Amongst the laity the opposition to the Reformed doctrines, instead of diminishing, increased as time went on. At first, when the externals of worship had been but little changed, the common people had not fully understood that a new religion, condemned by the Pope, was being forced on them by the ” Saxon ” Government, but when they came to realise this, resistance became general. The towns, in which the majority of the inhabitants were of English blood, were no more obedient than were the rural districts. Waterford, always renowned for its ” loyalty,” became no less so for its ” Popery.” ” At Waterford the Gospel is abhorred; the Church deserted; sacraments eschewed; Masses in every corner ; beads carried openly; images set up at the house doors and worshipped; friars maintained,” says the (Reformed) Bishop Middleton (1580).

The Court of Wards took charge of the children of the nobility and gentry, when either they were left minors at their father’s death, or when they had passed into the hands of the Government as hostages. It placed them in English schools where they were educated as Protestants, and by this means a certain amount of progress was made in altering the religion of some of the chief families of Ireland. But still a good many of the wards, when they attained manhood, reverted to the faith of their ancestors. At the end of the reign, of twenty-five Irish temporal peers, nineteen were Catholics.