July
Henry VIII Declares Himself “Supreme Head of the Church” . In order to understand the events which followed the recall of Grey, we must retrace our steps and consider, in its earliest stages, the question which has, more than all others, down even to our own day, complicated the relations between Ireland and England—namely, what is known as ” the religious difficulty.” In 1532 Henry VIII had regularly begun a quarrel with the Pope, by asserting himself to be ” Supreme Head of the Church ” in England, and so withdrawing himself and his Kingdom from all spiritual dependence on the See of Rome.
The details of the dispute belong to English History and do not concern us here. It is well, however, to remember that no question of religious beliefs, properly speaking, was involved. To the end of his life Henry upheld the tenets of the Catholic Church, and he sent to the stake or the scaffold, with strict impartiality, those who refused to accept her doctrines, and those who declined to acknowledge the ecclesiastical supremacy which he himself now claimed.
The New Doctrine Receives Little Support in Ireland. An attempt to extend the new order of things to Ireland followed almost of necessity on its introduction into England. In Ireland, however, it met, except from a few subservient officials, with practically no support, and as further efforts were made to enforce it, the passive attitude soon developed into one of actual resistance. It could scarcely have been otherwise. There was in Ireland no desire for religious innovations.
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