Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/301

 IS7LJ STATE OF IRELAND. 281 to borrow some plate, and pawn it again to raise a hand- ful of men to cover Dundalk ; r while the O'Connors, the Roches, the MacShans, the Burkes, like clouds of their own midges, were stinging into his naked side. 2 ' The state of that dear jewel Ireland/ he said, * was such a weight and burden to him, as jealousy thereof, with the danger of foreign invasion, would not let him eat or sleep ; ' and he desired Burghley, either ' to send him money, or else devise to bury him.' 3 The spiritual disorganization of the country was even more desperate than the social. Whatever might have been the other faults of the Irish people, they had been at least eminent for their piety. The multitude of churches and monasteries, which in their ruins meet everywhere the stranger's eye, witness conclusively to their possession of this single virtue ; for the religious houses in such a state of society could not have existed at all unless protected by the consenting reverence of the whole population. But the religious houses were gone, and the prohibition of the Mass had closed the churches, except in districts which were in armed and open re- bellion. For many years, over the greater part of Ire- land public worship was at an end. The Reformed clergy could not venture beyond the coast towns, and in these they were far from welcome. 4 The priests con- 1 ' Tirlogh Lenogh is in the field with all the power he can raise. I have sent such footmen as I could. To do it I was fain to pawn six score pounds' worth of plate which [ borrowed for that purpose.' Fitz- william to Burghley, December 6 M88. Ireland. 2 Same to the Same, April 12. 3 Same to the Same, December 6 : MSS. Ibid. 4 The intrusive religion was not