520 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 



writes at the same time^ that ' ' the hous called Christes Church, 

 within the Kinges citie of Dublin, is situate in the high place of the 

 same, like as Poules in London, where the comen congregations of 

 Parliamentes and greate Counsailles hath been used to be selebrated." 

 It is clear, however, that though Parliament assembled at Christ 

 Church, and attended Divine Service before entering on its business, 

 it was not within the Cathedral itself that its proceedings took place. 

 Hooker's language in his account of Sir Henry Sydney's Parliament 

 shows that in the later Tudor Parliaments, at all events, there was a 

 recognised place of meeting. On the first day . . . the Lord Deputy 

 . . . was conducted and attended in most honourable manner unto 

 Christes Churche, and from there unto the Parliament House ^ where lie 

 sat under the Cloth of Estate, being apparelled in the princelie robes of 

 crimson velvet, doubled or lined, with ermine." Sydney, like most 

 of his immediate predecessors, was at this time resident at either 

 St. Sepulchre's or Kilmainham ; and it seems probable that, after 

 the service in Christ Church, he repaired to the Castle, where in 1568 

 he was already engaged in carrying out a restoration which his 

 predecessor had initiated, and wliere the ancient Great Hall was 

 most likely the meeting-place of the House of Lords, and the scene 

 of the formal ceremonies attending the opening of Parliament and 

 its prorogation. The Commons most probably sat in Christ Church^ 

 in the " Common House. This building, which is referred to in an 

 Act of Henry VI. as " the Common House within the Cathedral of 

 the Holy Trinity," may perhaps have been on the site of the 



1 19 Jan., 1537-8, ib., p. 445. 



- Ware speaks of the Parhament called by Sussex in 1559 as having sat in 

 Christ Church" from January I'ith to the beginning of February following. This 

 was doubtless owing to the Castle being at that time actually under extensive repairs. 

 Parhament sat only for three weeks, and the proceedings of the two Houses may have 

 been held in the "Common House" on separate days. The language of Lord 

 Leonard Grey, which has been construed as meaning that the proceedings of Parlia- 

 ment were actually conducted in the Cathedral, clearly refers only to the ceremonial 

 observances on great occasions. (The Cathedral) " is the verie station place wher 

 as the Kinges Graces honorable Parliamentes and Counsailles are kepyn, all 

 sermons ar made, and wher as the congrgacions of the said citie, in processions and 

 station dales, and at all other times necessarie, assemblith, and at all tymes of the 

 birthe of our most noble Princes and Princesses, and other tymes of victorie and 

 triumphe, processions ar made, and ' Te Deum Laudamus ' customablie is songe, 

 to the laud and praise of God and the honor of our said Princes and Princesses." — 

 State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ii., pt. iii., p. 545. 

 3 Harris's History of Dublin^ p. 43. 



