principal limb thereof—­the Church I mean—­as foul, deformed, and as cruelly crushed as any other part thereof, only by your gracious order to be cured, or at least amended.  I would not have believed, had I not, for a greater part, viewed the same throughout the whole realm.”  He then gives a detailed account of the state of the diocese of Meath, which he declares to be the best governed and best peopled diocese in the realm; and from his official report of the state of religion there, he thinks her Majesty may easily judge of the spiritual condition of less favoured districts.  He says there are no resident parsons or vicars, and only a very simple or sorry curate appointed to serve them; of them only eighteen could speak English, the rest being “Irish ministers, or rather Irish rogues, having very little Latin, and less learning or civility."[429] In many places he found the walls of the churches thrown down, the chancels uncovered, and the windows and doors ruined or spoiled—­fruits of the iconoclastic zeal of the original reformers and of the rapacity of the nobles, who made religion an excuse for plunder.  He complains that the sacrament of baptism was not used amongst them, and he accuses the “prelates themselves” of despoiling their sees, declaring that if he told all he should make “too long a libel of his letter.  But your Majesty may believe it, that, upon the face of the earth where Christ is professed, there is not a Church in so miserable a case.”

A Protestant nobleman, after citing some extracts from this document, concludes thus:  “Such was the condition of a Church which was, half a century ago, rich and flourishing, an object of reverence, and a source of consolation to the people.  It was now despoiled of its revenues; the sacred edifices were in ruins; the clergy were either ignorant of the language of their flocks, or illiterate and uncivilized intruders; and the only ritual permitted by the laws was one of which the people neither comprehended the language nor believed the doctrines.  And this was called establishing the Reformation!"[430]

It should be observed, however, that Sir Henry Sidney’s remarks apply exclusively to the Protestant clergy.  Of the state of the Catholic Church and clergy he had no knowledge, neither had he any interest in obtaining information.  His account of the Protestant clergy who had been intruded into the Catholic parishes, and of the Protestant bishops who had been placed in the Catholic dioceses, we may presume to be correct, as he had no interest or object in misrepresentation; but his observation concerning the neglect of the sacrament of baptism, may be taken with some limitation.  When a religious revolution takes place in a Catholic country, there is always a large class who conform exteriorly to whatever opinions maybe enforced by the sword.  They have not the generosity to become confessors, nor the courage to become martyrs.  But these persons rarely renounce the faith in their