The results of it indeed at first seemed small enough.

The Supremacy, a question which had convulsed England, passed over into Ireland to meet its only obstacle in a general indifference.

Everybody was ready to accept it without a thought of the consequences.

The bishops and clergy within the Pale bent to the king's will as easily as their fellows in England, and their example was followed by at least four prelates of dioceses without the Pale.

The native chieftains made no more scruple than the Lords of the Council in renouncing obedience to the Bishop of Rome, and in acknowledging Henry as the "Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland under Christ." There was none of the resistance to the dissolution of the abbeys which had been witnessed on the other side of the Channel, and the greedy chieftains showed themselves perfectly willing to share the plunder of the Church.