put these proctors from a voice
in Parliament."[394] The means were easily found--the proctors were
forbidden to vote.[395] The Act was passed. Every one who objected to it
having been forbidden to vote, Henry's agents on the Continent
proclaimed triumphantly that the Irish nation had renounced the
supremacy of Rome. A triumph obtained at the expense of truth, is but
poor compensation for the heavy retribution which shall assuredly be
demanded of those who have thus borne false witness against their
neighbour. Men forget too often, in the headlong eagerness of
controversy, that truth is eternal and immutable, and that no amount of
self-deceit or successful deception of others can alter its purity and
integrity in the eyes of the Eternal Verity.

The Irish Parliament, or, we should say more correctly, the men
permitted to vote in Ireland according to royal directions, had already
imitated their English brethren by declaring the marriage of Henry and
Catherine of Arragon null and void, and limiting the succession to the
crown to the children of Anna Boleyn. When this lady had fallen a victim
to her husband's caprice, they attainted her and her posterity with
equal facility. A modern historian has attempted to excuse Henry's
repudiation of his lawful wife, on the ground of his sincere anxiety to
prevent disputes about the succession.[396] But the King's subsequent
conduct ought surely to have deterred any one from attempting so rash an
apology. To doubt the royal supremacy, or the right of the lady, who for
the time being held a place in Henry's affections, to royal honours, was
an evidence of insincerity in devotion to himself which he could not
easily pardon.

As it was now ascertained that the Irish people would not apostatize as
a nation, an expedient was prepared for their utter extirpation. It
would be impossible to believe that the human heart could be guilty of
such cruelty, if we had not evidence of the fact in the State Papers. By
this diabolical scheme it was arranged to till or carry away their
cattle, and to destroy their corn while it was green. "The very living
of the Irishry," observes the writer, "doth clearly consist in two
things; and take away the same from them, and they are past power to
recover, or yet to annoy any subject in Ireland. Take first from them
their corn--burn and destroy the same; and then have their cattle and
beasts, which shall be most hardest to come by, and yet, with guides and
p