Ore than three hundred and fifty years have now (a. D. 1889) elapsed s1nce the statutes, which in the reign of Henry the Eighth separated the Church of Ireland from the See of Rome, were enacted by the Irish Parliament. It is proposed in the following pages to examine the nature of this legislation, the circum stances connected with it, and the more important inci dents in the subsequent history of the Church as it was thenceforward constituted. But, as at the commence ment of the period with which we shall be concerned ecclesiastical policy in Ireland was directed from Eng land, and in?uenced rather by the relations supposed to exist between the two countries than by local circum stances, any investigation of the subjects to be considered would be imperfect which left unnoticed previous pro ceedings of the English Parliament in relation to the Church of England, and the occurrences and transactions in which they originated. A brief account of these events will therefore occupy the remainder of this chapter.