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.

Complaints there had certainly been from time to time about such matters as the appointment of foreign ecclesiastics to sees and livings, the greediness of lay patrons and of monasteries. But there were no flagrant or extensive scandals, and these things did not influence the attachment of the Irish to the Church. Neither was the manner in which this particular innovation was put before the people, nor the source from which it emanated, likely to commend it to their favour.

They were simply informed, mostly by English ecclesiastics whom they regarded as mere State officials, that they should ” renounce the usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome,” and transfer their spiritual allegiance to a foreign monarch, whose power had so far manifested itself in their country by acts scarcely calculated to produce affection or induce obedience. In what way the Papal authority had been now discovered to be ” usurped ” was not explained.

The division of the Church in Ireland into Celtic and Anglo-Irish has been explained in a previous chapter, but this division, being merely one of locality and race, did not affect the present attitude of the people. The nobility, gentry and clergy of the Pale, and the commercial classes of the cities, showed themselves no more inclined to accept the doctrine of the King’s supremacy than did the chiefs. As for the poorer tenants and clansmen, they, for the present, and for long after in many parts of the country, knew or understood nothing about the matter.