olicy, they be often had and taken." Such was the arrangement; and it
was from no want of inclination that it was not entirely carried out,
and the "Irishry" starved to death in their own land.

The title of King of Ireland had not as yet been given to English
monarchs, but the ever-subservient Parliament of this reign granted
Henry this addition to his privileges, such as it was. We have already
seen the style in which the "supreme head of the Church" addressed the
bishops whom he had appointed; we shall now give a specimen of their
subserviency to their master, and the fashion in which they executed his
commands, before returning to secular history.

Henry's letter to Dr. Browne is dated July 7th, 1537; the Bishop's reply
is given on the 27th September, 1537. He commences by informing his most
excellent Highness that he had received his most gracious letter on the
7th September, and that "it made him tremble in body for fear of
incurring his Majesty's displeasure," which was doubtless the most
truthful statement in his epistle. He mentions all his zeal and efforts
against Popery, which, he adds, "is a thing not little rooted among the
inhabitants here." He assures the King of his activity in securing the
twentieth part and first-fruits for the royal use (what had been given
to God was now given to Caesar), and states what, indeed, could not be
denied, that he was the "first spiritual man who moved" for this to be
done. He concludes with the fearful profanity of "desiring of God, that
the ground, should open and swallow him up the hour or minute that he
should declare the Gospel of Christ after any sort than he had done
heretofore, in rebuking the Papistical power, _or in any other point
concerning the advancement of his Grace's affairs_."

Such a tissue of profanity and absurdity was seldom penned; but men who
could write and act thus were fitting instruments for a man, who made it
a point of conscience to commit immoral crimes that he might preserve
the succession; who kept his mistress in the same palace with his queen;
and only went through the form of marriage when he found his real or
pretended wishes about the same succession on the point of being
realized in a manner that even he could not fail to see would scarcely
be admitted as legal or legitimate by public opinion, whatever an
obsequious Parliament might do. It is at least certain that such letters
never were addressed by Catholic prelates to the Holy See,