e; before
long, torture and death were inflicted. Priests and religious were, as
might be expected, the first victims. They were hunted into mountains
and caves; and the parish churches and few monastic chapels which had
escaped the rapacity of Henry VIII., were sacrificed to the sacrilegious
emissaries of Elizabeth. Curry gives some account of those who suffered
for the faith in this reign. He says: "Among many other Roman Catholic
bishops and priests, there were put to death for the exercise of their
function in Ireland, Globy O'Boyle, Abbot of Boyle, and Owen O'Mulkeran,
Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, hanged and quartered by Lord
Grey, in 1580. John Stephens suffered the same punishment from Lord
Burroughs, for saying Mass, in 1597; Thady O'Boyle was slain in his own
monastery at Donegal; six friars were slain at Moynihigan; John
O'Calyhor and Bryan O'Freeor were killed at their monastery in Ulster,
with Felimy O'Hara, a lay brother. Eneus Penny was massacred at the
altar of his own parish church, Killagh. Fourteen other priests died in
Dublin Castle, either from hard usage, or the violence of torture."

Dr. Adam Loftus, the Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, was one of the
most violent persecutors of the Catholics. In his first report to the
Queen, dated May 17th, 1565, he describes the nobility of the Pale as
all devoted to the ancient creed; and he recommends that they should be
fined "in a good round sum," which should be paid to her Majesty's use,
and "sharply dealt withal."[413] An original method of conversion,
certainly! But it did not succeed. On the 22nd of September, 1590, after
twenty-five years had been spent in the fruitless attempt to convert the
Irish, he writes to Lord Burleigh, detailing the causes of the general
decay of the Protestant religion in Ireland, and suggesting "how the
same may be remedied." He advises that the ecclesiastical commission
should be put in force, "for the people are poor, and fear to be fined."
He requests that he and such commissioners as are "well affected in
religion, may be permitted to imprison and fine all such as are
obstinate and disobedient;" and he has no doubt, that "within a short
time they will be reduced to good conformity." He concludes: "And _this
course of reformation_, the sooner it is begun the better it will
prosper; and the longer it is deferred, the more dangerous it will be."
When remember that such words were written, and such deeds were en