Attempts to Spread the Reformation in Ireland : George Browne Appointed Archbishop of Dublin.—In 1535 Henry appointed a Commission to begin the enforcement in Ireland of the Reformation, as it soon came to be termed. At its head was George Browne, formerly an English Augustinian friar, but who had been recently chosen Archbishop of Dublin by the King, and consecrated for that office by Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, without any authority from the Pope. The new Archbishop was tactless and uncharitable, domineering when he dared, but subservient to meanness when it suited him to be so. He seemed anxious only to obey the tyrannical master who, as he reminded him, could as easily pull him down as before he had elevated him, and we look in vain in his utterances for any trace of religious zeal.

As might be expected, Browne achieved in his episcopal labours no success worth mentioning. Of the bishops, only Staples of Meath supported him, while the clergy, with few exceptions, slighted his authority, and refused to declare in their churches ” the just title of our illustrious prince ” at his command. With Grey he quarrelled violently, and his letters to England are full of complaints of the Deputy.