been the colleges and temples of the pagan priests, by the
revenues derived from large estates attached to the various
corporations. Thus did Constantine and his successors become the
munificent benefactors of the Church in Rome and through-out the
whole empire.
Meanwhile, the 11 collections of money" among the faithful,
which were first organized, as we read in the epistles of the
apostles, and afterward systematized still better in Rome under
the first popes, soon grew into disuse, at least to the extent
to which they once prevailed; the new charitable institutions,
such as the care of the poor, of widows and orphans, being under-
taken by the Church at large, while the expenses of the whole
were defrayed by the revenues accruing from the donations of
princes, or the bequests of wealthy Christians.
The consequence was that, throughout the whole Christian world,
all religious, literary, and charitable institutions enjoyed
large revenues, and there was no need of applying to the
generosity of the common people for contributions.
After the successful invasion of the barbarians, the same system
held good; and history records how richly endowed were the
churches built, the monasteries founded, the universities and
colleges opened, by the once ferocious Franks, Germans, or
Northmen even, tamed and subdued by the precepts and practices
of Christianity.
We know how the immense wealth, which had been devoted to such
holy purposes by the wise generosity of rulers or rich nobles,
became in course of time an eyesore and object of envy to the
worldly, and that the chief incentive to the `~ Reformers" for
doing their work of 11 reformation" thoroughly was the prospect
of the golden harvest to be reaped by the destruction of the
Catholic Church.
But the very large amounts required to satisfy the aspirations
introduced into the heart of humanity, by the religion of Christ,
may give us an adequate idea of what Christian civilization
really costs. It is foolish to imagine a sane man really
believing that those generous founders of pious institutions,
who devote by gift or bequest, such large estates and revenues
to the various
***********
This E-text is missing paper pages 457-472.
***********
We cannot afford to transfer any more of his experiences among
the Irish. From all his accounts, they are the same in London as
everywhere else, most firmly attached to Catholicity, and, as a
general rule, most exemplary in the performance of their
religious obligations.
It is fitting, however, to give the conclusion of a long
description of what he saw among them while visiting them in the
company of a clergyman: "The religious fervor of the people whom
I saw was intense. At one house that I entered, the woman set me
marvelling at the strength of her zeal, by showing me how she
continued to have in her sitting-room a sanctuary to pray every
night and morning, and even during the day when she felt weary
and lonesome."
II. Passing from religion to morality, let us look at this
writer again: "Only one-tenth, at the outside, of the couples
living together and carrying on the costermongering trade (among
the English) are married. . . . Of the rights of legitimate or
illegitimate children, the English costermongers understand
nothing, and account it a mere waste of money to go through the
ceremony of wedlock, when a pair can live together, and be quite
as well regarded by their fellows without it. The married women
associate with the unmarried mothers of families without scruple.
There is no honor attached to the married state and no shame to
concubinage.
"As regards the fidelity of these women, I was assured that in
any thing like good times they were rigidly faithful to their
paramours; but that, in the worst pinch of poverty, a departure
from this fidelity--if it provided a few meals or a fire--was
not considered at all heinous."
Further details may be read in the book quoted from, which would
scarcely come well in these pages, though quite appropriate to
the most interesting work in which they appear. From the whole,
it is only too clear that the class of people referred to is
profoundly immoral and corrupt, their very poverty only
hindering them from indulging in an excess of libertinism.
On the other hand, when Mr. Mayhew speaks of the street Irish in
London, he is most emphatic in his praise of the purity of the
women in particular, and the care of the parents in general to
preserve the virtue of their daughters, in the midst of the
frightful corruption ever under their eyes. The only remark he
passes of a disparaging character is the following:
"I may here observe"--referring to the statement that Irish
parents will not expose their daughters to the risk of what they
consider corrupt influences--"that, when a young Irish woman
_does_ break through the pale of chastity, she often becomes, as
I was assured, one of the most violent and depraved of, perhaps,
the most depraved class."
It is evident, from the mere form in which this phrase is put,
that such a thing is of very rare occurrence, and that the
violence and depravity spoken of offer all the stronger contrast
to the general purity of the whole class, and are merely the
result of the open and unreserved character of the race.
But the whole world knows that chastity is the rule, and perhaps
the most special virtue of the Irish, a fact which their worst
enemies have been compelled to confess. In this same work of Mr.
Mayhew's a still more surprising fact than the last--for that is
acknowledged by all--is brought into astonishing prominence; a
fact opposed to the general opinion of their friends even, and
yet supported by incontrovertible evidence. It relates to
another contrast between the English and Irish costermongers on
the score of temperance.
III. The result arrived at by his inquiries among liquor-dealers
in that part of London inhabited by about equal numbers of both
nationalities, Mr. Mayhew gives us as twenty to one in favor of
the Irish with respect to the consumption of liquor. In most
"independent," that is to say, "not impoverished" Irish families,
water is the only beverage at dinner, with punch afterward; and
estimating the number of teetotallers, among the English at
three hundred, there are six hundred among the Irish, who
constitute, it may be remembered, only one-third of the whole
costermonger class, and those Irish teetotallers, having taken
the pledge under the sanction of their priests, look upon it as
a religious observance and keep it rigidly. The number of Irish
teetotallers has been considerably increased since Mr. Mayhew
made his returns, in consequence of the energetic crusade
entered upon against drink by the zealous London clergy, under
the powerful lead of Archbishop Manning.
It is true that an innkeeper told Mr. Mayhew that "he would
rather have twenty poor Englishmen drunk in his tap-room than a
couple of poor Irishmen, who will quarrel with anybody, and
sometimes clear the room." But this remark, if it shows any
thing, shows only how and why the Irish have obtained that
reputation of being a nation of drunkards, which is slanderous
and false.
IV. Yet another, and perhaps as surprising a result as any, is
the contrast between both classes of people with respect to
economy and foresight: The English street-sellers are found
everywhere spending all their income in the satisfaction often
of brutish appetites; the Irish, on the contrary, save their
money, either for the purpose of transmitting it to their poor
relatives in Ireland, or bringing up their children properly, or-
-if they are young--to provide for their marriage-expenses and
home. Such cares as these never seem to afflict the English
costermonger. So strongly did Mr. Mayhew find these
characteristics marked among the Irish, that he is at times
inclined to accuse them of carrying them too far, even to the
display of a sordid and parsimonious spirit. According to him,
they apply to the various "unions," or to the parish, even when
they have money, or sometimes go with wretched food, dwelling,
or clothing, in order to have a small fund laid by, in case of
any emergency arising.
But the general result of his observations is clear: that the
Irish are most provident and far-seeing; a surprising statement,
doubtless, to the generality of Mr. Mayhew's readers, but one
which, after all, only accords with the testimony of many
unexceptionable witnesses of their life in other countries. And,
if in England, in London especially, they at times appear sordid
in their economy, is not this the very natural result of the
misery they had previously endured in their own impoverished
land, and therefore a proof that, at least, they have profited
by the terrible ordeals through which they were compelled to
pass?
We have spoken only of the Irish in London; the same facts are
most probably true of them in all the large cities of Great
Britain. Unfortunately, Mr. Mayhew's most interesting work has
found no imitators in other parts of the kingdom. F. Perraud's
remarks, however, in his "Ireland under English Rule," extend
almost over the whole country.
After giving his own experience, and that of many others whom he
had consulted, or whose works he had read; after having set
forth the dangers which beset the Irish in that (to them) "most
foreign country"--England--and also the success which had
attended the labors of many proselytizing agents among them, and
even in some cases the progress of immorality in their midst
resulting from the innumerable seductions to which they were
exposed, a success and a progress which Mr. Mayhew's personal
observation would lead us to think the good father has
exaggerated, he concludes as follows:
"We must not overlook the fact that the Irish emigration to
England and Scotland produces in many individual cases results
which cannot be too deeply deplored.
"But there, also, as well as in America and Australia, through
the economy of an admirable providence, God makes use of those
Irish immigrants for the propagation and extension of the
Catholic faith in the midst of English and Scotch Protestantism.
What progress has not the Catholic religion made within the last
thirty years in England? And might not the Catholics say to
their separated brethren what Tertullian said to the Caesars of
the third century: 'Our religion is but of yesterday; and behold,
we fill your towns, your councils, your camps, your tribes,
your decuriae, the palace, the senate, the forum . . . . You
have persecuted us during centuries, and behold, we spring up
afresh from the blood of martyrs!'
"At the beginning of the reign of George III., England and
Scotland scarcely contained sixty thousand Catholics who had
remained true to the faith of their fathers. Their number in
1821 was, according to the official census, five hundred
thousand. In 1842, they were estimated at from two million to
two million five hundred thousand. At present (1864) they number
nearly four million, and of this total amount the single city of
London figures for more than two hundred and fifty thousand."
In a note he adds the following figures, furnished him by Dr.
Grant, the late Bishop of Southwark:
Total No. of Catholics. No. of Irish.
Manchester . . . . . . . . . . . 80,000 . . . . . . 60,000
Liverpool . . . . . . . . . . 130,000 . . . . . . 85,000
Birmingham . . . . . . . . . . . 30,000 . . . . . . 20,000
Preston . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24,000 . . . . . . 4,300
Wigan . . . . . . . . . . . 18,000 . . . . . . 6,000
Bolton . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000 . . . . . . 4,000
St. Helen's (Lancashire) . . . . 10,000 . . . . . . 6,000
Edinburgh . . . . . . . . . . . 50,000 . . . . . . 35,000
Glasgow . . . . . . . . . . 127,000 . . . . . . 90,000
"Finally, we must not forget that about one-half the army and
navy is composed of Irish Catholics.
"In 1792 England and Wales counted no more than thirty-five
chapels; in 1840 the number amounted to five hundred, among
which were vast and splendid churches, such as St. George's,
Southwark, and the Birmingham Cathedral. At present (1864) the
number is nearly one thousand.
"In connection with the movement of individual conversions,
which yearly brings within our ranks from those of Protestantism
the most upright, the sincerest, the best-disposed souls, the
Irish immigration in England is then destined to play an
important part in the so desirable return of that great island
to the faith which she received in the sixth century from St.
Gregory the Great and St. Austin of Canterbury," and, let us add,
from Aidan and his Irish monks of Lindisfarne and Iona, as
Montalembert has shown.
If we examine closely the figures just furnished by F. Perraud,
and consider that the number of Catholics in Great Britain was
only five hundred thousand in 1821, which, following his
calculation, mounted to four million in 1864, if we look closely
into the gradations of the increase marked in the various
censuses taken between those dates, we shall find that the Irish
immigration has indeed played a most important part in the
return of England toward Catholicity. We are surprised to find
that he seems to estimate the number of Irish in England at only
one million; there can be no doubt that they and their offspring
compose the majority of Catholics there, and that many of the
Englishmen who come back to the true faith are induced by their
example and influence, particularly among the lower orders, and
that the real work of the conversion of the English nation rests
in the hands of the Irish immigrants. Mr. Mayhew has informed us
of the disposition of the English costermongers on religious matters.
We have now examined the three great waves which bore the Irish
to foreign countries; the lesser streamlets, which wandered away
into other English colonies, may be dismissed, as to trace and
follow up their course would involve more time and trouble than
they really call for. We now see the Irish race disseminated in
large groups over many and vast territories; and, although the
home population has been considerably diminished by that great
exodus, and is now reduced to about five millions, nevertheless,
to count them as they are dispersed throughout the world, their
number is far higher than it has ever been before; and we now
proceed to offer some considerations tending to show the effects
of that vast emigration on the resurrection of the race, and on
the future progress of the country from which the race comes.
First, then, emigration has given Ireland and Irishmen an
importance in the eyes of the world which they and it would
never have acquired unless that emigration had taken place; so
that England, on whom in a great measure their future fate
depends, is now compelled to respect and render them justice;
and justice is all that is wanting to bring about their complete
resurrection.
In order to form a true idea on this point, it is necessary to
consider them in their twofold aspect, as emigrants to the
United States, residing under and citizens of a government
distinct from that of England; and, secondly, in countries which
are under the control of Great Britain, one of these being
England itself.
In the Union they become for the greater part citizens of the
country which they have made their home, and the first condition
necessary for the obtaining of this right of citizenship is the
renunciation of all allegiance to their former English rulers.
The readiness and joy even with which they perform this task
need no mention. But, as Christians, the new obligations under
which they bind themselves involve something more than the mere
oath of allegiance; the spirit no less than the letter of the
oath prescribes that they acknowledge no other country as theirs
than that which offered them a refuge, and consequently, by the
very fact of becoming American citizens, they cease to be
Irishmen.
But their oath does not bind them to forget their former country,
as little as it forbids them to benefit it as far as lawfully
lies in their power. Far otherwise. Their new allegiance would
indeed be a poor thing if, in its very conception, it could only
bind hearts so cold as to renounce at once all affection for the
land of their birth, and banish in a day memories that the day
before were sacred. This is not required of them; and, were it,
they could never so understand their allegiance. They remain,
and justly, firmly attached to Ireland, and look anxiously for
any lawful occasion on which they may manifest their affection
by their acts.
Meanwhile, in their new country, position, influence, wealth,
consideration, often fall to their lot; their numbers swell, and
they become an important factor in the republic. Something of
the power wielded by the great nation of which they are now
citizens attaches to them, and shows them to the astonished gaze
of England under a totally new and unexpected aspect. In war,
the effect is most telling, and, even so far back as 1812, the
part played by "saucy Jack" Barry, for instance, already gave
rise to very grave considerations and forebodings on the part of
British statesmen. But, even in time of peace, the high position
held by many Irishmen in the United States, and the aggregate
voice of a powerful party, where every tongue has a vote, cannot
fail to tell advantageously on questions referring to their
former country.
Can it be imagined that this exercises no influence on the
treatment of Ireland by the ruling power? To afford a true
conception of the alteration brought about by Irish emigration,
suppose for an instant the ruling power using again its old
recklessness in abusing Ireland--not that we imagine the English
statesmen of to-day capable of such a thing and anxious to
restore what, happily, has passed away forever--but merely to
show the utter impossibility of such a contingency again arising,
suppose one of the old penal laws to be again enacted and
sanctioned by a British sovereign, what would the effect be on
the multitude of Irishmen now living in America? What,
independently of the Irish, would be the effect on all the
organs, worthy of the name, of public opinion in America? How
would the great majority of the members, not of Congress only,
but of the Legislature of each State, speak? Public opanion is
now the ruler of the world, and when public opinion declares
against a flagrant and crying injustice, its voice must be heard,
its mandate obeyed, and lawlessness cease. This extreme and, as
we believe, impossible example, is merely adduced as a proof of
the advantage which Ireland has reaped from the dispersion of
her scattered children--an advantage falling back on her own
head, in return, perhaps, for the mission they are working.
But, over and above the supposition of such an extreme case,
there is surely a silent power in the mere standing of millions
of free men who would resent, as done to themselves, a
recurrence of an attack on their old country. And there are,
beyond question, three millions of former Irishmen, citizens to-
day of the United States, on whom the glance of many an English
statesman, with any just pretension to the name, must fall.
Therefore do we say that now England must respect Ireland.
That respect is daily heightened by the greater comfort and
easier circumstances, though still far too wretched on the whole,
of the Irish at home, which have been mainly brought about by
the help received from their exiled countrymen. As was seen, the
old policy of their oppressors had for chief object the
pauperization of the country, and, as was also seen, that policy
was eminently successful. We know how deeply the effects of that
former policy are still felt, and how far from completion still
is justice in that regard; how they still complain, and with
only too much reason, of many laws which are as so many gyves
still binding them down in their old degradation; but, of this,
the following chapter will speak.
Yet, it is undeniable that their situation is considerably
improved, and that the excessive sufferings which formerly
seemed their privilege, are scarcely possible in our days. This
change in their circumstances for the better may be ascribed to
a variety of causes, one of which, we acknowledge, has been the
repairing of many previous injustices. But we must acknowledge
also that the main lever in a nation's resurrection, once the
ground is cleared round about--her treasury--has, as far as
Ireland is concerned, been chiefly replenished from abroad.
Absentee landlords still drain the country; but the money which
has gone into it has been certainly owing greatly to the immense
sums transmitted yearly from America by the exiles, all of which
has certainly not returned to the place from which it went out.
It is impossible to estimate the amount which was kept in
Ireland and that which floated back, but the balance must be
considerably on the side of what remained, as the distress at
home was so great, and in millions of instances immediate relief
came from the distant friends who had acquired a competency in
their new country, and, knowing the dire distress of their
relatives at home, sent generally what they could spare, by the
speediest means at their command.
There is no doubt that thousands of families have thus been
benefited by that first sad emigration of their friends, and
that the visible improvement in the condition of the Irish at
home is in a great measure due to it. We hear, moreover, that
the working of the new "Encumbered Estates Court " has already
placed in the hands of native Irishmen many parcels of the lands
of their fathers, and probably many of the ample estates
belonging to what was the Irish Church Establishment, which are
to be sold, will find their way back in the same manner.
The Irish are thus being slowly reinstated in possession of
their own soil, and, that once accomplished, the respect of
England is secured--respectability in England being in its
essence equivalent to real estate.
Thus is the uprising of the nation being gradually, silently,
but surely brought about by the emigration to the United States;
and this effect is considerably heightened when the emigration
to countries under English control is taken into consideration--
Canada, Australia, England itself.
In those places the same results followed which we have just
witnessed in the United States, but another and far greater
result remains for them. Not only did they slowly aid in
awakening the respect for their countrymen at home in the
English breast by their own rising importance and improved
condition, but in Canada and Australia they possess a privilege
which, in the British Isles, is theirs only in theory, but
abroad becomes a very powerful fact.
Ever since the Union of 1800, the Irish are supposed to form a
part and parcel of the empire at home, and to have fair
representation of their native country in the members they
return to the Imperial Parliament. But it is well known that the
Irish influence in that Parliament is almost null, and that
their presence there frequently is productive of no other result
than to countenance laws injurious to their own country. Does,
can Ireland hope to derive any political or social benefit from
her representatives in London beyond whatever may accrue to her
from their vain remonstrances and ineffective speeches? But in
the colonial Parliaments the case is very different.
It is not our desire to be understood as saying that Irishmen,
by meddling with politics, can effect a certain improvement in
their condition and that of their country, beyond giving tokens
of the life which is in them. We believe, on the contrary, that
too great an eagerness in such pursuits has injured them on many
occasions; and they ought to beware of flattering themselves
that they are rising because their votes are clamored for, and
they themselves exhorted to enter into the contest as fierce
partisans. This, too often, leads them into making themselves
the mere tools of shrewd men.
But, in the colonies, they muster in considerable force, and,
with prudence and sagacity, may have their desires and measures
fairly considered and conceded; for, unfortunately, the style of
measures fair and favorable to them as Irishmen and Catholics,
is completely at variance with that of those opposed to them,
whom, go where they will, they encounter, and always in the same
form. In Ireland, they are at liberty, apparently, to do the
same by reason of their superiority in point of numbers; the
result of the late Galway elections proves what a farce is this
show of liberty, and even the members whom they would and do
sometimes elect possess a very feeble influence, or none, in
what is called the Imperial Parliament. But, in the colonies, if
they, as electors, outnumber their political opponents, they can
and must return the majority to the House of Representatives and
of officers to the various departments of the colonial
administration. Such is the law of election in really
representative governments which are truly free; the majority of
electors returns the majority to the government; and rightly so.
Of course, there is room here, particularly where the majority
happens to be Irish, for a vast quantity of frothy bluster about
drilled and intimidated voters, and all that sort of thing. With
that we have no concern at present, and merely remark en passant
that it is a pity a little more of it was not wasted on the
recent Galway elections, already alluded to, on both sides; and
for the rest, that the world has not yet been apprised of Irish
majorities in the Australian Parliament abusing their power by
either accidental or systematic misrule; and it may, therefore,
be safely conceded that, on the whole, the government has rested
in safe hands. However, what concerns us at present is the state
of Canada and Australia, where, among the highest public
dignitaries, are found men who are Irish, not simply by birth,
but in feeling and in truth. And the conclusion which we wish to
draw from that fact is, that Ireland is greatly benefited by the
high positions which her sons assume in those distant colonies;
and probably no one will be rash enough to deny or controvert in
any way this point.
The truth is, that by emigration Ireland has suddenly expanded
into vast regions formerly ignorant of her name; regions which
swell the power and wealth of England, and which are destined to
play a very important part in her future history. In these
districts Irishmen have found a new country; something of the
ubiquity of the English belongs to them, and the influence,
power, and weight, thus thrown into their hands, need no further
comment. To show this in extenso would be only to travel over
ground already trodden in previous pages, enumerating the
various countries they have touched upon in their Exodus. Thus
have our seemingly long digressions had a very direct object in
view, and served powerfully to solve our original question. We
may now see that the resurrection of Ireland was intimately
involved in the emigration of her children; that much of what
has already taken place to aid in that resurrection may be
ascribed to this emigration, and that much brighter days are yet
in store for the nation, resulting mainly from this constant and
powerful cause. Let no one, then, lament the perseverance of
those hardy wanderers who, though their country has already been
depleted by millions, still leave her to the figure of seventy
thousand annually. It seems that in Ireland much surprise is
expressed at the movement never ceasing. Providence will end it
in its own good time; if God still allows it, it is surely for
the accomplishment of his own mighty and benevolent designs.
To conclude, then, this long chapter, there is only one question
to be put, which demands a few words, but words, in our opinion
at least, of vast importance, and which we would give all that
is ours to give, to see promptly and energetically attended to:
Has Ireland profited by this so-often mentioned emigration to
the extent she should have profited? And what ought Irishmen to
do in order to increase the advantages derived from it?
We must confess that, up to the present, the benefit is far from
what it ought to have been, and the cause of this lies in want
of organization and association. They have seemed to let God
work for them without any cooperation on their part; for God's,
as we saw, was the plan, and he forced them, as it were, to
carry out his design. They went at the work blindly, merely
following the impulse of circumstances, with no preparatory
organization, and less still of association. And even now, when
they are spread out over such vast territories in such mighty
multitudes, as yet they have given no sign of the least desire
of attempting even something like a combined effort to
accelerate the work of Providence. The only signs of life so far
given have been violent and spasmodic, directly opposed to the
genius of the race, which, as we have endeavored to prove, has
nothing revolutionary in its character, and is not given to dark
plots and godless conspiracies.
Unfortunately, also, they do not seem naturally adapted to a
spirit of steady and long-continued or systematic association.
In this, chiefly, does their race differ from the Scandinavian
stock, which is grafted on system, combination, and steadiness,
in pursuit of the object in hand.
But why not begin, at least, to make an effort in that
direction? The Latin races, in which runs so much Celtic blood,
are powerful to organize, as the Romans of old, and the French
and Spaniards of to-day, have so often proved. The Irish have
been infused with plenty of foreign blood, after their many
national catastrophes, although we believe that their primitive
characteristics have always overcome all foreign elements
introduced among them; and, what the race could scarcely attempt
ages ado, is possible now. Moreover, there is nothing in the
leanings of race which may not be overcome, and sure without any
radical change a nation can adapt itself to the necessities of
the time, and to altered circumstances. Let the Irish see what
they might effect toward the resurrection of their native
country, if they only seriously began at last to organize and
associate for that purpose. They would thus turn the immense
forces of their nation, now scattered over the world, to the
real advantage of their birthplace. In union is strength; but
union can only be promoted by association, particularly when the
elements to be united are so far apart.
For such an object do we believe that God gave man in these late
days the destroyers of space--the steam-engine and the electric
telegraph. Those powerful agents of unification were unknown to
mankind until God decreed that his children dispersed through
the earth should be more compactly united. To the Catholic they
were given, in the first place, to serve God's first purpose by
making the Church firmer in her unity and more effective in the
propagation of truth; but, after all, the mission of the Irish
to-day is only a branch of the mission of the Church, and, if
only on that account, are the missionaries deserving of all
honor and respect.
If in the designs of Providence the time has at last arrived for
the dwelling of the children of Japhet in the tents of Sem, and
for putting an end to the terrible evils dating from the
dispersion at Babel and the confusion of tongues, the object of
these great scientific discoveries is still more apparent. At
all events, organization and association are clearly needed for
the resurrection of Ireland, and the sooner a step is taken in
that direction the better.
But, what association would we propose? What should be its
immediate and most practicable objects? These questions we do
not feel competent to answer. Let Irishmen be once convinced
that organization is the great lever to work for the raising up
of their down-trodden nation, and they will know best how to use
this powerful instrument. The leaders of the nation in that holy
enterprise should, in our own opinion, be its spiritual leaders.
They know their country, and they love it; they undoubtedly
possess the confidence of their countrymen: they, then, should
be the natural originators of those great schemes. And what
other leaders does Ireland possess, what body like them,
acceptable to the nation, and neither to be bought by money nor
office?
This first remark naturally presupposes another: that the object
of those associations, being approved of by the religious guides
of the people, cannot be other than holy, and consequently
require no secrecy of any kind. They must be patent to the world,
as not being antagonistic to any established law or authority.
Every man desirous of becoming a member of the association
should know beforehand what is proposed to be done, and how far
his consent is to be given.
One other important point strikes us: the centre of organization
should be in Ireland. Ireland is to be benefited by it, and
there the effort should naturally begin, where its results will
fall. As for the particular direction which those efforts should
take, the detail of the whole enterprise, the plan of the
campaign--all this lies beyond us, and a sketch of it would most
probably be a mere chimera.
One concluding word may be said, however, on a subject which has
often been present to the writer's mind: The fearful oppression
of the nation began by robbing the people of their lands and
making them paupers: one of the first aims of association, then,
should evidently be the raising of the people up by the
restoration, in great part at least, of the soil to the native
race.
It is not our purpose to propose a new confiscation now, by way
of remedying the old ones; but England has allowed them to buy
back the land of their fathers in the "Encumbered Estates Courts,
"and by the law recently passed which disestablished the Irish
Protestant Church? Is there no room for a plan whereby Irishmen,
who have grown rich in foreign countries, may become purchasers
of the land thus offered for sale? And, in reply to the natural
and powerful objection to such a plan on the score of distance
from their native land, and the natural repugnance to return and
live there, and break up new ties, which are now old, and have
made them what they are, could not the fathers spare one son at
least, whom they might devote to the noble purpose of becoming
Irish again, and settling on an Irish estate, and marrying
there? This would seem an easy and simple manner of recreating a
Catholic gentry in the island.
This is merely a hint thrown out to exemplify what we mean by
associations for the purpose of raising Ireland up again; the
many possible objects of national organization will occur to any
mind giving a moment's reflection to it. This subject will
occupy our attention at greater length in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XVI.
MORAL FORCE ALL-SUFFICIENT FOR THE RESURRECTION OF IRELAND
This chapter will be devoted to the island itself. For many
centuries it was happy in its seclusion and separation from the
rest of Europe: in these days it necessarily forms a part of the
whole mass of Japhetic races; its isolation is no longer
possible; and, in the opinion of many, it is destined once again
to become a spot illustrious and happy. The consideration of how
that lustre and happiness are to come upon it is the only task
still left us.
Whoever takes into consideration the advantages it already
enjoys, and compares its present situation with that of a
hundred years back, cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable
change for the better which has taken place between the two
periods. Ireland still suffers, and suffers sorely, and the
world still speaks with justice of her wrongs; but, in whatever
light they may appear to those who love their country, no one
can pretend that it still groans under the weight of tyranny
which has formed the burden of her history. And, while
acknowledging this beneficial change in her condition, they must
wonder at the same time how small was the share which the
natives themselves had in bringing it about, although their
activity never relaxed, and they had great and good men working
for their cause. What, in truth, did it?
The first point which claims our attention is how effectually
the moral force of what is called liberal thought dealt a death-
blow to the penal laws half a century before any of them were
erased from the statute book.
Liberal thought may be said to have originated in England,
whence it passed over to France, to be disseminated and take
root throughout Europe by means of the mighty influence then
exercised by the great nation. The chief object which animated
the minds of those who first labored for its admission into
modern European principles is not for us to consider here. There
is no doubt that this chief object was of a loosening and
deleterious nature: namely, to ruin Christian faith, to change
all the old social and political axioms held by Christendom, and
to create a new society imbued with what now goes by the name of
modern ideas. It is not necessary to point out the frightful
imprudence as well as criminality of many of those who were the
pioneers of the movement. We must only take the new principles
as a great fact, destined yet to effect a radical change in the
ideas of men of all races, a change already begun in Europe.
Liberal thought, we say, originated in England; and it would be
easy to show that there it was the result partly of
Protestantism, partly of indifferentism, the ultimate
consequence of the great principle of private judgment.
This became manifest in Great Britain, from the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and, as was previously shown, what is called
the British Constitution was the result and outgrowth of deep
political thought matured in minds indifferent to religion, of
men who were as little _Protestants_ as any thing else. But they
were deeply possessed by a sense of conservatism and moderation
in the application of the most radical principles, which later
on the fiery Gallic mind carried to their final and most
disastrous consequences.
But, in whatever garb it may have appeared, liberalism was
clearly the essence of the British Constitution, as established
after all the civil and dynastic wars of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. The leaders of the English nation
happened at the time to be fully wedded to aristocratic ideas,
and accordingly they refused to recognize all the consequences
of their principles, and to see them carried out to the full.
It was admitted that the king reigned, but did not govern; that
the nation governed by its representatives; that those
representatives were created by election; that a nation could
not be taxed without its free consent; that thought, religious
thought chiefly, was free; that toleration, therefore, could
admit of no exception in point of religious doctrine; and all
the other modern principles which have at length been admitted,
though not always observed, as governmental axioms by all
European nations.
As long as those axioms were in the close keeping of English
patricians, some of their consequences were far from being fully
evolved; but certain Frenchmen, Voltaire among others, happening
to cross the Straits of Dover, returned with them, and, the
wretched government of Louis XV being not only too weak to
withstand, but even conniving at, the boldness of the new
philosophers, the French language, which was then spoken all
over Europe, carried with it from mouth to mouth the new and
fascinating doctrine of the emancipation of thought.
None of those writers, indeed, undertook to plead the cause of
unfortunate Ireland. Voltaire threw the whole of France into
agitation, nay, all Europe, to the wilds of Russia, by taking up
the case of the Protestant Calas, who was condemned to death and
executed unjustly, as it seems, for the supposed murder of a son
who was inclined to embrace Catholicity; but never a word did he
speak of the suffering which at that time had settled down over
the whole Irish nation solely for the crime of its religious
convictions.
Nevertheless, toleration became the catchword with all. It rang
out loudly from a thousand French pamphlets and ponderous tomes;
it was caught up and echoed back from England; it penetrated the
unkindly atmosphere of Russia even, and was silently pondered
over under the rule of an unbelieving despot.
It was impossible for Ireland not to derive some benefit from
all this. It took a long time, indeed, for emancipation of
thought to cross that narrow channel which divided the "sister"
islands; for, at the precise period when the doctrine was loudest
in France, the most atrocious penal laws were being executed in
Ireland, and there seemed no hope for the suffering nation.
But, toward the end of that eventful eighteenth century, the
breath of that magic word, toleration, at last was felt on the
shores of Erin. When it was in the mouths of all Europe, when
English clergymen had thoroughly imbibed the new doctrine, when
even Scotch ministers began to thaw under its genial influence,
and become "liberal theologians," how could an Irish magistrate
think of hanging a friar, or transporting a priest, or imposing
a heavy fine on a Catholic who committed the heinous offence of
hearing mass, or absenting himself from the services of the
Established Church? At last, the "Mass-rock" was no longer the
only spot whereon the divine victim of expiation could be
offered up; and it soon came to be known that, to by-lanes and
obscure houses in the cities numbers of persons flocked on
Sundays, presided over by their own Sogarth Aroon. On one
occasion, already noticed, the floor of a rickety house, where
they were worshipping, gave way, to the killing and maiming of
many; thenceforth, Catholics were allowed to assemble in public
to the knowledge of all, and, though "discoverers" were still
legally entitled to denounce and prosecute them, there was small
chance of a verdict against them.
Thus was it owing to a great moral force--whether good or bad is
not the question now--that the penal laws first became obsolete;
and Irishmen had absolutely nothing whatever to do in the matter.
Not a single pamphlet, demanding toleration, and proclaiming
the rights of religious freedom, ever, to our knowledge, issued
from the Irish press at the time. No book, written by an Irish
author, advocating the same, was ever printed clandestinely, as
were so many French books, at first appearing in Holland, or
covertly in France, with a false title-page.
When the Volunteer movement took place, toleration was in full
sway in Ireland. As was seen, the question debated in the
Dungannon Convention referred solely to the extension of the
elective franchise to Catholics; and, though this was unjustly
denied them by the majority of the Volunteers, under the
guidance of the leaders of the movement, there was no question
of any longer refusing to the native Irish Catholics the right
of practising their religion freely. This the moral sense of the
century had secured to them.
The attainment of the political franchise was also the result of
purely moral force, though it required a much longer time in its
acquisition, as it was a question, not merely of a right
individual in its nature, as all natural religious rights are,
but one affecting external society, and productive of material
results of great import.
In this the Irish were not merely passive; they launched
themselves heart and soul on the sea of political agitation.
From 1810 to 1829, the Catholic Association, which embraced men
of all classes of society, was incessant in its clamor for
emancipation. The chief object of this association being the
political franchise, it was felt by all that, sooner or later,
that privilege must be granted. Meanwhile, the secular enemies
of Ireland were not idle. Emancipation--that is the political
franchise-- they called a "Utopian dream," which they asserted
England could not grant. Was it not directly opposed to the
coronation-oath, nay, to the English Constitution? The king
himself was, and publicly declared himself to be, of this
opinion. According to your thorough-bred Englishman, the state
would rather spend its last shilling, and sacrifice its last man,
than suffer it. How many spoke thus, even up to the very day on
which Wellington, changing his mind perforce, at last proposed
the measure!
All this opposition was perhaps only to be expected; but the
strange thing was that many excellent patriotic Irishmen,
Catholics, laymen as well as clerics and prelates, were opposed
to the agitation set on foot by O'Connell and his friends; they
also thought it a "Utopian dream," likely only to bring new
calamities upon their country. They seemed not to see that the
refusal of emancipation meant in fact the continuance of the
small Protestant minority as the ruling power--the state--in
Ireland, which, owing to moral force, was no longer so, save in
theory. In fact, already the majority, that is, almost the whole
of Ireland, was an immense power. Its members were at liberty to
combine openly, to show themselves, to speak, to write, to
agitate; they were, in a word, a people, and the Protestant
minority no longer really constituted the state.
It is true that the majority of Irishmen had for centuries
continued to act unanimously in their resistance to oppression;
as was seen, they had been a people from the moment that the
English kings and Parliaments strove to coerce their religious
faith, and more particularly from the destruction of clanship.
They were truly a nation, though without a government of their
own, and for the greater part of the time bending under the most
intolerable tyranny. Religion had given them one thought and one
heart. And now that, owing to the mighty, the irresistible moral
force of liberalism, they could no longer be openly persecuted
for wishing to remain Catholics, the question arose: Were they
still to be absolutely nothing in the state? This was the real
demand of the Catholic Association, and every one ought to have
seen its importance and the certainty of success.
Nevertheless, a great number of sincere Irishmen did not see the
question in this light, and were covertly or openly opposed to
the agitation. Ireland appeared to be divided just at a
momentous crisis.
The leaders of the association were not themselves altogether
agreed as to the best mode of putting their question. Some were
for armed opposition, thinking they could beat England in the
open field. But the great originator and leader of the movement
sternly opposed so mad a proposition. He was for moral force,
seeing how clearly and irresistibly, even if unwittingly, it was
working for their cause. In spite of all adverse circumstances,
although the English party and the English nation stood up en
masse against him, although many Irishmen refused to join in the
agitation, while some of his best friends wished to risk all in
a desperate venture, he stood calm, firm, and so confident of
success, that he caused himself to be returned as member for the
County Clare to the English Parliament, before even emancipation
had given him the right of candidature. It was immediately after
this "unconstitutional" election that the boon of emancipation
was suddenly granted, contrary to all expectation and
probability, and O'Connell proudly took his seat among the
representatives of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament.
If this measure was not carried by a purely moral force, it is
hard to see how that phrase can be applied to any thing in this
world. This is not the place to write a history of that
memorable struggle. It is still fresh in the memory of many
living men. We merely draw a conclusion from what has happened
in our own time, and one which may be said to be a clear
inference from the circumstances of the case, and to which no
one can offer any serious objection. This conclusion is, the
omnipotence of moral force in gaining for Ireland so much of
liberty, of political, and social privileges, as was finally
granted her.
This victory won for the Irish Catholics the acknowledgment on
the part of England that they were a factor in the state. The
next question which naturally presented itself was, "What was to
be their exact position in the state?"
There are many answers to this, even in modern ideas. In purely
democratic countries suffrage is universal, all have a political
vote, and the majority is supposed to rule. In countries where
the government is oligarchical or aristocratic, rank, wealth,
and position, are "privileged;" the great mass is deprived of a
vote. Yet, even in those countries, in accordance with the
modern idea, blood is not every thing; a certain number of
plebeians are admitted to a share in public affairs, and their
number is greater or smaller as the struggle, which is always
going on between the few and the many, wavers to this side or to
that. Thus, in the English Parliament there is often an
"electoral" or "reform" question discussed and agitated. But the
leaders of the Catholic Association boldly advocated a question
prior to those--what at the time was called the repeal of the
Union, and is now known as "home-rule."
Must Ireland continue to be governed by laws enacted in England?
The number of her special representatives is comparatively so
small, her Catholic aspirations meet with such deaf ears in the
majority of the members, that, as long as Ireland is without her
own Parliament, she cannot be called a free country.
Moreover, according to modern ideas, self-government seems to be
admitted as an axiom; all countries have a right to it, under
the limitation of constitutional enactments, either in
"confederacies" or in "imperial states." Why should Ireland
alone be deprived of such a boon?
It is known how O'Connell suddenly grasped the question and
mastered it. His first repeal association was suppressed on the
instant by a proclamation of the Irish Secretary. O'Connell
bowed to the proclamation, and for the first organization
substituted another called "the Irish Volunteers for the Repeal
of the Union." This met with the same fate as the first. The
great agitator then took refuge in "repeal breakfasts," and
declared his intention, if the government "thought fit to
proclaim down breakfasts, to resort to a political lunch, and,
if political luncheon be equally dangerous to the peace of the
viceroy, he would have political dinners; if the dinners be
proclaimed, we must, said he, like certain sanctified dames,
resort to tea and tracts."
The "breakfasts" were suppressed, and O'Connell was arrested.
The prosecution, however, was soon abandoned, and for the moment,
despairing of success in advocating repeal, he came down to the
"Reform party," from which he obtained at first some great
advantages for Ireland--the administration of Lord Mulgrave, the
best the island had known for centuries, and the appointment of
many Catholics to high offices in the state.
It is not necessary to relate the circumstances which finally
drove O'Connell back upon his original plan, and the formation,
in April, 1840, of the "Loyal National Repeal Association."
Within a short time three million associates were contributing
annually to the national fund, and a scene was witnessed which
the most devoted lover of Erin could never have anticipated. It
would be useless to search the annals of mankind for a more
startling exhibition of purely moral force. The causes of its
failure will appear causes altogether of a temporary and
unexpected character, when we come to examine them.
But the stupendous spectacle itself was enough to impress the
beholder with the irresistible effect which it could not fail to
produce. A whole nation obedient to the voice of one man! --and
that a man who had never been invested with a state dignity,
proud only of having once represented a poor Irish county in the
English Parliament; who was eminently a man of the people,
identified in every way with the people, speaking a language
they could all understand, speaking to hundreds of thousands who
had come at his call to listen to him: at one time nearly a
million of them surrounded him on the hill of Tara.
Had a demagogue stood in his place, how could he have resisted
the temptation of using such power to effect a thorough
revolution? O'Connell had only to utter the word, and those
immense masses of men would have swept the whole island as with
a besom of destruction. The impetuosity of the Irish character
when placed in such circumstances is well known, and O'Connell
knew it better than any man living at the time. He showed
himself truly heroic in the constant moderation of his words,
even in scenes the most exciting, when a look from him might
have lashed the nation into madness.
To bring out more clearly the stamp and greatness of the man,
compare his conduct with that of the leaders in the great French
Revolution of 1793. Not one of them ever possessed a tithe, not
merely of the great Irishman's honesty of purpose, but even of
his real authority over the people; yet, what frightful convulsions
did they not bring upon the state in the days of their brief
popularity? Throughout the whole repeal movement, when millions
of people obeyed implicitly one leader, ready to do his will at
any moment, there was never a single breach of the peace, never
an attempt at outrage, never a threat of retaliation.
The only difficulty is where to bestow the greater admiration,
on O'Connell or the people; for, if O'Connell towered almost
above humanity in his never-varying moderation, with such a
powerful engine in his hands, the people offered a spectacle
which would be looked for in vain elsewhere in the history of
man, that of a whole nation swayed by the most excited feelings,
one in thought, in aims, in the bitter memory of the past,
conscious of their irresistible power in the present, yet never
yielding to passion, but dispersing quietly after listening to
the impassioned harangues of their leader, to return to their
homes and resume their ordinary occupations. Any impartial man,
who has read history at all, must acknowledge that this
spectacle is unexampled, and in itself vindicates the Irish
character from the foolish aspersions so lavishly cast upon it,
and so thoughtlessly repeated still.
One great fact was brought out by those demonstrations which
afterward appeared so barren of result, namely, the existence of
a nation full of life and energy, of a surprising vigor, and at
the same time governed by stern principles as well as swayed by
emotion. It would be idle to pretend that they were a non-entity,
save as forming a part of the British Empire, existing on
sufferance as it were, merely to add to the greatness and the
glory of the English nation. They possessed a life of their own.
That life had, as was seen, been instilled into them by their
religious convictions alone; it had lain dormant for more than a
century; and now it burst forth in the view of the world, to
proclaim that the Irish nation still existed. And this wonderful
resurrection was due to moral force alone.
Though the Irish people then appeared so different from that
humbled, crushed mass of oppressed beings, who, a hundred years
before, lay so completely at the mercy of their masters, it was,
nevertheless, the same people, and the difference was purely one
of circumstances. Had they been allowed in the previous century
to manifest their feelings, as a happy change in the state of
affairs now permitted them, they would assuredly have acted in
exactly the same manner. And this reflection tends to confirm
the opinion, several times here expressed, that the Irish people
existed all along, and that the most adverse circumstances had
never succeeded in destroying it.
Meanwhile, O'Connell was the sovereign of that nation, and one
whose power over his subjects was greater than that of any of
the kings or emperors who occupied the various thrones of Europe
at the time. Later events proved how precarious was the
authority of all those who appeared to hold the fate of millions
in their hands; the authority of O'Connell alone was deeply
rooted in the heart of his nation. From the humble position of a
Kerry lawyer, he had gradually risen to the proud preeminence
which he occupied in the eyes of Europe, and he owed it solely
to that moral force of which he was so sincere an advocate, and
which he knew so well how to wield.
But how came all the high hopes then so ardently entertained by
the friends of Ireland to be so suddenly dashed to the ground,
and O'Connell to die of a broken heart?
It seems, indeed, to be the opinion of Irishmen even, that
O'Connell's theory was faulty; that moral force alone could not
restore Ireland to her lawful position among nations; that, in
fact, he failed by his very moderation, and that the bitterness
which clouded his last days was the natural consequence of his
false and delusive expectations. Such seems now to be the almost
universal opinion.
Yet, in all his wonderful career, only one fault can be brought
against him. Yielding, on one occasion, in 1843, to the exuberance
of his feelings, "he committed himself to a specific promise that
within six months repeal would be an accomplished fact."
This promise, rashly given, and showing no result, is said to
have cooled down the enthusiasm of the people, who, from that
time, lost confidence in their leader; and to this alone is the
utter failure of the great agitation ascribed.
But there is so little of real truth in this assertion that,
when, on his well-known imprisonment, after the law lords, in
the British House of Peers, declared that the conviction of
O'Connell and his colleagues was wrong, he was restored to
liberty, the writer just quoted confesses that "overwhelming
demonstrations of unchanged affection and personal attachment
poured in upon him from his countrymen. Their faith in his
devotion to Ireland was increased a hundred-fold."
It is true that the same writer, Mr. A.M. O'Sullivan, adds that
"their faith in the efficiency of his policy, or the surety of
his promise, was gone;" but to reconcile this phrase with what
precedes it, it must not be taken absolutely. The want of faith
here spoken of was restricted to the members of a new party,
which had been organized chiefly during the imprisonment of the
great leader, the "Young Ireland party," the new advocates of
physical force against England, composed of the ardent and, most
surely, well-intentioned young men, who failed so egregiously a
few years later.
This party was the chief cause of O'Connell's failure, coupled
with the awful famine which followed soon after, and left the
Irish small desire for political agitation with grim Death
staring them in the face, and the main question before them one
of avoiding starvation and utter ruin.
Both causes, however, were purely of a temporary nature, and the
efficacy of moral force remained strong as ever, and, in fact,
the only thing possible.
The Young Ireland party could not exist long, as its avowed
policy was so rash, so ill-founded, and poorly carried out, that
the mere breath of British power was enough to dissipate it
hopelessly in a moment. Moreover, it placed itself in open
antagonism to the mass of the Catholic clergy, and appeared to
have so ill studied the history of the country that its members
did not know the real power which religion exercised over their
countrymen. They could not but fail, and their futile attempt
only served to render worse the condition of the country they
were ready to die for.
It would be enough to add here, of other subsequent attempts of
the same nature, that no real hope for the complete resurrection
of Ireland could be looked to from such abortive and stillborn
conspiracies; especially when the alliance entered into by some
of them with the revolutionary party of European socialists and
atheists is taken into account, men from whom nothing but disorder,
anarchy, and crime, can be expected. Thus, those who wish well to
the Irish cause have only moral force to fall back upon.
It is needless to do more than mention the passing nature of the
frightful calamity of famine and consequent expatriation, which
have been sufficiently dwelt upon. The Irish race has passed
through ordeals more trying than either of these; it has
survived them, and increased in numbers after all previous
calamities, as it doubtless will after this last, when God
thinks proper to abate in the people the eagerness they still
feel for leaving their native country.
All the progress made by Ireland, so far, is due, therefore,
solely to the kind action of Divine Providence, which is
generally called the "logic of events," aided by men endowed
with prudence and energy. It would be superfluous for our
purpose to detail at length several other progressive steps made
subsequently, which the mad attempt of the party of physical
force would have effectually prevented if open tyranny were as
easy a thing in these days as it once was. The establishment of
the "Encumbered Estates Courts," and the disestablishment of the
Irish Protestant Church, are the chief measures alluded to: the
first so fruitful of good to Ireland since its adoption, and the
second destined to be no less so. It is useless to remark that
physical force had nothing to do with their introduction, and
that the British statesmen who advocated and carried them
through were swayed only by that unseen power which is said by
Holy Scripture to "hold the heart of kings in its hands." Let the
Irish do their part, and Heaven will continue to smile on them.
Since it is to this unseen power that all the improvement now
visible in the condition of the Irish nation is due, it is only
natural to expect from it every thing that is still wanting. For
we are far from thinking that nothing more is to be done, and
that all to be desired has been obtained. That the nation is
still dissatisfied, is plain enough; and it must be right in not
feeling contented with the various measures for its improvement
tendered it so far. The voice of its natural leaders--of the
prelates and clergy-proclaims that there are many things to
change, and many new measures to be introduced.
The first and foremost of these is a thorough remedy for the
disgraceful state of pauperism to which the great majority of
the Irish nation is yet reduced. That pauperism was wilfully
established, and this national crime of England stands unatoned
for still. It would be unjust to say that the policy which
produced it is pursued to-day by the English Government; we
sincerely believe, on the contrary, that the state of things
which has existed for the last two centuries is seriously
deplored by many of those who, under God, hold in their keeping
the destiny of millions of men. But it is surprising that so
many projects, so many attempts at legislation, the writing of
so many wise books, discussions so many and so exhaustive of the
evil, should all result in leaving the evil almost as it stood.
If we listen to those who know Ireland perfectly, who have
either spent their lives in the country, or traversed its
surface leisurely and intelligently, it would seem as though the
old descriptions of her in the time of her greatest misfortunes
would still be appropriate and true.
"No devastated province of the Roman Empire," said Father
Lavelle, but yesterday, in his "Irish Landlord," "ever presented
half the wretchedness of Ireland. At this day, the mutilated
Fellah of Egypt, the savage Hottentot and New-Hollander, the
live chattel of Cuba, enjoy a paradise in comparison with the
Irish peasant, that is to say, with the bulk of the Irish nation."
But, as this short passage deals only in generalities, and as
there may be some suspicion of the warm nature of the writer
having given a higher color to his words than was warranted by
the facts, let us listen to the less impassioned utterances of
travellers who have recently visited the island: let us see the
Irish at home in their towns and in the country.
I. In towns and cities: The most Rev. Archbishop of Dublin,
writing in 1857 to Lord St. Leonards, on the state of his flock
in Dublin, says: "Were your lordship to visit some of the ruined
lanes and streets of Dublin, your heart would thrill with horror
at the picture of human woe which would present itself."
And in a pastoral letter, November 27,1861, he spoke of "tens of
thousands of human beings, destitute of all the comforts of life,
who are to be met with at every step in all great towns and
cities. If you enter the wretched abodes where they live, you
will find that they have no fuel, that they are unprovided with
beds and other furniture, and that generally they have not a
single blanket to protect them from the cold."
Abbe Perraud, after a thorough examination of the subject, wrote,
in 1864, in "Ireland under English Rule:"
"The poor quarters of Cork, Limerick, and Drogheda, present the
same spectacle as Dublin, and justify the sad proverbial
celebrity of `Irish rags.' Dirt, negligence, and want of care,
doubtless, go a long way in giving to destitution in Ireland its
repulsive and hideous form; but who is unaware that continued
and hopeless destitution engenders, as of necessity,
listlessness and carelessness, and that, to enter into a
struggle with poverty, there must be at least some chance of
carrying off the victory?"
A German Protestant, Dr. Julius Rodenberg, writing in 1861,
expressed his astonishment at the sight of Ireland's poverty, as
he saw it in the streets of Dublin, although he had doubtless
read a great deal about it previously. "You are in a country,"
he says, "whence people emigrate by thousands, while fields, of
such an extent and power of production as would support them all,
lie fallow."
And with respect to the progress already made, M. de Beaumont
had remarked many years before that in Ireland a certain
relative progress was quite compatible with the continued
existence of pauperism among the lower classes. "One single
cause," he remarks, "suffices to explain why the agricultural
population becomes poorer, while the prosperity of the rich is
on the increase: it is that all improvement in the land is
profitable solely to the proprietor, who exacts more rent from
the farmer in proportion as he works the land into a better state."
Since M. de Beaumont wrote, the pauperism in the cities has
assumed a more wretched and repulsive form, in consequence of
the crowding there of poor peasants who had been evicted from
their small farms and fled to the nearest city or town with the
hope of finding there at least charity.
"For the last ten years," wrote Abbe Perraud, in 1864, "there
has been taking place in the large cities an accumulation of
poor as fatal to their health as to their morality. They are
mostly country people whom eviction has driven from the country,
who have been unable to emigrate, and who were unwilling to shut
themselves up immediately in the workhouses. The resources they
procure for themselves, by doing odd work, are so completely
insufficient, that it is impossible to be surprised at their
destitution."
Dr. Rodenberg, describing the state of the poor country people
crowded in the "Liberties of Dublin," says of the rooms in which
they live: "In those holes the most wretched and pitiable
laborers imaginable live; they often lie by hundreds together on
the bare ground."
Such citations might be sadly multiplied, but those given are
sufficient as descriptive of the state of the poor Irish in the
cities. Let us now see how the peasants live in the country in
many parts of Ireland:
II. "The destitution of the agricultural classes," writes Abbe
Perraud, from personal observation, "in order to be rightly
appreciated, must be seen in the boggy and mountainous regions
of Munster, of Connaught, and of the western portion of Ulster.
"The ordinary dwelling of the small tenant, of the day-laborer,
in that part of Ireland, answers with the utmost precision the
description of it twenty years ago given by M. de Beaumont: 'Let
the reader picture to himself four walls of dried mud, which the
rain easily reduces to its primitive condition; a little thatch
or a few cuts of turf form the roof; a rude hole in the roof
forms the chimney, and more frequently there is no other issue
for the smoke than the door of the dwelling itself. One solitary
room holds father, mother, grandfather, and children. No
furniture is to be seen; a single litter, usually composed of
grass or straw, serves for the whole family. Five or six half-
naked children may be seen crouching over a poor fire. In the
midst of them lies a filthy pig, the only inhabitant at its ease,
because its element is filth itself.'
"Into how many dwellings of this kind have we not ourselves
penetrated--especially in the counties of Kerry, Mayo, and
Donegal--more than once obliged to stoop down to the ground, in
order to penetrate into these cabins, the entrance to which is
so low that they look more like the burrows of beasts than
dwellings made for man!
"Upon the road from Kilkenny to Grenaugh, in the vicinity of
those beautiful lakes, at the entrance of those parks, to which,
for extent and richness, neither England nor Scotland can
probably offer any thing equal, we have seen other dwellings. A
few branches of trees, interlaced and leaning upon the slope in
the road, a few cuts of turf, and a few stones picked up in the
fields, compose these wretched huts--less spacious, and perhaps
less substantial, than that of the American savage."
At the time of Abbe Perraud's visit, a correspondent of the
Dublin Saunders News-Letters, who was commissioned to inquire
into the condition of the peasants, gave the following reply,
which, as the abbe justly remarks, is but the faithful echo of
all the descriptions made within the last half-century:
"The inhabitants of Erris appear to be the most wretched of all
human beings. Their cabins, their patched and tattered clothes,
their broken-down gait--every thing bears witness to their
poverty. Their beds consist of a few bits of wood crossed one
upon the other, supported by two heaps of stones, and covered
with straw; their whole bedclothes a miserable, worn-out quilt,
without any blankets . . . . But there is nothing in Ireland
like the habitations which the people of the village of Fallmore
have made for themselves, who have been evicted by Mr. Palmer.
They are composed of masses of granite, picked up on the shore,
and roughly laid one by the other. These cabins are so low that
a man cannot stand upright in them; so narrow that they can
hardly hold three or four persons."
After all, F. Lavelle was guilty of no exaggeration in stating
that the hut of the Hottentot was better than that of the Irish
peasant. But, in the district of Gweedore, northeast of County
Donegal, the state of the peasantry is more deplorably wretched
still than in any other part of Ireland. At the time of a
celebrated parliamentary inquiry in to the matter in 1858, a
Londonderry newspaper stated that "there are in Donegal about
four thousand adults, of both sexes, who are obliged to go
barefoot during the winter, in the ice and snow--pregnant women
and aged people in habitual danger of death from the cold . . . .
It is rare to find a man with a calico shirt; but the distress
of the women is still greater, if that be possible. There are
many hundreds of families in which five or six grown-up women
have among them no more than a single dress to go out in . . . .
There are about five hundred families who have but one bed each--
in which father, mother, and children, without distinction of
age or sex, are crowded pell-mell together."
If from the dwellings and clothing of the peasantry we pass to
their food, there is no need of adding any thing to what was
said on this point when describing the periodical famines. One
detail, however, not yet mentioned, deserves to be recorded:
"In the district of Gweedore," says Abbe Perraud, "our eyes were
destined to witness the use of sea-weed. Stepping once into a
cabin, in which there was no one but a little girl charged with
the care of minding her younger brothers, and getting ready the
evening meal, we found upon the fire a pot full of doulamaun
ready cooked; we asked to taste it, and some was handed to us on
a little platter.
"This weed, when well dressed, produces a kind of viscous juice;
it has a brackish taste, and savors strongly of salt water. We
were told in the country that the only use of it is to increase,
when mixed with potatoes, the mass of aliment given to the
stomach. The longer and more difficult the work of the stomach,
the less frequent are its calls. It is a kind of compromise with
hunger; the people are able neither to suppress it nor to satisfy
it; they endeavor to cheat it. We have also been assured that this
weed cannot be eaten alone; it must be mixed with vegetables,
since of itself it has no nutritive properties whatever."
How long is such a state of things likely to continue? It has
already existed long enough to be a disgrace to the much-vaunted
benevolence of the nineteenth century. A sure and radical remedy
must be found for it; and, as it has been already so long
delayed, it should be found the more promptly.
It seems that the tenure of land lies at the bottom of the
question, and that respect for what are called "established
rights" offers the main difficulty. Those rights, indeed, were
founded on the cruellest wrong and the most flagrant injustice;
but as possession is "nine points of the English law," and so
long a time has passed since the land changed hands,
prescription must be admitted and let them be called rights; nor
can any man in his senses ask for a violent subversion of
society for the sake of righting an old wrong.
But it has ever been a maxim of jurisprudence that summum jus,
summa injuria; and this axiom finds its full explanation in the
present case, when it is considered that the jus is on the side
of a comparatively small number of men, for the most part
absentee landlords, while the injuria leans to the great mass of
the primitive owners of the soil. The time-honored policy of the
English Government, that all the open abuses of landlordism
should be watched over and protected with the most jealous care,
while, on the other hand, the wretched farmer and cottier is
supposed to have no rights to defend and guard, should be
abandoned at once and forever, with a firmness that can leave no
room for doubt or equivocation, if the restoration of confidence
on the part of the Irish is esteemed any thing worth.
But, if for no other motive, at least for the sake of securing
peace and order in Ireland, a remedy must be found. There is no
reason why the Irish should longer remain a nation of paupers;
and, although some may still pretend that the fault and its
remedy lie with themselves, unprejudiced men will readily
acknowledge that the fault lay first, at least, at England's
door --a fact which the London Times has conceded often and
proclaimed loudly enough.
Let British statesmen, then, devise proper means for such an end
without social commotion, with as little disturbance of private
rights as possible; for the object is an imperious necessity. It
seems that the latest law enacted with this view is not the
measure that was required; is totally inadequate in its
provisions, scope, and extent. In such a case it is always open
to legislators to introduce a new and more satisfactory measure;
and moral force will surely bring this about, provided it is
true to itself. We confess to having no scheme of our own to set
forth; but Irishmen are free, nay entitled, to speak, to write
on, and discuss the subject; and a serious, steady, but lawful
agitation of the question will surely find its true and final
solution. The last Galway election, notwithstanding the temporary
triumph of Judge Keogh, was a beginning in the right direction.
There is no need here of revolution, of what the French call une
jaquerie, of arming the populace for the purpose of violently
ejecting the great land-owners. No Irishman has ever stood for
so calamitous a remedy. The aid of the Internationalists will
certainly never be called in by the true children of Erin for
any purpose whatever. It seems that the great and holy Pontiff,
Pius IX., made this remark to the Prince of Wales, at their last
interview at the Vatican, and, according to the report, the
prince fully admitted its truth as far, at least, as he, by any
outward sign, could show.
The question is one of pure justice, to be settled within the
limits of order and law; and surely, when all admit that the
evil is so crying, that a remedy must be found, one will be
found, which, while it does no real injury to any person, will
bring comfort and relief to the most deserving and suffering
race of men--the Irish peasantry. We will soon see how.
But the Irishman is not only physically destitute; he is also
destitute mentally; and, if the first case calls for a prompt
remedy, the second is no less urgent. Pauperism and ignorance
were the two terrible engines so long worked by England for the
degradation and final destruction of the Irish race. Our readers
have seen how persistently was education, of any kind, refused
to the natives. The Universities of Dublin and Drogheda in the
fourteenth century, the cathedral schools, founded by the Anglo-
Normans, in the same age, carefully excluded the Irish from
their benefits. And, when the Reformation set in, with its long
series of oppressions, no Catholic could share in the new
foundations of the Tudors and the Stuarts without first abjuring
his religion. Penal statute after penal statute made of all the
shifts, to which the Irish were driven in order to educate their
children, so many crimes, punishable by death or transportation.
That, under such a state of things, they could remain Catholics
without becoming idiots is one of the most remarkable instances
on record of buoyancy of spirit and soundness of mind on the
part of a whole nation.
From the end of the last century the policy of England changed
completely in appearance. The foundation and endowment by the
state of the great college of Maynooth, destined for the education
of the Irish clergy, in 1795, was certainly a step on the right
road, and if only primary schools for the people had, at the same
time, been spread all over the island on the same principle of true
liberality, the old injustice on the matter of education would have
been atoned for and remedied, to a great extent.
But the Kildare Peace Society and the Church Education Society,
founded in 1839, showed that the antagonism to the Catholic
Church in Ireland was far from being dead; nay, was as rife as
ever.
Lord Stanley's National Education System, in 1831, at first
seemed of a character altogether above Protestant or infidel
proselytism. But, the composition of the various boards under
that system, and some of the measures adopted, gave evidence
clearly and soon enough that the education proposed for the
Irish was not in accordance with the true spirit of the nation,
so eminently Catholic and religious as it is. Hence, the total
failure--for such it is now admitted by all to have been--of
that system ought to have opened the eyes of all impartial
Englishmen to the necessity of starting from the principle that
Ireland is Catholic, and that the Irish are true children of the
Catholic Church. But this fact seems not yet recognized or
acknowledged by those who rule the nation, since, at this very
moment, a bill lies before Parliament against which all the
bishops of Ireland have united in raising their voice. The
queen's colleges all confess to be a wretched failure.
The injustice of centuries, then, is not, even in these free
days, when there is such a talk about educating the masses,
repaired by the English Government; and this sad fact seems to
militate against the power of moral force. However, it is but
right to remember that only those establishments are here spoken
of which are supported by state aid, and that complete freedom
of education, independent of such assistance, does actually
exist in Ireland. Have not the bishops all necessary power to
open schools of their own? Have they not even founded a
university? Does the state dare to interfere in whatever
educational establishments they think proper to set on foot?
They are now, in that regard, as free as the Catholic bishops in
the United States; and if the degrees granted by the faculties
under their control have no value in the eyes of the state, they
can easily dispense with a concurrence, which is certainly
unjustly denied, but which, even if granted, would not, in the
eyes of the Church, increase in the slightest the real value of
the diplomas they themselves approve. They can afford to wait
for the time when complete justice will be done; meanwhile they
are freer than Catholic bishops at this moment are in all
Catholic countries of Europe; and the freedom they enjoy is
entirely owing to that moral force which, we allege, is
sufficient to insure, sooner or later, all the advantages that
can be desired. When the present situation of the native Irish,
from an educational point of view, is compared with the oppression
under which they lay a hundred years ago, one cannot but wonder
how so much has been obtained, and the hope, that every thing
still wanting is sure to come by the agency of the force that
has already won so much, cannot be deemed vain and illusory.
Let not, however, what is here said be construed as advising
Ireland to stand still while schemes of education, evidently
godless, are concocted, matured, and passed into laws for their
special benefit. On the contrary, they must not only continue
but increase their efforts to cry them down, till they compel a
blind and deaf government to open its eyes and ears to a
national want and a national voice. This is what is meant by the
use of moral force.
But, can the complete remedy for pauperism and the solid
establishment and endowment of truly Catholic schools be
expected to come from any hands but those of an Irish
Legislature? Can they be hoped for as long as the destiny of
Ireland rests in the hands of an Imperial Parliament whose great
majority can have no real sympathy with the long-oppressed race?
In a word, is home-rule necessary to bring about those two great
measures, which seem absolutely indispensable for the complete
resurrection of the nation?
Our readers already know that, in our opinion, an Irish
Parliament would not be a sure panacea for the evils of the
country, particularly those of pauperism and ignorance, even
though that Parliament sat in Dublin, and was composed of
Irishmen bred and born. The evils would not be struck out
promptly and utterly, although many great improvements would
immediately follow.
Some of our reasons for being chary of confidence in the success
of home-rule have been already given. But we have also insisted
on the necessity of leaving the question open, and admitted that
Irishmen have a right to discuss it, and take whatever side they
may think proper, provided always they stand, as they are
standing, within the limits of law and order.
Surely, the Irish have a right to be fairly represented; modern
doctrines, as far as they can go, consecrate that right; and, if
fair representation is an impossibility in the present state of
affairs in Ireland, that state should be so altered as that the
Irish nation might obtain all the advantages which a truly
representative government bestows.
It is clear that the difficulty consists in the paramount
importance of the union--of the empire; and this is not the
place to discuss so large a question. It may be said, however,
that the union of the British Empire does not and cannot consist
in the absorption into one whole of the three integral parts
which compose it. England, Scotland, and Ireland, are still
three distinct national entities, each inhabited by a peculiar
race, and each race cannot, in such a political organization, be
in justice ignored, for a mere abstraction called the state.
Certainly the question is a very complicated one; and to offer a
dogmatic solution of it would be pretentious. It is better to
leave it to a future which is not far distant. What may be
insisted on is, that moral force is strong enough to bring about
a satisfactory decision, and that to resort to revolution for
such a purpose would be as fatal as it is criminal.
A right discussion of the question must make clear the fact that
Ireland is entitled to fair dealing as a component part of the
empire. Many other political organizations embraced within the
vast limits of the British power are allowed to discuss and
decide on questions peculiar to themselves, and which they are
at full liberty to pronounce upon for themselves by a wise
adjustment and concession on the part of the mother-country as
necessary to their well-being. Canada is almost entirely
independent; the Australian colonies have all their own
legislatures; it is the same more or less with all the distant
dependencies of England, yet there have been no complaints heard
so far of these late concessions threatening the union of the Empire.
But the objection is urged: "If such a concession be made to
Ireland, where can you stop? The Scotch may ask the same, and
the Welsh; one has as much right to home-rule as the other;
where can you draw the line?"
An easy answer to this is, that the Scotch have never asked for
home-rule, for the very good reason that they never had to
complain of unfair treatment at the hands of the English
Government; their special wants and desires having been always
duly considered from the moment of their union with England. But
the union of Ireland with England is not yet a century old, was
brought about perforce, and by chicanery and fraud, and from the
moment of its enactment to the present has been loudly protested
against by the Irish nation--the nation, that is, which we have
followed all through, joined in this instance by numbers of
their Protestant fellow-countrymen. A long list of pamphlets and
books might be drawn up, as showing the fact that multitudes of
Irish writers, not of a revolutionary but of a truly
conservative character, who cannot be accused of disloyalty to
England, have deplored, protested against, and clamored for the
repeal of, the Union of 1800.
Such is not the case with Scotland. But suppose it were, and
proofs furnished showing that Scotland is not fairly represented
in a Parliament which meets at Westminster, then that country
would have just as much right to see itself fairly represented,
its special wants satisfied and met, as all the other branches
of the great British organization.
Certain it is that the empire cannot be sound when an important,
a vital part of its political frame is incurably sore. Let that
sore be healed by justice, large, generous, and complete; let
Ireland be truly and really represented, in whatever manner her
representation may be carried out, and the sudden rise of the
little western isle in wealth, contentment, true prosperity, and
happiness, will redound to the general good of the whole. As it
now stands, its still miserable condition is as great and
constant a danger to Great Britain as it is a reproach and a
shame upon the maternal government which suffers the child, for
whose session it would stake its all, to continue in a state of
almost hopeless poverty, materially and intellectually, and to
struggle unaided in its efforts to rise.
If home-rule be the measure which is to heal Ireland's wounds,
it must be granted, and the voice of reason and right must rise
above the stupid clamor which says that it cannot, must not,
shall not be granted! Such expressions were common in
inflammatory pamphlets which flooded the country on the eve of
Catholic Emancipation, in 1829; and possibly many were issued
even after the granting of this (from a certain English point of
view) suicidal act of justice to Catholics.
But whatever may be the ultimate issue of the home-rule movement,
the question of education, which is so closely allied to, as to
seem dependent on it, is of such importance that it brooks no
delay. Ireland is, as it may be hoped it will ever continue, a
truly Catholic nation, and for such education must be special,
and cannot be left to the direction of a non-Catholic state, not
to use a worse expression. The result of the so-called national
system, as exhibited by the Queen's Colleges and the rest, ought
to be enough to open the eyes of real statesmen. But non-
Catholic legislators need a sense which they do not possess, to
appreciate the blunders they must fall into when proposing to
touch such delicate interests as spiritual things. Thirty years
ago, when those Queen's Colleges and schools were established in
Ireland, the Catholic hierarchy raised up their voice to warn
the British Government against so rash an attempt; for the very
few who appeared willing to give the system a trial had their
own doubts and forebodings. The warning, as usual, was not
heeded, and the consequence is, that the partisans of the system
now confess that their darling scheme has turned out a complete
failure. Yet, strange to say, they do not in the least seem to
have changed their ideas on the subject. On the contrary, they
wish to secularize education more completely than ever, and to
extend their project to the whole British Empire; though at this
moment the warning comes to them also from the Presbyterians of
Scotland, who refuse to submit to the scheme, universal in its
scope, of educating the young according to state notions and
worldly ideas.
In this the British Government only follows the lead of all
European cabinets and legislatures; for this great iniquity is
not confined to the British Isles, but is attempted everywhere,
with the evident design of taking the government of souls out of
the hands to which Jesus Christ confided it--the Church. The
Sovereign Pontiff was compelled to protest, and, as is the
custom in these days, his protest fell unheeded. It remains to
be seen whether men, who call themselves Christians, will
consent to see their children educated by secular bodies, which
are not only void of all authority over the souls of men, but
imbued, as all know, with doctrines the most pernicious and
disorganizing. The just complaint made by the Irish hierarchy is
unfortunately not restricted to their own body; their complaint
is one with that of all the rulers of the Church throughout the
world. It seems to us that there is greater hope of establishing
a thorough Christian system of education in Ireland than in any
other country, because the Irish nation will always take a more
determined attitude, and gather in a more compact and united body
around her natural leaders, the bishops and priests of God, than
any other modern Catholic nation; and, in this age, where there
are unanimity and a fixed purpose among any body of men, they
cannot fail to result in a victory over all obstacles and opponents.
Of one thing England may be sure, that the Irish bishops would
never submit to the project now on foot in England, as to do so
would be to fail in their most sacred duty; and the mass of the
Irish people is at their back. The Catholic hierarchy is always
ready to support the secular power so long as that power remains
within its province and does not step out of it to encroach on
their unquestionable domain; but, when duty calls on them to
resist, the experience of centuries is before the world, in
Ireland at least, to show how far they can carry their resistance.
In this they will stand united as one man, and it is vain for the
English Government to flatter itself that it will find tools among
them, should it foist on them the Birmingham scheme.
But a more threatening fact still is the compact union of all
Irishmen in support of their bishops, against schemes which have
already excited such bitter opposition on their part, and on
which they have already pronounced and given their solemn
verdict in unmistakable tones. If in our days Irishmen have been
so eager to uphold many projects of a doubtful character,
because those projects were opposed to England; if they have
shown in the most emphatic manner that the memory of the past is
still fresh, and that they are not yet prepared to accept the
British Government as a friend; if they have seized every
occasion, the most trifling as well as the most important, to
show that the union with England was distasteful to them--what
will be their attitude when the question admits of no doubt, and
can give rise to no apprehension in a Christian conscience; when,
indeed, they know that they stand where their duty to God bids
them, urged at the same time by their natural feelings of
opposition to a power which they detest and to which they are
irreconcilable? We do not say that we altogether approve of
their dogged opposition to England; it is only alluded to as a
fact which it would be folly, in treating of questions between
England and Ireland, to shut one's eyes to or doubt.
When such is the state of feeling, how can a scheme of godless
education hope to succeed, which, after all, requires the
consent of fathers and mothers of families? It is only natural
to suppose that the English Government, in the event of its
success, is scarcely prepared to employ such a numerous,
watchful, and determined police as shall march the children off
to school every lay by force--to schools which to them would be
prisons, presided over by jailers in the shape of instructors.
Nevertheless, the scheme now agitated by British statesmen must
culminate in some such measure, if they would have their schools
attended; and the inference is natural that education viewed
from such a stand-point becomes a design criminal and oppressive
in its nature, as well as a sheer impossibility in its carrying
out. Once again the whole British power would launch itself in
vain against the unyielding rock of as stubborn a will as ever
animated human beings, as durable and unshrinking almost as the
inner rock upon which it is built--Catholic faith.
Much space has already been devoted to the consideration of what
are here considered as the two great measures necessary and
sufficient for the complete resurrection of the Irish race--the
lifting of the load of pauperism under which they have so long
labored, and the establishment among them of a sound and
thorough Christian education; and that those measures will
undoubtedly be carried without any attempt at social convulsions,
without any violation of law and order. But, as, unfortunately,
many side-issues have been raised in Ireland of very inferior
importance, but of a nature almost exclusively to engage the
attention of Irishmen, to the great detriment of real progress,
it may be well to dwell a little longer on the consequences
which must infallibly follow from a higher state of physical
comfort and mental culture among them:
I. A higher state of physical comfort will naturally produce a
stronger attachment to their native soil and a corresponding
reluctance to leave it, as they now do by wholesale emigration.
The thought has been dwelt upon that emigration was a design of
Divine Providence, and even the first step in the resurrection
of the nation and in the establishment of its power within as
well as without. That the object of emigration is not yet fully
attained may be inferred from the fact that it still continues
on so large a scale; that it must ultimately dwindle to much
smaller proportions, if not cease utterly, is pretty certain.
This is our wish and hope: for the home population of the island
must be large enough to invest it with deserved importance in
the eyes of foreigners. Our title-page sets forth the words of
Dr. Newman, expressive of the firm belief that the time will
come when the Catholic population of Erin will be as thick and
prosperous as that of Belgium? Why should it not be so? Pauperism
alone prevents it. Let their existence be one of comfort--mere
comfort, not luxury--and there is no limit to the increase of
their numbers. In such an event Protestantism would contract into
such narrow limits that in Ireland it would become a thing unknown;
the few sectarians still abiding there would themselvesshare in
the general prosperity, and would possibly of their own accord
return to the bosom of the common mother of Christians.
The question, then, of increase of physical comfort for Irishmen
is one of the utmost importance, and, as the tenure of land is
so closely connected with it, not to this question is the term
side-issue applied. The land-question should be thoroughly
exhausted until the true solution, the real measure, which has
not yet appeared, may be brought to the surface and carried out
to the full. The land-question in all its bearings lies beyond
our competence; not so, certain reasons for believing that the
possession of land is necessary for the complete restoration of
the nation. Manufactures and commercial pursuits are of
secondary importance in a country like Ireland, which is
eminently agricultural. This should not be taken to mean that
such matters are to be neglected, and the Irish to be
discouraged in engaging in them, particularly in their home
manufactures; nor in calling for better laws to help them, at
least for fair dealing as far as legislation goes. But supposing
them completely independent and masters of themselves; supposing
not only the repeal of the Union, but even the separation from
the British organization effected, how could they hope to
compete in manufacturing skill, and science, with the inventive
genius of the American, the systematic comprehensiveness of the
Englishman, or the artistic taste of the French? Goods are
manufactured for the markets of the world, and the Irish are not
yet prepared for such extensive enterprises; and, taking the
characteristics of the race into consideration, it is doubtful
whether they will ever be successful in such ventures.
The same may be said of commerce. When are they likely to have a
navy of their own? They are still Celts, and would it be well
for them to cease to be Celts? The oceans of the globe are
covered with ships bearing the flags of many nations. Suppose
them to unfurl a national flag to the breeze, which is saluted,
wherever met, by the crafts of other civilized nations, when
would it become perceptible among the crowded fleets which
already hold possession of the seas? The broad thoroughfares of
the ocean know two or three national colors; all the others are
so seldom seen, that their presence or absence is alike
unnoticed by the world at large. Among these would the Irish be
numbered, if they engaged in commerce on their own account, and
sailed no longer under British colors.
It is for them, then, to turn their attention to the land, which
is their chief source of wealth. Let them buy it up, or gain it
by long leases, inch by inch and acre by acre, until not only
the bleak bogs and wild mountains of Connaught are again their
own, but the rich meadow-lands and smiling wheat-fields of
Munster and Leinster. Let their brethren in America and
Australia associate with them in this, and thus will they build
up again a true Irish yeomanry and nobility--for nobility has a
new meaning to-day--more glorious, perhaps, than the old one.
Poverty and rags will give place to prosperity and comfort, even
in the lowliest cottages, and mirth and glee will be heard again
in the country from which they have so long been banished.
Is such a picture a dream, and its realization an impossibility?
It is our belief that, to make it a reality, only requires
steadiness of purpose, perseverance, energy, and association.
Fifty years ago it would certainly have seemed a dream; but
matters have advanced within the last half-century, and every
thing is now prepared for such a hoped-for consummation.
II. Together with physical comfort, the culture produced by a
sound and thorough education is the second thing absolutely
necessary for the resurrection of the nation. Education has, at
all times, been of the utmost importance; in our age it is more
so than ever. It may be said that, in the opinion of mankind, it
tends more and more to replace blood. The privileges that once
belonged to rank and birth are now everywhere freely accorded to
a truly-educated man. And here, wealth, which is almost
worshipped by many, cannot altogether take the place of
education. Consequently, a great effort should be made in
Ireland to raise the standard of the intellectual scale of
society. Owing to former tyranny and oppression, the rising must
begin at the lowest grade. But the first impulse has already
been given by the Church of God, and that impulse must continue
and increase with a constantly-accelerated force.
Unfortunately, a false direction has been given it by the state.
The means which will surely defeat this action of the state have
been seen. Nevertheless, it works mischievously for the general
result; and the money paid by the nation has been and still is
squandered for a most unholy purpose, when, if properly applied,
it would be so fruitful of good.
Should the government persevere in its project, one course only
lies open before all true Irishmen; and that is, to ignore the
action of the government, and follow a plan of their own. They
have only to do what the Catholics in France would most
willingly do if the state allowed them; what Catholics in the
United States have been doing for some time, and will have to do
for some time longer--not murmur too loudly at the taxes paid by
them for educational purposes and used so lavishly by the state
without any profit to them; but with steady purpose raise funds
which the state cannot touch, devoted to an object with which
the state cannot interfere, namely, the solid Christian
education of their children under the eyes and chief control of
the Church, with competent and truly religious masters.
Let them reflect that until recently education in Christian
countries was always imparted by the Church of Christ, and that
its secularization is but a work of yesterday; that the effect
of that secularization is manifest enough in the mental anarchy
which grows more prevalent in Europe every day; that the nation
which comes back to the old system, and places again the care of
youth in the hands of religious teachers, is sure to obtain a
far sounder and more effective education than those who take for
teachers of their children men void of faith and remarkable only
for a false and superficial polish, which sooner or later will
be reckoned by all at its true value, and meet only with well-
merited neglect and contempt.
No one will deny that moral training, the first and most
important part of education, is far surer and safer in the care
of religious teachers than in that of mere laymen, whose
morality is often doubtful, and whose reputation is not of the
best. With regard to scientific teaching, the mind of the
religious is not, to say the least, lowered by the holy
obligations which he has contracted: and it is an awkward fact
for those who in a breath uphold secular education and abuse the
religious, that in former ages the men who excelled in arts and
sciences, the geniuses whose works will live as long as the
earth, were either themselves monks or the pupils of monks. A
list of them would fill many pages, and their names are not
unknown to the world.
For the mass of the people, the common level of primary
education with which so many are now satisfied may at least be
as satisfactory in its results when imparted by religious, male
and female, as when under the direction of young men and women
who have received every possible diploma which is at the
disposal of school commissioners or boards of gentlemen invested
with an office, worthy of the gravest attention, but to which
they can devote but very little time.
But the subject may be said to have passed beyond discussion.
The true and authorized leaders of the Irish in such matters,
the Catholic bishops, have already taken the matter into their
own hands; and in a very short time have covered the island with
their schools, with every prospect of a university. It rests
with the government to give or refuse its aid in imparting a
true national education to a nation which is Catholic; but, with
or without this aid, the Irish will have the means of educating
their children rightly; and the culture they receive will
favorably compare with that imparted by rival establishments
fostered by the state, whose pupils will not know a word even of
their own national history, since, in the authorized books,
Ireland has no existence other than that of an unworthy subject
of the great British Empire.
It was necessary to give prominence to what is here considered
as the most effective means of bringing about the great result
which engages our attention in this chapter. There are secondary
objects which might be treated, but which, in the final working
of the divine will, may be insignificant. For, to repeat what
has been said before, the restoration of the nation which is now
progressing so steadily almost unaided by any action of man,
however much he may indulge in agitation, is the work of God,
and before long will so manifest itself to all. Meanwhile it is
enough to assert in general terms that Ireland is entitled to
all those things which render a people happy and contented. That
wished-for state is not far off; let them continue to be active
in its pursuit. A previous chapter has already touched upon the
great means to be employed in bringing this about: _association_,
whose centre should be Ireland, and whose branches should
spread wherever Irishmen have established themselves; whose
guides should be the clergy, but its chief workers, intelligent
and energetic laymen. On this point it is desirable particularly
to be rightly understood; it is not our purpose to say that in
such a work laymen ought not to cooperate, or even to lead; with
the memory of O'Connell before us, such a thing would be
impossible; on the contrary, the external working of the whole
scheme should be placed in the hands of good, active, and
intelligent laymen. They are the proper instruments for carrying
on such a work actively and efficaciously; they form, at least
numerically, the principal part of the moral power of the nation,
and that power should be developed on a larger scale than it
has ever yet been. But the first impulse should be given by the
moral leaders, rulers of the Church. Let the nation work under
the guidance, the leadership of the men who alone stood by them
when all else had been lost, who, in fact, by preserving their
religion, preserved to them their nationality; let them work
under their eyes and with their sanction, and assuredly their
labor will not be labor in vain.
What will the final result be of such a cooperation of workers?
The formation or rather consolidation of a truly Christian and
Catholic people; a most remarkable phenomenon in this wonderful
nineteenth century! It would seem that they have thus far been
deprived of a government of their own only to win a government
at last which shall be, what is so sadly wanted in these days,
Christian and Catholic. Modern governments have broken loose
from Christianity; they have declared themselves independent of
all moral restraint; they have pronounced themselves supreme,
each in its own way; and, to be consistent, they have become
godless. Donoso Cortes has shown this admirably in his work on
"Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism." The sad spectacle
which in our age meets the eye of the Christian, is universal;
there is no longer a Catholic nation; Christendom has ceased to
exist. This is held by the statesmen of to-day to be a vast
improvement on the old social system. Medieval barbarism, as
they term it, has, according to them, met with just condemnation;
and to return to it now, would be to drag an advanced age
centuries backward, a horror which no sane man could contemplate.
Undoubtedly there were many abuses under the old regime, which
the most sincere Christian regrets, and could not wish to see
restored, or again attempted. But, its great feature, the inner
link which bound the system together, its unity under the
guidance of the universal Church, was the only safeguard for the
general happiness of mankind. This admirable unity has been
broken into fragments; each part does for itself, and thus the
world lies at the mercy of Might, and each nation goes about
like "a strong man armed, keeping his house."
Even Heeren, a writer who is strongly Protestant and liberal, is
driven to confess in his "History of the Political System of
Europe," that the reign of Frederick the Great, in Prussia, was
"immediately followed by those great convulsions in states,
which gave the ensuing period a character so different from the
former. The contemporary world, which lived in it, calls it the
revolutionary; but it is yet too early to decide by what name it
will be denoted by posterity, after the lapse of a century."
After a brief review of the various states as they existed
toward the middle of the last century, he adds: "The efforts of
the rulers to obtain unlimited power had overthrown the old
national freedom in all the states of the Continent; the
assemblies of the states had disappeared, or were reduced to
mere forms; nowhere had they been modelled into a true national
representation."
He does not see that, in order to obtain that "unlimited power,"
the rulers had thrown off the yoke of Church authority
everywhere, and that Christendom disappeared with the "old
national freedom" as soon as the key-stone of the edifice, the
papacy, was ejected from its place.
Nevertheless, he was keen enough to perceive it necessary to
call in armed force to uphold that usurped power of rulers:
"For the strength of the states no other criterion was known
than standing armies. And, in reality, there was scarcely any
other. By the perfection which they had attained, and which kept
pace almost with the growing power of the princes, the line of
partition was gradually drawn between them and the nations;
_they_ only were armed; the _nations_ were defenceless."
This great German historian carries his views further still, and
confesses that, "if the political supports were in a tottering
condition, the moral were no less shattered. The corner-stone of
every political system, the sanctity of legitimate possession,
without which there would be only one war of all against all,
was gone; politicians had already thrown off the mask in Poland;
the lust of aggrandizement had prevailed . . . . The
indissoluble bond connecting morals and politics being broken,
the result was to make egotism the prevailing principle of
public as well as private life."
Admirable reflections, doubtless, but incomplete; the
Protestantism of the writer not allowing him to perceive that,
the only sure defender of morality having been discarded,
egotism could not but prevail. Therefore does he complain, being
blind to the true cause of the disorder, that "democratic ideas,
transported from America to Europe, were spread and cherished in
the midst of the monarchical system--ready materials for a
conflagration far more formidable than their authors had
anticipated, should a burning spark unhappily light upon them.
Others had already taken care to profane the religion of the
people; and what remains sacred to the people when religion and
constitution are profaned?"
This last observation, thrown in at the end of some very sound
considerations, would have made them far more striking, had it
appeared at their head as the great source of all the
catastrophes which ensued. But it requires a Catholic eye to
take in the whole truth, and a Catholic tongue to give the right
explanation of history, as of all things else.
Many reflections similar to those above quoted have been made by
non-Catholic writers, and the defenders of the Church have
spoken with clearness and energy throughout. Nevertheless, the
evil has continued to grow more universal and more alarming,
until, to-day, no principle on which the social fabric can
securely stand is acknowledged by those who rule the exterior
world. And of what Heeren calls the violation of "the sanctity
of legitimate possession," let Poland and many other states
speak, nay, those of the Father of the faithful himself, to
whose warning voice rulers have now so long persistently turned
a deaf ear. Where are now even the fragments of that "corner-
stone" of the old "political system?"
Such is the state of affairs, not only in Europe, but generally
throughout the world, so that the Catholic Church has at length
entered fully upon that stage of her existence when she possesses
_individual_ subjects full of tender affection and devotedness,
whose number, thank God! increases every day, but not a single
_State_ which acknowledges her as its director and teacher.
Ireland may be destined to become the first one which shall
acknowledge her, and set an example to the rest. If ever she
enjoys self-government, she will surely do so, for Catholic she
is to the core, and Catholic she cannot but remain.
When it was said that home-rule would not serve as a sure
panacea for all her evils, it will be understood as applying to
the actual moment and nothing else. That it would not be a good
thing for her ever to enjoy real self-government was never in
our mind. Moral force is bringing this nearer to her; and step
by step she is learning how to walk without support. Already,
she possesses something of political franchise, and enjoys
municipal government more truly than Frenchmen do after all
their social convulsions.
There are men, Irishmen even, who pretend that she would subside
into anarchy if her destiny were confided to her own care. They
point to the constant wranglings which have been her bane for
centuries, and the "prophet" who wrote the "Battle of Dorking"
represents her, as soon as the humiliation of England left her
free, struggling painfully in the throes of anarchy. That this
general opinion of men with regard to Ireland is but too true,
was conceded in another place, yet only so far as concerned
interests which were trifling, or, at best, of no high character;
that when the object at stake is one of great importance, there
was more steadiness, unanimity, energy, and true heroism in the
Irish people, than in any other known to history in modern times.
And this reflection is certainly borne out by the issues of all
the secular struggles of the Irish with Scandinavianism,
feudalism, and Protestantism.
Surely is there in them the right material for a nation; and,
when the day comes for the country to take in hand, under
Providence, her own destiny and work it out, the "prophet" will
find himself sadly mistaken when, freed forever from the
degradation of pauperism, she is at liberty to raise her
thoughts above food and raiment; when her children, lifted by a
solid Christian education to the high level of intellectual
foresight, shall be able to discuss the great objects of their
national interests, with no question of clan and clan; then
wrangling will cease, as far as public questions are concerned,
and be merely left to matters of minor importance, or private
affairs, as with all other nations. But that concentrated energy
which has marked the race throughout that long fight of
centuries against such overwhelming odds, will still continue as
their distinguishing characteristic, but turned now to the
question of their own national welfare, and no longer to the
aversion of doom.
Then will Europe see what a truly Christian people is, for then
there will be no other left; and the superiority of principles,
of strength of mind, energy of character, naturally fostered by
deep religious convictions, will afford another proof of
Montesquieu's reflection, that "the Christian faith, which seems
to have for its object only the future life, is likewise the
best calculated to make people happy and prosperous during this."
If ever men are brought to acknowledge the fatal error they made
in rejecting the sacred safeguard which Christ left them in his
Church, it will be by looking on the example of a nation
actually existing, governed by the great principles which alone
can insure the happiness of the individual and the prosperity of
the whole people.
In all the foregoing considerations Ireland has been looked upon
as a nation full of vigor and energy; but, as this vital point
is denied by some, who bear the reputation of thoughtful writers,
it is well to establish it clearly before our minds.
Is Ireland a nation? Some say, No; others, among them Mr. Froude,
say she is divided into two nations.
The first of these assertions, that she is not a nation, is in
appearance so self-evident and true that it seems folly to deny
it. She has no government of her own; her destinies seem to be
altogether in the hands of a hostile race, which rules her by a
Parliament, where her voice is scarcely heard. She has no army
nor navy, no commerce, no treasury, not the lowest prerogative
of sovereignty. There is a green flag still somewhere with a
harp on it and a crown above the harp, reserved for state
occasions, and unfurled now and again, when a show of loyalty
and a little enthusiasm is called for; but that flag never waves
the Irish to battle, not even when fighting for England. There
is no Irish standard-bearer for it, as there was under the
Tudors, when the flag of Ulster was seen amid the armies of
Elizabeth. The name of Ireland is never mentioned in any treaty
with foreign powers; and, when the sovereign of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, signs a treaty, a convention, nay, a poor
protocol, with any foreign state, the name of Ireland is not to
be seen on the parchment, save at its head, among the titles of
the monarch. There is no Irish seal even to affix to the
document: the country is a national non-entity.
But other men, and wise men too, discover a strange anomaly in
this curious country. They hold that it is composed of two
distinct nations, and furnish excellent reasons in support of
their theory.
They talk in this fashion: "Look at the people; travel the
country north and south, and converse with them as you go. What
do you find? Unity of feeling, aims, agreement of opinion on all
possible subjects? Just the opposite! You find Jacob and Esau on
every side struggling in the womb of their mother. The quarrel
between Sassenach and Gael still goes on. What two figures can
be found more antagonistic than the Orangeman of Ulster and the
Milesian of Connaught? Yet they are both children of the same
country."
And so deep-grained is the difference between them that,
although they have lived side by side for centuries, they are
still as hostile to each other as when they first met in battle
array. The Danes, after a struggle of a little more than two
centuries, gave up the contest and became Celts. Strongbow's
Normans soon adopted the manners of the old inhabitants,
intermarried with them, and, after a lapse of four centuries,
though quarrels often broke out between the one and the other,
they were to all intents and purposes Celts, the old race, as it
were, absorbing the Norman blood, and always showing itself in
the children.
But, when will the children of James's Scotchmen or Cromwell's
Covenanters coalesce with the descendants of the Milesians? The
longer they dwell together, the farther they seem apart, the
more they seem to hate each other; and every 12th of July, 5th
of November, 17th of March, or even 15th of August, brings
danger of bloodshed and strife to every city, hamlet, and town.
Surely, this fact speaks of two nations in the country.
The question here presented is indeed a complicated one,
requiring solid distinctions in order to elucidate it; and,
strange to say, this last difficulty of the presence of two
nations in Ireland offers greater obstacles to the firm
establishment of our opinion than the first assertion, so clear
and undeniable in appearance, that there is no Irish nation!
If true nationality existed only in the externals of government,
in an army, navy, commerce, a public seal and flag, and
recognition by foreign powers, further discussion would clearly
be useless, and the subject might as well at once be dropped.
But the true idea of a nation embraces much more than this;
there is such a thing as a national soul, and all the array of
accidents alluded to above constitute only the body, or, more
truly, the surroundings. As a writer in the North American
Review (vol. cxv., p. 379) has well expressed it, a nation is "a
race of men, small or great, whom community of traditions and
feeling binds together into a firm, indestructible unity, and
whose love of the same past directs their hopes and fears to the
same future."
In this sense nationality assuredly belongs to Ireland. More,
perhaps, than among any other people on earth, is there for the
great bulk of them "community of traditions and feeling,"
binding them together into "a firm and indestructible unity;"
and who shall say that they feel no love for their past, because
that past has been clouded with sorrow? Nay, this fact makes the
past dearer, and tends all the more to direct their hopes and
fears to the same future; a future, indeed, still dim and
uncertain, and not to be named with perfect certainty, but
wrapped in mists like the morning; yet the faint flush of the
dawn is already there that shall pale and die away when the full
orb of the sun appears.
The reader may remember what was said of the unanimity so
striking in all Irishmen, wherever they may be found; that,
though private disputes may be taken up among them with such
ardor that their quarrels have become proverbial, when the
question refers to their country or their God, in a moment they
are united, suddenly transformed into steady friends, ready to
shed their blood side by side for the great objects which
entirely absorb their natures.
This feeling it is which forms the soul of a nation. Wherever
this is to be found, there is an indestructible nationality;
wherever it is absent, there is only a dead body, however strong
may seem its government, however vast its armies, however high
its so-called culture and refinement.
These reflections being kept in view, judicious men will agree
that, among Europeans at least, there is scarcely any other
nationality so strong and vigorous as the Irish. Their
traditional feeling keeps their past ever present to their eyes;
their ardent nature hopes ever against hope; misfortunes which
would utterly break down and dishearten any other people, leave
them still full of bright anticipations, and, as they seem to
weep over the cold body of a dear mother--Erin, their country--
they think only of her resurrection.
But are there not two nations among them--two nations radically
opposed to each other and incapable of coalescing? Supposing a
resurrection of the people, which of the two is to prevail--the
numerical majority, or the so far influential minority? In
either event, it is fair to suppose a new state of helotism for
the one party or the other. Is this the spectacle which the
regenerated nation is likely to present?
In speaking of the resurrection of Ireland, the old, massive,
compact body of the people, the venerable race, Celtic in its
aspirations and tendencies, if not altogether in its origin, has
always been kept in view; and that anomalous, foreign
excrescence which has so steadily refused to assimilate with the
mass, and has until our days remained "encamped" in Ireland, as
the Turks are justly said to have remained "encamped" in Europe,
has never entered into our reckoning.
The true Irishman has ever been catholic--the word is used in
its grammatical and not in its religious sense--in fellowship.
The race, as now constituted, is assuredly of mixed origin, and
large drafts of foreign population have been added from time to
time to the primitive stock, which has always been kind to admit,
absorb, and make them finally Celtic. Strongbow's Normans were
not the last who submitted to that process; as was seen, many
Cromwellians became the fathers, or grandfathers at least, of as
sturdy an Irish branch as ever flourished in the strong air of
the country.
But a comparatively small body of men has doggedly refused to
submit to this process, and continued to this day an English or
Lowland Scotch colony on the Irish soil. The future of Ireland
does not take them in, for the very simple reason that they are
not of her, they do not belong to her, they are as much
foreigners to-day as they ever were. Therefore do we admit the
existence of two nations, if people are pleased to call them so,
in Ireland, but of one nation only have we written. The only
question in regard to this second "nation" is: What will become
of them in the future? Are they, in their turn, to become helots,
after having vainly striven so long to make helots of the
others? God forbid! No true Irishman nourishes in his soul such
feelings of retaliation or revenge.
Assuredly, they will be prevented from disturbing any longer the
public order, and forced at length to respect the majority, or
rather, the mass of their countrymen. No one can object to
having such a necessary measure imposed upon them. In the many
civil discords which, for more than a century and a half, have
disgraced the north of Ireland, they have almost invariably been
the aggressors. The government openly taking their part for a
long time, they had the whole field to themselves, and what use
they made of their privilege, and how they improved their
opportunity, is known to all. When, at last, the public
authorities could no longer pretend to ignore their hateful
spirit, and began to show some signs of protecting the hitherto
much-abused majority, by forbidding those odious processions to
which the others always attached such importance, they gave
themselves the airs of a persecuted body of men, and pretended
that henceforth their lives, and those of their wives and
children, were no longer safe.
The province of Ulster being closed to them as a field of
operations, they transferred to Upper Canada the exhibition of
their blood-thirsty hatred, and on several occasions the
Catholic population of the country had to protect their churches,
musket in hand. Even in the United States they have rendered
themselves odious to the people by foisting their spirit of
strife on a land where they cannot but be strangers, and by
staining some of the streets of New York with blood, in order to
gratify their senseless animosity.
It is surely time that an end be put to such absurd and
dangerous antics, not abroad only, but at home. In the new order
of things now dawning upon Ireland, there can no longer be room
for them; and the very name of Orangeman must disappear forever
from the vocabulary of the new nation, to the joy of all
peaceful and law-abiding citizens.
That is all the persecution they need expect. Not only will
there be room for them still in the country of their birth, but
of course they will have their due share in all the privileges
of citizenship. Political distinctions between themselves and
the old race will be unknown; social distinctions will be a
question for themselves to settle. Should they show the
slightest desire of combining with the majority of their
countrymen, these latter will be generous enough to forget the
past, and perhaps the others may imitate their predecessors, the
Danes, the Normans, and even some of their Cromwellian kin, and
become, at last, Hibernis hiberniores.
What is said of political and social distinctions will hold good
also for religious tenets. Let them, if they choose, continue to
stand by their Presbyterian dogmas, provided they do not quarrel
with the majority for professing what they love to believe; but
that belief must come to an external and public profession. They
will often hear the bells of Catholic churches; as they pass
outside, if they do not enter, the strains of the glorious music
and noble anthems, resounding within, will fall on their ears;
they will see the statue of the Blessed Virgin borne through the
streets on the 15th of August, amid showers of snowy blossoms,
falling from the innocent hands of children; all this they must
endure, if it be so hard to endure it; but this is not
persecution. Even to their eyes, if their heart be not frozen by
a cold belief, the sight will bear some attractions. And if they
come to think, that what is oldest in Christianity is the best,
and that, after all, Catholicity has something in it which makes
life sweet and pleasant, it can scarcely be held a crime in the
universal Church to open her arms and receive back to her bosom
those wandering and so long obstinate children.
When will all this come to pass? Who can tell? But stranger
things than these have already taken place in Ireland, and we
are confident that future historians of the race will have to
record greater wonders still, and facts more stubborn and
difficult of explanation.
At all events, should the inflexible Puritanism of the Scotch
colony stand proof against the allurements of a motherly and
tender-hearted Church, they must at least become subject to the
iron laws of population and absorption. When the public statutes
are no longer drawn up for their special benefit, when no new
swarms of brethren come to swell their ranks, when they are
abandoned to the merciless laws of loss and gain in numbers,
then will people soon see on which side is true morality, and by
which the ordinances of God are really respected; then will many
vapid accusations against the holy Catholic Church of themselves
disappear, and the eyes of men will open to the great fact that
Ireland must be and remain one in race, feeling, and, above all,
in religion. The foreign element will have dwindled to
insignificance, if it shall not have utterly disappeared. Indeed,
it may be safely predicted that the day will arrive when the
announcement of the natural demise of the last Puritan in
Ireland will appear in the daily newspapers as a curious piece
of intelligence, not devoid of a certain interest.
Though moral force, as the agent of the regeneration of Ireland,
has been our theme all through, we would not have our readers
infer that Irishmen should adopt the do-nothing policy, and
leave to God alone the work of raising them up. The moral force
spoken of is that of human beings endowed with activity and
determination; steady and persevering in the pursuit of well-
organized plans of their own conception.
Let Irishmen lift up their eyes and behold what they might do,
did they only appreciate their strength and husband it. Dire
calamities, which God designed from the first to convert into
blessings, have scattered them over the world, and brought out
that power of expansion which was always in their nature, but
lay dormant and cramped under the pressure of terrible
circumstances. They again show themselves as that old race which
three thousand years ago spread itself all over Europe and Asia.
They now bear in their hands an emblem which they had not then--
the cross of Christ! And the cross is the sign of universality
in time and space. To that sign, since the triumph of the
Saviour on the day of his resurrection, is given the rule of the
world till the end of time. Now that our globe is known at last,
the cross must be planted all over its surface, and in this
great work the Irish race is clearly destined to bear a
conspicuous part.
In the fulfilment of that divine vocation they are dispersed,
and whatever is dispersed is deprived of a great part of its
strength. How can the disjecta membra, scattered far and wide by
Typhon, become again Osiris? Under the guidance of God, by that
great instrument of modern times, the power of association and
organization, aided by a steady, energetic will.
Ezekiel has admirably described the process in his thirty-
seventh chapter. The Lord must first speak: "Ye dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord. . . . Behold, I will send spirit into you,
and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews on you, and will cause
flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin; and I will
give you spirit, and ye shall live."
All this seems to be the work of God alone, yet, in the very
words of the prophet, the dry bones have their part to perform:
"As I prophesied, there was a noise, a commotion, and the bones
came together, each one to his joint."
There is the whole process; it supposes a noise, a commotion, a
rising, an assembling together, and a fitting each one into his
own joint. They possess an activity of their own, which they
must use. And the phenomenon is to take place in the midst of "a
vast plain "--two great continents--over the surface of which
the "bones" are found on every side, appearing "exceeding dry."
With what a power will that army be invested when it rises up
and stands upon its feet! We may form some faint idea of it,
when in our large cities any thing occurs to excite the interest
and warm up the feeling of that apparently inert Celtic mass.
The largest halls constructed cannot contain the multitudes who
have only read the announcement of a meeting, a lecture, or a
charitable undertaking. Such scenes are witnessed every day
along the banks of the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, and the
Delaware Rivers; by the shores of Chesapeake Bay; in all the
great centres of population dotting the Atlantic coast; in the
heart of the continent along the winding course of the
Mississippi and Missouri; and already, even in the far West, on
the spreading shores of the Pacific Ocean. The same is occurring
all over the inhabited portion of Australia and the adjacent
islands. What power, then, would be theirs did those "bones"
know how to come together each in his own joint!
How is it that we hear of no concerted action among them for
their country's sake? Is each man so busy, and lost in his own
little sphere of interest and speculation, that he cannot spare
a moment's thought for the claims of his native country? Who can
say this? Moreover, the best means of promoting their own
private interests would be to raise before the eyes of all the
status of the country with which they are naturally identified.
The truth is, each one waits for another to set the example, the
mass being ever ready to follow a lead and show its good-will.
Association is needed.
When they turn their eyes to the incessant struggle going on in
the mother-country, when they read in their own newspapers the
discussions of the Irish press, of the questions debated on the
soil most dear to them, and the agitation of the momentous
interests pending and awaiting a final decision among their
former countrymen, no doubt their feelings are strongly moved;
the hopes and fears of their youth, before they left their
native shores, are revived with renewed force, and their love
for their green island is as ardent as ever.
But is this all? Is it enough that the heart of each one is
stirred within him? Is it not for them to see that the influence
of their new name, new position, and bettered circumstances, be
brought to bear, however far away they may be, upon the great
home questions of land-tenure, education, the elective franchise,
a native Parliament, commerce, manufactures, and all matters
touching on the general welfare of Ireland? If, having become
adopted citizens of a new country, they can no longer act as
citizens of Erin, they may and ought at least to interest them
selves in these matters as far as true loyalty to their adopted
country may allow them; and this they can best do by association.
The bonds of a wise organization would give firmness and
compactness to the whole moral force of the dispersed
nationality. By association, the scattered "dry bones" would be
speedily changed into a solid array of living warriors standing
upon their feet, and the startling spectacle would astonish the
whole world, and win for the race the involuntary respect of all
who should witness or hear of it. Nothing would be easier than
to set such a thing on foot, for, although so far apart in
appearance, the ma- jority of Irish families, from the very fact
of emigration, have half of their members at home and half
abroad, joined together by an active correspondence and a
constant transmission of funds. The managers of the movement
would only have to organize for a general object, what already
is organized in fact, and direct to the common good what is now
done privately.
A word has already been said on the possible management of such an
organization: that the movement should begin at home, in the island;
that its supervision should be left to the true leaders of the
nation; and that all the workings, details, and executive part,
may be safely intrusted to the active members of the association.
The class here designated as leaders of the nation is already
known to the reader. The old nobility having been destroyed,
there is no other body which truly represent the Irish people to-day
save the clergy. This is, no doubt, a misfortune, but none the
less a fact. It offers the anomaly of clergymen meddling to a
certain extent in politics; but, in Ireland, this is unavoidable.
How does the whole body of the European Catholic clergy
understand its position in all those Catholic congresses and
unions, which are now, thank God! starting up in all Christian
countries? How do the laymen, on their side, appreciate the
share they have to take in those various movements? How do they
act under the lead of their spiritual advisers? Are any odious
distinctions ever known in those associations? Can any
misunderstanding arise among men animated with a true love for
religion? And why should not the same be true of Ireland, among
a people so full of love for country? This is what is meant when
the terms leaders and followers, clergy and laity, are here used.
Another consideration will show still more forcibly the
importance of the great measure here proposed. One circumstance
must have struck those who read the detailed reports of the
Catholic congresses mentioned above--the sudden appearance of a
large array of laymen, illustrious by their birth, wealth,
political power, or literary attainments; but, for the most part,
not so well known for their deep attachment to the cause of the
Church. A new channel of activity was suddenly opened up to them;
they threw themselves into it, and became the bold champions of
a cause to which, undoubtedly, they had been individually
attached, but of which they now became the public men. And there
is little doubt that many young men, lukewarm before, and
perhaps with nothing more than the remembrance of the Christian
education they had once received, suddenly revived in spirit and
made a solemn profession of a cause which, perhaps, they would
not have had the courage openly to advocate, did not the number
and names of the first originators of the movement encourage
them to join in it heart and soul.
Now, it is said, perhaps too truly, that the warm religious
feeling which has been all along claimed as the most striking
characteristic of the Irish race, is no longer shared alike by
all classes of Irish Catholics; that, too often, when
individuals among them rise in the social scale, and reach a
step in the social ladder from which they imagine that they can
look down upon the despised mass below, they no longer feel that
deep reverence for their religion which had characterized their
youth, and, after all, are not very different from the mass of
non-Catholics among whom they prefer to move. This class of men
has been well described by Moore in his own person, in various
passages of his "Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion."
The fact is, indeed, too true; but what is the chief cause of
it? One of the most active means of bringing about such a result
we take to be the complete isolation in which young men of the
class referred to find themselves in their own sphere of life.
There is, in fact, no motive for displaying their attachment to
their religion, and no respectable means of doing so. They do
not feel their souls moved by sufficient proselytic ardor to
induce them, of their own accord, to originate any thing of that
kind, and the generality of them have, probably, not received
from Nature the talents requisite to make them leaders in any
cause whatever. No one around them moves in that direction;
hence their apathy and consequent lukewarmness in the practice
and outward profession of their faith.
But change all the surroundings; present them an influential
body to which it is an honor to belong--a body marching openly
under the banner of the true Church of Christ and of their
country, bound together as of old--and then will it be seen
whether or not they indeed are the degenerate sons of martyred
ancestors they now appear to be.
It is indeed very remarkable that, of all countries, Ireland
seems to make the least show in those Catholic unions and
congresses now so widely spread throughout Europe. The reason
for this, perhaps, is, that there seemed less cause for their
existence in Ireland than elsewhere. But, as, in Ireland, their
object would not only embrace the interests of religion, but
likewise those of the country itself, it seems natural to think
that there they are particularly wanted.
Let the leaders of the nation, then, bestir themselves. Long
ages of oppression unfortunately have rendered them somewhat
timid and seemingly afraid of jeopardizing the important
interests confided to their care. Let them lift up their eyes
and see that the time for timidity has passed away: the enemy is
reckless and open in his attacks; their resistance must be
equally undisguised and fearless. The people themselves
understand this and occasionally display a boldness which shows
that the old heroism still lives in them; but they want leaders,
and, if the right ones are not fast to take hold of them, they
may fall into the hands of wrong-headed guides. Let the true
guides look out and see how broad are the lines which divide the
good from the evil, and that victory is sure to the stout of
heart, when backed by the serried masses of a united people.
The principle of association and the machinery of organization
must be applied to all subjects connected with the resurrection
of the country. What has been done so effectually for the cause
of temperance must be done likewise for education, for the
purchase or tenure of land, for the development of agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce, for the true representation of the
nation, for free municipal government, for the securing of a
truly Irish yeomanry and gentry, for a thousand objects on which
the future welfare of the nation depends. All classes of society,
persons of every age and of either sex, yes, women and children,
ought to be induced to take an interest in what concerns all
alike. Every possible occasion should be taken advantage of to
insure the attainment of the ultimate object. When such a work
is really entered upon in earnest, the results will be
astonishing.
This is the complete development of moral force, and, until all
these means have had fair trial, no one can say that moral force
has been fully tried and has failed.
Such a system would, we firmly believe, result in the ultimate
restoration of Ireland's rights and would surely culminate in
her final resurrection at no distant date. That the Irish would
enter with spirit into those various associations has been
sufficiently demonstrated by previous examples, particularly
under O'Connell; and it is impossible to see how surer, greater,
and speedier results could be obtained by any amount of physical
force of which Ireland is capable. What array of physical force
can the Irish muster to compete at all with their powerful
rivals, situated as they are with the chains of centuries still
binding them down, for, though the shackles may be actually
removed, their effect is still there. The very statement of the
terms, Ireland versus England, is enough to show the
hopelessness of such a combat. It is a very easy thing to
magnify the old heroism of the Irish, and cast opprobrium on the
present bearers of the name, as did several newspaper writers
recently, for not displaying the "pluck" of their ancestors who
fought against Elizabeth, Cromwell, and William of Orange. It is
forgotten that circumstances have altered considerably since
those days when the Irish possessed a regular army led by
experienced generals: restore those circumstances, and the Irish
of to-day might outdo their ancestors; at all events, there is
no reason for supposing that they would be inferior. However,
there is such a thing as impossibility, and any attempt of such
a nature, with such surroundings, must be deemed by all sensible
men not merely rashness, but folly.
In concluding these pages, the author begs to be allowed a word
as to their general character, in reply to a dogmatic and
comprehensive criticism which it is easy to foresee will be
passed on them. It will undoubtedly be asserted that an undue
prominence has been given to the religious side of the Irish
question, while its many political aspects have been left in the
background. This charge will be laid at the door of the clerical
and religious character of the writer, and may give rise to the
notion that the view here taken of the subject is not the right
one, but a radical failure.
The answer to this objection is, in brief, that no one can treat
seriously and properly of the Irish race without taking a
religious view of it. Whoever adopts a different method of
treating the matter would, in our opinion, go completely astray;
would take in only a few side-views; would, in fact, pretend to
have made a serious study of it, which he offered to the public
as such, while ignoring the chief and almost only feature.
The Irish is a religious race, and nothing else. It seems that
such was its character thousands of years ago, even when pagan.
At the time when Hanno was sent by the Carthaginian senate
beyond the Pillars of Hercules to explore the western coast of
Africa, toward the south--of which voyage the short narrative is
still left us--Himilco, brother to Hanno, was similarly
commissioned to form settlements on the European coast, toward
the north. The account of this latter expedition, which was
extant in the time of Pliny the Elder, is unfortunately lost;
but, in the poem of R. Festus Avienus, entitled "Ora Maritima,"
there are copious extracts from it, in which, at least, the
sense of the original is preserved. Avienus, after speaking of
the "Insulae OEstrimnides," which Heeren thinks must be the
Scilly Islands, goes on to say:
"Ast hinc duobus in Sacram (sic insulam
Dixere prisci) solibus cursus rati est.
Haec inter undas multam caespitem jacet,
Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit."
The passage runs almost into literal English as follows:
"Thence in two days, a good ship in sailing
Reaches the Holy Isle(1)--so was she called of old--
That in the sea nestles, whose turf exuberant
The race of Hibernians tills."
(1 Dr. Lingard, evidently perplexed by this expression, asks
himself, "What might its origin have been?" and suggests that
the name of Ierne--the same as Erin--having been given to
Ireland by the ancients, and the Greek iepa--holy-- bearing a
great resemblance to it, Avienus might have thus fallen into a
very natural mistake of confounding the one with the other. But,
in the first place, Himilco's report was certainly not written
in Greek, but in Phoenician, and Avienus seems merely to have
translated that report. Moreover, the word iepa begins with a
very strong aspirate, equivalent to a consonant, while there are
few vowels softer in any language than the first in Erin or
Ierne. Heeren does not attempt such an explanation, but concedes
that the Carthaginians, as well as the Phoenicians before them,
called Ireland the Holy Isle.)
In the time of Himilco, therefore, five hundred years before
Christ, Ireland was called the Holy Isle, a title she had
received long before: Sic insulam discere prisci. In what that
holiness may have consisted precisely, it is impossible now to
say; all we know is, that foreign navigators, who were
acquainted with the world as far as it was then known, whose
ships had visited the harbors of all nations, could find no more
apt expression to describe the island than to say that, morally,
it was "a holy spot," and physically "a fair green meadow," or,
as her children to this day call her, "the green gem of the sea."
But we have better means of judging in what the holiness of the
people consisted after the establishment of Christianity in
their midst; and the description of it given in the fourth
chapter of this book, taken from the most trustworthy documents,
shows how well deserved was the title the island bore.
From that day forth the religious type was clearly impressed on
the nation, and has ever remained deeply engraven in its
character. The race was never distinguished for its fondness for
trade, for its manufactures, for depth of policy, for worldly
enlightenment; its annals speak of no lust of conquest among its
people; the brilliant achievements of foreign invasion, the high
political and social aspirations which generally give lustre to
the national life of many a people, belong not to them. But
religious feeling, firm adherence to faith, invincible
attachment to the form of Christianity they had received from St.
Patrick, formed at all times their striking characteristics.
From the day when their faith was first attacked by the Tudors
did it chiefly blaze forth into a special splendor, which these
pages have striven faintly to represent. Before taking up the
pen to write, after the serious study of documents, only one
great feature struck us--that of a deep religious conviction;
and, after having seen what some writers have had to say
recently, the same feature strikes us still. We will not deny
that this fact moved us to write, and the task was the more
grateful, probably, because of our own personal religious
character; but we are confident that any layman, whatever might
be his talent and disposition for describing worldly scenes, who
took up Irish history, could find nothing else in it of real
importance to render the annals of the race attractive to the
common run of readers.
And is not religion more capable of giving a people true
greatness and real heroism than any worldly excellence? Men of
sound judgment will always find at least as much interest
attached to the history of the first Maccabees as to that of
Epaminondas; and the self-sacrifice of the Vendean Cathelineau,
with his "beads" and his "sacred heart," will always appear to
an impartial judge of human character more truly admirable than
that of any general or marshal of the first Napoleon. Religious
heroism, having for object something far above even the purest
patriotic fervor, can inspire deeds more truly worthy of human
admiration than this, the highest natural feeling of the human
heart; and, for a Christian, the most inspiring pages of history
are those which tell of the superhuman exertions of devoted
knights to wrest the sepulchre of our Lord from the polluted
hands of the Moslem.
But religion did not confine her influence over Irishmen to the
bravery which she breathed into them on the battle-field.
Religion truly constituted their inner life in all the
vicissitudes of their national existence; it was the only
support left them in the darkest period of their annals, during
the whole of the last century; and, when the dawn came at last
with the flush of hope, religion was the only halo which
surrounded them. Their emigration even, their exodus chiefly,
was in fact the sublime outpouring of a crucified nation,
carrying the cross as their last religious emblem, and planting
it in the wilds of far-distant continents as their only
escutcheon, and the sure sign which should apprise travellers of
the existence of Irishmen in the deserts of North America and
Australia.
Truly, those men are very ignorant of the Irish character who
would abstract the religious feature from it, and paint the
nation as they would any other European people, whose great aim
in these modern days seems to be to forget the first fervor of
their Christian origin. With the Irish this cannot be. The vivid
warmth of their cradle has not yet cooled down; and, if it would
be indeed ridiculous to represent the English of the nineteenth
century as the pious subjects of Alfred or Edward, it would be
equally foolish to depict the Irish of to-day as the worldlings
and godless of France, Italy, or Spain. The Irish patriot could
not be like them, without deserting his standard and the colors
for which his race has fought. The nation to which he has the
honor of belonging is still Christian to the core; and, if some
few have really repudiated the love of the religion they took in
at their mother's knee, the only means left them of remaining
Irishmen, at least in appearance, is not to parade their total
lack of this, the chief characteristic of their race.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Irish Race in the Past and the Present
