188 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



and the aids of religion. The first hospitals were 

 founded for sick pilgrims, and the first asylums 

 for poor pilgrims. The persons thus brought hi- 

 ther from various countries, found in these institu- 

 tions still some consolations under their sickness 

 or their poverty : they all met under the same 

 circumstances, in the same spirit, and they had 

 all the same faith. Let any one compare this 

 moral state with the spirit of hostility and the 

 feelings of dread of these establishments expressed 

 by the witnesses, whose depositions we have just 

 read. 



The pilgrimages diminished in proportion as 

 parishes were established and corporations of arts 

 and trades were more and more developed; but 

 these professions and trades, newly accumulated in 

 the towns, caused chronic maladies to the work- 

 men. The order of St. Jean de Dieu, exclusively 

 devoted to the art of healing, was founded. It esta- 

 blished hospitals to receive the sick, which at the 

 same time served as schools for students in their 

 profession. These institutions were largely en- 

 dowed with testamentary bequests. When the Re- 

 formation took place, the Protestants seized upon 

 the administration of all the hospitals. The monks, 

 who were the founders and administrators of these 

 establishments, had taken a vow of chastity and 

 poverty ; but these new administrators were married 



