At the time of James I’s accession, the state of the Irish Reformed Church, never since Henry VIII’s day satisfactory, was, owing to the wars and unrest of the last years of Elizabeth’s reign, more unsatisfactory than ever. The King was most anxious to establish order and uniformity, and to correct abuses. Several times he appointed Royal Commissions, to investigate and suggest remedies for the neglect and corruption which nearly everywhere prevailed, but the Commissions could do little beyond making known the extent of the evil. The alienation of the Church lands by the bishops, which had been complained of in the previous reign, continued, and often a prelate, on taking possession of a See, discovered that so much of the land had been disposed of by his predecessors, that little or nothing remained for him to live on.

The inferior clergy were in still worse case. The incomes of many of the so-called ” livings ” were so minute that not even the most frugal housekeeping could make them suffice for the furnishing of the barest necessities ; thus it became necessary for the clergyman to hold several of these offices, and to officiate, or undertake to officiate, in several parishes, in order to be able at all to support himself. The best paid livings, as also the best of the episcopal and archiepiscopal Sees, very frequently went to Englishmen or Scotchmen. In the bestowal of ecclesiastical patronage there was much nepotism.

The Commission of 1607 reports that the family of Meiler McGrath, the Archbishop of Cashel, hold amongst them over 70 livings. The Bishop of Down and Connor has made his brother, who was a tailor, an archdeacon. Protestant livings were, it would seem, sometimes held by Catholic priests, or at least by those who still clung to the old forms and celebrated jvlass ; sometimes too by Catholic laymen.

In most, at least of the country parishes, the number of persons willing to avail themselves of the services of the Protestant incumbent was small. This was the case even in Ulster, where the Scotch plantert had usually brought with them their own Ministers, and, being inclined to the Presbyterian discipline, looked with little favour on the Established Episcopalian Church. It could scarcely be expected that any great number of learned or zealous men would be found willing to accept positions of which the conditions were so unpleasant, the stipends so miserable and the opportunities for useful work so few.

Accordingly, it is not surprising to find, in the reports of the Commissions, frequent complaints of the negligence and ignorance of the clergy ; some, it is stated, were actually unable to read. The condition of the churches was no more satisfactory than was the status and the character of those who were expected to minister in them. According to the report made by Archbishop Ussher in 1622, there were, in the diocese of Meath alone, 90 churches absolutely ruined ; 60 ruinous, and 50 in indifferent repair, out of a total of 243.

Up to the reign of James, there had been, in spite of the efforts of many of Elizabeth’s Deputies, very little uniformity in the liturgy of the Irish Reformed Church, and its doctrines had never been regularly and officially defined. In 1613, the King established a regular Convocation, to deal with matters regarding ecclesiastical discipline and in general all matters connected with the Church. After discussion, 104 articles of faith, according generally with the English Articles of Lambeth (passed in 1598), were agreed on.