CHAPTER IV.
THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION UPON SECULAR LIFE IN IRELAND.
In the preceding chapter I attempted to estimate the influence of our political leaders as a potential and as an actual force.

I come now to the second great influence upon the thought and action of the Irish people, the influence of religion, especially the power exercised by the priests and by the unrivalled organisation of the Roman Catholic Church.
I do not share the pessimism which sees in this potent influence nothing but the shackles of mediaevalism restraining its adherents from falling into line with the progress of the age.

I shall, indeed, have to admit much of what is charged against the clerical leaders of popular thought in Ireland, but I shall be able to show, I hope, that these leaders are largely the product of a situation which they themselves did not create, and that not only are they as susceptible as are the political leaders to the influences of progressive movements, but that they can be more readily induced to take part in their promotion.

In no other country in the world, probably, is religion so dominant an element in the daily life of the people as in Ireland, and certainly nowhere else has the minister of religion so wide and undisputed an authority.

It is obvious, therefore, that, however foreign such a theme may _prima facie_ appear to the scope and aim of the present volume, I have no choice but to analyse frankly and as fully as my personal experience justifies, what I conceive to be the true nature, the salutary limits, and the actual scope of clerical influence in this country.
But before I can discuss what I may call the religious situation, there is one fundamental question--a question which will appear somewhat strange to anyone not in touch with Irish life--which I must, with a view to a general agreement on essentials, submit to some of my co-religionists.