PRINCETON, N. J. **(^ 
 
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 The history of the Church oi 
 
 Ireland 
 
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 iLoniroit, ©jiforS, anB Cambn'Ugc. 
 
R I V I N G T O N S 
 
 ILnnlron Waterloo Place 
 
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 CTambrttigc Trinity Street 
 
^..^ Of 
 / F£B13 1915 
 THE HISTORY OF THfelC-^L^ 
 
 CHURCH OF IRELAND 
 In Sight Sermons 
 
 PREACHED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY 
 
 y 
 
 Bv CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF LINCOLN 
 
 FORMERLY CANON OF WESTMINSTER AND ARCHDEACON 
 
 RIVINGTONS 
 1869 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyofchurchoOOword 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE great question which now awaits a 
 solution from the British Legislature, and 
 which is fraught with momentous consequences, 
 religious and pohtical, can hardly be discussed 
 with any reasonable prospect of a satisfactory 
 result, unless it be approached after a careful 
 study of the History of the Church in Ireland. 
 
 On the other hand, it may be anticipated, that 
 a calm and dispassionate examination of that 
 History would greatly facilitate a right solution of 
 that question. 
 
 It is with a hope of offering a contribution to 
 so desirable an object, that the present Volume is 
 pubhshed. 
 
 For reasons which will be readily understood, 
 it has been thought requisite to confirm the 
 statements contained in it by copious testimonies 
 from authentic sources, and to present them as 
 far as possible in the original words of the writers 
 from whom the evidence is derived. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 SERMON I. 
 THE CHURCH HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 THE AGE OF ST. PATRICK. 
 
 3osf)na ix. 8, 9. 12-16. 
 
 "And Joshua said unto them. Who are ye 1 and from whence come 
 yel And they said unto him, From a very far country thy 
 servants are come. . . . This otir bread we took hot for our 
 provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to yo 
 unto you; hut now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy : and 
 these bottles of loine, tohieh we filed, were new ; and, behold, 
 they be rent : and these our garments and our shoes are he- 
 come old by reason of the very long journey. And the men 
 took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of 
 the Lord. And Joshua made peace with tliem. And it came 
 to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league 
 with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, 
 and that they dwelt among them" 1 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE AGE OF ST. C'OLUMBA. 
 
 L^saial) Ix. 8, 9. 
 
 " Who are these that fy as a cloud, and as the Doves to their 
 windows? Surely the Isles shall wait for Me" 50 
 
X 
 
 Contents. 
 
 SEEMOX III. 
 
 ESTASION or HENET II. 
 
 Isaial) XXX. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " Woe to the rebellious cTiildren, saith the Lord, that take counsel, 
 but not of Me ; and that cover with a covering, hut not of My 
 Spirit, that they may add sin to sin : That uoalJc to go down 
 into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth : to strengthen 
 themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the 
 shadow of Egypt ! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh 
 be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your 
 confusion" 79 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 INTEEVAL BETWEEN- HENET II. AND HENET VIII. 
 JIWatt!)CtD vii. 20. 
 
 " By their fruits ye shall knotv them " 120 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE EEFOEMATION UNDEE KING 
 HENEr Till. 
 
 2 Istings X. 30, 31. 
 
 And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in 
 executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done 
 unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in Mine 
 heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the 
 throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law 
 of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed 
 not from the sins of Jeroboam, tohich made Israel to .nn " . . 155 
 
Contents. 
 
 xi 
 
 SEEMON VI. 
 
 EEFOEMATIOK IX THE KEIGTTS OE ETNG EDWAED VT. AND 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 2 IRings xxii. 2. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " Me did that which loas rigM in the sight of the Lord" . . . . 198 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 HINDRANCES AND HOPES OF THE CHUECH IN IRELAND. 
 
 IFsataf) V. 4. 
 
 Wherefore, when I looked that it should hring forth grapes, 
 brought it forth wild grapesV 237 
 
 SEEMON VIII. 
 
 ON THE CHURCH OF IRELAND AS A NATIONAL RELIGIOUS 
 ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 3)oI)n vii. 24. 
 
 "Judge not according to the appearance, hut judge righteous 
 
 judgment " 292 
 
SERMON 1. 
 
 THE CHURCH HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 THE AGE OF ST. PATRICK 
 
 Joshua ix. 8, 9. 12—16. 
 
 " And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye 1 and from whence come ye ? 
 And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are 
 come. . . . This our hread we took hot for our -provision out of our 
 houses on the day we came forth to go unto you ; hut noiv, hehold, 
 it is dry, and it is mouldy: and these bottles of wine, which we 
 filed, were new ; and, behold, they be rent : and these our garments 
 and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey. 
 And the men tooh of their victuals, and ashed not counsel at the 
 mouth of the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them. And it 
 came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league 
 with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that 
 they dwelt among them." 
 
 FTER the conquest, capture, and destruction of 
 
 Jericho and Ai by Joshua and the Israelites, the 
 other cities of Canaan were filled with alarm lest they 
 should share a similar fate. One of the largest cities in 
 the neighbourhood of Jericho was Gibeon ". Its inha- 
 bitants had heard that God had commanded Joshua to 
 
 ' Preached at Westminster Abbey on Sunday afternoon, March 14, 
 1852, being the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day; and the text being 
 from the evening's first Lesson in the Daily Calendar for March 14. 
 Some new paragraphs are added in the present edition. 
 Josh. X. 1, 2. 
 
 B 
 
2 TJie CImrcIi History of Ireland. 
 
 destroy those cities of Canaan which did not surrender 
 to him within a certain time after a proclamation of 
 peace, and since the period for capitulation had now 
 expired, they feared that they would be the next objects 
 of attack. They knew that Joshua's commission from 
 God was directed against the Seven Nations of Canaan, 
 who had now exhausted His divine patience by their 
 abominations and that it did not extend beyond their 
 limits. Accordingly, they resorted to a stratagem. 
 They would not appear to be Canaanites, but to come 
 from a distant land. In order to gain credence for this 
 story with Joshua and the Israelites, they professed to 
 he ambassadors, and took old sacks vpon their asses, and 
 wine lotiles (or skins), old and rent ; and old shoes, and all 
 the Iread of their provision drj/ and mouldj/, and went to 
 Joshia to the cam.]} at Gilgal, and said unto him and to 
 the men of Israel, We are your servants, therefore now 
 make i/e a h'liijin- irifh vs ; we be come from a fur connfri/. 
 This our hri j.il /'v look hot for our jjrovision on the daij 
 tve ca)i>e forth, bat now, behold, it is dry and mouldy ; 
 and these bottles were neio, and, behold, they be rent, and 
 these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason 
 of the very long journey. 
 
 The artifice was successful. The Israelites, probably 
 hoping, that if Gibeon was saved from destruction, they 
 themselves would be enriched by its wealth, without any 
 risk or toil, eagerly accepted the proposal; they took 
 of their victuals ; and asked not counsel at the mouth of 
 the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them. 
 
 And it came to 2iass, at the end of three days after they 
 ••> Gen. XV. 16. Levit. xviii. 27, 28; xx. 23, 23. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 3 
 
 had made a league with them, that theij heard that the// 
 were neighbours, and that they dwelt among them, 
 
 I. This narrative exhibits an instructive specimen of 
 what often takes place in the world. We are prone to 
 judge from first impressions and external appearances^ to 
 be seduced by shows and semblances and confident 
 assurances ; to rely on our own sagacity ; to be swayed 
 by considerations of worldly expediency, and by expec- 
 tations of personal advantage ; and to neglect those 
 means of ascertaining the truth which are provided for 
 us by Almighty God. 
 
 Among the various modes in which we are thus 
 deceived, — especially in matters of religion, — one there 
 is which bears a striking resemblance to that in which 
 Joshua and the Israelites were deluded by the inhabi- 
 tants of Gibeon. "We are often beguiled into error by 
 specious professions of Antiquity. 
 
 II. A remarkable instance of this is supplied by the 
 subject which now engages our attention, — the History 
 of Christianity in Ieeland. 
 
 If we contemplate the spiritual condition of that 
 country at the present time, we see a numerous body of 
 religious Teachers, bound by solemn pledges of submis- 
 sion to a foreign spiritual Power. We hear it affirmed, 
 that this subjection is sanctioned by prescription, dating 
 from the earliest ages of Christianity ; that from primi- 
 tive times, Ireland was dependent on the Roman See ; 
 that it was even among the temporal possessions of that 
 
 B 2 
 
4 The C/ucrch History of Ireland. 
 
 See ■'; that he, who is justly called the Apostle of 
 Ireland, the venerable St. Patrick, was a devoted son 
 of the Roman Church ; that he was sent as a INIissionary 
 to Ireland by the Bishop of Rome, and that the doc- 
 trines taught in Ireland at this day, under the authority 
 of that Church, were taught by him ; that they have 
 the sanction of his name, and that, therefore, they who 
 renounce any of those doctrines, and especially they 
 who abjure the Supremacy of Rome, are guilty of 
 disobeying the divine command, Thus saith the Lord, Ask 
 for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, 
 and ye shall find rest for your souls ^• that they are 
 chargeable with presumptuous and arrogant innovation ; 
 that they revolt from the Ancient Church, and aposta- 
 tize from the Faith of their Fathers, and are guilty of 
 ingratitude and irreverence to their most illustrious 
 Ancestors, the Saints and Confessors of primitive times, 
 and that, having estranged themselves from their fellow- 
 ship here on earth, they may not hope to be associated 
 with them hereafter in the bliss and glory of heaven. 
 
 * The Papal claim to Ireland as a fief of the Roman See is urged 
 by Pope Hadrian IV. in his Brief to Henry II., and afterwards 
 maintained by Archbishop Croniei', Bishop Roiith (Analecta Sacra, i. 
 234), Peter Lombard in his History of Ireland, 1G32, and Porter in bis 
 Annals, 1G90. O'Brodin, Descriptio HiborniEe, 1721. Bishop Burke, 
 Hibernia Doniinicana, 17G2. See Digest of Evidence on Ireland, ii. pp. 
 32 — 34. See also Sanders de Scbismate Anglicano, lib. i. ad. ann. 
 1542. " Hiberni slatim post Chrhtianam ReUcjionem acce|)tam 
 svnque omnia in Pontificis Romani ditiouem dederunt," from Polydor. 
 Virgil. Hist. .\iii. See too Rinuccini Nunziatura (in the reigu of 
 Charles I. a.d. 1G45-9), p. xxxvi, and the Papal instructions to him, 
 " II regno d'Irlanda fu di antico dominio delta Sede ApostoUca ; alia 
 Cristiana Religione fu egli convertito sotto Celestino I. prima da 
 S. Palladio poscia da S. Patrizio discepolo di S. Germano." 
 
 * Jer. vi. 16. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 5 
 
 Such statements as these are entitled to serious consi- 
 deration, and are fraught with momentous consequences. 
 
 If the present Religion of Rome was indeed the 
 Ancient Religion of Ireland, if the Jurisdiction now 
 claimed for the Church of Rome in that country is 
 derived from Christ, and was exercised there in primitive 
 times, then it must he confessed that its inhabitants are 
 bound by sacred ties to adhere faithfully to the Roman 
 See. And since Rome affirms that out of her pale there 
 is no salvation, and that she cannot err in matters of 
 faith, and that resistance to her is resistance to Christ, 
 then, it cannot be denied, they ought not to allow any 
 considerations of civil allegiance to deter them from 
 advancing her interests, and from endeavouring to sub- 
 ject their own country, absolutely and permanently, to 
 the Supremacy of Rome. 
 
 Since, then, the assertions, which have now been 
 recited, are reiterated ^^ith great confidence by a 
 large body of pei'sons, who, from their numbers and 
 position, exercise a powerful influence ; since these 
 assertions are received by many as unquestionable ; and 
 since they are attended hy important consequences, 
 spiritual and temporal; we owe it to others and our- 
 selves, we owe it to the cause of Religion and Truth, to 
 inquire calmly and dispassionateh', whether those claims 
 to Antiquity are well grounded, or whether they may 
 not, perhaps, resemble the professions of the Gibeonites, 
 by w^hich they persuaded Joshua that they came from 
 a distant land. 
 
 III. With regard to the precise period at which 
 
6 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 Christianity was originally introduced into Ireland, 
 and to the quarter from which it came, we have no 
 authentic record. Some general expressions of ancient 
 Ecclesiastical authors appear to intimate that the 
 Gospel was preached there in Apostolic times ^ The 
 earliest Christian writers of Ireland, who mention the first 
 communication of the glad tidings of Salvation to that 
 country, do not trace it from Rome, but ascribe it to 
 the disd])les of St. John ^. They look back to them as 
 their fathers in the faith. 
 
 s EuSEB. Ev. Dem. iii. 5, tous a.TromiKovi -irpoa-eKduv iirl ras 
 BpfTTauviKas Ka\ovfi4i/as viiaovs. 
 
 S. Chrtsostom, torn. vi. p. 635. ed. S.ivil. in demonst. on Xpio-rbs 
 &e6s- al Bp^TTavviKol vi]aoi . . . Tqs Suvdfiews rou fi'fi/j.aTOS ^itBovto, 
 ibid. torn. vili. p. 111. kUv a.we\6r;i wphs tos BpeTTovyi/cay vfjaovs . . . 
 aKSvari ra airh Tijs ypa(pTis (piXoaoipovvTwv. 
 
 See also the eloquent j)assa<re of S. Coltjhbanus, Ep. ad Bonifac. 
 § 10. " Ex eo tempore quo Dens et Dei Filius homo esse dignatus est, 
 ac in duobus illis ferveutissimis Dei Spiritus equis Petro scilicet et 
 Paulo Apostolis per mare gentium equitans turbavit aquas niultas et 
 inuumerabilium populorum millibus inultiplicavit quadrigas, Supremus 
 Ipse Auriga currus illius. Qui est Christus, ad nos usque pervenit." 
 
 ' Cf. Steph. Vit. Wilfrid, c. 10. " Colmannus intrepida mente 
 respondens dixit, Patres nostri et antecessores eorum nianifeste Spiritu 
 Sancto inspirati, ut erat Columkille, xiv. luna die Dominica Pascha 
 celebrandum sanxerunt, cxemplum tenentes Johannis Apostoli ; et nos 
 sicut discijmli ejus Polt/carpus et alii celebramus, nec hoc audemus, pro 
 patribus nostris, nec volumus mutare." 
 
 The groups of " Seven Chui'ches " in Ireland are supposed by some to 
 be derived from the Seven Churches of St. John's Apocalypse. The 
 appeal to St. Columba and St. John is found in the words of Colman 
 (ap. Bede, iii. 25), " Pascha quod agere soles a majoribus raeis accepi, 
 quod omnes patres nostri viri Deo dilecti eodem modo celebrasse nos- 
 cuntur. Quod ne cui contemnendum videatur, ipsum est quod beatus 
 Evangelista Johannes discipulus specialiter Domino dilectus cum omni- 
 bus quibus preeerat Ecclesiis celebrasse legitur . . . mirum quare stul- 
 tum appellare velitis laborem nostrum in quo tanti Apostoli qui super 
 pectus Domini recumbere dignus fuit exeraplo sectamur. . . . Nunquid 
 reverendissimum patrem nostrum Columbam, et successores ejus, vires 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 7 
 
 However, it is certain, that very little was effected for 
 the propagation of the Gospel in Ireland during the first 
 four centuries after Christ. Paganism was still domi- 
 nant. The Priests of Ireland were the Druids. 
 
 About the year of our Lord 131, a Missionary was sent 
 from Italy to that country. His name was Palladius, 
 and he came from Celestinus, Bishop of Rome. Whe- 
 ther his mission was designed to be permanent, or 
 whether he was sent for the purpose of cheeking the 
 progress of the Pelagian heresy, then prevalent in the 
 West, is not clear But for some reason, which is not 
 
 Deo dilectos, qui eodem modo pasclia feccrunt diviuis pagiiiis coutraria 
 sapuisse vel egisse credendum est ? " 
 
 * Bede, H. E. i. 13. " Ut regnante Theodosio minore, Palladius ad 
 Scoios in Christum credentes missus est . . ." and again, "cujus Theo- 
 dosii junioris post Honorium (regnantis) anno octavo Palladius ad Scot- 
 tos ill Christum credentes a Pontifice Romanse Ecclosiie initiilur 
 Episcopus." Tlie meaning of wliich may be, tliat no Bishop had been 
 sent from Kome to Ireland before Palladius, and that there were Irish 
 Bishops before. And Palladius was sent, it is probable, to drive away 
 the Pelagian heresy from Ireland (cf. Bede i. 17, and Smith's note)- 
 As Professor Hussey observes, ad loc. i. 13, " Fortasse missus est ad 
 sanandos potius Pelagianos errores quam ad paganos convertendos, cf. 
 Prosper. Chron. ad a.d. 429." The expression in Prosper de Ca;lestino. 
 C. Collator, xi. " fecit barbaram (Scotiam) Christianam," does not inti- 
 mate that there were no Christians there before, but that he diffused a 
 knowledge of Christianity through it. The following is from Professor 
 Hussey's note, ibid., " Verisimile est fuisse fideles in Hibernia, ante 
 Palladii adventum quamvis prima Hibernensis Ecclesia; origo incerta 
 sit : siquidem tum teraporis insignes erant nonnuUi qui e Scotia, hoc est 
 ex Hibernia, orti esse feruntur, quales fuere Sedulius, Calestius Pelagii 
 discipulus. Magna vero populi pars, vel etiam mult6 maxima, poterat 
 adhuc pagana esse. Contr^ tradunt nonnulli, quatuor sanctissimi Epis- 
 copi cum suis discipulis fuerant in Jlihernid ante Patricium \_et ante 
 Palladium'] scilicet Ailbeus, Declanus, Ibarus, et Kiaranus, &e. Auct. 
 vitae Declani in Usser. 
 
 " Porro Patricius de quo nihil hahet Beda nisi nomen ejus in Mar- 
 
8 The CImrch History of Ireland. 
 
 recorded, lie quitted Ireland, after a very brief sojourn, 
 and soon afterwards died'. 
 
 IV. St. Patrick is universally recognized as the 
 Apostle of Ireland \ The date of his arrival in 
 Ireland has not been precisely determined. It is 
 supposed by many writers of good authority, that St. 
 Patrick (who had been in Ireland before as a slave) 
 came to that country as a Missionary Bishop the year 
 after Palladius had visited it. The Mission of St. 
 Patrick is one of the most interesting events in Church 
 History, and happily we possess trustworthy documents 
 for ascertaining its character. 
 
 The principal of these records is the woi"k composed 
 by St. Patrick himself, in his old age, and addressed to 
 the people of Ireland, and entitled his Confession *. 
 
 tyrologio xvi. Kal. Apr. fertur ad Hiberniam venisse paulo post Palla- 
 dium, qui mortuus est quamprimum ad Piotorum fines 'pervenerat." 
 
 ' See Nennius, Hist. Beit, (noni, ut videtur, saeeuli). Hauniae, 
 1777, and apud Gale, Script, xv. p. 94. See § 53 on the Mission of 
 Palladius. 
 
 " Missus est Palladius Episcopus primitus a Celestino Papa Romano 
 ad Scotos in Christum convertendos, qui prohibitus est a Deo per quas- 
 dam tempestates, et profectus est ille Palladius de Hibernia pervenitque 
 ad Britanniam et ibi defunctus est in terra Pictorum." Cf. Bishop 
 Lloyd on Anct. Christianity, pp. 55—57. 
 
 • Gallandi cs, Proleg. de St. Patricio : " Patricium a Deo ad Hiber- 
 norum conversioneui vocatum circa annum 431 ; post inuumeros labores 
 in eo munere apostolico perficiendo e vivis excessisse anno 491; annos 
 natum 120 ut coramunior fert sententia. Cseterum ut Pagii verbis 
 utamur, Hiberni Patricio debent quod patria sua facta sit Sanctorum 
 insula et litterarum scientiarumque gj-mnasiura." 
 
 • Contained in Patricii Opuscula (Sc. Confessio, Epist. ad Coroticum, 
 Synodi du;e, itc), ed. Jac. Warasus, Lond., 1658: Dublin, ed. Villa- 
 nueva, 1835: Gallandii Bibl. Patr. Vet. vol. x. pp. 159—182: Migne's 
 Patrologia, tom. liii. p. 802. For testimonies to its genuineness, see Dr 
 Todd's St. Patrick, p. 347. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 9 
 
 This title is not intended to convey the meaning 
 generally implied by that word. The Confession of 
 
 Yeowell's Chronicles, Appendix iv. p. 173, contain a translation of 
 St. Patrick's Confession. A translation of it is also inserted in Sir W. 
 Betham's Antiq. Researches, Part II. 
 
 The following testimonies, from two learned Roman Catholic writers, 
 are important, as contrasting this authentic record by St. Patrick him- 
 self with the fabulous legends concerning him which were invented in a 
 later age, and which now, unhappily, pass current with many as if they 
 were true. 
 
 Gallandii Prolegomen. de S. Patricio. Bibl. Yett. Putr. torn. x. 
 "Sancti Patricii res gestas Probus, Jocelinus, aliique medii Kvi scrip- 
 tores litteris consignarunt, quorum auetoritas kaud Jirmo talo consistit. 
 
 "At ex beati Antistitis Confessione et Epistola ad Coroticum com- 
 plura eruet lector ad ejus acta probe dignoscenda quibus alibi firmiora 
 frustri quserat." 
 
 TiLLEMONT, Hist. Eccl. vol. xvi. pp. 453—478, 781—787, on the Life 
 of St. Patrick, p. 454, " Bollandus dit que generalement on n'a presque 
 aucune vie des Saints d'Ireland qn'on puisse croire ancienne de plus de 
 six cent arts. II nefaut pas se jier davantage a leurs Annales." 
 
 And comp. ibid. p. 782. " Ne voyant rien de certain dans les vies de 
 Saint Patrice nous aimons mieux nous contenter d'un ecrit qu'on appelle 
 sa Confession qu'on croit estre de lui-meme et qui veritablement en est 
 digne." 
 
 Let me add two testimonials from two of the most learned Eccle- 
 siastical Antiquaries that Ireland has produced. 
 
 AECHBisnop Usshee's Letters, xxxiii. " I gave him good leave to 
 discredit, as much as he list, the ridiculous miracles which latter 
 writers have fastened on St. Patrick, but in no wise to touch his credit 
 nor to question his succession to Palladius, nor to cast him into lower 
 times. 
 
 "Bede, making mention, both in his History and Chronicle, of 
 Palladius, speaketh nothing at all of Patricius. Yet I have seen in 
 Sir R. Cotton's library an ancient fragment written before the time of 
 Bede, wherein St. Patrick is not only mentioned, but also made to be as 
 ancient as hitherto we have stiU believed him to have been." 
 
 Sir J. Wabe's Bishops, pp. 3—24, on the Life of St. Patrick, " His 
 history has been crowded with such numberless fictions, and monstrous 
 fables, that, like the legends of King Arthur, they would almost tempt 
 one to doubt the reality of his person ; and Probus, his biographer in 
 the tenth century, was outdone by Joccline in the twelfth : at length 
 came Philip O'Sullivan, who far exceeds even Joceline. He published 
 his work at Madrid, 1629. The two latter books of O'Sullivan's 
 
lo Tlie Ch?irch History of Ireland. 
 
 St. Patrick is not to be compared with the Confessions 
 of St. Augustine, and other similar works; hut it is to 
 he regarded as a Profession of Faith indited hy St. 
 Patrick himself, and as a hrief memoir of his own 
 ministry and life, and also as a public and thankful 
 acknowledgment to God, for His manifold mercies 
 to him. His design in writing it was, that postei'ity 
 might know what he had done and taught ^ ; and that 
 all might also know, that, although he had been per- 
 mitted to labour in Ireland for many years, and had 
 baptized many thousands there *, and had planted many 
 Churches in that country, yet he claimed no honour 
 for himself, but ascribed all the glory to God. 
 
 "What shall I render to God,^-* he says', "for all 
 His benefits ? I have no strength but from Him. I 
 am ready to receive at His hands the cup of sorrow 
 which He delivers to those who love Him. God grant 
 that I may never lose the flock which He has given 
 me. May He vouchsafe me perseverance to the end 
 and grace to shed my blood for His name's sake ! 
 This I know will be true gain — it will be Life Eternal.''' 
 
 history relate to St. Patrick's Purgatory, ivhich neither Joceline nor 
 Probus have mentioned, and probably never heard or dreamt of : see 
 also p. 25. ' St. Patrick's Purgatory ' is first mentioned by Henry, 
 monk of Saltry, who wrote a.d. 1153. Trias Thauraaturg. 273. 
 Joceline (Vita Patricii, cap. 166) and others after him assert that 
 Patrick received the Arehiepiscopal Pallium from Some. But, as 
 S. Bernard (Vita Malach. c. 8), and Roger Hoveden, and the Annals of 
 Melrose testify, no Pall was ever sent to Ireland before a.d. 1151." 
 Cp. Schcenemann. Notit. Hist, de Patricio. " Prohi ct Jocelini, medii 
 a3vi scriptorum, fabula; dudum ab omnibus explosoe sunt." 
 ' Confession, § 6. 
 
 * Confession, § 2. " In Domino baptizavi tot millia hominum." 
 s Confession, § 23. 
 
The Age of Patrick. 
 
 "I protest''-' (he says at the close of that work), "in 
 truth and in joy, in the presence of God and His holy 
 angels, that it was for the sake of the Gospel and its 
 promises, and for no other reason, that I came back to 
 that country (Ireland) from which I had formerly 
 escaped. I beseech all who believe in God, and who 
 pray to Him, and fear Him, and who vouchsafe to read 
 this book, which I, Patrick, a sinner and unlearned, 
 have written in Ireland ; let no one ever say that any 
 little that I have done or taught there, according to 
 God^s good pleasure, was due to me and my ignorance. 
 But judge ye rather this, and be ye fully persuaded, 
 that it was God who wrought by me. . . . This is my 
 confession before I die." 
 
 In order that this confession of God^s power and 
 love might be more generally known, St. Patrick wrote 
 it in Latin. For a long time he hesitated before he 
 could make up his mind to write in that language. He 
 had been many years in Ireland, and had little oppor- 
 tunity of cultivating the Latin tongue. " I feel 
 shame and fear," he says, " to display my own rude- 
 ness of speech; and because I cannot express clearly 
 in that language what my heart feels, and what my 
 spirit burns to declare 
 
 To the Christian believer generally, especially to the 
 Christian Missionary, and particularly to those who are 
 engaged in propagating the Gospel in Ireland, the Con- 
 fession of St. Patrick will ever be a work of deep interest. 
 It is written (as we have said) in Latin, in a simjjle and 
 homely style, somewhat rude and rugged, as the Author 
 * See Confession, § 1 and § 5. 
 
1 2 The Church nistojj of Ireland. 
 
 himself ingenuously and modestly avows. But this 
 fact does not detract from its intrinsic value. It shows 
 that the Author was not tutored in schools of human 
 learning, and that he did not come from Rome. But 
 the record of the sufferings he endured, and of the 
 labours he performed in the cause of the Gospel, and 
 the spirit of zeal and courage with which he toiled in 
 the work of Christ, in an almost barbarous country, for 
 sixty years, affords a cogent proof that he was indeed a 
 good man, full of the Holy Ghost 
 
 St. Patrick was not an Irishman^, nor an Italian. 
 His baptismal name ' Succath seems to be of Teutonic 
 or Celtic origin. He mentions the place of his birth 
 by its Latin appellation'. Archbishop Ussher' sup- 
 " Acts xi. 24. 
 
 * Cardinal Baronius, ad An. 431 and 491, makes St. Patrick a native 
 of Ireland, deceived probably by the expression in the Martyrology 
 " In Hibernia Natalis St. Patricii." Whereas a Saint's Nativity in the 
 constant language of the Martyrologists is the day of his death. See 
 Ware's Bishops, p. 5. 
 
 See also Dr. Todd's edit, of the Martyrol. Christ Church, Dublin, 
 p. Ivii. The notice there given of St. Patrick makes no allusion to any 
 mission from Celcstine. 
 
 Maetthol. Christ Cliurch, Dublin, p. 96. xvi. Kal. April. " Natalis 
 Sancti Patricii Archiepiscopi Scotorum qui primus eosdem Scotos de 
 gentilitate ad Christi fidcm convertit . . . Sicut in Apostolatum bar- 
 barica; gentis Scotorum verbo predicationis per aquam et Spiritum 
 Sanctum ex baptismatis fonte velut ex matris utero regeneravit, merito 
 ejusdem gentis ^a^(?r nominatur . . . Apostolus et predicator in conver- 
 tenda gente ad fidcm constitutus Episcopus, baptizando, ungendo, 
 chrismatizando, et Episoopos, Presbyteros Diaconosque ceterosque gi-adus 
 Ecclesise ordinando, perfectus." 
 
 9 ScHCENEMANK, Bibl. Hist. Patr. torn. ii. p. 846. " Patricius 
 natioue Britannus, nomine patrio Succath, uatus in oppido Nemthur, 
 hodie Kirkpatrick, inter fretum Dumbrittonae et url)em Glasguensein 
 sito circa annum 371, patre Calpurnio diacono Potiti prcsbyteri filio." 
 
 ' " Bonaven Tabernia?." See below, note, p. 32. 
 
 ' See also Ware's Bishops, p. 5. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 13 
 
 poses that this spot is Kirkpatrick, in Scotland, be- 
 tween Dumbarton and Glasgow, on the banks of the 
 Clyde. It is indeed generally allowed that St. Patrick 
 was born either in Scotland or in France ^ For reasons 
 which need not be enumerated, it seems to be more 
 probable that he was a native of Scotland. One may 
 be specified. In St. Patrick's age, the Slave Trade was 
 carried on in these countries. He relates, that when 
 he was only sixteen years old, he himself was captured 
 by Pirates, and sold into a foreign land. The countiy 
 to which he was carried was the north of Ireland. And 
 he mentions, that* manij thousands of his countrymen 
 were seized and taken with him. If we consider these 
 circumstances, and recollect how small and incommo- 
 dious the vessels of that age wei-e, we cannot suppose 
 it probable, that, if these many thousand slaves had 
 been captured in France, the Pirates should have chosen 
 to carry their cumbrous freight by so long and cir- 
 cuitous a voyage as to the north of Ireland ; but to no 
 place were they more likely to have carried them than 
 to the north of Ireland, if they had captured them in 
 Scotland. If this be a correct conclusion, there would 
 be a pleasing interest in the reflection, that Scotland, 
 which afterwards received so much of Clu-istian illu- 
 
 3 In c. 19 of his " Coiifessio," he appears to distinguish between 
 France and his native land. " Pergens in Britannias et libentissime 
 paratus eram quasi ad patriam et parentes, non id solum sed erain usque 
 Gallias, visitare fratres." This seems to reftite their opinion who 
 would abandon the ordinary sense of " Britannia;," and translate 
 " Britanniae" into ' Brittany' in France. 
 
 In the Confessio, c. i., he says that he was captured and brought to 
 Ireland "cum tot millibus hominum, quia a Deo recessinius et sacerdo- 
 tibus nostris non obedientes fuimus." 
 
14 The C/iiu'ck History of Ireland. 
 
 mination from Ireland^ and even derived its name 
 Scotland from that island (for Ireland was the primi- 
 tive Scotia ^ , and was commonly called by that name 
 till the tenth century), should have given St. Patrick 
 — the Apostle of Ireland — to that country. 
 
 But not to dwell upon this point, and to consider him 
 in his exile. He was the slave of a heathen master, in 
 a wild country, amid savage tribes, and was sent to feed 
 sheep. He draws an affecting picture of his own con- 
 dition at that time. " Often (he says °) in wintry nights, 
 I wandered as a shepherd on the mountains of Ireland. 
 I was drenched by rains, and chilled by dews and frost. 
 But in his solitary hours he had communings with God, 
 and in the school of friendlessness and affliction, and 
 imder the influence of the sky and stars, the blessed 
 truths of Revelation, which had been planted by his 
 parents in his mind, but had hitherto lain dormant 
 there, awoke and stirred within him. " Often 1 slept 
 on the hills and in the forests, and rose before dawn to 
 pray." It was good for him to have been in trouhle. By 
 means of servitude he became the freeman of Christ ^ , and 
 banishment from his country brought him home to God. 
 Thus his life was spent till his twenty-third year. He 
 then escaped from captivity, and returned to his native 
 land. But he would not remain there. He had seen 
 the people of Ireland scattered like sheep without a shep- 
 
 5 Beompton. Io. p. 1071. " Erat Hibernia jam olim Britanniae 
 concorporata ... p. 1072 dicta est etiain Scotia a Scotis earn Labi- 
 tautibus priusquam ad aliam Scotiam Britannicam devenerant." 
 
 UssHEE, Aiitiq. cxvi. " ScoticB appellationem Hibernia retinuit ad 
 seculum usque decimum." 
 
 « Confess, c. 6. ?! Cor. vii. 22. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 15 
 
 herd^, on tlie mountains of error and unbelief; and his 
 heart was moved within him when he thought of their 
 hapless condition, and he resolved, with the Divine aid, 
 to bring them home to the fold of Christ. With a noble 
 spirit of Christian forgiveness and of Christian self- 
 sacrifice, he would return good for evil, and would forego 
 the joys of home, in order to preach the Gospel, where 
 he had been an exile and a slave. 
 
 Accordingly, after some years of religious preparation' 
 
 8 Num. xxvii. 17. 1 Kings xxii. 17. Matt. ix. 36. 
 ' Not at Rome, but probably at tlie liaiuls of S. German of Auxerre 
 in Fi-ance. See the testimony of FiEcn the Bard (concerning whom 
 may be consulted O'Connor, Prolog, ad Scr. Hibern. i. p. cxv, who 
 places him circ. a.d. 540). Ware calls Fiech Bishop of Sletty (in 
 Queen's County), near Carlow, and contemporary with St. Patrick. 
 See Ware's Bishops, p. 3, and Bishop Nicholson's Library, p. 50. 
 Fiech de Patricio— 
 
 " Profectus est trans Alpes omnes 
 Et niansit apud Germanum, &c. 
 He traversed the whole of Albion, 
 He crossed the Sea, 
 
 And he took up his abode with Gcrmanus. 
 Far away to the South of Armorica 
 Among the isles of the Tuscan Sea ; 
 There he abode, as I declare. 
 He studied the Canons ivith Germanics, 
 Thus it is that the Churches testify ; 
 To the land of Erin he returned." 
 
 The original of this Hymn, in Irish, is inserted in Colgan's Trias 
 Thaumaturga. It describes St. Patrick's travels minutely, but says 
 nothing of his being at Rome. 
 
 See also Mr. King's Primer, i. 30. The Cotton MS. ascribed to the 
 ninth century by Dr. O'Connor, and which Ussher supposes to be 
 earlier, mentions that " Germanus and Lupus nurtured and ordained 
 St. Patrick, and made him the chief Bishop of their school among the 
 British Irish." 
 
 Cf. also Nennius, Historia Britonum ; Irish Version of, edited by 
 Dr. Todd. Dublin: 1848, p. 107. "Patrick went to the South to 
 study, and he read the Canons with German (Germanus of Auxerre). 
 
i6 TJic CIuLvcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 he received the Holy orders of Deacon, Priest, and 
 Bishop; and about the year of our Lord 430', he returned 
 to Ireland. There he spent the residue of his life — a 
 period of sixty years. During- that time, he traversed 
 the greater part of the country, preaching the Gospel, 
 baptizing, planting Churches, and ordaining Bishops, 
 Priests, and Deacons. Almighty God blessed his labours 
 with an abundant harvest ; he never quitted the field, 
 and, full of labours and of years, and like a reaper with 
 his sheaves around him, he fell asleep in Christ. 
 
 V. What, let us now inquire, was the record of his 
 labours in Ireland ? 
 
 One of the Bishops who were consecrated by him, and 
 who appears to have been his own nephew, and whose 
 name was Sechnall, or (in a Latin form) Secundinus, 
 Bishop of Armagh', composed a short Latin poem, still 
 
 Pledius (i. e. Palladius) was driven from Eri .... Patrick came to 
 Eri after studying, and baptized the men of Eri." The Irish Version 
 here has "the South," where "Romam" stands in the Latin, § 53, 
 which is not earlier than the nintli century. See Prtef. ed. Haun. p. 18. 
 " He was not ordained at Rome by Celestiuc," says the learned Roman 
 Catholic' WrilcT Tillemont, 1. c. p. 783. See also p. 458. 
 
 Having; rcl'm ed in this note to the " Church History of Ireland, by 
 the Rev. ItoBKKX King," 3 vols. 12mo, Dublin, 1845—1851, let me 
 take this opportunity of paying a tribute of respect to that valuable 
 work, which ought to be in the hands of all students of Irish Church- 
 History. 
 
 1 See Monte-Feenandi Annaies. (Annals of Multifernan, edited 
 by Dr. A. Smith, Dublin, 1842 : perhaps the most ancient annals of 
 Ireland, written exclusively in the Latin language. They are carried 
 down to A.D. 1274'. Intr. p. 1. See also Bishop Nicholson, p. 18.) 
 
 In A.D. 432, the entry is, " Sanctus Patricius venit iu Hiberniam 
 there is no mention of his being sent from Rome. Others place St. 
 Patrick's mission still earlier. See Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 391-6. 
 
 = Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, p. 364. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 extant which describes the acts of St. Patrick. In it 
 the Author says that St. Patrick was stedfast in the fear 
 of God, and immovable in the faith of God, u25on whom 
 the Church is built, as upon a rock and that he 
 received his Apostleship from God^ "God sent him 
 forth as His Apostle," he adds, " as He sent St. Paul to 
 the Gentiles. Humble he was, through fear of God, 
 both in spirit and in body, and he gloried only in the 
 Cross of Christ. Boldly he proclaimed the name of God 
 to the heathen, and gave them the everlasting grace of 
 the laver of salvation ; and, after the pattern of Christ, 
 he was ready to lay down his life for the flock. There- 
 fore the Saviour exalted him to be chief among His 
 Priests, in order that he might admonish the Clergy in 
 their heavenly warfare. He found the divine treasure 
 in the Sacred Volume — the Holy Scriptures — and he 
 beheld the Saviour's Godhead in His flesh. A faithful 
 witness of God he was in the Catholic faith, the words 
 of which are stored up in the Divine oracles °. A true 
 
 " It is a "Hymnus Alphabeticus " in rude tetrameter trochaic. It 
 was first printed by Colgan in 1647, afterwards by Sir James Ware, 
 1656, also by Villanueva, "Opuscula S. Patricii," Dublin, 1835; and 
 with a learned Introduction and notes by Dr. Todd in his "Book of 
 Hymns of the Ancient Irish Church," Dublin, 1855, p. 11. It is a 
 valuable companion to St. Patrick's Confessio, and Epistola ad Coro- 
 ticum. It seems to have been written while St. Patrick was still living, 
 for the verbs which refer to hira are iu the present tense. See Dr. 
 Todd's edition, pp. 40, 41. 
 
 * The original is " ut petrum ;" and the reference is to the places in 
 Scripture where Christ is called the Foundation-stone, or Corner-stone of 
 the Churcli (Isa. xxviii. 16; Eph. ii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 6); and the Eock of 
 the Church (Matt. xvi. 18). 
 
 ^ Hymnus S. Secundini, v. 9. 11. 
 
 « A testimony from ancient Ireland to the siipremacy and sufficiency 
 of Holy Scripture. 
 
 C 
 
J 8 The C/mrc/i History of Ireland. 
 
 and noble husbandman he was of the Evangelical field, 
 the seed of which is the Gospel of Christ ; he sowed 
 that seed with divine speech into the ears of the wise, 
 and ploughed their hearts by the help of the Holy- 
 Ghost. Therefore Christ chose him as His vicar upon 
 earth, to deliver captives from a double bondage ; from 
 the slavery of men, and the dominion of the devil. He 
 held the faith in the Trinity of the Sacred Name, and 
 taught that there is One Substance in Three Persons ; 
 and by day and by night, having his loins girt with the 
 girdle of the Lord, he prayed to the Lord his God, from 
 whom he will hereafter receive the reward of his labours, 
 with the Apostles of Christ." 
 
 Such is the testimony to St. Patrick from one of his 
 own contemporaries. 
 
 That these labours were performed amid many dangers 
 not only from the heathen tribes of Ireland but also 
 from foreign aggression, appears from another very in- 
 teresting work, still extant, of St. Patrick himself. 
 
 This is an Epistle ^ of remonstrance which he wrote to 
 the emissaries of a certain chieftain called Coroticus, 
 probably of Wales* or of Cornwall, who had invaded 
 Ireland, and pillaged it, and carried captive many of the 
 Christians of the churches planted by St. Patrick. " I 
 do not wish," he says, " to open my mouth with Avords 
 of sternness, but I am constrained by zeal for God and 
 the truth, and by love for my friends and children in the 
 
 ' The "Epistola S. Patricii ad Coroticuin," or rather "ad Corotici 
 suhditos," was printed by Sir James Ware in 1656, and by Villanueva in 
 1835 in Opuscula S. Patricii, p. 240. 
 
 8 Cp. Todd's St. Patrick, p. 352. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 1 9 
 
 faith, for whom I have given up my country and my 
 kindred; and am ready to give up my life, if God thinks 
 me worthy. I have made a vow to my God that I will 
 preach the Gospel to the heathen. O Lord ! what shall 
 I do ? Thy sheep are torn in pieces before my eyes by 
 robbers, at the command of Coroticus, not fearing God 
 nor the priests whom God has chosen, and to whom He 
 has given power that what they bind on earth should be 
 bound in heaven'. Savage wolves are devouring the 
 flock of Christ, that flock in Ireland which was lately 
 so prosperous. They have filled their houses with the 
 spoils of Christians. But thus they reap death to 
 themselves ; all who work wickedness procure for them- 
 selves eternal death, and everlasting punishment \ The 
 Church,^' he adds, " mourns for her children, she weeps 
 for those who have not yet been slain by the sword, but 
 have been carried away captive. I weep for you, my 
 most fair and loving brethren, a countless multitude 
 whom I have begotten in Christ. I weep also for the 
 dead. I weep for you, my beloved ; but yet I i-ejoice 
 also ; my labours among you, and journeys have not 
 been in vain, God be thanked ; ye have believed and 
 been baptized, and ye have passed from this world into 
 Paradise ^. I see with mine eyes that ye have migrated 
 to that place where is neither darkness, nor mourning, 
 nor death; and ye will reign hereafter in gloiy with 
 Apostles, and Prophets, and Martyrs. But where will 
 they then be, who rebel against Christ? Where will 
 
 9 Epist. ad Corot. S 3. Matt. xvi. 19 ; xviii. 18. 
 
 1 Epist. ad Corot. § 7. 
 
 2 Not Purgatory. Epist. ad Corot. § 9. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Coroticus be, with his savage crew ? Sinuers and 
 spoilers will perish from the presence of the Lord, but 
 the just will rejoice with Christ, and judge the nations, 
 and have dominion for evermore. I protest before God 
 and His Holy Angels, that so it will be. ' He who 
 believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not will 
 be damned.^ God hath spoken it^ I entreat that this 
 letter of mine may be read in the pi'esence of all the 
 people and Coroticus himself. May God touch their 
 hearts, that they may repent ! They have acted as 
 murderers against the brethren of the Lord ; but let 
 them repent, and set at liberty the Christians whom 
 they have taken prisoners ; so they themselves may live 
 to God and be saved for evermore. Amen 
 
 VI. Let us now apply these things to ourselves. 
 
 The history of St. Patrick is instructive to all. Since 
 the days of the holy Apostles, few missionary works have 
 been so signally blessed as his labours in Ireland. 
 
 What were the causes of his success ? 
 
 First and foremost must be placed his love for Christ. 
 This feeling is beautifully expressed in St. Patrick-'s 
 Irish Hymn, probably ''the oldest monument of the 
 Irish language now in existence ^" 
 
 " May Christ be with me, Christ before me, 
 Christ behind me, Christ within me, 
 (Jhrist beneath me, Christ above me ; 
 Christ at my right hand, Clirist at my left hand. 
 ##***# 
 
 •* Mark xvi. 16. St. Patrick speaks here of Christ as God. 
 •1 Epist. ad Corot. § 10, § 11. 
 
 5 King's History, p. 40. See Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 426—429. 
 
The Age of St. Pat rich 
 
 21 
 
 " May Christ be in the heart of every man who thinks of me ; 
 Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me ; 
 Christ in every eye that sees me ; 
 Christ in every ear that hears me." 
 
 Next, his love for the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 His two extant works abound with references to the 
 Word of God and they are animated throughout with 
 its spirit. The Word of God was his Bpok of books; 
 it was his rule of faith and life, it was his daily 
 bread. 
 
 Next must be mentioned his fervency in prayer. 
 Even when a boy of sixteen, feeding cattle on the hills 
 of Ireland, he, like David feeding sheep in the fields of 
 Bethlehem, had continual communings with God. His 
 heart was in heaven. Thence he derived faith and love, 
 joy and peace, patience, strength, and courage. 
 
 No wonder that after his return to his home in Scot- 
 land he still yearned for Ireland; he had seen her 
 wretchedness, the wretchedness of heathen idolatry. 
 He felt compassion for her, and longed to win her to 
 Christ. Christ was his all in all. Burning with love 
 of Christ, and of the souls for whom He died, and full 
 of His Spirit, and following His example, he forgave 
 and forgot the hard usage he had endured there ; he 
 renounced the joys of home, and came back to Ireland. 
 He laboured there among many hardships and dangers, 
 
 ' The passages of Scripture are quoted from a Latin version, older 
 than St. Jerome. A proof of the antiquity and genuineness of the Con- 
 fession. The same remark applies to the Epistle to Coroticus. 
 
 Another evidence of the antiquity and genuineness of these works 
 may be seen in the fact that the author claims no miraculous powers for 
 St. Patrick. How different are they iu this respect from the medieval 
 lives of St. Patrick ! Cp. Dr. Todd, p. 387. 
 
22 The Church History of Irelajid. 
 
 liis life being often in jeopardy', during fifty years, 
 spending and being spent for Christ. 
 
 This was the Lord's doing. " Not I, but God in 
 me and by me/' was his language ; " to God be all the 
 praise." Humble he was, but courageous ; meek and 
 gentle, but resolute and intrepid. Nothing he was in 
 his own eyes, but strong in faith in God. Therefore 
 God gave him more grace. After a long life he died 
 m peace, a Martyr in will, a constant Confessor of the 
 Faith. 
 
 While we remember his zeal, we must not forget the 
 wisdom by which it was guided. Here also he is an 
 example to all Christian missionaries. 
 
 He had learnt the language of Ireland in his youth, 
 in his six years' sojourn there. This was one cause of 
 his success. Ireland was then occupied by different 
 clans. Wisely he addressed himself first to the chief- 
 tains of the clans. He converted many of them to the 
 faith, and baptized them and their sons and daughters. 
 This was the seminary of the ancient Irish Church. 
 From among the chieftains and their families he raised 
 up a native Priesthood and a native Episcopate in Ire- 
 land*. He planted a native Church with a native 
 ministry. He built houses of God, where prayers 
 
 7 See Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, p. 502 ; and especially the words of St. 
 Patrick's " Irish Hymn," where he prays to Christ for daily protection 
 (p. 428) 
 
 " Christ protect me to-day. 
 Against poison, against burning, 
 Against drowning, against wounds. 
 Against every hostile savage power. 
 Directed against my body and my soul." 
 » Cp. Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, p. 28. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick, 
 
 and intercessions went up continually to heaven for 
 those among whom he dwelt, who were won to Christ 
 and the Gospel by holy offices of love, and the daily 
 ministries of religion. Those daily ministries in the 
 churches, schools, and colleges founded by him, prepared 
 the inmates of those Christian households to become 
 teachers of the truth'. Thus Ireland was supplied with 
 priests and bishops from among her own people ; and 
 the results of this wise system were seen in the stream 
 of Christian missions, the glory of Ireland, which flowed 
 from her in the sixth and seventh centuries, to evangelize 
 Britain and other countries of Europe ^ 
 
 VII. Let us now proceed to inquire — 
 
 In what relation did St. Patrick stand to the See of 
 Rome ? Was he sent to Ireland by the Bishop of that 
 Church ? Did Rome lay claim to supreme jurisdiction 
 in Ireland in his age? and did he acknowledge that 
 claim ^? 
 
 Our Roman Catholic brethren answer ^ these questions 
 in the affirmative. 
 
 9 The dangers to which St. Patrick and his followers were exposed 
 obliged him to concentrate his converts for common support in con- 
 ventual buildings, from which women were not excluded (" raulierum 
 admiuistrationem et societatem non abnuebant," is the testimony of the 
 ancient author of the " Catalogus Sanctorum Hiberniae ;" see Dr. Todd's 
 work, p. 88, note), and these buildings were often strongly fortified. 
 See Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 502—504, and pp. 28-38, and p. 88, 
 note, and p. 93. Hence the Round Towers in Ireland : Dr. Reeves, Acts 
 of Abp. Colton, p. 88. 
 
 ^ See the next Discourse ; and the sketch of St. Patrick's Missionary 
 work, in Dr. Todd's volume, pp. 502 — 506. 
 See below note A at the end, p. 41. 
 
 3 E. g. in the Rev. M. J. Brenau's Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, Dublin, 
 
24 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Let us examine the facts. 
 
 1. First, — Suppose we grant, for argument's sake, 
 that St. Patrick was sent by Rome, it would not follow, 
 that those whom he baptized were subject to the Church 
 which sent him. If this argument were of any weight, 
 then all Churches, and Rome among them, would be 
 subject to the Church oi Jerusalem. For, all the Apostles 
 came forth from her. Out of Zion went forth the Law, 
 and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem*. She was 
 the mother Church of Christendom ^ But who is Faul, 
 who is Apollos^? Grant, then, that the inhabitants of 
 Ireland were baptized by a Roman Missionary, they 
 did not by baptism become subject to Rome — but to 
 Christ. 
 
 2. But was St. Patrick sent from Rome? Did the 
 Apostle of Ireland come from that city ? 
 
 Was he sent by Celestine, then Bishoj^ of Rome ? 
 
 Prosper Aquitanus lived at that time. He composed 
 Annals of the Church, and was a friend of Celestine ', 
 and a notary of the Roman See. He does not omit to 
 record, in his History, that Palladius, whose mission 
 was only for a few months, and appears to have been 
 
 Coyne, 1848, p. iv, it is said, " St. Patrick repaired to Rome, Celestine 
 being at that time Sovereign Pontift". Upon the death of Palhidius, 
 Patrick was consecrated, and received the regular jurisdiction from the 
 Head of the Church." "St. Patrick was scut into Ireland by Pope 
 Celestine," says Dr. Milner, End of Controversy, p. 14. 
 * Isa. ii. 3. 
 
 6 See CoNCiL. Const, (i. e. the second General Council) in Synodic. 
 Epist. Theodoret, v. 9, iUilTjjp airavuv tuv fKKKr)ffilav fj 4v 'lepo(To\tifjLots. 
 S. HiEBON, in Esai. ii. " In Mierusalem primum fundata Ecclesia 
 totius Orbis Ecclesias seminavit." See also Bp. Bull's Works, ii. p. 
 192. 199. ed. 1827. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. iii. 5. ? Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 435. 
 
The Age of St. Patinck. 
 
 25 
 
 almost abortive, was sent from Kome by Celestine*. 
 But the mission of St. Patrick, who pi'obably came to 
 Ireland in the next year, and who preached the Gospel 
 there with great success for half a century, is not men- 
 tioned by Prosper at all. If St. Patrick had been sent 
 from Rome, Prosper must have known the fact, and 
 knowing it, he would have recorded it. Therefore, we 
 may infer, that St. Patrick was not sent to Ireland by 
 the Roman See. 
 
 3. Again : to speak of our own records. The most 
 ancient of English Church Historians is the Venerable 
 Bede, who was born a.d. 672 — less than two hundred 
 years after St. Patrick^s death He was supplied with 
 materials for his History from the archives of Rome 
 And, as might naturally have been expected from what 
 Rome then was, and from benefits which England had 
 derived from her, and, as might also be supposed, from 
 the influence which Rome exercised in the Anglo-Saxon 
 Church in which Bede was reared, he composed his 
 history with a favourable bias towards Rome, and omits 
 no opportunity of advancing her credit, sometimes even 
 
 8 Peospeb Aqttitanus, Opera, Bassani, 1782, 2 vols. 4to, in Chronico 
 ad. A.D. 431, p. 401. " Basso et Antiocho Coss. ad Scotos in Christum 
 credentes ordinatur a Papa, Cselestino Palladius, et primus Episcopus 
 niittitur." Vide Ussher. Ant. Brit. c. xvi. p. 417. " A Cselestino ilium 
 missum ait Joannes Balseus Script. Brit. cent. xiv. c. 6. ut saeerdotalera 
 ordineni inter Scotos Momano more institueret. Habebant antea Scoti 
 suos Episcopos." 
 
 * Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 613. He completed his Ecclesiastical Hist. 
 J.D. 731. 
 
 1 Bede, Prasfat. mentions that he had access, through Nothelra, to 
 the Papal archives at Rome. " Nothelmus Romam veniens nonnullas 
 ibi heati Gregorii Papas simul et aliorum Pontificum Epistolas, perscru- 
 tato ejusdcm sancta3 Romanae Ecclesiae scrinio, invenit, reversusque 
 nobis nostrffi Historiie inserendas attulit." 
 
26 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 to the disparagement of the ancient British and Irish 
 Churches. 
 
 It is a striking fact — few are more striking in Church 
 History— that Bede, who records in his History the 
 mission of Palladius to Ireland^ and often refers to the 
 affairs of the Irish Church, never mentions the name of 
 St. Patrick. 
 
 What may we thence conclude ? 
 
 If St. Patrick had been sent from Rome, Bede, who 
 had access to the Roman archives, and who records the 
 mission of Palladius, and was one of the most learned 
 men of his age, must have known the fact, and would 
 have communicated it to the world. Full of zeal for 
 Rome, as she then was, Bede would not have failed to 
 do honour to the glorious career of St. Patrick; he 
 would have dwelt with delight on the exploits of the 
 Apostle of Ireland, if the Apostle of Ireland had been 
 an emissary of Rome. 
 
 Hence, we ai'e again brought to the conclusion that 
 St. Patrick was not sent by the Roman Church. 
 
 4. Here, to obviate misconception, let us observe, 
 that it is no part of our argument to affirm, that St. 
 Patrick opposed Rome. No. As far as he had any 
 relations and communications with her, they were those 
 of such amity and respect as were due to so great and 
 venerable a Church as Rome the^i was ; but the truth 
 is, that, in his days she laid no claim to jurisdiction 
 in the country where he was a Bishop, and where 
 he planted the Church of Christ. St. Patrick and 
 the Church of St. Patrick were independent and free ^. 
 
 2 Cf. tlie very ancient catalogue of Irish Saints in Ussher, Antiq. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 27 
 
 5. But to return, it may be asked. How is Bede's 
 silence to be explained ? 
 
 Our concern, let us observe, is with the fact of his 
 silence, and with the inferences to be derived from it : 
 and we are not bound to account for it. But still the 
 question is important ; and let us consider it. 
 
 The ' Church of Ireland in the age of Bede concurred 
 with the ancient Church of Britain,* in resisting the 
 growing encroachments of the Roman See. 
 
 c. xvii. p. 473. "Primus Ordo Catholicoruui Sanctorum erat in tempore 
 Fatricii. Et tunc erant Episcopi omnes clari et Spiritu Sancto pleni 
 CCCL numero Ecclesiarum fundatores. 
 
 " Unum Caput Christum, et unum ducem Patrieium habebant, unam 
 missam, unam cclebrationem, unam tonsurara (ab aure usque ad aurem), 
 sufferebant. 
 
 " Unum Pascha xiv Luna post ajquinoctium vemale celebrabaut . . . 
 Mulierum administrationem et consortia nou rcspuebant, quia super 
 Petram Chbistum fundati, ventum tentationis non tiraebant." 
 
 ^ GiESELER, Eccl. Hist. § 126. "The union was close between tbe 
 British and Irish Churches : they retained many old arrangements. 
 
 " That the Britons acknowledged no ecclesiastical power of the Pope 
 over them is proved by their opposition to the Roman regulations, an 
 opposition which continued in Ireland down to the twelfth century." 
 
 See also Lappenberg's Hist. i. p. 131. "The points of difference 
 between the Roman and British Churches (established probably on the 
 oldest direct tradition from Judea) were, the time of celebrating Easter, 
 the form of tonsure, the administration of baptism, the ecclesiastical 
 benediction of matrimony, the manner of ordination, but above all, the 
 refusal to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope." 
 
 * Bede, xi. 2. " Non cnim pascha; Dominicum diem suo tempore 
 observabant (Brittonum Episcopi), . . . sed et alia plurima unitati 
 ecclesiasticae contraria faciebant." Ibid. Augustine (from Rome) says 
 to the British Bishops, " In mnltis nostra; cousuetudini contraria 
 geritis, et tamen si in tribus his mihi obtemperare vultis, ut pascha suo 
 tempore celebretis, ut ministerium bapti/.andi, quo Deo renascimur, 
 ju.\ta morem sancta; Romauae et Apostolica; Ecclesiie compleatis, ut 
 genti Anglorum una nobiscum verbum Domini pr.Tedicetis, ca;tera qua; 
 agitis, quamvis moribus nostris contraria, a;quanimiter cuncta tolera- 
 bimus. At illi (sc. Brittonum Episcopi) nil horum se facturos neque 
 ilium pro Archiepiscopo habituros esse respondebant." 
 
28 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 The Independence of the Irish Church in Bede's age, 
 and its vigorous opposition to the aggressions of Rome 
 
 Bede, ii. 4. " Successit Augustino in Episcopatum La\irentius (sent 
 from Rome) . . ." who wrote as follows to the Bishops of Ireland : — 
 
 "Dorainis earissimis fratribus Bpiscopis vel abbatibus per universam 
 Scotiam . . . Anteqtiam cognosceremus hanc insulam qufB Brittannia 
 nuncupatur, credentes quod juxta morem universalis Ecclesiae ingrede- 
 rentur in magna reverentia sanctitatis tarn Brittonas quam Seottos (the 
 Irish) venerati sumus." 
 
 Hence it is cle<ar that before the end of the sixth century (the date of 
 Augustine's mission), the Ecclesiastics of Rome knew very little either 
 of the British or Irish Churches; and that neither of them were then 
 dependent on Rome. " Sed cognoscentes Brittonas, Seottos meliores 
 putavimus." Even then, after that mission into Britain, Laurentius 
 and the otlier Romish missionaries had still to learn what was the cha- 
 racter of the Church of Ireland. And the result of their investigation is 
 declared as follows : " Seottos, per Daganum Episcopum in hanc insulam 
 (Brittanniam) et Columhanum abbatera in Galliis venientem, nihil 
 discrepare a Biittonihvs in eorum conversatione didicimus. Nam 
 Daganus Episcopus ad nos veniens non solum cibum nobiscum sed nec in 
 eodem hospitio quo vescehamur sumere volttit." 
 
 Therefore (says Bede) Laurentius wrote a letter as above to the 
 Bishops of Ireland, to bring them into communion with them (literas 
 quibus cos in unitate catholica confirmare satagit). But, adds Bede, 
 "quantum hxc agendo profecerit adhuc prcBsentia tempora declarant ;" 
 i. e. the estrangeraeut remained to tlie eighth century. With regard to 
 the Britons he says, ii. 20, "usque hodie moris est Brittonum, fidem 
 religionenique Anglorum pro nihilo habere, neque in aliquo eis magis 
 communicare quam paganis." And again, ad. A.D. 731, he says, " Brit- 
 tones maxima ex parte gentem Anglorum et totius catholicae ecclesiae 
 statum pascha impugnant." Cf. the verses of Taliessyn chief of the 
 Bards (a.d. 620), in the Chronicle of Wales, p. 254:— 
 
 " Gwae'r offeiriad byd 
 Nys engreifftia gwyd 
 Ac ny phregetha ; 
 Gwae ny cheidw ey gail 
 
 Ac ef yn vigail ' 
 Ac nys areilia ; 
 Gwae ny cheidw ey dheuaid 
 Khac bleidhie Rhufeniaid 
 A'i ITon gnvi'ppa." 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 29 
 
 at that time, afford a strong presumption, that the 
 Apostle of Ireland was not sent by Rome, and was 
 not dependent upon Rome. The freedom of the Irish 
 Church, founded by St. Patrick, affords a strong pre- 
 sumption that St. Patrick himself, its founder, was 
 free \ 
 
 Bede, as was before observed, was prepossessed in 
 favour of Rome, and viewed with coldness the inde- 
 pendence of the Church of Ireland in his own age. 
 Tims Englished by Archbishop Ussher : — 
 " Wo be to that Priest yborn, 
 That will not cleanly weed his corn, 
 
 And preach his charge among : 
 Wo to that Shep-heard be, I say. 
 That will not watch his fold alway. 
 
 As to his office dotli belong : 
 Woe be to him that dotli not keep 
 From Komish wolves his sheep, 
 With staff and weapon strong." 
 
 5 Neaxdee, Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. sect. 1. p. 164. " If Patrick came to 
 Ireland as a deputy from Rome, it might have been expected that in 
 the Irish Church a certain sense of dependence would always have been 
 preserved towards the mother Church at Rome. But we find, on the 
 contrary, in the Irish Church afterwards, a spirit of Church freedom 
 similar to that shown by the ancient British Church, which struggled 
 against the yoke of Romish ordinances." 
 
 " We find subsequently among the Irish, a much greater agreement 
 with the ancient British than with Roman Ecclesiastical usages. This 
 goes to prove that the origin of the Irish Church was independent of 
 Rome. 
 
 " Again, no indication of Tiis connexion with the Roman Church is to 
 be found in St. Patrick's Confession ; rather every thing seems to 
 favour the supposition that he was ordained Bishop in Britain itself, in 
 his forty-fifth year. 
 
 " He intimates in his Confession, that some respectable Clergymen in 
 Britain opposed his consecration to the Episcopal Office, and that his 
 enemies turned against him the. confession of a sin committed thirty 
 years before he was chosen deacon ; and from what follows it is evident 
 that this refers to something done by him when a boy of fifteen." 
 
30 The ChiLvcJi History of Ii^cland. 
 
 We need not pause to inquire^ whether there might 
 not have been something of too much eagerness and 
 vehemence in the conduct of some of the Irish Eccle- 
 siastics towards Rome in Bedels age ; as^ assuredly, there 
 was too much of haughtiness and assumption in her 
 bearing towards them. We only state the fact of the 
 differences and disputes between them, and note the 
 side to which Bede leaned. 
 
 This being the case, it may well be supposed, that 
 Bede did not feel induced to go in quest of Irish 
 Saints of an earlier date, and to commemorate them in 
 his Church History. While he was too honest a man 
 to detract from the credit of Ireland's Apostle, and to 
 tarnish the glory of St. Patrick, yet he would not make 
 any effort to eulogize one who had founded a Church 
 which showed itself resolved not to admit the claims of 
 Rome, modest as those claims were in comparison with 
 what she advanced in a later age. 
 
 Hence, we may explain the remarkable fact, that the 
 name of St. Patrick is not mentioned in the History of 
 Bede. 
 
 6. And here we may add an important consideration. 
 
 If St. Patrick had been dependent on Rome, — if he 
 had recognized any thing like the Supremacy which 
 she now claims, it is absolutely certain that his name 
 would not have been omitted by Bede. Few names 
 would have occurred more frequently in Bede's his- 
 tory than his. For Bede gives full reports of the 
 differences and debates between the Romish and Irish 
 Clergy in the interval of time between St. Patrick's age 
 and his own. Now, f Bede could have said — if the 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 31 
 
 Komisli Clergy could have said, in their altercations 
 with the Irish Clergy , — that St, Patrick was an 
 emissary from Rome — if they could have shown that 
 he was obsequious to Rome, and deferred, in all things 
 to her, can it be imagined that they would never 
 have urged this argument against the Irish Clergy 
 who opposed Rome " ? Would they not have expos- 
 tulated with the Irish Clergy thus, — You not only 
 resist us, you are not only disobedient to the Roman 
 See, but you are treacherous to St. Patrick; you are 
 ungrateful to your own Apostle who obeyed Rome, 
 and taught you, by his example, to do so. Do you not 
 feel remorse and shame in deserting him ? "Will you 
 not show 3^ourselves faithful disciples of St. Patrick by 
 following his steps ? 
 
 Here would have been a triumphant appeal. We 
 know what use is now made of this argument by those 
 who imagine that St. Patrick came from Rome, and was 
 dependent on her; and their use of this argument in our 
 days affords striking evidence of the use which would 
 have been made of it by Romish Ecclesiastics in the 
 centuries immediately succeeding St. Patrick, if he had 
 been dependent on Rome, and if Rome had been 
 supreme in Ireland, in his age. 
 
 * We may observe in passing, that this consideration affords also a 
 strong argument against those who, witli paradoxical ingenuity, have 
 endeavoured to identify St. Patrick with Palladius. Palladius was sent 
 from Rome; and if he had been one with St. Patrick, he was the 
 Apostle of Ireland, and laboured sixty years in that country. His name 
 would, therefore, have been appealed to by the advocates of Rome in 
 England in the sixth and seventh centuries. But it is not mentioned 
 by them, because his mission was ineSectual. 
 
32 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 VIII. Let us now revert to St. Patrick's own account 
 of himself, in his Confession. 
 
 1. He there informs us that his father was a 
 Deacon, and his grandfather a Priest^ — a sufficient 
 proof that the Cehbacy, which Rome now enforces 
 on her Clergy in Ireland; was no part of Ecclesias- 
 tical discipline in the age and country of Ireland's 
 Apostle. 
 
 2. With regard to Church Government, St. Patrick 
 was a Bishop, and he ordained Priests and Deacons ^ . 
 
 7 S. Patricii Confessio, i. " Ego P.itricius peccator, rusticissimus et 
 minimus omnium fidelium, patrem liabui Calpurnium diaconem filium 
 quondam Potiti presbyteri, qui fuit in vico Bonaven Taberniae ; villulam 
 Enon prope lialiuit, ubi capturam dedi. Annorura eram tunc fere 
 sedecim, Deuni verum ignorabam, et Iliberionem (see Wesseling, 
 Antonini Vet. Rom. Itin. p. 509) in captivitateni adductus sum." 
 
 5 Patricii Confessio, c. 16. He mentions his labours in Ireland " ut 
 cleriei ubiqiie illis ordinarentur ad plebem niiper venienteni ad creduli- 
 tatem (i. e. fidem)," again c. 17, " ut ubique esseut cleriei qui bapti- 
 zarent." 
 
 c. 18. " Unde Hiberiona?, qui nunquam notitiam Dei habuerunt, 
 ntiper facta est plebs Domini ? " 
 
 c. 22. "ordinavit Dominus clericos per modicitatem meam." St. 
 Patrick therefore performed the office of a Bishop : and lie snys, Epist. 
 ad. Coroticum, c. 1. " Ego Patricius peccator indoctus scilirut Hiberione 
 constitutum me episcoptim esse fateor. Inter barbaros habito proselytus 
 et profuga . . . pro quibus tradidi patriam et parcntes." 
 
 Patricii Epist. ad Coroticum, c. 3. " in supremis temporibus Hibe- 
 rione optime et benigne plantata atque instructa erat lege Dei, favente 
 Deo." 
 
 See also Synodus Episcoporum Patricii, Auxilii, Isernini. " Gratias 
 agimus Deo Patri, et Filio et Spiritui Sancto. Presbyteris et diaconibus 
 ct omni clero Patricius, Auxilius et Iseruinus episcopi salutem." WlL- 
 KINS, Concil. i. p. 2. 
 
 Stnod. Episcop. Patricii, &c. 30. " Episcopus quilibet qui de sua in 
 alteram progreditur parochiam nec ordinare praesumat nisi permis- 
 siouem acceperit ab eo qui in suo principatu est." This Canon intimates 
 that there were some outlines of Diocesan Episcopacy in Ireland in the 
 age of St. Patrick. See also Canon 34. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 33 
 
 He acknowledged these three orders of Ministers in the 
 Church : and he mentions no others. 
 3. And what was his doctrine ? 
 
 At the commencement of the same work he has 
 inserted his own Profession of Faith It bears a 
 strong resemblance to the Nicene Creed. 
 
 "There is no other God" (he declares) "besides God 
 the Father and His son Jesus Christ, Whom we con- 
 fess to have been from everlasting with the Father, and 
 Who was begotten before all things, and by Whom all 
 things were made, visible and invisible, and Who was 
 made man, and overcame death, and ascended into 
 heaven to the Father. And God gave unto Him all 
 power over every name in heaven and in earth, and 
 under the earth, that every tongue should confess, that 
 Jesus Christ is Lord and God'. We believe in Him, 
 and expect that He will come again to judge the quick 
 and dead, and will render to every man according to his 
 works ; and He has poured out upon us abundantly the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost, the pledge of immoi-tality. Who 
 
 9 Pateicii Confessio ii. " Non est alius Deus praater Deum Patrem, 
 ingenitum sine principio, a Quo est omne principium, et Hujus Filiuin 
 Jesum Christum, Quern cum Patre scilicet fuisse semper testamur, ante 
 originem sa;culi spiritualiter apud Patrem, inenarrabiliter ingenitum ante 
 omne principium ; et per Ipsum facta sunt visibilia et invisibilia, liomi- 
 nem factum, devicta, morte in ca?los ad Patrem receptum. Et dedit 
 Illi oranem potestatem super omne nomen ca;lestiura et terrestrium et 
 infernorum, ut orauis liugua confiteatur quia Dominus et Deus est Jesus 
 Christus (Pbil. ii. 10, 11). Quem credimus, et expectamus adventum 
 Ipsius, mox futurus Judex vivorum et mortuorum Qui reddet unicuique 
 secundum facta sua ; et infudit nobis abunde Spiritus Saucti donum et 
 pignus immortalitatis, Qui facit credentes et obedientes ut sint filii Dei 
 Patris et cobseredes Christi, Quem confitemur, et adoramus Unum 
 Deum in Trinitate Sacri Nominis." 
 
 » Phil. ii. 10, 11. 
 
 D 
 
34 ^'/^^ Chiirch History of Ireland. 
 
 maketli us to believe and obey, and to be sons of God 
 the Father, and to be fellow-heirs of Christ Whom we 
 confess ; and we adore One God in the Trinity of the 
 Sacred Name." 
 
 Such is the Creed of St. Patrick, set down with 
 his own hand, at the close of his long life, in the 
 Volume which he left as a bequest to the People of 
 Ireland. 
 
 IX. What, therefore, shall we now say ? With 
 feelings of respect and affection, we address ourselves 
 to our Roman Catholic brethren in the Kingdom of 
 Ireland. Take the Creed of St. Pati'ick in one hand; 
 and take the Trent Creed, the Creed of Pope Pius IV., 
 in the other. Place them side by side. Compare the 
 two. The Trent Creed, which Rome now imposes on 
 all Ecclesiastics ^, has added twelve Articles to the 
 Nicene Creed, which we hold ; and it declares that 
 belief in those twelve Articles is necessary to ever- 
 lasting salvation. It says, " Haee est Catholica Fides, 
 extra quam nemo salvus esse potest Now, let us 
 inquire, Do you find those twelve Articles in the 
 Creed of St. Patrick? One of those Articles is an 
 assertion of Roman Supremacy. Do you find that 
 there? — No. Another is. Obedience to the Pope. 
 Do you find that there? — No. Another is. Belief in 
 Transubstantiation. Another is. Belief in Purgatory. 
 
 2 See Libri Symbolic. Eccl. Cath. i. p. 98 ; ii. p. 317. ed. Getting. 
 1838. And she requires all converts to Eoniauism to say, " eos qui 
 contra banc fidem venerint, cum dogmatibus et sectatoribus suis eeterno. 
 anathemate dignos esse pronuntio." See the Roman Pontifical, p. 
 455. ed. Rom. 1818. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 35 
 
 Do you find them there? — No. Another is, Com- 
 munion in one kind. Is that there? — No, Do you I, 
 find a single one of those twelve Articles there ?— No, \ 
 not one. And yet you assert, that a belief in all these 
 Articles is necessary to salvation, and you denounce us 
 as heretics and innovators, because we do not, and can- 
 not, receive them. What ! if all these are necessary, 
 how is it that St, Patrick does not mention one of 
 them ? Was the Apostle of Ireland a heretic ? If ; 
 so, we are content to be heretics with him. We are 
 satisfied with his Creed. We hold every Article of it. 
 And we leave it to you to consider, whether, if you 
 are not content with St, Patrick's Creed, you ought to 
 claim St, Patrick as your Apostle, — or, if you desire to 
 have St. Patrick as your Apostle, ought you not to be 
 content with your Apostle's Creed ? 
 
 X. Once more. As we have observed, St. Patrick's 
 Confession is an autobiographical memoir of his minis- 
 terial career. 
 
 If now, St. Patrick had been sent to Ireland from 
 Rome, if he had been ordained at Eome, if he had been 
 dependent on Rome, and had supposed that Ireland was 
 subject, either temporally or spiritually, to the Roman 
 See, he would have intimated in his Confession that this 
 was the case. Your Bishops now call themselves Bishops 
 by the Grace of God and the Apostolic See, meaning 
 thereby the See of Rome. St. Patrick, the first Bishop of 
 Ireland, would, you say, have done the same. But now 
 refer to his own life. Open his Confession. Does he 
 state that he received his ministerial authority from 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 The CImrch History of Ireland. 
 
 Rome ? — No \ Does he say tliat lie and his flock are sub- 
 ject to Rome ? — No. What, then, does he say of Rome ? 
 He mentions the Clergy of Irelajid; he mentions the 
 Clergy of Britain ; he mentio>ns the Clergy of France ; 
 but he never mentions the Clergy of Rome. The words 
 Roman Bishop, Roman See, are not to be found there. 
 The name of Rome does not occur once in St. Patrick^s 
 work\ I leave it to you, my brethren, to draw the 
 necessary inferences from these memorable facts. 
 
 XI. We have now been engaged in comparing the 
 
 ' He does mention in the Confession (c. 13.) a person who had said, 
 " ecce dandus es tu ad gradum episcopatus :" but that person was not 
 at Rome. 
 
 ■1 Cf. Gieseler's Eccl. Hist. § 108. " Respecting St. Patrick, see par- 
 ticularly his Confessio in Patricii Opusc. ed. Jac. War;pus, Loud. 1658, 
 and Acta SS. Mart. ii. 517, after an older text in Betham, p. ii. Appen- 
 dix, p. xlix. In this work nothing is found about a journey to Rome, 
 nor of jjn^aZ authorization of a mission to Ireland, of which we find a 
 relation first of all in Hericus, Vita Germaui, i. 12, about a.d. 860. 
 See Irish Antiq. Researches by Sir W. Betham, p. ii. Dublin, 1826-7." 
 
 In the ancient and important " Hymnus Alphabeticus," (in rude 
 tetrameter trochaics) concerning St. Patrick, and ascribed to Secundinus, 
 St. Patrick's contemporary, p. 839, ed. Migne, are the following lines : — 
 
 Constans in Dei timoro et fide immobilis 
 
 Super* Quem aedificatur, ut petrumf, ecclesia, 
 
 Cujusque Apostolatum a Deo sortitus est, 
 
 Sacrum invenit thesaurum in Sacro Volumine, 
 
 Testis Domini fidelis in lege Catholica, 
 
 Cujus verba sunt divinis condita oraculis ; 
 
 Christus ilium (i. e. Patricium) Sibi elegit in terris Yicarium, 
 
 Qui de gemino captivos liberat servitio. 
 
 There is no mention in this hymn of any connexion between St. Patrick 
 and Rome. 
 
 * Muratori's MS. has quae : lege quam, sc. fidem. 
 f Qu. " petram ?" See above, p. 27, note, line 9. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 37 
 
 present condition of Christianity in Ireland with its 
 aspect in ancient times. 
 
 If is the duty of all to promote the cause of Truth ; 
 and they who are subjects of the same Monarchy, and 
 acknowledge the same Saviour, are specially bound to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ^ . 
 
 We do not call upon our Roman Catholic fellow- 
 countrymen and fellow-Christians to receive our state- 
 ments without scrutiny. But we do earnestly exhort 
 them — as they love the truth, as they value the peace 
 and prospei'ity of the land wherein we dwell, and as 
 they regard the eternal interests of their own souls, — to 
 examine the evidence of the case. Let the invidious 
 names of persons and parties be forgotten. Let us meet 
 on the peaceful ground of Scripture and primitive Anti- 
 quity. Let us look carefully into facts, — facts very 
 important to our common country, and to our own 
 happiness in time and eternity. 
 
 The question at issue is — 
 
 Whether the Papal Power, — in claiming, as it now 
 does, the sanction of Antiquity for the exercise of juris- 
 diction in Ireland, and in endeavouring to enlist in 
 behalf of its own doctrines the name of St. Patrick, and 
 in putting forward the Trent Creed as the faith of the 
 Apostle of Ireland, and of the ancient Irish Church, — is 
 not imitating the Gibeonites, who professed to come 
 from a distant land to Gilgal, whereas they dwelt near 
 it ? So we now ask — Is not the religion of Rome a 
 new religion ? is not her Creed a new Creed ? It pro- 
 fesses to come from far, but is it not from near at hand ? 
 5 Epli. iv. 3. 
 
38 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 T^Tiat, for example, is the doctrine of the Original Sin- 
 lessness of the Vii-gin — who is now to be invoked in 
 Ireland by a new title, — what is it but of yesterday^ ? 
 
 What are the words — which Rome has so often on 
 her lips— the "Old Religion/' "the Ancient Creed/' 
 "the Faith of St. Patrick ?" Are they not like the dry 
 and mouldy bread, and rent bottles, and tattered gar- 
 ments, and clouted shoes, with which the Gibeonites 
 deceived Joshua? 
 
 XII. Some reasons have already been stated in this 
 discourse for believing that this is the case. And more 
 will be adduced hereafter. And if this is indeed so, then 
 let it be remembered, that duplicity in religion is a 
 heinous sin. It may deceive for a time. But let all who 
 resort to it, see their own fate, even in this world, in 
 the history of the Gibeonites. The deception was soon 
 detected. After three days, the Israelites heard that they 
 were nerghhours, and that they dtoelt among them; and 
 the Gibeonites stood publicly convicted of having come 
 to Joshua with a lie in their right hand'' . And Joshua 
 called them and said, Why have ye beguiled us ? now 
 therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you he 
 freed foil) being bondmen ^. If this be the case with the 
 adherents of Rome, then, however they may boast of 
 spiritual pre-eminence, they have only the lowest place 
 
 ^ In the Synodical Address " published by authority," with the signa- 
 tures of the R. C. " Primate and the Fathers of the National Council of 
 Thurles," p. 25. Dublin, 1850, are the following words : " This most Holy 
 Mother has been long venerated by our predecessors as the general 
 patroness of all Ireland, and it is our wish that she shall for the future 
 be invoked as such under the title of the ' Immaculate Conception.' " 
 See the present writer's " Occasional Sermons," Nos. XII. and XLIII. 
 
 ' Isa. xliv. 20. 8 Josh. ix. 23. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 39 
 
 among the people They are hewers of wood and drawers 
 of water^. Then " Servus Servorum" indeed, a servant 
 of servants ^, shall their Head be. And, however they 
 may overreach men, they cannot elude the eye of the 
 Divine Joshua, Who is the Truth ^, and Who will one 
 day bring all hidden, thincjs to light, and judge the secrets 
 of all hearts *, and reward all true Israelites in whom 
 is no guile^ , and condemn to everlasting punishment 
 whatsoever loveth and maheth a lie °. 
 
 Let us be on our guard, not to be enticed by any 
 prospects of worldly advantage to make compromises 
 with what is false. Let us not be beguiled by specious 
 words and fair names. Let us not be deluded by shows 
 and semblances ; but let us hold fast the truth. Let 
 us not suppose that men come to us from afar, because 
 they have old shoes on their feet, and mouldy bread in 
 their hands; and let us not imagine that whoever pre- 
 sents himself to us, dressed up as a wayfaring pilgrim, 
 in the guise of a venerable name, has therefore toiled 
 and travelled from the remote regions of Antiquity. 
 
 But let us resort to those means which God gives us 
 for our guidance. Let us compare the language and 
 practice of those who pretend to Antiquity, with the 
 language and practice of Antiquity itself. Above all, 
 let us ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord'' . Let us 
 examine the Oracles of Him, Who is the Ancient of 
 days If they who come to us, bring any other doctrine 
 
 'J Josh. ix. 21. 1 Josh. ix. 21. 
 
 2 Gen. ix. 25. 3 John xlv. 6. 
 
 1 Cor. iv. 5. Rom. ii. 16. ' John i. 47. 
 
 6 Kev. xxii. 15. 7 Josh. ix. 14, » Dau. vii. 9. 13. 22. 
 
40 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 beside '■* that preached by the Apostles of Christ, we know 
 Who has said. Let them le anathema. If they bring 
 any thing contrary to the Word of Him Who is from 
 everlasting ^, then they are hut of yesterday, and hnoio 
 nothing ^. 
 
 Finally, let us be sure that by cleaving to the Gospel 
 of Cheist, we have the sanction of Antiquity ; we rest 
 on the Boch of Ages^, — we build for Eternity. He 
 
 has neither beginning of days, nor end of life He is 
 the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, the First 
 and the Last^, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and for ever ^ 
 
 Now unto the King Bternal, hmnortal, Invisible, the 
 only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen '. 
 
 s Gal. i. 8. It cannot be too often repeated that the original words 
 of St. Paul here are, iav 6.yye\os c'| ohpavov €vayy€Al(riTai vfuv Trap' S 
 evTjyye\L(Tdfj.eBa vfuv, avdBffia earai, i. e. " if even an Angel from heaven 
 preach to you any thing besides what we have preached to you, let him 
 be accursed." 
 
 ' Ps. xc. 2. - Job viii. 9. ' Isa. xxvi. 4. 
 
 •1 Heb. vii. 3. ^ Rev. i. 8; ii. 8; xxii. 13. « Heb. xiii. 8. 
 
 ' 1 Tim. i. 17. 
 
 I 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 41 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 On three short documents, erroneously ascribed to St. Patriclc, 
 and relating to the See of Home. 
 
 I. Its the eighth Volume of the BibHotheca Patrum Maxima, 
 Lugdun. 1677, p. 875, is the commencement of a " Carta or 
 Epistola," which is thus inscribed, " S. Pateicii Legatio a 
 Cajlestino I. Papa, ad conversionem Hibernise directi, sive 
 Epistola Sancti Patricii Apostoli ex Bibliotheca Monasterii 
 Glastonise in quo ipse Abbas fuit antequam ' esset Episcopus 
 HibernisB. Fuit autem Eomffi, a.d. 430. 
 
 " In nomine D. N. Jesu Christi Ego Patricius humihs 
 servunculus Dei. Anno Incarnationis Ejusdem, 4310, in 
 Hiberniam a Sanctissimo Papa Cselestino legatus, Dei gratia 
 Hibernos ad fidem converti, et ciim eos in fide Catholica 
 soliddssem, tandem in Britanniam reversus sum in insulam 
 Avalonise et ibi duodecim fratres inveni eremeticam vitam 
 ducentes, et quoniam inveni eos humiles ac quietos, elegi 
 potius cum illis abjectus esse quam in regalibus curiis habi- 
 tai'e, sicque licet invitura in Pastorem me sibi prjetulerunt, 
 ubi in scriptis recentioribus inveni quod sanctus Phaganus et 
 Dervianus ab Eleutherio Papa qui eos miserat decern annos 
 indulgenticB impetrarunt, et ego frater Patricius a pise memo- 
 riae Ccelestino Papa duodecim annos acquisivi." 
 
 This " Charta S. Patricii " afterwards received consider- 
 able amplifications, and makes its appearance in an enlarged 
 
 ^ It is difficult to reconcile tbis statement with that in the fourth 
 line after it. 
 
42 The Clmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 form in a MS. used by Sir J. Wai*e ; e. g. " ostenderuiit miln 
 prrefati fratres scrijita Sanctorum Phagani et Diruviani, in 
 quibus continebatur, quod xil. discipuli SS. Philippi et Jacobi 
 ipsam vetustam ecclesiam (i. e. at Glastoonbury) construx- 
 erant in bonorem ilHbatEe Advocatricis nostrse per doctrina- 
 mentum beati Arcbangeli Gabrielis. Necnon et in scriptis 
 inveni, quod Sancti Phaganus et Diruvianus perquisierant ab 
 Eleutherio Papa, qui eos miserat, triginta annos indulgentice, 
 et ego frater Patricius a pise memorise Cselestino Papa 
 duodecim annos tempore meo acquisivi," &e. &c. 
 
 This document is proved to be a forgery — 
 
 (1) from the date Anno Incarnationis 430 there used, a 
 mode of computation which was not employed till many 
 years after St. Patrick's death. 
 
 (2.) Pope Cailestine died a.d. 432, the year in which St. 
 Patrick came to Ireland, where he lived sixty years, and 
 died, and was buried. 
 
 (3.) Indulgences, here mentioned, did not come into use 
 until about the eleventh century. 
 
 Prom a consideration of these and other anachronisms and 
 misstatements, which occur in this document, the Editors of 
 the Bibliotheca Patrum justly say'', " Carta ilia seu Epistola 
 conficta est et fdbulosa." So Tillemont xvi. p. 785, " Cela 
 suffit pour en juger, sans parler des autres ahsurdites qui s'y 
 lisent, et dont quelques unes sont remarquees par Bollan- 
 dus." 
 
 " The Charter of St. Patrick," says Ussher, Eel. Anct. 
 Irish, p. G5, "is a mere figment, invented by the Monks 
 of Glastonbury." " Spuria, si quae aha," says Cave, i. p. 
 421. 
 
 But this " Carta or Epistola " has its uses, as reminding 
 us that documents were forged in the name of St. Patrick, 
 and that the authors of those forgeries endeavoured to 
 connect him thereby with the Roman See. 
 
 - Vol. i. and vol. viii. sub. v. Patricius. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 43 
 
 II. In the " Synodical Address of the Fathers of the 
 National Council of Tiiuhles, to their beloved Flock, the 
 Catholics of Ireland," Dublin, 1850, at p. 9, are these 
 words : " Following the invariable practice of our Church, as 
 that of every Church connected with the centre of unity, 
 and in particular the instructions given in one of those 
 S}' nods convoked and presided over by St. Patrick, ' If any 
 questions arise in this island (Ireland), they are to be 
 referred to the Apostolic See: 8i cptce qucestiones in Jidc 
 Insula oriantur, ad Sedem Apostolicam referantur we laid 
 at the feet of our present venerable and beloved Pontiff the 
 plan of Instruction that had been proposed to us. . . . After 
 a most searching and protracted examination of the state- 
 ments and facts that were urged on either side . . . the 
 Successor of Peter pronounced his final judgment on the 
 subject. All controversy is now at an end. The Judge has 
 spoken. The question is decided." 
 
 The Canon here cited will be found in the Collection of 
 Wilkins, i. p. 6, under the following general title, " Canones 
 8. Patricio ascripti — ex Opusculis S. Patricii, per Jac. 
 Warseum." 
 
 It does not appear when, where, or by whom, this Canon 
 was framed. 
 
 It is not found, I believe, in more than one or two 
 MSS. 
 
 Archbishop Ussher, in his Religion of the Ancient Irish, 
 says, " Neither do I know what credit is to be given to that 
 straggling sentence, ' Si quie qutestiones in hac insula orian- 
 tur,' " &c., and he adds, " If I had lived in St. Patrick's 
 days, for a resolution of a doubtful question, I should as 
 wilHngly have listened to the judgment of the Church of 
 Rome, as to the determination of any Church in the world, 
 so reverent an estimation have I of the integrity of that 
 Church as it stood in those days. But that St. Patrick was 
 
 s Can. S. Patric. apud Wilkins. Concil. torn. i. p. 6. 
 
44 The CJuwcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 of opinion that the Church of Rome was sure ever afterward 
 to continue in that good estate, and that there was a per- 
 petual privilege annexed unto that See, that it should never 
 err in judgment, that will I never believe." 
 So far Ussher. 
 
 Even if it were supposed, for argument's sake, that this 
 Canon was made in a Synod convoked and presided over by 
 St. Patrick, yet it is very doubtful whether it refers spe- 
 cially to Rome. 
 
 Roman Catholics, being in the habit of appropriating the 
 term " Catholic " to themselves, and of restricting the words 
 *' Apostolic See " to the See of Rome, have been betrayed into 
 numerous errors, and apt to inisi7iter])ret those expressions 
 when they meet with them in ancient Authors. 
 
 A remarkable instance of this may be mentioned : — 
 
 S. Augustine, in his work De Doctrina Christiana, ii. 12, 
 says, " In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum quamplurium 
 auctoritatem sequatur, inter quas illae sint qua; Apostolicas 
 Sedes habere et Epistolas accipere meruerunt," i. e. " in 
 considering the question of Canonical Books, let a man 
 follow the authority of the major part of Churches, among 
 ■which let those Churches be consulted which are distinguished 
 by having Apostolic Sees, and by having received Epistles 
 from the Apostles," i. e. such Churches as Rome, Corinth, 
 Ephesus, &c. 
 
 This sentence, which is clear enough, has been strangely • 
 misapprehended, and has been compelled to undergo a violent 
 tr.ansmutation, and aj^pears in the following form in the 
 Roman Canon Law * : — 
 
 " Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quamplurimum divinarum 
 Scripturarum solertissimus indagator auctoritatem sequatur, 
 inter quas sane illjE sint, quas Apostolica Sedes habere, et 
 ab ed alii meruerunt accipere Epistolas*." 
 
 Viewed through the medium of Romish influences, all the 
 
 * Decret. Pars, Dist. six. c. vi. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 45 
 
 " ApostolicsB Sedes " of St. Augustine coalesce into, and are 
 merged in, one " Apostolica Sedes ;" doubtless intended in 
 that Roman Decretal to be tlie See of Rome. 
 
 The Irish Canon cited in the Synod of Thurles, is assigned 
 to the age of St. Patrick, who was contemporary with St. 
 Augustine ; and it may be explained from his language, as 
 quoted above. 
 
 The words " Apostolica Sedes," in the Canon ascribed by 
 the Bishops at Thurles to St. Patrick, do not signify the 
 See of Borne, but may mean any Apostolic See. 
 
 Bingham rightly says that all Brimates were called Apos- 
 tolici (Book ii. ch. xvi.), and many Sees were called Sedes 
 ApostoliccB (see Book ii. cb. ii.). 
 
 This appears further from the language employed by Irish 
 Ecclesiastics even in the seventh century, and even by those 
 who desired to conform to the Roman Easter ; 
 
 Thus St. Cummian, writing about a.d. 631, concerning 
 the Paschal controversy*, and proposing to refer the ques- 
 tion to a " Sedes Apostolica," distinctly says, that " Sedes 
 Apostolica" is not " unica," but qiiaterna not single, 
 \)u.i fourfold, viz., " Romana, Hierosolymitana, Antiochena, 
 Alexandrina." Under the name " Sedes Apostolica " he did 
 not appeal to one Church exclusively. 
 
 Again, another of the most eminent Ecclesiastics of Ire- 
 land, St. Columbanus (circ. a.d. 615), Epist. ad Bonifacium 
 Papam, § 10", avers that the Church of Jerusalem has^re- 
 cedence of dignity before the Church of Borne, and all other 
 Churches. 
 
 Besides ; observe the title of the Canon in question. It 
 is not inscribed " De Bomand Sede adeunJa ad judicandum," 
 but the purport of the Canon is thus expressed in the title 
 prefixed to it, " De alienis adeundis ad judicandum '." If 
 
 5 Ussher, Eplst. Hibernic. Sylloge, xi. 
 « Bibl. Patrum Max., vol. xii. p. 30. 
 ' See Wilkins, Concil. i. p. 6. 
 
46 The CJiurch History of Ireland. 
 
 the Bishops assembled at Thurles had proceeded to frame 
 a Canon decreeing that an appeal should be made to Home, 
 would tliey have inscribed that Canon as follows, " On 
 appeals io foreigners for judgment in controverted causes"? 
 Surely not. The purport of the Canon is not to recommend 
 Appeals to Aliens, but to restrain appeals to Aliens, and to 
 confine them to a domestic tribunal. 
 
 What, therefore, I would submit now for the consideration 
 of the learned reader is, whether, if this Canon is genuine, it 
 does not, in {a,ct, prohibit Appeals to Home 
 
 For it says, " Si quae qusestiones in hac insula orianfur," 
 &c. " If any questions arise in this island, let them be 
 referred ad Apostolicam Sedem." It does not say, — If any 
 questions arise — and cannot be determined — but simply, if 
 any arise. 
 
 Now, it cannot be imagined, that all questions that arose 
 in Ireland were to be carried abroad to a foreign Church. 
 
 Besides, the word in the title is " de alienis adeundis," 
 and the very word alienis implies a prohibition rather than 
 a command; 
 
 Therefore there is great probability in the opinion^ that 
 by " Apostolica Sedes " is meant the See of St. Patrick 
 himself, the principal Metropolitan Apostolical See of Ire- 
 land — the See of Armagh, which was called the Apostolic 
 City till the eleventh century. 
 
 St. Patrick was ^'Apostolus Hibernise:" his Office was 
 "Apostolatus^ and it is certain that in his days the terms 
 Apostolus, Apostolicus, Apostolica Sedes, were applied to the 
 Chief Bishop and Chief See of each national Church ' ; and 
 Bingham quoted above says that " the names Papa, Apos- 
 tolicus, Sedes Apostolica were applied to other Bishops as 
 well as the Bishop of Rome." 
 
 s See Dr. M. Mason's Testimony of St. Patrick, Dublin, 1846, p. 119. 
 
 ' See above, p. 48, note. 
 
 ' See the examples, Thomassiui De Beneficiis i. p. 23, ed. 1787. Gieseler, 
 Div. i. ch. iii. § 55. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 47 
 
 Thus this Canon would be a confirmation of the Decreta 
 Nicaena quae qusecunque negotia in suis locis, ubi sunt orta, 
 Jinienda decreverunt. (See the authorities in Dupin, De 
 Antiq. Eccl. Disciplina Diss. Hist. p. 80, ed. 1787, where 
 will be found a full account of the assertions of Cyprian to 
 this efiect, and of the similar decrees of the African Church. 
 See p. 102, 117, 1-15, " oportet eos quibus praesumus non 
 circumcursare" — " unius cujusque causa illic est audlenda 
 ubi crimen commissum.") 
 
 III. The third document, ascribed by some to the age of 
 St. Patrick, and relating to the Roman See, may throw 
 some additional light upon the preceding. It is as follows : 
 from Vet. Codex Eccl. Akmach. ap. Ussher, Eel. Anct. 
 Irish, p. 65. " Qusecunque causa valde difficilis exorta 
 fuerit, atque ignofa cunctis Scotorum gentium judiciis, ad 
 Cathedram Arcliiepiscopi Hiberncnsium (i. e. Patricii) atque 
 hujus Antistitis sestimationem recte referenda. Si vero in 
 ilia cum suis sapientibus facile sanari non poterit, talis causa 
 prsedictse negotiationis ad Sedem Apostolicam decrevimus 
 esse mittendam, i. e. ad Petri Apostoli Cathedi-am, auctori- 
 tatem RomcE Urhis liaheiitem. . . . Hi sunt qui hoc 
 decreverunt, i. e. Auxilius, Patricius, Secundinus, Benignus." 
 
 The framers of this decree thought it requisite to explain 
 what theg meant by " Sedes Apostolica," i. e. " Petri Apostoli 
 Cathedra, auctoritatem Eomanse Urbis habentem." 
 
 They introduced the name of St. Patrick, as subscribing 
 the decree, in order to give it weight ; but, by a strange 
 oversight, they also introduced a word which betrays the 
 forger's hand. This word is " Archiepiscopus.'" St. Patrick 
 was " Episcopus," as he designates himself in his Epist. ad 
 Corotic. i., and as he is so called in Can. iv. of those cited 
 from Wilkins, but he never calls himself ArcJiiepiscopus ; 
 nor was he called ArcJiiepiscopus in his lifetime. 
 
 Dr. MoNCK MASOif, in his Primitive Christianity in 
 
48 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Ireland, p. 32, referring to this Canon, thus speaks, " There is 
 no genuine Irish Canon of an ancient Irish Synod ac- 
 knowledging the Supremacy of Eome. One to that effect 
 quoted in Ussher's Religion of the Ancient Irish Church, is 
 of a late date, for it speaks of an Archbishop of the Irish ; 
 while the fact is undoubted, that it was not till the beginning 
 of the eighth century ^ that the title of Arclihishop was 
 known in Ireland." 
 
 This canon has not been admitted by Spelman or Wilkius 
 into their collections, and even Dr. LANiGAif, the Roman 
 Catholic historian, doubts its genuineness. (Eccl. Hist. ii. 
 p. 391.) 
 
 This Canon, then, is a fabrication — later tlian the age of 
 St. Patrick — and designed to advance the interests of the 
 Roman See, by means of St. Patrick's name. 
 
 Therefore, we here see another reason for believing, 
 that the previous Canon cited by the Bishops at Thurles, 
 cannot rightly be interpreted as they interpret it, viz. as 
 prescribing an appeal to Rome in all cases where questions 
 arise in Ireland. For, if there had been any Canon, with 
 such a meaning, in existence at the time when this latter 
 Canon was fabricated, such a fabrication would not only 
 have been superfluous, but it would have been unfavourable 
 to the Church of Rome, whose interests it was intended to 
 promote. For the former Canon, so interpreted, gives more 
 to Rome than the latter. And if the meaning assigned by 
 the Bishops at Thurles to the Canon quoted by them is the 
 true meaning of it, then that Canon likewise is not only 
 a fabrication, but it is also a more recent fabrication than 
 that of the other Canon here adduced. 
 
 Lastly, if any Canons, framed in Ireland by St. Patrick 
 or in his age, had enjoined that appeals should be made to 
 Rome for judgment in controverted causes, these Canons 
 would without doubt have been quoted by those persons in 
 
 2 Qy. 7tli. See King's History, ii. 448. 
 
The Age of St. Patrick. 
 
 49 
 
 the succeeding centui-ies who desu-ed to bring the Irish 
 Church to the observance of the Roman Easter. But in the 
 ample records of that controversy we do not find any 
 reference whatever to any such Canons ; and therefore we 
 may safely conclude that no such Canons were made in the 
 age of St. Patrick. 
 
 l: 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE AGE OF ST. COLUMBA 
 Isaiah Ix. 8, 9. 
 
 " WJio are these that fly as a cloud, and as the Doves to their windoii's ? 
 Surely the Isles shall wait for Me." 
 
 THE Prophet Isaiah, addressing the Church, pre- 
 announces the rising of the Sun of Righteousness : 
 Ai'ise, shine j for thy Light is come, mid the glory of the 
 Lord is risen upon thee ^. He then describes the con- 
 sequences of this evangelical Epiphany : The Gentiles 
 shall come to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of 
 Thy rising ^. He has a vision of Nations coming from 
 afar, with their different attributes, like troops of Pil- 
 grims, and pressing forward with eager haste to the 
 Temple and Altar of Christ : The multitude of camels 
 shall cover thee, the drornedaries of Midian and Ephah ; 
 all they from Sheha shall com,e : they shall bring gold and 
 incense. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto 
 thee, the rams of Nehaioth shall minister unto thee ; and 
 
 ' Preached in Westminster Abbey on Sunday afternoon, March 21, 
 1852. 
 
 2 Isa. Ix. 1. 3 isa. Ix. 3. 
 
TJie Age of St. Cohunba. 
 
 51 
 
 then Christ Himself appears, and confirms the glad 
 tidings of the Prophet : They shall come up with ac- 
 ceptance on Mine altar, and I will glorify the house of 
 My Glory. 
 
 The Nations just described as flowing together into 
 the Church of Christ, are represented as coming by land. 
 Others will traverse the sea. These are compared to 
 flocks of birds in the heavens, hastening to their nests. 
 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the Doves to 
 their windows ? Siwely the Isles shall wait for Me, and 
 the Ships of Tarshish flrst. 
 
 I. Let us begin by adverting to the literal meaning 
 of this divine prophecy, — which will be applied further, 
 in the sequel. 
 
 The word, in the original Hebrew, for Isle is /, and 
 Jbr Islands Urn,, and the word for Dove is Yonah. In 
 Scripture, the Dove is the bird of purity, peace, in- 
 nocence, and love. At the Deluge, the Raven deserted 
 the Ark, but the Dove returned to it *. Hence the 
 Dove is the emblem of the Spirit of Unity which ani- 
 mates the Church, and by which every member of it 
 ought to be animated. Hence also, the Dove is the 
 Scriptural emblem of the Church herself ; My Love, My 
 undefiled, is one \ 0 deliver not the soul of Thy turtle 
 Dove unto the multitude of the enemies, and forget not 
 the congregation of the poor for ever^ . And our Blessed 
 Lord gives a precept to all His followers, when He 
 says, " Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as Doves '' 
 
 Gen. viii. 6. 9, 10. " Canticles vi. 9. 
 
 0 Ps. Ixxiv. 20. ' Matt. x. 16. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Hence, in the prophecy before us, the maritime tribes 
 of the earth, who dwell in the Isles, and to whom the 
 Gospel is preached, and who, wearied with the strifes 
 of this world, and being filled by the Holy Ghost with 
 the spirit of peace and love, take refuge in the Ark of 
 the Church, are beautifully compared to flocks of Doves 
 with silver wings and feathers like golcV, glancing and 
 gleaming in the dark clouds, and flying with haste over 
 the sea, to escape from the stormy wind and tempest^, 
 and eagerly repairing to the windows of their nests, for 
 protection, warmth, and repose. 
 
 II. Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the Doves 
 to their windows ? 
 
 This prophetic description may be applied in a 
 secondary sense to characterize such a manifestation of 
 Divine Providence and Mercy as that to which we ha^ 
 already referred, as displaying itself at this time in 
 that Island of the west, which is most intimately con- 
 nected with our own, and in which, under the influence 
 of God's Holy Spirit and of His Divine Word, large 
 multitudes of persons, having their hearts stirred, as it 
 were, by a breath from heaven, are flying to their own 
 spiritual home — their true Ark — the ancient. Evange- 
 lical Church of their native land. 
 
 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the Doves to 
 their windows ? Surely the Isles shall wait for Me. 
 
 This simultaneous movement of so many hearts — 
 together with other signs of the times — has led us to 
 the contemplation of the primitive condition of Ireland, 
 s Ps. Ixviii. 13. 9 Ps. Iv. 8. 
 
The Age of St. Colimiba. 
 
 53 
 
 We have been engaged in considering the religious 
 state of that country in the age of its venerable Apostle, 
 St. Patrick, — and we have seen, that the faith pro- 
 fessed and preached by him was founded on the Holy 
 Scriptures; and that the Church of Ireland at that 
 time — the fifth century — was not subject to any foreign 
 power. 
 
 Let us now proceed to inquire, — what was its con- 
 dition in the subsequent age ? 
 
 At the period to which we now refer — the sixth and 
 seventh centuries, — an intimate connexion subsisted 
 between the Churches of Ireland and Britain. Their 
 Candlesticks, standing side by side, appear to have 
 derived their light from the Apocalyptic Candlesticks 
 of the beloved Disciple and Evangelist, St. John. The 
 light of the Gospel, which he cherished in the 
 Churches of Asia, imparted its lustre to our own 
 Isles. 
 
 Hence, probably, it arose, that while the Churches of 
 Ireland and Britain held friendly intercourse with each 
 other, and agreed, not only in doctrine, but, for the most 
 part, in ritual observances, they differed in this latter 
 respect from some other Churches of the West. 
 
 III. What, then, was their relation to the Church of 
 Rome? 
 
 1. Here, also, the Ancient Churches of Ireland and 
 Britain were of one mind. They did not acknowledge 
 that the Bishop of Rome had supremacy, — no, they did 
 not acknowledge that he had any jurisdiction, over them. 
 And when he began, as he did at the close of the sixth 
 
54 The CJmrck History of Ireland. 
 
 century, to use the language of dictation towards them 
 although in a modest tone, compared with the imperious 
 terms that he afterwards assumed : and although the 
 matters themselves were of trivial importance, in which 
 he demanded submission, yet the Churches of Britain 
 and Ireland united in protesting against such an as- 
 sumption of authority over them, and in asserting their 
 own independence. 
 
 2. Nor was this all. Rome was now beginning to 
 aspire to spiritual domination. She put forth loftier 
 claims. Our forefathers well knew that those claims 
 had no foundation in Holy Scripture and Primitive 
 Antiquity. And what was the result? One deeply 
 to be deplored. A breach of Christian Unity. A 
 Schism ^ The Churches of Britain and Ireland could 
 
 ' Gregory wrote to St. Austin in this strain: " Britanniarum omnes 
 JSpiscopos tuaj fraternitati committimus, ut indoeti doceantur, infirmi 
 persuasione roborentur, perversi avctoritate corrigantur." Bede, i. 27. 
 And again (i. 29), "Tua fraternitas omnes BritannicB sacerdotes liabeat, 
 Deo Domino N. J. C. auctore, suhjectos." No wonder a separation 
 ensued. 
 
 2 UssilEE, Eel. Anc. Irish, ix. " The diiference between the Eomau 
 and Irish in the celebration of Easter consisted in this : — 
 
 " The Romans kept the memorial of our Lord's resurrection upon that 
 Sunday which fell between the xv. and the xxi. day of the Moon (both terms 
 inclusive) next after the xxi. day of March ; which they accounted to be 
 the seat of the l^ernal ^qiiiiioctium. And in reckoning the age of the 
 Moon they followed the Alexandrine Cycle of xix. years (whence our 
 Golden Number had its original) as it was explained to them by Diony- 
 sius Exiguus. 
 
 "The northern Irish and Scottish, together with the Picts, observed 
 the custom of the Britons, keeping their Easter upon the Sunday that 
 fell between the xiv. and the xx. day of the Moon, and following in their 
 account thereof not the xix. years computation of Anatolius, but Sulpicius 
 Severus his cycle of Ixxxiv. years." 
 
 Bp. Llotd, Anct. Church Government, p. 67, 68. " In Pope Leo's 
 time the Eoman Church used the Paschal Cycle of 84 years ; the Scots 
 
The Age of St. Columba. 
 
 55 
 
 not renounce the liberty wdth which. Christ /lad made 
 them free ^. If they had done so, they would have been 
 false to Him. He alone was their Head. He had pur- 
 chased them with His own blood*. They were not their 
 own, hut bought with a price ^ . They could not give 
 away what was His. They therefore maintained their 
 freedom, and mthstood those who would deprive them 
 of it. Thus, by her ambition, B.ome made a rent in the 
 robe of Christ. 
 
 These are historical facts; and very important it is 
 that they should not be forgotten. 
 
 3. But it may be said by some. Where is the evidence 
 of them ? 
 
 This is a reasonable demand, and evidence shall be 
 adduced from Rome herself. 
 
 At the close of the sixth century, Augustine was sent 
 
 (Irish) and Picts and Britons used tbe same. But about 80 years after 
 the rending of the Roman Empire, the Romans adopted from Alexandria 
 another Cycle of 19 years, and this is what they desired to impose on the 
 Irish and Britons, who retained that Cycle which had been anciently 
 used by the Koman Church. For this and no other reason, because 
 they would not receive the Roman alterations, nor submit to the autho- 
 I'ity by which they were imposed, they (the Britons and Irish) were called 
 (by Rome) the schismaiics of Britain and Ireland." 
 
 GiESELEE, Eccl. Hist. § 126. " The Britons and Irish differed from 
 the Romish Church in the following respects, — 
 
 " (1) The time of the Easter Festival. But the Britons were by no 
 means quarto decimani (for they always kept the Easter festival on a 
 Sunday). 
 
 " (2) The tonsure. The Roman Clergy were in coi'onam attonsi : the 
 British had the fore part of the head bald." The Romans called their 
 own tonsure the "tonsuram Petri," ihsA. of tbe Britons " tonsuram Simonis 
 Magi." 
 
 " (3) The British and Irish had no celibacy of Priests. 
 " (4) A Peculiar Liturgy." 
 
 3 Gal. V. 1. * Acts XX. 28. = 1 Cor. vii. 23. 
 
56 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 by Gregory \., Bishop of Rome^ to preach the Gospel 
 to the Saxons in England. He there founded what 
 Bede designates as "the new* Church collected from 
 the Angli." His differences with the Bishops of the 
 ancient British Church, and their refusal to comply with 
 his requisitions in ritual matters, or to acknowledge 
 him or the Bishop of Rome as having any authority 
 over them, are notorious . Hence it is clear that 
 the British Bishops knew nothing of any right in the 
 Bishop of Rome to dictate laws even concerning matters 
 of discipline, and much less concerning articles of faith, 
 to the Church of this land. 
 
 Laurentius, another missionary from Rome, succeeded 
 Augustine in England. He wrote a letter, which may 
 be found in Bede's History ^, in which he describes the 
 nature of his own reception, first from the Ecclesiastics 
 of Britain, and next from those of Ireland. 
 
 He thus writes : — 
 
 "Before we entered Britain, we held the British and 
 Irish in great esteem, supposing that they conformed to 
 the customs of the universal Church^' (by which he 
 means the Church of Rome) . " But when we had become 
 acquainted with those of Britain, we concluded that those 
 of Ireland must be better than they." 
 
 " However, now " (he adds) " we have learnt through 
 a Bishop of Ireland, Daganus, who has come over to 
 Britain, that the Irish do not differ in any respect from 
 
 ^ " Nova qu8B de Anglis erat collecta Ecclesia." Bede, ii. 4. 
 
 7 See Bede, Hist. Eccl. ii. 2. "Illi" (Britonum Episcopi) "nil 
 horum " (quae Augustinus mandabat) " faeturos, neque ilium pro arcbi- 
 piscopo habituros, respondebant." 
 
 ^ Bedi;, ii. 4. For the original words, see above, p. 28, note. 
 
The Age of St. Colicniba. 
 
 SI 
 
 the British in their usages. For this Irish Bishop, 
 Daganus, refused to eat at the same table with us, or 
 even under the same roof." 
 
 Such is the testimony of a missionary from Rome 
 itself, at the beginning of the seventh century. 
 
 It further appears from the words of Bede, that the 
 breach here mentioned was not healed in his own age, 
 that is, near the middle of the eighth century 
 
 " He wrote his history a.d. 731, in which he says, ii. 4, " quantum 
 liaec agendo profecerit Laurentius, adhuc prcesentia tempora declarant ;" 
 and ii. 20, " usque hodie moris est Bi itonuni, fidem religionemque 
 Anglorum pro nihilo habere, neque in aliquo eis magis communicare 
 quim paganis." See also MS. Cod. Canou. Cotton, tit. G6, ap. Ussher, 
 Rel. Anc. Ir. c. x. " Britones, qui omnibus contrarii sunt, ah unitate 
 Hcclesice se ahsciderunt." And a decree of Saxon Bishops, Dechet. 
 PoNTip. M.S. ap. Ussher, Relig. Anct. Irish, ch. x. p. 81. " Qui ordi- 
 nati sunt a Scotorum Episeopis (i. e. by the Irish Bishops : see above, 
 p. 14, note) qui in Pascha vel Tonsura non sunt adunati Ecclesim, itcrum 
 a Catholico Episcopo manus irapositione confirmentur. Similiter et 
 Ecclesiae, quaj ab illis Episeopis oi dinantur, aqua exorcizata aspergantur. 
 Licentiam quoque non habemus eis poscentibus Chrisma vel Eucharistiam 
 dare, ni ante confessi fuerint vclle se nobiscum esse in unitate Ecclesise." 
 
 Other Councils show the separation of the Anglo-Roman from the 
 Irish Church, and the overbearing spirit with which the ancient Irish 
 Church was treated by the adherents of Rome, 
 
 CAPirULTJji Theodori Archiepiscopi (who came to England A.D. 668) 
 ap. Labbe, Concil. vi. p. 1877. " Qui ordinati sunt a Scotorum aut 
 Britonum Episeopis, qui in Pascha et in tonsura adunati CatholicsB 
 Ecclesite non sunt, iterum a Catholico Episcopo manus impositione 
 confirmentur." 
 
 Concilium Cabilonense, a.d. 813, Labbe, vii. p. 1281, sub Carolo 
 Magno Imp. can. 43. "Sunt in quibusdam locis Scoti (Irish), qui se 
 dicunt Episcopos esse, et multos negligentes absque licentia dominorum 
 suorum diaconos ordinant, quorum ordinationem, quia plerumque in 
 Simoniacam incidit hseresim, et multis erroribus subjacet, modis om- 
 nibus irritam fieri debere omnes uno consensu dccrevimus." 
 
 Synodus ap. Celichyth (Council of Calchythe), Labbe, vii. p. 1486. 
 Spelman, i. p. 327. Wilkins, i. p. 169. Can. 5, a.d. 816. Johnson, i. 
 p. 301. " Interdictum est ut nullus permittatur de genere Scotorum in 
 alicujus dioecesi sacrum sibi ministerium usurpare, neque ei conscntire 
 
58 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 IV. It appears from this epistle of Laurentius — 
 
 1. That the Church of Rome could have had but very 
 little intercourse with the Churches of Britain and Ire- 
 land up to that time^ and that it knew very little of 
 them. Otherwise^ a missionary sent from Rome to 
 Britain would not have been ignorant whether the usages 
 of the Churches of Britain and Ireland were similar to 
 those of Rome or no ; and could not have made so great 
 a mistake^ as he himself owns he did, in this important 
 matter 
 
 2. Ecclesiastical Authority is exercised by means of 
 visible acts, of command on one side, and of obedience 
 on the other. Such acts necessarily involve intercourse 
 between the two parties. Ecclesiastical Supremacy ex- 
 hibits itself publicly in the imposition of oaths, and other 
 forms of jurisdiction. Where one party has no such 
 intercourse with the other, and avows ignorance of its 
 usages, it cannot be said that either party has Authority, 
 and much less Supremacy, over the other. 
 
 Hence, this declaration of the Roman missionary, 
 Laurentius, to which we have just referred, as having 
 
 liceat ex sacro ordiuc aliquod attingere, vel ab eis accipere in baptismo, 
 aut in celebratioue missaruui vel etiam eucharistiam populo praibere, quia 
 incertum est nobis untie et an ab aliquo ordinentur." 
 
 "> Collier, Eccl. Hist. i. p. 187. " It appears, that" (in the primi- 
 tive times of Christianity) " the Bishops of liouie did not intermeddle 
 with the government of the British Churches, for if they had, Laurentius 
 and the rest of the missionaries could not have been such strangers to the 
 condition and usages of the British Churches as to believe them conform- 
 able to the Roman, till they came hither and found it otherwise. 
 
 " It is plain, therefore, the British Churches had the spiritual sove- 
 reignty within themselves, were under no foreign superintendency, nor 
 cared to apply to the see of Kome to get their metropolitans consecrated, 
 or receive directions for discipline from thence." See also Archbp. 
 Beamhall, Works, vol. ii. p. 527. ed. Oxf. 1842. 
 
The Age of St. Cohtmba. 
 
 59 
 
 been made at the beginning of tlie seventh century, 
 may be regarded as tantamount to an acknowledgment 
 from Eome herself, that she had not exercised jurisdiction 
 in Britain and Ireland up to that time 
 
 3. It also appears from this same Epistle, that when 
 Rome put forth a claim to jurisdiction, by requiring con- 
 formity to her own usages, the Churches of Ireland and 
 Britain united in resisting that claim, and that it pro- 
 duced a rupture between them and her. 
 
 Now, it must be remembered, that the whole fabric 
 of the present Religion of Rome rests on a claim to 
 spiritual Authority over other Churches. " What is the 
 question at issue,^^ asks Cardinal Bellarmine ^, " when 
 we treat of the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff'? It is" 
 (he replies) " the sum of Christianity.^^ Supremacy is 
 the key-stone of the arch of her system ; and if that 
 stone be removed, the entire structure falls to the 
 ground. Since then the Churches of Britain and Ire- 
 land did not acknowledge any such supremacy ; since 
 they would not submit to any authority in Rome, even 
 in ritual matters, over themselves ; since the attempt on 
 her part to exact conformity from them led to a breach 
 of communication betvfcen them and her, it is clear, that 
 
 ' A sitnilur avowal from the lips of Gregory himself, afterwards Bishop 
 of Rome, will probably occur to the reader. His question when he saw 
 the Anglo-Saxou captives in the slave market at Rome, "Are they 
 heathens or Christians ?" was equivalent to an acknowledgment that he 
 knew little of the religious state of the country from which they came. 
 But if (as is now alleged by some) Rome had exercised jurisdiction in 
 that country for some centuries, surely the futui'e Pontiff would have 
 known whether it was heathen or no. 
 
 ' Bellakm., vol. i. p. 189. ed. 1615. Prsef. in libros de Pontifice. 
 "De qua re agitur, cum de primatu Pontificis agitur? Brevissime 
 dicam — de summa rei ChristianEe." 
 
6o 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 the Ancient Churches of Britain and Ireland did not pro- 
 fess the religion now taught by Borne, which is based on 
 the doctrine of Supremacy. 
 
 4. Since, also, according to her ^nesent ^ teaching, the 
 chair of the Roman Pontiff is the centre of Unity ; 
 since, as she affirms, he is the Spiritual Head, and Ruler 
 of all Christendom ; and since, according to her present 
 religion, communion wdth the Bishop of Rome is neces- 
 sary to salvation ; since, according to her, resistance to 
 him is mortal sin ; therefore, according to that same 
 teaching, the Ancient Churches of Britain and Ireland, 
 which opposed his claims to jurisdiction in these realms, 
 and were separated from communion with him, were 
 excluded from the favour of God, and under a ban of 
 condemnation. 
 
 V. Is further evidence required in proof of the fact, 
 that when the Chm-ch of Rome began to have inter- 
 com'se with these countries, and demanded submission 
 from the Churches of Britain and Ireland, the result of 
 that requisition was that they did not communicate with 
 her, nor she with them ? 
 
 If further evidence is called for, it may easily be sup- 
 plied from authorities favourable to Rome. 
 
 For example. In the middle of the seventh century 
 
 3 I say, "present tcatliiiig," for it might easily be shown (e.g. from 
 the History of Bede) that in tlic Seventh Century, Rome had not yet 
 propounded the doctrine that to be out of her communion is to be ex- 
 cluded from hope of salvation. This was a later development. But if 
 this is a true doctrine now, it was true then. If necessary now, it was 
 necessary then. Either then she erred in not teaching it then, or she 
 errs in teaching it nowj therefore she is not infallible; and therefore 
 she errs greatly in claiming infallibility. 
 
The Age of St. Coluniba. 
 
 6i 
 
 (a.d. 664), Wilfrid, who had passed many years in Italy 
 and France, and was an adherent of the Roman Church, 
 was nominated to the See of York. How was he to be 
 consecrated ? Of the Bishops in Britain and Ireland at 
 that time, there was only one in communion with Rome \ 
 He was a Saxon ; not of the native Church of Britain. 
 Bishops there were, many in number, of the Irish and 
 British Churches. But (to ado})t the words of Wilfrid ' 
 himself on that occasion) Rome did not admit those 
 Bishops to communion with her. They were severed 
 from her. Therefore Wilfrid would not receive conse- 
 cration at their hands. And the consequence was, that 
 he went to France to be consecrated there °. 
 
 VI. Such was the condition of the ancient Churches 
 of Ireland and Britain in the sixth and seventh cen- 
 turies. 
 
 But perhaps it may be alleged here by the Church of 
 Rome : True, they were not in communion with me ; 
 
 * See Bebe, iii. 28. This is one proof among many that might be 
 adduced to show that the results of Augustine's Mission were not per- 
 manent. 
 
 * See in TJsshee, Eel. Anc. Irish, p. 79, Wilfrid's speech to the king 
 before his consecration. " Simt hie in Britannia, multi Episcopi, quorum 
 nullum meum est accusare, quamvis veraciter sciam qut>d aut quarto- 
 decimani sunt (see Bp. Lloyd, p. 128) [aut] ut Britones et Scoti ab illis 
 sunt ordinati, quos nec Apostolica sedes in communionem recepit." 
 
 Malmesbueiens. de Gest. Pontiff'. III. on Wilfrid refusing to receive 
 " consecration from Irish Bishops ^vhose communion Rome rejected." 
 See Vita Wilfridi a Stephano, c. xii. p. 57. Gale Scriptores, xv., where 
 Wilfrid speaks of the " Scoti (Irish), quos nec Apostolica sedes in com- 
 munionem recepit." a.d. 664. 
 
 ^ RiCAED. Hagulstad., p. 294: "Wilfridus episcopus eligitur et ab 
 Alfrido Qallias mittitur, ut ibi, quod tunc in Anglid non poterat, 
 canonice episcopalem consecrationem susciperet." 
 
6 2 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 but their practice is no rule for others. If they had 
 been eminent for saintliness and piety ; f they had been 
 distinguished by erudition, then you might be guided 
 by them. But they lived in a wild country in an 
 illiterate age; they were little better than barbarians. 
 Invincible ignorance perhaps might excuse them. How- 
 ever, separated from me, they could not partake in the 
 holiness of Christ. And therefore their example is of no 
 weight, and ought to have no influence with any. 
 
 Let us consider this objection, 
 
 1. First, as to holiness. 
 
 Ireland at that time was not in a savage state. Far 
 from it. She was illustrious for holy men in the sixth 
 and seventh centuries ^. And may we not here rejoin to 
 the Church of Rome, Out of thine oton moiith will I judge 
 thee ? For what is the name which she herself is wont 
 to give to the Ireland of those days ? Insula Sancto- 
 rum, the Island of Saints*. Sanctorum Patria, the 
 Country of Saints. And here she speaks truly. For 
 Ireland then was the land of holy men. But when 
 Rome is unwilling that any holiness should exist apart 
 from herself, and when she proceeds to claim the Island 
 of Saints as her own, then we must remind her that she 
 
 ' GiESELER, Eccl. Hist. § 126. " Since the invasion of the Anglo- 
 Saxons, ecclesiastical as well as social order had been subverted among 
 the Britons, who manfully strove for their freedom ; but tlie Irish 
 Church %vas still in a very prosperous state. See Joh. P. Mueray, De 
 Britannia atque Hibernia sseculis a sexto unde ad decimum literarum 
 douiicilio. Nov. Comm. Soc. Ecg. Getting. Comm. Hist, et Philol. p. 
 72." 
 
 ' See, for example, p. viii of the R. C. Histoi-y quoted above, p. 23. 
 Ireland was then " universally known by the splendid appellation of a 
 Holy Land, and an Island of Saints." 
 
The Age of St. Cohunba. 
 
 63 
 
 does not speak truly. Ancient Ireland was the Island of 
 Saints, but it was not the Island of Rome. Its saints 
 were not dependent on Rome. For many years (as Rome ' 
 allows) it was not even in communion with her. And 
 therefore, if (as Rome now asserts) it is schism to be 
 separated from her, then the land which she calls the 
 Island of Saints was guilty of schism ; it was charge- 
 able with heinous sin. 
 
 But no (Heaven forbid !), Ireland — ancient Ireland — 
 was the Island of Saints and Rome never speaks more 
 truly, than when she calls Ii'eland by that name ; and 
 we hail these words with joy, as an avowal from her 
 own lips, that a Church may be eminent in holiness, 
 
 ' Cabdisal Baroxitts, Annal. ad a.d. 604, § ixt. " Eadom plane 
 qua Britanni pariter et Scoti eraut schismatis fuligine tincti, ac disces- 
 sionis ab JEcclesia JRomana rei . . . . paucis numero Roma missis Dei 
 sacerdotibus .... fuit die noctuque laborandum, ad Britannos et Scotos 
 a sehismate liberandos et Catholicas Ecclesioe jungendos laboriosissimfe 
 insudandum." 
 
 Inett, Origines Anglicanse, 1704, fol. p. 4. " Baronius (Annal. a.d. 
 604) and liis epitomizer, Spondanus, agree that at the coming of Austin 
 the faith of the British Churches was Catholic and orthodox. But, as 
 those learned writers say, those Churches had long continued in a state 
 of schism ; and, doubtless, they had done so, if it be schism not to live 
 in communion with the Church of Rome (p. 12). Such, too, was the 
 state of the Scottish Churches in Ireland; their faith and discipline 
 were the same with the British Churches, and their friendship and 
 communion reciprocal." 
 
 1 Camden, Ireland, p. 969. " In the age following St. Patrick, Ire- 
 land was termed Sanctorum Patria, and the Scotch monks in Ireland 
 and Britain were eminent for their holiness and learning, and sent many 
 holy men into all parts of Eurojie, who were the founders of Luxeuil 
 Abbey in Burgundy, Bobbio in Italy, St. Gall (named from S. Gallus, 
 an Irishman) in Switzerland, Malmesbury, Liiidisforne, &c. in Britain. 
 For out of Ireland came Sedulius, Columba, Columbanus, Colman, Aidan, 
 Gallus, Kiliau, Maidulph " (from whom Malmesbury derives its name), 
 " Brendan, and many others celebrated for their holy lives and learning." 
 The name of Fursiius ought not to be omitted. 
 
64 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 although it is not dependent on Rome, nor even in 
 communion with it. 
 
 2. Let our Roman Catholic brethren in Ireland be 
 affectionately and earnestly invited to consider this. 
 They love to call their own country " the Land of 
 Saints." And they do well. 
 
 But let them remember that those saints of God were 
 not subjects of Rome. Let them bear in mind the 
 remarkable fact, that although ancient Ireland was the 
 country of saints, yet Rome, which pretends to have 
 in her hands the sole power of conferring titles of 
 Sanctity, did not canonize one of them ; and that it was 
 not till more than Ten Centuries from the birth of 
 Christ had passed away, that the name of a single 
 person, born in " the Island of Saints,''^ was admitted by 
 Rome into her Calendar of Saints ^ Either then the 
 inhabitants of Ireland must cease to call their country 
 the Island of Saints, or they must allow that a Church 
 may be illustrious for Sanctity, although it be indepen- 
 dent of Rome, and even be censured by her as guilty of 
 schism. 
 
 3, Next, with regard to Learning and Intelligence. 
 It cannot be alleged that the Church of Ireland was 
 
 2 USSHEE, Rel. Anc. Irish, c. viii. "This country was lierctofore 
 for the number of holy men that lived in it, termed the Island of 
 Saints. Of that innumerable company of saints, whose memory was 
 reverenced here, what one received any solemn canonization from the 
 Pope, before Malachias, Archbishop of Armagh, and Laurence of Dublin, 
 who lived, as it were, but the other day?" See Bullaeium Kom. iii_ 
 p. 42, A.D. 1190, "Canonizatio S. Malachije," by Pope Clemens III. 
 
 Bullae. Rom. iii. p. 241, a.d. 1225. " Bulla Canonizationis S. 
 Laurentii Episcopi Dublinensis." Both these (Malachi and Laurence 
 O'Toole) were very zealous in endeavouring to bring Ireland under 
 Roman sway. 
 
The A ge o f St. Co I ii ni ba . 
 
 65 
 
 illiterate in the sixth and seventh centuries, and that 
 when she resisted Rome she erred through ignorance. 
 
 At the present time, when Ireland is convulsed by 
 a violent struggle with manifold afflictions, it is a great 
 blessing to be able to look back on the glories of her 
 earher days, and thence to draw hope for the future. 
 Who does not rejoice to be cheered with the brightness 
 of her past ages, and to cherish a holy confidence, that 
 the same pure light of the Gospel, which beamed upon 
 her in brilliant efililgence more than a thousand years 
 ago, may again kindle her eye, and light up a smile of 
 gladness on her countenance, and raise her beauty from 
 the dust ? 
 
 Soon may the blessed day arrive when we may sing 
 with joy. Arise, shine, for thy licjlit is come, and the glory 
 of the Lord is risen upon thee ' 
 
 4. More than a thousand years ago the Church of 
 Ireland was the burning and shining light of the Western 
 World. Her Candlestick was seen from afar, diffusing 
 its rays, like the luminous beacon of some lofty Light- 
 house planted on a rock amid the foaming surge of the 
 ocean, and casting its light over the dark sea, to guide 
 the mariner in his course. Such was the Church of 
 Ireland then. Such she was especially to us. We, we 
 of this land, must not endeavour to conceal our obli- 
 gations to her. We must not be ashamed to confess, 
 that with regard to Learning, — and especially with 
 regard to Sacred Learning, — Ireland was in advance of 
 England at that time''. The sons of our nobles and 
 
 3 Isa. Ix. 1. 
 
 UsSHEB, Syll. No. xiii. p. 37. Adhelmus Malmesburiensis (Abbas 
 
 F 
 
66 Tlic CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 gentry were sent for education thither'. Ireland was 
 the University of the West. She was rich in Libraries, 
 Colleges, and Schools^. She was famous, as now, for 
 hospitality. She received those who came to her, with 
 affectionate generosity, and provided them books and 
 instructors ^ She trained them in sound learning, espe- 
 cially in the Word of God. 
 
 ad Eadfridum circ. a.d. 690) expresses his jealousy, as au Englishman, 
 on account of the superior reputation of Ireland for learning. " Ange- 
 bar, cur Ribernia, quc> catervatim lectores classibus advecti affluunt, 
 ineffabili quodam privilegio efferatur, ac si foecundo Britannice in cespite 
 didascali Argivi, Romanive Quirites, reperiri minime queaut." 
 
 Bede, iii. 27. " Erant eo tempore (a.d. 664) multi nobiliura simul 
 et mediocrium de gente Anglorum, qui relicta insula patria vel divina' 
 lectionis vel continentioris vitae gratia ill5 secesserant : quos omnes 
 Scotti (the Irish) libentissime suscipientes victum eis quotidianum sine 
 pretio, libros quoque ad legendum, et magisterium gratuitum pra;bere 
 curabant." 
 
 Camden, Britannia, p. 730. " Anglo-Saxones in Hiberniam tanquam 
 ad bonarum literarum mercaturam undique confluxerunt, unde de viris 
 Sanctis ssepissime in uostris scriptoribus legitur, ' Amandatus est ad dis- 
 ciplinam in Hiberniam.' " 
 
 Neander, Eccl. Hist. v. 54. " Many young Englishmen visited Ire- 
 land in the latter part of the 7th century, partly in order to lead a quiet 
 and severe spiritual life among the monks of that country, and partly to 
 become imbued with their extensive erudition. They were received by 
 the Irish with Christian hospitality, and provided with sustenance and 
 books." 
 
 * E. g. in her Scholastic Monasteries of those days. Such, in some 
 respects (e. g. the celibacy of their fellows), are some Colleges in our own 
 Universities at this time. And if monasteries had retained their cha- 
 racter, as nurseries of sacred learning, and as centres of missionary 
 labour, — like that of a Jerome at Bethlehem, or of a Columba at lona, — 
 who shall say that they ought to have been dissolved ? who shall deny 
 that they were means, in their own age, under God's providence, of in- 
 estimable good ?— See Mr. King's History (p. 226—245) on the literary 
 attainments, intellectual activity, missionary zeal, and self-devotion of the 
 ancient Irish Monks ; and on the Monasteries as Seminaries of the minis- 
 try, and schools of sacred and useful learning (p. 245) ; also as libraries 
 and officincB for the copying of MSS., and depositories of annals ; also as 
 cathedrals, hospitals, and almshouses. 
 
The Age of St. Coliimba. 
 
 67 
 
 5. Nor is this all. We^ my brethren, are bound to 
 remember that the Christianity of England and of Scot- 
 land was, in a great measure, reflected upon them from 
 the West, by the instrumentality of Irish Missionaries, 
 especially of those who came from the Scriptural School 
 of lona. That School was founded in the sixth century 
 by St. Columba''. He came from Ireland. He was 
 of her ancient line of Kings. He is justly regarded 
 as the Apostle of the Highlands and Western Isles of 
 Scotland. And if (as we have already seen to be 
 probable*) St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was a 
 native of Scotland, both countries may find pleasure in 
 the reflection, that Ireland repaid the debt, and sent an 
 Apostle to Scotland in the person of St. Columba. 
 
 He preached the Gospel there thirty years before St. 
 Austin landed in England. 
 
 Many, doubtless, who are hei'e present, have stood on 
 the sea-girt cliffs of lona, and have viewed with reli- 
 gious interest and veneration the mouldering remains of 
 ancient Christianity, which still survive on its solitary 
 shore. The name of lona has been coupled with that of 
 
 ' Bede, iii. 4. de S. Columba, a.d. 565. " Venit de Hiberuia Pres- 
 byter et Abbas Labitu et vita monachi insignis nomine Columba Brit- 
 tanniam, prsedicaturus verbum Dei pi-ovinciis septentrionalium Pictorum 
 . . . venit autem Brittanniam Columba regnante Pictis Meilochon, gen- 
 teinque illam ad fidem Christi couvertit, unde et praefatam insulam (Hii) 
 ab eis accepit. . . Fecerat autem, priusquam Brittanniam veniret, mouas- 
 terium nobile in Hibernia. . . . 
 
 " Qualiscunque fuerit ipse, nos hoc de illo certum tenemus, quia reliquit 
 successores magna continentia ac divino amore regularique iustitutione 
 insignes . . . tantum ea quaj in propheticis, evangelieis, et apostolicu 
 literis discere poterant pietatis et castitatis opera diligenter observantes;" 
 i. e. Holt ScKiPTtrEE was their Rule of Faith. Cf. Ussheu, Relig. 
 Anct. Irish, pp. 2, 3. 
 
 ^ See above, p. 13. 
 
68 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Marathon, by one of our most celebrated English writers, 
 in a passage familiar to all " ; and they who are versed 
 in the history of Christianity in their own land will 
 gladly and gratefully confess, that the peaceful con- 
 quests achieved in our own country by the saintly 
 armies of lona, were far more beneficent and glorious 
 than any that were ever gained on battle-fields like that 
 of Marathon ; for, the names of those who fought for 
 these victories of the Gospel are inscribed — not in perish- 
 able records — but in the pages of the Book of Lfe 
 
 " Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the Doves 
 to their windows ? 
 
 " Surely the Isles shall wait for Me." 
 
 6. May we not be permitted to apply this prophetic 
 language to them ? 
 
 As was befoi'e said (p. 58), the Hebrew word for Island 
 is J, and this is cognate with that by which lona was 
 first known. It was originally called Hii The Hebrew 
 word, here used, for Dove is Yonah. And the name of 
 St. Columha signifies Dove. Hence it was that the 
 Island to which we now refer, was called I-ona, or the 
 Island of St. Columha, or of the Bore. And it was also, 
 and is still, called by a word bearing the same sense, 
 IColm-Kill, i.e. the Island of the Church of Columha; 
 for Kill, it is well known, signifies Church 
 
 ' Dr. Samuel Johnson, Journey to the "Western Islands of Scot- 
 land, p. 261 : Edinburgh, 1798. 
 10 Phil. iv. 3. Kev. xxi. 27. 
 
 " Bede, iii. 3. "Insula quae vocatur Kii." See also iii. 4. Mr. 
 King, in his History, p. 83, observes, " The original name of this place 
 was I, Hy, or Aoi (as written in the ancient Irish annals), a word sig- 
 nifying an island. It is now called I-colm-kill." 
 
 1 FOBDUN, Scoti-Chron. iii. § 26, a.d. 565. "Ex Hibernifi. venit 
 
The Age of St. Cohmiba. 
 
 69 
 
 When^ therefore, we bear in mind these circi;m- 
 stauees; when we recollect that the Dove is the Scrip- 
 tural emblem of the Christian soul'', and when we 
 remember that lona, in those days, was a central 
 Church, a sacred school of the West, a refuge for the 
 weary soul, to which many flocked from afar, — may we 
 not say that it was like a Christian Columbarium, 
 where the doves found a house, and a nest where they 
 might lay their young, — even the altar of the Lord of 
 Hosts ^? and may we not here exclaim, " Who are these 
 that fly as a cloud, and as the Doves to their windows ? 
 Surely the Isles shall wait for Me/' 
 
 7. Yet further:— 
 
 St. Columba, having founded the missionary Church 
 of lona, and having preached the Gospel in Scotland 
 and the Isles, fell asleep in Christ, in a good old age ^, 
 at the end of the sixth century (a.d. 597). 
 
 Sanctus Presbj-ter et Abbas Columba, vir vitae non minus mirabilis 
 quam venerabilis. Hie cum lona Propbeta (idem) sortitus est nomen, 
 nam quod Hebraica lingua lona, Latina vero Columba dicitur, GrsecA 
 vero PerisUra vocitatur." 
 
 Neandeb, Eccl. Hist. v. p. 11. "With regard to Ireland, Patricius 
 had left behind him a band of scholars prepared to labour in the same 
 spirit. Ireland was the seat of monastic institutions so renowned that 
 they obtained for it the title of ' Insula Sanctorum.' In these retreats 
 the Holy Scriptures were diligently read : hence arose missionary schools, 
 as the convent at Bangor, founded by Comgall. . . . Columba, about a.d. 
 565, came from Ireland, and planted the Gospel in the northern pro- 
 vinces of the Picts, who gave him the island of Hy, . . . which 
 became a station for Biblical literature. The island was named 
 after him Columb-Kill and lona, the names Columba and lona being 
 probably the one the Latin, the other the Hebrew, translation of 
 an original Irish name." 
 
 2 See above, p. 51. ' Ps. Ixxxiv. 3. 
 
 * Bede, iii. 4. "Cum esset annorum xxxrii. post annos circiter 
 XXXII. ex quo ipse Britanniam priedicaturus adiit." He died and was 
 buried in lona. 
 
yo The Church History of I7'ela7id. 
 
 But he being dead yet speaheth ' . 
 
 Before the middle of the following century — the 
 seventh century (a.d. 635) — the King of Northumber- 
 land', Oswald, who had been educated in the Irish 
 Church', sent to it for Christian Teachers, that they 
 might convert his subjects from Paganism. Accord- 
 ingly * Aidan, an Irish Bishop and other Irish Mis- 
 sionaries, went forth from the school of Columba, and 
 were settled by the King at Lindisfarne, and preached 
 the Gospel in Northumberland, and planted the Church 
 there. 
 
 The happy effects of this mission from lona were felt 
 throughout England, from the river Humber to the 
 Thames*. Churches were built, the people flocked with 
 
 5 H«b. xi. 4. 
 
 ^ In course of time Oswald's dominions extended over a great part of 
 Britain and Scotland. See Bzde, iii. 6. He reigned nine years. Ibid, 
 iii. 9. 
 
 ? Bede, iii. 3. 
 
 s Bhostton, Io. Chron. p. 786. " Oswaldus ut fidem Christi in sue 
 regno augeret, Scotiam, ubi exulaverat, pro Aidano episcopo sumnio 
 viro nuncios misit. . . . Veniente igitur Aidano, rex Oswaldus in insula 
 Lindisf arnensi Episcopalem tribuit ei sedem, cumque fides dilatari 
 coepisset, pulcro spectaculo sacpe coutigit, ut Aidano Episcopo, qui 
 Anglorum linguam perfecte non noverat, evangelium praedicante, 
 ipse rex, qui linguam Seottorum plene didicerat, interpres verbi 
 coelestis suis existeret." See Bede, iii. 3. 
 
 ' Bede, iii. 5. 
 
 ' FoEDTTK, Scoti-Chron. iii. § 39, p. 645. "Per bos sanctissimos 
 viros, Episcopos Aidanum, Finanum, Colmannum, sive per se, sive per 
 alios, quos ipsi consecratos Anglis dederant Episcopos et sacerdotes, 
 regna quatuor, viz. duo Xortbumbrorum, Merciorum, Midilanglorum, 
 et media pars regni Saxonum Orientalium usque Thamesis pane 
 ripam, ad Cbristum conversa sunt, ac eorum reges cum indigenis in 
 nomine Sanctae Trinitatis baptizati, necnon operibus fidei docti fidcliter 
 et informati." 
 
 UssHEB, Rel. Anct. Irisb, ch. x. p. 86. "Aidan and Finan deserve to 
 be bonoured by tbe Englisb nation with as venerable a remembrance as 
 
The Age of St. Columba. 
 
 71 
 
 joy to hear the Word of God. The Heavenly Dove — 
 
 the Holy Spirit of God — brooded over the heads of 
 
 many thousands baptized by these Irish Missionaries 
 
 in the faith of Christ in our own land. Multitudes, 
 
 wearied by the storm, and finding no rest for the sole of 
 
 their feet in the wilderness of the waters of this life, 
 
 took refuge in the Ark of the Church. 
 
 Then through our own island, the ear of Faith might 
 
 have heard the prophetic voice : Who are these that fii/ 
 
 as a cloud, and as the Doves to their windows ? 
 
 Austin the monk and his followers. For by the ministry of Aidan was 
 the kingdom of Northumberland recovered from Paganism, whereunto 
 belonged then, beside the shire of Northumberland and the lands beyond 
 it unto Edinburgli Frith, Cumberland also, and Westmoreland, Lanca- 
 shire, Yorkshire, and the Bishopric of Durham. And by means of 
 FiXAN, not only the kingdom of the East Saxons, which contained 
 Essex, Middlesex, and half of Herts, was regained, but also the large 
 kingdom of Mercia was converted first unto Christianity, which com- 
 prehended under it Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, 
 Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Northamptonshire, Lin- 
 coln, Huntingdon, Beds, Bucks, Oxford, Staiford, Derby, Salop, Notts, 
 Cheshire, and the other half of Herts. The Scottish (or Irish), who 
 professed no subjection to the Church of Rome, were they that sent 
 preachers for the conversion of these countries, and ordained Bishops 
 to govern them, viz. Aidan, Finan, and Colman successively for the 
 kingdom of Northumberland; for the East Saxons, Cedd, brother to 
 Cedda, Bishop of York ; for the Middle Angles and Mercians, Diuma 
 (see Bede, iii. 3—5. 22—26). And these with their followers, not- 
 withstanding their division from the See of Rome, were, for their 
 extraordinary sanctity of life and painful preaching of the Gospel 
 (wlierein they went far heyond the other side that afterwards thrust 
 them out and entered in upon their labours), exceedingly reverenced by 
 them that knew them." 
 
 Inett, chap, iv., concerning the missionary labours of the Irish 
 Bishops Aidan, Finan, Cedda, and Diuma, pp. 46, 47. "Aidan, sent 
 for from Ireland by Oswald, King of Northumberland, and settled at 
 Lindisfarne, he and the Irish Clergy established schools, and by their 
 ministry the people north of the Humber are generally converted. The 
 midland and southeni parts of England are converted by them and their 
 successors." 
 
72 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Surely the Isles shall wait for Me. 
 
 8. Let me leave it to you, brethren, to trace in your 
 own memories the course of those zealous Missionaries. 
 Let me only remind you, that what was done in Scot- 
 land and England by St. Columba and his disciples, was 
 done by another Irish Teacher, St. Columbanus and his 
 followers, on the Continent of Europe. Remember also, 
 that they were not dependent on Rome \ At this day two 
 
 • Who calls himself Palumliis the Dove, in his letter to Boniface. 
 Bibl. P. M. xli. p. 28. There is probably a continuation of the same 
 idea in the name of lonas, his successor anil biographer. 
 
 3 CoLtTMBANrs, ob. A.D. 615. GiESELEK observes, Eccl. Hist. § 126, 
 " His letter to Pope Gregory the Great on the celebration of Easter, as 
 well as to Pope Boniface 1\. on the three chapters, attest the free spii-it 
 of the Irish Church." 
 
 The sentiments of St. CoirsiBANUS with regard to Eome may best 
 be seen in his own words. Colunibanus ad Bonifacium Papani, § 10: 
 Bibl. Patr. Ma.x. xii. 30. " Sicut magnus honor vester est pro dignitate 
 cathedra;, ita magna cura vobis necessaria est, ut non perdatis vestram 
 dignitatem propter aliquam perversitatem (he therefore did not regard 
 Kome as indefectible or infellible). Tamdiu enim potestas apud vos 
 erit, quamdiu recta ratio pormanserit. Hie enim certus regni coelorum 
 clavicularius est, qui dignis per veram scientiam aperit, et indignis clau- 
 dit. Alioquin, si contra fecerit, nec aperire nec claudere poterit." § 11 : 
 " Cum hsBC igitur vera sint, et sine ulla coutradictione ab omnilus vere 
 sapientibus recepta sint (licet omnibus notum est, et nemo est qui nesciat, 
 qualiter Salvator noster sancto Petro regni coelorum contulit claves, et 
 vos, per hoc forte siiperciliosum nescio quid pra; cajteris vobis majoris 
 auctoritatis ac in divinis rebus potestatls vindicatis) noveritis minorem 
 fore potestatem vestram apud Dominum, si vel cogitatis hoc in cordibus 
 vestris." 
 
 It is observable that Columbanus when he wrote this epistle had 
 resided much in France, where the Papal power had made more 
 progress than in Ireland ; and his language is more striking on that 
 account. See Neander, Eccl. Hist. v. 43. Another passage may be 
 added, § 10 : " Ex tunc (i. e. a;tate Apostolica) vos (Romani) magni 
 estis et clari, et Roma ipsa nobilior et clarior est, et, si dici potest, 
 propter Christi geminos Apostolos, vos prope ccelestes estis, et Roma 
 orbis torrarum caput est Ecclesiaruni, salva loci dominiccB resurrec- 
 tionis singidari prarogativa ;" i. e. Rome is second to Jerusalem ; and 
 
The Age of St. Columba. 
 
 73 
 
 of the Swiss Cantons, Glarus and St. Gall^, bear in 
 their names the record of their zeal. Those holy men 
 preached th^ glad tidings of salvation in Germany and 
 France. They planted Churches there, and even in 
 Italy itself^. Here, too, when we consider the acces- 
 
 since Jerusalem was not imagined by Columbanus or by any one then 
 living to have such Ecclesiastical Supremacy as Rome now claims, much 
 less could Rome, which was second to Jerusalem, be supposed by them 
 to have it. 
 
 Lappenbeeg, Hist. i. 613. "At a time when the Anglo-Saxons 
 had scarcely begun to spread a new Paganism in Britain, Fridolin, a 
 native of Ireland, had dedicated a church to St. Hilarius, which has 
 given a name to the Canton of Olarus. At the beginning of the 
 seventh century Columbanus, the friend of St. Columba, with his 
 pupil, Gallus, travelled to those parts where the name of the latter 
 is preserved in the Canton of St. Gall, and where his monastery may 
 be regarded as the choicest storehouse of the learning and poetry of 
 the middle age. From Columbanus the cloister of Luxeuil, also that 
 of Bobbio and others, derive their origin. At a later period (a.d. 680) 
 Kilian with his companions founded a monastery at Wurzburg, the 
 library of which preserves the proof of its descent, in precious monu- 
 ments in the Irish language. Virgilius, a Scot, contemporary with 
 Boniface, was Bishop of Salzburg." 
 
 ^ Neandee, Eccl. Hist. V. p. 35. " Tlie largest debt of gratitude 
 was due, in regard to the missions in Germany, to the monks from 
 England, and more especially to those from Ireland. The love of 
 travelling, so common to the Irish ("Natio Scotorum, quibus consue- 
 tude peregrinandi jam poen^ in naturam conversa est." Vita S. Galli, 
 ii. § 47), served as a means for conveying Christianity to a remote 
 people. Much as was done by the Fraukish hermits, a far greater work 
 was accomplished by the Irish Missionaries, through their diligence in 
 cultivating land, in founding Monasteries, which became centres of 
 conversion and instruction, and in providing for the Education of the 
 young. 
 
 " Columbanus first gave an example of this (missionary spirit) at the 
 end of the Sixth Century, which incited many to follow him in the 
 Seventh. He was a native of Leinster, and had been educated in the 
 monastery of Bangor founded by Comgall. 
 
 " The missionary labours of Gallus, — a noble Irishman, and Scholar 
 of S. Columbanus,— in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, are very cele- 
 brated. He was elected Bishop of Constance, and died A.D. 540. He 
 raised up a school of missionaries, and was followed by Fridolin, also 
 
74 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 sion to the Church from the labours of Columbanus and 
 his scholars, we may again say, WJio are these that fly 
 as a cloud, and as the Doves to their wmdowsf 
 
 VII. But let us return homeward, and oiFer in con- 
 clusion some practical reflections. 
 
 We have seen that in the early ages of Christianity 
 the Churches of Britain and Ireland were united as 
 sisters in Christ. Both had a native Episcopate and 
 Clergy, whose orders were derived through Apostolic 
 men from Christ Himself. Both these Churches pro- 
 fessed the same faith. Both were independent and 
 free*. At the end of the sixth century Rome sent a 
 
 from Ireland, who laboured as a missionary in Alsace, Switzerland, and 
 Swabia. Another Irish missionary, Kilian, preached the Gospel in Thu- 
 ringia." 
 
 « UssHEE, Relig. Anct. Irish, Epist. Ded. " As far as I can collect 
 by such records of the former ages as have come into my hands, either 
 MSS. or printed, the Religion professed by the ancient Bishops, Priests, 
 Monks, and other Christians in this land (Ireland) was, for the substance, 
 the very same with that which notv by public authority is maintained 
 therein against the forrain Doctrine brought in tliither in later times 
 by the Bishop of Rome's followers. 1 speak of the more substantial 
 points of Doctrine that are in controversy betwixt the Church of Rome 
 and us at this day : the religion then reeeived by both {Irish and Scotch) 
 was the self-same, and diftered little or nothing from that which was 
 maintained by their neighbours the Britons." 
 
 Archbishop Usshee shows this, as to the following articles : — 
 
 " (1) The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Scripture as the Rule of Faith. 
 The free use of Holy Scripture in the vernacular tongue : the appeal to 
 the inspired Originals as the Authentic Standard, and not to the Latin 
 Version. The Canon of Scripture. 
 
 " (2) Justification and its cognate questions. 
 
 " (3) Non-acknowledgment of Purgatory ; non-use of Prayers for the 
 dead. 
 
 " (4) Non-imposition of Celibacy on the Clergy. 
 " (5) Non-recognition of supremacy civil or ecclesiastical in the Bishop 
 of Rome." 
 
The Age of St. Cohnnba. 
 
 IS 
 
 mission to Saxon England; and far be it from us to 
 derogate from the honour of those holy men who came 
 on that errand of love. The memory of Gregory is dear 
 to us, the memory of Austin is dear to us, the memory 
 of his followers is dear to us, for their missionary zeal ; 
 but the cause of Truth is dearer still. And Truth 
 requires us to say, that Gregory, Austin, and his fol- 
 lowers demanded more of the Churches of Britain and 
 Ireland than they could rightly give. They demanded 
 the sacrifice of that which was not theirs to bestow — 
 their Christian Liberty. Hence, unhappily, a separa- 
 tion arose. Truth also requires -us to add, that the 
 mission of Austin and his followers, probably from 
 ignorance of the language ', was comparatively sterile in 
 England, whether Ave regard extent of space, or dura- 
 tion* of time. Truth requires us to declare, that St. 
 Austin from Italy ought not to be called the Apostle of 
 England, and much less the Apostle of Scotland; but 
 that title ought to be given to St. Columba and his 
 followers from the Irish school of lona'. 
 
 " See above the contrast between Palladius and St. P.itrick, p. 35, 
 and.^the remarks of Dr. Inett, Church History, p. 58. "Among the 
 many miracles said to be wrought in favour of the missionaries from 
 Rome, we do not hear that God ever gave to any of them a mira- 
 culous knowledge of the Saxon language : and if the want hereof was 
 not one of the reasons of the little success of Austin and his followers, 
 yet there is no doubt that the knowledge of the language was of great 
 use to Aidan and Finan, who were employed in the conversion of which 
 we speak." 
 
 ^ Rapin, Histoire d'Angleterre, liv. iii. " Les conversions faites par 
 les Moines Italiens n'ont pas ete fort solides. C'est ce qu'on pent 
 inferer naturellement de la defection des peuples d'Essex, d'Estanglie, 
 et de Kent meme." 
 
 ' Dr. M. Mason, Primitive Christianity, p. 113. " It is pleasing to 
 find a foreigner, M. Eapin, doing justice to the claim of Ireland. 'It 
 
'6 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Yesj brethren, we are bound to remember, that in 
 a great measurCj we owe our Christianity to Ireland. 
 And, alas ! we may not forget, that Ireland owes her 
 Romanism to us \ 
 
 Here, then, a double debt is due from us to Ireland ; 
 a debt of gratitude, and a debt of reparation. A debt 
 of gratitude for spiritual blessings derived from her, and 
 a debt of reparation for spiritual wrongs inflicted on her. 
 What, then, is to be done ? Let us not expose ourselves 
 to a charge of baseness by denying the debt, or by 
 forgetting it, still less by abandoning those who have 
 benefited us, and whom we have deeply injured. No, 
 let us frankly acknowledge the debt, and let us endea- 
 vour to pay it. And let us remember the solemn truth, 
 that this double debt is due, not only to men, but God. 
 Christ's Church is His mystical body. God used the 
 Church of Ireland, in former days, as His instrument in 
 benefiting us. What we owe to her, we owe to Him; 
 by injuring her, we have sinned against Him. If, then, 
 we desire His blessing, — without which we are poor 
 indeed, — let us make haste to i^ay this double debt. 
 
 is surprisingly strange,' says he (Hist, of England, fol. Lond. 1732, p. 
 80), ' that the conversion of the English should be attributed to Austin 
 rather than to Aidan, Finan, Colman, Cedd, and Diuma, and the other 
 Scottish ' (or Irish) ' monks, who undoubtedly laboured much more abun- 
 dantly than he.' " 
 
 It ouglit to be borne in mind, that the Literature of the middle ages 
 in England was mainly under tlie control of the Anglo-Roman monks, 
 who, for the most part, were prepossessed in favour of the Italian, and 
 prejudiced against the Irish, Missionaries ; and therefore, while we may 
 accept the good which is recorded of the latter as not overstated, we 
 have reason to think that justice has not yet been done to their 
 labours. 
 
 1 This will be seen from the facts stated in the next Discourse. 
 
The Age of St. Columba. 77 
 
 And how may this be effected? By dispelling from 
 our own eyes, and by endeavouring to dispel from the 
 eyes of others, the mists of ignorance and error which 
 hang over them. By examining for ourselves, and by 
 aiding others to examine, this subject. By remember- 
 ing and publicly declaring, that, in its happiest days, 
 Ireland was independent of Rome, and subject only to 
 Christ ; and that she derived her glory from that inde- 
 pendence on the one hand, and from that subjection on 
 the other. By showing that the Churches of Britain and 
 Ireland were then united in common sentiments of affec- 
 tion, and in common acts of defence. By labouring to 
 requite Ireland for spiritual blessings we have received 
 from her, and to indemnify her for the spiritual injuries 
 we have done her. In ancient times, Ireland performed 
 Apostolic duties to us ; let us now endeavour to perform 
 Apostolic duties to her. She aided in evangelizing us ; 
 let us aid in evangelizing her. Let us labour and pray 
 that all who dwell in the Island of Saints may be united 
 in the Faith of their earlier Christian Forefathers, — in 
 that pure and holy Faith, which was once for all 
 delivered unto the Saints '. Let us labour and pray, that 
 the Candlesticks of the Churches of Britain and Ireland, 
 shining with the light of God's Holy Word, ministered 
 like the oil of gladness from God's Holy Spirit, may 
 stand side by side, " stedfast in faith, joyful through 
 hope, and rooted in charity The strongest bond of 
 our National Unity is in the Word of God, and the 
 Church of God ; the Word giving light to the Church, 
 and the Church diffusing that light to the world. Then 
 ■ Jude 3. 
 
78 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 we may apply to ourselves the Vision which St. John 
 saw of the two Churches under the two Dispensations, 
 fed by the holy oil poured from the Two Olive Trees, or 
 the Two Testaments. These (the Two Testaments) are the 
 Two Olive Trees ; and these (the Two Churches) ai-e the 
 Two Candlesticks standing before the God of the Earth 
 God grant this may be also said of the Two Testaments 
 illuminating the Two Churches of Britain and Ireland, 
 and making them to partake in the immovable stabi- 
 lity, and in the never-fading beauty and glory, of the 
 Divine Word ! These are the Two Olive Trees, and these 
 are the Two Candlesticks, standing (and may they ever 
 stand !) before the God of the Earth. — Amen. 
 
 •* Rev. xi. 4. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 INVASION OF HENRY II. > 
 
 Isaiah xxx. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 " Woe to the rehelUous children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but 
 not of Me ; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, 
 that they may add sin to sin : That walk to go down into Hgypt, 
 and Have not asked at My mouth ; to strengthen themselves in the 
 strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt .' There- 
 fore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in 
 the shadow of Egypt your confusion." 
 
 HEN the King of Assyria, Sennacherib, came 
 
 against the fenced cities of Judah, the Jews made 
 a confederacy, and resorted to Egypt for aid'. Thus 
 they were guilty of a double sin, — distrust of God, and 
 abandonment of Him and His service for other rulers 
 and false gods. And they violated also a special com- 
 mand, which interdicted them from intercourse with 
 Egypt. Your king shall not cause the people to return 
 to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses : for- 
 asmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall no more 
 return that way 
 
 ' Preached at Westminster Abbey on Sunday afternoon, March 28, 
 
 1852. 
 
 = 2 Kings xriii, 21. 
 
 » Deut. xvii. 16. 
 
8o The CJmrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah was sent by Almighty God to 
 reprove His people for their ingratitude, disobedience, 
 and infatuation, and to foretell the ignominious conse- 
 quences of their apostasy ; 
 
 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that taJce 
 counsel, hut not of Me ; that cover with a covering (that 
 is, who shelter themselves under a protection), hut not of 
 My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin. 
 
 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and 
 stay on horses, and tr^ist in chariots, because they are 
 many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; 
 but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither 
 seek the Lord ! 
 
 He then exposes the impotence of their new allies, 
 compared with Him Whom they had forsaken. 
 
 The Egyptians are men, and not God ; and their horses 
 flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out 
 His hand, both he that helpeth, and he that is holpen, 
 .^hall fall together. 
 
 He predicts that the power, to which they had resorted 
 for aid, would be the cause of woe. 
 
 Woe to them that walk to go down into Egypt, and 
 have not asked at My mouth ; to strengthen themselves 
 in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, 
 and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 
 
 He reminds them also of God's promise, that if they 
 relied on Him, and obeyed His Word, they would be 
 defended against their foes. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel ; In 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 8i 
 
 quietness and in confidence shall be your sirengih : and ye 
 would not. 
 
 But ye said, No ; for we will flee upon horses ; 
 
 Therefore shall ye flee; and [ye said) We will ride 
 upon the swift. Therefore shall they that pursue you he 
 swift. One thousand shall flee at the reluJce of one ; at 
 the rebuJce of five shall ye flee : till ye he left as a withered 
 tree upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill. 
 
 These prophetic warnings convey practical instruction 
 to all Nations and individuals : and are specially appli- 
 cable to all who trust in man, and make flesh their arm, 
 and whose heart departeih from the Lord*, and who 
 endeavour to compass their ends by means of their own 
 choice, at variance with His will, 
 
 I. They appear, also, to have a peculiar relevancy to 
 our owm condition and duties, ^\'ith regard to that Church, 
 whose History we are now considering ; and it is to theii* 
 significance in this respect, that your attention is now 
 invited. 
 
 We have seen, that for many hundred years after 
 Christ the Church of Ireland was not dependent on 
 any foreign spiritual power. It might readily be shown, 
 and has, in some degree, been already proved in pre- 
 ceding discourses, and has been established by others, 
 especially by Archbishop Ussher, in his treatise on the 
 Religion of the Ancient Irish ^, that the Church of Ire- 
 
 * Jer. xvii. 5. 
 
 5 "Discourse of the Eeligion anciently professed by the Irish and 
 Scottish, showing it to be for substance tlie same with that which this 
 day is by public authority established in the Church of England." 
 Dublin, 1623, 4to, and in a revised form, Lend. 1631, 4toj and in 
 
 G 
 
82. TJie CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 land, for many centuries after Christ, knew notliing of 
 sundry Articles of Faith, which the Church of Rome 
 would now impose upon all as necessary to salvation. 
 And it has been shown by the same learned Prelate, 
 that the Doctrines of the Ancient Church of Ireland 
 were coincident in the main with that form of belief 
 which, based on Scripture alone interpreted by the 
 Primitive Church, has been professed and taught by 
 the Church of England and Ireland since the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 On these articles in detail it is not necessary to enter. 
 As was before observed, the fundamental point of differ- 
 ence between ourselves and Rome, is the doctrine of 
 Papal Supremacy. That is her rock. Her Church is built 
 upon it. Receive that doctrine, and (as recent examples 
 show °) it matters little what you deny. Reject that 
 doctrine, and it matters little what you believe. If you 
 submit to the Bishop of Rome, she regards you as a 
 sound believer ; but, though you receive the Scriptures 
 and the Creeds, yet if you do not acknowledge him to 
 be Supreme over Christendom, you are denounced by 
 her as a heathen man, and a publican 
 
 The question, therefore, at issue is : — 
 
 Did the Ancient Church of Ireland recognize the 
 Roman Pontiff as having supreme authority over her ? 
 
 We have been engaged in examining the History of 
 that Church from the Introduction of Christianity into 
 
 Dr. Eh'ington's eilitiou of Usslier's Works, vol. Iv. p. 231. See above, 
 p. 74, note. 
 
 8 This assertion is substantiated by the evidence adduced in the 
 present writer's Letters to M. Goudon, vii. viii. ix. x. 
 ' Matt, xviii. 17. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 83 
 
 that country in the fifth century, down to the seventh 
 and eighth centuries after Christ; and we have found 
 no indications of such a recognition. On the contrary, 
 we have met with irrefragable proofs, that, when the 
 Church of Rome began to put forth claims to spiritual 
 dominion over the Church of Ireland, those claims were 
 not admitted, but were resisted, and that they led to 
 a breach of communion between the two Churches. 
 
 II. These proofs of the non-admission of those claims 
 in ancient times will now be corroborated by other evi- 
 dence, showing the time when those claims were first 
 admitted, and the means by which they were introduced. 
 
 In order to prepare the way for this demonstration, 
 we must take a retrospective view of the causes which 
 facilitated that introduction of the Papal Power into 
 Ireland. 
 
 St. Patrick, in the fifth century, had broken up the 
 fallow ground of Ireland with missionary tillage ; but 
 he had not time to enclose the fields. He had brought 
 many wandering sheep home to Christ ; but he had not 
 been able to mark out the sheepwalks, and to finish the 
 work of building folds for the flock. 
 
 This work of Christian organization was not duly 
 performed. In the age next to St. Patrick, and in 
 the four following centuries, Ireland had many Teachers 
 and Congregations, but it had not Parishes. It had a 
 large number of Bishops ; but during the five hundred 
 years of which we are now speaking, it had not a system 
 of Dioceses 
 
 ' Cp. Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 1. 3. 27. King's History, p. 146. 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 jNIany circumstances impeded the development of the 
 Diocesan and Parochial system in that country. The 
 Celtic race, warm in its affections, generous in its aspira- 
 tions, has been usually less patient of rule and order, 
 and more prone to restlessness. The History of the 
 Celtic Churches of Galatia, as seen in St. PauFs Epistle 
 to them, exhibits a specimen of this characteristic tem- 
 perament. Celtic enthusiasm, when moulded by Chris- 
 tian doctrine, and regulated by Apostolic discipline, 
 produces noble results. Ireland gladly received the 
 truths of the Gospel, but she did not enjoy the blessings 
 of Apostolic discipline. 
 
 At that period, the country was occupied by nume- 
 rous clans, under independent Chiefs. St. Patrick had 
 jjreached to some of those Chiefs, and had converted 
 them to Christianity; but his successors did not com- 
 plete the work which he had begun. They did not 
 prevail on these chiefs and their clans to coalesce in 
 Christian unity ; and many of these chiefs and clans 
 relapsed into barbarism, and almost into paganism. 
 
 The Irish Bishops and Clergy, not having appointed 
 spheres of ministerial labour, and fearing the dangers 
 incident to isolation in a wild country, formed them- 
 selves into ecclesiastical societies. Instead of adopting 
 the diocesan and parochial system, the Church of Ireland 
 developed itself in another form — the collegiate and 
 monastic. 
 
 This latter system had many attractions, and produced 
 some brilliant results. It made Ireland the University 
 
 King's Primacy of Armagh, p. 1. Thierry, " Histoire de la Conquete 
 (le I'Angleterre," p. 198. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 85 
 
 of the West. In the sixth and seventh centuries (as 
 we have seen) young men were sent from our own and 
 other lands to be trained in the Schools and Colleges of 
 Ireland. The education which they there received, was 
 a sound and scriptural one. Tlieir teachers were dis- 
 tinguished by learning and holiness, and gained for 
 Ireland the title of the " Island of Saints.'' 
 
 These Collegiate Institutions were the nurseries of 
 Christian missionaries. They sent forth St. Columba, 
 born in the year of our Lord .521, of princely Irish blood, 
 who founded the illustrious School of lona. 
 
 From lona went forth St. Aidan, the Missionary 
 Bishop of Northumberland and other northern regions 
 of our own land, in the earlier part of the seventh cen- 
 tury From lona went forth St. Finan and St. Colman, 
 who evangelized a large part of central and southern 
 England. Ireland sent forth other Missionaries to the 
 continent of Europe. At the head of these stands St. 
 Columbanus of Leinster, born about the middle of the 
 sixth century, who preached the Gospel in France and 
 Italy. Two Cantons of Switzerland, Glarus and St. 
 Gall, still bear in their names the record of the zeal of 
 Irish Missionaries. St. Kilian went from Ireland to 
 preach Christ in Thuringia; Virgilius, from the same 
 country, became Bishop of Salzburg '. 
 
 Let God's Name be blessed for these fruits of the 
 Holy Spirit, working in Ireland at that time. 
 
 But we must not be dazzled by these splendid results. 
 True it is, that in many parts of Ireland the light of 
 the Gospel was burring brightly. True it is, that the 
 9 A.D. 635. « See above, p. 63-71. 
 
86 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 candlesticks of other Churches were kindled from it. 
 But something more was wanted. The light was burn- 
 ing with brilliant lustre within the Cloister and the 
 College, but it was not diffused with a healthful radiance 
 to the regions of Ireland around them. There the light 
 of the Gospel was waning. The shades of barbarism and 
 of paganism were falling thickly about them. Ireland 
 possessed many learned and holy men in her religious 
 houses ; she had many wise teachers and zealous mis- 
 sionaries ; but she had not a Diocesan and Parochial 
 system. And by reason of that defect, even at a time 
 when Ireland was called the "Island of Saints," and 
 when she was evangelizing other lands, her princes and 
 people were waging war with one another, and were 
 lapsing into unbelief". 
 
 Here is a lesson for ourselves in our own missionary 
 work, at home and abroad. 
 
 Christian zeal profits little without Christian order. 
 The Christian Episcopate and Priesthood produce little 
 pei'manent good, in the work of Evangelization, unless 
 they move in the regular orbits of Diocesan and Parochial 
 action. 
 
 What, therefore, shall we say of schemes in our own 
 day, which, instead of improving that Diocesan and 
 Parochial system, which has been established in Ireland, 
 would now break it down and shiver it to atoms, and would 
 disintegrate and decompose the Church of Ireland into a 
 promiscuous medley of incoherent congregations ? Such 
 a Revolution as that would destroy the spiritual organi- 
 zation which exists in Ireland ; and would bring back 
 2 Cp. Todd, St. Patrick, pp. 101. 107. 109. 122. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 87 
 
 that disorder and anarchy which marred the work of 
 evangelization there in early times^ and brought with it 
 a train of misery, civil as well as religious, of which we 
 feel the effects at this day. 
 
 At the period of which we are speaking, Ireland, as 
 we have said, had not adopted the diocesan and parochial 
 system. She had many Bishops, but those Bishops had 
 no Dioceses. Many of them lived in Collegiate and 
 Monastic Institutions. The spiritual pre-eminence of 
 these Bishops was acknowledged, but their Episcopal 
 functions were exercised under the direction of the 
 Heads of those Institutions. Monasticism domineered 
 over Episcopacy in Ireland. And to such a degree did 
 this anomaly prevail, that in some instances, where a 
 woman was at the head of the Conventual Institution, 
 the Bishop acted as her subaltern. This was the case 
 at Kildare The Bishop of Kildare was the nominee 
 and functionary of the Abbess St. Brigit and her suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 The Church of Ireland, having Bishops but not 
 Dioceses, and having adopted a monastic system rather 
 than a parochial one, could not exercise a legitimate 
 influence on the Laity. She reaped the fruits of her 
 neglect, in the irreverent and sacrilegious acts of her 
 Princes and People. Even in the principal church of 
 Ireland — that of Armagh — though the spiritual autho- 
 rity was nominally vested in a Bishop, or in two Bishops 
 at once, yet the exercise of that, spiritual authority was 
 often controlled by a rude and illiterate chieftain, in 
 
 3 Dr. Todd, St. Patrick, pp. 9, 10. 22—24 ; and King, History, 
 p. 65. 
 
88 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 whose hands the revenues were, and who claimed to be 
 regarded as the representative of the founder of the 
 church 
 
 These chieftains of rival clans were guilty of many 
 excesses. They had little regard for holy things, and 
 profaned and pillaged the houses of God. Ireland was 
 distracted by intestine feuds. The temporal chiefs strove 
 with one another * ; and the secular power was not in 
 harmony with the spiritual. 
 
 "What were the consequences ? 
 
 The Bishops became restless, and wandered forth into 
 England and other countries, and endeavoured to exer- 
 cise Episcopal functions in the Dioceses of those coun- 
 tries. Such acts were justly regarded as intrusive and 
 irregular. These roving and vagrant Bishops from 
 Ireland brought their office into contempt, and in- 
 curred the censure of English Synods in the ninth 
 century 
 
 ■» Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 155. 171. 172. 226. King's Primacy of 
 Armagh, p. 2, folio, Armagh, 1854, in which volume is a valuable 
 summary of early Irish Church Historj'. 
 
 5 Mr. King's History, p. 454. 
 
 * Especially the Synod of Calcbythe, a.d. 816. See above, p. 57. 
 See also Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, p. 40. Doubtless these censures 
 were pronounced by persons and Councils under Roman influence ; 
 and the Church of Ireland, being independent of Rome, was an 
 object of their antipathy. But she had laid herself open to them by her 
 irregularities. They also incurred the rebuke of such men as Lanfranc 
 and Ansehn, Archbishops of Canterbury, in the eleventh century; and 
 of St. Bernard, of Clairvau.x. Lanfranc was Archbishop of Canterbury 
 A.D. 1070—1093, Anselm 1093—1114. Lanfranc's censure may be 
 seen in Abp. Usshee's Sylloge Epistolarum Hibernicarum, Nos. 26 and 
 27; Anselm's ibid. Nos. 33. 35, 36. See also Mr. King's History, pp. 
 423 — 433. St. Bernard's censure may be seen in his Vita Sancti 
 Malachiae (of Ireland), c. 10. 
 
 1 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 89 
 
 III. Weakened by internal division^ Ireland and her 
 Church became a prey to Danish and Norse invaders in 
 the ninth century. At that time Ireland was ^ divided 
 into small independent Kingdoms, which were at enmity 
 with each other, and made no united resistance to the 
 assaults of those fierce marauders who overrran the 
 Island, and committed violent outrages, and made great 
 havoc, which was very injurious to Religion. They 
 pillaged and burnt Churches, Libraries, and Religious 
 Houses; and put many of the Clergy to the sword'. 
 At length they established themselves in three principal 
 maritime cities of the Island, Dublin, Limerick, and 
 Waterford. In the middle of the following century — 
 the tenth — they were converted to Christianity. But, 
 
 " FoRDUN, Scoti-Chron. iv. 6, describes the divided state of Ireland, 
 and the consequences of those distractions. " Hibernensis vicina nobis, 
 ac ejusdem nostri generis, natio, nonue duduni locuples erat et fortis, 
 legibus adhserens, justitiam sectans ? Cujus audire sapientiam ex lon- 
 ginquis plurimi venerunt regionibus. Processu vero non magno tem- 
 poris, cum ipsa, spvetis hujusmodi virtutibus, desidia corporis vitiis 
 vacasset, nec uno rege contenta, sed legum ac fidelitatis contemptu 
 pluribus regibus, statim ex suis est ejecta fcecundis civitatibus ad proprii 
 regni steriles et squalidas ultimas regiones, ubi silvis, rupibus, et locis 
 abditis misere latet ad diem hodiernum, victum vix habens vel ves- 
 titum." This writer lived in the fourteenth century. 
 
 8 A.D. Dcccxviii. UssHEE, Antiq. Eccl. Cbron. p. 542. " Dani 
 sive Nordmanni, duce Turgesio, Norwego, Hiberniam per annos xxx. 
 tributariam effecerunt ; et gentili furore debacchantes Ecclesias fere 
 omne^ destruxerunt, libros incendio absumpserunt, viros eruditione et 
 sanctitate illustres in latibula compulerunt, et inventos martyrio affece- 
 runt. Unde nova in florentissimam Insulam invecta est barbaries." 
 See ibid. pp. 296. 425. 447. 474. 
 
 Ware's Antiq. "The Danes and Norwegians who in the ninth 
 century subdued great part of Ireland, and held possession of Dublin, 
 Waterford, Limerick, and other maritime towns, even to the arrival of 
 Henry II., were sometimes called Normans (Northmen) and sometimes 
 Ostmen (Eastmen)." 
 
go The Chw'ch History of Ireland. 
 
 unhappily, they did not unite themselves with the 
 ancient Church of Ireland Like the Saxons in England, 
 and the Normans after them, they founded a separate 
 communion. These Danish settlers in Ireland claimed 
 affinity with the Normans ' who had planted themselves 
 in England, and they resorted to the Norman hierarchy 
 in England, especially to the See of Canterbury^, for 
 
 f The Prince of Waterford and Bishop of Dublin, and others, requested 
 Anselm to consecrate Malchus I. (whom they had elected) Bishop. A.D. 
 lOflG. See Usshee, Syll. xxxiv. p. 92 : cf. ibid. pp. 118, 119. 
 
 A.D. 1122. The burgesses of Dublin requested Rodulphus, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, to consecrate Gregory, whom they had elected their 
 Bishop ; and added, " Sciatis quod Spiscopi Sibernim ma.vimuni zelum 
 erga nos habent, et maxime ille Episcopus qui habitat Ardimachm, quia 
 nos nolumus obedire eorum ordinationi, sed semper sub vestro dominio 
 esse volumus." Ibid. p. 100. See Usshee, Syll. Ep. xl. King Henry 
 I. writes to Rodulph, " tibi maudo ut petition! eorum (sc. burgeusium) 
 satisfaciens ejus consecrationem sine dilatione expleas." Ibid. No. xli. 
 
 It thus appears, that the Irish Primate and the " Episcopi Hiberniae " 
 were not ftivourable to the Anglo-Xorman and Eomish connexion, whUe 
 the kings of England endeavoured to strengthen it. 
 
 Usshee, Ep. Sylloge, 118, has given the form of " professiones ab 
 Ostomannorum in Hibernia Episcopis, Ordinationis suae tempore, Cau- 
 tuariensibus Archiepiscopis factfe." 
 
 ^ Usshee's Rel. An. Irish, p. 62, concerning the Ostman Bishops in 
 Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick. " The Ostman inhabitants of these 
 towns, being a colouy of the Norwegians and Livonians, and so countrj-- 
 meu to the Normans, when they had seen England subdued by the 
 Conqueror, and Normans advanced to the chief Archbishoprick there, 
 would needs now assume to themselves the name of Normans also, and 
 cause their Bishops to receive consecration from no other Metropolitan 
 but the Archbishop of Canterbury." 
 
 - O'Flaheett's West Conuaught, p. 44. " In the reign of the two 
 first Norman kings of England and King Stephen, the Ostmans of 
 Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford, the reliques of the pagan Danes or 
 Normans infesting Ireland, becoming Christians, being aliens to the 
 Irish, and originally countrymen to the new Norman conquerors of 
 England, among whom their clergymen were commonly bred, made it 
 their interest " (to resort to Canterbury). ..." But never a Bishop of 
 any other see in Ireland, nor even of those Ostman sees, e.xcept five of 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 91 
 
 the consecration of their Bishops. The Anglo-Norman 
 Church had already fallen under the yoke of Rome ; and 
 by its agency, the two ancient Churches — first that of 
 Britain and next that of Ireland — were brought under 
 Papal sway in the course of the eleventh century. The 
 See of Canterbury was then filled by two Prelates in 
 succession who were natives of Italy, — Lanfranc and 
 Anselm each of whom was zealous in propagating the 
 doctrine and discipline of Rome ^ in England. They 
 gladly availed themselves of the opportunity, which now 
 presented itself, through the overture of the Danes, for 
 the introduction of Romish influence into Ireland. In 
 defiance of those ancient Laws ° of the Church Universal 
 
 Dublin, the first of Waterford, and one of Limerick, that ever owned 
 consecration and obedience to the see of Canterbury." 
 
 •■' UssHEE, Antiq. a.d. mcxt. " Hujusque omnes Episcopi Ecclesiae 
 Menevensis Archiepiscopali dignitate usi fuisse dicuutur, excepto Pallio, 
 et Episcopos Wallia; tanquam suffraganeos consecravisse, nulla penitus 
 alii EcclesieB facta professione vel suhjectione. Henricus I. Anglo- 
 rum Rex subacta Wallia Bernardum priraum Normannorum Epis- 
 copum constituit, qui licet CantuariiE consecrationeui susceperit, jura 
 taraen Ecdesi.-c sua publice protestatus est." 
 
 Lanfranc, born at Pavia in a.d. 1005, was Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury from A.D. 1070—1093. Anselm, born at Aosta in 1033, from A.D, 
 1093—1114. 
 
 5 Archdeacon Chueton, Early English Church, p. 284. "Lan- 
 franc began the attempt which was afterwards repeated by Anselm, of 
 enforcing single life on the Clergy. This was done in compliance with 
 Pope Hildebrand, who had issued his commands that all priests should 
 quit their livings or their wives. Lanfranc was also the first teacher in 
 this country who maintained the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The 
 kings of the countries in western Europe had enjoyed the right of 
 Investiture till Gregory VII. claimed it ; but his decree had no efiiect on 
 England till Anselm obtained the right for Pope Pascal II., after a long 
 contest with Henry I." 
 
 ' Especially those of the Council of Ephesus, Concil. General, iii. 
 p. 802, Labb., which forbid a Bishop to consecrate Bishops in another 
 country, where a Church already exists. 
 
92 TJie Chiirch History of Ireland. 
 
 which regulate the exercise of Episcopal functions^ these 
 English Prelates did not hesitate to consecrate Bishops ^ 
 for the three cities of Ireland just mentioned, Dublin, 
 Limerick, and Waterford. Thus Canterbury did the 
 work of Rome. By means of England, a schism was 
 introduced, and by her instrumentality, a footing was 
 first gained for Rome in Ireland, and these three Irish 
 cities became like Roman fortresses in that country. 
 
 IV. Rome was not slow to profit by this advantage. 
 She stigmatized the Irish Nation as barbarous, and the 
 Church of Ireland as schismatical and heretical, in order 
 that she might interfere with their affairs upon the plea 
 of civilizing and reforming them. At the close of the 
 eleventh century, Gregory VII., Hildebrand (a.d. 1085), 
 had invited the Prelates of Ireland to look to Rome'. 
 One of the Bishops of one of these three cities, who was 
 an intimate friend of Anselm', had distinguished him- 
 
 1 Lanfeanc, Ep. 232 (ed. Venefc. 1745), on the consecration of 
 Patrick, Bishop of Dublin, he calls King Gothrick of Dublin, " pretio- 
 sum Homanae Eeclesia; filium." 
 
 » Gregokt VII. (Hildebrand) "inclyto Regi Hiberniffi, Archiepis- 
 copis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Proceribus, omnibusque Christianis Hiber- 
 niam habitantibus," contains a claim to universal temporal dominion, 
 and exhorts them,—" si qua negotia penes vos emerserint, qua; nostro 
 digna videantur auxilio, incunctanter ad nos dirigere studete " (a.d. 
 1085), but he does not intimate a'hy habitual communion or connexion 
 of Ireland with Rome. See Usshee, Sylloge xxix. p. 76. 
 
 ' S. Anselm, Ep. p. 417, ed. Paris, 1721. Gilleberto Lunnicensi 
 Episcopo. " Quouiam dim nos apud Rothomagum invicera cognovimus, 
 dilectione sociati sumus. . . . Satagite in ilia gente (Hibernica) quan- 
 tum in vobis est corrigere et extirpare, et bonos mores plantare." See 
 ibid. p. 447. 
 
 Anselm exhorts the Banish Bishops of Ireland to refer to him — " si 
 quando aliquid, quod ad sacram religionem pertineat, inter vos ortum sit 
 quod per vos canonice nequeat definiri," Ussheb, Syll. xxxiii. Another 
 
Invasion of Hemy II. 
 
 93 
 
 self in Ireland by his activity in behalf of Rome This 
 was Gillebert^ Bishop of Limerick. The Eoman Pontiff 
 nominated him his Legate in L-eland. 
 
 Here we see the source of the River. Here the Papal 
 influence begins to raise its head. This was at the 
 commencement of the twelfth century (a.d. 1106). 
 Christianity had flourished in Ireland for more than six 
 hundred years : but no Papal Legate had ever been seen 
 in Ireland till that day ^ 
 
 V. The stream soon began to flow more boldly. 
 Ireland had hitherto supposed that she had possessed 
 lawful Archbishops for several centuries. But, if the 
 modern doctrine of Rome be true, this was not the case. 
 The ecclesiastical vestment, called the Pallium, is now 
 regarded by Rome as essential to the archiepiscopal 
 ofiice, and she declares that no Archbishop is compe- 
 tent to perform even episcopal functions before he has 
 received this vestment from Rome ^. Therefore, accord- 
 ing to her present principles and practice, the Arch- 
 bishops of ancient Ireland were not rightful Arch- 
 proof that no such thing existed in Ireland, as appeals to Rome at that 
 time. See above, pp. 43 — 47. 
 
 ' GiLLEBEET, Bishop of Limerick (a.d. 1090), writing in the inte- 
 rest of Rome, " ad Episcopos HibernLne," in the prologue to his book 
 " De Usu Ecclesiastico," exhorts thep to adopt the Roman oflSce, " ut 
 diversi et schismatici illi ordines, quibus Bibernia peni tola delusa est, 
 uni Catholico et Romano cedant oflBcio." See Ussher, Syll. ,xxx. Cf. 
 ibid. 78—87. This letter contains some interesting particulars concern- 
 ing the ritual of that period. 
 
 " S. Beenaed, Vita Mai. § 10. " Gillebertum aiunt prima functum 
 legatione Apostolicae sedis per universam Hiberniam." 
 
 3 See Pontificale Romanum, p. 86. ed. Rom. 1818. "Antequam 
 obtinuerit quis Pallium, licet sit consecratus, . . . non licet ei ecclesias 
 dedicare nec clericos ordinare." 
 
94 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 bishopS; and Ireland had never possessed an Archbisliop 
 till the middle of the twelfth century (a.d. 1151). For 
 they whom Ireland had regarded as Archbishops np to 
 that time were without the Pallium Then — and not 
 till then — did Ireland receive a Pallium from Rome*. 
 
 4 S. Beenaedus, Vita Malachiaj (Bernard. Opera, torn. ii. p. 1464. 
 ed. Ben. Paris, 1839. Obit S. Malachias, a.d. 1148). " Metropolitica; 
 sedi deerat adbuc, et defuerat ah initio, Pallii usus." § 15. And again, 
 § 30, "segre satis ferebat Malacbias Hiberniam usque pallio caruisse." 
 
 * Yet the Romanist Bishop, Dr. Milnee (in liis work entitled " End 
 of Controversy," p. 19, ed. Dublin, 1830) does not hesitate to say, " that 
 St. Patrick received from Pope Hilarius the Pallium and the title of 
 Pope's Legate in a.d. 462," and he refers to Usshee as his authority ! 
 .... Usshee thus writes, Antiq. p. 452, " De legati, quo Patricius 
 functus fuerit, officio et Pallio hue advecto, posteriorum fides baud 
 parum labat et vacillat ;" and again, Usshee, Antiq. a.d. mcxxx. 
 Gillebertus Lunnicencis sive Limiricensis Episcopus primus Romani 
 Pontificis legatus in Hibernia, pp. 452. 475. Cp. Rogee Hoteden, 
 A.D. MCLI. " Ab Eugenio III. Pontifice per legatum suum Joannem 
 Papironem quatuor Pallia transmissa sunt in Hiberniam, quo nunquam 
 antea Pallium delatum fuerat," pp. 449. 452. 500. 
 
 And again, Usshee, Rel. Anc. Irish, c. viii. " Master Campion 
 telleth us, that ' when Ireland first received Christendom, they gave 
 themselves unto the jurisdiction both spiritual and temporal of the See 
 of Rome ' (Edm. Campion, Hist, of Ireland, lib. ii. c. 2). But herein he 
 speaketh of the spiritual jurisdiction untruly, of the temporal absurdly. 
 For, from the first legation of Palladius and Patricius, who were sent to 
 'plant the faith in this country, it cannot he showed out of any monument 
 of antiquity that the Bishop of Rome did ever send any of his Legates 
 to exercise spiritual jurisdiction here (much less any of his deputies to 
 exercise jurisdiction temporal) before Gillebertus : ' quem aiunt prima 
 functum legatione Apostolica; sedis per universam Hiberniam,' saith one 
 that lived in his own time, even Bernard himself, in his Life of Mala- 
 chias " (c. 8). 
 
 Again, Usshee, Eel. Anc. Irish, c. viii. " We read of sundry Arch- 
 bishops that have been iu this land betwixt the days of St. Patrick and 
 of Malachias. What one of them can be named that ever sought for a 
 pall from Rome ?" 
 
 Yet, though wantuig the Pall, the Irish Primates were regarded as 
 rightful Archbishops, even by the See of Rome ; thus Hildebrand him- 
 self, A.D. 1085, addresses his letters "Regi Hiberniae, Arehiepiscopis, 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 95 
 
 In order to attach the leading- Prelates of Ireland to her 
 interest, she then sent one of her Cardinals with four 
 Palls, to the four sees of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and 
 Tuam'. 
 
 The Pallium, which was a badge of dignity, attractive 
 to human ambition, was accompanied by the require- 
 ment of a solemn Oath of Obedience^ to the Roman 
 
 Episcopis . . . oninibiisque Christianis Hlberniam habitantibus." See 
 Usshee's S^'lloge, No. xxix. 
 
 Such are the assertions of UssHEE ; and it may be added that his- 
 torical investigations subsequent to his time, have led to the conclusion 
 that St. Patrick was not sent by Rome even " to plant the faith ;" and 
 this is allowed by some of the most learned Komanists. See above, p. 
 16. 
 
 s Grace Jacobi Annales Hibernite (circ. a.d. 1537), edited by the Rev. 
 R. Butler, Dublin, 1842 (compare the Annals at end of Camden's 
 Ireland, from a MS. at Naworth ; and see Bp. Nicolson's Historical 
 Library-, p. 15). 
 
 A.D. 1148, p. 8. "Johannes Papiron Cardinalis ab Eugenio Papa 
 missus, cum Christiano Episcopo Lismoriensi, totius HibernifB legato, in 
 Hiberniam venit." The four Masters, and Ussher and O'Conor, place 
 Papiron's arrival in a.d. 1151. 
 
 A.D. 1152. " Christianus idem in Mell Concilium celebravit, cui 
 intcrfuerunt Episcopi, Reges, duces, et majores natu veteres Hiberniaj, 
 quorum consensu 4 Archiepiscopatus constituti sunt, Armachanus, Dubli- 
 nensis, Cassellensis, et Tuanensis, quibus prasfuerunt eo tempore Gelasius, 
 Gregorius, Donatus, et Eolanus (jEdanus)," who received the Falls. 
 
 The Editor here observes, p. 9, " The Annals of Cluainednach, quoted 
 by Keating, p. 276, and by O'Conor, place this Synod at Kelts. . . . 
 Tlie names of the Bishops who attended this Synod are printed by 
 Dr. O'Conor, from a MS. of Flannan McEogau, in the British Museum. 
 Proleg. p. cli.K. 
 
 Ibid. a.d. 1174. "Gelasius Archiepiscopus Armachanus primus 
 Hibernia; primas, moritur. Kic primus pallio usus est : alii euim ante 
 eum solo nomine Episcopi et Primatis vocabantur in honorem S. 
 [Patricli] tanquam ejus apostoli, quibus obediverunt non modo [eccle- 
 siae] homines, verum etiam ipsi principes :" cf. S. Beenaed, Vit. Mai. c. 
 10, and Archn. Cotton's Fasti Hibernia;, i. 5, and iii. 11. and Bp. 
 Mant's History i. p. 4—8. 
 
 7 TwTSDEN (Sir R.), Vindication, cb. iii. p. 60, on the Pallium, or 
 Pall. " In the eleventh century the Pall was esteemed a badge or 
 
96 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 See. This Oath was to be taken by all who received 
 the Pallium. And then, when the four principal pre- 
 lates of Ireland were induced to place on their shoulders 
 the Koman Pallium, and to take the oath of vassalage, 
 it mig-ht be foretold, that Ireland herself would soon 
 bow beneath the yoke, and be clad in the livery of 
 Rome. 
 
 VI. It remained for others to complete the work 
 of subjugation. 
 
 Henry II., King of England * , no sooner ascended the 
 throne, which he did in the middle of the twelfth century, 
 than, stimulated by ambition, he aimed at the conquest 
 of Ireland. Perceiving that Rome had already gained 
 some influence in that country, he resorted to the 
 Roman Pontiff for aid and encouragement in this enter- 
 prise. Perhaps there was another temptation. The 
 Papal Chair was then occupied — as it never before had 
 been, nor has been ever since— by a native of England'. 
 
 livery, bestowed on such as independently did desire to live under the 
 Church of Rome ; not that it did .idd aught to the Episcopal function, 
 or as if they were less perfect Archbishops whilst they were destitute of 
 that plentitude." To omit that gain came by the garment [for the 
 Pallium was sometimes sold by Rome for vast sums of money, equal to 
 30,000/. : see Twysden], " about a.d. 1102 a new Oath, de fidelitate et 
 canonica obedientia [to the Pope], was devised to be tendered to every 
 Archbishop at the reception of it." And this Oath, made more stringent 
 in A.D. 1191, is now taken, and is imposed on all Uomish Bishops ; 
 see Pontificale Romanum, p. 84. 
 
 s Crowned 19th Dec, 1154.: died 6th July, 1189. 
 
 ' Archdeacon Churton, Early Engl. Church, p. 345, " Adrian IV., 
 Nicholas Breakspeare, the only Englishman who ever became Pope, was 
 the son of a married priest, who lived at Langley, near St. Alban's." 
 Hadrian filled the papal chair from the 3rd Dec. 1154 to 1st Sept. 
 1159. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 97 
 
 The English Pope, Hadrian IV., readily listened to the 
 request of the English King. He dictated a Bull, in 
 which, relying, as it appears on a grant purporting to 
 have been made by the Emperor Constantine the Great, 
 — but which is now confessed to be a forgery, — he 
 affirms that all Islands', which have been converted to 
 
 ' JoANN£S Saeisburiexsis, the fi-ieud of Hadrian IV., Metalog. lib. 
 iv. cap. ult., thus speaks : " Ad preces meas illustri Regi Anglorum Papa 
 Adrianus IVtus concessit et dedit Hiherniam jure ha;reditario possiden- 
 dam, sicut litcrse ejus testantur in hodiernum diom. Nam oiiiues insiilce 
 de jure anticjuo ex donatione Constantini dtcuntur ad Romanam Eccle- 
 siam pertinere ; annulum quoque per me transmisit aureum smaragdo 
 Optimo decoratum, quo fieret investitura juris in rcgenda Hibornia :" cf. 
 GlKALD. Cambr. in Hibern. Expug. ii. R, and Matth. Westmon. ad a.d. 
 1155, who confirms this statement. The pretended instrument of Con- 
 stantine, conveying a grant of all islands to the Eonian See, may be 
 seen in Ussheb, Rel. Anc. Irish, ch. xi. p. Ul. " It is universally 
 allowed to be spurious." See Gieseler, Eccl. Hist., Second Division, 
 chap. i. note 15. 
 
 Joannes Saeisbtteiensis (afterwards Bishop of Chartres), was the 
 person employed by Henry to read this bull and that of Alexander pub- 
 licly many years afterwards, at Waterford. See Gieald. Cambe. Hib. 
 Exp. ii. 6. 
 
 2 Hadrian IV. ad Henricum II. Anglorum Rcgem, a.d. 1155. (See 
 this Bull in Girald. Cambr. de lust. Princ. ii. 19. Hibern. Expug. p. 
 787. FoEDUN, Scoti-Chrou. xii. 33. Bullar. Rom. ii. p. 351. Labbe, 
 Concil. X. 1143. Rymer's Foedera, i. 19.) " Sane Hiberniam et oinnes 
 Insulas q-uibus Sol JustUicB Christus illuxit, et quae documenta fidei 
 Christianoe ceperunt, ad jus beati Petri et Sacrosanctffi Romanse 
 Ecclosiaj {quod Tua eiiam NubilUas recognoscit) nan est dubium 
 pertinere." 
 
 It would appear, then, that, according to the Papal theory. Islands, 
 while heathen, do not belong to Rome, but become fiefs of the Papacy, 
 and their sovereigns become vassals of the Pope, by their conversion to 
 Christianity— contrary to the true doctrine as expressed by the Irish 
 poet Scdulius, in a hymn sung by the Church of Rome herself : — 
 " Herodes hostis impie, 
 Christum venire quid times ? 
 Non eripit terrestria 
 Qui regna dot coeleslia." 
 
 (Sedul. in Hym. de Vita Christi.) 
 
98 The ChiLrch Histo7'y of Ireland. 
 
 Christianity, belong to the See of Rome. He states 
 that this right is recognized by the King himself, and 
 he asserts it as the gronnd of his own act in giving 
 Ireland to Henry. 
 
 Butj let us observe, while he gave Ireland away on 
 this plea to the King of England, he indirectly claimed 
 England for himself. By giving away Ireland as a 
 Christian Island, and by inducing the King of England 
 to receive it as tributary to the Papacy on this ground 
 he led him, unconsciously, to acknowledge that Eng- 
 land itself also, as a Christian Island, was held in fee 
 from Rome. Thus the King of England, eager for his 
 own aggrandizement, resorted for aid to the Papacy ; by 
 which he was overreached. Thus he prepared the way 
 for bringing his own crown and kingdom into vassalage 
 to the See of Rome. The staff of Egypt on which he 
 leaned was a broken reed, which went into his hand and 
 pierced it 
 
 The movement against Ireland originated with England and Henry II. 
 
 Significasti nobis " (says Hadrian), " te Hiberniai insulam, ad subden- 
 dum ilium populum legibus, et vitiorum plantaria inde extirpanda, velle 
 intrare, et de singulis doniibus annuam uuius denarii beato Petro velle 
 solvere ponsionem." See also Matt}i. Paris, ad a.d. 1155. Hadrian 
 thus proceeds ; " Nos itaque pium tuum et laudabile desiderium cum 
 favore congruo prosequeutes gratum et acceptum habemus, . . . . nt 
 insulam illam inffrediaris, . . . . et illius terra; populus honorificfe 
 te recipiat, et sicut dominum veneretur :" cf. Matih. Westmon. ad a.d. 
 1155, " Ilex Anglorum Henricus nuncios solennes Romam mittens roc/a- 
 vit Papam Adrianum adliuc novum, cujus gratiam obtinere speravit 
 utpote Anglum, ut liceret ei Hiberniam hostiliter intrare, et earn sibi 
 subdere, et homines illos bestiales ad fidem Cliristi decentius revocare, 
 Hcclesiceque Romanm fidelius inclinare; quod Papa Regi gratanter 
 annuit." 
 
 ^ He required of the King, that if he subdued Ireland, he should take 
 care that a tax should be paid on every house in it to the Papal see. 
 ■* Isa. xxxvi. 6. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 99 
 
 Therij if there had been a Prophet iu England, he 
 might have taken up the words of Isaiah, — 
 
 Woe to the rebellions children, saith the Lord, that take 
 counsel, hut not of Me ; that cover, hid not with a covering 
 of My Spirit. 
 
 Woe to them that walk to go down into Egypt, and have 
 not ashed at Mg mouth ; to strengthen themselves in the 
 strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. 
 
 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh he yoiir shame, 
 and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 
 
 It deserves to be recorded to the honour of the king's 
 mother, the Empress Maude, that, for reasons which 
 may well be conjectured, she dissuaded her son Henry 
 from availing himself of this Papal grant. And for 
 many years it remained inoperative \ In the mean 
 time Henry became embroiled with that zealous advo- 
 cate of the Papacy, Thomas Becket, whom he had 
 imagined to be devoted to himself, and whom he had 
 advanced as such. But he was not made wise by 
 experience, and was blinded by ambition. An event 
 occurred which revived Henry's desire for the conquest 
 of Ireland. An Irish Prince, driven from his dominions 
 
 * It was confirmed to Henry by a bull of Hadrian's successor, 
 Alexander III., who was elected on tlie 7th Sept., 1159, and died Aug. 
 30th, 1181. " Concessionem Adriani Papte super Hibernici regni dominio 
 vobis indulto, salva beato Petro et Sacrosanctaj Romaure EcclesiEe sicut 
 in Anglia, sic et in Hiberuia de singulis doiuibus annua unius denarii 
 pensione, ratam liabeinus et confirniamus, quatenus eliiiiiuafis terrce 
 illius spurcitiis larhara natio, quae Christiano censetur nomine, vestra 
 indulgcntia morum induat venustatem et redacta in formam hactenus 
 informi finium eorum Ecclesia, gens ea per vos Cbristianaj professionis 
 nomen cum effectu de cetero consequatur." See Usshee, Syllog. xlvii. 
 Three other bulls of Alexander, on the same subject, will be mentioned 
 below. See p. 117. 
 
 H 2 
 
loo The CImrch History of I Iceland. 
 
 for tyranny and adultery, resorted to Henry for aid. 
 The King of England received him, and promised to 
 reinstate him in his throne, and sent some of his nobles ^ 
 to Ireland with a military force for that purpose. They 
 restored the fugitive', and gained so much wealth and 
 fame for themselves by their prowess, that they excited 
 the jealousy of Henry. His mother was now dead^. 
 Becket had just been murdered. The king, whose 
 honour had been tarnished in his struggles with that 
 Prelate, was eager to retrieve his credit by some bold 
 feats of arms, and by some accessions to his dominions. 
 In the autumn' of the year 1171, he passed over to 
 
 ^ Especially Richard de Clerc, Earl of Pembroke and also of Strigal 
 and Chepstow, called " Comes Ricardus " and " Strongbow." 
 
 Waee's Antiq. p. 60. " Dermod Mac Murrough, who was called 
 Ni-gall, i.e. a friend or champion of the English, because in aid of him 
 the English in the reign of Henry 11. invaded Ireland. . . . Oall was 
 the common Irish name for a foreigner." Ibid. p. 61. 
 
 Camden's Ireland, p. 970. " Henry II., King of England, seeing 
 the difference among the petty kings of Ireland, took this opportunity, 
 and in the year a.d. 1155 moved the conquest of Ireland to his Barons. 
 . . . However, by advice of his mother Maud, the Empress, this design 
 was put off. Not many years after, DermiciHS, the son of Murchard, 
 Dermic Mac Morrog, who governed the east of Ireland, in Latin 
 Lagenia, commonly Leinster, for his tyranny and extravagant lusts 
 (for he had ravished the wife of O'Rorke, petty king of Meath), was 
 driven from his counti-y, and obtained aid from King Henry. He 
 made this contract also with Richard, Earl of Pembroke, suruamed 
 Slronglow, that if he would assist him, he would give him his daughter 
 to wife. . . . The Earl forthwith raised a good army, and not only re- 
 stored Dermicius, but made such progress in the conquest of Ireland, 
 that the King began to grow jealous, so that he required the said Earl 
 to return from Ireland. Hereupon the Earl made over to the King all 
 that he had in Ireland. After this, King Henry the Second raised an 
 army, and sailed to Ireland in the year 1171, and obtained the Sove- 
 reignty of that Island." 
 
 s She died a.d. 1167. 
 17th Oct., 1171. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 lOI 
 
 Ii'eland with a large army; and landed n6ar Water- 
 ford'. Ireland was then divided into five separate 
 principalities^ which were distracted by rancorous rival- 
 ries and intestine feuds. The Chieftains of these small 
 Kingdoms were exhausted by international conflicts, and 
 perceived that there was little prospect of peace among 
 themselves, except from the intervention of some supe- 
 rior power. Hence, when Henry appeared in Ireland, 
 they promptly submitted to him 
 
 The Hierarchy and Clergy of Ireland had been op- 
 pressed by their princes and nobles, who had seized the 
 revenues of their Churches, and had invaded some of the 
 Episcopal sees, and other Ecclesiastical dignities and 
 benefices. The secular Power had tyrannized over the 
 spiritual; and the spiritual Power was estranged from 
 the secular. It looked elsewhere for aid. Thus it 
 ever is. Oppression produces disaffection. Sacrilege 
 
 ' Beomton, Io. Chron. p. 1070. ad a.d. 1171. "Eodem anno 
 Hibornia, quoo nunquam prius externce subjacuit ditioni, sequent! modo 
 subdita est regis Anglise potestati." . . The historian then recounts 
 the appeal of "quidam regum terrse" to England— the invasion of 
 " Comes Ricardus " (Strongbow) exciting the envy of Henry — and the 
 King's arrival in person, " xvi Kal. Nov. circa horam diei nonara in loco 
 qui dicitur Croch, qui a Waterfordia octo milliai'ia distat." 
 
 - GuLiEiM. Netjbeig. ii. c. 26. "Hibernia nunquam externsD sub- 
 jacuit ditioni usque ad a.d. 1171 : qui fuit Regis Henrici II. octavus 
 decimus. . . . Quomodo autem Hibernici, incidendo in potestatem Regis 
 Anglorum, longam et nunquam a siBculo interruptam finicrint libertatem 
 expositu facile est. . . . Hibernia in plura se regna conscindens, et con- 
 sucta Reges habere pluriraos, iis plerumque discrcpantibus discerpebatur 
 et propriis visceribus in mutuam cfedem ruentibus eviscerabatur. . . . 
 Rex Anglorum Reges Hibernia3 adventu ejus pavefactos sine sanguine 
 snhjufiaxnt." See also, ibid. iii. c. 9. 
 
 WALSiNonAM, T. Hypodeigma Neustria?, p. 447, on the subjection of 
 the Irish Chiefs, "ut in virtute regis pax fieret in diebus suis, cum patres 
 SUDS mutu6 csedibus interfectos saspissime doluissent." 
 
I02 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 engenders superstition. An Erastian policy has often 
 smoothed the way for Hildebrandine domination. 
 
 It would be an error to suppose that the evils which 
 were now breaking in upon Ireland, were not brought 
 upon her by any sins of her own. God does not so rule 
 the world. As we have already seen, she had neglected 
 those rules for the evangelization and pacification of her 
 people which were prescribed by the great Head of the 
 Church. Discord, Bloodshed, and Sacrilege were the 
 sins of her Nobles. Her Pastors were not faithful and 
 vigilant. They had left their first love^. One heinous 
 sin they publicly confessed. A Synod was convened, 
 in which it was proposed as a question for delibera- 
 tion, Why had it pleased God to afflict Ireland, and to 
 bring her into bondage to English strangers? It was 
 declared, in reply, by the Council, that these calamities 
 had fallen upon her as a chastisement for her iniquities 
 in encouraging the Slave Trade, especially by the pur- 
 chase of Slaves stolen from England *. This traffic had 
 been carried on for many years. St. Patrick himself, in 
 his youth (as we have seen), had been kidnapped and 
 sold into Ireland as a slave, probably from Britain. It 
 was a righteous retribution of Divine Pro\adenee that 
 they who had enslaved others shoidd be reduced 
 to slavery, and that they should be enslaved by 
 that Nation whose children they had bought as 
 slaves. 
 
 3 Eev. ii. 4. 
 
 See the Acts of the Council of Waterford, a.d. 1158. Labb. Con- 
 cil. X. p. 1183, and those of the Council of Armagh, a.d. 1171. Ibid. p. 
 1452, and Girald. Cambr. Hib. Exp. i. 18. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. loj 
 VII. But to return. 
 
 The Princes and Prelates of Ireland submitted to 
 Henry without a struggle. They did him homage, took 
 oaths of fealty to him, and tendered indentures of sub- 
 jectionj sealed with their own seals \ Having received 
 
 5 Roger Hoveddn, ad a.d. 1171. "Venerunt ad Eegem Angliaa 
 (Henricum II.) omues Arcliiepiscopi, Episcopi, Abbates totius Hiberniaj 
 et receperunt cum in Kcgeiii et Dominum Hiberniao, jurantcs ei et 
 hseredibus fidelitatem et regnandi super eos potestatem in perpetuum. 
 Excmpio autem clericorum prsedicti Reges et Principes Hibernia; 
 receperunt simili modo Hcnric\nn Regcm Angliae in Dominum et Regem 
 Hiberniso, et homines sui devenerunt, et ei et lia;redibus fidelitatem 
 juravcrunt contra omnes homines." Compare the account of Roger 
 Wendover and Matth. Paris, a.d. 1171. 
 
 See also Rad. de Dicet. a.d. 1172, p. 511. " Rex intravit Hibcrniam 
 XTI Kal. Novembris. Lismoronsis Episcopus et Apostolica; scdis lega- 
 tus, Archicpiscopi et Episcopi recepurunt eum in regem et in dominum 
 et fidelitatem ci juravcrunt Rogulus de Limelie, Regulus do Chore, 
 Regulus ille qui dicebatur Monoeulus, fecerunt ei homagium. Rodericus 
 autem Regulus de Connat supersedit occurrere. Rex facicns paccm 
 cum Hiberniensibus transfretavit in Angliam et statim qua festinatioue 
 potuit transvectus est in Normanniam. Ibid. p. 559. Hibernienses sub 
 edicto vocati convenerunt ad Regem rogantes qua! ad pacem sunt. Et 
 quoniam inter eos publica potestas constitnta non fucrat, qua) metu 
 poenarum impunitatem minime repromitteret, cum patres suos mutuis 
 csedibus interfectos saepissime doluissent, ut in virtute regis pax fieret 
 in diebus suis, ei et in eum jus suum transtulerunt et potestatem. 
 Archiepiscopi, et Episcopi plebis sibi commissse plurimum et in plurimis 
 attendentes errorem, scd in his maxime quae circa matrinionium a 
 majoribus definita noscuntur, quae Anglia reccpit et observat se 
 firmiter amplexuros et inviolabiliter executuros promittunt. Et ut in 
 singulis observatio similis i-egnum colligaret utrumque, passim omnes 
 unanimi voluntate, commnni assensu, pari desiderio regis impei'io se 
 suljicittnt." 
 
 See also Bkomton, Io. Chron. p. 1070. "Venerunt ad Regem 
 (Henricum) omnes alii reges pra-ter regem Cognacta;, et se ipsos ei 
 subjicientes illius homines devenerunt. Prajterea venerunt ad eum 
 omnes Archiepiscopi et Upiscopi Hibernia; et eum in Regem suscepc- 
 runt. Et recepit ab unoquoque literas cum sigillis suis regnum Hiber- 
 niae sibi et han-edibus suis confirmautes. Sunt autem in Hibernia 
 Archiepiscopi iv qui xxix suffraganeos sub se habent." 
 
I04 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 these acts of obedieneCj lie summoned a Council ^ in the 
 city of Cashel, at which it was decreed, that from that 
 time forth the Church of Ireland should be conformed 
 to that of England. Thus, both temporally and spiri- 
 tually, Ireland became subject to England, and, — 
 through England, — to Rome. 
 
 The facility with which this conquest was achieved 
 
 s Bromton, Io. Cliron. p. 1071. " Rex misit Nicholaum capdlanum 
 suiim et Eadulplium nrcliicliacomun de Landaf clericum suum, qui cum 
 Archicpiscopis et Episc()])is Hibornia; apud Cassellensem civitatem, 
 volente Papa, niagnuin Concilium cclcbrarcnt ;" which the annalist 
 describes. It does not appear that the king was present at the Council. 
 
 Labbe, Conoil. X. p. 1453. "Coneiliuni ( 'usslliense in Hibernia habi- 
 tum A.D. 1172, prassidente Christiano Lismoricusi Episcopo et Romanse 
 sedis legato." The acts of this Council are transcribed from Roger 
 Hoveden, Pt. ii.; and Girald. Cambr. Hib. Exp. c. 33. 
 
 " i. Ut fiant legitima matrinionia nec inter cognates et affincs. 
 
 " ii. Ut infantes catcchi/i ntur, et in sacro fonte iu ipsis baptismalibus 
 ecclesiis baptizentur (' sub triiia uiersione a saccrdotibus,' adds Roger de 
 Hoveden). 
 
 " iii. Quod universi fideles Christi deciraas animalium, frugum, caete- 
 rarumque proventionura ecclesia; cujus fuerint parochiani, persolvaut. 
 
 " iv. Ut terriB ecclesiasticEe ab omni sa;cularium exactione sint im- 
 munes. 
 
 " V. Ut quando aliqui componunt pro homicidio, clerici, licet cognati, 
 nihil persolvant. 
 
 " vi. Ut omnes faciant testamentum. 
 
 " vii. Ut extrema officia mortuis reddantur. 
 
 " viii. TJt divina ojpcia rUu Anglicano fiant. 
 
 " Octavo itaque omnia Divina ad instar sacrosanctiE Ecclesiae, juxta 
 quod Anglicana observat Ecclesia, in omnibus partibus Ecclesite araodo 
 tractcntur. 
 
 " Dignum enim et justissimum est ut, sicut Dominum Regem ex 
 Anglia sortita est divinitus Hibernia, sic etiam exinde vivendi formam 
 accipiat meliorem." 
 
 " Ipsi namque Regi Magnifico tarn Ecclesiam quam Regnum Hibernia 
 debet, quicquid de bono paeis et incremento religiouis hactenus est 
 assecuta. Nam anie ipsius adventum in Hiberniam, multimoda malorum 
 genera a multis retro temporibus emerserunt, qua; ipsius potentia et 
 munore in desuetudinem abiere." 
 
 No mention is made of the Pope. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 105 
 
 has sometimes been regarded with surprise. By some 
 it has been ascribed to the influence of the Papacy in 
 Ireland^ and to the effect of the Bull of Hadrian IV. 
 But this notion appears to be erroneous. For reasons 
 which have been already specified^ the Princes and 
 Prelates of Ireland looked for tranquillity and order 
 from the power of the Conqueror'. They regarded 
 Henry as a Pacificator. There is no evidence that the 
 Papal rescript was even read at the Council of Cashel. 
 It is not mentioned in its Acts^. And it must be 
 remembered that at the time when Henry landed in 
 Ireland, and when the Princes and Prelates of Ireland 
 made submission to him, he was under the ban of a 
 Papal anathema for the murder of one whom Eome 
 regarded as a Saint and a Martyr, and who in the 
 following year was canonized by her as such, Thomas of 
 Canterbury. They acknowledged Henry as their Liege 
 when he was denounced as a rebel by Rome. It was 
 not therefore in consecptence of the Papal influence in 
 Ireland, but may we not rather say, it was in defiance 
 of that authority that he was received there as its 
 Lord'? 
 
 7 GiRAiD. Cambe. Hibern. Expugnata, i. c. 34. "Anglorum rex 
 Sibernice triumphator insulam acquisivit." 
 
 8 Labb. Concil. x. p. 1453. 
 
 ' Some annalists affirm that Henry, when thus under the displeasure 
 of Eome, was invited to Ireland in order to deliver it from the oppres- 
 sion of Strongbovv and his soldiery. See Geetasii Chron. p. 1420 
 (ap. Twysden, Script, x.) : " Reges et incote terras irritati crebris 
 insultibus eos (sc. Ricardum comitem suosque) propellere gestierunt 
 . . . . et legatos miserunt ad Regem Anglia; ut in Hiberniam veniret 
 eosque contra importuuitatem Ricardi comitis succurreret." The an- 
 nalist then describes the submission of the Irish Princes and Hierarchy 
 to Henry ; " cum prim6 fuit in Hibernia post martyrium Sti T/iomes," 
 p. 1421. 
 
io6 TJic Church History of Ireland. 
 
 VIII. The imagination might here rejoice in portray- 
 ing a picture of the happy results, which would then 
 have been effected by England, if she had duly appre- 
 ciated the blessings of true religion. Her sovereign was 
 now recognized as sovereign of Ireland. If, then, he 
 and his adherents, instead of looking to Rome, had 
 looked to God — if, instead of leaning on her, they had 
 relied on Him — if they had asked counsel at the mouth 
 of the Lord, and had covered with a covering of His Spirit 
 — if they had endeavoured to revive and to maintain 
 the primitive independence and scriptural purity of the 
 ancient Irish Church, how much glory would they have 
 gained, how much misery and ignominy would have 
 been averted from England and Ireland, how much 
 blood would never have been spilt, how many wars and 
 assassinations, massacres and rebellions, sieges and con- 
 flagrations, would never have taken place, how many 
 blessings spiritual and temporal would have been poured 
 down from heaven upon them, and how blessed would 
 England and Ireland now be, bound by the sacred ties of 
 the same holy faith, and dwelling together in unity 
 
 IX. But England chose a different course. She was 
 under the influence of a mysterious fascination. She was 
 spellbound by Rome. 
 
 Soon after his return from the conquest of Ireland, 
 Henry repaired to France ^ in order to meet the Papal 
 ' Ps. cxxxiii. 1. 
 
 2 Leland's History, i. p. 86. " Henry embarked at Wexford on the 
 feast of Easter, 1172, where it was the first care of this prince, who lay 
 under the displeasure of the Church, to march on foot to the cathedral 
 of St. David, and there perform his devotions. Hence he proceeded 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 legates, and to clear himself from a charge of having 
 been accessory to the murder of Becket. He promised 
 to do penance, and received absolution from them ^. 
 The event appears to show that he had an ulterior object 
 in view. No sooner was he reconciled to the Papacy, 
 than he obtained from the Pontiff Alexander III., to 
 whom he had communicated the deeds of submission 
 sealed by the Irish Hierarchy'', three Bulls ^ One of 
 these Papal rescripts was addressed to Henry himself, 
 congratulating him on the conquest of Ireland, and 
 exhorting him to extend the power of the Papacy, and, 
 even if it possessed no rights in Ireland, to confer them 
 upon it. Thus Rome avowed her own doubts concerning 
 her own claims. A second of these Briefs is to the 
 Princes of Ireland, commending them for having ac- 
 knowledged Henry as their King, and exhorting them 
 
 to meet the cardinals in Normandj'. Tlieir first requisitions were 
 so haughty and exorbitant tliat Henry broke up the assembly, de- 
 claring he would return to Ireland and leave them to execute their 
 legantine commission as they might (E. Hoveden). This spirited 
 answer produced another congress and another treaty on terms less 
 unreasonable. And when the articles of accommodation were adjusted, 
 the king's submission accepted, and his absolution pronounced (Bromton, 
 p 1081), Pope Alexander consented to seal this reconciliation by con- 
 firming the grant of Ireland made by Hadrian." 
 
 The " Carta Absolutionis " (which is in Rymer's Fccdera, i. p. 27, 
 and Hoveden, 529) recites that Henry is to pay a fine, to go on a 
 crusade, and to allow freely appeals to Rome iu ecclesiastical causes. 
 See GiRALD. Cambb. i. c. 36, on the Absolution of Henry, and Matth. 
 Pabis, ad A.D. 1172. 
 
 RoGEB HoTEDElf says, "Rex Anglia? misit transcriptum chartarum 
 (of submission) universorum Arcliiepiscoporum et Episcoporum Hiberniae 
 ad Alexandrum Papam et ipse confirmavit illi et heredibus suis regnum 
 Hibernia;." 
 
 ' See the most important portions of the originals of those three Bulls, 
 in the Note A below, p. 117. 
 
io8 The CIuLrch History of Ireland. 
 
 to remember their oaths of allegiance, and to be dutiful 
 subjects to him. The third is directed to the Papal 
 legate and four Archbishops of Ireland, and enjoins 
 them to make a suitable return for the promises of 
 Henry, and for the regard he had shown to their inte- 
 rests, and to support his authority in Ireland by inflict- 
 ing ecclesiastical censures on all who disobey him. 
 
 The King, by his submission to the Papacy, procured 
 these missives from Alexander III., and he sent to 
 Ireland another brief obtained from the same Pontiff, 
 which he commanded to be recited at a national council 
 at Waterford, together with the Bull of Hadrian IV. ^, 
 dictated twenty years before, and claiming all Christian 
 islands for the Papacy, and authorizing Henry to subdue 
 Ireland, and to hold it as feudatory from Rome. 
 
 Then, indeed, if a Prophet had been present, when the 
 Bull of Hadrian was read by the royal command in a 
 Synod of Ireland, he might have exclaimed, — 
 
 6 GiEALDUS Cambeensis (in his Hibern. Expug. c. 6) speaks of 
 Hadrian IV. as reigning Pontiff at the date of the Synod of Cashel, 
 1172. " Literis in Synodo Cassiliensi per industriam qusesitis, directis 
 ad curiam Romanam nuntiis, ab Adriano Papa de Anglia oriundo tunc 
 pra?sidente privilegium impetravit, ejusdem auctoritate et assensu Hi- 
 bernico populo doininandi." Tliis oversight probably arose from the 
 fact that Hadrian's Bull, obtained by Henry in 1155, was not published 
 till 1172. 
 
 The facts are stated more correctly by the same author, Gieaid. 
 Cambe., in his work De Inst. Princ. ii. 19. " In Hiberniam privilegio 
 trausmisso, eonvocata apud Guaterfordiam Episcoporum Synodo, in 
 publica audientia cum universitatis assensu solemnis recitatio facta fuit, 
 neencn et alterius privilegii per eosdem transraissi, quod idem rex Hen- 
 ricus ab Adriano Papa Alexandri praedecessove antea perquisierat." The 
 Author there inserts the brief of Alexander, mentioned above p. 99, 
 note 5; but expresses a suspicion that this brief is a forgery. Dr. 
 Hanmee's Chronicle, ad a.d. 1172, says that both Bulls were read at 
 Waterford. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 Woe to them that go down into Egypt, to strengthen 
 themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the 
 shadow of Egypt. 
 
 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh he your shame, 
 and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your conf usion. 
 
 This was soon signally verified. Henry had not put 
 his trust in God^ Whose minister he was; he had, for 
 his own aggrandizement, made himself the vassal of 
 Rome, and he was first chastised in his own family. 
 To quote his own mournftil exclamation, — " I am com- 
 pelled to conceive mortal hatred against my own flesh 
 and blood. My friends have departed from me, and 
 those of my household seek my life ." His sons, stirred 
 by ambition, rebelled against him. And Avhat was his 
 resource ? He was like the unhappy Saul, forsaken by 
 God Whom he disobeyed, and resorting to a familiar 
 spirit^. He who had forfeited his dignity as a King 
 by appealing to Rome for aid, next acknowledged his 
 helplessness as a Father, by imploring the Roman 
 Pontiff to excommunicate his own children ! 
 
 X. Yet more : — A few years passed away. Henry, 
 broken in spirit, and imprecating maledictions on his 
 own unnatural offspring, breathed his last, and was 
 
 ■ See bis letter to Pope Alexauder III., inscribed "Rex Angliaj 
 querens de rebellioue Heurici rcliquorumque filiorum contra se, auxi- 
 lium PapjE iinplorat," iu Rtjieb's Foitlera, i. p. 29, and in Bibl. Patr. 
 Maxima, vol. xxiv. p. 1048. This letter to tlie Pope was written a.d. 
 1173, tbe next year after tbe conquest of Ireland. See also Matth. 
 Paeis, ad A.D. 1173. In it tbe King uses tbe following bumiliatiug 
 words; " Vestra; jurisdictionis est regnum Auglias ; et quantum ad feu - 
 datarii juris obligationem, vobis diintaxat obuoxius teneor." 
 
 * 1 Sam. x.xviii. 1. 
 
I lo The CImrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 gatliered to the dust in a foreign land. In ten years 
 after his death, his youngest son, John, came to the 
 throne. The Bishop of Rome, in giving Ireland to 
 Henry, had claimed all Christian islands as his own, and 
 Henry had received Ireland on these terms He had 
 imagined that he could employ the Papacy as his own 
 instrument for aggrandizing himself. He had gone 
 down to Egypt for help, and had trusted in the shadow 
 of Pharaoh. He had commanded the Papal brief to be 
 publicly read as his own patent of Royalty. 
 
 And now came the day of retribution. In Henry, 
 the father, the King of England had received Ireland 
 from the Pope. In John, the son, the King of England 
 knelt before a Papal legate, and received England as a 
 fief of Rome \ 
 
 Woe unto them that go down into Egypt, and strengthen 
 themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and trust in the 
 shadow of Egypt. 
 
 ^ R. DE HOVEDEN, p. 654. 
 
 1 The form of resignation may be seen in the " Carta Regis loannis 
 per quain Reguum ot Coronam Angliae " (" et totum Regnum HiberuiiB ") 
 "luuoccntio III. Papx> resiguat, atque liomagium et fidelitatem facit 
 coram domino Pandulplio diacono suo." Rtmer, i. p. 111. Also, in 
 it be promises to pay, besides Pctnr-pence, 1000 marks annually (700 
 for England, 300 for Ireland) to tbe Roman See. 
 
 This was A.D. 1213. At the same time the Papal legate says, in 
 another instrument (ibid. p. 112), called " certificatio absolutionis," that 
 the King " Augliam et Hiberniam sanctaj matri Ecclesiae Romanoe sub- 
 jugavit," " et terras suas Papre dedit ad tenendum eas de domino Papa," 
 and is therefore restored to tbe communion of Rome. See also Bulla 
 Innocentii III. A.d. 1213, p. 117, in which the Pope takes the King 
 under his protection, and permits him to hold his kingdoms as a fief 
 from Rome, " nos personam tuam sub nostra protectione suscipimus, 
 tibi snpradicta regua concedeutes in feudum." Innocent III. was Pope 
 from 9th Jan., 1198, to 17th July, 1216. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, 
 and the trust in the shadoto of Egypt your confusion. 
 
 The Barons of England obtained Magna Charta from 
 King John. 
 
 It is sometimes alleged by adherents of Rome that the 
 Barons of England were Romanists, and that therefore 
 we owe Magna Charta to Rome 
 
 But what is the fact ? 
 
 After the submission made by King John to the 
 Papal legate, the Pope, Innocent III., claimed Eng- 
 land, as well as Ireland, as his own'. The King had 
 bound himself by an oath to the Barons that he would 
 observe Magna Charta. But the Pope absolved him 
 from that oath. 
 
 To. cite the Pope's own words, in a Bull still extant, 
 " We utterly reprobate and condemn this compact, and 
 we forbid the King to observe it under pain of ana- 
 thema \" 
 
 Rome condemned Magna Charta ; she absolved the 
 King from his oath to keep it ; she interdicted him 
 from observing it. And yet it is said by some, that 
 England owes Magna Charta to Rome ! 
 
 Here then, also, we see, that the strength of Pharaoh 
 is our shame, and the shadow of Egypt our confusion. 
 
 2 Mr. C. Butlee's Book of the R. C. Church, p. 168. 
 
 3 Innocent. III. Bulk (ap. Rymer, i. p. 135) "Rex Anglise regnum 
 suum tarn Angliso quam Hiberuiaa beato Petro et Ecclesiao Romanse con- 
 cessit, recipiens illud a nobis in feudum sub annuo censu mille marcarum, 
 fidelitatis nobis iude prtestito juramento." 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. 136. " Cotnpositionem ejusmodi reprobamus penitus et 
 damnamus, sub interminatione anatheniatis prohibentes ne dictus Rex 
 earn observare priEsumat, aut barones cum complicibus suis ipsam exi- 
 gant observari." a.d. 1215. 
 
112 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 XI. Let us now pause, and recapitulate briefly wliat 
 has been said. 
 
 At the present day, Rome exercises great influence in 
 Ireland. But from the heginnhig it was not so ^. We 
 have seen from evidence adduced in previous Discourses, 
 that Chi'istianity, in a pure Apostolic form, was planted 
 in Ireland early in the fifth century ; and that for many 
 centuries afterwards the Church of Ireland was free ; 
 and that it resisted all encroachments on its Christian 
 liberty. We have seen, that during that period, the 
 Church of Ireland was one of the brightest luminaries ° 
 of western Christendom ; that Ireland was then illus- 
 trious for piety and sanctity ; that it was the seat of 
 literature and learning, and flourished in prosperity and 
 peace. We have also seen that she evangelized Scotland 
 and England by her devoted and intrepid missionaries. 
 We have seen that her independence was first undermined 
 by the influence of England yielding to the solicitations 
 of the Danish invaders of Ireland, and that England 
 introduced a rival Episcopate in schismatical ojiposition 
 to the native Episcopate of Ireland. We have seen how 
 
 5 Matt. xix. 8. 
 
 6 See above, p. 65, and cp. Schoell. tie Eecles. Brit, et Scot. p. 78. 
 " Medio VI s(Eculo diluccscit (liistoria Hibern. Ecclos.) Columba euiin 
 A.D. 565 Diarmai'cbense coenobium (Dnrroffh) condidit. Hinc igitur 
 incepit cBtas secunda a med. Tl— ix med. saicul. qua Scotorum 
 Ecclesia floruit ut neque Britannica nnquam, iieque alia tunc tis- 
 quam terramm." 
 
 UssHEE, Epist. Syll. Praif., shows that ancient Ireland was the Scliool 
 of Europe. " De Sulgeno, qui sub annum 1070 episcopus Meneveuis fuit, 
 ipsius filius Johannes hunc in modum cecinit, 
 
 Hxemplo patrum conmiotus amore legend! 
 Ivit ad Sibernos, sophia niirabile claros, 
 Famosam gentein Scripturis atque magistris." 
 
Ijwasion of Henry II. 113 
 
 that intrusive hierarchy became an instrument in the 
 hands of Rome. We have seen how it opened the door 
 to the first Legate from Rome that ever set foot in 
 Ireland. We have seen that it made a way for the 
 introduction of the Pallium — the covering, not of God's 
 Spirit — the badge of vassalage to Rome. 
 
 We have also seen that in the twelfth century a king 
 of England — not from any love of Rome, but to gratify 
 his own ambition — resorted to Rome for aid against 
 Ireland : and that Rome, assuming a power which she 
 did not possess, gave him Ii-eland ; and thus gained 
 Ireland and England for herself. And so, while the 
 infatuated Monarch vainly imagined that he was using 
 Rome as an instrument for himself, the fact was, that 
 she w^as employing him as her agent in the ignominious 
 and unholy work of riveting the chains of temporal 
 and spiritual bondage on England, and was employing 
 England to make Ireland the serf of Rome. 
 
 Woe nnto them that go down into Egypt, to strengthen 
 themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the 
 shadow of Egypt. 
 
 Therefre shall the strength of Pharaoh he your shame, 
 and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 
 
 So it has been from the twelfth century even to this 
 day. The strength of the Papacy has been, and is, our 
 shame ; and the trust in the shadow of Rome has been 
 our confusion. Especially so in Ireland. There the 
 shadow, in which we have trusted for shelter, has hung 
 over the land like the deadly shade of some dark tree 
 which chills life, and checks vegetation beneath it. 
 Thus we have reaped the fruits of our own acts. A 
 
 I 
 
1 1 4 The C/mrch History of Ireland. 
 
 mysterious example of the power, justice, and severity 
 of God ! 
 
 XII. From these memorable facts it is evident that 
 for a thousand years after Christ the Church of Ireland 
 was free. "We can point to the time and place in which 
 her chains were forged. Our own hands bear witness 
 to the work. England, which had received manifold 
 spiritual benefits from Ireland in the seventh and eighth 
 centuries, was mainly instrumental in bringing her into 
 bondage in the twelfth ; and the present condition of 
 Ireland, especially in spiritual respects, proves that Eng- 
 land has not yet made amends for the wrongs which she 
 inflicted upon her. She owes to the Church of Ireland 
 a debt which has been accumulating for seven hundred 
 years. We then enslaved Ireland, and we ought now to 
 emancipate her. 
 
 By the merciful Providence of God, a spiritual resus- 
 citation seems to be taking place in Ireland, and a 
 glorious opportunity is now afforded us of making repa- 
 ration. Let it not be thrown away. It may be the 
 last. We at this day have far greater responsibilities 
 than those of our forefathers in the twelfth century. 
 They lived in a dark age. They knew not that the 
 islands of Christendom had never been granted by Con- 
 stantine to the Bishop of Rome. They were deceived 
 by a forgery. They had not the Scriptures in their 
 hands. They had not free access to the records of 
 primitive Christianity. But these resources are open to 
 us. We therefore have no excuse, if we imitate them. 
 Let us therefore take heed to ourselves. Let us endea- 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 vour to perform the lioly work of Restitution and Refor- 
 mation, not by the earthquake or the storm of sudden 
 and violent Passion, but by the voice of Truth, and 
 Peace, and Love. In returning and in rest shall ye he 
 saved; in quietness and confidence shall he your strength ' . 
 
 The work of righteousness shall he peace, and the effect 
 of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. 
 
 Let us endeavour to drive away error and supersti- 
 tion, not by discordant opinions and various psalms and 
 doctrines^, but by the true Faith, and a holy worship. 
 Let us have the armour of the Scriptures, the standard 
 of the Creeds, and the divine strength of the Sacra- 
 ments. Having renounced for ever the infatuated policy 
 — born in a disastrous hour — of endeavouring to rule 
 Ireland by Rome, let us endeavour rather to reform 
 Rome by means of Ireland, and to revive Ireland by 
 means of herself. Let us point to her spiritual Ances- 
 try, her pristine piety, her former glory, her ancient 
 prosperity. Though the Lord hath given her the hread 
 of adversity, and the tvater of affliction, her eyes shall 
 see her Teachers — her genuine ancient Teachers, her true 
 Saints and Confessors — and she shall hear a word hehind 
 her, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. And she shall 
 cast away her molten images and say unto them,. Get ye 
 hence ^. Let us show her the fair image of her former 
 self. Antiquam exquirite Matrem. Let us inspire her 
 with zeal and love for what she was, when she was free. 
 Let us engage her imagination in behalf of pure Reli- 
 gion, and let us enlist her best sympathies, and noblest 
 
 ' Isa. XXX. 15 ; xxxii. 17. ^ 1 Cor. xiv. 26. 
 
 9 Isa. XXX. 20, 21 j xxxl. 7. 
 I 2 
 
1 1 6 The CImrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 aspirations, and tenderest aiFeetions, in the cause of a 
 sound Faith. Let us awaken the voice of Antiquity. 
 The beloved and time-honoured names of St. Patrick 
 and St. Columba, St. Columbanus and St. Aidan, have 
 been too often permitted by us to be pressed into the ser- 
 vice of error ; let them be watchwords of Truth. Those 
 names have been made too often the ministers of spiri- 
 tual bondage ; let them be champions of spiritual liberty, 
 and heralds of an evangelic jubilee, and preach the 
 acceptable year of the Lord\ Let us excite the Ireland 
 of the nineteenth century to emulate the Ireland of the 
 sixth century; and let the England of the nineteenth 
 century now make some amends for the deeds of England 
 in the twelfth century; and England and Ireland will 
 be united in Christ, and be blessed by God. We shall 
 no longer go doion to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, 
 and trust m chariots, and strengthen ourselves in the 
 strength of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt ; 
 but we shall be safe under the shadow of His Wings', 
 Who smote Pharaoh and Egypt with plagues, and over- 
 threw him and his host ^, and brought out His people 
 from Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm 
 and we shall be strong in the strength of Him, Who 
 divided the Red Sea, and rode through the deep upon 
 Sis horses and. chariots of Salvation and TFho maheth 
 the clouds His chariot, and walheth upon the wings of 
 the Wind". 
 
 ' Luke iv. 19. 
 ' Ps. cxxxvi. 15. 
 * Hubak. iii. 8. 15. 
 
 2 Ps. xvii. 8. 
 * Ps. cxxxvi. 12. 
 6 Ps. civ. 3. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 117 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 Extracts from the three contemporaneous Bulls of Pope 
 Alexander III. on the Conquest of Ireland hy Henry II. 
 
 See Etmee's Foedera. The edition of Eymer's Foedera 
 referred to here and elsewhere in this Discourse, is that by 
 Clarke and Holbrooke. Lond. 1816, i. p. 45. 
 
 No. I. to Henry II. " De gente ilia Hibernica, qua, 
 divino timore postposito, Christianse fidei religionem abjicit, 
 .... mirabiliter et magnifiee triumphdsti. Nam ut alias 
 enormitates et vitia, quibus eadem gens, omissa religione 
 Christianse fidei, satis irreverenter deservit, omittamus, sicut 
 venerabiles fratres nostri Christianus Lesmorien. Episcopus, 
 Apostolicse sedis legatus, archiepiscopi et episcopi terrae, suis 
 nobis litteris intimarunt, &c., novercas suas publice intro- 
 ducunt, frater uxore fratris, eo vivente, abutitur, unus duabus 
 se sororibus concubinis immiscet, et oranes passim in quadra- 
 gesima vescuntur carnibus, nec solvunt decimas, nec sacras 
 Dei ecclesias et personas ecclesiasticas, prout debent, aliqua- 
 tenus reverentur. 
 
 " Unde quia .... coadunato tuo navali et terrestri 
 exercitu ad suhjugandam tuo dominio gentem illam, et ad 
 extirpandam tantse ahominationis spurcitiam, tuum animum 
 erexisti, gratum sicut debemus gerimus omnimodis et ac- 
 ceptum. 
 
 " Et quia, sicut tuse magnitudinis excellentia agnoscit, 
 Romana Ecclesia aliud jus habet in insula quam in terra 
 magna et continud, nos earn tuse devotionis spem fiduciamque 
 tenentes, quod jura ipsius ecelesise non solum conservare 
 
1 1 8 T!lc Church History of Ireland. 
 
 velis sed etiam ampliai-e, et uhi jus nullum hahet, id debes 
 sibi conferre, magnificentlam tuam rogamus et solicite com- 
 monemus, ut in prtescripta terra jura beati Petri nobis 
 studeas sollicite eonservare, et, si etiam ibi non hahet, tua 
 magnitude eidem ecclesite eadem jura constituat et assignet, 
 ita quod exinde Regise Celsitudini gratias debeamus exsol- 
 vere copiosas, et tu primitias tuEe gloriae et trimnpld Deo 
 videaris afFerre. 
 
 " Datum Tuscul. xri. Kal. Octobr." 
 
 No. II. " Alexander III. Papa. Bulla ad rages et prin- 
 cipes Hibernise destinata" (Eymer, i. p. 45, same date as 
 preceding). " Ubi communi fama certa relatione nobis inno- 
 tuit, quod vos carissimum in Christo filium nostrum H. 
 Regem Anglise illustrem, in vestrum Eegem et Dominum 
 suscepistis, ut ei fidelitatem jurastis, tanto ampliorem Isetitiara 
 in corde concepimus, quanto per ejusdem Eegis potentiam in 
 terra vestra major pax erit atque tranquillitas, et gens 
 Hibernica, quse per enormitatem et spurcitiam vitiorum adeo 
 videbatur longius rccessisse, divino cultui propensius infor- 
 mabitur, et melius Christianse fidei suscipiet disciplinam. 
 
 " Unde super eo, quod tarn potenti et magnifico llegi et 
 tam devoto Ecclesiw filio, vos voluntate libera subdidistis, 
 providentiam vestram digna laudis commendatione prose- 
 quimur ; monemus itaque et mandamus quatenus fidelitatem, 
 quam tanto Eegi sub juramenti religione fecistis, ei cum 
 debitji subjectione firmam et inconcussam servare curetis." 
 
 No. III. "Alexanbei III. Papse Bulla ad Christianum 
 Lesmoren. Episcopum, apostolicse sedis legatum, et ad Archi- 
 episcopos Hiberniae, et eorum suffraganeos. 
 
 " Quantis vitiorum enormitatibus gens Hibernica sit in- 
 fecta, et quomodo, Dei timore et Christianaj fidei religione 
 postliabita, ea sequatur, quae pericula pariunt animarum, ex 
 vestrarum serie literarum nobis innotuit. 
 
 " Inde est utique, quod nos ex vestris Uteris intelligentes, 
 quod per potentiam carissimi in Christo filii nostri H. 
 
Invasion of Henry II. 
 
 119 
 
 illustris Anglorum Regis, qui gentem illam barbaram et 
 incultam et divincB legis ignaram, suo dominio subjugavit, 
 ea, qujB in terra vestra tam illicite committuntur, incipiunt 
 jam desistere, gaudio gavisi sumus, et Ei, Qui jam dicto 
 Regi tantam victoriam contulit et triumplmm, immensas 
 gratiarum actiones exsolvimus, prece supplici postulantes ut 
 .... gens ilia disciplinata et indomita [ad] cultum divirne 
 legis ineitetur, et vos ac cffiteri eeclesiastiei viri honore et 
 tranquillitate debita gaudeatis. . . . 
 
 "Et si quis Regnm, Principum vel aliorum bominum 
 ipsius terrse contra juramenti debitum et fidelitatem prajdicto 
 Regi exbibitam ausu temerario venire tentaverit, si, ad 
 commonitionem vestram celeriter, sicut debet, non resipuerit, 
 eum auctoritate apostolica freti, omni occasione et excusa- 
 tione postbabita, censura ecclesiastiea percellatis, ita man- 
 datum nostrum diligenter et efficaciter executuri, ut sicut 
 priefatus Rex nos tam in decimis qi(am in aliis ecclesiasticis 
 justitiis vobis restituendis, pie et benigniter dicitur exaudisse, 
 ita etiam vos sibi ea quce ad regiam respiciunt dignitatem 
 conservetis firmiter et quantum in vobis est faciatis ab aliis 
 conservari." 
 
 Dat. Tuscul. XII. Kal. Octobr. 
 
 Concerning the vituperative language in which the Roman 
 Pontiff here speaks of Ireland, and its spiritual condition, see 
 above, p. 92. 
 
 It is observable that Pope Alexander III. does not ascribe 
 the conquest of Ireland to the influence of Hadrian's Bull ; 
 nor does he mention that document in any one of these three 
 Bulls ; but he ascribes that conquest entirely to Henry's 
 arms. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 INTERVAL BETWEEN HENRY II. AND HENRY VIII. 
 
 Matt. vii. 20. 
 
 " By their fruits ye shall Icnow them." 
 
 TN the Gospel for this Day ' our blessed Lord warns 
 His disciples that false Prophets will arise and 
 deceive many^. They will appear, disguised in a garb 
 of sanctity. Beioare, He says, of false Prophets which 
 come to you in sheep's clothivg, bat inwardli/ they are 
 ravening wolves 
 
 But, — it may be said, — if they are masked in this 
 specious attire, how are they to be discerned? Christ 
 supplies the test by which they are to be tried, — Ye 
 shall know them hy their fruits*. 
 
 I. How are we to understand this ? — Do we not some- 
 times find that good deeds are done by evil men ? Have 
 not Charitable Institutions been founded by vicious 
 l^ersons ? Have not Hospitals been erected, and Alms- 
 
 ' This Sermon was preached in Westminster Abbey on the Eighth 
 Sunday after Trinity, August 1, 1852. 
 
 2 Matt. xxiv. 24. » Matt. vii. 15. * Matt. vii. 16. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 121 
 
 houses endowed by some who have led godless lives ? 
 Is it not evident from the annals of the Church, and 
 particularly from those of the Church of Ireland, whose 
 History we are now considering, that Religious Houses 
 (as they are called) have been built by irrehgious men ; 
 that some of them owe their existence to persons who 
 made no scruple of committing robbery, murder, and 
 sacrilege * ? Were they not even built in consequence 
 of those acts, — and as an atonement for them ? And 
 were not religious exercises, such as Fasting, Alms- 
 giving, and Prayer, performed of old with scrupulous 
 punctuality, and superstitious precision, by the Pharisees, 
 whom our Lord denounces as children of the Evil One * ? 
 And does not St. Paul warn us that false Teachers often 
 exhibit a dazzling display of holiness, transforming them- 
 selves into Apostles of Christ ; and no marvel, for Satan 
 himself is transformed into an Angel of LigW 
 
 Hence it is obvious that the fruits, of which our 
 Lord speaks, — bi/ their fruits ye shall know them — cannot 
 be external acts alone. If, indeed, an action is evil, the 
 agent cannot be good. But the converse does not hold. 
 An act, apparently good, may be done by a vicious man ; 
 it may be done for the purpose of palliating his vice, 
 and of rendering it more pernicious. Religious acts may 
 be the sheep's clothing in which the Wolf wraps himself, 
 when he would make havoc ^\-ith the sheep. The fruits 
 therefore indicated by our Blessed Lord, are not so much 
 the acts of the Teacher, as the necessary results of his 
 
 5 See the evidence in Kixg's History, pp. 565—589, and Phelan's 
 Policy, A.p. 1315, p. 53. 
 
 « Matt, xxiii. 14. 7 2 Cor. xi. 12, 15. 
 
12 2 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Teaching. Is the doctrine, which he teaches, a doctrine 
 according to godliness ^ ? Are the fruits, which it brings 
 forth, the peaceable fruits of righteousness '/ Are they 
 the fruits of the Spirit goodness, truth, love, joy, and 
 peace? Does the doctrine tend, by a natural process, 
 to render those who imbibe it, more holy, more devout, 
 more peaceable, more charitable, more sober, more hum- 
 ble ? Does it make them more obedient to Magistrates, 
 Civil and Ecclesiastical, more zealous for the welfare of 
 the Land in which they dwell, and for the peace of the 
 Church ? 
 
 If the doctrine taught produces these results, then 
 they who inculcate it are entitled to respect. Btj their 
 fruits ye shall know them — know them to be true 
 Teachers. But if it does not bring forth these fruits, 
 then, — whatever may be the professions made by the 
 Teacher, however saintly or angelic he may appear in 
 his life and conversation, — he is a false Teacher, a Wolf 
 in sheep^s clothing, and to be shunned as such. 
 
 This, doubtless, is the true meaning ^ of our 
 Saviour's words; and when we consider them in this 
 light, we may derive very salutary instructions from 
 His warning, " By ihevc fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 II. Let us apply this admonition to the subject now 
 before us — the Church History of Ireland. 
 
 We often hear it alleged, that, if Ireland were placed 
 under the influence of the Church of Rome, the discord 
 
 8 1 Tim. vi. 3. 9 Heb. xii. 11. 
 
 » Eph. V. 9. Gal. v. 22. 
 
 2 Cp. Bp. Sandeeson's Sermon on 1 Tim. iii. 6. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 1 23 
 
 which distracts that unhappy Country would cease. 
 They who profess the tenets of Rome do not hesitate 
 to declare, that one thing is needful ; namely, that her 
 religion should be dominant there. Then, they con- 
 fidently predict — a golden age would dawn upon it. 
 They regard the cause of Rome as the cause of Christ ; 
 in their eyes the Church of Rome is the Church of the 
 Living God. Hence, inasmuch as it is confessedly the 
 tendency of Christianity to diffuse blessings, temporal 
 and spiritxial, wherever it is received, and since the 
 Church of Christ is indeed the nurse of Civilization, and 
 the mother of Peace, therefore they unhesitatingly affirm, 
 that if the Church of Rome were allowed free scope for 
 her agency in that country, the evils, which now afflict 
 it, would disappear; a glorious change would follow; a 
 moral regeneration would be effected ; and that Ireland 
 would bloom, as it were, with vernal beauty, and would 
 teem with rich fruits of peace and plenty ; the wilderness 
 and solitary place would he glad, and the desert would 
 rejoice and blossom as the rose 
 
 Such are their anticipations ; and it is not surprising 
 that they who cherish them, should eagerly invite all 
 persons, in the name of Christ and His Church, and on 
 behalf of a suffering Nation, to assist them in uprooting 
 the present Church of Ireland, and in reducing that 
 country under the supremacy of Rome. 
 
 Many who make this appeal, display a fair show of 
 holiness ; many among them abound in almsdeeds, fast- 
 ings, and prayers; and Rome, they say, is the source 
 of sanctity ; and thus they fascinate the eye by 
 ' Isa. XXXV. 1, 
 
1 24 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 their pretensions and hers^ and win favour to her 
 cause. 
 
 III. A very important question therefore is here 
 opened to our view; and the present aspect of our 
 Country, and of Europe at large, renders the considera- 
 tion of this question a matter of great urgency at this 
 critical juncture. 
 
 How shall we deal with it ? 
 
 Happily for the cause of Truth, we need not here 
 resort to abstract speculations. We are enabled to 
 determine the question by reference to historical facts. 
 
 Contemplate the History of the Church in Ireland in 
 former ages. We can point to the time and place in 
 which Eomish domination was planted in Ireland " ; we 
 can show the precise time in which it first budded and 
 sprouted, and put forth tender leaves, and at length 
 bore fruit. No signs of it were visible in Ireland, in 
 the first century after Christ ; no signs of it were visible 
 in the second century ; none in the third ; none in the 
 fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh centuries after Christ; 
 and then Ireland bore fair flowers of learning, and rich 
 fruits of holiness. Then was her summer of Chris- 
 tianity; and Rome had not, then, any stray sprigs of 
 supremacy to show in Ireland. " Evolvant origines 
 JEcclesiarum," — let the advocates of Eome unroll the 
 archives of our Churches. Wherever Rome has power, 
 she sends her Legates. But St. Bernard informs us 
 (and he was a friend of a Pope, and lived in the twelfth 
 
 * For proof of the facts stated in tins aud the next pages, see above 
 pp. 92-96. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 125 
 
 centuiy), that the first Legate sent by her to Ireland 
 was Gillebert, Bishop of Limerick ; and when was 
 that ? Not till the twelfth century after Christ. Again, 
 where Rome has sway, she summons Synods, and directs 
 them ; And what Council of the Church in Ireland was 
 ever summoned and presided over by an Emissary from 
 Rome before the same period? — None. Wliere Rome 
 ruleSj she sends her Palls ; Was any Pall ever worn 
 by an Irish Archbishop before the middle of the twelfth 
 century ? — No. Where Rome sways, she imposes Oaths ; 
 Was any Oath of obedience to Rome taken in Ireland 
 till that time ? — No. Where Rome rules, she canonizes 
 Saints ; Was any Saint, in the Island of Saints — for so 
 Ireland was called even by Rome herself — was any Saint 
 canonized in Ireland ^ by Rome before that time ? — 
 
 5 The following important summary of facts is commended to the 
 attention of the reader (see Kix&'s History, p. 579) : — 
 
 The first persons instrumental in drawing the Church of Ireland 
 under the dominion of Rome were the Danes. 
 
 Their second Archhishop of Dublin, a.d. 1074, was the first Bishop 
 resident in Ireland who acknowledged subjection in spiritual matters to 
 any but an Irish Primate. 
 
 The first assertion of the Pope's supremacy as extending to Ireland 
 was that made by Pope Gregory VII., a.d. 1084. 
 
 The first Eomish legate for Ireland was Gillebert, Bishop of the 
 Danes in Limerick, a.d. 1106. 
 
 first Irish Council at which a Pope's legate presided was that of 
 Rathbreasil, in a.d. 1118. 
 
 The first Episcopal appoinfment in Ireland in which any influence of 
 the Pope can be traced is one made by St. Malnchy as legate, in the 
 nomination of a Bishop for Cork, A.D. 1140. 
 
 The first Saints of the " Island of Saints," who were elevated to the 
 dignity of that name by a Papal sanction, were Malachy and Laurence, 
 who died a.d. 1148 and a.d. 1180. 
 
 The first palls bestowed on any Prelates of the Irish Church were 
 sent over a.d. 1151. 
 
 first Council in Ireland which gave an order for regulating the 
 
126 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 No. In a word, it was not till the close of that centurj^, 
 • — the twelfth, — that the Church of Ireland became sub- 
 ject to Rome ®. 
 
 If, therefore, Ireland prospered before the tenth cen- 
 tury, that prosperity could not be due to Rome. And 
 in former Discourses it has been shown that she 
 prospered in an eminent degree from the sixth to the 
 ninth century. And we confess, also, that her prosperity 
 was due to Religion. And what was that? Not the 
 
 Church ritual or discipline uniformly with tliat Of Rome, as carried into 
 
 practice in England, was the Synod of Cashel, a.d. 1172. 
 
 The first primate of Armagh appointed by a Pope was Eugene Mac 
 
 Gillivider, a.d. 1206. 
 
 ^ The following recapitulation is from Phelan's Policy, p. 47 : — 
 
 A few facts acknowledged by the most learned Roman Catholic 
 
 writers are diseernable amid the darkness which overhangs our early 
 
 history. It appears — 
 
 1. That the Irish Ecclesiastics took no oaths to the Pope (O'Conor, 
 Columbanus, iii. 160). 
 
 2. That they never applied to the See of Rome for bulls of nomina- 
 tion, institution, or exemption (Charles O'Conor, sen.. Dissert, on Irish 
 History, p. 203). 
 
 3. That they never appealed to Rome for the decision of Ecclesiastical 
 causes. 
 
 4. That the Bishop and other prelates of a tribe were appointed by 
 the Chieftain either directly or with the previous form of au election by 
 the priesthood (O'Conor, Columbanus, v. 45). 
 
 .5. That Papal Legates had no jurisdiction in Ireland until the 
 twelfth century ; and tliat after that period their jurisdiction was 
 limited to the English settlements (O'Conor, Hist. Address, i. 10). 
 
 6. That in general the discipline of the Irish Church had so little 
 correspondence with the Roman, that it received several hard names 
 from the papal writers of the twelfth centui-y, e. g. Pope Alexander, 
 Cambrensis, Anselm, Gilbert, and S. Bernard. 
 
 A new order of things was introduced by Henry II., and kept pace 
 with the advance of the .... Papal power. See also Hume, Hist, 
 i. c. 9. Till the twelfth century "the Irish followed the doctrines of 
 their first teachers, and had never acknowledged any subjection to the 
 See of Rome." 
 
From Henry II. to Hemy VIII. 127 
 
 Keligion of Rome, — but the Religion of Christ. The 
 Gospel, — the Gospel pure and undefiled, planted in Ire- 
 land, in earlier days, and watered by the dews of the 
 Holy Spirit, and tended by the pious hands of Priests 
 and Bishops, who won for Ireland that g-lorious title, — 
 the " Island of Saints/' 
 
 Her prosperity was the fruit of the Gospel ; and if 
 she is ever to j)rosper again (which may God in His 
 mercy grant !) she will prosper by means of the Gospel. 
 And in order that this may be so, the Gospel must be 
 emancipated from the trammels which now cheek its 
 growth in Ireland. It must be permitted to put forth 
 to the breath of heaven its leaves which are for the heal- 
 ing of the Nations ^, it must be able to stretch forth its 
 branches unto the sea, and its houghs unto the river ^, so 
 that all may sit beneath its shade. The Word of God 
 must not be withheld from the people of Ireland; the 
 Bible must not be trampled under foot, and cast into 
 the flames by Priests of Rome ; but it must be read and 
 reverenced by all, high and low, rich and poor, young 
 and old, prince and peasant; so that every one, even 
 from a child, may know the Holy Scriptures, which are 
 the things that are able (such is the meaning of St. 
 Paul's words) to maJce us wise unto salvation, through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesris 
 
 IV. Still further. The Church of Ireland, as has 
 been also proved in former Discourses, was independent 
 of Rome in the sixth and seventh centuries; and not 
 only so, but she was then treated by Rome as a schis- 
 
 ' Kev. xxii. 2. » Ps. Ixxx. 11. ' 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
I 28 The CImrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 matical Church ; and then Ireland prospered. If, then, 
 Ireland is to prosper again^ it cannot be necessary that 
 she should be subject to Eome. Rather, to reason from 
 the past, she ought to desire to be severed from her, as 
 long as Rome remains what she is. And, alas ! Rome 
 herself affirms that she is unchanged and unchangeable ; 
 and that, therefore, what she is now, she will never 
 cease to be. Therefore, to judge from the past, the 
 Church of Ireland may not repine (as far as she is 
 herself concerned), even if she be denounced by Rome 
 as guilty of heresy and schism, provided that, while 
 thus denounced, she is careful to maintain the ancient 
 Apostolic discipline, and that pure and primitive Faith, 
 which was once for all delivered to the Saints 
 
 V. This truth may be still more strongly enforced by 
 the following argument : — 
 
 Till the middle of the twelfth century Ireland was 
 independent of Rome ; 
 
 But in the twelfth century she became subject to 
 Rome ; and she remained dej)endent on Rome for three 
 hundred and fifty years in succession, namely, from the 
 end of the twelfth to the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, that is, till the Reformation. 
 
 The exjieriment of Romish ascendancy in Ireland has, 
 therefore, been fully tried ; and if, — as we are now 
 assured by some, — the remedy for the present evils of 
 Ireland is to be sought in Roman domination, then we 
 might expect to find, that, when Ireland was subject to 
 Rome, she enjoyed prosperity and peace. 
 
 . » Jude 3. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII i 29 
 
 But what were the facts of the case ? 
 
 Let us not indulge in theories^ but consult the annals 
 of Ireland during- that period. What do we see there ? 
 
 1. First, we are struck with one great deficiency. 
 
 Before the twelfth century Ireland had been cele- 
 brated for holiness and learning. In the history of 
 Ireland from the fifth to the ninth century we see a 
 bright constellation of Irish names, illustrious for sanc- 
 tity and learning. But after the twelfth century, for 
 more than three centuries in succession, we look for 
 such luminaries in vain^; scarcely a single memorable 
 name can be cited from that period. The sky was 
 dark ; it was an age of gloom. It seems as if the rise 
 of the Papal power had been the signal for a general 
 eclipse — intellectual, literary, and religious. We hear 
 no moi'e of strangers flocking to Ireland to study the 
 Scriptures. Instead of this, we behold a noxious cloud 
 of legendary fables rising up, and darkening the air 
 with a murky exhalation, and veiling the pure light of 
 the .Gospel ; and instead of Scriptural Schools, which 
 had formerly abounded in Ireland we see a large 
 number of Monastic Houses, built with the spoils of 
 violence, and designed as an expiation for sin, and 
 deluding men with the notion that a holy life is not 
 necessary to salvation, and that heaven may be pur- 
 chased by posthumous and vicarious repentance, and 
 leaving few traces of godliness; and we behold the 
 
 2 See Kino's Hist., pp. 596, 597. Phelan, p. 12. 
 
 3 See Sir J. Ware's Antiq. ch. xxxvii. ; on the Ancient Schools .and 
 Universities in Ireland, especially at Armagh (existing till the twelfth 
 century), Clonard (St. Piniau's), near the Boyne in Meath (of the sixth 
 century), at Ross, in Carbery, in the sixth century (St. Fach-nan's). 
 
 K 
 
ijo The Clmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 people sunk in the depths of ignorance^ barbarism^ and 
 superstition. 
 
 By their fruits ye shall know them. Such were some 
 of the results of Roman ascendancy in Ireland. 
 
 In the period to which we are referring^ the Church 
 of Home had the fairest opportunity of benefiting that 
 country. She had free scope for the development of 
 all her energies. The Crown of England^ the Princes, 
 the Prelates^ the People of Ireland had been brought 
 under her sway, and so they remained for three cen- 
 turies and a half. If then the religion of Rome is the 
 religion of Christ, if Roman Supremacy is the Supre- 
 macy of Christ, then how blessed would have been the 
 condition of Ireland at that time ! All Christian graces 
 Avould have flourished there. Peace and Prosperity 
 would have prevailed. Ireland would have been like 
 Paradise. 
 
 But, again we ask, — what was the fact ? 
 
 2. Rome, being supreme in Ireland, sent her Legates 
 thither, but as History shows, those Legates were more 
 eager to amass wealth ■* for themselves and for her 
 
 Labbe, Concil. x. 1739. 
 
 Concil. Dublin, a.d. 1183, aViviano Cardinale, Apostolicse sedis legato, 
 celebratum, qui " cum in eeclesiis barbaricae simplicitatis " (ait Gulielm. 
 Neubrig. lib. iii. c. 9) " agere morem vellei JRomanum, denunciautibus 
 pra;fectis reglis, ut vel abscederet vel secum militaret, auro Hibernico 
 quod muitum siticrat, minus onustus in Scotiam remcavit." 
 
 ^ Acts Irish, 28 Hen. VIII. c. 19, against dispensations purchased 
 from Rome, " pensions, cences, Peter-pence, procurations, Suits for pro- 
 visions and expeditions of Bulls, rescripts in appcales, faculties, &c. &c., 
 by which your subjects, by many years past, have been, and yet be, 
 greatly decayed and impoverished by intolerable exactions of great 
 summes of money taken out of this Realm by the Bishop of Rome." 
 
 Sir J. Davies's Discovery, p. 82, ed. Lond. 1G12. " The Bishop of 
 Rome drew away all the wealth of the Realme by their Provisions and 
 
Fj'om Henry II. to Henry VIII. 1 3 1 
 
 than to diffuse the doctrine or maintain the discipline 
 
 of Christ. Their course* was marked by cruelty and 
 
 infinite exactions, whereby the Kingdom was so impoverished as the 
 King was scarce able to feede his own household and train, much less to 
 nourish armies." 
 
 s See GrLiELir. Neubeig. iii. c. 9, on the duplicity and rapacity of 
 Cardinal Vivian, who excited the men of Ulster to fight against John de 
 Courcy, and gave them his benediction at Down, luid afterwards held a 
 council at Dublin, where he excommunicated tlio»e who took up arms 
 against the King. See Gieald. Cambk. lib. ii. cap. xvii. 
 
 Annals of Melrose, a.d. 1176. " Vivianns Cardiualis, Apostolicae 
 sedis legatus, Scotiam intravit, couculcans et comminuens obvia quseque, 
 e.xpeditus capere, nec impeditus rapere." 
 
 Hanmer's Chronicle, ad a.d. 1177. " The Irish men of Dune 
 (Down) aske couusell of Vivian, the Legate, whether they should fight 
 against Sir John de Courcy (to whom Henry II. had granted all tliat 
 he could conquer with the sword, and who overran Ulster), or yeeld unto 
 the English nation. He gave counsell, forgetting what Adrian 1 and 
 Alexander 3 had formerly granted, and said, 'fiijht for noi'r roi'.-f.y/.* 
 This Legate, craftily preventing all mishaps, took the Clmrrli ni' l>uiie 
 for his sanctuary, and had in readiness the Pope's commission :iud the 
 King of England's Passe unto the Captains of Ireland for safe conduct. 
 From thence he went to Dublin, called the Prelates, held a couusell, and 
 filled his bagges with the Sinnes of the people. In the book of Howth 
 it is further alleged how that this Prelate shewed and published ojienly 
 the King of England's riglit to Ireland with the Pope's grant, and 
 accursed all those that gainsaid the same." 
 
 Hanmee's Chronicle, a.d. 1229. " One Stephen, Chapplen and 
 Nuntio to Pope Gregory, came to King Henry with the Pope's Apos- 
 tolic Mandates, requiring of spirituall and temporal throughout England, 
 Ireland, and Wales, the tenth of all their moveables, to the maintenance 
 of his warres against Fredericko the Emperor. . . . Ireland sent likewise 
 after their money Irish curses, for tiiey were driven at the worst hand 
 to selle their cowes, hackneys, caddoes, and aqua vitae to make present 
 payment, and were driven in that extremetie to pawne and sell their 
 cups, chalices, copes, altar-clothes, and vestments." 
 
 A.D. 1240. Hanmeb's Chronicle, p. 391. " Petrus de Supino 
 came from Pope Gregorie into Ireland with an authentic papall man- 
 date, requiring, under paine of excommunication, the twentieth part 
 of the whole land, besides donations, where he extorted one thousand 
 five hundred markes and above .... ho tliat will reade the story 
 more at large let him repaire to Mattlicw Paris," who calls it an 
 " exactio omnibus sa;culis execrabilis," p. 3L'0, ed. 1GJ4. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 extortion; even the houses of God were sacrilegious!}' 
 stripped to minister to their cupidity ^ They resem- 
 bled those rapacious Praetors of ancient Rome, who pil- 
 laged her Provinces, and plundered their Temples — and 
 yet they professed themselves INIinisters of the Prince of 
 Peace. 
 
 3. The Bishop of Rome claimed the right of Investi- 
 ture ^ in Irelandj and in the period of which we are 
 speaking he often nominated to Episcopal' sees and 
 Ecclesiastical dignities in that country. And how was 
 this Power exercised ? If he had been indeed the suc- 
 
 Hanmee, a.d. 1217, p. 393. "After that Henry the third aud the 
 Clergie of Eughmd aud Irehind found themselves mightily grieved at 
 the Pope's exaction and intolerable extortions in England, Wales, aud 
 Ireland, Inuoccntlus the 1 deviled that instead of a greater summe they 
 should i.nve li'iin ul that time but 11,000 markes. Then Master Johannes 
 Rusus wa;; smit as Legate, yet not clad in scarlet, lest the Pope should 
 oflend the King, who hath this privilege, that no Legate set foote on 
 this laud unless he be licenced; but the said Legate, plying the papall 
 mandate, and his own private gaine, extorted out of Ireland al)out 6000 
 markes." 
 
 A.D. 1270. " About this time the Bishop of Rome sent to Ireland 
 requiring the tithes of all spirituall promotions for three years to 
 come." 
 
 MABLEBrEKorGH's Clironicle of Ireland, ad. 1342. "Clement VI. 
 would bestowe upon his (Cardinals Church livings in England. For 
 which cause the King (Edward III.), about A.D. 1344, disannulled the 
 provisions so made by the Pope, interdicting, upon paine of imprison- 
 ment and death, that none should bring them." 
 
 'i See the evidence in King's Hist. pp. 602, 003. G20. 1053; and Bp. 
 Mant. i. p. 10. 
 
 8 See the Evidence in King, p. 1140-4. 
 
 ' Pope Alexander IV. de electione Abraam archiep. Armachan. a.d. 
 1257. Bull to Henry III. Rtmee, i. p. 367. " Pra;sentata nobis elec- 
 tione archipresbyteri Abraam, qua; a capitulo ecclesiae Armachana- 
 cclebrata extitit, et ea cassata pro eo quod in ipsa formam gene- 
 ralis concilii non invenimus observatam, dictum A. eidem ecclesiae 
 in pastorem praeficimus de nostrce pleniiudine potestatis." See ibid, 
 p. 368. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 133 
 
 cesser of the Apostle to whom Christ said. Feed Mi/ 
 Lambs, Feed My Sheep \ if he had been indeed the Vicar 
 of Him Who is the Good Shepherd, and who came to 
 seek and save what ivas lost ^, if he had been the deputy 
 of Him Who came to preach the Gospel to the Poor^, he 
 would have appointed faithful men to feed the flock of 
 God*, taking the oversight thereof, and being ensamples to it. 
 But how did he act in this matter? In many cases the 
 spiritual dignities of Ireland were lavished on Italians ^, 
 who did not understand the language of the people*, 
 
 ' Jolm xxi. 15 — 17. " John x. M ; Luke xix. 10. 
 
 3 Luke iv. 18. < 1 Pet. v. 1. 
 
 5 Leland, i. p. 232. " The demands of the Roman See in Ireland (in 
 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) were intolerable. The Laity 
 were stripped of tlii ir iiecf ss;iries, the Churches of their ornaments, to 
 supply the rapaciovis (L inaiuls of Legates and Nuncios. King Henry III., 
 however solicitous to secure the favour of Rome, yet sometimes found it 
 necessary to yield to the general clamour, and control them. Legates 
 were refused admission into Ireland. . . . Sometimes attempts were made 
 to overspread the Kingdom vvith Italian Ecclesiastics. The boldest re- 
 monstrances were made by the King against this scandalous abuse of 
 investing proud and luxurious foreigners with the revenues of the Irish 
 Church, who refused to engage in the duties of their function, and to 
 reside in the country which they pillaged by their extortion." The 
 edition of Leland referred to is the 3rd; printed at Dublin, 1774, 
 3 vols. 
 
 The same was the case with regard to England. At the Council of 
 Lyons, A.D. 1245, the benefices of Italians in England were found to 
 amount to the annual value of 60,000 marks : " a sum," says Hume 
 (c. xii. § 34), " which exceeded the revenue of the Crown." Cp. Matth. 
 Paeis, p. 451. 
 
 « Acts or Paeliament. Irish. 36 Hen. VI. c. 1. a.d. 1458. An 
 act that beneficed persons shall keep residence. " Whereas divers per- 
 sons advanced to benefices within the land of Ireland do absent them- 
 selves out of the said laud in other lands." 
 
 Acts or Paeliament. Irish. 7 Ed. IV. c. 2. a.d. 1467. That 
 none shall purchase benefices from Rome. "At the request of the 
 Commons. Whereas of ancient times all maner of Parsons and Vicars 
 having competent benefices did keep hospitality to the honour of God 
 
134 TJie CJmrch Histo7j of Ireland. 
 
 and never visited their cures. In some cases they were 
 given to children '. 
 
 4. Again. Rome professes to be the Centre of Unit}^, 
 and she has tremendous instruments for reducing Nations 
 to obedience. The ]\Iinistry of the Confessional, Excom- 
 munication, Anathemas, and Interdicts — these are the 
 weapons with which she subdues them, and these are 
 more powerful than any arms which were ever wielded 
 by Imperial Rome when she held the world in fee. 
 If the Church of Rome had been identical with the 
 Church of Christ, Who is the Lover of Unitj^, then 
 assuredly she would have joined the Princes, Prelates, 
 and People of Ireland, in a holy bond of Christian 
 concord; she would have united the English and 
 Irish, who professed her doctrines, in a happj^ alliance 
 of brotherly affection. Faction and Rebellion would 
 have been unknown. Peace and Love, and the other 
 fruits of the Sj)irit, would have abounded more and 
 more. 
 
 But what was the case ? 
 
 The whole period of Roman ascendancy in Ireland, — 
 that is to say, the interval between Heniy II. and 
 Henry VIII. — was a period of deadly feuds. The 
 History of these three centuries and a half presents an 
 almost uninterrupted succession of savage rebellions and 
 sanguinary wars. The State was torn by discord, and 
 
 and to the profit of poor people, and now of late divers men of holy 
 Church suing to the Court of Rome have purchased Bulls to have 
 Ahbeys, &c. in commendam, to the final extinguishment of Divine 
 service and Hospitalitie, &c." Tlie act forbids such purchase under 
 penalty, and no pardon from the King to be available. 
 
 7 See Cox, Hist. p. 271; ed. Lund. 1689 ; Leland, ii. 181. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 
 
 135 
 
 the Church was rent asunder by schism. Nominally, 
 there was one Church in Ireland — the Church of Rome. 
 But, in fact, there were two Churches^ in Ireland, 
 though both owned the supremacy of Rome. These 
 were the native Irish Church, and the Anglo-Roman 
 Church : and these regarded one another wdth feelings 
 of mortal hate The native Irish Church ' refused to 
 admit the English to her Ecclesiastical dignities. And 
 in the fourteenth century, the native Irish Princes 
 addressed an indignant remonstrance to Rome, setting 
 forth, in the strongest terms, the evils which they 
 suffered from the Anglo-Roman Church And the 
 Anglo-Roman Church proscribed the Irish •\ And the 
 
 8 Phelan's Policy, p. 64. " It is unquestionable that iu those early 
 times (the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) there were two Churclien 
 in Ireland, the one the Church of the Parliament (and the Pale, and the 
 English), the other the Church of " the Irish Clergy and People." See 
 the evidence of this in the Bull of Pope Innocent YIII. (Feb. 8, 118 J) 
 for the erection of a Collegiate Church at Gahvay, and in the answer 
 made to Wolsey by his agent in Ireland : " The Irish question his 
 Grace's authority in Ireland, especially outside the Pale." — Cox, p. 210. 
 
 ' There are two very important documents for elucidating this fact, 
 and for the illustration of this period generally, viz. — 
 
 1. The Remoksteance of the Irish Magnates to Pope John 
 
 XXII. in 1318, expressing the sentiments of the native Irish 
 Church ; see Appendi.x A. to this Discourse, and 
 
 2. The Statute of Kilkenny, a.d. 1367, embodying the prin- 
 
 ciples of the Anglo-Roman Church. See the Appendix to 
 the present Discourse, B. 
 
 1 Geace, Annales Hibernise, p. 13, with Mr. Butler's note. By a 
 record of 1321 it appears that no person was admitted into the Abbey 
 of Mellifont unless he made oath that he tvas not of English descent. 
 In 1324 King Edward II. complained to the Pope that the Irish re- 
 fused to admit Englishmen into their monasteries. Rymee, ii. j). 554. 
 In 1337 Edward III. ordered that no Irishman should be admitted into 
 any English monastery. 
 
 * See Appendix A. below, p. 149. 
 
 3 See Appendix B. below, p. 152, and Geace, Annales Hibernioe, p. 12, 
 
136 The Chiu'ch History of Ireland. 
 
 Roman Pontiff generally aided the English against the. 
 Irish. He does not appear to have thought that Ireland 
 existed for her own children, 
 
 VI. Here we may observe in passing, that many 
 persons are accustomed to ascribe the civil and religious 
 discord which prevails in Ireland to the Reformation in 
 the sixteenth century, and they seem to think that if 
 the acts of the Reformation were rescinded. Peace would 
 be obtained for Ireland. But these assertions betray 
 an extraordinary ignorance of History. These ani- 
 mosities date from a much earlier period even from the 
 twelfth century, and they raged at that time, and for 
 some centuries in succession after it, with the greatest 
 virulence. 
 
 VII. But to proceed. At the period which we are 
 now describing — from the end of the twelfth to the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, — while Ireland was 
 distracted by the civil and religious warfare of Princes 
 and Prelates, of Race against Race, and Church against 
 Church, two important elements in the social fabric were 
 reduced to a state of bondage ; 
 
 First, the English Crown; 
 Secondly, the Irish People. 
 
 with Mr. Butler's note there, p. 12, on the exclusive spirit of the Anglo- 
 Roman and Irish Churches toward each other, as evinced in records dated 
 A.D. 1321, A D. 1321, A.D. 1366, A.D. 1380. 
 
 ^ Burke's Letter to Sir H. Langrishe, vi. p. 336, ed. Lond. 1826. 
 " The Statutes of Kilkenny show that the spirit of the Popery Laws 
 and some even of their actual provisions, as applied between Englishry 
 and Irishry, had existed in that country before the words Protestant 
 and Pwpist were heard in the world." 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 
 
 137 
 
 1. In the person of Henry II. praying for Bulls of 
 investiture from Popes Hadrian IV. and Alexander III., 
 the Sovereigns of England had unhappily consented to 
 receive the seigniory of Ireland as a boon from the 
 Papacy; and they were even so infatuated as to refer to 
 the Bull of Pope Hadrian IV. as the Charter of their 
 royalties in Ireland. Here was the secret of their weak- 
 ness. The bauble Crown of peacock^s feathers which 
 Pope Innocent III. sent as a gift to King John, was an 
 apt emblem of their sway in Ireland. The English 
 Sovereign was regarded by the Pope as little better than 
 a Roman Procurator for the collection of Peter-pence * 
 in Ireland for the benefit of the Roman see. He was 
 cooped up like a lion in his cage, within the narrow 
 
 " Irish Act, Stat, of 7 Edw. IV. c. 9. " Whereas our holy father 
 Adrian, Pope of Rome, was possessed of all the Seigniory of Ireland in 
 his demesne as of fee in right of his Church of Rome, and to the in- 
 tent that vices should he snhdued and virtue encouraged, he aliened the 
 same land to the King of England for a certain rent to be received in 
 England to hold to the King of England and his heirs for ever; by 
 which grant the Subjects of Ireland owe their obedience to the King 
 of England as their Sovereign Lord, as by the said Bull appears, it 
 is therefore ordered that all Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland shall, 
 upon the monition of forty days, proceed to the excommunication of all 
 disobedient subjects." 
 
 This Irish Act, 7 Edw. IV. a.d. 1467, in which Hadrian's grant is 
 recited as the grant of the claim of the English Crown to Ireland, 
 is to be found printed in part for the first time in Mr. Hardiman's 
 ed. of the Statute of Kilkenny, p. 3. See Leland, ii. 56, and Phelan, 
 p. 74, who observes that " the miserable effort at vigour in this enact- 
 ment only renders more manifest the subjection of the civil power to the 
 hierarchy." 
 
 6 O'SuLLlTAN, Hist. Cath. Hiber. Compend. Ulissip. 1621, 4to, p. 59, 
 expounds the grant of Hadrian IV. to Henry II. to amount to this — 
 that the Pope appointed the King of England his deputy to collect 
 Peter-pence, " prajfectum causa coUigendi tributi Ecclesiastici." 
 
1 38 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 limits of the English Pale in Ireland". And though he 
 sometimes gave vent to his feelings of indignation by 
 Parliamentary Statutes against Papal Bulls, Appeals, 
 and Provisions, yet these fell feebly to the ground, and 
 betrayed the impotence of his rage. It is true that 
 when the English Sovereign was assailed by rebellions 
 raised by Irish Ecclesiastics and Irish Nobles, he was 
 generally aided by the Pope, who threatened to excom- 
 municate the Insurgents But why was this? Because 
 the Crown was weak, and dependent on the Papacy, and 
 because it was expedient for Rome that Ireland should 
 be under a weak Government. The Papacy was strong 
 in Ireland by the weakness of the English Crown. And 
 
 7 Sir J. Daties, p. 121, ed. 1612 : " The English Laws were executed 
 ouly in the English Colonies of Ireland, Leinster, and Munster, i. e. 
 Dublin, Kiklare, Meath, Uriel, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, 
 Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary." " The countries possessed by the Irishry 
 contained two-third parts of the kingdom at least." 
 
 13 Henry VIII. c. ii. "There are only 4 shires where the King's 
 laws are occupied in this land — Dublin, Kildare, Mieth, Uriel, or 
 Lowth." 
 
 Phelan, p. ix. " A level district round the capital containing the 
 small shires of Louth, Meath, Kildai-e, and Dublin, limited the range 
 of English law. The conscious weakness of royalty took refuge in a 
 ludicrous but humiliating fiction. In Court language the land of Ire- 
 land was synonymous with the Pale." 
 
 These statements must bo received with some qualification. See De 
 Concilio Hiberniae, in Miscellany of Irish Arch. Soc. Dublin, 1846, circ. 
 A.D. 1295, and Notes ibid, by llev. R. Butler, p. 25 : " Dm-ing the 
 reigns of Henry III. and Edw. I. tiie English had greater power in Ire- 
 land than in some subsequent centuries, and the King's writ ran through 
 the greater part, if not the whole, of Ireland." Ibid. p. 31 : " The Eng- 
 lish Pale never formed the limit of the English Power in Ireland." 
 
 8 In those days the Pope ruled the People of Ireland by means of the 
 English Crown. 
 
 In the present times he endeavours to rule the English Crown by means 
 of the Irish People. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 
 
 the Pope took care that the Crown of England should 
 not grow strong. Therefore, whenever its power seemed 
 to be increasing °, and it was likely to become inde- 
 pendent, the Roman Pontiff pla^^ed off a foreign Power 
 against it ; or, on the plea of Religion, excited its sub- 
 jects in Ireland to rise up in rebellion against it ' ; or 
 sent the Sovereign of England from home, to wander 
 in the East on a Crusade of vagrant piety in the Holy 
 Land^ 
 
 2. Another slave was the Irish People. At the period 
 to which we are adverting, the English in Ireland were 
 subject to English Laws ; but the Code of Law received 
 among the Irish was what was called the Brehon Code. 
 
 ' Leiand, i. 181- ; ii. 161, AwAfassim. 
 
 ' Hanmee's Chronicle, p. 375, a.d. 121.3. " The French King, hy 
 instigation of Innoceutius III., Bishop of Rome, prepared to invade 
 Ungland. In the same jcare also. King John being mightily dis- 
 tressed through the practices of his Archbishop, &c., and the Barons 
 of his kingdom revolting, was driven to surrender his crowue from 
 his head, and to sul>ject his kingdomes of England and Ireland tribu- 
 tarie to the See of Rome." 
 
 Strictures ou Plowden : Loud. 1804. " From the moment that Eliza- 
 beth ascended the throne, and declared for the Reformation, the grand 
 Irish Popish conspiracy, in. concert with Spain and Rome, was formed 
 against her, which afterwards, when England was threatened with ui- 
 vasion by Fliilip, burst forth into two violent and organized rebellions, 
 which were aided by the zeal of ecclesiastical missionaries from abroad. 
 . . . Don Matthew Oviedo, a Spanish missionary, who brought O'Neil a 
 consecrated plume from the Pope ; Saunders, the English fanatic; Allen, 
 an Irish Priest, sent from Rome; Owen Mc Egan, scut as Apostolic 
 Vicar from Spain; and Owen Mc Owen, another Apostolic Vicar, who 
 (as far as he was able) caused every Irishman who served the Queen, 
 after being confessed and absolved, to be executed." 
 
 2 See BuLLAK. Ron. iv. p. 177. Bull of John XXII., a.d. 1319, 
 requiring the English Bishops to excommunicate all who invade 
 Ireland ; in order that the King may have leisure to go to the Holy 
 Land. 
 
1 40 TJie CJiurch History of Ireland. 
 
 According to this Code^ murder was not punishable by 
 death, but only by fine levied on the relatives of the 
 murderer, and called an Erick. Hence bloodshed was 
 frequent; and no Irishman's life was safe'. The unhappy 
 Irish peasantry, being oppressed by their nobles and 
 prelates, whose tyranny was upheld by the Brehon Code, 
 addressed many piteous appeals for redress to the 
 English Crown, imploring it to grant to Ireland the 
 benefit of English Laws. And the English Sovereigns 
 were desirous of doing so''. Indeed, they" promulgated 
 declarations, enjoining the reception of those laws in 
 Ireland. But the English Crown, though nominally 
 supreme in Ireland, — was not strong enough to concede 
 to the Irish the use of its own laws. It waited on the 
 will of others. The Romish Prelates and Princes of 
 Ireland desired that the People of Ireland should remain 
 serfs, and they resisted the attempt. They thought that 
 their own power would be impaired, if the People of 
 3 See the researches of Leland, i. 223—215. 
 
 * On the different efforfs of Kings of England to give English Laws 
 to Ireland, see the learned Sinmna]\y in Sir John Davies's Discovery, p. 
 100—102, ed. Lend. 1612. 
 
 But these attempts were frnstrated, and the " mere Irish were not 
 only aceompted aliens, but enemies and rebels," p. 102. 108. Ill, 
 " though the Irishry did desire to be admitted to the benefit of the 
 Law " of England. See the evidence of this, ibid. pp. 115 — 118. 
 The observations of Sir John Davies on these points deserve attentive 
 perusal. 
 
 • Henric. III., "justieiario suo Hibernia?, a.d. 1216." Kymee, i. 
 p. 145, " Volumus ut eisdem vos et ceteri fideles Hiberniaj gaudeant 
 libertatibus, quas fidelibus nostris de regno Angliaj concessimus, et 
 illas vobis concedemus et confirmabimus." See also ibid. p. 145, 
 where he lauds the fidelity of Ireland to his father. Edward I., 
 A.D. 1277, states, "Quod leges, quibus utuntur Hibernici, Deo detes- 
 tabiles existunt, et omni juri dissonant." See also Eymeei Foedera, i. 
 p. 540. 
 
From Hairy II. to Henry VIII. 
 
 Ireland were free. They, therefore, thwarted the laud- 
 able designs of the English Crown to impart the benefit 
 of English laws to Ireland, and to abrogate a Code 
 which imperilled the life of man, and outraged the Law 
 of God*. Under its unhappy influence many of the 
 English nobles were Hibernicized — and few of the Irish 
 were Anglicized. 
 
 Here was a glorious occasion for the intervention of 
 Eome. If she had been zealous for the Divine Honour, 
 and for the Divine Law; if she had loved to be the 
 Champion of the weak against the cruelty of the strong ; 
 if she had been animated with a sincere desire for the 
 happiness of Ireland, she would not have permitted her 
 own Prelates to interpose as they did between the People 
 and their Sovereign, and to deprive them of the simplest 
 blessing of civilized society, — protection of life. But 
 no; Rome had, indeed, spiritual censures and spiritual 
 interdicts to fulminate against all who resisted her own 
 power; but in this most righteous cause her thunders 
 slept. She was deaf to the entreaties of the People, and 
 to the just desires of the Crown '. The Romish Prelates 
 of Ireland triumphed * ; the Brehon Code survived. It 
 
 * The poet Spensee iu his View of Ireland, p. 7, says on Brehon 
 Law : " In many things repugning quite hoth to God's Law and Man's, 
 as for example in the case of murder." See also ibid, on Tauistry, p. 
 10; and on the perjury of Jurors, pp. 31 — 36, of the Dublin reprint, 
 1809. 
 
 " Concerning the evils inflicted by the Irish Laws on the Irish 
 peasantry, and the desire of the English Crown to impart English 
 Law to them, and the I'esistance of the Irish Nobles to that desire, 
 see some valuable notices in the Rev. K. Bctlee's edition of " De 
 Coueilio HibemiiE," p. 32 ; and of Geace's " Annals," pp. 83, 84. See 
 also ibid. p. 171. 
 
 » See Lelaxd, i. 223—230. 215—250. 279. 289. 355. Phelan's 
 
142 The Chui'ch History of Ireland. 
 
 remains even to this day. Like the Pestilence that 
 tvalketh in darkness it skulks in the ambush of secret 
 societies. Its baleful shadow broods over Ireland; and 
 beneath its deadly influence the charities of social life 
 are blighted^ and the blessings of Christianity strive 
 in vain to emerge and flourish The Decalogue fades 
 beneath it. Trial by Jury is blighted by it. For what 
 can be expected from witnesses or Jurors, whose eon- 
 sciences are already entangled by the secret spell of 
 another Code which regards bloodshed as expiable by 
 money ? Hence it has come to pass that this unhappy 
 country has been called Aceldama, that is to say, the field 
 of blood ; and so remains unto this day -. 
 
 Such was the state of Ireland, ecclesiastically and 
 civilly, under Roman sway. 
 
 And yet (strange to say) it is now affirmed by some, 
 in defiance of these facts, that Roman sway is necessaiy 
 for Ireland, — in order that she may have peace ! 
 
 Policy, pp. 31—37. "It would seem that in those daj-s the spiritual 
 Lords outnumbered the Lay-Peers :" aud, therefore, as Dr. Phelan 
 observes, " the Prelates might, by a vote, have arrested the progress of 
 centuries of desolation." 
 9 Ps. xci. 6. 
 
 1 Of which a full account may be seen in the " Historical Relation, or 
 a Discovery of the true causes why Ireland was never subdued," by Sir 
 John Datis, Attorney-General in Ireland in the reign of King James I., 
 London, 1612, p. 165—182. 
 
 See also Dymmok's Treatise of Ireland, cire. a.d. 1600 (in Irish Archseol. 
 Soc. Trans. Dublin, ed. Butler, 1842) : " The government of the Irish is 
 meare tyraunicall, as may appeare by their ancient lawes, as Brehon Law, 
 Coyng, Lyvery, &c." (see these explained, ibid. p. 8). " So that the 
 mightiest oppresse the poorest. The mere Irish, degenerate English, 
 aud Scott are groweu into one faction, by reason of the division of the 
 English race, continuing till witliin these few yeares." 
 
 * Matt, xxvii. 8; Acts i. 19. 
 
From Henry 11. to Henry VIII. 143 
 
 YIII. Let us briefly review what has been said. 
 
 For more than a thousand years after Christ Ireland 
 was independent of Rome. And for some centuries of 
 that time, that is, from the sixth to the ninth centuries, 
 Ireland was distinguished by her love of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and by the maintenance of that Faith, which was 
 professed by the primitive Church; and she was called 
 the " Island of Saints." 
 
 By their fruits shall ye knoio them. At that time 
 Ireland prospered. 
 
 Such were the fruits produced by the Gospel in Ire- 
 land, when independent of Rome. 
 
 In the twelfth centuiy she became subject to Rome ; 
 and she remained in subjection to Rome for three hun- 
 dred and fifty years. 
 
 By their fruits shall ye hioio them. Those three 
 centuries and a half are the darkest ' 'period of the 
 
 This is confessed by the Roman Catholic Historian of Ireland, 
 the Eev. M. J. Bee>-a>-, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, Dubl. 1848, p. 62. 
 Describing the condition of Ireland in the fourteenth century, he says : 
 " In giving even an outline of the deplorable condition of Ireland during 
 the administration of Alexander de Bicknor (Archbishop of Dublin) and 
 his predecessors language becomes almost useless. Fraud, mur- 
 der, and rapine were crimes of just as ordinary occurrence as the rising 
 sun. An Irishman had no law, redress, or protection. Property and 
 life became insecure and almost worthless." 
 
 Ibid. p. 105 : " The infamous Statute of Kilkenny (a.d. 1367) may 
 enable us to contemplate the ungenerous, mercenary, domineering spirit 
 
 so strikingly characteristic of this age To exclude a man from a 
 
 benefice merely because he was an Irishman, was much the same as 
 placing the Sword of Persecution on the Altar. Scenes like these 
 were never before witnessed in the Church of Ireland. An impious 
 monopoly of the Christian Sanctuary was a scandal to which the 
 sainted Fathers of the Irish Church had been strangers." 
 
 But where was the Bishop of Rome, that all these things should be, 
 when he was lord paramount in Ireland ? 
 
144 '^^^^ CJmrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 History of the Irisli Churchy and of the Irish 
 Nation. 
 
 IX. Hence we arrive at certain important results — 
 1. We are placed on our guard against the specious 
 allegations of those who would now persuade us that 
 if Ireland is to flourish^ she must be left to the influence 
 and domination of Home. 
 
 But to this we reply. Why speak to us of what 
 might be? All these things that you desire, have heen. 
 We do not ask for ideal dreams of the future ; we know 
 — know too well — the stern realities of the past. Rome, 
 indeed, would beguile us by shows and semblances of 
 sanctity. She has fastings, and praj^ers, and processions, 
 and pilgrimages, litanies, and jubilees, religious houses, 
 and confraternities ; — she comes to us wearing a halo 
 of holiness on her head, and thus dazzles our eyes. But 
 what says Christ? By their fruits ye shall Jcnotv them. 
 By her fruits we have known her. And now we need 
 only say to enthusiastic advocates of Roman domination 
 in Ireland, who would regenerate that country by means 
 of the Papacy, Look back first to the most glorious 
 period of Irish History; and then look back to the 
 gloomiest period of Irish History. Ireland knew nothing 
 of Rome in the first period; she knew much of Rome 
 in the second, and then her gold hecame dim, and the 
 fine gold was changed into dross ^. lioio did the faithful 
 city become an harlot ! it had heen full of judgment ; 
 righteoiisness had lodged in it ; hut now murderers. Her 
 princes tvere rehellious, and companions of thieves: they 
 * Lam. iv. 1. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 145 
 
 judged not the fatherless, neither did the cause of the widow 
 come unto them ^ These were the fruits of Roman 
 ascendancy. Enough of these fruits yet remains to 
 satisfy you ; for the tree still survives. And if it be 
 permitted to strike deeper root, and to stretch its 
 branches more widely, these fruits will abound more; 
 and we know too well from the past what will be the 
 harvest in the future. 
 
 2. Further, it will hence appear, that the Religious 
 Reformation in the sixteenth century, was not (as some 
 would represent it) an act of schismatical innovation. 
 No. The Reformation ought not to be regarded as an 
 isolated event ; it ought never to be considered without 
 reference to the period which preceded it. And when 
 so viewed, the Reformation in Ireland, in the sixteenth 
 century, will be seen to have been extorted by the force 
 of circumstances. It was necessitated by the rigid con- 
 pulsion of three centuries and a half of oppression and 
 violence, perpetrated by the Papacy, which had almost 
 extinguished the light of the Gospel in that country, 
 and had reduced the Irish people to a Nation of bandits 
 and of slaves. 
 
 3. From the past we may infer the future. If Ireland 
 is to be again prosperous, she must be emancipated 
 from the thraldom of that spiritual tyranny, which 
 brought such misery with it, and which still presses 
 heavily upon her, and she must be restored to the 
 glorious liberty of the Ancient Faith, under which she 
 once flourished. 
 
 Thanks bo to Almighty God, she still has the means 
 ' Isa. i. 21. 23. 
 
 L 
 
146 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 of temporal and religious regeneration in the Word 
 and Sacraments of Christy ministered in lier national 
 Church. 
 
 If, indeed, that Church has had justice done her, then, 
 looking at the present condition of Ireland, we might 
 well doubt whether she could be instrumental for such 
 a purpose. But we do not hesitate to say, that since 
 the Twelfth Century, the Church of Ireland has never 
 had free scope for her energies. Many things have 
 embarrassed her. The power of Romanism, withholding 
 the Scriptures from the people, and stirring them up 
 to insurrection, and strong by the weakness of England, 
 — relying upon Rome, and invigorated by foreign aid, 
 and cherished by many from within, acting on the same 
 infatuated Policy which blinded Henry II. — has checked 
 and thwarted the growth of the Irish Church. Puri- 
 tanism—the natural fruit of Popery (for men ever rush 
 from one excess to another) — has sapped her strength, 
 and blighted her beauty. Zeal without knowledge, in 
 some of her most enthusiastic friends, has damaged her 
 no less than the violence of her most inveterate foes. 
 The vastness of her Parishes, the paucity of her Churches 
 and of her Church-Schools, the spoliation of her revenues 
 by those who ought to have defended her ^ — the wounds 
 
 ^ First at the Keformation, and on various subsequent occasions. See 
 Dr. Newland's Letter to Lord Mount-Casliel, pp. 36 — 67. 55. 89. 233. 
 King's Hist. p. 1063-64. " Tliere is at this momeut scarcely an Irish 
 nobleman inheriting an ancient property who does not owe the bulk of 
 it to the lands of the Church." See Past and Present Policy of England 
 towards Ireland, p. 341 : " In 1735 the tithe of agistment, to which the 
 Clergy were entitled by common law and statute, was virtually taken 
 away by vote of the Irish House of Commons." Hence the necessity of 
 Unions of Parishes to provide any thing like a maintenance for the 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 147 
 
 she has received in the house of her friends '; the lack * 
 of Clergy, the inadequacy of endowments, and the sacri- 
 legious abuse of Church-Patronage by the Civil Power, 
 appointing unworthy Pastors to her Chief dignities; 
 the scourge of Famines, Pestilences, and Civil Wars, 
 (chastisements due to National Sins,) desolating the 
 Land, and exhausting her spiritual energies, have re- 
 strained the Irish Church from 1n-inging forth her fruit 
 in due season. 
 
 But, when we consider the circumstances of the case, 
 the marvel is, not that the Church of Ireland has not 
 brought forth more fruit, but that she hath brought 
 forth so much ; and that when so many different voices 
 have been joining in the cry of extermination, " Down, 
 with it, down with it to the ground," the Church still 
 survives. But what she has brought forth, under severe 
 trials, is enough to show what she would bring forth, 
 if justice were done her. And this is clear also from 
 her own constitution. For, examine her doctrines, they 
 are Scriptural; try her form of Church Government, 
 
 Clergy. See Primnte BorLTEs's Letters, ii. p. 183. Again, see Past 
 and Present Policy, p. 341 : " Since 1830 the Tithe Commutation gave 
 the Landlords 25 per cent, of the amount of the tithe. The abolition of 
 Church cess was indirectly beneficial to them. And the power of con- 
 verting ecclesiastical leases into fee simples has turned out so good a 
 bargain for the lessees, that it has been calculated to be worth generally 
 not less than 50 per cent." 
 
 7 Zech. xiii. 6. 
 
 8 The Bishop of Clotxe thus described the state of the Church of 
 Ireland in 1808, p. 50 : " In Ireland there is but one Clergyman to 
 twenty-three square miles." P. 51 : " From the want of Tillage in 
 Munster and Connnught, it has become necessarj' to unite sometimes 
 from five to nine Parishes, in order to furnish even a scanty maintenance 
 for one Minister." 
 
 L 2 
 
148 The ChnrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 it is Apostolical ; test her Liturgy, it is sound and 
 pure ; prove her lineage, it is not foreign but national, 
 not Italian but Irish. She is the Church of St. Patrick 
 and St. Columba ; she is the Church of the Apostles and 
 of Christ. Her fruits, her genuine fruits, are obedience 
 and quietness on earth, and everlasting happiness in 
 heaven. Therefore, let the Church of Ireland be che- 
 rished, and she will be like a tree planted by the water- 
 side, whose leaf shall not wither ; and let us pray to 
 God, with one heart and voice, 0 Lord, look down from 
 heaven, behold and visit fhis vine 
 
 9 Ps. kxx. 11. 
 
From Henry II. to Henry 17II. 149 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The Remonsteance of the Nobles of Ireland to Pope 
 John XXII., A.D. 1318, on the evils of Anglo-Roman in- 
 fluence, civil and ecclesiastical, in Ireland. The original is 
 contained in Foedun's Scoti-Chron. Lib. xii. c. 26. torn, ii., 
 p. 259, Edinb. 1759 : " Scripseruut omnes Reguli Hiberniai 
 domino Paps unam literam pungitivam, tyrannidem et fal- 
 sitatem Anglorum continentem, in hsec verba:" he then 
 inserts the letter. 
 
 It appears from it that the " Reguli Hibernite " knew 
 nothing of any claim to Ireland on the part of Rome ; for 
 they affirm that Ireland had been an independent Kingdom 
 for 3500 years ; and that Pope Hadrian IV. was influenced 
 by his English prepossessions, and gave Ireland illegally to 
 Henry II. " Adrianus Papa (they say) non tantum origine 
 quantum aff'ectione et conditione Anglicm, a.d. 1170 " 
 (there is a slight error in chronology here, see above, pp. 97, 
 98), " ad Jalsam et plenam iniquitate suggestionem Henrici 
 Regis Anglise, dominium Regni nostri contulit indehite, 
 ordine juris omisso omnino ; . . . sicque nos privans honove 
 regio, . . . crudelioribus omnium bestiarum dentibus tra- 
 didit lacerandos." 
 
 " Ab illo tempore quo Anglici occasione collationis praj- 
 dictse sub quddam sanctitatis ac religionis specie, regni 
 nostri fines nequiter intraverunt, totis viribus, omnique per- 
 fidd qua poterant arte, gentem nostram delere penitus et 
 exstirpare radicitus sunt conati. Et per turpes ac fraudu- 
 lentas astutias in tantum conti-a nos priBvaluerunt, quod 
 ejectis nobis de spatiosis habitationibus nostris et hereditate 
 paterna, montana, silvestria, ac paludosa loca, etiam petrarum 
 
150 The CJuLvcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 cavernas petere, et ad iiistar bestiarum in eisdem habitare 
 coegerunt. 
 
 "... TJnde propter hsec et multa similia inter nos et 
 illos implacabiles inimicitice et (/iierrcB perpetuce sunt exortce, 
 ex quibus exortce sunt occisiones mutuce, deprcedationes assi- 
 ducB, rapince continues . . . Pro firma veritate tenem\is, 
 quod occasione prsedictse suggestionis falsse, et donationis 
 inde secxitad, plusqua7n quinq^uaginta millia liominum, prseter 
 consumptos fame et afflictos carcere, gladio cecideruut. 
 
 " Hsec pauca, de generali progenitorum nostrorum origine, 
 et miserahili in quo lloMANUS Pontifex statu nos posuit, 
 sufficiant ista vice." 
 
 Such was the language, in the fourteenth century, of the 
 Roman Catholic Princes of Ireland, writing to a Pope, 
 concerning the then condition of Ireland, and concerning 
 the nature and consequences of Pope Hadrian's act, in pre- 
 tending to give Ireland to an English King. 
 
 This document is so important, and has been so rarely 
 printed in its original form, that the reader will not regret 
 to see a few more extracts from it in this place. 
 
 The change of the Irish character consequent on English 
 intercourse, is thus described : " Populum Hibernicum, quem 
 bonis moribus informare ac legibus subdere promiserant 
 (Anglici) taliter informant, quod sancta et columbina ejus 
 simplicitas ex eorum cohabitatione et exemplo reprobo in 
 serpentinam calhditatem mirabiliter est mutata." 
 
 They then complain of English Legislation and Judi- 
 cature : 
 
 " In curia Eegis Anglise in Hibernia istse leges inviola- 
 biliter observantur, quod omni homini nan Eihernico licet 
 super quacunque indifferenter actione convenire Hibernicum 
 quemcunque, sed Hibernicus quilibet, sive clericus, sive 
 laicus, solis pralatis exceptis, ab omni repellitur actione, 
 eo ipso. 
 
 " Item, sicut plerumque accidere solet, quando aliquis 
 
Fi'om Henry II. to Henry VIII 1 5 1 
 
 Anglicus perficle et dolose interficit hominem Hiberniciim 
 . . . etiam si prcelatiis Sibernicus iuterfectus fuerit, nulla 
 correctio fit in curia, quinimo quanto melior est occisus, et 
 majorem inter suos obtinet locum, tanto plus occidens hono- 
 ratur et priemiatur ab Anglicis, non solum popularibus, sed 
 etiam religiosis et Episcopis AnffUcis." 
 
 Such were the mutual relations of the English and Irish 
 Episcopate, both in communion with Rome, in the four- 
 teenth century. 
 
 And yet we are assured that the Church of Rome, to 
 which they belonged, is the Mother of Unity. 
 
 Let us now see something of Ecclesiastical Legislation at 
 that time (ibid. c. 29). 
 
 " Per commune consilium regis Angliffi, necnon et per 
 quosdam episcopos Anglicos, inter quos principalis exstitit vir 
 parvae prudentiae et nullius scientise, Archiepiscopus Ardma- 
 chanus', quoddam iniquum statutum in civitate^ S. Keynici 
 in Hibernia nuper fuit factum, sub hac informi forma, con- 
 cordatum est quod inhibeatur omnibus rehgiosis, qui maneant 
 in terra pacis inter Anglicos, quod non recipiant in ordine 
 suo nec religione sua (i. e. monastic rule) nisi illos qui sunt 
 de natione Anglorum. Et si aliter fecerint, dominus Rex 
 capiet ad illos, tanquam ad illos qui sunt praecepti sui con- 
 temptores, et eorum fundatores et advocati capient ad eos, 
 sicut ad illos qui sunt inobedientes et contrariantes isti ordi- 
 nationi factse commune per consilium totius terrce Hihernice 
 inter Anglicos.'''' 
 
 Next we may learn something from this document con- 
 cerning the state of morals and doctrine (ibid. c. 30) in Ire- 
 land at that time. 
 
 " Dogmatizant haeretice non solum illorum (Anglicoram) 
 
 ' RolandJorse, Archbishop of Armagb, A.D. 1311. See King's Historj', 
 p. 64&. 
 
 2 Kilkenny. — This act is not to be confounded with the famous 
 "Statute of Kilkenny" made A.D. 1367. But its tendency was the 
 same. 
 
1 52 The CluLTcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 laici et sasculares, sed etiam quidam religiosi illorum, quod 
 non magis est peocatum interficere hominem Hibernicum, 
 quart! unum canem aut quodlibet aliud animal brutum." 
 
 And they add that the English regular Clergy afBrm that 
 the murder of an Irishman does not disqualify them from 
 saying mass after it. Simon de ordine Minorum, 
 
 Conorensis Episcoj^ji frater germanus in hujusmodi prtedica- 
 tionis verba impudenter prorupit : " Quod non est peccatum 
 Hibernicum interficere, et, si ipsemet istud committeret, non 
 minus ob hoc missam celebraret." 
 
 For these, and other reasons, the Irish Princes inform the 
 Pope (John XXII.), that they will no longer obey the 
 English Crown, and that they have chosen Edward Bruce 
 for their King : " Totum jus quod in dicto regno ad nos, 
 tanquam ad ipsius veros hieredes, jjertinere dinoscitur, eidem 
 dedimus et concessimus per literas nostras patentes . . . et 
 ipsum Regem ac dominum nostrum constituimus ac prffife- 
 cimus in regno nostro unanimiter supradicto ;" another proof 
 that the Irish Nobles of the fourteenth century, did not 
 acknowledge that the Eoman Pontiff had any right to exer- 
 cise any temporal sway in that country. 
 
 These Irish Remonstrants gained little by this appeal to 
 the Pope. 
 
 In Rtmeb's Fcedera, vol. ii. p. 321, is a Papal sentence of 
 excommunication to be used by the English King against 
 the Irish who adhere to Bruce ^ 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Kilkenny Statute of a.d. 1367 (due to Anglo-Eoman 
 influence in Ireland, and indicating its principles and practice), 
 
 Geace, Anuales, a.d. 1317, p. 88. Two Cardinals came from Rome 
 " Bullamque tuleruut excommunicatioiiis omnium qui pacem turbarent," 
 i.e. against Bruce and his followers. See also, A.D. 1319, "venerunt 
 bullae ad e.xcomniunicandum Kobertura Brusium." 
 
From Henry II. to Henry VIII. 153 
 
 first printed from the Lambeth MS. by James Habdiman *, 
 M.R.I.A., Dubhn, 1843. 
 
 § xiii. "No Irishman is to be admitted to any Cathedral, 
 Collegiate Church, or Benefice among the English in Ireland. 
 — It is ordained that no Irishman of the nations of the Irish 
 be admitted into any Cathedral or Collegiate Church, by 
 provision, collation, or presentation by any person, or to any 
 benefice of the Holy Church amongst the English of the 
 land, and that if any be admitted, it be held void, and the 
 King shall have the presentation." 
 
 § xiv. " Religious Houses not to receive any Irishmen to 
 their profession, but may receive Englishmen without any 
 consideration," p. 46. 
 
 In p. 47, the Editor, Mr. Hardiman, refers to the Act 2 
 Eich. III., A.D. 1485, reciting that " divers benefices of the 
 diocese of Dublin are situated among the Irish enemies ; 
 and as no Englishman can inhabit the said benefices, and 
 divers English clerks who are enahled to have cure of 
 Souls, are inexpert in the Irish language, and such of them 
 who are expert disdain to inhabit among the Irish people, 
 and others dare not inhabit ... it is enacted that Walter 
 Fitz-Symond, Archbishop of Dublin, for two years do collate 
 Irish clerks to the said benefices, without any impeachment 
 from the King." 
 
 By the last clause of this Statute of Kilkenny, p. 119, it 
 
 " This Statute," says Mr. Hardimax, p. vi, " was an effort on the 
 part of the English Governnieut, and of the Eughsh Pale (see its limits 
 ibid. p. xxviii) to quell the spirit of the Irish lords," p. xiii. It was con- 
 firmed by most of the Parliaments of the Pale in the succpeding century, 
 and even in the 10 Henry VII., see p. xiv. 
 Sir J. Davies's Discoveries, p. 123. 
 
 "By the Statute of Kilkenny, enacted in the 40th year of King 
 Edward III., the Brehon Law was condemned and abolished ; and the 
 use and practice thereof made high treason, but this law extended to 
 the English only (being enacted for the Reformation of the Hibernicized 
 colonists or ' degenerate English ' as thev were called), and not to the 
 Irish." 
 
154 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 is declared that " Our Lord the Duke of Clarence, lieutenant 
 of our lord the King in Ireland, the council of our said lord 
 the King there, the earls, barons, and commons of the land 
 aforesaid, at the present Parliament assembled, have requested 
 the Arclihisliops and Bishops, Abbots, Priors, and other 
 persons of religion, that they do cause to be excommunicated 
 and do excommunicate the pei'sons contravening the statutes 
 and ordinances aforesaid, and the other censures of Holy 
 Church do fulminate against them 
 
 " And we Thomas Archbishop of Dublin, Thomas Arch- 
 bishop of Cashel, John Archbishop of Tuam, Thomas Bishop 
 of Lismore and Waterford, <&c., being present in the same 
 Parliament, at the request of our most worthy Lord the Duke 
 of Clarence, lieutenant of our Lord the King in Ireland, and 
 the lords and commons, do fulminate the sentence of ex- 
 communication against those contravening the Statutes afore- 
 said, and do excommunicate them by this present writing." 
 
 Thus it appears, that, when Rome was dominant in 
 Ireland, the Anglo-Roman prelates of Ireland excommuni- 
 cated those who admitted Irish Ecclesiastics to Benefices 
 among the English colonists in Ireland. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 COMMEXCEMEXT OF THE REFORMATION UNDER 
 KING HENRY YIII. 
 
 And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in exe- 
 cuting that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the house 
 of Ahdb according to all that was in Mine heart, thy children of 
 the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. Sut Jehu 
 took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all 
 his heart : for he departed not from the sins of Jerohoam, which 
 made Israel to sin." 
 
 TIHE sinfulness of man is seen in the perversion of 
 
 good into evil, and tlie goodness of God is manifest 
 
 in overruling evil for good'. Few can say that they 
 
 have done good merely from good motives, and in a 
 
 good manner; and therefore few human actions — o: 
 
 rather none, — however beneficent in their results, car 
 
 bear the searching scrutiny of the all-seeing Eye of God. 
 
 And many actions there are which, by the transmuting 
 
 influence of God^s Wisdom, Power, and Love, have been 
 
 made productive of inestimable benefits, although the 
 
 agents themselves were liable to grave censure, and 
 
 1 S. ArersTiNE, Serm. xv. " Malorum est male uti bonis, Dei bene 
 uti malis." 
 
 2 Kings x. 30, 31. 
 
156 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 would be in peril of heavy retribution, if God were 
 extreme to mark what is done atniss 
 
 The Patriarchs of old are found to have sometimes 
 attained their ends by questionable means, and yet God 
 allowed their acts to stand ^, and to be ministerial to His 
 gracious purjjoses; and, in His compassion for human 
 infirmities. He did not cast them off from His favour. 
 The Israelitish midwives in Egypt deceived Pharaoh by 
 an untruth; and yet, on account of their kindness to 
 the women, at the risk of their own lives, God made 
 them houses Rahab eluded the questions of the King 
 of Jericho by deceit; and yet, on account of her faith 
 and charity, God saved her and her house ^ Not that 
 we are to imagine that He could in any case have 
 approved duplicity or equivocation (Heaven forbid !) ; 
 but in His great long-suffering and commiseration for 
 the weakness and blindness of those who lived under 
 a less pei'fect dispensation, before the Gospel was re- 
 vealed. He was pleased, as it were, to overlook what was 
 marred by human infirmity and corruption, and gra- 
 ciously to accept the gleams and glimpses of good- 
 ness which glimmered in the dark cloud of humanity 
 in those earlier ages, and to illumine them by the 
 
 - Ps. cxxx. 3. 
 
 3 See S. ArGTJSTiN. de Mendacio, c. 7 — 9; and Bp. Sanderson, 
 Praelect. ii. § 19. iii. § 7. 
 
 ^ Exod. i. 21. 5 Josh. vi. 25. 
 
 s What Cicero calls ' siguificationes virtutis.' La;l. c. 14 : " SL qua 
 signijicatio virtutis eluceat ;" aud, De Officiis, i. 15, " Quoniam vivitur 
 non cum pcrfectis hominibus planeque sapientibus, sed cum iis in quibus 
 prseclare agitur, si sunt simulacra virtutis, etiam hoc intelligendum 
 puto, . neminem omnino esse negligendum in quo aliqua signijicatio 
 virtutis appareat." 
 
The Reformat ion wide)' Henry V'lII. 1 5 7 
 
 gracious beams of His mercy, and with the merits of 
 Christ. 
 
 We recognize a remarkable example of this mild and 
 merciful disposition in the language of Holy Scripture 
 concerning a person whose name holds a prominent 
 place in the portion of Scripture read to us this after- 
 noon ' ; Jehu, the son of Nimshi (said God to the 
 Prophet Elijah), shalt thou anoint King of Israel^. In 
 subsequent chapters, we shall hear that in performing 
 his work of Religious Reformation, Jehu was guilty of 
 duplicity and cruelty. And he departed not from the 
 sins of Jeroboam. Yet Almighty God did not alto- 
 gether withhold His approval even from him, and from 
 his acts. Thou hast done well in executing that which 
 was right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of 
 Ahab according to all that was in Mine heart. And 
 therefore God promised a reward— a temporal one — even 
 to Jehu : Thy children of the fourth generation shall sit 
 on the throne of Israel. 
 
 I. Let us now proceed to apply these observations to 
 the subject before us. 
 
 1. They who are not favourably disposed to the 
 Reformed Church of Ireland, are often heard to allege, 
 that it dates its origin from recent times What need 
 
 7 This Sennon was preached in Westminster Abbey on the Nintli 
 Sunday after Trinity, Aug. 8, 1852. 
 > 1 Kings xix. 16. 
 
 ' See, for example, a work entitled "Past and Present Polic}- of 
 England towards Ireland, Lond. 1845," p. 335 ; " the Irish Protestant 
 Church and its History present a melancholy subject of contemplation. 
 Founded in proscription and violence, it has been from first to last the 
 
158 The C/mrc/i History of Ireland. 
 
 have we, — they say, — of any other argument against 
 her ? She is not a divine Institution ; she is a new 
 Church, and therefore she is no Church. She is a mere 
 invention of yesterday. We can point to the time at 
 which she rose into being, and to the person who gave 
 her life. She must take her place among the schis- 
 matical communities which grew up like rank and 
 noxious weeds in the sixteenth century. She was 
 created by the hands of one who sullied his royal name 
 by deeds of tyranny, libertinism, and sacrilege. The 
 Church of Ireland is the creature of Henry VIII. The 
 taint of his evil deeds clings to her ; and such as her 
 origin was, such will her destiny be. 
 3. What shall we say here ? 
 
 We are not of those who derive the Church of Ireland 
 from the sixteenth century. We do not allow that she 
 was founded by Heniy VIII. Nor are we of those who 
 imagine that she was not visible till that time and 
 
 source of an incalculable amount of moral and political evil." 'V^liat 
 follows is unhappily true, and may serve to account for some of the evils 
 which the writer deplores : " The Irish Church has been regarded by 
 (English) Statesmen and Governments rather as a secular and political 
 instrument than a spiritual Institution." 
 
 1" Let me be allowed to submit very respectfully the following 
 important statements of the learned and judicious Kichabd Hookee, 
 to the careful consideration of some Protestant controversialists in 
 Ireland, who appear to admit that the Church of Christ was not visible 
 in Ireland during Papal times, and thus give an occasion of triumph to 
 their Romish opponents, who justly argue that a Church which is not 
 visible is no Church, and that therefore, by conceding that the Church 
 of Christ was not visible in Ireland in the fifteenth century, they have 
 conceded that Henry VIII. set up a new Church (instead of reforming 
 the old), and that therefore the present Church of Ireland is his creation, 
 and is a novel creation, and is no Church at all, and that no one can be 
 guilty of schism in separating from it ; and that the Church of Eome is 
 
The Reformation under Henry VIII. 159 
 
 that she lurked in some obscure cave or deij of the earth 
 till she was brought forth to the light by his hands. 
 
 tlio only true, ancient, Church in Ireland, and ought to be submitted to 
 by all as such. Hooker thu^ writes : — 
 
 "God hath ever, and ever shall have, some Church visible upon 
 earth. 
 
 " When the people of God worshipped the calf in the wilderness ; 
 when they adored the brazen serpent ; when they served the gods of 
 nations; when they bowed their knees to Baal; when they burned 
 incense and offered sacrifice unto idols— true it is, the wrath of God was 
 most fiercely inflamed against them, their prophets justly condemned 
 them, as an adulterous seed and a wicked generation of miscreants 
 which had forsaken the living God, and of Him were likewise forsaken, 
 in respect of that singular mercy wherewith He kindly and lovingly 
 embraced His faithful children. 
 
 " Howbeit, retaining the Law of God and the holy seal of His covenant 
 — the sheep of His visihle flock they continued, even in the depth of 
 their disobedience and rebellion. 
 
 " Wherefore not only amongst them God always had His Church, 
 because He had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baal ; but 
 whose knees were bowed unto Baal, even they were also of the visible 
 Church of God. 
 
 " Nor did the prophet (Elijah) so complain, as if that Church had been 
 quite and clean extinguished ; but he took it as though there had not 
 been remaining in the world any besides himself that carried a true and 
 an upright heart towards God, with care to serve Him according unto 
 His holy will. 
 
 " For the lack of diligent observing the difference, first between the 
 Church of God mystical and visibll, then between the visible sound and 
 corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less, the oversights are neither few 
 nor light that have been committed. This deceiveth them, and nothing 
 else, who think that in the time of the first world the family of Noah did 
 contain all that were of the visible Church of God. 
 
 "What is but only the selfsame error and misconceit, wherewith 
 others being at this day likewise possessed, they ask us, ' Where our 
 Church did lurk, in what cave of the earth it slept for so many hun- 
 dreds of years together, before the birth of Martin Luther ? ' As if we 
 were of opinion that Luther did erect a netv Church of Christ ! No, the 
 Church of Christ, which was from the beginning, is and continueth unto 
 the end ; of which Church all parts have not been always equally sincere 
 and sound. 
 
 " We hope, therefore, that to reform ourselves, if at any time we have 
 
i6o TJic Church History of Ireland. 
 
 She was, it ig true, in the wilderness, persecuted by evil 
 men. But let us remember, the Church in the wilder- 
 ness is represented in the Apocalypse as clothed with the 
 Sun, and crowned with Twelve Stars, and is therefore 
 visible ', as the Sun and Stars are visible. So the 
 
 done amiss, is not to sever ourselves from the Church toe were of before. 
 In the Church we were, and we are so still. Other ditference between 
 our estate before and now, we know none but only such as we see in 
 .Tudah ; which having sometime been idolatrous, became afterwards more 
 soundly religious by renouncing idolatry and superstition. ' If Ephraim 
 be joined to idols,' the counsel of the prophet is, ' let him alone ' (Hos. 
 iv. 17). ' If Israel play the harlot, let not Judah sin ' (Hos. iv. 15). ' If 
 it seem evil unto you,' saith Joshua, ' to serve the Lord, choose you this 
 day whom you will serve ; whether the gods wliom your fathers served 
 beyond the Flood, or the gods of the Aniorites in whose land ye dwell : 
 but I and my house will serve the Lord ' (Josh. xxiv. 15). 
 
 " The indisposition, therefore, of the Church of Uome to reform herself, 
 must be no stay unto us from performing our duty to God ; even as desire 
 of retaining conformity with them could be no excuse if we did not per- 
 form that duty. 
 
 " Notwithstanding, so fiir as la\vfully we may, we have held and do 
 hold fellowship with them. For even as the Apostle doth say of Israel, 
 that they are in one respect enemies, but in another beloved of God 
 (Rom. xi. 28), in like sort with Rome we dare not communicate concern- 
 ing sundry her gross aud grievotis abominations; yet touching those 
 main parts of Christian truth wherein they constantly still persist, we 
 gladly acknowledge them to be of the family of Jesus Christ ; and our 
 hearty prayer unto God Almighty is," that being conjoined so far forth 
 with them, they may at the length (if it be His will) so yield to frame 
 and reform themselves, that no distraction remain in any thing, but 
 that we ' all may with one heart and one mouth glorify God the Father 
 of our Lord and Savioui-, whose Church we are.' 
 
 " As there are which make the Church of Rome utterly no Church at 
 all, by reason of so many, so grievous errors in her doctrines ; so we have 
 them amongst us who, under pretence of imagined corruptions in our 
 discipline, do give even as hard a judgment of the Church of England 
 .itself. 
 
 " But whatsoever either the one sort or the other teach, we must 
 acknowledge even heretics themselves to be, though a maimed part, yet 
 a part, of the Church." 
 
 ' Rev. xii. 1. 
 
The Reformation under Henry VIII. 1 6 1 
 
 Church of Ireland in the wilderness was visible^ visible 
 in the Word and Sacraments of Christ. 
 
 The Church of Ireland was not founded by Henry VIII., 
 King of England, any more than the Church of Judah 
 was founded by Jehu, the son of Nimshi, King of Israel. 
 The two cases are similar. The Jewish Church was born 
 amid the thunder and lightnings of Mount Sinai, many 
 hundred years before the reign of Jehu ; and the Church 
 of Ireland was born amid the golden shower of fiery 
 tongues which streamed down from heaven on the 
 Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Like every other 
 true Church of Christendom which ministers the Word 
 and Sacraments of Christ by the hands of a duly called 
 and rightly ordained Priesthood, the Church of Ireland 
 is no other than an emanation from the splendour of His 
 Glorious Countenance, Who is the Light of the world^, 
 and Who, when He had ascended into heaven, shed 
 down that gracious effusion on the Apostles to illumine 
 their minds and to guide them into all truth. The first 
 of its beacon lights is therefore on Mount Sion. From 
 thence the light traversed Europe and passed into Ire- 
 land, and has been continued, as it were, in a luminous 
 chain of telegraphic signals from age to age, shining 
 with different degrees of purity and lustre at different 
 times, sometimes burning brightly, sometimes dimmed 
 and obscure, sometimes almost eclipsed, and then beam- 
 ing forth with fresh radiance, till we see it what it is at 
 this day. 
 
 3. Let us trace more closely the resemblance between 
 the Jewish Church and the Church of Ireland. 
 
 ' John viii. 12 j ix. 5. 
 
1 6 2 The C/mrch History of Ireland. 
 
 At various periods of its history, before the reign of 
 Jehiij the Jewish Church was torn by schism, and dese- 
 crated by idolatry. Even in the wilderness of Sinai the 
 people of Israel worshipped the golden calf, and adored 
 the host of heaven But yet retaining, as they did, the 
 Law of God and the Priedhood, they remained a Church 
 — a Church Visible — and are called a Church in Holy 
 Writ \ In the period immediately preceding the reign 
 of Jehu, they had fallen far from God, first by schisma- 
 tical defection under King Jeroboam, and next by 
 heathenish idolatry under King Ahab. But Almighty 
 God did not cast them off. He did not altogether with- 
 draw His blessing from them. To man's eye, indeed, 
 it seemed that the case was desperate, and even Elijah's 
 heart fainted v/ithin him, and he said, /, even Ij)nly, am 
 left \ But what did God reply ? Yet I have left Me 
 seven thousand in Israel, which have not lowed the knee 
 unto Baal^. So the Church remained visible — like the 
 bush burning in the wilderness of Horeb — burning, but 
 not consumed ^. And when all seemed about to be lost, 
 God raised up Jehu to commence the work of Reforma- 
 tion : and He was pleased to say of him. Thou hast done 
 well in executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and 
 hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was 
 in Mine heart. 
 
 4. So it has been with the Church in Ireland. 
 
 The light of the Gospel was first kindled there in 
 Apostolic times. For some time it glimmered feebly. 
 
 Exod. xxxii. 1. 2 Kings xvii. 16. Amos v. 25. 
 •» Acts vii. 38. 5 1 Kings xix. 11. 15. 
 
 « 1 Kings xix. 18. ? Exod. iii. 2. 
 
f 
 
 The Reformatio7i under Henry VIII. 163 
 
 But in the fifth century it shone forth with a clear and 
 steady light, and that light waxed brighter and blighter, 
 till it illumined the West with its beams. In the ninth 
 and tenth centuries it waned, and in the twelfth and 
 following centuries it was clouded with the mists of 
 Papal darkness ; still the light was not quenched. Even 
 in that cloudy and dark day ^ the Church of Ireland held 
 in her hand the true Canon of Holy Scripture ; she still 
 recited the Decalogue and Lord's Prayer and the three 
 Creeds in her public assemblies, still she ministered the 
 Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, though 
 marred or mutilated, still she retained a lawful Ministry 
 of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, though subject to a 
 tyrannous Power, and perverted often to unholy ends. 
 And so she was still a Church', still a Church visible — 
 
 8 Ezek. xxxiv. 12. * 
 
 3 See the words of Maetin Luthee, in S. Joann., e. xvi., and contra 
 Anabaptistas, torn. iv. p. 409. " Nos fatemur sub Papatu plurimum esse 
 boni Cbristiani, im6 omne bonum Christianum, atque etiam illinc ad nos 
 advenisse ; quippe fatemur in Papatu veram esse Sacram Scripturam, 
 verum Sacramentum Altaris, veras claves ad remissionem peccatorum, 
 verum praedicandi officiuui, verum Catecbisraum, ut sunt Oratio Domi- 
 nica, Decern Prmcepta, Articuli Fidei." 
 
 See also Calvin, Instit. iv. 11, 12. " Hinc patet nos minime negare 
 quin sub Romani quoque Pontificis tyrannide Hcclesia maneant." See 
 also, concerning tbe English Reformers, Neal, History of the Puritans, 
 part i. ck iv. " It was admitted by tbe Court-Itefonners " (by which 
 tbe writer means Abp. Paekee, Bps. Jewel, Geindal, &c.), " that the 
 Church of Rome was a true Church, though corrupt in some points of 
 doctrine and government ; that all her ministrations were valid, and that 
 the Pope was a true Bishop of Rome, though not [Supreme Head] of 
 tbe Universal Church." And, finally, Rome is called a Church in the 
 XXXIX Aeticles, Art. xix., on which Dr. Hey,— "The Church of 
 Rome is here allowed tbe essence of a true Church." iv. xix. 8, torn, 
 ii. p. 373, ed. 1841, and in the Canons (Canon 29) it is said, " So far 
 was it from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and neglect 
 the Churches of Italy," &c. 
 
 M 2 
 
1 64 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 though in a very corrupt state \ She had indeed varied 
 in her outward condition from time to time^ — as a man 
 varies in health and sickness ; but in the essentials of 
 a Church she was the same Church, as a human being 
 does not lose his identity by the accidents of his phy- 
 sical condition. So, then, the Church of Ireland con- 
 tinued the same Church, as she had been from the first. 
 And in the darkness of the sixteenth century (let us 
 observe this merciful dispensation), before the Council 
 of Trent ^ had met, and on the eve of the convention 
 of that ill-omened Conclave, in which the Church of 
 Rome forged new fetters for herself, and bound her- 
 
 ' For a view of the condition of Religion in Ireland under the Papacj', 
 see State Papers (ed. Lond. 1834, part iii. vol. ii. p. 15), circ. Ann. 
 1515. "There is no Archebysshop ne hysshop, abhot ne pryor, parson 
 lie vycar, ne any other person of the Church, hi^li or lowe, greate or 
 smalle, English or Try she that useyth to preache the word of Godde 
 saveing the poor fryers beggcrs. And wher the word of Godde do cesse 
 ther cannot be no grace, and without the specyall (grace) of Godde this 
 land can never be reformed." " Also the Churche of thys land use not 
 to lerne any other scyence but the Lawe of Canon for covetyce of lucre 
 trausytory. All other scyence whereof growe none such lucre the par- 
 sons of the Church doth despyse." This was written by a Roman 
 Catholic. 
 
 The Friars or Regulars do not seem to have been much more zealous ; 
 Archbp. Browne (of Dublin), in bis letter to Cromwell, a.d. 1535 
 (in Ware's Bishops, p. 349), says, " This island had been for a long 
 time held in ignorance by the Romish Regulars, and that the Seculars 
 were as ignorant as the People, being not able to say mass or pronounce 
 the words, not knowing what they themselves say in the Romau tongue. 
 That the Reliques and Images of both his Cathedrals took off the 
 common People from the true worship, but that the Prior and Deans 
 found them so sweet for their own profit that they took no notice of his 
 commands." 
 
 - Henry VIII. died Jan. 28, 1547, two years after the opening of the 
 Council of Trent (13th Dec. 1545), which did not terminate its Sessions 
 tiU 4th Dec. 1563. 
 
The Reformation tinder Henry VIII. 1 6 5 
 
 self in those chains of darkness^ in which she is still 
 enthralled^ a King arose, who commenced the work of 
 Religious Restoration, and so far as he did that, was 
 approved by Almighty God. 
 
 5. But, it may be asked, Do you then deny or ex- 
 tenuate the sins of Henry? Is it not notorious that 
 he is chargeable with flagrant crimes — sacrilege, cruelty, 
 and licentiousness? Is it not unquestionable that he 
 was stimulated to the work of Reformation (if such it 
 may be called), not by zeal for God, or by love of His 
 Gospel, but by passionate emotions of pride, lust, resent- 
 ment, and avarice ? and can it be imagined that a work 
 so begun and so pursued, could be otherwise than- 
 offensive to God ? 
 
 Far be it from us, my brethren, to flatter or palliate 
 vice wherever it be found. We are no apologists for sin 
 in Prelates, Nobles, or Princes ; rather, we are bound to 
 confess that the more exalted the station of him who 
 commits sin, the more pernicious his sin is, and the 
 more hateful to God. Mighty men shall he mightily 
 tormented And we are not able to deny that sins of a 
 dark dye did sully the character of that Monarch, and of 
 many among his courtiers, ministers, and favourites, and 
 that some of the worst crimes were committed by them 
 on the plea of Religion. 
 
 6. What then shall we say ? 
 
 First we would turn to our Roman Catholic Brethren 
 and ask. May not their own argument haply recoil upon 
 themselves ? You affirm that Rome is the " Mistress of 
 Churches," and that the Roman Pontiff is " Universal 
 
 » Jude G. 2 Pet. ii. 4. Wisdom vi. 6. 
 
1 66 TJie CImrch History of Ireland. 
 
 Bishop.'" But by whom were those titles conferred? 
 By the Emperor Phocas^ And who was he? a mur- 
 derer, — another Zimri — who slew his master, the Empe- 
 ror Maurice. And why were those titles bestowed by 
 Phoeas on the Roman Bishop and his see? From 
 resentment against the Patriarch of Constantinople, and 
 from ambitious desires to gain the favour and coun- 
 tenance of Rome to his own enormities. They were 
 given by a sanguinaiy tyrant for a wicked purpose. 
 Reproach us not therefore with the sins of Henry VIII., 
 whom we do not recognize as Founder of the Church in 
 Ireland, lest we remind you of the vices of one from 
 whom the titles were derived, on which you claim the 
 homage of the world. 
 
 Again, let us desire you to recollect, who first subdued 
 the Church of Ireland to the sway of Rome? King 
 Henry II. And by whom was he invited to Ireland? 
 By an adulterous Prince ^ Dermod Mac Murrough'. 
 And what was the character of Henry II. ? You your- 
 selves charge him with murder — the murder of one 
 whom you have canonized as a Saint and a Martyr, 
 Thomas of Canterbury, We know also that he was a 
 faithless husband and a bad father. And you assert 
 that he was brought to Ireland, not by any love of the 
 
 » See Theophtl. Simocatta, Patilus Diacontts Rer. Rom. lib. ii. 
 and lib. iv. c. 37, de gestis Laugobard. Anastasius Bibliothecaeius 
 in vit:! Bonifacii ill. Platina in vit. Ponit'acii iii. 
 
 •> " The profligiito ami tyrannical King of Leinster, Dermod Mac 
 Murchard, or Mac Morogb," as be is called by the Roman Catholic 
 Church Historian of Ireland, Lanigan, iv. p. 184. " Yet," says he, 
 " Dermod had founded religious houses." He is called by Giealbtjs 
 Cambeessis (who was favourable to the invasion of Henry his master), 
 "nobilium oppressor, infestus suis, exosus alienis." Hib. Exp. 1. 6. 
 
 ' Sec above, pp. 99, 100. 
 
The Reformation tender Henry VIII. 167 
 
 Church, but from personal ambition*. Strange it is 
 that the subjugation of Ireland to Rome by such a 
 prince as Henry II. should be a laudable work, although, 
 as you admit, it was effected by evil men, acting from 
 the worst motives, and yet you should not allow us to 
 deny that the emancipation of the Irish Church from 
 the thraldom of Rome by Henry VIII. was evil, 
 because the agent employed by God to effect it was 
 not a religious King, and was not swayed by holy 
 desii-es. 
 
 7. Again : to say something concerning the character 
 and acts of Henry VIII. 
 
 We must not judge him from the clearer light of the 
 Holy Scripture which, partly, let us remember, through 
 his agency, and through the Reformation which he 
 commenced, Almighty God has been pleased to shed 
 upon us in this happier age. But we must place our- 
 selves in his age, and if we are to judge him at all 
 we must pronounce sentence accordingly. We must 
 imagine ourselves living in the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century. At that time the tone of morals and 
 religion was very low. This remark is not to be con- 
 fined to Henry and his court, but we fear it must be 
 extended to the nobles, princes, and prelates of his age 
 generally. And let us bear in mind the process by 
 
 * " See Queriinonia Magnatum Hiberniae, above, p. 149, and Lani- 
 Gan's (Eoman Catholic) Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, iv. p. 158, who exclaims 
 in a tone of sarcastic and scornful indignation, " What an apostolical 
 and exemplar)' sovereign was Henry Plantagenet ! " (iv. p. 158. Dub- 
 lin, ]822.) And the Historian does not spare the Pope himself: 
 " Adrian's bull is of so unwarrantable and unjustifiable a nature, that 
 some writers have endeavoured to prove it a forgery ; but their efforts 
 were of no avail." 
 
i68 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 whicli this degeneracy had been produced. It proceeded 
 from vicious example^ and especially from the prevalence 
 of profligacy in that Court and Church, to which the 
 world then looked with mysterious awe — the Court and 
 Church of Rome. The Priest and Prophet were pro- 
 fane^. The Priests had polluted the Sanctuary, and done 
 violence to the law Here was the source of the evil. 
 As in pagan Rome, Vice was not regarded as heinous, 
 because the Deities whom Rome w^orshipped were vicious, 
 and thus Vices themselves were divinized, so it was at 
 Papal Rome in the age of Henry VIII. 
 
 What could be more pi'ofligate than the Court of that 
 very Pontiff, Leo X., who conferred on Henry VIII. the 
 title — " Defender of the Faith " ? How is it described 
 by those who knew it best ? Did not Hadrian VI., who 
 succeeded Leo X. in the Papacy, use these memorable 
 words " Scimus in hac sanctd sede aliquot jam ab annis 
 multa ahominanda fuisse, abusus in spiritualibus, excessus 
 
 » Jcr. xxiii. 11. lo Zeph. iii. 4. 
 
 ' See the " Instructio " of Hadrian to the Princes of Germany, in 
 WoLPii Lect. Moniorab. Cent. xvi. Gratitjs, Fascic. Rerum Expet. 
 Colon., 1535. Pallaticini Hist. Concil. Trident., ii. 7. LArNOY, 
 Epist., iv. 7. 
 
 In the 15th century, Nicolas de Clemangis, eminent for his learn- 
 ing and exemplary character, who had been Secretary to the Pope 
 (Benedict XIII.), and had ample opportunities of observing the Roman 
 Court and Church, thus wrote : " Sunt in Curia Romana velut in 
 abysso innumeraj fraudes, doli, calunmia; contr.-i omnium innoceutium 
 jura. . . Jurisdictio in ista curia tani violciiter rt tyranuice exercetur, ut 
 homines magis eligant tyrannorum imni;missini()nnn quam Ecclesias 
 judicia subire. Cardinales avaritia tam insatiabili sunt, ut unus ex eis 
 beneficia possideat non quidcm tria, decern, aut viginti, sed centena, 
 etiam ducenta, nec ea tenuia scd omnium pinguissima et optima. 
 
 " Nec enunierare volo adulteria, stupra, fornicationes, quibus Roma- 
 nam curiam infestant." Nicol. Cleman. de corrupto Statu Eccles., 
 0. 9—12. Cp. Heideggee, Historia Papatus, pp. 207—210. 
 
The Reformation under Henry VIII. i6g 
 
 in mandatis, et omnia denique in perversum mutata. 
 Nec mirum si aegritudo a capite in membra, a summis 
 Pontificibus in alios inferiores Prselatos descenderlt"? 
 "We know (he says) that for several years there have 
 existed in this Holy See many abominations, abuses in 
 spirituals, excesses in edicts, and that all things have 
 been perverted to wrong. Nor is it wonderful that the 
 disease should have descended from the Head to the 
 Members — from the Supreme Pontiffs to inferior Pre- 
 lates." Such is the confession of a lioman Pontiff 
 who was contemporary with Henry VIII. No wonder 
 that the disease should have propagated itself from 
 Popes to Prelates, and from Prelates to Kings. Vices, 
 practised in a Church calling herself the Mother of 
 Sanctity, were almost consecrated. Sins, committed by 
 him who was venerated by Kings and Nations as the 
 Father of the Faithful, and was adored ^ as the Vicar of 
 Christ, and was almost worshipped as a God might be 
 said to be canonized. Thus at that period Europe and 
 the World were demoralized by the Papacy. No wonder 
 that such Popes as Leo X. should have produced such 
 Kings as Henry VIII. 
 
 2 On the ' Adoratio Pontificis," see the passages quoted in the 
 Author's licctures on the Apocalypse, p. 399, 2nd edit. 
 
 ^ In the Lateran Council, Session ix., Leo X. allowed himself to be 
 addressed in these blasphemous terms, as " Leo de tribu Juda," 
 " Oninis potestas tibi data est." 
 
 "At his Court," says Ranke (Popes, p. 22, ed. Lond. 1843), "they 
 spoke of the institutions of the Catholic Church, of passages of Holy 
 Scripture, only in a tone of jesting ; the mysteries of faith were held 
 in derision. It was a characteristic of good society to dispute the 
 fundamental principles of Christianity." Historians record a sceptical, 
 scoffing speech by Pope Leo to Cardinal Bembo, which may be seen in 
 Valee. V. Leonis X. See also Ceakanthoepe's Vindiciae, c. 2. 
 
lyo The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 In the name therefore of Justice and of Truths let 
 Henry be judged by reference to the Standard — calling 
 itself Infallible — of his own age. Let the English King 
 be placed by the side of the Bishop of Rome. We do 
 not disguise his vices. No : but we trace them to their 
 source — the Church of Rome. And however flagrant 
 they are, we affirm that they were, the fruits — the 
 natural fruits — of that system of doctrine and morals, 
 under which Henry was reared, and to which he clung 
 even to his death. For Henry VIII., be it remem- 
 bered, was no Protestant, in articles of religion bearing 
 on practice. He was no Protestant on the subject of 
 Masses. He was no Protestant in the doctrine of 
 Indulgences, Purgatory, and works of Satisfaction. In 
 these and similar* respects, he was a rigid Romanist, 
 and persecuted Protestants. Thus the charges of 
 Romanists against Henry fall back upon Rome. Thus 
 even the vices of Henry prove the need of the Reforma- 
 tion, to which he gave the first great impulse, under the 
 mysterious and merciful Providence of that All-wise and 
 
 < The Roman Catholic Historian of the Irish Church, Mr. Brenan, 
 thus writes, p. 152 : " Henry VIII., with all his impiety, never attempted 
 to espouse the heresy of Luther. He was a Schismatic, but there is no 
 proof that he was ever a heretic. la 1539 he caused an Act to be 
 passed, called the Six Articles, in which it was made criminal to deny 
 the Real Presence, the Administration of the Eucharist under one 
 kind, the celibacy of the Clergy, the obligation of vows of Chastity, 
 private Mass, and Auricular Confession. The King gave his sanction to 
 these Articles, and death was the punishment of those who should 
 oppose them obstinately." 
 
 By 31 Henry VIII. c. 14, all oppugners of Transubstautiation, 
 Communion in one kind, celibacy of clergy, private masses, and auri- 
 culiir confession, were declared heretics. See Beown's Laws against 
 the R. Catholics, p. 9. 
 
The Refo7nnatio7i mider Henry VIII. 1 7 1 
 
 All-powerful God, Who sometimes brings the best good 
 out of the worst evil, and turns the fierceness of man to 
 His own praise 
 
 Here then we revert to our parallel — the Reformation 
 of the Church of Israel by King Jehu. The motives by 
 which he was actuated, the subtlety and treaeheiy of 
 which he was guilty, in carrying on his work of Refor- 
 mation, were doubtless offensive to God. Yet God 
 approved his Reformation. Thoxi hast done well in 
 executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast 
 done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in 
 Mine heart. So we may say with regard to Henry — 
 who resembled Jehu, of whom we read that he drave 
 furiously — whatever sins were committed by Henry 
 were, doubtless, unpleasing to God ; but our inquiry is, 
 not with regard to his motives, nor to his personal 
 character, — but whether there was any thing effected by 
 his instrumentality in Ireland, which might deserve the 
 name of a Religious Reformation, and so be acceptable 
 to God? 
 
 II. What, then, was the fact? 
 
 In his reign, and mainly by his influence, Ireland cast 
 off the Papal Supremacy, ecclesiastical and civil. 
 Was this a righteous act ? 
 Against it, it is alleged that it was 
 
 (1) schismatical, and 
 
 (2) done in an irregular manner. 
 
 Now, if it can be shown that Christ had given 
 Supremacy to the Bishop of Rome over the Church of 
 5 Ps. Ixxvi. 10. 6 2 Kings ix. 20. 
 
172 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Iteland, then indeed the act in question was au act of 
 Schism. 
 
 1. But this can never be proved. Indeed this propo- 
 sition may be refuted by the language of Rome herself. 
 As we have already seen^ ancient Ireland was commonly 
 called by Rome, " the Island of the Saints." Now it is 
 certain — and has been shown before ^ — that Ireland was 
 not subject to Rome for a thousand years after Christ. 
 If subjection to Rome was necessary in the sixteenth 
 century, it was necessary in the sixth century; and so 
 ancient Ireland was not the Island of saints, but the 
 Island of schismatics. But, no; Ireland, ancient Ire- 
 land, as Rome herself declares, was the Island of Saints. 
 And the act to which we refer, by which she eman- 
 cipated herself from the thraldom of Rome, and asserted 
 her own independence, was a return to that ancient 
 spiritual liberty which she had enjoyed when she was 
 justly called by Rome herself " the Island of Saints." 
 
 2. But it has been said, that the Irish Reformation in 
 the age of Henry VIII. was not a recovery of ancient 
 Spiritual Liberty, but rather a subjugation of the 
 Church to secular tyranny; that it was, in fact, an 
 exchange of the spiritual headship of the Bishop of 
 Rome for the secular Papacy of an English King. 
 
 We are no advocates of that Herodian policy which 
 profanely and sacrilegiously would subject the things 
 of God to the will of Caesar^. Nor do we deny that 
 some of the acts of Henry are taxable with that sin. 
 Especially, too, would we deplore, that when the Reli- 
 gious Houses of Ireland were dissolved by him, their 
 
 7 Seeabove,pp.23— 36,60-64,81— 84,124— 128, » Matt. xxii. 21. 
 
The Reformatw7t under Henry VIII. 173 
 
 revenues and impropriate tithes were not restored to the 
 Parishes from which they accrued, for the sustentation 
 of a Parochial ministry throughout the land, and for the 
 spiritual benefit of the Poor, but were lavished on court- 
 favourites, and alienated to secular uses ^ . But let us 
 not condemn what was right in those acts, because all 
 in them was not right, and much was wrong. Jehu 
 extirpated the worship of Baal with craft, and destroyed 
 the worshippers with cruelty ; and he took no heed to 
 walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart. He still 
 retained the sectarian priesthood and schismatieal altars 
 of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin Yet God did not 
 deny him some meed of praise and reward for what he 
 did right : Because thou hast done well in executing what 
 was right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the house 
 of Ahah according to all that was in Mine heart, thy 
 children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne 
 of Israel. 
 
 Suppose, then, for argument-'s sake, that Henry 
 transferred the Ecclesiastical power to his own hands, 
 and set up himself in place of the Pope; yet it would 
 not therefore follow that the extirpation of the Papal 
 tyranny and Papal usurpation in Ireland was not ac- 
 ceptable to God. 
 
 Suppose also that all is true, which is alleged by our 
 
 ' See Dr. Newland's Apology for the Church of Ireland. Dublin, 
 1829, p. 36, "The Abbey lands thus alienated (by Henry VIII.) have 
 continued the property of individuals either aliens to this country, 
 absentees," &c. 
 
 See also Bp. Mant, i. p. 168, on dissolution of Monasteries and 
 contemporaneous lay impropriations of Church- property, for the 
 enrichment of court-favourites. 
 
 10 2 Kings X. 19. '2 Kings x. 31, 32. 
 
174 ^'^^^ Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Romanist brethren concerning' his violent nile of the 
 Church of Ireland, especially in the appointment of 
 Bishops ; yet the Church of Ireland did not thereby lose 
 her spiritual identity, or forfeit her spiritual inheritance ; 
 and though he was guilty of sin, and she suffered evil at 
 his hands, yet she was able to minister good, even the 
 Word and Sacraments of Christ. 
 
 3. To illustrate this by a parallel. Consider the case 
 of the Jewish Church in our Lord's age. A resemblance 
 may here be seen to the supposed state of the Irish 
 Church in the time of Henry VIII. 
 
 Our Blessed Lord is the Great High Priest of the 
 Church, and was zealous for His Father's House, and 
 drave the buyers and sellers from the outer courts of the 
 Temple ". Doubtless He viewed with sorrow the sacri- 
 legious contempt^ of holy things, when the High 
 Priests of the Hebrew Nation were intruded into their 
 sacred office by the Heathen power of Rome during His 
 own Ministry on earth; yet He did not despise the 
 High Priest's office, nor did He forsake the Temple 
 in which they ministered to God. Our Great High 
 Priest, while upon earth, used the ministry of High 
 Priests appointed by a Heathen Power. He offisred 
 sacrifice to God by their hands. And even after that 
 He Himself had been killed by them. His Apostles did 
 not forsake the Temple wherein they ministered. And 
 why ? Because their Office was of God's appointment ; 
 and, though the Persons who ministered were nomi- 
 
 2 Matt. xxi. 12. John ii. 14. 
 There were thirteen different Higli Priests in our Lord's age, made 
 and unmade at the pleasure of heathen Komc. See tbe First Series 
 of the present Writer's Occasional Sermons, p. 200. 
 
TJie Reformation tinder Henry VI 11. 175 
 
 nated by a heathen power, yet their Ministry was 
 divine, and the Word, of which they were the keepers, 
 was the Word of God, and the Temple, in which they 
 ministered, was the Temple of Godv 
 
 So in the Church of Ireland in the days of Henry VIII. 
 Bishops were nominated by him, and he who nominated 
 them was not guiltless of sacrilege ; yet their Bishopric, 
 or Episcopal Office, was not from him, but from Christ. 
 Their consecration was not from him, but from Christ. 
 What they ministered was not from him, but from 
 Christ. They were not his ministers, but the ministers 
 of Christ. And the people of Christ received the things 
 of Christ through their means. And thus the conti- 
 nuity of Christ's Church in Ireland was not broken. 
 
 III. But further: we do not hesitate to say, that 
 many of the charges against Henry which we have 
 recited, are due rather to a love of Rome, than to zeal 
 for Truth. 
 
 1. As to the Royal Supremacy in matters Ecclesias- 
 tical, the sense in which it was claimed by Henry has 
 been cleared by his royal daughter, Elizabeth, in our 
 Thirty-seventh Article, and in her Injunctions^ to which 
 
 In the Admonitions prefixed to those Injunctions, Queen Elizabeth 
 thus speaks : — 
 
 " And further. Her Majesty forbiddeth all manner of her subjects to 
 give ear or credit to such perverse and malicious persons, which most 
 sinisterly and maliciously labour to notify to her loving subjects, how, 
 by the words of the same Oath (viz. of Supremacy), it may be collected, 
 the kings or queens of this realm, possessors of the crown, may challenge 
 authority and power of ministry of divine offices in the Church, wherein 
 her said subjects are much abused by such evil-disposed persons. For 
 certainly Her Majesty neither doth nor ever will challenge any other 
 authority than that was challenged and lately used by the said noble 
 
176 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 that Article refers ; and, explained in that sense, it may 
 be affirmed to be not contrary to Holy Scripture and 
 the practice of the ancient Church. 
 
 2. With regard to Ecclesiastical appointments by the 
 Crown in that ag-e, it ought not to be forgotten that a 
 Work, approved by the King, and published in 1536, 
 with the title of the " Godly and Pious Institution of a 
 Christian Man,^' and intended by the King for the 
 instruction of his subjects, teaches the following doctrine 
 on this important subject : — " The jurisdiction committed 
 unto Priests and Bishops by the authority of God's law 
 is, to approve and admit such persons as, being nomi- 
 
 kings of famous memory, King Henry the Eighth, and King Edward 
 the Sixth, which is and was of ancient time due to the imperial crown 
 of this reahu, that is, under God to have the sovereignty and rule over 
 all persons born within these her realms, dominions, and countries, of 
 what estate either ecclesiastical or temporal, soever they be, so as no 
 other foreign power shall or ought to have any superiority over them." 
 
 And for the confirmation of this sense (says Bp. Beteeidge on the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, ed. Oxon, 1845, vol. vii. p. 558, " Of the Civil 
 Magistrate") put upon the Oath of Supremacy, and so the king's 
 sovereignty, there was a proviso also established by Act of Parlia- 
 ment to this purpose : " Provided also that the oath expressed in the 
 same Act made in the first year shall be taken and expounded in such 
 form as is set forth in an admonition annexed to the Queen's Majesty's 
 Injunctions, published in the first year of Her Majesty's reign; that is 
 to say, to confess and acknowledge in Her Majesty, her heirs and suc- 
 cessors, none other authority than that was challenged and lately used 
 by the noble King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth, as in 
 the said admonition may more plainly appear." 
 
 " By which (says Bp. Beveeidge on Art. XXXVII.) we may see how 
 vain and groundless the scandal is which is usually cast upon the Oath 
 of Supremacy, as if we there acknowledged the king to have the keys as 
 well as the sword committed to him, and that he might administer the 
 word and sacraments in spiritual, as well as justice and judgment in 
 secular, affairs ; whereas the same power that asserted the king's 
 supremacy hath still denied it to extend to the exercise of any 
 spiritual function." 
 
The Reformation tinder Henry VIII. i-]"] 
 
 nated, elected, and presented unto them to exercise the 
 office and room of preaching the Gospel, and of minis- 
 tering the Sacraments, and to have the care and juris- 
 diction over these certain people within this parish or 
 within this diocese, shall be thought unto them meet and 
 worthy to exercise the same, and to reject and repel from 
 the said room such as they shall judge to be unmeet 
 therefore. And in this part ye must know and under- 
 stand, that the said presentation and nomination is of 
 man's ordinance, and appertaineth unto the Founders and 
 Patrons, or other persons, according to the laws and 
 ordinances of men provided for the same. As, for exam- 
 ple, within this Realm, the presentations and nomina- 
 tions of the Bishopricks appertaineth unto the Kings of 
 this Realm; and of other lesser cures and pei'sonages, 
 some unto the King's Highness, some unto noblemen, 
 some unto Bishops, and some unto other persons whom 
 we call Patrons of the Benefices, according as it is pro- 
 vided by the order of the Laws and Ordinances of this 
 Realm. And unto the Priests and Bishops belongeth, 
 by the authority of the Gospel, to approve and confirm 
 the person which shall be, by the King's Highness or 
 other Patrons, so nominated, elected, and presented unto 
 them, to have the cure of these certain people, within 
 this certain Parish or Diocese, or else to reject him, as 
 was said before, from the same, for his demerits and 
 un worthiness 
 
 5 The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian Man, p. 109, ed. 
 Oxf. 1825. This work was drawn up hy Archbishop Cranmee. It 
 was afterwards commented on by the King, seriatim, and the passage 
 here cited was sanctioned by him. The King's notes are printed in 
 Jenkyns' collection of Cranmer's Works, i. pp. xvii— xx, vol. ii. p. 43 
 
 K 
 
lyS The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 These are sound words : they were promulgated under 
 Henry^s authority. Let not envy deprive him of the 
 credit due for this declaration of the Truth. 
 
 3. Again, let it be remembered that among Henry^s 
 Ecclesiastical Edicts issued in Ireland one was as fol- 
 lows : " that laymen and hoys should not be admitted to 
 Ecclesiastical preferments \" This is enough to show 
 the miserable state to which the Church of Ireland had 
 been then degraded by the power of Rome. It is not 
 wonderful that English Kings should have exceeded 
 the proper limits of their just authority with regard 
 
 To this may be added the following important Declaration of Abp. 
 Ceanmee and of other members of the hierarchy appointed by Henry, 
 concerning the different functions of Clergy and Laity in Councils of 
 the Church, which may be read with special interest at the present 
 time : — 
 
 State Papees, temp. Henry VIII. (ed. Lond. 1831, pt. ii.), a.d. 
 1535-8. " In all the auncyent Counsailles of the Churche in mat- 
 ters of the Faith and Interpretacion of the Scripture, no man made 
 definitive subscription but Bussbopes and Preistes, for so muche as the 
 declaration of the Word of God perteignyth unto them. 
 
 " The words of John in bis 20 chapter, ' Sicut misit Me Pater et Hgo 
 mitto vos,' &c., hath no respect to a Kynge's or Prince's power, but 
 only to shewe how that the ministers of the Word of God chosen and 
 sent for that intent, are the messengers of Christ to teach the trueth of 
 His Gospell, to loose and to bynde synne, &c. The words also of Saynct 
 Paule in the 20 chapter of the Actes, ' Attendite vobis et tmiverso gregi 
 in quo vos Spiritus Sanctus posuit Episcopos regere Ecclesiam I>ei,' 
 were spokyn to the Busshoppes and Preistes to be diligent Pastores of 
 the people, &c. Other places of Scripture declare the highnesse of 
 Christen Princes authoritie. The Busshopes and Prestes have charge 
 of sowles within tber own cures, power to miuistre Sacraments, and to 
 teache the Worde of God ; to the which Worde of God Christen Princes 
 knowledge themselves subject. And in case the Bushoppes be negligent, 
 it is the Christen Princes' office to see tliera do ther dutie." 
 
 Signed, Thos. Castuaeien., Joannes London, and seven other 
 Bishops. 
 
 « Leland, ii. p. 181. 
 
The Reformation under Henry VIII. 1 7 9 
 
 to things Spiritual, when the Spiritual Power of the 
 Papacy had set such a vicious and profane example, by 
 appointing laymen, and even children, to Benefices and 
 Bishoprics in the Church. The government of Henry in 
 Spirituals, might in this respect be called a Reformation 
 when compared with that of Rome 
 
 ' Daties' Discovery, &c., p. 242 : " In the Council Book of Ireland, 
 33rd Hen. VIII., the chief Points registered were, That King Henry 
 should be accepted, reputed, and named KiNa of Ireland ; the title 
 previously had been Loed of Ieeland. 
 
 "That all Arcli-Bisliops and Bishops should be permitted to exer- 
 cise jurisdiction throughout the land. 
 
 " That Children should not be admitted to Benefices." 
 
 See also Dean Combee, Companion to the Temple, a.d. 1675, vol. v. 
 A discourse upon the Office of Consecrating Bishops, chap. i. sect. ii. 
 p. 291 to p. 292: "In the ages before our Reformation, this neglect 
 had brought the Clergy into extreme contempt, which I choose to 
 express in the words of an honest Romish author • then living, who says 
 of Bishops of his time : ' They thrust men into holy orders that are 
 like a company of jackdaws, infamous, boys, and illiterate, such as are 
 not fit for any thing else, and are not called by God, contrary to the 
 rules of our forefathers : yet if any suffer a repulse, he flies to Rome, 
 where the most holy fathers admit hostlers, eooks, and idiots, to the 
 altars of the great God ; surely they must have evil thoughts of religion 
 and themselves, or design to abuse Christian people, who do such 
 things; the work shows the artificer, the tree is known by its fruit; 
 may Christ save us ; St. Peter is asleep, and the other Simon, not to say 
 Antichrist, hath got the dominion.' Thus, alas ! it was then, and no 
 doubt it hastened the Reformation." 
 
 The Lord Chancellor of Ireland (Archbp. Inge), and Lord Chief 
 Justice Beemtngham, thus wrote to Cardinal Wolsey in 1528: 
 "Your Grace heavetli the sorrowful decay of this land, as well us in 
 good Christianity, as in laudable manners, which hath growen for 
 
 * Atentintjs, Annales ii. p. 118, scr. circa a.d. 1500. "To this may 
 be added a very interesting and important document, on the need of 
 Reformation, from the University of Oxford to the Crown, a.d. 1414, 
 printed in Wake's State of the Church, pp. 89—97 : " Prailati nepo- 
 tulos et imbcrbes ad aniniarum curam assumere non verentur" — and 
 even those who were rejected by English Bishops, " Romana saepe Curia 
 quautumlibet inscios et ignaros ordinatos remittere consuevit." 
 
 N 2 
 
1 8o The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Besides, let it not be forgotten that the Church of 
 Ireland owed to his appointment such Prelates as Arch- 
 bishop Browne of Dublin, and Staples, Bishop of Meath. 
 
 Still further, and generally, the acts of Henry ought 
 to be construed in accordance with the declaration of 
 that memorable Statute made in the twenty-eighth year 
 of his reign (a.d. 1536) by the Parliament of Ireland* : 
 " Provided always that this Act, nor any thing therein 
 mentioned, shall not be intei-preted that your Grace, 
 your Nobles, and Subjects intend by the same to decline 
 or varie from the Congregation of Christ's Church in 
 
 lack of good Prelates and Curates in the Churche." State Papers, 
 Henry VIII., vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 126. See also ibid. p. 196: "The 
 Bishop of Rome hath commonly preferred, by his provisions, in 
 Ireland to the administration and governance of Churches, not only 
 vile and vicious persons, unlearned, being murtherers, thieves, and 
 of other detestable disposition, as light men of warre, who expell the 
 rightful incumbent." 
 
 8 See Ieish Acts, 28 Hen. VIII. c. 19, " Your Majestie is Supreme 
 Head of the Church of England, as the Frelates and Clergie of your 
 Realm, representing your said Church in their Synodes and Convoca- 
 tions have recognized." ... By this Act the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 could give such dispensations as the Pope did, if not repugnant to the law 
 of God. 
 
 "Provided always that this Act, nor any thing therein mentioned, 
 shall not be interpreted that your Grace, your nobles, and subjects, 
 intend by the same to decline or varie from the congregation of Christ's 
 Church in any things concerning the verie articles of the CathoUeke 
 faith of Christendome, or in any other things declared hy Holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 See Archbp. Beamhall, ii. 393. "The Acts of Henry VIII. follow 
 ancient customs of the realm" (See 25 Henry VIII. c. 21, § 19). 
 " There was no ancient custom for the abolition or translation of power 
 purely spiritual. They profess all conformity to the Holy Scriptures ; 
 l)ut the power of the Keys was evidently given by Christ in Scripture to 
 His Apostles and their successors, not to Sovereign Princes. If any 
 thing had been contained in this law for the abolition or translation of 
 power merely and purely spiritual, it has been retracted by this proviso 
 at the same time it was enacted." 
 
The Refor7nation tinder Hctiry VIII. 1 8 1 
 
 any thing concerning the verie Articles of the CatholicJce 
 faith of Christendome , or in any other things declared hy 
 Holy Scripture." The Word of God, interpreted by the 
 Church Universal, was there recognized as the Rule of 
 Faith, and the Standard of Reformation. And if any 
 thing was done by Henry or his Parliaments in contra- 
 vention of that Word, it was there condemned and re- 
 tracted by them that did it. And building on this Divine 
 foundation, they built on a Rock; and though hay and 
 stubble built upon it will not abide the fire', yet the 
 foundation standeth sure, unmoved and immovable', 
 f 1 Cor. iii. 12. 
 
 ' See also the important statement made in the letter written, in the 
 name of King Henry VIII., by Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, to 
 Cardinal Pole, July 13, 1536. (Bp. Bubnet, Hist, of Eeforraation, 
 
 vol. iii. pt. ii. Records, No. 52, p. 163, ed. Oxf. 1829.) "Ye 
 
 presuppose the King's grace to be swerved from the unity of Christ's 
 Church : and that in taking upon him the title of supreme head of the 
 Church of England, he intcndeth to separate his Church of Ungland 
 
 from the Unity of the whole hody of Christendom 
 
 " His full purpose and intent is, to see the laws of Almighty God 
 purely and sincerely preached and taught, and Christ's faith, without 
 blot, kept and observed in his realm ; and not to separate himself or his 
 realm anywise from the unity of Christ's Catholic Church, hut in- 
 violably, at all times, to keep and observe the same ; and to redeem his 
 Church of England out of all captivity of foreign powers heretofore 
 usurped therein into the Christian state that all Churches of all realms 
 were at the beginning, and to abolish and clearly put away such 
 usurpations as heretofore the Bishops of Rome have, by many undue 
 means, increased to their great advantage. So that no man therein can 
 justly find any fault at the King's so doinge, seeing he reduceth all 
 thinges to that estate, that is conformable to those auncieut decrees of 
 the Churche, which the Bishop of Rome (at his creation) solemnly doth 
 
 profess to observe hymself. 
 
 " Wherefore since the King's grace goeth about to reform his realm, 
 and reduce the Church of England into that state, that both tliis realm 
 and all others were in at the beginning of the faith, and many hundred 
 years after; if any prince or realm will not follow him, let them do as 
 they list; he doth nothing but stablish such laws as were ih the 
 
1 8 2 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 5. One other objection remains to be considered. 
 
 It has been alleged that Henry^s Acts concerning 
 Religion in Ireland were not done in a regular manner 
 by Ecclesiastical Synods, but by Parliaments, and are 
 therefoi'e of no authority. 
 
 To this it may be said, that although all Acts con- 
 cerning the Church ought to be done by persons autho- 
 rized for that purpose, and according to canonical order, 
 yet it does not follow that whatever is done otherwise is 
 invalid, although the doer is culpable. " Fieri non 
 debet, factum valet." Moses ought not to have smitten 
 the rock at Meribah with his rod, and he was punished 
 for smiting it ^, yet the rock, when smitten, gushed forth 
 with water ahimdantly , and the congregation drank, and 
 their beasts also. Jehu's Reformation was not wrought 
 with the spiritual instruments of peace, but by fire and 
 sword ; but God, though not sanctioning the doer of the 
 work or the manner of his operation, was pleased to 
 approve the work. Parents ought not to carry their 
 infants to be baptized by schismatics or heretics, yet we 
 cannot say that all baptisms so administered are null and 
 void. And while we are far from affirming that Kings 
 or Parliaments have any power against the Truth, yet 
 for the Truth they have, and the Truth, so vindicated and 
 maintained, is to be accepted and embraced as coming 
 from the Divine Author of all Truth. Further, we may 
 consider that acts concerning Church Polity, though not 
 
 beginning, and such as the Bishop of Rome professeth to observe. 
 Wherefore neither the Bishop of Rome himself, nor any other prince, 
 ovght of reason to he miscontent therewith." 
 '- Num. XX. 10—12. Ps. cvi. 33. 
 
TJie Reformation under Henry VIII. 183 
 
 promulgated originally by adequate sanction of Church 
 Authority; yet, if subsequently received and put in use 
 by the Church herself, do in fact thus acquire, a poste- 
 riori, Ecclesiastical validity, and so become Laws of the 
 Church. 
 
 6. Thus it was with the Reformation in Ireland, in 
 the reign of Henry VIII. This Reformation, as com- 
 menced, or rather renewed by him, consisted mainly in 
 the rejection of the Papal Supremacy/, and in establishing 
 that of the Crown. 
 
 This work was performed in the year 1536, by the 
 Irish Parliament *, which was a mixed assembly, partly 
 lay and partly spiritual. 
 
 3 For this liad been often attempted in previous Parliaments in Ireland 
 in Papal times. See Acts of Ieish Parl. 32 Henry VI. c. 1, a.d.'1454. 
 " That aU Statutes made against Provisors to Rome, as well in England 
 as Ireland, shall be had and kept in force." (See also Irish Statutes, 7 
 Edw. IV. c. 23. 10 Henry VII. c. 5, a.d. 1495. English Statutes, 25 
 Edw. III. c. 22. 13 Rich. II. c. 2. 16 Rich. II. c. 3. 2 Henry IV. 
 c. 3. 7 Henry IV. c. 8. 3 Henry V. c. 4.) " That all the Acts, Ordi- 
 nances, and Statutes made against the Provisors (in the court of Rome) 
 ' as well in England as in Ireland, be had and kept in force within this 
 land of Ireland and if any Provisor do sue any provision upon any 
 such benefice within this land of Ireland, then the party grieved may 
 recover treble damages." 
 
 Acts of Ieish Pael. a.d. 1536. 28 Henry VIII. cap. 2 (May, 
 A.D. 1536. On the date, see State Papees, vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 316). Act 
 for the Succession. " The Bishops of Rome, contrary to the great and 
 inviolable graunts of jurisdictions given by God immediately to Em- 
 perours. Kings, and Princes, have presumed to invest who should please 
 them to inherit another man's kingdoms, which thing we, your most 
 bumble subjects, both Spiritual and temporal, doe most abhor and 
 detest;" and they alErm that "no man of whatsoever estate, degree, 
 or condition whatsoever he be, hath power to dispense with God's 
 lawes, as all the Clergie in the realme of England in the Convocations 
 doe affirm." See Ieish Statutes, 28 Henry VIII. c. 13. An Act (which 
 recites that divers good laws have been made for the extirpation, abolition, 
 and extinguishment out of this land of the pretended power and usurped 
 
184 The CJmrch Histojy of Ireland. 
 
 And here let us observe, that Ireland had been 
 brought under Papal rule by similar assemblies. Indeed 
 the ecclesiastical affairs of Ireland had been often trans- 
 acted, from time immemorial, in mixed assemblies — con- 
 sisting- of Princes, Prelates, and Nobles— much resem- 
 bling Parliaments'. And if Parliaments could suhjugaie 
 
 authority of tlie Bishop of Rome) against the authority of the Bishop of 
 Rome, " which did obfuscate and wrest God's Holy Word and Testament 
 a long season from the true meaning thereof, to his worldly and carnal 
 affection, as pompe, glorie, avarice, ambition, and tyranny ; excluding 
 not only Christ out of His kingdom and rule as much as they might, 
 but also other temporal Kings and Princes out of their dominions, and 
 spoyled this land of Ireland of innumerable treasure," — the Act making 
 it penal, under the Statute of Prcmunire, made in 16th year of King 
 Richard II., to uphold the Pope's authority heretofore claimed, used, or 
 usurped within this land of Ireland ; or attribute any manner of juris- 
 diction therein to the See of Rome; and it establishes the Oath of 
 Supremacy. 
 
 5 The Synod of Aengus, a.d. 1112, is called Concilhim magnum 
 Episcoporum et omnium Magnatmn Hiberniae a Mauritio Lochlin Rege 
 Hibernije convocatum. See Dr. O'Conoe, Hist. Address, pt. ii. p. 75. 
 At it were present " 50 Bishops and 300 Presbyters, with the Chiefs of 
 Southern Ireland, to establish Rules and Ordinances for all Ireland, both 
 secular and Ecclesiastic." See Ulster Annals, p. 374, ed. O'Conor. 
 
 Sir J. Waee's Bishops, p. 52 : " In the year 1112 or 1111, according to 
 the Ulster Annals, a Synod was held at Usneach, at which assisted Cellach 
 (Celsus, otherwise called Celestiue), with 50 Bisliops, 300 Priests, and 
 3000 of the Ecclesiastical Order, to prescribe Rules for the Lives and 
 Manners of the Clergy and Laity. Moriartach O'Brien, King of Ireland, 
 is said to have been present at this Synod, together with the Nobles of 
 Legamoa or South Parts of Ireland." 
 
 Council of Kells, a.d. 1151, Labbe, tom. x. p. 1130, quoting fi-om an 
 author contemporary with the Council, " cni interfuerunt Episcopi, 
 Abbates, Reges, Duces, et majores natu Hiberniao, quorum consensu 
 Arcliiepiscopatus constituii sunt quatuor." See O'Conoe, Hist. Address, 
 ii. 80, who observes that this was the Synod at which the Cardinal Paparo 
 was present. 
 
 Sir J. Waee's Bishops, p. 59 : " Gelasius held in a.d. 1157 another 
 Synod, which I take to be an adjournment of that of 1152. Two Kings 
 and two Princes of Ireland were present." 
 
 The Council of Athboy, a.d. 1166 or 7, was summoned by Roderic 
 
The Reformation imde}" Henry VIII. 1 8 5 
 
 Ireland to the Papacy, surely they might emancipate 
 her from it. 
 
 Besides, in the Council of Cashel ^ which brought 
 the Church of Ireland under the rule of Eome, in the 
 reign of Henry II., in 1172, it had been decreed that the 
 Church of Ireland should follow the order of the Church 
 
 O'Conor, with the chiefs of the north of Ireland, as well Clergy as 
 Laity, and "many ordinances were there enacted touching the privi- 
 leges of Churches and Clergy." See Annals of iv. Mastees ad a.d. 1166. 
 " This Synod," says O'Conor, "composed of spiritual and temporal persons, 
 somewhat resembled the Witena-gamote of the Saxon Kings." O'Conoe, 
 Hist. Address, ii. 86. 
 
 Waee's Bishops, p. 60. " In 1167, a gi-eat Assembly of the Clergy 
 and Princes was convened at Athboy by Roderick O'Connor, King of 
 Conuaught, at which Gclasius, Archbishop of Armagh, Laurence 
 O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, and many other Bishops and Princes 
 assisted ; wherein they made many laws for the public peace and tbc 
 discipline and government of the Church." 
 
 Waee's Bishops, p. 67. " The Synod of Drogheda, 1271, was attended 
 not only by the Prelates of Ireland, but by the Lord Justice and principal 
 men of the kingdom." 
 
 The earliest Irish Parliament on record (circ. a.d. 1289 — 1303) is 
 called Concilium Hiberniae, and consisted of Archbishops and Bishops, 
 &c., and Lay Peers, &c. See Irish Arch. Miscellany, vol. i. p. 23. 
 
 Archbp. Beamhall, v. 229 : "The Parliaments of England were not 
 merely temporal Courts, or conventions only of secular men . . . but by 
 the fundamental Constitution of England, did evermore consist of secular 
 and I'cclcsiastical persons, who conjointly did manage all the great affairs 
 both of Church and Commonwealth. (See also the Editor's notes.) Let 
 S. N. cast his eyes upon the old Britannic and Saxon Councils or Par- 
 liaments, published by Sir Henry Spelman, and he shall see this clearly 
 verified. He shall find the Nobles, together with the Bishops, making 
 Laws and Constitutions for the Church and subscribing them. He shall 
 find these Acts of theirs ratified by the King, and published in his name, 
 by his authority, as his Laws." 
 
 6 Wahe, Antiq. c. xiii. p. 78, concerning the Synod of Cashel, 
 "Whether this synod may be considered as merely ecclesiastical, or 
 as a mixed assembly convened for civil as well as religious purposes, 
 is not clear from history, though I am inclined to look upon it in the 
 latter light, and the words of Cambrensis seem to imply as much." 
 
1 86 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 of England^. Now in the reign of Henry VIII. the 
 Church of England in her Ecclesiastical Synod, as well 
 as the Nation in Parliament, rejected the Papal Supre- 
 macy. Was it not fit that the Church of Ireland, which 
 had been formerly forced into conformity with that of 
 England in bondage and error, shoiild follow it also in 
 recovering Liberty and Truth ? 
 
 "When the Parliament of Ireland had rejected the 
 Papal Supremacy, the Princes* of Ireland pledged them- 
 
 ' See above, p. lOl, Art. viii. of Synod of Cashel. The Council of 
 Cashel enjoined that Ireland should follow the laws and ordinances of 
 England : let us see what they were. In the words of Archbishop 
 Bbamhali,, ii. 501, "Let him trust the verdict of our Universities, 
 ' We are all agreed unanimously in this sentence, and were of one 
 accord, that the Roman Bishop hath no greater jurisdiction given 
 him by God in Holy Scripture in this kingdom of England than 
 any other foreign Bishop. The same sentence was given in our laws, 
 canons, or Synods; the same sentence was given in our Parliaments.' 
 And p. 245 : ' And in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, for 
 divers years there were no recusants in England until Papists were 
 prohibited by a Bull from joining with us in our public foim of serving 
 God,' " &c. 
 
 See also the form of bidding prayers in Ireland in 1538 (Mant, i. 
 145) : " Ye shall pray for the universal Catholic Churcli, both quick and 
 dead, and especially for the Church of England and Ireland." This 
 phrase, "the Church" (identifying the Churches of England and 
 Ireland), &c., occurs five times in this prayer. See Appendix to this 
 Discourse, p. 194. 
 
 8 Sir John Daties's Historical Relations, p. 104 of the Dublin edition, 
 by S. Hyde, mdccxxiii. :— 
 
 " This Parliament (28th year of Henry VIII.) being ended, the Lord 
 Leonard Grey was suddenly revoked, and put to death in England ; so 
 as he lived not to finish the work of reformation which he had begun ; 
 which notwithstanding was well pursued by his successor. Sir Anthony 
 Saint Leger, unto whom all the Lords and Chieftains of the Irishry, 
 and of the degenerate English, throughout the Kingdom, made their 
 several submissions by indenture (which was the fourth general submis- 
 sion of the Irish, made since the first attempt of the conquest of 
 Ireland), whereof the first was made to King Henry II., the second to 
 
The Reformation under Henry VIII. 187 
 
 selves by solemn covenants to annihilate and extirpate 
 that Supremacy as an unrighteous usurpation : and 
 many of the Bishops and Clergy of the Irish Church 
 took the Oath of Supremacy to the King. They swore 
 allegiance to a King whom the Bishop of Rome had 
 excommunicated and endeavoured to dethrone^ and 
 against whom he had commanded the people of Ireland 
 to rebeP. 
 
 King John, the third to King Kichard II., and the last to Sir Anthony 
 Saint Leger, in 33 Henry VIII. 
 
 " In these indentures of suhmission, all the Irish Lords do acknow- 
 ledge King Henry J'JII. to be their Sovereign Lord and King, and 
 desire to be accepted of him as subjects. They confess the King's 
 supremacy in all causes, and do utterly renounce the Pop^s jurisdic- 
 tion, which I conceive to be worth the noting ; because, when the Irish 
 had once resolved to obey the King, they made no scruple to renounce 
 the Pope : and this was not only done by the mere Irish, but the 
 chief of the degenerate English families did perform the same, as 
 Desmond, Barry, and Moche, in Munster, and the BourJcs, which bore 
 the title of Mac William, in Connaught." 
 
 State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ii. 316, a.d. 1538 : " At Clonmel was 
 with us five Arch-Busshopps and two Busshops, in whose presence my 
 Lord of Dublin preached. His Sermon fynyshed, all the busshopps in 
 all thopper audience toke the othe (i. e. of Supremacy)." 
 
 Dr. O'CONOK (Roman CathoKc), ii. 278.—" The Oath of Supremacy 
 was approved of and taken by the Bishops and Clergy in 1532 — 1534, 
 before any (other) Refoi-mation was talked of. Lynch of Galway says 
 it was taken by the Irish chiefs in 1542 — 1544. O'Donnel's indenture 
 is dated 6th August, 1542. " Quod anuihilabit posse suo nsurpatam 
 authoritateni et Priraatiam Romani Pontificis." Most of the Irish 
 Chiefs followed his example in 1543. 
 
 s See the Pope Paul III.'s Bull of Excommunication against Henry 
 VIII., 30th Aug., A.D. 1535. Btjllaeium Romanum vi. p. 125, ed. Rom. 
 1744. The Bull is entitled " Damnatio et excommunicatio Henrici VIII. 
 Regis Anglise ejusque fautorum et complicum cum aliarum pcenarum 
 adjectione." The execution of this Bull was suspended for a time, but 
 it was iterated in 1538, Dec. 17. 
 
 See the letter of Archbishop Browne to Sir Thomas Cromwell, 
 Lord Privy Seal to Henry VIII., 1535, before the Act of Supremacy 
 was passed. 
 
1 8 8 The CJmrch History of Iixland. 
 
 TVTien we consider the sanguinary weapons which 
 Rome employed in Ireland in order to advance her power 
 
 " My most lionoured Lord, — Your very humble servant receiving 
 your mandate as one of his Highness's Commissioners, hath endeavoured 
 almost to the danger of his temporal life to procure the nobility and 
 gentry of this nation to due obedience, in owning of his Highness their 
 supreme head as well spiritual as temporal, and do find much oppugning 
 therein, especially by my brother Ardmagh, who hath been the main 
 oppugner ; and so hath withdrawn most of his suffragans and clergy 
 within his see and jurisdiction ; he made a speech to them, laying a 
 curse on ihe people whosoever should own his Mighness's Supremacy ; 
 saying, that this isle, as it is in their Irish Chronicles, Insula Sacra, 
 belongs to none but to the Bishop of Rome ; and that it was the 
 Bishop of Rome's predecessors gave it to the King's ancestors. There 
 be two messengers by the priests of Ardmagh, and by that Archbishop 
 now lately sent to the Bishop of Eome. Your Lordship may inform 
 his Highness that it is convenient to call a Parliament in this nation 
 to pass the Supremacy by Act ; for they do not much matter his 
 Highness's commission which your Lordship sent us over. Tliis island 
 hath been for a long time held in ignorance by the Komish orders, and 
 as for their secular orders, they be in a manner as ignorant as the 
 people, being not able to say Mass, or pronounce the words, they not 
 knowing what they themselves say in the Roman tongue. The common 
 people of this isle are more zealous in their blindness than the Saints 
 and Martyrs were in the truth at the beginning of the Gospel. I send 
 to you, my very good Lord, these things, that your Lordship and hia 
 Highness may consult what is to be done. It is feared O'Neale will 
 be ordered by the Bishop of Eome to oppose your Lordship's orders 
 from the King's Highness — for the natives are much in numbers within 
 his powers. I do pray the Lord Christ to defend your Lordship from 
 your enemies. — Dublin, 4 Kalend. Septerabris, 1535. 
 
 "Geoege Beowne." 
 
 See also the same Prelate's letter, in 1538 : — 
 
 "Right Honourable My duty premised, it may please your 
 
 Lordship to be advertised, sithence my last there has come to Ardmagh 
 and his Clergy a private commission from the Bishop of Rome, prohibit- 
 ing his gracious Highness's people here in this nation to own his Royal 
 Supremacy; and joining a curse to all them and theirs who shall not 
 ■within forty days confess to their confessors (after the publishing it to 
 them) that they have done amiss in so doing ; the substance, as our 
 Secretary bath translated the same into English, is thus : 
 
 " ' I, A. B., from the present hour forward, in the presence of the 
 
The Reformation tmder Henry VIII. 1 8 9 
 
 there, placing- it under an Interdict, exciting the Princes 
 of Europe to join in war against Henry, cutting him off 
 
 Holy Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin mother of God, of St. Peter, of 
 the Holy Apostles, Archangels, Angels, Saints, and of all the holy host 
 of Heaven, shall and will be always obedient to the Holy See of St. Peter 
 at Rome, and his successors, in all things, as well spiritual as temporal, 
 not consenting in the least that his Holiness shall lose the least title or 
 dignity belonging to the Papacy of our Mother Church of Rome, or to 
 the Regality of St. Peter. 
 
 " ' I do vow and swear to maintain, help, and assist the just laws, 
 liberties, and rights of the Mother Church of Rome. 
 
 " ' I do likewise promise to confer, defend, and promote, if not per- 
 sonally, yet willingly, as in ability able, either by advice, skill, estate, 
 money, or otherwise, the Church of Rome, and her laws, against all 
 whatsoever resisting the same. 
 
 " ' 1 further vow to oppugn all Sereticks, either in making or setting 
 forth edicts or commands contrary to the Mother Church of Rome ; and 
 in case any such be moved or composed, to resist it to the uttermost of 
 my power, with the first convenience and opportunity I can. 
 
 " ' I count and value all Acts made or to be made hy heretical powers 
 of no force or worth, or to be practised or oheyed hy myself, or by any 
 other son of the Mother Church of Rome. 
 
 " ' I do further declare him or hev, father or mother, brother or sister, 
 sou or daughter, uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, kinsman or kinswoman, 
 master or mistress, and all others, nearest or dearest relations, friends, or 
 acquaintance whatsoever, accursed, that either do or shall hold for the 
 time to come, any ecclesiastical or civil authority above the authority 
 of the Mother Church ; or that do or shall obey, for the time to come, 
 any of her the Mother Church's opposers or enemies, or contrary to the 
 same, of which I have here sworn unto. So God, the Blessed Virgin, 
 St. Peter, St. Paul, and the holy Evangelists help,' &c. 
 
 " His Highness's Viceroy of this nation is of little or no power with 
 the old natives, therefore your Lordship will expect of me no more than 
 I am able. This nation is poor in wealth, and not sufficient now at 
 present to oppose them. It is observed, that ever since his Highness's 
 ancestors had this nation in possession, the old natives have been 
 craving foreign powers to assist and rule them : and now both English 
 race and Irish begin to oppose your Lordship's orders, and do lay aside 
 their national old quarrels, which I four, if any thing will cause a 
 foreigner to invade this nation, that will. I pray God I may be a 
 false prophet, yet your good Lordship must pardon mine opinion, for 
 I write it to your Lordship as a warning. Your humble and true ser- 
 
1 90 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 from Christian burial, commanding his subjects to rebel 
 against their Sovereign, to expel him from his kingdom, 
 and requiring children to curse their own Parents, if 
 they did not uphold her Supremacy, we cannot feel 
 much surprise that the Crown should have resorted to 
 summary measures in order to extirpate a Power which 
 resorted to such godless means for attaining its unlawful 
 ends. 
 
 7. Further, let us observe that the Acts of the Parlia- 
 ment and Princes of Ireland rejecting the Pope's Supre- 
 macy and acknowledging the Supremacy of the Crown, 
 afterwards received full Ecclesiastical sanction (as will 
 be shown in the next Discourse), in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, when they were authorized and ratified by 
 
 vant, George Browne. — Dublin, May 1538." See Waee's Antiquities, 
 p. 152. Cox, Hist. i. p. 257. Mant, i. p. 139. 
 
 The following letter was wTitten by the Bishop of Metz, in the name 
 of the Council of Cardinals, to O'Nial ; and a Franciscan friar was des- 
 patched into Ireland as the bearer of it : — 
 
 " My son O'Nial, — Thou and thy fathers were ever faithful to the 
 Mother Church of Rome : his Holiness Paul, the present Pope, and 
 his council of holy fathers, have lately found an ancient prophecy of 
 one St. Lazerianus, an Irish Archbishop of Cashel ; it saith, that ' the 
 Church of Home shall snrely fall, when the Catholic Faith is once over- 
 thrown in Ireland :' therefore, for the glory of the Mother Church, the 
 honour of St. Peter, and your own security, suppress heresy, and oppose 
 the enemies of his Holiness. You see that when the Roman faith 
 perisheth in Ireland, the See of Rome is fated to utter destruction. 
 The Council of Cardinals have therefore thought it necessary to animate 
 the people of the holy island in this pious cause, being assured, that 
 whilst the Mother Church hath sons of such worth as you, and those 
 who shall unite witli you, she shall not fall, but prevail for ever in 
 some degree, at least, in Britain. Having thus obeyed the order of 
 the sacred Council, we recommend your princely person to the pro- 
 tection of the Holy Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin, of St. Peter, Sf. 
 Paul, and all the host of Heaven. Amen." See Leland, p. 172, 
 vol. ii. 
 
The Reformation tmder Henry VIII. 191 
 
 the Irish Church in her Sjmods, and by the Bishops and 
 Clergy of that Church in their own persons. 
 
 8. Yet more, even if it could be proved that the 
 Reformation in Ireland, as commenced under Heniy the 
 Eighth, were null and void, through want of adequate 
 authority (which has never been shown, and never will 
 be), yet the present position of the Church of Ireland 
 would not be impaired thereby, for she does not rest her 
 claims on the Acts of that Sovereign or of Princes and 
 Prelates of that time, — nor even on those which were 
 subsequently performed under his daughter, Queen Eli- 
 zabeth, and which had full Ecclesiastical authority, — 
 nor does she build on any human foundation; but she 
 rests her claim on the Word of Christ, explained by the 
 Voice of Antiquity, and by the practice of the Irish 
 Church in its earliest and best times. 
 
 IV. We have seen in the present and preceding 
 Discourses, that, although from the Twelfth Century, 
 for more than three hundred years in succession, the 
 Bishop of Rome, aided by the Crown and Hierarchy of 
 England, had endeavoured by all means in his power to 
 make Ireland a fief of the Papacy, yet in the sixteenth 
 century' the Princes of Ireland did not recognize the 
 
 ' Archbp. Bbamhall, Works, i. p. 122. " We find that in Ireland, 
 in the 33rd year of Henry VIII., not the Irish only, as the O'Neals, 
 O'Reillys, O'Birnes, O'Carrols, &c., but also the English families, as the 
 Desmonds, Barries, Roches, Bourkes, did make their submission by 
 indenture, to Sir Anthony Sellenger, the chief governor of that 
 kingdom, whereby they acknowledged King Henry to be their Sovereign 
 Lord, and confessed the king's jurisdiction in all causes, and utterly 
 renounced the jurisdiction of the Pope (Council Book of Ireland, 32, 33, 
 34 of Henry VIII.)." 
 
192 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Bishop of Rome as having by law, human or divine, 
 any authority, civil or ecclesiastical, in that land ; but 
 they reprobated and rejected the Supremacy, which he 
 claimed, as a tjTannical usurpation, and bound them- 
 selves to exterminate it as such. 
 
 The Reformation in Ireland, under Henry VIII., was 
 limited to this one point — that of Supremacy. This 
 course of events may be regarded as providential, for 
 that article was thus brought prominently before the 
 eyes of the world. And on this point, let us remember, 
 the fabric of Romanism rests. This was a subject which 
 did not require abstruse theological learning. It re- 
 solved itself mainly into a question of fact. "What was 
 the verdict of History? Had the Roman Pontiff been 
 Supreme in Ireland from the beginning? This was a 
 question which could be answered by the Princes and 
 Nobles of Ireland. And they did answer it. Though 
 they had been trained in Romish schools, and were still 
 adherents, in most respects, of Romish doctrine, they 
 gave judgment against the claims of Rome to Supre- 
 macy in Ireland". They pledged themselves to liberate 
 their country from her yoke ^. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice Beabazon, May 1536. "The Commons House 
 (ill Iiehmd) is marvellous good for the King's cause, and all the 
 learned men within the same be verie good." This refers to the 
 Irish Acts cited above, 28 Heni^ VIII., State Papers, vol. ii. pt. iii. 
 p. 316. 
 
 - See Dr. Phelan's Policy of the Church of Rome in Ireland, &c. 
 p. 82. " When Henry VIII. asserted his claim to the sovereignty of 
 the island, all the nobles arrayed themselves on the side of the Crown. 
 They abolished the subordinate title of Lord, the only one which the 
 Pope had permitted to be assumed, and proclaimed him King of Ireland, 
 
The Refoi^mation tmder Henry VIII. 1 93 
 
 After a lapse of three centuries, it would appear, 
 this question is now to be argued again in our own 
 day, and the emergencies of the times require that we 
 should carefully examine it, involving, as it does, momen- 
 tous consequences, public and private, temporal and 
 eternal. 
 
 If the claim of the Bishop of Rome to exercise 
 spiritual Supremacy in Ireland is founded on divine 
 Law, and on primitive practice, then let us not oppose 
 it, lest we be found to fight against God. Let Ireland 
 again become — what she was from the end of the twelfth 
 to the middle of the sixteenth century — a province of 
 Rome. 
 
 and Supreme Head of the Church. In their written indentures of 
 submission, tliey bound themselves utterly to deny, and promised to 
 forsake, the iisiirpcd primacy and authority of the Bishop of Konie, and 
 to resist all tliiil slinuUl uphold it — to 'annihilate his usurped primacy, 
 and crailiciitc all his favourers.' 
 
 " All these deeds are drawn up nearly in the same terms. See 
 Leland, ii. 178. 182. Cox, Hist. p. 268. 271. O'Conou, Hist. Address, 
 ii. 279. State Papers, Henry VIII., a.d. 1541, vol. iii. pt. iii. p. 353. 
 422. 
 
 " These chieftains had learned from the early annals of their country, 
 and from the more recent usages of those districts which had struggled 
 to maintain their internal economy against the encroachments of Rome 
 and England, that the pretended right of Popes to nominate to Churcli 
 dignities, to demand first-fruits and other taxes, to exempt church- 
 men from secular tribunals, to enforce canons independent of, some- 
 times contrary to, the law of the country, had been unlcnoivn in 
 Ireland, until the Popes claimed it tis a province of the royalties of 
 their Sec. 
 
 " This unanimity is more remarkable (p. 91), as being in defiance of • 
 the denunciations of the Vatican. Heni-y had been excommunicated 
 by Paul III., who pronounced him dethroned, and doomed to eternal 
 curse and damnation ; and curses had been denounced against all who 
 should ackuowledge his claim." 
 
 O 
 
194 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 But if this claim have no such foundation, let us 
 manfully resist it, as a corrupt and novel usurpation, 
 contrary to the Word of God, and derogatory to the 
 dignity of our Divine Head, and to the just claims of 
 our earthly Rulers whom He hath set over us. . . And 
 may God defend the Right ! 
 
The Reformatio7i under Henry VIII. 195 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 State Papees, vol. ii. p. 564. Henry VIII. Pt. III. 
 A.D. 1538. 
 
 T}ie Fourme of the Beades (before Sermons). 
 
 Ye shall praye for the Universall Catholicke Churche, both 
 quicke and ded ; and especiallye for the Churche of Inglande 
 and lerland. 
 
 Furste, for Our Soveraine *Lorde the Kinge, Supreme 
 Hedde. in yerthe immediate under Godd of the saide Churche 
 of Inglande and lerlande. And for the declaracion of the 
 truthe thereof, ye shall understande, that the unlaufull 
 jurisdiction, pour, and autoritie, of longe tyme usurped hy 
 the Bisshop of Borne, in Inglande and lerlande, who then 
 was called Pope, is now by Goddis Law justehe, laufuUie 
 and uppon good groundes, reasons, and causes, by autoritie 
 of Parliament, and by and with thole consent and agremente 
 of all the Bisshopes, Prelates, and both the Universities of 
 Oxforde and Cambridge, and also thole Clergie both of 
 Inglande and Irelande, extincte and ceasid for ever, as of no 
 strenght, valew, or effect, in the Churche of Inglande or 
 lerlande. In the whiche Churche, the said hole Clergie, 
 Bisshopes, and Prelates, withe the Universities of Oxforde 
 and Cambridge, have accordinge to Goddis Lawes, and upon 
 good and laufuU reasons and groundes, knowleged the 
 Kinges Highnes to be Supreme Hedde in yerth, immediate 
 under Godd, of this Churche of Inglande and Irelande ; 
 o 2 
 
96 
 
 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Whiche ther knowlege confessede, being now by Parlia- 
 ment established, and by Goddis Lawes justifiable to be 
 ustelie executed, so ought everie trew Christen subjeete 
 of this lande not onelie to knowlege, and obedientlie re- 
 cognise the Kinges Highnes to be Supreme Hedd in yerth 
 of the Churche of Inglande and lerlande, but also to speak, 
 publishe, and teache theire childern and servantes the same, 
 and to shew unto theym, how that the saide Bisshop of 
 Rome hathe herretofore usui"ped not onelie uppon Godd, but 
 also upon our Princes. 
 
 " Wherefore and to thentent that ye shulde the better 
 beleve me herein, and take and reeeyve the truthe, as ye 
 ought to doo, I declare this unto youe, not onelie of mysellF, 
 whiche I know to be trew, but also declare unto youe that 
 the same is certified unto me frome the mought of my 
 Ordinary, the Archbisshopp of Dublyn, under his scale, 
 whiche I have here redy to. shew youe ; so that now it 
 apperithe playnelie that the saide Bisshop of Mome hath 
 nother autoritie, ne pour, in this lande, nor never had hy 
 Goddis Lawes. 
 
 " Therefore I exorte youe all, that ye deface Mm in all 
 your primars, and other bokes, where he is namyd Fope, and 
 that ye shall have, from hensfoi-the, no confidens nor truste 
 in hym, nor in his bulles or letters of pardons, which, 
 beforetime, with his jogelinge castes of bynding and losinge, 
 he soldo unto youe for your money, promysinge youe therfore 
 forgyveues of your synnes, where of trewth no man can 
 forgyve synnes, but Godd onelie ; and also that ye fere not 
 his greate thunder clappes of excoramunicacion, or interdic- 
 tion, for thejr cannot hurte youe: 
 
 " But lett us put all our confidence and truste in our 
 Savior, Jesus Christe, which is gentill and lovynge, and 
 requyrith nothinge of us, when we have ofiendid Him, but 
 that we shulde repente and forsake our synnes, and beleve 
 stedfastelie that He is Christe, the Sonne of the Lyving Godd, 
 
The Reformation under Henry VIII. 1 97 
 
 and that He died for our synnes, and so forthe, as it is con- 
 teyned in the Credo ; and that through Hym, and by Hym, 
 and by non other, we shall have remission of our synnes, a 
 pena et culpa, accordinge to His promises made to us in 
 many and dyvers places of Scripture." 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 REFORMATION IN THE REIGNS OP KING EDWARD VI. 
 AND QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 2 Kings xxii. 2. 
 " Se did that which was right in the sight of the Lord." 
 
 TN the inspired history of the successive Religious Re- 
 formations, conducted under the direction of the 
 Princes of God's ancient People, the Jews, we see divers 
 characteristics of human action, and different degrees of 
 divine approbation. 
 
 Thus it is recorded of Jehu king of Israel that he pro- 
 fessed zeal for the LorcP. But it is also said that he 
 acted with sultilty^, and slew the worshippers of Baal 
 with treachery, and that he took no heed to walk in the 
 law of the Lord with all his heart; for though he de- 
 stroyed the idolatrous worship of Baal which had been 
 introduced by Ahab ^, yet, from motives probably of 
 State- Policy, in order that his subjects might not resort 
 to Jerusalem and return to the unity of the Church, he 
 clung to the heretical and schismatical religion set up by 
 King Jeroboam ^ 
 
 ' 2 Kings ix. 20. = 2 Kings x. 19. 
 
 3 1 Kings xvi. 31. 2 Kings xi. 29. 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 199 
 
 Stillj as has been observed on a former occasion 
 Almighty God vouchsafed to award even to Jehu a cer- 
 tain meed of approbation ; Because thou hast done well in 
 executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done 
 unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in Mine 
 heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the 
 throne of Israel^. 
 
 The Reformations in the Church of Judah were of a 
 better character than those in Israel. King Asa de- 
 stroyed idolatry, and made a covenant with God, and 
 removed his mother from being queen because of idola- 
 try. But the high places still remained Yet it is 
 said of Asa that he did that which was right, even as 
 David, and that his heart was perfect all his days*. 
 
 King Jehoshaphat proceeded further in the work of 
 Reformation. He sent Levites throughout the cities of 
 Judah with the Word of God in their hands He took 
 away the high places and groves out of Judah'. Still 
 some remained ^. Yet of him it is said that he did that 
 which was right in the sight of the Lord^ . 
 
 The Reformation carried on under King Hezekiah 
 was of a still more comprehensive character. He re- 
 opened and purified the Temple ; he re-organized its 
 sacred services ; he exhorted and encouraged the Priests 
 and Levites to sanctify themselves; he convoked the 
 
 • See Serm. V. « 2 Kings x. 30. 
 
 ' 1 Kings XV. 14. 2 Chron. xiv. and xv. 
 
 8 1 Kings XV. 14. 2 Chron. xv. 17. 2 Chron. xvii. 6. 
 
 ' 2 Chron. xvii. 6. 
 
 - 1 Kings xxii. 43. 2 Chron. xix. 2 ; xx. 33. i. e. he removed those 
 which had been used for idolatrous purposes only. * 
 » 2 Chron. xx. 32. 
 
200 The CImrch History of Ireland. 
 
 people of Judah, and all the remnant of Israel, to a 
 solemn act of National Repentance ; he summoned them 
 from Dan to Beersheba to appear before the Lord at 
 Jerusalem, and celebrate the Feast of the Passover*. 
 Of him it is written, he wrought that which was good 
 and right and truth before the Lord his God, and in every 
 work that he began in the service of the house of God, and 
 in the Law, and in the Commandments, to seek his God, he 
 did it with all his heart, and prospered 
 
 Yet something still remained to be done. The altar 
 at Bethel, which Jeroboam had built, and the high place 
 where he offered incense, still stood. They were thrown 
 down by the youthful king, Josiah*. The people had 
 fallen into great ignorance and contempt of the Holy 
 Scriptures, in the reign of Manasseh, who succeeded 
 Hezekiah. Josiah recovered and restored the Word of 
 God', and caused it to be read in the ears of all the 
 people. He celebrated a Passover, snch as no Passover 
 was ever kept since the days of Samuel the Prophet And 
 like vntn h'na vas no king before him, that turned to the 
 Lord willt all li'iH hcuri, and with all his soul, and with all 
 his tnigh t, according to all the law of Moses ; neither after 
 him arose any like him''. 
 
 Thus we see a great diversity of character in these 
 successive Reformations. Scarcely any of them was free 
 from blemish; yet each of them is noticed with some 
 
 < 2 C'liron. xxx. 5 2 Chron. xxxi. 20, 21. 
 
 « 2 Kings xxiii. 15. 1 Kings xii. 28. 33. 
 
 7 2 Chron. *civ. 17—30. « 2 Chron. xxxv. 18. 
 
 9 2 Kings xxiii. 25. 
 
Edward V I. and Elizabeth. 20 1 
 
 mark of approval in Holy Writ. And though the 
 Church and Nation for which these princes laboured, did 
 not escape God^s fierce retribution, yet doubtless they had 
 their reward even upon earth, in the increased happi-" 
 ness of their people, consequent on national repentance, 
 in their own ag-e ; and their names are recorded with 
 praise, and their examples are proposed for our imitation, 
 by the Holy Spirit Himself in the pages of Holy Writ. 
 
 Hence we may learn to cherish a spirit of forbear- 
 ance and charity in reviewing the successive acts of 
 religious Reformation in our own country, especially 
 in Ireland. 
 
 The Reformation in that land was commenced and 
 carried on by human instruments, subject to human 
 infirmities. Some of those who were engaged in it were 
 actuated by vicious motives ; and the fruits of the Refor- 
 mation, it must be confessed, have not been so abundant 
 as could be wished. We shall hereafter have occasion 
 to show that this was due, in a great measure, to the 
 unscrupulous arts of Rome, refusing to be reformed, 
 excommunicating the Sovereign of Ireland, and stirring 
 up the people to Rebellion ', and lighting up the flames 
 
 ' BrTLER, C. (Roman Catholic), Memoirs, ii. p. 358. " The [de- 
 posing] Bull of Pius V. was communicated to the Irish by Dr. Saunders, 
 who in 1579 was sent by the Pope as his nuncio into Ireland. The 
 Earl of Desmond was encouraged [to rebel] by a Bull of Pope Gre- 
 gory XIII., dated 13tli May, 1580, and the insurrection of Hugh 
 O'Neil was encouraged by Pope Clement VIII. by a Bull dated 16th 
 April, 1600. The Bulls of Gregory bestow on the insurgents the same 
 indulgences as the Pope's See usually bestows on those who make 
 war against the Turks." 
 
 The same writer says (i. p. 193), " The claim of the Popes to tem- 
 poral power by divine right has been one of the most calamitous events 
 in the History of the Church. Its efi'ects on the Irish and English 
 
•2oa The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 of Civil War^ by which Churches were destroyed, aad 
 the growth of the Gospel checked, and Religion bhghted 
 and withered. 
 
 • The fact is confessed : the work of Reformation in 
 Ireland is still incomplete. Much, very much, yet 
 remains to be done, — done by us and our posterity. 
 And may God enable us to do it ! But are we, there- 
 fore, to forget what was done by our forefathers ? Are 
 we to look coldly on it ? Are we to denounce it ? No. 
 — Heaven preserve us from such a sin of injustice and 
 ingratitude to God ! If the work itself deserves, in any 
 respect, the name of a Religious Reformation, — if it 
 was, in any degree, a rejection of what was false, and a 
 restoration of what is true, — if it has unsealed the Word 
 of God, and opened it to the eyes of the people; if it 
 has liberated the "Worship of God from the prison-house 
 of a dead language, — then let its defects be ascribed to 
 its human agents, and let Almighty God be thanked for 
 the good which He effected by their agency. Let us 
 learn wisdom and charity from the Holy Spirit Himself, 
 Who, in recording the various processes of Reformation 
 operated under different princes in the Ancient Church 
 of God, is not extreme to mark what was done amiss, or to 
 note what was left undone, but concedes praise to a 
 
 Catholics have been dreadful." Of Pius the Fifth's Bull, Regnans in 
 excelsis, deposing Queen Elizabeth, he says, p. 195, " Such was this 
 celebrated Bull, ever to be condemned, ever to be lamented." P- 197 : 
 " When the Armada was in preparation and almost ready to sail, 
 Pope Sixtus the Fifth, by a Bull which he directed to be published as 
 soon as the Spanish army should land in England, renewed the Sentence 
 of Pius V. and Gregory XIII. concerning the deposition of Queen 
 Elizabeth, declaring her illegitimate, and an usurper, and discharging 
 her subjects from all obedience to her." 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 203 
 
 Jehu as well as to a Josiah. And if we desire that our 
 names should be written in the Book of Life, let us not 
 be blind to what was good, and mark only what was 
 evil, but let us endeavour to correct and purify what 
 was evU, and to confirm and amplify what was good. 
 
 Having already reviewed the commencement of Re- 
 formation in Ireland in the reign of King Henry VIII., 
 at which period the question of Supremacy, which is 
 the whole main question of the controversy, was agi- 
 tated and determined in Ireland, we are led to consider 
 whether the acts of the Irish Church and Nation, in 
 the reigns of King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, 
 are entitled to the name of a Religious Reformation. 
 
 They who censure those acts allege that they have no 
 just claim to such an honourable designation, because — 
 
 I. They were done in an irregular manner. And, 
 
 II. Because they were vicious in matter. 
 
 I. First, then, as to the manner of their performance. 
 
 It has been objected against the Reformation in 
 Ireland that it was not effected, as in England, by the 
 counsel and sanction of the Bishops aud Clergy in 
 Convocation assembled, but merely by Acts of Parlia- 
 ment ; — that it was a work of the civil power alone, 
 acting independently and in contravention of the lawful 
 Ecclesiastical authority; and is, therefore, destitute of 
 spiritual validity, and ought to be condemned and re- 
 jected as an irreligious invasion of the rights of the 
 Church, and as an encroachment on the prerogatives of 
 her Divine Head. 
 
204 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Let us examine the grounds of this allegation. 
 
 The Reformation in England, it is true, was con- 
 ducted by the instrumentality of the Bishops and Clergy 
 in Convocation assembled, as well as by the Parliament 
 and the Crown ; and with good reason ; for, in England, 
 the Ecclesiastical body, called the Convocation, which 
 grew up in the reign of King Edward I. gradually 
 attained the position which had been formerly occupied, 
 and executed some of the functions which had formerly 
 been discharged, by Provincial Synods, consisting of 
 Bishops. Thus, in 'England, at the era of the Refor- 
 mation, the Convocation, consisting of Two Houses, 
 Bishops and Clergy, was, indeed, as one of our Canons 
 of 1603 expresses it, "The true Church of England by 
 representation-*." And such it has remained even to 
 this day. Therefore what was done by the Convocation 
 was done in a regular and constitutional manner by the 
 Church herself. 
 
 Such was the case with England ; bat such was not 
 the case in Ireland. There, no such body as a Con- 
 vocation, consisting of two houses, existed at the 
 Reformation, nor till fifty years after it. The Church 
 of Ireland was governed, in spiritual affairs, according 
 to the ancient practice of the Universal Church, — by 
 Synods, or Councils of Bishops. Not that Ecclesiastical 
 matters were not occasionally considered and concluded 
 in mixed ■* Assemblies, which were sometimes called 
 
 ' See Archbp. Wake's State of the Church, pp. 238—244. Lond. 
 1703, folio. ■' Canon cxxxix. 
 
 See above, p. 183. On ihe mixed character of ancient Irisli Par- 
 liaments, see the remarks of Archdn. Stopfoed, Irish Eccl. Journal, 
 No. 67. 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 205 
 
 Councils^ and sometimes termed Parliaments; and at 
 these. Nobles and other Laymen, as well as Prelates, 
 were present, and gave their assent to what was pro- 
 pounded by Bishops. 
 
 But what we would observe is, that at the epoch of 
 the Reformation, the Irish Church had no such body as 
 the English Convocation And it is indeed prepos- 
 tex'ous to censure the Irish Reformation, as some igno- 
 rantly have done, because it was not conducted by means 
 pecuUar to England, and because it was not transacted 
 by a body which did not exist ! 
 
 II. But, it may be asked, — 
 
 Was, then, the Irish Reformation, in the reigns of King 
 Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, carried on in a regu- 
 lar and orderly manner, by lawful Synods of the Church ? 
 
 5 Eleingtok, Dr. R. C. (in Irish Eccl. Journ. No. 69.) "There never 
 was a Convocation in Ireland before 1614. AVe are so in the habit of 
 identifying the Convocation with the voice of the Clergy, that we forget 
 that their interference in ecclesiastical matters was (originally due to) 
 
 an usurpation To the Si/nods of the Clergy, and not to the 
 
 Convocation, belonged of right in England, from the earliest times, 
 the framing of Articles and Canons, and arranging other ecclesiastical 
 matters, — a power wliich was insensibly transferred to the Convocation. 
 
 " In Ireland, the necessity had never existed of forming a Convocation 
 for arranging the civil matters connected with the Clergy. And therefore 
 
 the Synod remained the only ecclesiastical Assembly It was this 
 
 legitimate Assembly of the Church which confirmed the change (the 
 Reformation in Ireland). Well might Archbp. Bramhall express his 
 approbation of the mode in which the Reformation (in this respect) 
 was established in Ireland, and state the important fact, that, in con- 
 sequence of the unanimity among the Bishops, not a shadow of a doubt 
 had ever been thrown on the legitimate succession of our Church." 
 
 That no Convocation then existed in Ireland is also evident from the 
 fact that the Clergy were taxed with other subjects of the Crown by 
 Parliament. 
 
2o6 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 To this question we reply^ deliberately and unhesi- 
 tatingly, — Yes. 
 
 In the year 1551 °, a Synod of Irish Bishops received 
 and authorized the English Liturgy, in place of the 
 Latin Service Book . 
 
 This was the main Act of Reformation in Ireland, 
 under King Edward VI. 
 
 In the year 1560-1, the third of Queen Elizabeth, a 
 Synod of Irish Bishops was held for " establishing the 
 Protestant Religion*." 
 
 And what was determined in this Synod of Bishops ? 
 
 It sanctioned the Reformation. 
 
 « Ware's Bishops, p. 350. "The King Edward VI. sent over an 
 order dated Feb. 6, 1550, for the reading of the Liturgy and Prayers 
 in the mother tongue : which was first observed in Christ Church, 
 Dublin, on Easter-day, 1551. Before the Proclamation for observing 
 this Order was issued, the Lord Deputy convened an assembly of the 
 Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy, and signified to them the King's 
 order, and the opinions of the Bishops and Clergy in England who 
 adhered to the same there." 
 
 ' See Dr. Elrington's Life of Abp. Ussher, p. 40. "In 1551, 
 Edward VI. sent an order that the Liturgy of the Church of England 
 should be read in Ireland. Before this order. Sir Anthony St. Leger 
 is not reported to have summoned a Convocation;" "but," says Cox, 
 " before he issued a proclamation for the observance of it, he called an 
 Assembly of the Archbishops and Bishops, with others of the then 
 Clergy of Ireland, to propose the matter to thein." On this Synod 
 of Bishops and Clergy, held 1st March, 1551, to receive the English 
 Liturgy, which was put in use on Easter-day, 1551, see Bp. Mant,.!. 
 p. 195. 
 
 The English Book of Common Prayer was the first book printed in 
 Dublin. Mant, i. p. 204. A copy of this edition is preserved in the 
 Library of Trin. Coll., Dublin. 
 
 8 Ware's Anuals of Ireland, p. 3, a.d. 1560. " The Earl of Sussex 
 having been in England some months, returned again, and took his oath 
 as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Within three weeks after whicli came 
 letters from Her Majesty to him signifying her pleasure for a general 
 meeting of the Clergy of Ireland and the establishment of the Pro- 
 testant Religion through the several dioceses of this kingdom." 
 
Edwai'd VI. and Elizabeth. 207 
 
 And how does this appear ? 
 As follows : — 
 
 The Synod consisted of Bishops*. Now it is well 
 known that Twenty Irish Bishops ' were present in the 
 
 » See Dr. Eleington's Life of Abp. Ussher, p. 40. " In the 
 second year of Elizabeth (a.d. 1559-60) [Queen Elizabeth came to the 
 throne 17th Nov., 1558] a Parliament was held, and no mention is made 
 of a Convocation, though acts with respect to the Church were passed. 
 There is indeed a passage in the MS. Collections of Dudley Loftus which 
 has been adduced as a proof of a Convocation having been held in 1560. 
 ' This yeare was held a Convocation of Bishops, at the Queen's com- 
 mand, for establishing the Protestant Religion.' But he must have 
 used the word ' Convocation ' merely to express a meeting of the 
 Bishops, and would have adopted a very different phraseology, had 
 he intended to describe the assembling of a Convocation of Bishops 
 (and Clergy). 
 
 " In the third year of Elizabeth (a.d. 1560-1) there was not any 
 Parliament, yet she signifies her pleasure to Lord Sussex, the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, for a general meeting of the Clergy, and the establishment 
 of the Protestant Keligion. 
 
 " This was an order to summon not a Convocation, but the Ancient 
 Synod of the Clergy, which had the power of settling all matters 
 concerning religion. 
 
 " In England, the. Convocation, originally instituted for the purpose 
 of managing the temporal concerns of the Clergy (see Btjen, Art. 
 Convocation), had gradually usurped the power of the Provincial 
 Synod; in Ireland the Provincial Synod had not been superseded; 
 and by their consent, given at three different times (in the reign of 
 Edward, when summoned by Sir A. St. Leger; in the third Elizabeth, 
 when called together by Lord Sussex; and in 1565, by Sir Henry 
 Sydney), the Clergy received the use of the English Liturgy, and 
 expressed their conformity to the doctrines of the English Church. 
 
 " The Reformation then in Ireland was carried on by the regular 
 assembly, to which the afi'airs of the Church ought canonically to be 
 entrusted." 
 
 ' Mr. Haediman, in his edition of the Statute of Kilkenny, Ap- 
 pendix, p. 135, has printed, for the first time, a list of the Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal, &c., of the first Irish Parliament held at Dublin 
 A.D. 1560, 2nd Eliz., January the eleventh, " coram Thoma Comite de 
 Sussex, Deputato Regni Hibernise." It contains the names of three 
 Archbishops and seventeen Bishops. 
 
 Mr. Hardiman has also printed a similar list of the Lords Spiritual 
 
2o8 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Irish Parliament in 1559-60 (the year before that in 
 which this Synod was held), when the usurped power of 
 the Bishop of Rome was renounced, and when Acts were 
 passed for "restoring to the Crown its ancient juris- 
 diction/'' and for "uniformity in religious worship," and 
 wherein it was provided that all Ministers of the Church 
 in Ireland should " use the English Liturgy as set forth 
 in the Book of Common Prayer 
 
 and Temporal in the Parliament holden before the Rt. Hon. Sir John 
 Perrot, Knight, Lord Deputy General of the realme of Ireland, 26th 
 April, A.D. 1585. 
 
 Tlie list contains four Archbishops and twenty-two Bishops. These 
 lists are preserved in tlie Rolls' Office, Dublin. 
 
 2 2 Eliz. c. 1 (Irish Acts) recites, that good laws were made in the 
 reign of Henry VIII. for the utter extinguishment of all usurped 
 foreign powers out of the realm, and for restoring to the imperial 
 crown of the realm its ancient jurisdiction, by which laws it was 
 disburdened of di\ers great and intolerable exactions, revives the said 
 laws ; and enjoins that the Oath of the Queen's Supremacy be taken by 
 every Ecclesiastical Person and by lay officers ; and imposes a penalty 
 for maintaining any foreign jurisdiction in the Realm ; declares what 
 is and what is nu/ to be adjudged heresy. 
 
 Acts Irish Paul., 2 Eliz. c. 1, "An Act for restoring to the Crown 
 the ancient jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical, and abolishing 
 all foreign power repugnant to the same," estalilislies Oaths of Supre- 
 macy and Allegiance, A.D. 1560, to be taken l)v every Archbishop, 
 Bishop, and all Ecclesiastics, and all civil Magistrates, on pain of 
 deprivation. 
 
 Acts Ieish, 2 Eliz. c. 1, a.d. 1560, provides that "no person, 
 noininat<il l>y the Crown, have power to adjudge any matter to bo 
 hi, -I -ill- nnllv s\icb as heretofore hath bcene determined to bee heresie 
 by the autlioritie of the Canonical Scriptures, or by the first four 
 General Councils, or by any other general Council wherein the 
 same was declared heresie by the express and plain words of the said 
 Canonical Scriptures, or shall be judged heresie by the High Court of 
 Parliament of this Realme." 
 
 2 Eliz. c. 2, An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and 
 Service of the Church, and administration of Sacraments, in every 
 Cathedral and Parish Church, or other place, according to the use 
 of the Church of England, within the Realme of Ireland, in the EngHsh 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 209 
 
 All the Bishops of Ireland took the Oath of Supre- 
 macy, and conformed to that Liturgy, except two, who 
 had been placed by Queen Mary in the Sees of Meath 
 and Kildare, from which the lawful Prelates had been 
 ejected '' by her because they were married men. Those 
 two intruders whom Queen Mary had appointed were 
 displaced, in their turn, in the following reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and their rooms were filled by two Bishops, 
 who took the Oath of Supremacy, and conformed to the 
 English Liturgy ^. 
 
 tongue. In places where the Priest hath not the knowledge of English, 
 it shall be lawful for him to say it in Latin. 
 
 The Oath of Supremacy, by 2 Eliz. c. 1, is as follows: — "I, A. B., 
 doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queen's 
 Highnesse is the only Supream Governor of this Realme, and of all 
 other her Majesties dominions and countries, as well in all Spiritual 
 and Ecclesiastical things and causes as temporall, and that no forreine 
 pri^e, person, prelate, state, or potentate, holds, or ought to have 
 any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority. Eccle- 
 siastical or Spiritual, within this Realme ; and therefore I doe utterly 
 renounce and forsake all forreiu jurisdiction, power, superiorities, and 
 pre-eminences." 
 
 ^ Ware's Bishops, p. 92. " In April, 1554, a commission arrived 
 from Queen Mary to Archbishop Dowdall, and to William Walsh, elect 
 Bishop of Meath, and others, empowering them to deprive the married 
 Bishops and Clergy. On the 29th June they deprived Edward Staples, 
 Bishop of Meath ; and about the end of the same year, or the beginning 
 of the following, Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, Lancaster, Bishop of 
 Kildare, and Traverse, Bishop of Leighlin, met the same fate." Bishop 
 Staples writing to Sir W. Cecil, a.d. 1558 (Shirley's Collection, p. 87), 
 says, " After my services of 35 yeres, I was dry ven almost to begging, 
 thrust out of my house, cast from estimation, nor any cause why was 
 laid against me, but for that I did marry a wife, they did put an Irish 
 monk (William Walsh) in my place." 
 
 ^ See King's History, p. 758, a.d. 1560. " Nineteen or twenty of 
 the Prelates were present in the Parliament which restored the Queen's 
 supremacy, and of the whole body two only were dissentient, Walsh and 
 Leverous; these two are the only Irish prelates that appear to have 
 been deprived during Queen Elizabeth's reign:" p. 761, "All the 
 
 P 
 
210 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Thus the Irish Episcopate accepted the Keformation. 
 
 Nor did they accept it only; they authorized and 
 propagated it in Synod and singly. 
 
 In the year 1566, Twelve "Articles of Religion" 
 were published in Ireland*. These Articles were put 
 forth by the Irish Episcopate, and were subscribed by the 
 Irish Clergy. 
 
 The terms of these Articles are very important, as 
 indicating the Scriptural and Catholic spirit of the Irish 
 Reformation, not only in rejecting the errors and usur- 
 pations of Rome, but in professing the true Faith. And 
 they deserve to be better known than they appear to be. 
 Let me therefore recite some portion of them. They may 
 not be unseasonable at the present time. 
 
 These Twelve Articles are entitled, " Articles set forth 
 for the unitie of the doctrine to be holden and taught by 
 all Parsons, Vicars and Curates and are to be reaJ%y 
 them at "fyrste entrie into their Cures, and also after 
 that yerely at two several tymes of the yere." 
 
 In them the Parson reading them says, " I, having 
 
 other Bishops remained in their several sees, and from them the present 
 hishops have derived their order, being the true successors of the 
 Prelates of the ancient Irish Church." 
 
 Walsh and Leverous had been commissioners under Queen Mary, and 
 had identified themselves with the Papacy by depriving the Protestant 
 prelates in her reign. 
 
 5 " A brefe Declaration of certain Articles of Religion set out by 
 order and auctoritie, as well of the Right lion. Sir Henry Sydney, 
 Knight, &c., and General Deputie of this Realme of Ireland, as by the 
 Archebyshops, and Byshopes, and others, her Majesties Hygh Commis- 
 sioners for causes Ecclesiasticall in the same Realme. Imprynted at 
 Dublin, by Humfrey Powel, the 20 of January, 1566." See Dr. Eleing- 
 ton's Life of Ussher, p. 42, where they are printed in full. Ap- 
 pendix iii. Only one contemporary copy is known to exist. See 
 Elrington, p. 42. 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 211 
 
 before my eyes the feai-e of God and the testimonye of 
 my conscience, doo acknowledge for my selfe and doo 
 require you to assent to the same." 
 
 In the Second Article it is said, " I beleve whatsoever 
 is contained in the holy Canonical Scriptures, in the 
 which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to 
 Salvation. I doo most firmly beleeve and confesse all 
 the Articles contained in the three Credes,— the Nicene 
 Crede, Athanasian Crede, and our Common Crede ; for 
 these doo brefely coutene the principal Articles of our 
 Faith, which are at large set foorth in the Holye 
 Scripture. 
 
 " I acknowledge also the Church to be the Spouse of 
 Christ, wherein the Word of God is truely taught, the 
 Sacramentes orderly ministered, according to Christ's 
 institution, and the authoritye of the keyes duely used. 
 
 "I doo acknowledge the Queen's Majesties prero- 
 gative and superioritie of Government of all estates and 
 in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, within 
 this Realme, to be agreable to God's Word. 
 
 "Touching the Byshope of Rome, I do acknowledge 
 and confesse, that by the Scriptures and Worde of God 
 he hath no more aucthoritie than other Bishops have in 
 their Provinces and Dioceses, and therefore the Power 
 which he now challengeth, that is, to be Supreme Head 
 of the Universal Churche of Christ, and so to be above 
 all Emperours, Kings, and Princes, is an usurped power, 
 contrary to the Scriptures and Worde of God, and 
 contrary to the example of the Primitive Church, and 
 therefore is for most just causes taken away and abolished 
 within this Realm. 
 
 p 2 . 
 
■2 1 2 T/ie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 " I do graunt and confesse that the Boke of Common 
 Prayer, and Administration of the Holye Sacraments is 
 agreeable to the Scriptures, and that it is Catliolylce, 
 Apostolyhe, and most for the advancement of God's 
 Glorye and the edifynge of God's People, both for that it 
 is in a tongue that may be understanded by the people, 
 and also for the doctrine and forme of ministration con- 
 teyned in the same. 
 
 " I do not onely acknowledge that private Masses 
 were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive 
 Churche, but also that the Doctrine which mainteineth 
 the Masse to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the quicke 
 and deade and a meane to delyver soules out of Pur- 
 gatorye, is neither agreeable to Christ/s ordinance, nor 
 grounded upon doctrine Apostolicke, but contrarywise 
 most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Re- 
 demption of our Saviour Christ and His onely sufficient 
 sacrifice offered once for ever upon the altar of the cross. 
 
 " I am of that mynde also that the Holy Communion 
 or Sacrament of the body and bloude of Christ, ought to 
 be ministered unto the people under both kyndes, and 
 that it is avouched by certaine Fathers of the Church to 
 be a playne sacrilege to robbe them of the mysticall cup, 
 for whom Christ hath shed His most precious bloud, 
 seeinge He Himself hath said "^Drinke ye all of this.' 
 Consyderynge also that in the tyme of the auncient 
 doetours of the Church, as Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, 
 Gelasius, and others, VI hundred years after Christ and 
 more, both the partes of the Sacramente were admynis- 
 tered unto the people. 
 
 " As I do utterly disallowe the extoUynge of Images, 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 
 
 213 
 
 Kelicks and fayned miracles .... so, I do exhorte all 
 men to the obedyence of Gode's lawe and to the workes 
 of Faith, as charytie, mercy, pitye, almes, devout and 
 fervent prayer with the affection of the hart, and not 
 with the mouth only, godly abstinence and fastynge, 
 chastitie, obedience to the Rulers and Superior powers, 
 with such lyke workes and godlyness of lyfe, com- 
 manded by God in his worde, which as Sainte Paule 
 saith, hath promises both of this lyfe, and of the lyfe to 
 come^." 
 
 II. Such were the Doctrines put forth by the Autho- 
 rity of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland in the 
 year 1566, for general acceptance and public recital by 
 the Clergy of that kingdom. 
 
 It is well known that the Laity of Ireland at that 
 time generally resorted to the Churches ' in which these 
 
 6 1 Tim. iv. 8. 
 
 ' See Caete's Ormond, i. p. 33. "In Ireland, the Bishops complied 
 with the Reformation, and the Roman Catholics iu general resorted to 
 the churolies in which the English service was used." 
 
 See PnEL4N's Policy, p. 216, on the general Conformity of the Bishops 
 and Clergy of Ireland to the Reformation till the Bull of Pius V. and the 
 introduction of the Jesuits and other seminary priests into Ireland. 
 Memoirs of Panzaui, pp. 15. 19. Concerning the manner in which the 
 penal laws against recusancy were administered, or, rather, left in abey- 
 ance, see Leland, ii. 381. 
 
 The Oath of Supremacy was generally taken by Roman Catholics. 
 Phelan, p. 251. The following avowal is by a celebrated Roman Catholic 
 writer, Sandeks de Schismate, p. 342 : •' Ita factum est, ut maxima 
 catholicorum pars hostibus paulatim cederet, ut schisraaticorum Ecclesias, 
 conciones, communionem ac conventicula alitiuando publice adire non 
 rccusarent .... Regina et sui ab initio prreclare sccum agi cxisti- 
 mabant quod cum tot esseut antiquse fidei in regno cultores, plerosque 
 tamen scirent ritus a se praescriptos publice vel amplexari, vel praesentia, 
 sua utcunque exterius approbare." 
 
214 ^-^^^ Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Articles were recited and in which the Holy Scriptures 
 were read^ and the Reformed Liturgy was used : and 
 that they continued to do so from the accession of 
 Queen Elizabeth to the year 1570, when that Sovereign 
 was excommunicated by Pius V.^ 
 
 It has indeed been asserted that the Reformation in 
 Ireland was obtruded on an unwilling people by acts of 
 coercion, and by a severe penal code. This is not the 
 fact. It is true that the Oath of Supremacy was re- 
 quired as a qualification for office, civil and ecclesias- 
 tical. And this Oath was generally taken without 
 scruple'. It is true also that the Act of Uniformity 
 
 The author of this history, N. Saudees, the Pope's envoy in Ireland, 
 endeavoured to put an end to this conformity by writing his dissuasive, 
 " De sacris hsereticorum non adeundis." 
 
 Sir W. Palmee on the Church, ii. 553. " Two Bishops only out of 
 the whole number of Irish Bishops, were expelled from their sees in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, and these two had both intruded into their sees, the 
 legitimate pastors being still alive. The remainder of the Irish Bishops 
 remained in the possession of their sees. The inferior clergy also gene- 
 rally concurred, and the laity continued subject to their pastors." 
 
 * Palmee, ii. p. 553. " The people were induced to forsake the com- 
 munion of their legitimate pastors by those foreign emissaries, who came 
 at the Pope's instigation to found a new sect in Ireland." • 
 
 ' Dr. O'Connor (Romanist), ii. 302. " It is notorious that the Oath 
 of Supremacy did not exclude the Catholic members from the Parliaments 
 of 1613, 1614, 1615, 1639, 1640, or 1641. Catholic lawyers practised in 
 courts as freely as Protestants ; they were the active managers of the 
 prosecution against Strafford." 
 
 See also, Plowden (Romanist), History of Ireland, book ii. c. iv. 
 " During the whole reign of Elizabeth, in Ireland we read of no im- 
 prisonment, banishment, or execution, of any priest for the sake of his 
 religion." 
 
 On the other hand, in Queen Mary's time in England, Cranmer, 
 Latimer, and Ridley, had been executed — not for civil offences, but — 
 for their religion. 
 
 See Burleigh's (Lord) " Execution of Justice, not for Religion but 
 for Treason," Lond. 1583, p. 4, on the effects of Pius Fifth's Bull 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 215 
 
 prescribed attendance at Divine Worship. But this 
 
 requisition was not rigorously enforced'. The penal 
 
 statutes in question are of a later date ; they owed 
 
 their origin to Papal interference in Ireland, and were 
 
 defensive measures against it ^ 
 
 These facts suffice to show, that the Reformation 
 
 in Ireland was not conducted in an irregular manner. 
 
 It was indeed sanctioned by the civil power. The work 
 
 was begun by King Henry VIII., whose "son and 
 
 successor," says Eichard Hooker ^, " was Edward the 
 
 saint, who though he departed this world soon, yet 
 
 against the Queen, and the practices of those who laboured to execute 
 the Bull : and on the erection of Seminaries for the nursing of a mission 
 against her royal dignity and power. 
 
 BuELEiGH, p. 7. " Those who have suffered death, have not suffered 
 by force of any new law, established for Religion, or against the Pope's 
 Supremacy, but by the antient temporal laws of the Realm, and, namely, 
 by the laws made in King Edward the Third's time." 
 
 BUELEIGH, p. 20. Faculties were given to Parsons and Campion by 
 Gregory XIII. in 1580, stating "tliat the Bull always binds the Queen 
 — not them." See Foulis, Treasons, p. 337. 
 
 ' Obtestatio Catholicorum in Desid. Curiosa, i. p. 398, from O'StrL- 
 litan's Hist. p. 245. " Secundo Reginse Elizabethae anno edicta prod- 
 ierunt ad incutiendum recusantibus metum ; executioni minime mandata 
 in oblivionem abierunt." See also " Important Considerations by the 
 Secular Priests." Lond. 1601. 
 
 * See BuTLEE, C. (Romanist), Memoirs of English Catholics, i. p. 192. 
 "The reasons assigned to justify the penal laws of Queen Elizabeth 
 against Roman Catholics, were — 
 
 1. " The deposing Bull of Pius V., and its renewal by Gregory XIII. 
 
 and Sixtus V. 
 
 2. " The maintenance of the deposing doctrine by Romish missionary 
 
 Priests in England. 
 
 3. " The establishment of the foreign seminaries for Romish Missions 
 
 in England. 
 
 " The laws of which we are speaking were also defended by saying that 
 the Priests who suffered were not executed for their religion but for 
 treason." 
 
 3 See Hooker, iv. xiv. 7. 
 
1 1 6 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 fulfilled he much time." He showed a pious love for 
 Christ's Church in Ireland \ 
 But what ensued ? 
 
 " That work " (adds the same venerable writer) " was 
 in short space so overthrown, as if almost it had never 
 been, till such time as that God, whose property is to 
 show His mercies then greatest, when they are nearest 
 to be despaired of, caused in the depth of discomfort and 
 darkness a most glorious star to arise, and on her head 
 settled the Crown/-' Queen Elizabeth was zealous for 
 the Word of God, and worship of God; and Ireland 
 would have flourished in godliness and peace under her 
 sway, if Rome had permitted it The example of the 
 
 * See Mr. Shiklet's Original Collections of Letters and Papers con- 
 cerning the Reformation in Ireland, p. 39. Lond. 1851. 
 
 K. Edwaed Sixth's Instructions, a.d. 1551 ; " Our Deputie shall set 
 forth God's service to be administered within our said realme of Ireland 
 in the Unglish tongue in all places where the inhabitants, or a convenient 
 number of them, understand the English tongue ; and where they under- 
 stand not the England tongue they to cause the Unglish to be translated 
 truly into the Irish." 
 
 K. Edward VI., 1551, to the Lord Deputy Croft (Shirley, p. 53) : 
 " Your motion for the Bishop of Clonfert seemeth not to us convenient, 
 for a good pastor cannot nourish two flocks at once; and it agreetb not 
 with our religion." This letter of King Edward is remarkable for its 
 pious and wise spirit. 
 
 5 See Queen Elizabeth's Insti-uctions to the Earl of Sussex, Lord 
 Deputy of Ireland, 1559, that " in all their doings they set the Service 
 of Almighty God before their eyes, and prefer the same in all cases ; and 
 that the said Deputy, and such others of the council that be native-born 
 subjects of the Realm of England, do use the rites and ceremonies of the 
 Service of God at the least in their houses." 
 
 Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Sussex, Lord-Lieutenant, a.d. 1564: 
 " We have thought R. Dale very meet to be preferred to the Bishoprick 
 (of Kildare), and the rather because he is well able (as we heare saye) to 
 preach in the Irish tongue, and is well commended for his good name " 
 (Shirley, p. 150). 
 
 Oct. 27, 1567 (State Paper, Shirley's Letters, p. 317) : " Item, wheare 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 1 1 7 
 
 Sovereign was followed by Parliaments not only sum- 
 moned from the English Pale (as some have alleged), 
 but from all other parts of Ireland ^ The Irish Refor- 
 mation, therefore, was accepted and ratified by the 
 temporal powers of Ireland. 
 
 No one, we imagine, will cavil against such an act on 
 their part. No one will allege, we trust, that the 
 Sovereign and Lords and Commons of Ireland were 
 culpable, because they did not uphold error, and en- 
 courage usurpation. Who will venture to say that they 
 ought to have remained passive and indifferent spec- 
 tators of that great struggle in the sixteenth century, 
 in which the Rights of the Crown, and the Liberties 
 of the People, and their eternal interests, and the Truth 
 of God were at stake, — a struggle on which the Angels 
 themselves might h3.ve looked down from heaven with 
 feelings of sympathy and hope ? Did it become any one 
 to be mute at that great crisis ? Wliat ! were the 
 Princes and Nobles of God^s ancient People of Israel and 
 Judah guilty of profane meddling, when they overthrew 
 idolatrous altars, and cut down idolatrous groves, and 
 repaired the Temple of God, and rebuilt its altar, and 
 restored its worship, and summoned the tribes to a Pass- 
 over, and exhorted them to renew their Covenant with 
 God, and to hear the Word of His Law ? What shall we 
 
 her Majesty liath paid lxvil> xiii^ iiij'l to the Bushoppes tlicre, for making 
 of caracts for tlie Testament in Irishe; that unless they do presently put 
 the same in print her Majestie may be repaid xc." 
 
 Queen Elizabeth's desires in this respect may be gathered from 5 Eliz. 
 c. 28, which requires the Welsh Bishops to provide a Book of Common 
 Prayer in Welsh for every Church in Wales. 
 
 6 See the Roll of its Members (a.d. 1560), Spiritual and Temporal, in 
 Mr. Hakdiman's Statutes of Kilkenny, pp. 134, 135. 
 
1 1 8 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 say of Josiah, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, and Asa^ and even 
 of Jehu ? Shall we condemn them, or disparage their 
 acts ? Heaven forbid ! If we do, we resist the Holy 
 Ghost. He has pronounced a glorious eulogy upon 
 them in Holy Writ. As far as they did those things 
 which we have mentioned, they did that which was 
 right in the eyes of the Lord. 
 
 And so with regard to our own Princes and Parlia- 
 ments. As far as they rejected what was novel and 
 false, and restored what was ancient and true, may 
 we not say that their panegyric is written in heaven 
 — they did that which was right in the eyes of the 
 Lord ? 
 
 They did their part; and it was well they did so. 
 But their part was not the only one. Another im- 
 portant part, in the Work of Reformation, was to be 
 performed by others — ^namely, the Spiritual Eulers of 
 the Church; and that was done also. It was done by 
 them, not only as forming one of three Estates of the 
 Realm in the Parliaments of Ireland which gave their 
 sanction to the Reformation, but as convoked and 
 assembled in Synods of the Church. 
 
 Thus the Church of Ireland reformed herself. 
 
 III. So much for the manner in which the Irish 
 Reformation was transacted. Let us now consider the 
 matter. What was that Reformation ? Was it the intro- 
 duction of any thing new ? Or was it the Restoration 
 of what was old ? 
 
 1. A sufficient reply to these questions is contained 
 in those Articles of Religion, adopted and promulgated 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 1 1 9 
 
 by the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, to which 
 your attention has been already invited (pp. 210 — 213). 
 
 Are those Articles chargeable with innovation? 
 No. They appeal to Holy Writ — to the Canon of 
 Scripture, as sealed in the primitive age of Christianity 
 — to it, and to it alone they refer as the Rule of Faith. 
 This is no new principle. It is the principle of the 
 Apostle who said that the Holy Scriptures are the 
 things which are able to make us wise unto Salvation 
 through faith that is in Christ Jesus ^ : and that if 
 even an Angel from heaven preach to us any thing 
 else besides what the Apostles preached he is to be 
 anathema 
 
 Those Articles teach that the Scriptures, rightly inter- 
 preted, are the Rule of Faith. They who framed these 
 Articles knew well, that the exercise of private judg- 
 ment (as it is called) — that is to say, the exercise of that 
 rational faculty with which Almighty God has endowed 
 us, is not only the right of all, but the duty of all. They 
 knew also, that it is not only our duty to exercise it, 
 but it is also our duty to exercise it well ; and that the 
 right exercise of it consists in using all the helps which 
 God has given us for its guidance ; and that one of the 
 most valuable of those helps is the Authority of the 
 Church of Christ Universal, to which He has promised 
 His Presence and His Spirit. When, therefore, they 
 had laid down as their basis, that the Holy Seriptui-e is 
 the Rule of Faith, they wisely taught the right method of 
 using that Rule. And how is this ? By listening to 
 the voice of the Church Universal speaking in the 
 ^ 2 Tim. iii. 15. s Gal. i. 1. 
 
220 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Creeds. "I do most firmly beleave/^ tliey say, "and 
 confesse all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds ; 
 for these doo briefly contaiue the Principal Articles 
 of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy 
 Scriptures." 
 
 And wherefore did they reject those Articles of 
 Romanism which they condemned ? Because they 
 could prove that they were not ancient, but novel; 
 because they were unknown to the Fathers of the 
 Church, and contrary to the doctrine of Scripture as 
 interpreted by the Primitive Church. 
 
 Thus then in matters of doctrine, the Church of 
 Ireland did not innovate, but restore; she cleared 
 away the wood, hay, and stubble with which her foun- 
 dation had been overlaid, and she stablished and settled 
 herself more firmly on that One True Foundation, 
 which is unmoved and immovable, the Rock of ages, 
 which is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, Jesus 
 Chrisi'\ 
 
 » 1 Cor. iii. 12. 
 
 "> Heb. xiii. 8. Arcbbp. Beamhall, i. p. 199: "We do not arro- 
 gate to ourselves a new Cliureli, or a new rcliariou, or new H0I3' 
 Orders. Our religion is tlic same it was, our Cliurch the same it was, 
 our Holy Orders tlie same they were, in suhxtaiice, differing only from 
 what tiiey were, as a garden weeded from a gai-den unweeded ; and, 
 therefore, as we do not presume to make new articles of faith, much 
 less to obtrude such innovations on others, so we are not willing to 
 receive them from otluTs, wliifli hath given occasion to some to call 
 our religion a negative nliginu, not considering that our positive 
 Articles are those general truths about which there is no controversy. 
 Our negation is only of human controverted additions." See also ii. p. 
 206 : " Doth he believe that errors are essentials of a Church ? Would 
 he persuade us that weeds are essentials of a garden, or that they 
 become no weeds, because they are called 'pretended ' wicds, nr l)e(:uise 
 they are called essentials? ... It was their obstinacy to incorporate 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. iii 
 
 2. With regard also to Church Government. The 
 Church of Ireland did not set up Altar against Altar, 
 or Bishop against Bishop. She made no rupture in the 
 line of succession. The Episcopate of Ireland before 
 the Reformation, was the Episcopate of Ireland at the 
 Reformation, and after the Reformation. It was one 
 and the same Episcopate ; for the Episcopate of Ire- 
 land accepted the Reformation and effected the Re- 
 formation. And having thus effected the Reforma- 
 tion, the Irish Episcopate ordained other Bishops in 
 Ireland, to continue the work of Reformation, in their 
 respective sees, the ancient sees of Ireland. Thus the 
 Episcopate of that Church has been preserved in an 
 unbroken line of succession unto this day. We can 
 trace the chain backwards, link after link, till it passes 
 through the hands of Apostolic Churches, even into 
 the hand of Christ. 
 
 their errors into their Creeds, and to matriculate their abuses among 
 their sacred rites. ' In vain do they worship Me ' (saith God), ' teaching 
 for doctrines the commandments of men.' Their old essentials, which 
 were made essentials by Christ, we do readily receive them ; their new 
 essentials, which were lately devised by themselves, we do as utterly 
 reject, and so much the rather, because they have made them essen- 
 tials." 
 
 ' Bishop Mant, Hist. i. p. 276 : " In consequence of the Act of 
 Supremacy (1560), or rather through their own conduct in defiance of 
 it, two Bishops were deprived, Leverous, Bishop of Kildare, who refused 
 the oath, and Walsh, Bishop of Meath, who preached against the 
 Supremacy, and against the Book of Common Prayer." P. 278 : 
 "These are the only two Bishops who appear to have been deprived 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. ... All the rest (p. 279) either saw 
 cause to approve the recent alterations, or contentedly acquiesced in the 
 existing order of things." See also p. 743, and p. 285. " These were 
 the legitimate prelates of the Church of Ireland, and of these the 
 genuine successors, both by law and due course of episcopal descent, 
 are the Prelates who now constitute the Irish hierarchy in the United 
 Church of England and Ireland." 
 
112 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 IV. Thus the Church of Ireland reformed herself, as 
 it was her duty to do. This she did in a regular 
 manner, without any breach of Church Unity. And 
 when the Church of Rome would not also reform herself, 
 but instead of doing so, denounced and anathematized 
 the Church of Ireland, because she did her duty to 
 herself and to Christ, then the Church of Rome made 
 herself guilty of the schism which has rent the Church 
 of Christ, and of all its mournful consequences. She 
 imitated the Pharisees who excommunicated the man 
 that confessed Christ^; and so far she severed herself 
 from Him Who is the Divine Head of the Church ; and 
 the Church of Ireland may cheer herself with the joyful 
 assurance that they who suffer for Christ are blessed by 
 Christ, and that as Christ came and found the man who 
 was put out of the synagogue for confessing Him, and 
 spake to him words of comfort, so while she confesses 
 Christ by the profession of a pure Faith, and by the 
 maintenance of Apostolic Discipline, she will never be 
 deserted by Him, but will enjoy His presence and pro- 
 tection. 
 
 V. Let us now turn to our Romanist brethren. 
 They are accustomed to affirm that the present Church 
 of Ireland is a novel creation, dating from the Refor- 
 mation in the sixteenth century. We have met this 
 assertion with a direct denial, resting on a circum- 
 stantial proof that the Church of Ireland does not derive 
 its origin from recent times, but from the primitive 
 age; that it is the Church of ancient Ireland, the 
 
 2 John ix. H. 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 223 
 
 Church of St. Columba, and St. Patrickj the Church 
 of the Apostles, the Church of Christ. But we think 
 that there is reason for saying that the allegations 
 brought against the Church of Ireland by the adhe- 
 rents of Rome may haply recoil upon those that bring 
 them 
 
 1. Can the Romish Hierarchy of Ireland clear them- 
 selves from the charge of teaching new doctrines, doc- 
 trines unknown to the ancient Church of Ireland; doc- 
 trines not found in Scripture ; doctrines contrary to 
 Scripture? To specify one among many. Have they 
 not expressed a desire in one of their Synods ^, that the 
 Blessed Virgin should be invoked as " the Patroness of 
 Ireland'^ under a new title — the title of the Immaculate 
 
 3 See Archbp. Beamhall, i. p. 97. " (1) Protestants were not the 
 authors of the late great separation from Kome, but Eoman Catholics 
 themselves. (2) In abandoning the Court of Rome, we did not make 
 any new law, but only declare and restore the old law of the land to its 
 former vigour. (3) The ancient British, Scottish, and Irish Churches 
 were exempted from the Patriarchal jurisdiction of the Roman Bishops. 
 (4) The King and Church of England had both sufficient authority and 
 sufficient grounds to withdraw their obedience. (5) The Sovereign 
 Princes and Republics in Europe of the Roman Communion, whenso- 
 ever they have the same occasion to reduce the Pope to reason, do 
 either practise or plead for the same right, or both. (6) Tlie Papacy 
 itself (qua talis), as it is now maintained by many, with universality of 
 jurisdiction, or rather sole jurisdiction, _;'Hre dicino, with superiority over 
 General Councils, with infallihihty of judgment, is become by rigid 
 censure, ajid Creeds, and exorbitant decrees, in a great part actually, 
 and altogether casually, guilty of this and all the greater schisms in 
 Christendom." 
 
 Bp. Sanderson, Serm. xi. 9. " The Bishops of Rome by obtruding 
 their own inventions both in faith and manners, and those inventions to 
 be received under pain of damnation, became the authors, and still are 
 the continuers, of the widest schism that ever was in the Church of 
 Christ from the first infancy thereof." 
 
 * The Synod of Thurles. See the present writer's Occasional Sermons, 
 No. 12, p. 95. 
 
224 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Conception ? And did they not also utter a hope that the 
 time might arrive when this doctrine of the Immaculate 
 Conception might he made an Article of Faith ? And 
 has not that time arrived? Has not the Bishop of 
 Rome promulgated that new dogma*, as an article of 
 faith to be held by all, on pain of Damnation ? What is 
 this but to declare that now in "this eventide of the 
 world, now in the middle of the nineteenth century after 
 Christ, new Articles of Faith may be made, and doc- 
 trines may be added to the One True Faith preached by 
 Christ and His Apostles in the first century, and by 
 which all the ancient saints were saved ? 
 
 What other proof need we, that they who thus 
 speak and act do not hold the Faith once for all 
 delivered to the saints^, that they would supplant the 
 Old Faith by a New Creed, and are therefore a New 
 Church? 
 
 2. Again, with respect to Church Government. They 
 assert that the present Reformed Church of Ireland 
 dates its origin from the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury; that it is a New Church, and, therefore. No 
 Church. 
 
 But not only do we deny this, but we desire them to 
 look at themselves. According to the decrees of the 
 Ancient Church', there can be but one Bishop in a 
 Diocese, and one Archbishop in a Province ; and he who 
 intrudes into a See already occupied by another, is 
 
 5 Dec. 8, 1854. See the present writer's Occasional Sermons, No. 43. 
 
 6 Jude3. 
 
 ' Cone. Nicsen. can. 8 ; Cone. Constant, can. 2, can. 6, See also 
 Cone. Ephes. and Cone. Chalced. can. 12; Cone. Antioeh. can. 5. 13. 
 19. 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 225 
 
 guilty of schism, and is no lawful Bishop. Now, there- 
 fore, let us ask the present Romish Bishops in Ireland, — 
 Who sent them ? Wlio gave them authority to execute 
 the Episcopal office in Ireland? Let them trace back 
 their succession, if they can, even to the middle of the 
 sixteenth century. Grant, for argument's sake, that 
 they can do this, which is dubious But, if they arrive 
 there, there they must stop ; they cannot go a single 
 step further back. Their Ecclesiastical ancestors of that 
 period were not consecrated hy Bishops of Ireland. The 
 hands of the successors of St. Patrick were never laid upon 
 their heads. They started up without predecessors, un- 
 called and unlocked for. They were not of Irish crea- 
 tion ; they came from foreign lands from Italy and 
 Spain ; some of them sent under a curse from the Po2}e, if 
 
 ' See Sir W. Palmee's Letters to Cardinal Wiseman, p. xxvi. 3rd ed. 
 1851. 
 
 King's History, p. 903. " In a.d. 1621, all the Irish Sees were filled 
 with Protestant Bishops. There were then but four Irish Bishops (with 
 titles) connected with the Romish Church, — two living in Ireland, two 
 in foreign parts. These were emissaries from the Pope, and intruders in 
 our Church and Realms; and their followers could be justly regarded 
 only as separatists from the Church of Ireland. Such too are their 
 descendants, whose ecclesiastical authority, appointment, and order, arc 
 derived from the usurped power of a foreign Prelate. None of them have 
 ever been ordained by any bishops of the ancient Church of Patrick and 
 Columkille." 
 
 ' Percevai, Hon. and Rev. A., On Apostolical Succession. Lond. 
 1839, p. 236. "The Bishops and Clergy of the Roman Church in 
 Ireland, who have intruded into the Irish dioceses, derive their 
 orders from Spain and Portugal (and Italy), and not from the Irish 
 Church." 
 
 Palmer, ii. p. 567. " The regular and ancient succession of Bishops 
 from St. Patrick had descended continually on the Church of Ireland to 
 the present day. The Romish Society derived its mission and successiou 
 from the Pope of Rome in the reign of Queen Ehzabeth." 
 
226 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 they refused to go And wherefore did they come ? — To 
 seize upon Episcopal titles worn by rightful owners; to 
 invade Episcopal offices executed by lawful rulers ; to 
 intrude into Irish Dioceses occupied by Irish Bishops. 
 Thus they set up a new altar against the true altar; 
 they raised up a new Priesthood and a new Episcopate 
 against the ancient Priesthood and ancient Episcopate of 
 Ireland; they were spiritual usui-pers; they followed in 
 the way of Jeroboam, and walked in the gainsaifng of 
 Korah. 
 
 And by what means and instruments did they prose- 
 cute their work ? Not by the arms of the Spirit, but by 
 fire and sword. During the first ten years of Queen 
 Elizabeth, Ireland was comparatively peaceful. It 
 seemed as if she had now, at length, a promise of happi- 
 ness. The Word of God had been made more accessible 
 to the people. Many thousand printed copies of the 
 Holy Scriptures were now, for the first time, circulated 
 in Ireland The Queen had given commands that the 
 Bible should be translated into the Irish tongue. Alas ! 
 her commands were not obeyed, on account of the subse- 
 quent confusions of the times. There seemed to be One 
 Church and One People. Then it was that the Bishop 
 
 I RiOHAED Ceeagh states (Original Letters, Shirley, p. 173), " March, 
 1564-5, he was charged upon the Pope's curse not to refuse the Arch- 
 bisshopprike of Armagh, and he was consecrated by Louielinus and 
 another Bishoppe in the Pope's chapel, and so came from Rome." 
 See also ibid. p. 177 : " I was commanded under pain of cursyng to 
 take that Archbisshoprike." Let this fact be borne in mind by those 
 who have been moved by some recent publications on this subject. 
 
 * LOFTUS MS. A.D. 1559. " It appeared by the accompt of John Dale, 
 bookseller for the Stationers of London, that within two yeares were sold 
 in Dublin 7000 Bibles." 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. ii'] 
 
 of Rome interposed and confounded all things*. He 
 excommunicated the Queen. Thrice^ he fulmined his 
 anathemas against her. He pretended to dethrone her, 
 and to give her dominions to a foreign power^ and sent 
 the Spanish Armada against her^ He excited her sub- 
 
 ' Phelan's History. " In 1568 the patience of Rome was exhausted," 
 — or rather, we should say, her exasperation at seeing Ireland rescued 
 from her grasp knew no bounds, — "and the spiritual sword was un- 
 sheathed. Elizabeth was excommunicated, and her subjects absolved 
 from their allegiance by four successive Popes ; her life was assailed 
 by numerous conspiracies; her kingdom given up to Spain, at that 
 time the greatest power of the Continent, and to the intrigues of the 
 new order of Jesuits. Consecrated plumes and banners, men, money, 
 arms, and ammunition, were poured into Ireland : special indulgences, 
 and pledges of absolution to the third generation, were granted to all 
 who would rise in rebellion." 
 
 • E.g. Popes Pius V. 1570, Gregory XIII. in 1577, and Sixtus V. 
 1588. See Foulis, Treasons, pp. 334—351. 
 
 See Disputatio Apologetica de jure regui apud Hibernos. Prank. 
 1645, 4to, p. 38. Auctore C. Mahony, Hiberno, Artium et Sacrae Theo- 
 logiae Magistro. " Gregorius XIII. non semel hortatus est Catholicos 
 Hibernos ad helium movendum contra hfcreticos Anglos, tribuens indul- 
 gentiam plenariam et remissionem pcccatorum omnibus qui Jacobum 
 Geraldinum et Joannem duces Hibernos secuti fuissent." See his Bull, 
 13th May, 1580, in O'Sullivan's Hist. Cath., ii. lib. iv. c. 17. The Bull 
 promises " peccatorum veniam et eandera quse ad bellum proficiscentibus 
 contra Tureas per Romanos pontifices impertiri solita est." See also 
 ibid., p. 41, " Clemens Octavus, a.d. 1603, misit in Hiberniam legatum 
 suura fratrem Matthseum Ovetensein, vel de Oviedo, Hispanum, Archi- 
 episcopum Dublinensem, cum bulla indulgentiarum omnibus qui pro fide 
 Catholica in Anglos arma capereut." See again Mahont, ibid., p. 41. 
 " Urbanus VIII., a.d. 1642, indultum concessit Eugenio Onello, 
 strenuissimo et nobilissimo duci Hiberno, et caeteris Catholicis qui 
 in Hiberuia bellum contra hmreticos Anglos promoverent." This 
 Author, ibid., p. 99, thus writes : " Catholici Hiberni, qui bellum 
 pro religione catholica cum hsereticis Anglis geruut, non sunt re- 
 belles, ut hseretici adversarii impudenter mentiuntur." And he thus 
 excites his fellow-countrymen to murder the Protestant Churchmen 
 of Ireland: p. 125, " Siberni mei, agite, perficite opus defensionis et 
 libertatis vestrse ; jam interfecistis centum quinquaginta millia hostium 
 his quatuor vel quinque annis, ah anno scilicet 1641 usque ad hunc annum 
 
 Q 2 
 
2 28 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 jects to rebel, and despatched eraissai'ies into Ireland, 
 who fanned the flame of civil war, and brought conse- 
 crated plumes, and banners, and beads, and Agnus-Deis, 
 from Rome, and promised the same indulgences to those 
 who fought against their Queen as he gave to those who 
 warred against the Turks. Thus Ireland became the 
 scene of a religious war So it continued for near forty 
 years. Churches were burnt and pillaged, and the 
 work' of Reformation was arrested. Such were the 
 circumstances under which the predecessors of the 
 Romish Hierarchy in Ireland were introduced into that 
 country. 
 
 Let those who derive their origin from them be 
 earnestly entreated to remember the judgments which 
 
 1G15, in quo liaec scribo; . . . et ego plures licereticos occisos fuisse 
 credo, et utinam omnes ! Restat ut cateros hmreticos oecidatis . . ." 
 p. 129. " Agite ergo, Catholici Hiberni, etfelicem finem imponite operi 
 quod incoDpistis !" 
 
 This volume, written by a Roman Catholic theologian, with a pen 
 clipped in blood, was put forth, as its title tells us, " Superiorum per- 
 missu"! And let us remember, — and take warning from the remem- 
 brance, — that Rome, whicli authorized and instigated such savage 
 words and deeds as these, boasts that she is unchanged and unchange- 
 able. What she was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that 
 she will be again, if she can, in the nineteenth century. 
 
 ^ See Appendix, below, p. 232-6. 
 
 " UssHER, Rel. An. Irish. On the representations of O'Sullivan, and 
 the Doctors of Salamanca and Valladolid (a.d. 1603), concerning the 
 alleged duty of Roman Catholics to rise up in arms against an English 
 Protestant Prince, and that, under these circumstances, the English 
 ought to be exterminated as if they were Turks ; since this doctrine 
 had been sanctioned by Popes Gregory XIII. (a.d. 1580), and Clement 
 VIII. (a.d. 1603). "Cum Pontifex dicat 'Anglos adversus Catbolicam 
 Religiouem jmgnare,' eosque non minus ac Turcas oppugnari debere, 
 eisdemque gratiis eos oppugnantes prosequatur, quibus contra Turcas 
 pugnantes prosequitur." See O'Sullivan's History, hb. iv. c. 17 ; lib. v. 
 c. 12 J and lib. viii. c.7. 
 
Edward VI. and ElizabetJi. 229 
 
 fell on Jeroboam and Korah. Let them not say that 
 their followers are many, and that they therefore are 
 safe. Numbers are no test of truth. The Harlot of the 
 Apocalypse sits upon many waters, which are peoples, 
 and multitudes, and nations, and tongues Thousands 
 perished with Korah Those who joined in the schism 
 of Jeroboam far exceeded in numbers those who elave to 
 the house of David, and to the Temple and Worship of 
 God. There were Ten Tribes on one side, and only 
 Two Tribes on the other. And they appealed to their 
 numbers. But what did Abijah, King of Judah, say to 
 them ? " Hear me, Jeroboam, and all Israel, Ye think 
 to withstand the Kingdom of the Lord in the hand of 
 the sons of David; and i/e be a great multitude, and 
 there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made 
 you for gods. And have ye not cast out the Priests of 
 the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have 
 made you priests ? But as for us, the Lord is our God, 
 and the Priests which minister unto the Lord are the 
 sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business. 
 And they burn unto the Lord the daily sacrifice. The 
 shewbread, also, set they in order upon the pure table ; 
 and the candlestick of pure gold with the lamps ; for we 
 keep the charge of the Lord our God ; but ye have for- 
 saken Rim. And, behold, God Himself is with us for 
 our captain, and His Priests with sounding trumpets to 
 cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fght not 
 against the Lord God of your fathers ; for ye shall not 
 prosper 
 
 ' Kev. xvii. 15. Numb. xvi. 41—49. 
 
 1 2 Chron. xiii. 12. 
 
230 The Church History of Ireland. 
 And what was the result ? 
 
 " The children of Judah prevailed, because they relied 
 upon the Lord God of their fathers 
 
 So now the Clergy and Laity of the Reformed Church 
 of Ireland may address the Romish hierarchy in that 
 country : Ye he a great multitude. You boast of the 
 crowds of worshippers which throng your churches 
 and press to your altars. You speak of your Six 
 Millions. Alas ! you who have so often mmhered the 
 people, and have so often vaunted their numbers, have also 
 seen them mowed down by Pestilence And you taunt 
 us with the paucity of our numbers. We are inferior to 
 you in numbers; but are we inferior in Truth? Ye 
 have forsaken the Lord your God. Ye have severed 
 yourselves from Him by new Articles of Faith and by 
 idolatrous objects of worship. Ye have made a rent in 
 the robe of Christ. But with us are the Word and 
 Sacraments of Christ freely ministered to all. With us 
 is the true Priesthood; with us is the true Shewbread 
 and the Golden Candlestick of His Church, and the 
 incense of evangelical Prayer offered in the golden 
 censer of Christ's merits. With us are the Tables of 
 the Covenant and the Book of His Law read in the ears 
 of all His people — the Holy Scriptures. Christ Him- 
 self is our Captain : and His Priests with sounding 
 Trumpets cry alarm against you. Fight not against the 
 Lord God of 1/ our Fathers, for ye shall not prosper. 
 
 Rather in Christ's name, Who is the Prince of Peace, 
 let this schism be healed, and let this contention cease. 
 Let not Ephraim any longer envy Judah, nor Judah vex 
 ' 2 Chron. xiii. 18. » 2 Sam. xxiv. 10—15. 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 23 1 
 
 Ephraim. Three hundred years of religious warfare are 
 enough. Let a religious amnesty be proclaimed, and 
 let us embrace one another as brethren in Christ. Let 
 us meet together in the courts of the same Jerusalem, in 
 the same Temple, at the same Altar. Let us all be 
 joined together in the profession of One Lord, One Faith, 
 One Baptism. Then Ireland will prosper. She will be 
 once more the " Island of Saints."" Peace will be within 
 her walls, and Plenteousness within her Palaces*. She 
 will he like a city that is at imity with itself j and will 
 prepare her children upon earth to dwell with Saints in 
 Paradise, and to sit down with Apostles and Evangelists, 
 with Prophets and Patriarchs, in the Kingdom of God. 
 
 * Ps. cxxii. 7. 
 
232 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 SiE H. Sydney's State Papers. Lond. 1746. 2 vols, folio. 
 
 The state of barbarism to which Ireland had been reduced 
 under the previous three centuries of Roman sway, and the 
 results of the civil feuds, and of the religious wars stirred up 
 in Ireland by the influence of Eome, are described by Sir 
 Heney Sydney, then Lord Deputj-, in the most affecting 
 terms, especially in regard to their effects on religion. See 
 p. 20 of his Letter to Queen Elizabeth, 1567 : — 
 
 "The depopulaciou of so many of your Highnesses subjects, 
 partelie by slaughter, partelie by banyshement, and a great 
 nomber throughe famyn, as it was too lamentable to heare or 
 behold, with the subversion of so many villages, ruyne of 
 Churches, and vacancy of any hinde of Ministrie in the same, 
 as any Christian would lament to heare and see it. The 
 proplianacion, also, of the Cathedrall Churches partelie 
 growing for want of Bisshopps, is a thing not a little to 
 be bemoaned." 
 
 Ibid. p. 24; : " From Youghal to Corke, and towards 
 Limerick, like as I was never in a more pleasaunt countrey 
 in my life, so never saw I a more waste and desolate lande ; 
 and there hearde I such lamentable complaints of poor 
 people which are left, who hardly escaping the fury of the 
 sword and fire of their outrageous neighbours, or the famyne 
 with the same, which their extortions lordes have driven 
 them unto, either by taking their goodes from them, or by 
 spending the same by their extorte taking of coyne and 
 liverie, make demonstracion of the miserable state of that 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 233 
 
 countrie. Besides this, such horrible and lamentable specta- 
 cles there are to beholde, as the hurning of villages, the ruyne 
 of Churches, the wasting of such as have been good townes 
 and castels, — yea, the view of the bones and sculls of dead 
 subjects who, partlie by murder, partlie by famyn, have 
 died in the fields, as, in troth, hardly any Christian with 
 dry eies could behold. Not long before my arrivall 
 there, it was credibly reported there that a principal 
 servaunt of the Erl of Desmond, after that he. had hurnt 
 
 sundrie villages " The rest of this recital is too 
 
 horrible to be transcribed. 
 
 See also Ibid. p. 76, 77. 83. 105: "Armagh Church 
 all down ; the towne miserable. O'Neil's wife came to me ; 
 she hath a great desire to have her husband hve like a good 
 subject." 
 
 Sir H. Sydney (State Papers, p. 109) says, "The hedds" 
 (of things to be done) " are these: — 
 
 " The first is, the Chui-ch, so spoyled, as well by the ruine 
 of the Temples, as the dissipacion and imbeaseling of the 
 patrimonie, and most of all, for wante of sufficient Ministers ; 
 as so deformed and overthrowen a Churche there is not, I am 
 sure, in any region where Christ is professed ; and preposte- 
 rous it seemeth to me to begin Reformacion of the Politique 
 part, and neglect the Religious." 
 
 Sir H. Sydney thus writes to Queen EHzabeth, from 
 DuUin, 28th April, 1576 (State Papers, i. p. 112) :— 
 
 " May it please your most Excellent Majestic, 
 
 " I have in four severall discourses, addressed unto the 
 Lords of your Highness most honorable Councell, certified 
 them howe I found this your Highness' Realme on myne 
 arrival in the same. . . . 
 
 " And now most deare Mistress, and most honoured 
 Sovereigne, I solely address myself to you, as to the only 
 sovereign salve given to this your sore and sicke realme, the 
 lamentable estate of the most noble and principall lym there- 
 
234 Church History of Ireland. 
 
 of — the Churche I meane — as fowle, deformed, and as cruelly 
 crushed as any other part thereof, by your only gratious and 
 religious Order to be cured or at least amended. I would 
 not have believed, had I not for a great part viewed the 
 same, throughout the whole Realme, and was advertized 
 of the particular estate of eche Churche in the Bishoppricke 
 of Meithe, being the best inhabited Countie in this realme, 
 by the honest, zealous, and learned Bishopp of the same, 
 Mr. Hugh Bradye, who went from Church to Church him- 
 selfe and founde that there are within his Diocess 224 Parish 
 Churches, of which number 105 are impropriated to sundrie 
 possessions nowe of youre Highness, and all leased out for 
 years, or in Fee farmed to several Farmers, and great gayne 
 reaped out of them above the rent which your Majestic 
 receiveth, no Parson, or Vicar resident upon any of them, and 
 a very simple or sorry Curate for the most part appointed to 
 serve them, among which number of Curates only 18 were 
 found able to speake English, the rest Irish Priests, or rather 
 Irish Roges, having very little Latin, less learning or 
 cyvilitie. All these lyve upon bare Altarages, as they 
 tearme them, which God knoweth are very small, and 
 were wont to lyve upon the gayne of Masses, Dirges, 
 Shryvings, and soche lyke trumperye, goodlye abolished 
 by your Majestic. No one Howse standing for any of 
 them to dwell in. In many places the very walls of the 
 Churches downe, very few Chauncells covered, wyndowes 
 and dores ruyned or spoyled. There are 52 other Parishe 
 Churches more, residue of the first number of 224, which 
 pertaine to dyvers particular Lordes, and these though in 
 better Estate than the rest commonly are, yet farre from 
 well. If this be the Estate of the Churche in the best 
 peopled Dyoces, and best governed countrie of this Realme 
 (as in troth it is), easy it is for your Majesty to conjecture 
 in what case the rest is. 
 
 " If I should write unto your Majestie what spoyle hath 
 
Edward VI. and Elizabeth. 235 
 
 beene and is of the Archbishopprlcks, whereof they are fower, 
 and of Bishoppricks whereof they are above 30, partly by 
 the Prelates themselves, partly by the Potentates their noy- 
 some Neighbours, I should make too long a lybell of this 
 my Lettre. But your Majestie may believe it, that upon 
 the Face of the Earthe where Christ is professed there is not 
 a Churche in so miserable a case ; the misery of which con- 
 sisteth in these 3 Particulars — the Euyne of the very 
 Temples themselves, the Want of Good Ministers to Serve 
 therein when they shall be reedified, competent Lyvinge for 
 the Ministers being well chosen. 
 
 " For the first let it lyke your most gratious Majestie to 
 write earnestly to me, and to whom else it may please you, 
 to examine in whom the fault is that the Churches are so 
 ruinous. If it be found in the Countrie or Fermors, to 
 compel them speedily to go about the amendment of them : 
 if the fault for the Churches of your Highness Inheritance be 
 nor in the Termors, nor they bound to repair them (and the 
 most ruined of them are such as are in your possession), it 
 may lyke you to grant warrant that some Portion may yerelye 
 of the rent of every Parsonage be bestowed on the Church of 
 the Same." 
 
 The same noble writer thus speaks in another letter to 
 Queen Elizabeth, i. p. 112 : — " So profane and heatlienish 
 are some parts of this your country become that it hath been 
 preached publickly before me that the Sacrament of Baptisme 
 is not usual amonge them, and truly I believe it." P. 24 : 
 " Surely there never was a people that lived in moi-e misery, 
 nor, as it should seeme, of worse mindes, for Matrimonie 
 amongst them is no more regarded in effect than conjunction 
 between unreasonable beastes. Perjurie, Kobbery, and Murder 
 counted allowable. Finally, I cannot finde that they make 
 any conscience of Synne and I doubte whether they christen 
 their children or no." 
 
 his Instructions to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 
 
236 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 15 Sept., 1577, Sir H. Sydney also says, p. 222, "You 
 shall put Her Majestie and the Lords in remembrance that 
 the delivering of Justice universally thorough the Realme is 
 the sole and only maner to reforme this disjointed State and 
 barbarous Countrye, and how glad the common and 'poorer 
 sort are to embrace it, and that none but the Great Ones 
 under-hand repine at it ; and what sweetness her good 
 Subjects feele by the benefit of Her Majesties Lawes ad- 
 ministered to them, wherebye they are nowe of late yeares 
 not onely delivered from the exactions and oppressions of 
 their Lords who tyrannized over them, but also live in hope 
 of more ease and greater Wealth from day to day, if the course 
 of Justice may duelye take place and be planted among them. 
 
 " You shall further declare unto Her Majestie and the Lords 
 how many wayes and devices are used to ease the People of 
 their grieves and burden of cesse (which in troth is heavy), 
 and howe maney tymes we offered to have joyned with the 
 Lords in advise for redresse of the matter, which they from 
 tyme to tyme refused to doe." 
 
 See also Report to Lord Deputy, 1565. Cox, i. 319. 
 Mant, i. 289. " As for religion, there is small appearance of 
 it ; the Churches uncovered : the Clergy scattered ; and 
 scarce the beeing of a God known to those ignorant and 
 barbarous people." They describe the country as distracted 
 by internal feuds among rival chiefs. 
 
 Spenser's View of Ireland, 1596, p. 137 : " They are in 
 their religion so blindly and brutishly informed, for the most 
 part, that not one amongst a hundred knoweth any grounde 
 of rehgion, or any article of faith, but can, perhaps, say his 
 Pater Noster, or his Ave Maria, without any knowledge or 
 understanding what one word thereof meaneth." 
 
 These are the bitter fruits of Romish domination for 400 
 years (i. e. from the twelfth to the sixteenth century) in 
 Ireland; and of Romish opposition to the Reformation in 
 that country in the sixteenth century. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 HINDRANCES AND HOPES OP THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 
 IsAiAn V. 4. 
 
 " Wherefore, wlien I loolced that it should hring forth grapes, brought 
 it forth wild grapes ?" 
 
 TT was my endeavour, in two former discourses, to show 
 that the religious Reformation in Ireland in the 
 sixteenth century, is not chargeable with innovations in 
 Doctrine or Discipline; that it was a rejection of what 
 was novel and erroneous, and a restoration of what is 
 ancient and true. 
 
 1. Here a question arises. How then can we account 
 for the present condition of Ireland? If the Irish 
 Church is indeed the true Church of Christ in that 
 country ; if its Doctrines are Scriptural, if its Discipline 
 is Apostolical ; if the Reformation in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury was an act of religious Restoration, how are we to 
 explain the fact, a fact as evident to the eye as it is 
 distressing to the mind, that now, in the middle of the 
 nineteenth century, the condition of Ireland is greatly 
 to be deplored? How is it, that violence and murder 
 often escape unpunished there, and that feuds and fac- 
 
238 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 tions prevail ? How is it that the Country itself 
 appears to be the victim of God^s wrath, that its popu- 
 lation ' has greatly decreased ; that it is frequently 
 withered by blight, exhausted by famine, and ravaged 
 by pestilence; and that, in the prophetic language of 
 one' who knew Ireland well, she seems to "be reserved 
 by Almighty God in this unquiet state, for some secret 
 scourge which shall come by her to England " ? 
 
 Surely it may now be said, if the Church of Ireland is 
 a Divine institution, and if the Reformation was a work 
 of God, the state of Ireland would be very different from 
 what it is. That Church and Reformation have been 
 tried for three centuries. So long a time for probation 
 is enough. They have been tried and found wanting. 
 May not the great Lord of the vineyard Himself now 
 say of the Irish Church, Behold, these three centuries / 
 come seeking fruit on it, and find none. Therefore cut it 
 down : why cumbereth it the ground ? 
 
 2. This is an important question, and deserves serious 
 consideration. 
 
 • The amount of depopulation in Ireland in recent years may be seen 
 in tbe following figures :— 
 
 Population in 1841 . . 8,175,124 
 „ 1851 . . 6,515,794. 
 
 ' Edmund Spensee (the Author of the Faery Queen, who lived many 
 years in Ireland), in his View of the State of Ireland, 1596 : " There have 
 been divers good plottes devised, and wise counsels cast about for refor- 
 mation of that realme of Ireland, but they say it is the fatall destiny of 
 that land, that no purposes whatsoever which are meant for her good, 
 will prosper and take good effect, which, whether it proceed from the 
 very genius of her soyle or influence of the starres, or that Almighty 
 God hath not yet appointed the time of her Reformation, or that See 
 reserveth her in this unquiet state still for some secret scourge, which 
 shall come by her to England ; it is hard to be knowne, but yet mveh to 
 be feared." 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 23 9 
 
 First, then, it is undeniable, that the present condition 
 of Ireland, social, civil, and religious, is deeply to be 
 lamented. It is a cause for public humiliation. It 
 suggests feelings of shame for the past, sorrow for the 
 present, and apprehension for the future. We cannot 
 congratulate ourselves on the progress which the Refor- 
 mation has made in that country. Doubtless they who 
 engaged in that work in the sixteenth century antici- 
 pated that the result of their labours would be far more 
 prosperous than it has proved to be; and if they were 
 now to arise from their graves, they would be bitterly 
 disappointed, distressed, and dismayed by what they 
 would see in Ireland; and they might feel some mis- 
 givings whether the work on which they had been 
 engaged, believing it to be a holy cause, but which 
 had borne so little fruit, could have been a work 
 of God, — or was it not rather a struggle against 
 Him? 
 
 What shall be said here ? 
 
 3. Shall we allow it to be doubtful, whether the prin- 
 ciples, embodied in the Irish Reformation, are sound 
 principles or not ? No : we cannot do this. For (as 
 has been already shown) the principles of that Reforma- 
 tion are the principles of Christianity. If we surrender 
 them, we sacrifice the Gospel itself. 
 
 4. Next, we would proceed to say, that principles 
 confessedly sound, — principles promulgated by God Him- 
 self, may, through the weakness and wickedness of man, 
 be almost barren of fruit. Sir, didst not Thou sow good 
 seed in Thy field, — whence then hath it tares? The 
 
240 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 answer is, An enemy hath done this^. God's best gifts 
 may be abused. His most loving designs may be 
 thwarted and frustrated. His most tender cares may be 
 made abortive. 0 inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of 
 Judah — jitdge I pray you betwixt Me and My Vineyard — 
 judge between Me and My Church — IFhat could have 
 been done more to My Vineyard that I have not done in 
 it ? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth 
 grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ? And yet the 
 Church is of God. The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is 
 the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant 
 plant ; and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression, 
 — for righteousness, but behold a cry * ! 
 
 5. This then is our assertion. — The Reformed Church 
 of Ireland is the true Church of Christ in that country. 
 It is the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts. The Reforma- 
 tion was a blessing from heaven. God has done His 
 part. What could have been done for His Vineyard 
 which He has not done in it? He has given it His 
 Word, His Sacraments, and His Ministry, and He has 
 mercifully preserved and rescued them. He has done 
 His part. But man has failed — miserably failed — in his 
 part. And the question may now be asked by God 
 Himself, Wherefore, when I looked for grapes, brought it 
 forth wild grapes ; when I looked for judgment, behold 
 oppression, and for righteousness, but behold a cry ? 
 
 6. But, brethren, if it can be shown that the Church 
 of Ireland has been beleaguered by powerful and inve- 
 terate foes from without, and betrayed by faithless or 
 injudicious friends from within; yet still is now in a 
 
 3 Matt. xiii. 27. •* Isa. v. 5—7. See also Jer. ii. 21. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 241 
 
 more efficient state than it has been for a thousand 
 years; if it can be shown that the cause of the Refor- 
 mation has been assailed by incessant violence for three 
 centuries, if it has been mismanaged, deserted and para- 
 lyzed by some who ought to have defended it, and if it 
 yet survives, nay exhibits more vigour, and displays 
 more promise, than it has done for many hundi'ed years 
 — then let us take courage — the Church of Ireland is 
 a Church of God, the Reformation was His work. 
 
 7. If, then, for no other cause, — yet for this, — to 
 justify the ways of God to man, and to show that He 
 has done His part for the Irish Church and Nation, and 
 that the miseries which Ireland now suffers are due 
 to man's failings, and to man's transgressions, — let me 
 now invite you to consider the hindrances which have 
 checked the growth of the Church in Ireland, and 
 have obstructed the progress of Reformation in that 
 country. 
 
 8. The contemplation of this subject will also be very 
 beneficial, in supplying strong motives for contrition 
 and self-abasement before God, and for earnest prayer to 
 Him that He would not remember our iniquities, nor 
 the iniquities of our forefathers, and would avert from 
 us and from our children the evils we have deserved. 
 It will enable us to interpret aright the language of the 
 terrible judgments with which Ireland has been visited 
 from time to time, for many years : it will enable us to 
 read the Writing traced on the wall of our National 
 house by the Divine Finger : it will make us fall on our 
 knees, and pray to God that He would spare us, and 
 would give us grace to rectify what is amiss, — to 
 
242 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 strengthen the things that remain, and to attain the 
 blessing promised to those who luild up the old waste 
 places, and who will hereafter he called by the tongues of 
 Angelsj the repairers of the breach, the restorers of paths 
 to dwell in 
 
 Besides ; a knowledge of past and present hindrances 
 and failings will suggest the requisite remedies, and best 
 measures of improvement for the future. 
 
 The Impediments of the Church and Reformation in 
 Ireland have been, and are, of two kinds, — 
 
 I. External; 
 
 II. Internal. 
 
 I. External. Among these must be placed, first, the 
 bitter hostility and powerful antagonism of Rome. 
 
 At the very dawn of the Reformation in Ireland, 
 Rome directed her weapons against it. 
 
 In the year 1535, Pope Paul III. commanded all 
 Ecclesiastics to quit Ireland until she should repent of 
 having rejected his Supremacy, and he denounced an 
 anathema on all who did not acknowledge it, and stirred 
 up her people to rebellion. 
 
 In the year 1570 Pope Pius V. excommunicated 
 
 ^ Isa. Iviii. 12. 
 
 * See above, p. 215, note. As these Acts of the Papacy have been 
 recently attributed by Romish writers to cruelties practised by the 
 government of Queen Elizabeth on the persons of Roman Catholics 
 in Ireland, it may be well to refer to contrary avowals from Romanists 
 themselves of a former period ; see above, pp. 214, 215. Thus, even 
 in the Papal Instructions to the Nuncio in Ireland, Rinuccini, it 
 is said : — 
 
 Rinuccini, Papal Instruction to, p. xxxvi. " Non furono eseguite 
 con molta violenza verso di loro quelle leggi, che contro i Cattolici si 
 pubblicarono in Inghilterra." P. xliii. " Poco a poco si vedeva lacri- 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 243 
 
 Queen Elizabeth for favouring the Reformation, and 
 declared her to have forfeited her Throne, and absolved 
 the Queen^s subjects from allegiance, and excited insur- 
 rections against her. 
 
 In 1580', Pope Gregory XIII. renewed the sentence 
 of Pius v., and appointed an Irish Chief to head a 
 revolt against the Queen, and promised the same indul- 
 
 raevolmente divenire tutta 1' isola Protestante " (sotto Elisabetta). 
 On the Cause of these Penal Laws in Ireland, see Archbp. Bbamhall, 
 ii. 124. " I justify (those penal laws) on this undeniable ground, that 
 no kingdom is destitute of necessary remedies for its own conservation. 
 A law which was justly enacted may be over -rigorously executed when 
 that necessity, which was the only ground of the law, is abused. I 
 wish the necessity had not been so great as to require laws written in 
 blood, and that a lesser coercion could have sufficed then as a remedy. 
 .... I wish that all seditious opinions and over-rigorous statutes were 
 buried in oblivion." Again : " We (the Lord Deputy Strafford and I) 
 did our work by more noble and more successful means than penal laws. 
 By building Churches, and mansion-houses for ministers, by introducing 
 a learned Clergy, by enjoining their residence, by affording them coun- 
 tenance, and protection, and means of hospitality, by planting and 
 ordering schools for the education of youth." 
 
 " To look after the ecclesiastical regimen was the care of particular 
 bishops. To look to the public safety of the kingdom, and to free 
 it from sedition masked under the vizor of religion was the care of a 
 Sovereign Magistrate." 
 
 So far Abp. Beamhaii,. " It must also be remembered that by 
 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 6, the acts of Richard II. Henry IV. 
 and v., de hmretico comburendo, which had been repealed under 
 Edward VI., were reinforced, and the 1st of Elizabeth restrained the 
 punishment of heresy within those bounds which the laws of her brother 
 Edward had wisely ordained." See Beown's " Laws against the 
 Catholics," Lend. 1813, p. 6. 
 
 Again; in the 7th of William III. "An Act was passed to take 
 away the writ de hceretico comburendo, which had been revived in 
 Ireland " under James II. See Strictures on Plowden, p. 67. 
 
 Which therefore of the two, Romanists or Anti-Romanists, have 
 most reason to complain of " Penal Statutes for Religion" ? 
 
 7 See WiLKiNS, Concil. iv. 296. "The Bull is dated May 13, 
 1580." See also KI^'G, p. 1262—1272. 
 
 E 2 
 
244 The Church Histo7y of Ireland. 
 
 gences to all wlio would join in the rebellion, as he gave 
 to those who fought against the Turks. 
 
 In 1587, Pope Sixtus V. reiterated the same edict, 
 and encouraged the Irish to join the Spanish Armada 
 which he sent to fight against their Queen and 
 country. 
 
 Why should we refer to the subsequent similar acts of 
 Pope Clement VIII., in 1600 of Pope Paul V., in 
 1606'? of Pope Urban VIII., in 1626'? and to the 
 sanguinary Rebellion in 1641 , fomented by the Papacy, 
 wherein thousands, and tens of thousands, of those 
 
 8 April 18, 1600. See Wilkins, Concil. iv. 362. He gives to the 
 Irish rebels " plenariam omnium peccatorum suorum veniam et remis- 
 sionem, ac eandem quae proficisceutibus ad bellum contra Turcas, 
 et ad recuperationem terrse sanctse, per Romanes Pontifices concedi 
 solita est, misericorditer iu Domino coneedimus." 
 
 9 King, pp. 1313—1318. 
 
 1 May 30, 1626. See Wilkins, Concil. iv. p. 2471. Mant, i. 
 p. 418. Bull of Pope Urban VIII. a.d. 1625, wherein he exhorts the 
 subjects of the King " rather to die than take the oath of allegiance." 
 
 3 Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, on Fanaticism, Lond. 1674, p. 71. 
 "Was not the Irish rebellion begun and carried on by the King's 
 Roman Catholic subjects ? Was there one man but Roman Catholics 
 who concurred in it ? Was not the secular and regular Clergy equally 
 engaged to support it ? And did not the Pope contribute to it, if not 
 contrive it ? And was not himself in the person of his Nuncio, 
 Rinuccini, General of the Rebels both by sea and land?" 
 
 The massacre took place in Oct. 1641, and not long after it the 
 Roman Catholic Bishops and Clergy claimed all the revenues of the 
 Irish Church. See the " Propositiones a Clero formatae et oblatse Comitiis 
 Generalibus as follows, — 
 
 " Ut Primates, Archiepiscopi, Episcopi, Decani, Prajbendarii, Rectores, 
 Vicarii et alii Pastores Romani Catholici Cleri et illorum successores 
 habeant, tencant, et fruantur omnibus Ecclesiis et Ecclesiasticis bene- 
 ficiis in tam amplo et largo modo quam nuperus Protestans Clerus 
 respective illis fruitus est prima die Octobris 1641, una cum omnibus 
 fructibus, emolumentis, &c." See the document in the papers of Rinuc- 
 cini, the Papal Nuncio iu Ireland at that time, and recently printed at 
 Florence, p. 472. 
 
Hindi^ances and Hopes. 
 
 who adhered to the Church and the Reformation were 
 massacred ? 
 
 Listen to the language of savage exultation uttered at 
 the time by a champion' of the Papacy, and speaking 
 with Papal authority : " You have already slain one 
 hundred and fifty Thousand in these four or five years, 
 dating from the year 164<1 to the year 1645, in which 
 I write these words; and I believe that more of your 
 hei'etical enemies were slain by you. W ould that you had 
 slain them all ! It remains now for you to slay the rest." 
 
 Thus we see, that at the Reformation in the middle of 
 the 16th century, Rome unfurled the banner of Civil War 
 in Ireland. She placed the Cross — the divine symbol of 
 peace — on the baleful standard of Discord. She conse- 
 crated Invasion into a Crusade. She pronounced bless- 
 ings on Rebellion, and imprecated curses on Loyalty. 
 She promised the joys of heaven to those who would sub- 
 vert the Altar and the Throne, and she denounced the 
 pains of perdition on all who rose up to defend them. 
 Then, indeed, might it be said of the Lord's Vineyard in 
 Ireland, — The wild hoar out of the wood doth root it up, 
 and the wild beasts of the field devour it. It is burnt loith 
 fire and cut down And what was the result ? Villages 
 
 ' In the publication above mentioned, p. 227, note, wliere he thus 
 addresses his brother Romanists of Ireland : " Jam interfecistis centum 
 quinquaginta millia his quatuor vel quinque annis ab anno scilicet 1641 
 usque ad hunc annum 1645 in quo hsec scribo, ut ipsi adversarii in suis 
 scriptis demugientes palam fatentur et vos non diffitemini : et ego plures 
 hcBreticos hostes occisos fuisse credo, et ufinam omnes ! Hestat ut 
 cmteros occidatis .'" This was written by an Irish R. C. Ecclesiastic, and 
 published superiorum permissu. The book from which this extract 
 s taken is now very scarce. 
 
 * Ps. Ixxx. 13. See the evidence of desolation, social and religious, 
 produced by Rome, above, pp. 232—236. 
 
246 The Church History of Irelaiid. 
 
 and towns smouldering in ashes ; Churches pillaged and 
 destroyed ; the Clergy put to flight ; the People reduced 
 to penury and barbarism. 
 
 Thus, when the Spiritual builders in Ireland — the 
 Bishops and Pastors of the Church — would have restored 
 the Temple of God, Rome arose — like another Sanbal- 
 lat* — and harassed and vexed them by day and by 
 night, both in body and soul, for a hundred years. We 
 need not trace her course further. But, we fear, that 
 what she was then, she still is, and will again show 
 herself to be*. And yet she sometimes taunts us with 
 the feebleness of the Church in Ireland, and with the 
 failure of the Irish Reformation. Is this, she asks, a 
 Church of God ? Can that be His work ? So weak, so 
 unprosperous ! A fox may leap over the walls ' ! So 
 might Cain have insulted over the dead body of his 
 brother Abel — whom he had slain ! If Christ's Church 
 
 5 Nehem. iv. 7; vi. 9. 
 
 * See for example the following evidence in the Bp. of Clotne, 
 " State of Church of Ireland," 1800, p. 22 : " The Papal Legate (and 
 Nuncio, Thomas-Maria) condemns as intolerable certain clauses in our 
 Oath (of Allegiance) which contain a declaration of abhorrence of the 
 doctrines that ' Faith is not to be kept with heretics,' and that ' Princes 
 deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murdered by their subjects ; 
 because,' says he (the Legate), 'those doctrines are defended and con- 
 tended for by most Catholic Nations, and the Soly See has frequently 
 followed them in practice.' The Legate's words are, 'Notam debet esse 
 doctrinam banc, qua) detestabilis asseritur in hoc juramento, defendi et 
 propugnari a plerisque Nationibus Catholicis, eandemque inpraxi pluries 
 secutam fuisse Apostolicam sedem.' " This remarkable Letter is dated 
 14th Oct., 1768, and is addressed to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of 
 Dublin. It is printed in extenso by the Bishop of Cloyne. This docu- 
 ment from the Papal Legate is called by the Roman Catholic Historian 
 and Bishop, Burke, " Literae vere aurece, cedroque dignce." See ibid, 
 p. 22. 
 
 1 Nehem. iv. 3. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 247 
 
 in Ireland were dead — if the Reformation in Ireland 
 were extinct — then we might point to their lifeless corpse, 
 and say to the Church of Rome — Behold thy worl*! 
 
 Here, then, we see one reply to the question — Why 
 have the Church and Reformation in Ireland been less 
 prosperous than might have been anticipated ? And, if 
 the doctrines taught by that Church, and vindicated by 
 that Reformation are true ; if they are the doctrines of 
 Christ's Holy Gospel (as we maintain they are), then — 
 since the Gospel is the main source of happiness to a 
 People— since Righteousness exalteth a Nation^ — and 
 since ignorance and neglect of the Gospel is a main 
 cause of vice and woe — we see abundant reason also, 
 why Ireland — in which the doctrines of the Gospel have 
 not been suffered to take root — should be now in that 
 miserable condition, which we all behold and deplore. 
 
 II. But, we should be taking a partial view of this 
 subject, if we were to ascribe those evils to external 
 causes alone. Other influences, from within, have con- 
 tributed to give greater power to enemies from without. 
 Let us specify some of these. 
 
 One of the fundamental principles of the Reformation 
 is, that the Holy Scriptures are the Rule of Faith*. 
 Hence it follows that the Scriptures ought to be read 
 openly in Churches in the ears of the People, in their 
 native tongue; and that copies of the Scriptures, trans- 
 lated into their native language, should be made acces- 
 sible to all. 
 
 Prov. xiv. 34. 
 
 * See XXXIX Articles, Art. vi., and Irish Articles, above, p. 211. 
 
248 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 This principle was proclaimed by the Holy Spirit 
 Himself on the day of Pentecost, The miracle of that 
 day w||p not wrought on the ears of the People, but on 
 the tongues of the Apostles. The tongues of fii'e stream- 
 ing down from heaven, — from one sacred source, and 
 then gushing off, as it were, like the spray of a fountain, 
 and baptizing the heads of the Apostles, and commu- 
 nicating through them with the ears and hearts of the 
 vast assembled multitude from every Nation under 
 heaven, — were a sacred symbol, a divine precept and a 
 prophecy, that the One Divine Word, which had come 
 down as an emanation from heaven, should be translated 
 into all languages of all people; that its sound should 
 go out into all lands, and its words unto the ends of the 
 World\ 
 
 Another principle of the Reformation was, that, as 
 the Holy Ghost teaches by the mouth of St. Paul % men 
 should pray with the spirit, and pray with the under- 
 standing also ; and that " it is therefore a thing plainly 
 repugnant to the Word of God, to have public prayer in 
 the Church, in a tongue not understanded hy the people^." 
 
 Such, we say, were two fundamental principles of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 First, the principle of vernacular Scriptures ; 
 
 Secondly, the principle of a vernacular Liturgy. 
 
 But now let us ask. Were these two great principles 
 carried out in practice in Ireland ? 
 
 On Easter-day in the year 1551, the Latin service of 
 the Church of Rome was discarded; and the English 
 
 ' Ps. xix. 4. 
 
 ^ Arb. xxiv. 
 
 2 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 249 
 
 Liturgy (which was the first book ever printed in 
 Ireland) was received in its place. So far well ; this was 
 a hapjjy change^ because many more persons in Ireland 
 understood English^ than Latin. 
 
 But something more remained to be done. Many 
 there were, especially among the lower orders, in some 
 districts of Ireland, to whom the English tongue was 
 as much a foreign tongue as Latin was. 
 
 And how were they provided for ? 
 
 The reply is indeed a sad one. More than fifty years 
 elapsed, before the Liturgy was supplied to the Irish 
 in the Irish tongue. No edition of the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer in Irish appeared before the year 1608, 
 more than seventy years after the commencement of the 
 Irish Reformation. 
 
 During all that period a great part of the Irish nation 
 was excluded from the means of obeying the Apostolic 
 precept on public worship; they could not pray with 
 the sp irit, and pray with the understanding also. 
 
 Nor was this all. In the year 1560 it was enacted 
 that "where the minister of an Irish Parish did not 
 understand English he might say the Common Prayer " 
 not in Irish, but in Latin ! 
 
 So much for Public Prayer ■* : let us now consider the 
 question, with reference to the Word of God. 
 
 The Reformation in the middle of the sixteenth 
 century had proclaimed the Supremacy of Scripture. 
 Happily, it is true, at the commencement of the Refor- 
 mation many copies of the Holy Scriptures * in English 
 were disseminated in Ireland, for the benefit of those 
 < Bp. Ma>-t, i. p. 293. 6 See above, p. 226. 
 
250 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 who understood that language. Here again was a 
 blessed change from what had been. 
 
 But, alas ! no portion of Holy Scripture was printed 
 in Irish during the whole of the sixteenth century. 
 
 At length the New Testament appeared in that 
 language, in the year 1603. 
 
 But still the Old Testament was wanting. Another 
 half-century passed away, and still that want was not 
 supplied. And it was not till the year 1686 ^, that is, 
 a century and a half after the commencement of the 
 Reformation, that the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 were made accessible to the Irish in their own tongue'. 
 
 Nor is this all. From the year 1687 even down to 
 our own days, even to the year 1816, no second edition 
 of the Old Testament in Irish was produced. And in 
 the whole of that period, only two editions of the New 
 Testament in Irish were printed : and (which is almost 
 incredible) during the whole of the last century, the 
 eighteenth century, not a single copy either of the Old 
 or New Testament in Irish was printed, no portion of 
 
 6 See Newland's Apology, p. 78. " Bp. Bedell lamented in 1630 
 thtit the Reformed Ministers had no means, from the want of Bibles 
 in the Irish language, to convert the people. This evil he endeavoured 
 to remove by the publication of the Scriptures in that tongue. But half 
 a century after, an objection was started (to this) by the landed Proprie- 
 tors of Ireland; and the efforts of Dr. Sail, and the Hon. Robert Boyle, 
 were unsuccessful, though they had reprinted a great part of the Scrip- 
 tures in the Irish tongue. See Bp. Buenet's Life of Bedell, and Boyle's 
 Works, vi. pp. 43. 592-9, pp. 601. 610." 
 
 ? It ought to be mentioned, that both King Edward the Sixth and 
 Queen Elizabeth made some efforts for the communication of a Ver- 
 nacular Liturgy and Vernacular Scriptures to the Irish people. See 
 above, p. 217 ; but, unhappily, they proved abortive. Doubtless this 
 failure is to be attributed in some degree to the disquietude of the 
 times — especially in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 251 
 
 the Holy Scriptures in Irish was provided by England 
 for Ireland, or by Ireland for herself* ! 
 
 In the years 1703 and 1711, the Convocation of the 
 Church of Ireland made a humble representation on 
 the necessity of disseminating the Scriptures in the 
 Irish tongue, and of raising up an Irish-speaking Minis- 
 try ; but these proposals were overruled by the temporal 
 Power as unfavourable to "the English interest in Ire- 
 land 
 
 Such is a brief account of the Book of Common 
 Prayer in Ireland, and of the treatment which Holy 
 Scripture has received there since the Reformation to 
 our own day 
 
 8 See Mr. Christophee Andeeson's Native Irish, ed. Lond. 1846, 
 pp. 190—193, for the statistics of the impressions of the Holy Scriptures 
 in Irish. 
 
 In the sixteenth century, was printed Nil. 
 
 lu 1603, New Test 500 copies. 
 
 1681, New Test 750 
 
 1686, Old Test 500 
 
 In the eighteenth century . . . Nil. 
 
 1811, New Test 2000 
 
 1813, New Test 3000 
 
 1817, Both Test 5000 
 
 1826, Both 5000 
 
 „ New Test 29,018 
 
 1828, Both 5000 
 
 „ New Test 20,170 
 
 1829, Both 7000 
 
 „ New Test 4^)00. 
 
 Of these only 5000 were in the Irish character ; so that " if every copy 
 of the Bible in Irish character were in use " (says Mr. Andeeson in 1846, 
 p. 194), " this would he no more than one Bible to Six Hundred of the 
 Population." 
 
 ' See Bp. Mant, ii. 164. 
 
 ' It is remarkable, that of the four persons mainly concerned in trans- 
 lating the Book of Common Prayer and the Holy Scriptures into Irish, 
 three were strangers to Ireland by birth, and educated at the University 
 
252 The CJiurcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 May we not say that during that period there has 
 been a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord^ ? Need 
 we wonder, that they who had provoked God by neglect 
 and contempt of the Bread of Life, should have been 
 scourged by famines and pestilences, and by other 
 visitations of His wrath ? Need we wonder, that Ireland 
 has been chastised in herself, and that England has been 
 punished through her, since both Nations, England and 
 Ireland, have sinned against God in slighting and with- 
 holding His Word ? And ought we . not all, from the 
 highest to the lowest, to imitate the good King Josiah, 
 who, when the Book of the Law, which had been lost, 
 was brought to him, rent his clothes and said. Great 
 is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, 
 because our fathers have not kept the JFord of the Lord 
 to do after all that is written in this Book ^ ? 
 
 Here then we have another answer to the question, 
 Wherefore when I looked that My Vineyard should bring 
 forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? Why does 
 crime abound in Ireland ? Why does that country seem 
 to be under a curse ? TVTiy is the Church feeble ? Why 
 has the Reformation made little progress? Are these 
 calamities to be ascribed to the principles of the Church 
 and Reformation? No, they are to be ascribed to a 
 neglect of those principles ; they are to be ascribed to 
 a betrayal of those principles ; they are to be ascribed to 
 the inconsistency and infatuation of pretending to con- 
 duct the Reformation on principles which the Reforma- 
 
 of Cambridge— John Kearney, Nicolas Walsh, and the venerable Bishop 
 Bedell. The last of the three did not begin to learn Irish till his fifty- 
 seventh year. 
 
 = Amos viii. 11. 3 2 Chron. xxxiv. 19—21. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 253 
 
 tion abhorred; they are to be ascribed to the cruelty 
 and impiety, which, in defiance of the principles of the 
 Reformation, and as if to insult the Reformation, buried 
 Public Prayer in the sepulchre of a strange language, 
 and which did not place the glorious light of God^s 
 Holy Word on the Candlestick of His Church, so that 
 it might be seen of all, but hid it beneath a bushel; 
 they are not to be ascribed to the principles of the 
 Reformation renouncing the practices of Rome, but they 
 are to be ascribed to our own adoption of some of the 
 practices of Rome, subverting the principles of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 III. Let us pass to another point. At the com- 
 mencement of the Reformation, the Monasteries of Ire- 
 land were dissolved by King Henry VIII. These 
 religious houses were possessed of a large portion of the 
 Tithes in that country. These Tithes ought to have been 
 restored to the parishes from which they accrued, for the 
 maintenance of a Parochial Clergy to be resident in 
 them, and for the relief of the Poor, and for pious and 
 charitable uses. But no : they were taken from God, 
 from His Church, and from the Poor, and were bestowed 
 on Laymen, and were profanely alienated to secular uses. 
 Those who were guilty of this act forgot the curse 
 denounced in Scripture on those who say, Let us take 
 the houses of God in possession. ' 0 my God, make 
 them like unto a wheel*; and as stubble before the 
 
 * On the temporal calamities whicli have overtaken tliose wlio bave 
 fallen into sacrilege, see Sir H. Spelman's Tract, " De non temerandis 
 Ecclesiis," 6th edit. 1704 ; and " On the History and Fate of Sacrilege." 
 
254 T^f^^ Church History of Ireland. 
 
 wind^. The taint of this Sacrilege still cleaves to a 
 large portion * of the property ' of Ireland. It eats it 
 like a canker. 
 
 Still further, in the year 1735 \ the Church of Ireland 
 was despoiled of the Tithe of agistment' by the Irish 
 Parliament, consisting mainly of nobles and gentry pro- 
 fessing themselves Protestants : and other acts of depre- 
 
 Lond. 1698. Pref. p. 44, by Clem. Spelman, " Bitter streams," says he, 
 "flow from sacrilegious wells; and they that fill their cisterns from 
 thence cannot expect to drink sweet water." 
 s Ps. Ixxxiii. 12, 13. 
 
 « See Newland's Apology, p. 233. a.d. 1829. " How many Benefices 
 (in Ireland) does your Lordship suppose to be in the possession of 
 laymen ? Five hundred and sixty-five impropriate rectories, and one 
 hundred and eighteen parishes wlioUy impropriate, making in all six 
 hundred and eighty parishes. What does your Lordship suppose to be 
 the amount derived from tithes by laymen in Ireland — three hundred 
 thousand pounds per annum" (this I apprehend is not the case now); 
 " and they are also become possessed of one thousand four hundred and 
 eighty glebes belonging to the Church." See also Bp. Mant's Hbt. ii. 
 p. 775. 
 
 7 Dr. Rtves, Poor Vicar's Plea, p. 1, ed. 1704. "The Church of 
 Ireland lies buried under a heap of impropriations." See above, p. 
 146, and note. King, Hist. p. 1064. On Impropriations in the 
 Irish Church. See Mant, ii. 66. 152. 238. 300. 346. 353. 479. " The 
 total amount of tithe rent-charge payable to ecclesiastical persons, 
 bishops, deans, chapters, incumbents of benefices, and the Ecclesias- 
 tical Commissioners, is 401,114Z. The rental of Ireland, as estimated 
 by the valuators under the Poor Law Act, is 13,738,967^. ; and this 
 rental, being about a third part of the estimated value of the 
 annual produce of the land, it would appear that the tithe rent- 
 charge possessed by ecclesiastical persons is less than a hundredth 
 part of the annual produce of the soil." This is from a recent 
 oflacial return. 
 
 s Charge of the late Lobd Peimatb, 1846, p. 21. " The resolutions 
 passed by the Irish House of Commons in the year 1735 to resist the 
 Tithe of agistment, produced such a diminution of the incomes of the 
 clergy in most parts of Ireland, then greatly devoted to pasturage, that 
 several parishes had to be joined together to make out a sufficient 
 subsistence for a minister." 
 
 ° See above, and Bp. Manx, ii. 308. 555. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 255 
 
 dation have been committed upon it in more recent 
 times, — committed by those who ought to have pro- 
 tected the Church. 
 
 And what have been the consequences? Parishes, 
 bereft of endowments, have been amalgamated into 
 wretched combinations, commonly called Unions, com- 
 prising large tracts of country, to be superintended by a 
 single Pastor, to whom they often supply but a very 
 slender pittance'. The Churches in the several Parishes 
 thus conglomerated, could not all be served by one Minis- 
 ter, and therefore some were allowed to fall silently into 
 decay ^. In many cases the Parishioners were thus 
 deterred and debarred from coming to Church, for there 
 was no Church left for them to enter, and no Minister 
 to officiate, nor glebe-house for the residence of a pas- 
 tor Thus Christ's flock, for which He shed His blood, 
 
 ' Dean Swift's Works, vol. iv. p. 71. "The clergy having been 
 stripped of the greatest part of their revenues, the glebes being gene- 
 rally lost, the tithes in the hands of laymen, the Churches demolished, 
 and the country depopulated, it was necessary to unite small vicarages." 
 Quoted in Newland's Apology, p. 89 : see also Bp. Mant, ii. 288. 
 299-306. 
 
 ' Dudley, Rev. H. B., Short Address, p. 27, a.d. 1808. " In the 
 16th century there were 2436 parishes in Ireland with cure of souls, 
 and nearly 3000 clergy appertaining thereto. These are now (a.d. 
 1808) reduced to 1100 benefices, having but 1000 churches, and re- 
 quiring only the care of 1300 clergy. Much of this falling off may be 
 imputed to the combination of several parishes into what is called a 
 vnion, a measure which has led to the dissolution of all churches 
 therein except one." 
 
 ' Peimate BorLTEE to the Duke of Newcastle, a.d. 1730 : " I am 
 desirous to procure glebes for the clergy to live on. The greatest fart 
 of the livings here having neither house nor land belonging to them." 
 1 am informed on good authority that there was " no such thing as a 
 glebe-house in the diocese of Cashel before 1720." In a Visitation made 
 by Royal Commissioners in that diocese in 1615, " not more than six or 
 so of the incumbents are said to be resident." 
 
256 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 were scattered abroad like slieep without a shepherd; 
 they were left to wander on the mountains of error and 
 unbelief ; they dwindled away ; they perished from spiri- 
 tual hunger, or fell into the pit, or were torn by the 
 prowling wolf. And how could the erring be reclaimed ? 
 Therefore the Great Shepherd of the sheep may now ask 
 the Church of Ireland, Where is the flock that was given 
 thee, thy beautiful flocJc * ? 
 
 Nor have some Ecclesiastics of Ireland been free from 
 offence in this matter. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as we have seen 
 already the Prelates of the Irish Church accepted the 
 Heformation. But, whether from fear of a reverse in 
 religion, or from whatever cause, many of them were 
 tempted to demise their Episcopal Estates for large 
 fines*, on very long leases, at very small or merely 
 nominal reserved rents ' ; the consequence of which was, 
 
 4 Jer. xiii. 20. 
 
 6 See above, Serm. VI. 
 
 s Bp. Jeeemy Tatloe, Sermon on Archbp. Branahall, — Bramhall's 
 Works, i. p. lix, describes how at the Reformation the Romish Bishops 
 conformed, but dilapidated the revenues of their sees by long leases, 
 and large fines, and small reserved rents. 
 
 1 See Bp. Mant, i. p. 280 : and the words of Lord Strafford, Lord 
 Deputy of Ireland, a.d. 1633, to Mr. Secretary Coke ; State Papers, i. 
 p. 151. 
 
 " I will be careful to vindicate the Church from the fraud and covet- 
 ousness of ill Bishops and sacrilegious Lords combining together to carry 
 away the patrimony of the Church, and by that means leaving God's 
 portion naked and desolate to posterity. I speak this upon the general, 
 finding daily that the Church hath been impiously preyed upon by per- 
 sons of all sorts, that I dare say you would be amazed and astonished at 
 it, by means whereof the clergy here are reduced to such a contempt as 
 is a most lamentable and scandalous thing to see in any Christian com- 
 monwealth." See also ibid. pp. 15G. 171. Unhappily, this sacrilege 
 was encouraged by some in high places. See the Letter of Abchbp, 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. ^57* 
 
 that their Sees were impoverished, ainl much of the 
 Cliurch property of Ireland was alienated by fraud or 
 neg-lect, and passed imperceptibly into lay hands, and 
 
 Laud to tlie Lord Deputy Strafford, a.d. 1635, " I Lave lately under- 
 stood of some practising on the Queen's side" (i.e. Eoiuanists, — 
 co-religionists of Henrietta Maria, see ibid. p. 505), " about portions of 
 tithes to keep them still alienated from the Church." See Eael 
 Steafford's Papers, i. 431. 
 
 The wishes of KiSG Chables I. were favourable to their restoration. 
 
 Earl Steafford's State Papers, i. p. 82, ed. fol. Lond. 1739. Abp. 
 Laud to Strafford, Lord Deputy of Ireland, a.d. 1G33. " In the great 
 cause of the impropriations which are yet remaining in His Majesty's 
 gift, and which he is most graciously pleased to give back to God 
 and His service, you will do whatsoever may justly be done for 
 the honour and service of our two great masters, God and the 
 King." 
 
 A Petition of Archbishops, and Bishops, and Clergy of Ireland, in 
 Convocation assembled, a.d. 1634 (see Steaffoed, State Papers, i. 
 p. 382), 
 
 " Sbeweth, 
 
 " That in the whole Christian world the rural clergy have not been 
 reduced into such extremity of contempt and beggai-y as in this j-our 
 Highness's kingdom, by the means of so frequent appropriations, com- 
 mendams, and violent intrusions into their undoubted rights in times of 
 confusion, having their churches ruined, their habitations left desolate, 
 their tithes detained, their glebes concealed, and by inevitable conse- 
 quence an invincible necessity of non-residence imposed upon thera, 
 whereby the ordinary subject hath been left wholly destitute of all 
 possible means to learn true piety to God, loyalty to their Prince, 
 and civility one towards another, and whereby former wars and in- 
 surrections have been originally both procreated and maintained ; 
 whereas by settling a rural clergy endowed with competency to 
 serve God at His altar, — besides the general protection of the 
 Almighty, which it will most surely bring upon your Majesty and 
 this kingdom, — barbarism and superstition will be expelled, the sub- 
 ject shall learn his duty to God and to his Sovereign, and true religion 
 be propagated. 
 
 "Our most humble suit is that your Highness would be pleased to 
 perfect the pious intention of your blessed Father, and your sacred 
 Majesty, by establishing upon a rural and resident clergy those appro- 
 priations which are yet in the Crown undisposed." See ibid, further, 
 pp. 383—386. 
 
 S 
 
258 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 hence also the abuse of numerous commendams to Epis- 
 copal Sees ^. 
 
 Here then it must be repeated that a very great part 
 of the property in Ireland is blighted by sacrilege. 
 
 ■'' See the Earl of Strapfoed's State Papers, p. 172. " Commissions 
 for the repairs of tlie churches are issued over the whole kingdom, and 
 all the life shall be given it that possibly I can." a.d. 1633, but " as yet 
 there is hardly to be found a church to receive, or an able minister to 
 teach, the people." See also, p. 187, where the Lord Deputy describes 
 the state of the Church, "An unlearned clergj', which have not so 
 much as the outward form of churchmen to cover themselves with, nor 
 their persons any way reverenced or protected; the churches unbuilt; 
 the parsonage and vicarage-houses utterly ruined ; the people untaught 
 through the Non-Residency of the Clergy, occasioned by the unlimited 
 shameful numbers of Spiritual promotions with Cure of Soul which 
 they hold in commendam ; the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church 
 run over without all decency of habit, order, or gravity in the 
 course of their Service ; the possessions of the Church to a great 
 proportion in lay hands ; the Bishops alienating their very prin- 
 cipal houses and demesnes to their children (or) to strangers ; 
 farming out their jurisdiction to mean and unworthy persons (see 
 also on this point the details in Mant, i. pp. 4-15, 446); the 
 Popish titulars e.\ercising meanwhile a jurisdiction much greater 
 than theirs; the Schools either ill-provided or ill-governed, ^ the 
 most part, or, which is worse, applied sometimes underhand to 
 the maintenance of Popish Schoolmasters ; Lands given to tkose 
 charitable uses, and that in a bountiful proportion, especially by 
 King James I., dissipated, leased forth for little or nothing, con- 
 cealed contrary to all conscience and the excellent purposes of the 
 Founders ; the College here, which should be the Seminary of Arts 
 and Civility in the elder sort, extremely out of order." 
 
 Chichester, Lord Deputj', a.d. 1612 — 1615. "The churches I 
 found all ruinous, and many utterly defaced — a spectacle grievous 
 to the sight." 
 
 See Desid. Curios. Hibem. i. p. 252, and Carte's Life of Ormond, i. 
 p. 17, ed. Lond. 1736. " In Ulster (in King James I.'s time), most of 
 the churches iu the country had been destroyed by the troubles, or fallen 
 down for want of covering ; the livings were very small ; and either kept 
 in the Bishop's hands by way of commendams or sequestrations, or else 
 filled with ministers as scandalous as their income, so that scarce any care 
 was taken to catechize the children." Cp. below. Appendix, p. 287. 
 
Hindrances atid Hopes. 
 
 Princes, Prelates, Nobles, and Gentry have robbed 
 Almighty God. He may now say to them. Even from 
 your fathers' days ye are gone away from Mine ordinances, 
 and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will 
 return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. But ye said, 
 Wherein shall we return ? Will a man rob God ? Yet 
 ye have robbed Me. But ye say. Wherein have we robbed 
 Thee? In Tithes and Offerings. Ye are cursed with a 
 curse : for ye have robbed Me, saith the Lord''. 
 
 In our own days. Ten Episcopal Sees of Ireland, some 
 of them dating from a time prior to the Conquest, were 
 suppressed by the British Legislature 
 
 In the year 1838, the Tithe Eent-charge of the 
 Church of Ireland was reduced 25 per cent. ; which was 
 given to the Landlords of that country. 
 
 Such were the wounds she has received in the house of 
 her friends. 
 
 Need we be sui-prised that the Church of Ireland 
 should be weak, and the Reformation have made little 
 progress, when these things are so? Need we wonder 
 that crime should abound, and that God should smite 
 the earth with plagues, and wither the harvests, and that 
 estates should be encumbered, and Landlords should be 
 poverty-stricken ^, and the earth mourn ? Rather the 
 
 ' Mai. iii. 7. 9. 
 
 ' By 3 and 4 William IV. c. 37. 
 
 - Sir H. Spelman, 1. c. p. 88. " I might take just occasion to 
 remember what hath happened to many in tliis kingdom that became 
 unfortunate after they had meddled with Churches and Church livings. 
 Let those men and their families consider, whether themselves, their 
 fathers, or some of their ancestors have not been fettered in this 
 snare, and let the proprietaries of parsonages well consider these things, 
 for if Uzzah died that did but touch the Ark to save it, what shall 
 
 s 2 
 
26o The CJmrck History of Ireland. 
 
 wonder is, that God lias not hid His face altog-ether, and 
 withdrawn His Gospel. It is of the Lord's mercies that 
 we are not consumed, and because His compassions fail 
 not^. And must we not expect, that, till reparation shall 
 have been made for these sins against Him, the Divine 
 Judgments will hang like a dark cloud over that un- 
 happy country ? The curse causeless shall not com.c *. It 
 is a snare to devour things that are sanctified" . And 
 Them that honour Me I will honour, hut they that despise 
 Me shall be lightlij esteemed^. 
 
 When, therefore, we consider these things, do we not 
 see manifold reasons for recognizing God^s Justice, even 
 in those miseries which at first stagger and confound us ? 
 Who would not fear Thee, 0 King of Nations ? Just and 
 true are Thy ways''. And do we not discern strong 
 motives for fervent prayer, that He would pour out the 
 Spirit of grace and supplication from heaven upon all 
 orders among us,— for repentance and amendment, and 
 for the attainment of those blessings, of peace and happi- 
 ness, virtue and godliness, piety and loyalty, which we 
 cannot expect to be ours without the favour of God ^. 
 
 become of them that stretch out their hands against Churches to destroy 
 them ? If the stick -gatherer was stoned for so small a profanation 
 of the Sabbath, what shall they look for that by destroying the 
 Churches, destroy in a maimer the Sabbath itself? And if Corah, 
 Dathan, and Abiram offended so heinously in meddling with the offices 
 of the Lrvilical priesthood, what have they not to fear who usurp the 
 things of the liospel ? " 
 
 s Lam. iii. 22. * Prov. xxvi. 2. 
 
 s Prov. XX. 25. « 1 Sam. iii. 20. 
 
 7 Jer. X. 7. Rev. xv. 3. 
 
 8 For the encouragement of all who labour in the work of Restora- 
 tion, let nie insert the following from Abp. Bramhall's Life, by Bp. 
 Vesey. (See Mant, i. p. 508.) " Bp. Bramhall obtained for the Clergy 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 261 
 
 IV. Let us now advert to another hindrance of Keli- 
 gion in Ireland. 
 
 It is the common infirmity of humanity, to imagine 
 that the best cure of an evil is to be found in its opposite 
 extreme. Religion has greatly suffered from this excess 
 of reaction ^ In Ireland, Popery has given rise to 
 Puritanism, and has kept Puritanism alive ; while Puri- 
 tanism, in its turn, has strengthened Popery. Besides, 
 England .finding herself vexed by Puritan Teachers, 
 endeavoured to rid ' herself of their turbulence by trans- 
 porting them to Ireland. Thus she created a Puritan 
 school in Ireland, which, by a remarkable retribution, 
 has reacted, and still reacts, on this country. Hence, 
 for a time, the Church of Ireland was almost severed 
 from the communion of the Church of England. For, 
 in the year 1615, the Convocation of Ireland^ (the first 
 
 some few impropriations by power of reason and persuasion; more by 
 law, but most by purchase. The king's example was of great influence. 
 He had by his letter restored all impropriate tythes " (in the hands of 
 the Crown), " as fast as the leases should expire. The Lord Deputy 
 Strafford in pursuance thereof, restored several livings kept by his 
 predecessors for tlieir provisions. This noble precedent had its influence 
 on some of the nobility and gentry. The Archbishop of Canterbury 
 countenanced the work, and lent him both his hand, liead, and purse, 
 having designed 40,OOOZ. for it. By these and other prudent methods, 
 Bp. Bramhall regained to the Church in the compass of four years, 
 30,000^., some say 40,000/., per annum. Many poor Vicars now eat of 
 the tree which the Bishop of Derry planted." 
 s Wliat St. Basil well calls afdoAKT}! ct^ufTpi'o. 
 
 1 Thus Travers, the antagonist of Hooker, was advanced to the high 
 post of Provost of Trin. Coll. Dublin. For other evidences on tliis 
 subject, see the learned note in the last edition of Bramhall's Works, 
 i. p. exiv, and generally cdiicerning the various causes which led to the 
 dissemination of Puritanism in Dul)lin (Trinity College particularly), 
 and the North of Ireland, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., see 
 Dr. Elrington's Life of Ussher, p. 44, and Bp. Mant, i. p. 367. 
 
 * Dr. Eleington's Life of Ussher, p. 38. "In the year 1615, a 
 
262 The ChuTch Hislojy of Ireland. 
 
 Convocation that ever was held in that country) adopted 
 those high Calvinistic Articles ^, commonly known as the 
 Lambeth Articles, which had been reprobated by the 
 wisest Divines of the English Church. 
 
 Happily this difference was not of long duration. In 
 a Convocation holden in Ireland twenty years ^ after- 
 Convocation of the Irish Clergy, formed after the model of the English 
 Convocation, met at Dublin. This seems to have been the first Con- 
 vocation held in Ireland. . . . 
 
 "The only business that is recorded to have been transacted, the 
 formation of the (Irish) Articles, was not concluded in proper form. 
 They were not signed, as in England, by all the members, but by 
 Archbishop James, Speaker of the House of Bishops, and the Prolocutor 
 of the House of Clergy, in their names." 
 
 Dr. Elrington argues from 28 Henry VIII. c. 13 (where the Irish 
 Proctors in the Irish Parliament are compared to the English Convoca- 
 tion), that there was no Convocation in Ireland at that time, and the 
 argument seems conclusive. 
 
 The Irish Articjes of 1615 were not ratified by Parliament. 
 
 3 See Bp. Mant, i. pp. 383—389, concerning the Irish Articles, 
 comprehending the nine Lambeth Articles of 1595, suppressed by Queen 
 Elizabeth, and refuted by Bps. Overall and Andrewes, and rejected at 
 the Hampton Court Conference. 
 
 See Bp. Mant, i. 381, and on the evil effects of their adoption in 
 Ireland, p. 387 ; and my Occasional Sermons, 1st series, pp. 77, 122. 
 See also Elmkgton's Life of Ussher, p. 47. "The eflect of them 
 upon Ireland was most injurious to the progress of true religion. 
 Several of them gave great offence to the Roman Catholics, and 
 hindered their couversion ; and others of them gave as much encourage- 
 ment to the Puritans brought out of Scotland into Ulster, and both 
 made their advantage of them to the prejudice of the Church of 
 Ireland." Carte's Ormond, i. 78. 
 
 Canons of the Church of Ireland, 1634, Canon 1. "For the 
 manifestation of our agreement with the Church of England in the 
 confession of the same Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacra- 
 ments, we do receive and approve the Book of Articles of Religion 
 agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops, and the whole Clergy 
 in the Convocation holden in London in the year of our Ijord God 
 1562, for the avoiding of diversities of opinion, and for the establishing 
 of consent touching true religion. And therefore, if any hereafter 
 shall affirm that any of those Articles are in any part superstitious or 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 263 
 
 wards, the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of Eng- 
 land were received ; and they are the only Articles 
 which are now subscribed in the Irish Church * ; and the 
 English Liturg}', and no other, is to be used. Still, 
 
 erroneous, or sucli as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto, 
 let him be excommunicated, and not be absolved before he make a 
 public revocation of his error." Wilkins, Cone. iv. 498. 
 
 Canons of the Church of Ireland, Canon 3. " That form of Liturgy 
 or Divine Service, and no other, shall be used in any Church of this 
 realm, but that which is established by Law, and comprised in the Book 
 of Common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments." 
 
 On Ussher's abandonment of the doctrines contained in the Lambeth 
 Articles — " Bishop Overall is in the right," he said, " and I am of his 
 mind " — see Eleixgton's Life of Ussher, i. pp. 291 —295. 
 
 Bp. Jeremy Tatloe, Funeral Sermon on Archbp. Bramhall, Taylor's 
 Works, vi. p. 431. Bramhall's Works, i. p. Ixii. " He was careful, 
 and he was prosperous in it, to reduce that divine and excellent Service 
 of our Church to public and constant exercise, to unity and devotion, 
 and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as 
 the rule of public confessions and persuasions here, that they and we 
 might be populus unius labii of one heart and lip, building up our 
 hopes of Heaven on a most holy faith, and taking away that Shibboleth 
 which made this Church lisp too undecently, or rather in some little 
 degree to speak the Speech of Ashdod, and not the language of 
 Canaan." 
 
 5 Dr. Elkington's Life of Ussher, p. 177. " It is certain that 
 after the Restoration no attempt was ever made to enforce subscription 
 to the Irish Articles, and that for admission to Holy Orders the only 
 subscription recjuired has been the signing of the first Canon, which 
 enforces the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England." 
 
 On the Convocation of 1634, and the Canon then passed, see Beaji- 
 hall's Works, i. p. xx, and v. pp. 80, 81. " The truth or jojtruth of the 
 two several sets of Articles was not so much as questioned then, but the 
 authority, whether of them should be acknowledged for tlie future to 
 be the Articles of the Church of Ireland, and the public seal and 
 standard of our doctrine. There were no thoughts of tAoo distinct 
 standards at that time. And if any Bishop had been known to have 
 required any man to subscribe to the Irish Articles after the English 
 were received, and authorized under the great seal of Ireland, he would 
 have been called to an account for it." See also the notes of the 
 learned Editor, v. p. 80. 
 
264 TJie CluircJi History of Ireland. 
 
 however^ seeds of discord remained. And the Church of 
 Rome has been active in disseminating them more widely. 
 She sent emissaries into Ireland to assume different reli- 
 gious characters with Proteus-like versatility'; to per- 
 sonate Puritans^ Independents, and Anabaptists, and to 
 weaken Protestants by intestine feuds, that she might 
 triumph in their divisions. " Divide, et impera," — this 
 is one of her Satanic arts (I cannot call it by a milder 
 name), by which she has sought, and still seeks, to dis- 
 organize and rend asunder the Churches of England and 
 Ireland; and to excite suspicions in the minds of the 
 
 ^ On Papists personating Presbyterians and Puritans, in order to 
 destroy the Churcli and Monarchy of England and Ireland, see Bp. 
 Bbamhall's Letter (from Brussels ?) to Abp. Ussher, July 20, 1654, 
 Works, i. p. xcvi. " They have many yet at Paris fitting to be sent 
 over who twice in the week oppose one the other, one pretending 
 Presbytery, the other Independency, some Anabaptism," &c. " Myself 
 would hardly have credited these things, had not mine eyes seen sure 
 evidence of the same." See also Camden, Ann. ad a.d. 1568; Heylin, 
 Hist, of Presbyt. Bk. vi. ; Bp. Stillingfleet on Separation, Preface ; 
 Wall on Infant Baptism, ii. p. 372; and the note in the late Dr. 
 Woedsworth's Eccl. Biog. iv. 64, on Bp. Jewel's expression, "Popish 
 Priests in the masquerade of Puritan Preachers," and the authorities in 
 Dr. Elkinoton's Life of Ussher, i. 263 ; Wake's Foxes and Firebrands, 
 ii. p. 86, Lond. 1682. On the endeavour of IJomanists to divide 
 Protestants, pp. 7. 39, Pt. ii. 29, the Papal dispensation to that effect, 
 and p. 40. The rescript is from Pius V., dated Rome, 6th ides of May, 
 the lirst year of his Pontificate : " We authorize the wise and learned of 
 our Ecclesiastics to devise all manner of devices . . . that a perpetual 
 infamy may be brought upon heresies and on their posteritie hy a 
 perpetual discord among themselves." See also Irish Eccl. Journal, 
 i. pp. 145. 181. 
 
 There is too good reason to believe that this manoeuvre is now 
 practised in our own days, and indeed carried further, by some of the 
 same class, who, to advance the cause of Rome, not only wear the 
 mask of Puritans, but do not scruple to personate Infidels. See the 
 remarks in Irish Eccl. Journal for Aug., 1852, and the late Dean 
 Goode's recent pamphlet entitled " Rome's Tactics." 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 265 
 
 People against their Pastors^ by traducing- them, and to 
 alienate their affections from the Church, which these 
 Popish emissaries represent as a mere congeries of dis- 
 cordant and heretical opinions, and which they endeavour 
 to make such by all means in their power. 
 
 Miserable were the consequences of this Puritanism 
 reared in Ireland — fostered by England — and cherished 
 by E-ome. Many persons were repelled by the cold 
 and ungenial aspect, in which, under Puritan influ- 
 ence, the Church of Ireland was made to appear ; 
 many were offended by the squalid and slovenly attire 
 in which she was presented to their eyes ; many were 
 shocked by the gloomy dogmas of Calvinism broached 
 in her communion; many were distressed by the lack 
 of unity ; many were distracted by conflicting opinions, 
 each professing to be true. Thus they were tempted to 
 fall : and while they were wavering and tottering, the 
 Church of Rome came forward^ and fascinated their 
 senses, and charmed their imaginations, and captivated 
 their affections, by a splendid ritual, ardent devotions, 
 shaqjly defined dogmas, and a semblance of unity. 
 Then the work was done. Puritanism had been the 
 pioneer of Popery, and Popery conquered by it. Thus 
 the Reformation was imperilled by some who professed 
 to be its friends : and the Church of Ireland was in 
 danger of falling by means of herself. 
 
 V. Let me remind you further, that during the 
 greater part of the last century, her chief dignities ^ 
 
 7 See the statements of Bishop Mant on this subject. History, ii. 424. 
 568, and Peimate Bottltee's Correspondence, Oxford, 1769, 2 vols. 
 
266 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 were bestowed from considerations of State Policy, 
 and with little regard to the advancement of God's 
 glory, and the good of His Church. 
 
 Yet more. "WTien England had thus been paralyzing 
 the strength of the true Church in Ireland, and so 
 crippling her own vigour in its most vital part, she was 
 induced to found and endow a Seminary * for the intru- 
 sive and usurping Church in Ireland; a seminary in 
 which hundreds of young men — now constituting the 
 Eomish Priesthood in Ireland — have been trained to 
 regard the Irish Reformation as a schism, and to abhor 
 the Irish Church as an imposture and a curse, and to 
 revere as infallible — and almost to worship as divine — 
 the Papal power which excommunicated the Queen 
 of England, and declared her to have forfeited her 
 throne, and stirred up her subjects to rebellion, and sent 
 a foreign foe to invade her dominions. Since these 
 things were done by the Vicar of Christ, therefore to 
 exterminate Protestants is in their eyes an act of re- 
 ligion ^ These things they are taught in order that 
 they may teach them to others — in the name of Christ. 
 Need we wonder, that the Gospel has made little 
 progress in Ireland, that the Church is feeble, that the 
 Reformation has not prevailed ? Must we not, alas ! 
 confess that England has betrayed their cause? Need 
 we be surprised that Ireland should be a scourge 
 
 s The College of Maynootli was founded iu 1795. 
 
 ' The feelings there engendered may be seen represented in the evi- 
 dence of a former student of Maynooth, Kev. T. W. Dixon, given before 
 the Commissioners of Irish Education Enquiry, 25th Oct., 1826, p. 331. 
 See below, Appendix B, p. 288. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 267 
 
 to her? "We have made it such for ourselves. We 
 have sown the wind, and must expect to reap the whirl- 
 wind ' , 
 
 VI. "What, then, is to be done ? Are we to sit down 
 in despair ? Heaven forbid ! 
 
 True, the present condition of Ireland, social and 
 religious, is such as to create anxiety and alarm. The 
 evils which it suffers, and which we suffer with it, are 
 indeed manifold and great. They are almost enough to 
 dismay us. But, let us remember, though the evils 
 themselves are great, yet the evils, social and religious, 
 attendant on despair of a remedy for those evils, are 
 infinitely greater. Therefore let us not despair. 
 
 Again, let us recollect that these evils are trials of 
 our Faith. Adversity was the cradle of Christianity, 
 Persecution is the school of the Church. Danger and 
 difficulty are the elements in which great minds are 
 reared ; they are nursed amid storms. 
 
 Let us also remember that our difficulties are God's 
 opportunities. Our midnight is His noon. If we are 
 toiling and rowing in the ship of Christ's Church, — 
 then, the darkness of the night, when the winds are 
 boisterous, and the waves run highest, is the season in 
 which He most loves to appear to us and say, " It is I, 
 he not afraid^." 
 
 Yet more, — If the Church and Reformation in Ireland 
 
 ' Hosea viii. 7. 
 Matt. xiv. 27. Mark vi. 50. Joliu vi. 20. 
 
268 The ChurcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 had not been impeded and obstructed; if ample justice 
 bad been done tbem ; and if, such being the case, Ire- 
 land were still in the state which we now see and 
 deplore; then indeed we might have cause to despair, — 
 not only of Ireland and its Church, but even of Chris- 
 tianity itself. 
 
 But, since the Church and Reformation have never 
 had free scope for their energies; since they have been 
 assailed and embarrassed from without and within, 
 therefore there is room for hope and expectation, that 
 if these hindrances are removed, then, by God's blessing, 
 the condition of Ireland, civil and religious, will ere 
 long be as glorious and as happy, as it is now igno- 
 minious and miserable. 
 
 How then are those hindrances, which now beset her, 
 to be removed ? How can free course be given to this 
 glorious work of national regeneration ? 
 
 1. It cannot be done, except by an earnest endeavour 
 on our part, to realize in our own mind the great im- 
 portance and dignity of this subject. 
 
 This is not only a question of civil government, and 
 temporal felicity. Even in that respect it is unspeakably 
 momentous. England must be weak, as long as Ireland 
 is miserable. And Ireland will be miserable, till these 
 hindrances are removed. Ireland is the most vulnerable 
 part of the British Empire, and if ever we are assailed 
 by a foreign foe (which God forbid!), it will very pro- 
 bably be there. Therefore, on mere secular grounds of 
 temporal peace and domestic happiness, one of the most 
 important works that can be conceived, is to bring 
 Ireland into conformity with England in the profession 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 269 
 
 of the true Faith ^. He that promotes this work will 
 not have lived in vain \ 
 
 » See the Earl of Straffoed's State Papers, i. p. 367. The Lord 
 Deputy to the King, a.d. 1634. " I judge it without question far the 
 greatest service that c;\n be done unto your Crowns, on this side, to draw 
 Ireland iiilo a ci nilni inily of Religion witli England ; which, indeed, would 
 set your jMaje>ty in L^reatcr strength and safety within your own domi- 
 nions tlian any thing now left unaccomplished to make us a happy and 
 secure people within ourselves." Cp. ii. G3. "The great, excellent, and 
 necessary work of bringing this people to a conformity in religion ; till 
 which is effected the Crown of England may not trust, nay, indeed, 
 ought not to hold itself secure of this Nation, which, how peaceable 
 soever we may think them, are in an instant to be blown up by the 
 Romish Clergy into a Tempest, not only to the disquiet, but great 
 hazard of this State, especially if they perceive this Crown embroiled 
 in war, and be emboldened by promise of foreign succours. All the 
 services put tof/ether that are to be .done on this side, are not com- 
 parable to this one." 
 
 On this topic, see the able and important Speech of the late Rt. Hon. 
 Spencer Perceval, published in 1811, by Mr. D. M. Perceval, with 
 other interesting documents bearing on this subject. 
 
 * The following is from Story's History of the Wars of Ireland, 
 A.D. 1693, last chapter. " As to the people of England in general, 
 one should think it's their business to promote and encourage the 
 trade and ]irosperity of Ireland, that thereby it might not only support 
 itself in time of peace, but defend and maintain itself in war, which 
 nothing but promoting its trade and wealth will do. For what Ireland 
 cannot do in order to its safety, England must supply to prevent its own 
 danger, since, if ever a foreign enemy surprise and possess Ireland, 
 especially the French, then England must maintain a greater standing 
 force to secure themselves, than would have secured Ireland, if em- 
 ployed in its defence, it being no groundless saying of some old-fashioned 
 poet, 
 
 'Se that ivou'd England tvin, 
 Must with Ireland first begin.' 
 
 For though, in former times, when little or no shipping appeared upon 
 these narrow seas, and France and other countries knew not what it was 
 to have a fleet, and there was but small commerce even between England 
 and Ireland themselves, yet in this active age of the world, it would go 
 very hard with England if the French should possess Ireland, who have 
 all the harbours from Dunkirk to Brest, and if they had Cui-k, Baltimore, 
 and Bantry, where would our western trade be ? Besides, by possessing 
 
270 The Chtirc/i History of Ireland. 
 
 2. But, important as this view is, it is by no means 
 the most important view of this subject. 
 
 the eastern coast of Ireland, they would surround three parts in four of 
 England, and a great part of Scotland, and could invade either when 
 they pleased, which would necessitate England to he always at the 
 charge of a considerable standing army, and then farewell both their 
 wealth and long enjoyed liberty. 
 
 " I pretend not to meddle with any particular methods for promoting 
 the English interest in Ireland, only it's worth the knowledge and care 
 of every one, especially those in places of authority, and trust, what was 
 in my Lord Bakkley's instructions (dated May 12, 1670), relating to 
 matters of Religion : ' that forasmuch as all good success doth rest upoji 
 the service of Ood, above all things you are to settle good orders in the 
 Church, that Ood may he better served in the true established religion, 
 and the people by that means reduced from their errors. But whilst 
 the Irish are in the power of the Romish Clergy, they keep them in 
 such awe and ignorance, that tliey scarcely dare or can enquire into 
 the differences in religion, nor read the Scriptures, nor yet confer with 
 any Protestant Divine, so that all they generally know of religion (I 
 speak of the vulgar sort) is some fabulous legends of the Priests' in- 
 vention ; or that their fathers and families were of that persuasion, and 
 so must they be also. 
 
 " There are a great many very learned, pious, and devout Clergymen 
 of the Protestant Ciiurch in Ireland, discharging the duties of their 
 functions with such religious and godly sincerity, as becomes the 
 messengers of Christ ; but there being a great many impropriations 
 in that kingdom, and by this means half a score parishes, in some 
 places, not able to afford one hundred pounds per annum to a 
 Minister : this has given occasion to the union of several parishes, 
 and not only so, but for frequent pluralities, and that in several 
 places very much to the disadvantage of the Church, by which means 
 there are a great many parishes inhabited only with Papists, which for 
 that reason are generally called sinecures, as if the Minister had no 
 business there at all. But this I can by no means subscribe unto, since 
 to me they seem to be the clear contrary, and not impossible to remedy, 
 by finding out some means to allow each Minister a competency, and 
 then oblige him to reside upon it, whether his parishioners be Papists 
 or Protestants, since the living among those people, and the frequent 
 conversation with them, would be of more force than all the penal laios 
 in Christendom." 
 
 Surely such words as these ought not to be lost on legislators of the 
 present times. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 Our life is but a span ; and the time is coming- when 
 Thrones and Kingdoms will be no more, and the Earth 
 on which we live will be dissolved. Let us then arise to 
 a higher point of contemplation, for a right estimate of 
 this subject. If the evidence adduced in the previous 
 discourses is authentic, then the Reformed Church of 
 Ireland is the true Church of Christ in that country. 
 Let us then carefully consider, What a Church is ? It is 
 not a civil association ; it is not only a Divine Institu- 
 tion, but it is " no other than the Spouse and Body of 
 Christ." When Saul persecuted the Christian Church, 
 Christ did not say to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
 thou My Church ? — but, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
 thou Mel"' He that persecutes a Church persecutes 
 Christ. Wrongs done to a Church are wrongs done to 
 Christ : they are wrongs done to Him, by Whom kings 
 reign, and princes decree justice ; done to Him Who is 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords * ; done to Him Who is 
 Ruler of all, and Judge of all. 
 
 Can it be imagined,— that, if these solemn truths had 
 been duly considered, the grievous injuries which have 
 been inflicted on the Church of Ireland would ever have 
 been committed? And if they were engraven on the 
 hearts of all, would not speedy reparation be made for 
 those injuries? And then we might look for Christ's 
 blessing, and might rely upon His aid. And we might 
 hope for rewards, infinite and eternal, from His hand, at 
 the great Day. 
 
 3. This being duly understood, let us now proceed to 
 observe that the foremost of the hindrances which we 
 5 Prov. viii. 15. Rev. xvii. 14 j xix. 16. 
 
272 The C/mrck History of I Iceland. 
 
 were constrained to specify as impeding the course of 
 true Eeligion in Ireland^ was the inveterate enmity and 
 violent antagonism of Rome. 
 4. How may this be removed ? 
 
 Not, certainly, by concession. The only concession 
 which will ever satisfy Rome is the surrender of our 
 Church and the sacrifice of our Monarchy — and the 
 concession of ourselves, soul and body, to be hers, — 
 instead of being Christ's. This is clear from the History 
 of the Past, — especially from the History, Civil and 
 Ecclesiastical, of Ireland. And (as far as regards claims 
 to Supremacy) such as Rome was in the sixteenth 
 century, in the days of Pius V., such she is now in the 
 nineteenth century, in the days of Pius IX. ° Indeed 
 she publicly avows, — ^and exults in the avowal, — that 
 she is unchanged and unchangeable. And it is also 
 evident from the sure word of prophecy, in the Scripture 
 before us — the Book of Revelation — that Rome 'will not 
 repent of her deeds ^ — she will continue to be what she is, 
 
 6 Rome has identified herself in a special manner with Pius the Fifth, 
 who excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, and endeavoured to dethrone her; 
 for he has been canonized by Rome, and she now worships him as a saint. 
 And the present Poutift', Pius IX., publicly declared on his accession, 
 that he took Pius V. as his patron and his pattern. See his letter, dated 
 July 5, 1847, to M. de Falloux, author of the Vie et Pontificat de 
 S. Pie V. "Nous I'avons choisi pour patron au premier jour de notre 
 souverain pontificat, de meme nous continuous a lui adresser nos in- 
 stantes supplications afin que sous ce patronage le courage ne nous fasse 
 jamais defaut." 
 
 That the claims of the Papacy of the present day go even beyond those 
 made by it at the time of the Council of Trent, has been shown in the 
 present writer's Address " On the proposed Council at Rome " (to 
 be held December 8, 1869), pp. 16—23. London, 1868 (Rivingtons). 
 
 ? Rev. xvi. 9. 11. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 273 
 
 even unto the end. We must therefore reckon on her 
 hostiUty ; and must provide accordingly. 
 
 This is a melancholy fact. But still even here we 
 have hope. Though we have reason to fear that a spirit 
 of evil will remain in the Church of Rome herself, — and 
 that it will act with terrible energy even till the day of 
 her doom, and perhaps act more fiercely as that day 
 approaches more nearly, — yet we have also a divine 
 assurance from St. John that her empire will he divided*. 
 Many will perceive that she has overlaid the True Faith 
 with errors, novelties, and corruptions; and since she 
 will not allow any in her communion to hold the True 
 Faith without holding also those errors, novelties, and 
 corruptions ; and since, therefore, they cannot communi- 
 cate with her without communicating in her sim, they 
 will therefore hearken to the Voice of God, which says. 
 Come out of her, My People, that ye he not partakers of 
 her Sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues^ . 
 
 We cannot allow ourselves to doubt that in the 
 Romish Priesthood in Ireland there are many who 
 would receive the Truth, if it were presented to them, 
 not with scornful bitterness, and not with supercilious 
 pity, but with wisdom, gentleness, and love. True, 
 they have strong prejudices against us. But are their 
 prejudices against us stronger than those entertained 
 by the Jews, especially the Priests and Pharisees, 
 against Our Lord and His Apostles? There may be 
 among them — doubtless there is — many a Nicodemus, 
 many a Gamaliel, many a Nathanael — yes, some who 
 now persecute, as Saul, may hereafter evangelize as St. 
 8 Eev. xvi. 19. ' Rev. xviii. 4. 
 
 T 
 
274 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Paul. A great company of the priests may be obedient 
 to the faith Would to God that any words of ours 
 could reach their hearts ! Would to God that the Holy 
 Spirit would soften their minds^ and fill us all with 
 charity, without which our light is darkness, and all 
 Intelligence a dream ! 
 
 Would that they might be brought " so to frame and 
 reform themselves, that no distraction might remain, 
 and that we might all with one heart and mouth glorify 
 the Father of our Lord and Saviour, Whose Church we 
 are ^" and that they might join with the true Pastors of 
 Ireland in feeding His Flock in that country ! There is 
 ample room, and abundant work for all. Let the strife 
 between the herdmen cease '. Let there be but One Fold, 
 and One Shepherd, J esus Christ our Lord ■* ! 
 
 5, Here, then, we read our own duty, — To contend 
 earnestly/ for the Faith ^; hut to speak the Truth in love *. 
 Not to wage war with the erring, but with their errors. 
 To restore the erring in the spirit of meekness ^ . To have 
 before our eyes the example of the first Martyr, who 
 prayed for those who stoned him, — Lord, lay not this sin 
 to their charge ; and of Him Who, when He was reviled, 
 reviled not again, — and said. Father, forgive them, for 
 they know not what they do ®. Let us therefore pray for 
 them. Human reason will have little effect wdthout 
 divine grace ; but let well-tempered arguments be 
 winged with fervent prayer, and they will pierce the 
 
 )ul. 
 
 > Acts vi. 7. 
 
 ■« Gen. xiii. 8 
 
 5 Jude 3. 
 
 ■ Gal. vi. 1. 
 
 8. 
 
 2 HOOKEB, iii. 1. 10. 
 
 •> John X. 16. 
 
 6 Eph. iv. 15. 
 
 8 Acts vii. 60. Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 275 
 
 Here another ray of hope beams upon us. We refer 
 with thankfulness to the fact, that, within the last few 
 years, many persons in Ireland have renounced the 
 errors of Rome. A great missionary work is now going 
 on in Ireland. Every thing depends on the manner in 
 which that work is conducted : a single false step may 
 damage the whole. For, let us recollect, it is one thing 
 to renounce error, and another thing to embrace Truth : 
 many do the one without ever doing the other. It is 
 well known, that, at the present time, a very large 
 number of persons in Italy, and even at Rome itself, 
 especially in the middle and upper classes, have dis- 
 carded all reverence for the Church of Rome. In this 
 sense, Italy itself may almost be called Protestant. In 
 this sense, a great part of the population of Rome her- 
 self is Protestant. But, in rejecting error, have they 
 espoused the Truth? For the most part, it is to be 
 feared, not. Rather, in rejecting the errors of Rome, 
 they have rejected also the truths of Christianity. They 
 have passed from Rome to Infidelity. 
 
 Again : let us contemplate some of the countries 
 where the Reformation of the sixteenth century made 
 great progress for a time, and seemed to promise the 
 most happy results. Where now is the Church of 
 Geneva? Where are the Churches of Zurich, of Fi'ank- 
 fort, and of Basle ? Alas ! they have become a prey to 
 Socinianism and Rationalism ; they are distracted by 
 wild and fanatical opinions ; and the form of Chris- 
 tianity, taught by our Lord and His Apostles, and 
 displayed in the Primitive Church, is scarcely visible 
 among them. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 The CJuLvch History of Ireland. 
 
 Here is a solemn warning to us. It teaches us the 
 need of calmness, caution^ and wisdom, at this critical 
 period. Zeal alone will not serve our purpose. Unless 
 it be well directed, it may mar all. You well know 
 that the Church of Rome imputes all divisions in our 
 Churches to one cause, — separation from herself. If we 
 may so speak, she looks on the Reformation as a huge 
 avalanche, which has fallen olF from the Rock of the 
 Church, and has devastated Europe with its ruins. Let 
 us endeavour to show that men can reject her errors, 
 and yet be united in the Truth. And for our guidance 
 here, let us contemplate the Vision of the Apocalypse ^ 
 — the Woman in the Wilderness. The Church is repre- 
 sented by the Woman, — that is by one person — to show 
 its TJniljj. Let us he of one heart and one mind, and speah 
 the same thing. Let us endeavour to keep the Unity of 
 the Spirit in the bond of peace ^. That woman is clothed 
 with the Sun — Christ, and She is represented as borne 
 onward upon the Wings of His Word. She is clothed 
 with the Sun. Let us not divest her of her glorious 
 apparel. Let us not separate Christ from the Bride. 
 Let us never separate the Church from Christ, nor 
 Christ from the Church. IFhat God hath joined toge- 
 ther let not man put asunder. And let us not sever the 
 Church of God from the Word of God. She is home on 
 the Wings of the Great Eagle, which is Christ. Let us, 
 therefore, be careful to repair the neglects and sins* 
 
 ' Rev. xii. 1—15. ' Epb. iv. 3. 1 Cor. i. 10. 
 
 2 See above, pp. 250, 251, and p. 94 of " Short History of the Attempts 
 to convert the Popish Natives of Ireland, by the Rev. John Richard- 
 son, Rector of Anuah, diocese Kildai-e," Lond. 1712 ; whence it appears 
 that the plans then conceived for disseminating the Scriptures among the 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 277 
 
 of former generations^ and to disseminate the Word of 
 God in the tong-ue of the people. But let us remember, 
 this is not enough. The Bible is sometimes made to be 
 a book merely for controversy and debate — a book for the 
 head and not for the heart ; a book for the lips and not 
 for the life. Let us avoid this error. And how may we 
 do this ? The Word of God, let us remember, will profit 
 little without the grace of God. In hearing and reading 
 the Word we need the help of the Spirit Who wrote it. 
 And how is that grace to be obtained ? Through the 
 regular means of grace — Prayer and the two Sacraments, 
 and by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, speaking by the 
 voice of the Church of Christ Universal, to which He 
 has promised His presence and His Spirit, and which 
 He has set up in the world to be the Pillar and Ground 
 of the Truth ^, and has commissioned to declare the true 
 sense of Scripture to the world ; and which has declared 
 that sense in her Creeds, and preaches it by a ministry 
 
 Irish in their own language, and for planting an Irish-speaking Ministry 
 among tlieni, were obstructed (and were defeated) on the ground that 
 they " would be very destructive to the English interest in Ireland." 
 See ibid. p. 60, — "The principal cause, in all probability, why the Re- 
 formed Religion hath all this time made no greater progress among the 
 Natives of Ireland, is, that the most fit and efiectual, or (to speak in 
 other terms) the evangelical means, have not been universally and 
 steadily used to that end : there luith not due care been taken, to 
 perform the offices of rcliffinii hi IIhui cmislinillii in their own lan- 
 guage. It must be ackuouledged, indeed, that other causes have 
 concurred to keep up Popery in that kingdom; but the first and 
 greatest is, that the Light of God's Word (which concertelh the soul, 
 Ps. xix. 7) hath not been sufficiently communicated to them. Politic 
 methods have been depended upon for accomplishing this work, and the 
 means of the Gospel have been neglected ; as if we knew better than 
 Christ and His Apostles, how religion is to be propagated in the world, 
 or as if the methods used by them were not seasonable or convenient 
 now '." ^1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
278 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 deriving its commission, through the Apostles, from 
 Christ Himself. And therefore the Church in the 
 Apocalypse wears on her brow the diadem of the twelve 
 stars — not the Papal tiara — not a crown of one star — 
 but of twelve stars— not of one Apostle, but of all — the 
 diadem of an Apostolical Ministry teaching Evangelical 
 Truth. Let not the Church of Ireland forfeit that 
 crown. Let adequate provision be made for the spiri- 
 tual wants of that Country by erecting additional 
 churches, and by supplying endowments for additional 
 pastors who may minister to the people in their own 
 tongue, which is the key to their hearts; so that every 
 pai'ish in Ireland may reflect as in a mirror the image of 
 the primitive Church, which continued stedfastly in the 
 Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in hreahing of 
 bread, and in prayers'^ . 
 
 VII. But it may be said. How is this great work to be 
 effected ? The harvest truly is plenteous, hut the labourers 
 are few. How is the Church of Ireland to be in fact 
 what she is in name ? How is she to become commen- 
 surate, in presence and efficiency, with the whole extent 
 of the country ? 
 
 In reply to this inquiry, let it first be allowed and 
 
 clearly understood, that with her present scanty band of 
 
 spiritual pastors the Church of Ireland cannot execute 
 
 her proper work ^ But then, let it be remembered, that 
 
 almost all the soil of Ireland is owned by Protestants 
 
 Acts ii. 42. 5 Cp. above, p. 274. 
 
 8 " I have sliown " (says Dr. Duigenan, Fair Representation, p. 152, 
 ed. 1799) " that of the property of tlie Nation thirty-nine parts out of 
 forty (qu. nine tenths ?) are in the hands of Protestants." 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 Let it also be recollected, that a large portion of the 
 Tithes of Ireland are in the hands Protestant Laymen' . 
 It is an incontrovertible axiom, that all property, and 
 especially all Tithe property, is held under a moral 
 obligation to provide for the spiritual needs of those 
 parishes from which it accrues ; and, thanks be to God, 
 facilities have been afforded by the Imperial Parliament ^ 
 for the accomplishment of this great work in Ireland. 
 And now, — with due deference be it said, — can we ima- 
 gine, that if an earnest and respectful appeal were made 
 to the landed proprietors of Ireland, and especially to the 
 proprietors of Tithe, in behalf of the numerous parishes 
 of Ireland which are without a Pastor and a Church, 
 this appeal would be in vain ? We do not, we cannot, 
 suppose it. Can we imagine that some there who pro- 
 fess zeal against Popery, and smart under its evils, will 
 perpetuate, without mitigation, one of the worst relics 
 of Popery— the curse of Impropriations? Thou that 
 
 ' See above, pp. 254 and 257. Sir Thos. Ryves, Poor Vicar's Plea, 
 p. 9, ed. 1704., says, " Of all the kingdoms of the Christian World, 
 I suppose that never any vv'as so surcharged and ruined vpith this heavy 
 burden of Impropriations as this poor kingdom of Ireland was and is." 
 This arose in the first instance, as he shows, from the immense 
 multitude of Monasteries in Ireland, which engrossed the Tithes in 
 that country ; which at the Reformation were transferred to Laymen 
 instead of being restored to their rightful uses. He specifies one case 
 of au Irish Monastery (St. Thomas near Dublin), which in a few years 
 after its erection had procured fifty-nine Livings in part, or whole, 
 to be appropriated to their uses. 
 
 " By means of which practice it came to pass, that a man shall there 
 find few Churches served by other than poor Vicars and stipendiary 
 Curates, men of such coarse stuff," &c. 
 
 8 In the Acts 14 and 15 Vict. caps. 72, 73, 74 (Aug. 7, 1851), due 
 mainly to the exertion of an eminent person whose strenuous and 
 successful labours afford a pledge of fresh hopes to the Church of Ire- 
 land. 
 
2 8o The CJnu'ch History of Ireland. 
 
 abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ' ? We do 
 not, we cannotj believe it. Even worldly considerations 
 would enforce the appeal. Ireland can never expect 
 peace, till this suit is granted. The property and per- 
 sons of Landlords and Tenants will never be safe, till 
 this prayer is heard. And then let us look hig-her. 
 This is no other than a plea of the Church, who is the 
 Spouse of Christ. It is no other than a plea of Christ 
 Himself in behalf of the souls for whom He shed His 
 blood. Will they shut their ears ag-ainst Him ? No : it 
 is not possible. And then let it be added, this is a plea 
 — not so much for a boon — as for restitution of a due, 
 for restitution to God and the poor*. Till this plea is 
 
 s Rom. ii. 22. 
 
 ' Many of tliese impropriate Tithes are (as has been observed 
 already) the spoils of dissolved Monasteries, and Sir T. RxvES has 
 shown that in Papal times poor Vicars had an action against Monastic 
 Houses for competent' maintenance, and that Bishops had power to 
 levy such maintenance in tlieir behalf. See Poor Vicar's Plea, p. 47, 
 see also pp. 11. 29. 33, rd. 1701. "Salva sustentatione Vicariorum 
 eisdem Ecclesiis deservicutiuni," "without this or the like clause have 
 I not seen any appropriation." 
 
 Sir Thomas Ryves (who was a Judge in the Prerogative Court, 
 Dublin, in or about 1620) argues that this claim has never been 
 cancelled, and, indeed, presses much more strongly on Lay Impro- 
 priators, thi'.n it ever did on Monastic Foundations, which were of an 
 ecclesiastical character ; " res transit cuin suo oncre," p. 66, and he 
 observes that " the laws of the kingdom have left unto the Church, 
 especially to this of Ireland, this only l)oard whereby to save itself 
 from the miserable wreck which it suH'ered liy tlie overflowing deluge 
 of Unions and Impropriations in the time of Popery." "The law is 
 of force already, and wanteth nothing but a fit and willing hand to 
 put it in execution." See pp. 59—70. 
 
 See also p. 115. "All have robbed and must make restitution. 
 The Vicar or daily Minister of the Church must have sufficient allow- 
 ance out of the Tithes of his own Parish, — or else God our Father is 
 dishonoured, and our Mother the Church is wronged. If no course be 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 281 
 
 heai'd, we must expect that plots and conspiracies^ mui*- 
 ders and riots, famines, pestilences, and wars will recur 
 in an endless train. But when that plea is granted (may 
 God hasten the day !) then we shall see with gladsome 
 eyes the promise of God Himself fulfilled to those who 
 have granted it, in their persons, their estates, their 
 families, and their country. Bring ye all the Tithes into 
 the Storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and 
 prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will 
 not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a 
 blessing, that there shall not be room to receive it. And all 
 natiotis shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delight- 
 some land to Me, saith the Lord of hosts '. 
 
 VIII. Here let us notice an argument which seems to 
 retard the approach of this blessed consummation. " In 
 many parts of Ireland," it is said by some, " the mem- 
 bers of the reformed Church are very few : we wish they 
 were more, but we can do little for them, being so few as 
 they are : in other parishes there are only Romanists, 
 and we have nothing to do with them." 
 
 And so it comes to pass that many Parishes are left to 
 themselves : and no effort whatever is made in their 
 behalf. 
 
 But let us be allowed to ask, What language is this ? 
 
 Can it come from the lips of a Christian? If this 
 
 reasoning were just, would there ever have been such 
 
 a thing as Christianity? When Christ looked down 
 
 takeu for this end, in this miserable kingdom, then farewell Religion ! 
 And what can then ensue, but the abomination of desolation in the 
 highest places of the kingdom ? Which God forbid !" 
 - Mai. iii. 10—12. 
 
282 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 on the world from heaven before His Incarnation, what 
 did He see ? Did He see Churches ? Did He see Pas- 
 tors? Did He see Christians? No; He came down 
 from heaven to mahe them. He left the ninefy and nine, 
 in order to seek the One ■\ And does He say that He is 
 absent from men because they are few ? Does He care 
 little for the souls of a few ? No ; " where two or three 
 are gathered together in My name, there," He says, "I am 
 in the midst of them And " there is joy among the 
 angels of God over one sinner that repenteth^." And 
 he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way, 
 shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
 sins ^. 
 
 Therefore let not one be left to perish, because he is 
 alone. Let not any be lost, because they are few. 
 Rather let them be sought more carefully, and cherished 
 more lovingly, because they are few, and in order that 
 they may be more. The single ear may grow into a 
 Harvest. The single grape may produce a Vineyard. 
 The new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, 
 Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it^ . 
 
 IX. Let us therefore regard the Church of Ireland 
 as a Missionary Church. Such is her true character. 
 And to us, we need not hesitate to declare, the Church of 
 
 3 Luke XV. 4. * Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 5 Luke XV. 7. 10. « James v. 20. 
 
 ^ Isa. Ixv. 8. 
 
 See Straffoed's State Papers, i. p. 254. " I am glad," says Arch- 
 bishop Laud to Strafford, " you will soon take order that Divine 
 Service may be read throughout in the Churches, be the company 
 that vouchsafe to come never so few. Let God have His whole Ser- 
 vice with reverence, and He will quickly send more help to perform it." 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 283 
 
 Ireland is the most important Missionary Church in the 
 world. She is nearest and dearest to us. We owe her 
 the deepest debt, both of gratitude for the benefits we 
 received from her in ancient times, and of reparation for 
 the injuries we have done her. And yet, in the present 
 age, an age of fervent sympathy for distant Colonial 
 Churches, for which Heaven be praised, we seem to look 
 coldly and carelessly on the Church of Ireland. We 
 should feel more zeal for her if she were at the Anti- 
 podes. And because she is not in some remote island in 
 the Pacific, but lies at our door, and we can visit her 
 to-morrow if we please, we appear to be almost indif- 
 ferent about her. But let us awake to a sense of her 
 real dignity and value. The great spiritual conflict 
 which seems to be approaching, — for ourselves, for 
 Europe, and for the World, — may begin in Ireland. 
 There may be our noblest ti-iumph ; there may be our 
 greatest shame. 
 
 The Church of Ireland is a Missionary Church. 
 She is also the Ancient Church of that country. Let 
 this never be forgotten. The evidence of this truth has 
 been already laid before you on former occasions, and 
 let me now only remind you, that the fact itself, and 
 the proof of the fact, are very necessary to be borne in 
 mind, especially in these days, when so many persons 
 are deluded by those specious words, " the Ancient 
 Church," " the Ancient Religion.^' Most men are pre- 
 possessed in favour of the Ancient Institutions, espe- 
 cially the Religious Institutions, of their own countiy. 
 The feeling is laudable and patriotic, and it ought to be 
 
284 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 respected, loved, and cherished. Therefore it is due to 
 others, especially to our Roman Catholic brethren in 
 Ireland, it is due to ourselves, it is due to the cause of 
 Truth, that we should be able to show, that they who 
 forsake the errors of Rome and communicate with the 
 Church of Ireland, do not quit what is old, and embrace 
 any new opinions of a new sect, but that they reject 
 what is new, and return to the Ancient Faith of the 
 Ancient Church. 
 
 X. Finally, let us now thank God for His mercies 
 to us, even in the midst of our sins. Notwithstanding- 
 the assaults from without, continued for many centuries, 
 notwithstanding her perils from within, — the Church 
 of Ireland still survives. To adopt the language of the 
 Apocalyptic * vision, — still the Woman stands, clothed 
 with the Sun; still she is nourished by manna from 
 heaven; still she rides on the wings of the Divine 
 Eagle j still she wears the twelve Stars on her crown ; 
 she is Apostolic in her origin; she holds the Scriptures 
 in her hands ; she ministers the Sacraments of Christ. 
 Long may she continue to do so ! She has been tried 
 in the furnace of adversity, and even her bitterest foes 
 have lauded her patience and her love. And she not 
 only survives, but we do not scruple to add, that now 
 in the nineteenth century, after so many difficulties and 
 afflictions, the Church of Ireland bears more tokens of 
 vitality and shows more signs of efficiency than she has 
 done for a thousand years. Let her have room for her 
 energies, — let her be duly fostered, and she will bring 
 8 Eev, xii. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 285 
 
 forth more fruit in her age Far, therefore, be it from 
 an\^ of us to despond on account of her present condition. 
 Eather in that condition let us recognize proofs of her 
 divine origin, and read auguries of her future extension. 
 Her existence, her increased vigour, after so long and 
 severe trials, declare that God is wnth her Therefore 
 
 9 Ps. xcii. 13. 
 
 ' See the evidence in Bp. Jebb's eloquent Speech in the House of 
 Lords, June 10, 1824, and in the Charge for 1846 of the hite Arch- 
 bishop of Aemagh, p. 23. " Within the last eleven years fifty-three 
 Unions have been dissolved in the Province of Annagh, although the 
 value of Church property has been diminished hy more than one 
 quarter of its former amount." 
 
 P. 25. " Within the last twenty years the number of stipendiary 
 Curates has been increased by 185." 
 
 P. 27. " Within the last twelve years upwards of lOO.OOOZ. have been 
 contributed out of private funds, for the building and enlarging of 
 Churches. In this diocese (Armagh) we have erected within the last 
 twelve years thirteen additional Churches, and fifteen old ones have 
 been enlarged." 
 
 See also Bp. Maxt's History, ii. pp. 775, 776. " In 1801, Ireland 
 consisted of 2436 Parishes, which were so distributed as to constitute 
 only 1125 Benefices with cure of souls;" compare NEWla.SD's Apology, 
 p. 134, where it is stated that — 
 
 "In the year 1762 there were only 543 Churches in Ireland. 
 
 1792 „ 643 
 
 1800 „ 689 
 
 P. 136. " From May, 1801, to Jan., 1829— 
 
 Churches built 258 
 
 Rebuilt 242 
 
 Building, 1829 54 
 
 Enlarged 99 
 
 Ordered to be built, 1829 64 
 
 Total between May, 1801, and Dec, 1830 . . . .618 
 
 " Thus in the thirty years since the Union with England the Churches 
 in Ireland were nearly doubled." 
 
 In the same volume, p. 155, it is stated that — 
 
 In the year 1726 there were only 141 Glebe Houses in Ireland. 
 1800 „ 295 
 
 1820 „ 768 
 
 1829 „ 1018 „ „ [Ibid. 
 
286 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 we are full of hope. For if God be for us, who can he 
 against ns ^ ? Some put their trust in chariots and some 
 in horses, but we will remember the Name of the Lord our 
 God^. And let us look forward to that glorious time, 
 when the strifes of earth will oease, and when the Sun 
 and Moon shall be no more, and then the Church of 
 Christ Universal, which is now the Woman in the 
 Wilderness, will become the Bride in heaven. 
 
 Ibid. pp. 156—161. 
 
 Resident Beneficed Curates. Total. 
 Clergy. 
 
 In the year 1806 693 560 1253 
 
 1819 882 
 
 1828 about 1200 750 1950 
 
 Ibid. p. 162 (a.d. 1829). " In twenty-one years, 697 resident Clergy- 
 men liave been added to the Church of Ireland. In twenty-one years 
 the increase in resident Clergy has exceeded the whole Clergy of Ireland 
 in 1792, by 153.' 
 
 " In thirty -six years, from 1792 to 1828, the number of resident Clergy 
 in Ireland has been doubled. 
 
 " In 1819 the number of resident Clergy in the province of Armagh 
 alone was equal to the wJiole resident Clergy in 1792 ; and the number of 
 Glebe Houses in that province, in 1819, exceeded the number in the 
 whole island, in 1726, by two hundred." 
 
 Newland's Apology, p. 54. "In Bishop Bedell's time, a.d. 1630, 
 there were but sixteen resident Clergymen in the two Dioceses of 
 Kildare and Ardagh. Now (1829) there are nearly one hundred 
 resident." 
 
 The following table is from Dr. A. T. Lee's valuable publication, 
 " Facts concerning the Church of Ireland ;" 1868. 
 
 Progressive increase of Clergy, &c., in Ireland from 1730 to 1863. 
 
 Clergy. Churches. Benefices. Glebe Houses. 
 
 1780 800 400 . . 141 
 
 1806 1253 1029 1181 295 
 
 1826 1977 1192 1396 768 
 
 1864 2172 1579 1510 978 
 
 2 Rom. ■viii. 31. 3 Pg. xx. 7. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 287 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following Hepresentation of the State of Religion in 
 Ireland, was drawn up hy hoth Houses of Convocation 
 in Ireland, and presented to Her Majesty, a.d. 1712. 
 
 " Among the causes why the Reformation hath in all this 
 time made no further progress in this kingdom, — 
 
 " I. Is the dependence which the Papists have always had 
 upon Foreign Princes. The Pope's Supremacy and Infalli- 
 bility being the principal point of their religion, they are apt 
 to imagine, that all the States of Europe which are of the 
 Communion of the Church of Home must be in their 
 interest ; and that therefore a time may happen, when hy 
 their assistance they may root out Protestants, and shake off 
 the subjection to the Crown of Great Britain ; and accord- 
 ingly they have been all along fed with these hopes from the 
 beginning of the lleformation, which happening about the 
 time when England was in war with Spain, they were 
 taught by their Priests to make Religion a pretence 
 for Rebellion. . . . Their dependence is now chiefly upon 
 France for being restored to their Estates, which they 
 think they forfeit all hopes of, if they should turn Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 "II. Another cause, is the great want of a . sufficient 
 number of Clergy in most parts of the kingdom. The reason 
 of which is, that upon the Dissolution of Abbeys and Monas- 
 teries, the Tithes then appropriated for their support were 
 granted to Laymen, either in Fee-farm, or Leases, many of 
 
288 The CJmrch History of Ireland. 
 
 which Leases, though now expired, are continued in the 
 same hands as if they were Fee-farms. These impropriations 
 being a considerable part of the Tithe of the whole kingdom, 
 make it necessary for the Bishop to unite several adjoining 
 Parishes, to make up a small provision for the Minister. 
 This, together with there being no Glebe (in more than) one 
 Parish in ten, and most of these but small and often in 
 scattered parcels, together with the want of Churches and 
 Manse Houses, makes the local residence of the Clergy 
 in many cases impracticable. Youe Majesty has been 
 graciously pleased to lay a foundation for the buying in of 
 impropriations, by your Royal Grant of the First Fruits for 
 that purpose. 
 
 " III. Another ground of their hatred to our Church, and 
 no small hindrance to their conversion, and which they 
 themselves assign and frequently object to us, is the great 
 variety of schismatics and sectaries among those that call 
 themselves Protestants, though many of them are of their 
 own making. This creates in them an invincible prejudice 
 against us. Seeing so many different Communions, they are 
 apt to conclude us all equally erroneous, and stick to their 
 imaginary Infallibility. This is the great stumbling-block, 
 and rock of offence, that lies in their way, and upon which so 
 many souls are lost and shipwrecked." 
 
 B. 
 
 Extracts from the Examination of the Eev. T. W. Dixon, 
 2oth October, 1S26, for merit/ Student of the B. G. College 
 of Maynooth. 
 
 "Do you mean that those persons who spoke to you in this 
 manner had themselves been engaged in rebellion against 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 289 
 
 England ? — I do not mean that they really had ; but I really 
 at the time felt that it would be a noble cause to engage in 
 rebellion, and to rid my country of the chains of a foreign 
 government unjustly imposed. 
 
 " Although you had taken the oath of allegiance ? — - 
 Although I had taken the oath of allegiance ; such was the 
 impression on my mind, that it was my duty to break the 
 yoke of England. 
 
 " Was it contemplated that such a rebellion as you describe 
 could by possibility be successful — was that question con- 
 sidered ? — Certainly. 
 
 " State what Avere the feelings towards the established 
 Church among the students. — That the members of it were 
 heretics, cut off from the possibility of salvation in a future 
 life, unless they repented and became reconciled to the 
 Church of Eome. 
 
 " The question has a reference to the clergy rather than to 
 the laity, to the constituted authorities of the Church. — We 
 had more animosity against the Protestant clergy ; the 
 Orangemen, and general run of Protestant laymen, we 
 certainly considered as people that fully deserved our 
 animosity and hatred, but the persons in particular who 
 had robbed us of our possessions, we considered ought to be 
 more peculiarly the objects of our indignation. 
 
 " What do you mean by robbing you of your possessions ? 
 — By possessing the church property, which devolved to 
 them subsequently to the Reformation. 
 
 " Did you ever hear the question discussed as to the right 
 they have to the churches they now occupy ? — Yes, that 
 formed a part of our subject betimes. We thought that they 
 were intruders, and had no right whatever, except by the 
 strong arm of power ; we did not consider that they 
 had any spiritual character — that they were either bishops 
 or priests ; we considered them mere laymen ; but that 
 
290 The CIntrch History of Ireland. 
 
 at the same time they were in the possession of our 
 properties. 
 
 " What do you mean by your properties ? — The present 
 church property of Ireland, we considered to be the property 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 " Did you ever discuss at all what was to become of that 
 property, in the event of the separation you have spoken of? 
 — Of course the Church was to be reinstated in the possession 
 of it. 
 
 " How far did you imbibe all those notions, that you 
 describe yourself as possessing, before you came into the 
 college ? — It is possible that I might have imbibed the 
 general disposition to them before I came to the college: 
 but when I came to the college, those arrangements used 
 more fully to be canvassed among the students ; and I learned 
 more as to their right to the church possessions after I came 
 there, and that the Protestants were heretics, and already 
 condemned to eternal torments. 
 
 "Did nobody ever suggest, upon the occasion of those 
 discussions, that those notions were a little at variance 
 with the oaths of allegiance, which all the persons pre- 
 sent must have taken ? — Possibly ; but we thought that 
 those oaths were required of us, in order to save ap- 
 pearances. 
 
 " Was the dispensing power of the Pope ever discussed 
 upon those occasions ? — Certainly, it was fully established 
 that the Pope could dispense with the oUigations of the 
 oath ; nor were we ignorant that he had actually carried 
 into eflPect that power, by absolving Queen Elizabeth's 
 subjects in Ireland, and depriving Henry the Eighth of 
 his Crown. 
 
 "At what time were those discussions in the habit of being 
 carried on ? — When we went out into the fields for recreation, 
 we generally congregated together into groups, and discussed 
 those matters. 
 
Hindrances and Hopes. 
 
 291 
 
 " Did none among you take the part of the Protestants, 
 and of the established order of things, upon the occasion of 
 any of those discussions? — Certainly not, except for argu- 
 ment's sake. 
 
 "Do you mean that not a single individual among you 
 seriously took that side ? — Certainly not." 
 
 TJ 2 
 
SBRMOlsr VIII. 
 
 ON THE CHURCH OP IRELAND AS A NATIONAL 
 RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT'. 
 
 John vii. 24. 
 
 "Judge not according to the appearance, hvt judge rigMeous judgment." 
 
 FTER reviewing, in previous discourses, the history 
 
 of Christianity in Ireland, we are now brought to 
 the following question, viz. : — 
 
 Ought the Church of Ireland to be maintained as the 
 religious Establishment of that country ? 
 The question is not — 
 
 Whether any other form of religion should be esta- 
 blished in its place? The most powerful adversaries of 
 the Church in Ireland, who have made an alliance with 
 Romanism for the subversion of the national Church, are 
 not arrayed against it on account of its doctrines, but 
 because it is a religious Establishment ; and they would 
 not consent to the setting up of another form of religion, 
 especially such a form as Romanism, as a religious Esta- 
 blishment in its place. Romanism disqualifies itself by 
 
 1 Preached in 1866. Some additions liave been made to the present 
 edition of this Sermon. 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 293 
 
 its principles for being accepted as a religious Establish- 
 ment, especially in an Empire like our own^ And 
 
 2 The Church of Rome, by her worship of the Blessed Virgin, and 
 (to adopt her own term) by her " adoration " of the Roman Pontiff, 
 is undermining the religion and worship of Jesus Christ, wliich is 
 the surest foundation of Governments, and the best safeguard of the 
 peace and prosperity of states, and of the true liberty of nations. 
 
 By strange superstitions and religious impostures, she is revolting 
 the intelligence of the Laity in Roman Catholic countries from Chris- 
 tianity itself, uliioh they identify with Romanism — being the only 
 form (if Chri-; iiLuity with which they are acquainted — and is thus 
 preparing a triumph for Infidelity; which —unless God in His mercy 
 restrain it — will burst forth with antichristian fury, in civil anarchy 
 and social confasion, and will sweep with a fierce hurricane and terrible 
 tornado over Europe, and produce ruin and desolation. 
 
 The Church of Rome lays claim to spiritual supremacy, domineering 
 over all other power in a nation, and establishing an empire of her own, 
 paramount to all other authority. Slie brings that supremacy to bear 
 with mysterious energy on every social relation of life. Ity iin ans 
 of her Confessional, and by her theory of the non-obligati.m of Oalhs, 
 if prejudicial to her interest (of which she is to be the judge), and by her 
 assertion of power to absolve from their obligation, she claims a right 
 to exercise a dominant sway over the Conscience. She arms sul)jects 
 against rulers (as has been recently seen in Italy), and soldiers against 
 their sovereigns. By means of the Oath which she imposes on every 
 Bishop in her communion, requiring them " to maintain the royalties 
 of St. Peter" — that is, the claims of the Roman Papacy — "against all 
 men," and " to persecute and to mage war against all heretics and 
 schismatics " (that is, all who will not bow down to her), she has 
 rendered her system almost intolerable even in Roman Catholic states, 
 and much more in Protestant countries. This oath may be seen in 
 the "Pontificale Romanum," printed by authority at Rome, p. 62, 
 ed. 1818. 
 
 By such principles as these, the Church of Rome has disqualified 
 herself from being accepted as the religious instructress of nations ; 
 especially of a people subject to a Protestant throne, like our own, 
 which she denounces and anathematizes as heretical and schismatic. 
 And the larger the population is, whieh is committed to her in- 
 fluence, the more danger will be incurred by those who strengthen that 
 influence, by accepting the Church of Rome as the national teacher of 
 religion. 
 
 If, therefore, Romanism is not accepted by the United Kingdom of 
 
2^4 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 Romanism itself, wliicli hopes to be one day dominant in 
 Ireland, now waives all claim to State-endowment there, 
 as well knowing that they who are now leagued with it 
 for the subversion of the national Church, and whose aid 
 it desires for that purpose, would become its strenuous 
 opponents, if it aspired to be the religious Establishment 
 of that country. 
 
 The question also is not — 
 
 Whether the Established Church of Ireland should be 
 deprived of a portion of its revenues, in order that they 
 may be applied to other purposes ? 
 
 Formerly, indeed, it assumed that shape : but after 
 careful inquiry it was found, that if the Church of 
 Ireland is to be maintained as the religious Establish- 
 ment of the country, its revenues are not too great for 
 the purpose', and ought to be increased rather than 
 diminished \ 
 
 Therefore, the question is now simplified, and presents 
 itself in this form * — 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland as the national religion in Ireland, the 
 Church of Rome ought not to ascribe that non-acceptance to any 
 sectarian antipathies on our part, but simply and solely to her own 
 avowed principles. 
 
 2 The average income of the Clergy — of the beneficed Clergy — is not 
 250Z. a year. 
 
 ■» The evidence as to the slender provision for the Irish Clergy, 
 may be seen in the Archbishop of Aemagh's Charge for 1865, p. 10 ; 
 and in the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Napiee's valuable paper on 
 the Position of the Church in Ireland, p. 13. 
 
 5 See the history of what is commonly called the Appropriation 
 Clause of 1834, as related by Mr. Justice Shee, "On the Irish 
 Church," London, 1852, pp. 17 — 20, and the statement there quoted 
 of Mr. George Lewis Smyth,— "To suppose that so unequal a state 
 of things was to be composed by diverting some 50,000Z. or 100,000/. 
 a year from the Irish Church to the purpose of education or any thing 
 
The Irish Chui^ch as an Establishmejit. 295 
 
 Ought Ireland to have a national religious Establish- 
 ment ? Ought the Church of Ireland to be preserved as 
 the religious Establishment of that country ? or ought it 
 to be deprived of its revenues, and to be degraded from 
 its position ^ ? 
 
 That national Establishments of True Relig'iou are 
 pleasing to Almighty God, and bring down His bless- 
 ings, spiritual and temporal, upon those who maintain 
 them, is evident from His Holy Word. All power is 
 given unto Me, says Christ, in heaven and in earth''. 
 He is King of kings, and Lord of lords ^ All 
 Kings shall bow down before Him, all Nations shall do 
 Him service^. He is the Arbiter of the destiny of 
 Nations. And therefore the royal Psalmist says. Be 
 wise now, therefore, 0 ye kings ' ; be instructed, ye that 
 are judges of the earth; Kiss the Son (that is, do 
 homage to Christ), lest He be angry, and so ye perish 
 
 else, was a childish dream," and the still more important declaration of 
 Sir George Coenewall Lewis, "Irish Church Question," 1836, 
 p. 351 : " The objections of the Roman Catholics to the Established 
 Church of Ireland would not be removed by the abolition of a few 
 bishoprics or the paring down of a few benefices ; they lie against its 
 very existence." This applies still more strongly and more generally to 
 the advocates of the voluntary system, the members of the Liberation 
 Society. Cp. Sir J. Napiee's paper on the Position of the Irish 
 Church, p. 10. 
 
 ^ Some there are who seem to think that the Church of Ireland may 
 cease to be an establishment and yet retain her endowments. But is 
 this probable ? The essence of an Establishment seems to be that it is 
 maintained by law, which secures the payment of its endowments, 
 accruing from the soil, or produce of the country. And if a Church 
 ceases to be established, these endowments will be imperilled. And 
 in fact, they who have contended for the dis-estahUshment of the 
 Church of Ireland, have begun with an attack on its endowments. 
 
 r Matt, xxviii. 18. » Rev. xix. 16. 
 
 9 Ps. Ixxu. 11. I Ps. ii. 10. 
 
296 The CImrch History of Ireland. 
 
 from the right way, when His wrath is kindled but a 
 little. And the promise of Christ to His Church is, 
 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and (Queens thy 
 nursing mothers'^; and the song of triumph will one 
 day sound on hig-h through the vault of heaven, The 
 kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our 
 Lord and of His Christ^. 
 
 Assuredly, it must be a blessed thing for men and 
 Nations to do, what Christ Himself commands to be 
 done, and which, when done, will be celebrated with 
 praise and thanksgiving by the angels of God. 
 
 From such passages of Scripture it is evident that 
 every Country which has not a national Establishment 
 of True Religion ought to endeavour to have one, if it 
 desires to enjoy God's favour; and that every Country 
 which has such an Establishment, ought to endeavour to 
 improve it; and that any Country which has such an 
 Establishment, and does not maintain, but destroys it, 
 falls away fi-om God, and forfeits His blessing, without 
 which there can be no peace in this world, and no happi- 
 ness in another. 
 
 1. But it is said, even by some who acknowledge the 
 truth of these principles, that the Church of Ireland 
 ought not to be maintained as the religious Establish- 
 ment of that country. 
 
 The Church of Ireland, they allege, is comparatively a 
 new Institution; it was founded, they say, on pro- 
 scription and violence, and was forced upon a reluctant 
 people three centuries ago, by the power of England, at 
 the Reformation ; it is regarded " as a grievance and as 
 2 Isa. xlix. 23. 3 Rev, xi. 15. 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 297 
 
 a hadge of conquest" by the Roman Catholics of Ireland^ 
 who form the majority of the population ; and it there- 
 foi-e ought not to be maintained as the religious Esta- 
 blishment of Ireland. 
 
 To this allegation we reply, that the Church of Ire- 
 land is not a new Institution; its doctrines are the doc- 
 trines of Holy Scripture, and of the primitive Church ; 
 its form of Church government is that of ancient Chris- 
 tendom; its religion — as we have already shown — is 
 that which was preached by St. Patrick the Apostle of 
 Ireland, more than 1300 years ago. The Reformation 
 in Ireland was not an introduction of any thing new, 
 but a restoration of what was old. The Bishops of the 
 Church of Ireland at that time accepted it\ The 
 Bishops of the present national Church of Ireland are 
 the legitimate and only successors of St. Patrick and his 
 followers in Ireland. The present Romish Episcopate in 
 Ireland was schismatically intruded by the Papacy into 
 Ireland, from Spain and Italy, about 250 years ago, in 
 opposition to the true successors of St. Patrick and of 
 the Apostles of Christ. 
 
 These arjg facts which cannot be gainsaid. With 
 regard to the other plea, that the Church of Ireland is 
 regarded as a grievance and a hadge of co7iquest, it may 
 be reasonably doubted whether this allegation is well 
 grounded. 
 
 The Clergy of the Church of Ireland have shown 
 themselves the most faithful friends of the whole jDopula- 
 tion of Ireland — irrespectively of creed or race — in times 
 of severe trial ; and if they were to be dispossessed of 
 Above, Sermon i. ' Above, pp. 203—222. 
 
298 The Church Histoiy of Ireland. 
 
 their revenues and their influence^ this would ere long be 
 a subject of great regret to the vast majority of the 
 people — especially the poor. 
 
 The reformed Church of Ireland is not a hadge of con- 
 quest. Its doctrines, as we have shown, are the same as 
 the doctrines of the Ancient Church of Ireland — the 
 Church of St. Patrick and St. Columba, — the Church of 
 the Irish People till the twelfth century after Christ. 
 
 But there is a Church in Ireland which is a hadge of 
 conquest. That Church is the Roman Catholic Chui-ch in 
 Ireland. It was introduced by the arms of England in 
 the twelfth century 
 
 There are also some other things which are regarded 
 by many in Ireland as grievances and as badges of 
 conquest : and these are the possession of a great part of 
 the land of Ireland by English Nobles and Gentry, and 
 the supremacy of the English Monarchy. 
 
 And if the Church of Ireland is to be sacrificed to 
 the plea that some regard it in that light, it is certain 
 that this sacrifice would soon be followed by others, 
 which they who have given an impetus to the plea 
 would be among the first to deplore. 
 
 2. But it is rejoined, that " the Reformanon has been 
 rejected hy Ireland; it has failed in Ireland;" and, 
 therefore, the Church of Ireland, which teaches the doc- 
 trines of the Reformation, ought not to be upheld as the 
 religious Establishment of that country. 
 
 To this allegation a reply, in part, has been already 
 given ^ The Reformation has not been rejected by Ire- 
 land; for it has never yet been fairly offered to Ireland. 
 6 See above, pp. 96—116. ' Above, pp. 247—268. 
 
The h'ish Church as an Establishment. 299 
 
 The Reformation has not failed in Ireland. The Refor- 
 mation was a restoration of God^s Truth. God^s Truth 
 has not failed; and cannot fail. But those persons 
 failed who manag-ed its concerns in Ireland. England 
 failed^ miserably failed, in her duty to God's Truth and 
 to Ireland at that time. England had been the first to 
 introduce Romanism into Ireland in the twelfth cen- 
 tury ^, for the sake of her own temporal aggrandizement. 
 And we have sho\ATi that at the Reformation, in the 
 sixteenth century, England, who had then chief rule in 
 Ireland, denied to Ireland the use of God's Word and of 
 Public Prayer in the Irish language. England, Protes- 
 tant England', imitated the practice of Papal Rome, 
 and refused to the people of Ireland the Scriptures and a 
 Liturgy in their own mother tongue. 
 
 In order to promote — as she fondly imagined— her 
 own political interests, she proscribed the use of the 
 Irish language in the worship of God. To serve her 
 own worldly ends, she was untrue to God, to Ireland, 
 and to herself. She made severe, but abortive, laws 
 against Irish Roman Catholics, which made them more 
 obstinate, but she did little to win them by milder 
 measures to a purer faith. 
 
 England also failed in her duty to God and His 
 Church in Ireland in another respect. At the Reforma- 
 tion, Tithes were taken from the dissolved Monasteries, 
 but they were not restored, as they ought to have been, 
 to the parishes from which they rccrued. They were 
 given to English noblemen and other laymen, and to 
 the English crown. Two English Sovereigns, King 
 f Above, pp. 92—96. » Above, pp. 248—252. 
 
300 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 James I. and King Charles I., set a bright example to 
 lay impropriators, by restoring impropriations to the 
 Church, and succouring the poor Clergy; but the evil 
 stil! remains ; through the unhappy policy of England, 
 the Church of Ireland still groans under the burden of 
 lay improjmations 
 
 Besides, England failed in her duty to God, to the 
 Gospel, and to Ireland in another important respect also, 
 especially in the eighteenth century. She used the 
 Church of God in Ireland as a secular engine of her own 
 State-policy. She discouraged the native Irish Clergy, 
 and she checked the supply of faithful and zealous 
 Pastors in Ireland, by bestowing Irish Bishoprics on 
 English Ecclesiastics, who knew nothing of the Irish 
 language, and cared little for the Irish people ; and who 
 were not qualified by piety and learning for their sacred 
 office, and whose chief recommendation was, that they 
 were eager political partisans of what by a strange mis- 
 nomer was called " the English interest in Ireland " — as 
 if the interest of England could be promoted by treachery 
 to God. Some of these English Prelates never resided in 
 their Irish dioceses ; and they gave the best benefices 
 to their English relatives, who were also non-resident. 
 
 England also failed in her duty to God^s Church in 
 Ireland in another matter. She took little care to 
 provide a resident Clergy for that country. In the year 
 1710, there was no residence for one Pastor in ten in 
 Ireland. And this state of things continued for the 
 greater part of the eighteenth century ". 
 
 > See above, pp. 253—258, 279. 
 
 * Abp. of Dublin's Charge, 1865, p. 26. Cp. above, p. 255. 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 301 
 
 With such evidence as this before us, are we not 
 bound to say, that it is not the Reformation that has 
 been rejected in Ireland? No, but its principles have 
 been rejected by England, and it has never been fairly 
 offered to Ireland. It is not the Reformation that has 
 failed in Ireland, but we have failed, lamentably failed, 
 in our duty to Ireland and to God. And when we 
 consider how much we have failed in our duty to God, 
 to the Reformation, and to Ireland, the wonder is, 
 not that the Church of Ireland should not be moi'e 
 prosperous than it is, and that the Reformation should 
 not have made more progre s. Rather we may be sur- 
 prised that, notwithstanding the failings of England, 
 and the hostility of Rome, and the sacrilegious covet- 
 ousness of some of Ireland-'s own children, encouraged 
 by the example of England, and robbing ' God and His 
 Church, and forcing many of her members to emigrate 
 to foreign^ lands, and thus thinning her ranks, and 
 impoverishing the Christian Ministry, and necessitating 
 the union of many parishes in one benefice; and not- 
 withstanding the culpable neglect and disorderly licence 
 and irregular extravagance of others, even among the 
 Clergy themselves, breaking the unity of the Church, 
 and making her a scorn and byword to her enemies, the 
 Church of Ireland should exist in her present efficiency, 
 and be advancing steadily on as she is 
 
 ' Above, pp. 253, 256. 
 
 ^ See Piielan's Remains, ii. 45, 46. 
 
 ^ " Our cliurelies have well-nigh trebled in number within the last 
 century, and are yearly multiplying : the ministers of our Church have 
 increased in like proportion." Archbishop of Armagh's Charge, 1865, 
 p. 22. Cp. above, pp. 285, 286. 
 
302 TJie Church History of Ireland. 
 
 And yet, — strange to say, — there are some persons in 
 England who impute to God's Truth the consequences 
 of England's sins. Many there are in England, who 
 taunt the Church of Ireland with the fewness of her 
 members, which is due to England's unfaithfulness ; and 
 they would even punish her by spoliation on account 
 of that fewness, which, alas ! we ourselves have caused ! 
 King Herod of Jewry might as well have insulted 
 the mothers of Bethlehem for their childlessness, after 
 he himself had massacred their infants. He might 
 as well have pillaged their houses, and dismantled the 
 walls of Bethlehem, and sold their stones by auction, on 
 the plea that because of its depopulation by his murder 
 of the Innocents, they were no longer necessary to be 
 kept up ! 
 
 Rather let us confess and amend our faults. We owe 
 a debt to God and His Truth. We have hindered its 
 progress in Ireland, we ought to accelerate it. We 
 received the blessings of the Gospel from Ireland in 
 ancient times*. And we have inflicted many wrongs 
 upon her. Let us not aggravate our sin by despoiling 
 her. We owe a debt of reparation to Ireland. We 
 were the first to Romanize her, we ought now to do all 
 in our power to evangelize her. 
 
 3. But it is objected by some, that the past cannot be 
 undone, and that we must deal with facts as they are. 
 Look (they say) at the last census of Ireland. Ireland 
 contains about five millions and three-quarters' of 
 
 « Sermon ii. pp. 66—71. 
 
 ' Authentic reports of the results of the census of Ireland are 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 30J 
 
 inhabitants. Of these^ four and a half milKons are 
 Roman Catholics. The Established Church of Ireland 
 does not number a million of souls. Is it not (it is 
 asked) a monstrous injustice, that a Church so barren 
 of fruit should be allowed to cumber the ground, that it 
 should even be maintained as the Established Church 
 of that country ; and that they who do not derive any 
 benefit from it, and who reject its ministrations, should 
 be compelled to assist in maintaining it ? 
 What is to be said here ? 
 
 We do not disparage the evidence derived from 
 Tables of Population. Blessed is the Church of God 
 which preaches His Truth to willing' ears, and can 
 say, pointing to a large and loving offspring, Behold 
 I and the children whom the Lord hath given me^. 
 
 But we deny that Tables of Population afford any 
 adequate test and right criterion, whether a Church 
 
 quoted in the Eev. Dr. Aifeed T. Lee's publication, "Facts re- 
 specting the Present State of the Church in Ireland," 1865, p. 7. 
 
 
 1834. 
 
 1801. 
 
 Decrease. 
 
 Increase. 
 
 Per Cent. 
 
 Established Church 
 
 including 
 Methodists 
 
 853,160 
 
 693,357 j 
 45,399 j 
 
 114,404 
 
 
 13-4 
 
 
 6,436,060 
 
 4,505,265 
 
 1,930,795 
 
 
 30-4 
 
 Preshyterian 
 
 and other 
 Protestant Dissentci's ... 
 
 643,058 
 
 523,291 
 76,661 
 
 119,767 
 
 54,839 
 
 18-6 
 251-3 
 
 
 
 
 
 7,954,160 
 
 5,798,967 
 
 2,164,966 
 
 54,839 
 
 
 Corrected return of Pro- ) 
 testant Dissenters J 
 
 21,882 
 
 16,990 
 
 
 
 22-4 
 
 * Isa. viii. 18. 
 
304 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 ouglit to be established^ or whether, when established, 
 it ought or ought not to be maintained. 
 
 Time was, of old, when the visible Church of God 
 on earth dwindled down to one small family. It floated 
 on a wilderness of waters in the Ark, which contained 
 only eight souls. But no one will say that the religion 
 of that small household was not true, or was not to be 
 accepted as the religion of the World. Time was, of old, 
 when the visible Church of God was reduced to a 
 despised remnant, and was represented by the burning 
 Bush in the silent solitudes of Horeb — burning, but not 
 consumed ; for the Angel of the Lord was in it. Time 
 was, of old, many centuries after the delivery of the Law 
 from Sinai, that the visible Church of God seemed to 
 have scarcely any living form and utterance except in 
 the prophet Elijah ; but no one will say that the religion 
 which Elijah taught was not to be the national religion 
 of Israel. The fire which came down from heaven on 
 Carmel avouched it, and the people themselves owned 
 it, — The Lord, Re is the God ; the Lord, lie is the 
 God'\ In the days of Christ upon earth, the Gospel 
 was like a grain of mustard seed; but it was to over- 
 shadow the Earth. It was like a little leaven, but it 
 was to leaven the World. The Church was a little 
 flock, but all nations of the World are to become one 
 fold under one Shepherd. 
 
 On the other hand, we see in H0I3' Scripture a dark 
 picture, which ought to be a warning to ourselves. In 
 the Book of Revelation we behold the portraiture of a 
 false and corrupt Church, beguiling men by her allure- 
 9 1 Kings sviii. 39. 
 
The Irish ChiircJi as an Establishment. 305 
 
 ments, and destroying their souls by her idolatries, and 
 whose destiny it is to be burnt with fire. And of this 
 false and corrupt Church it is expressly said, that it 
 contains large numbers in its Communion. Multitudes 
 are enrolled in its Census. Myriads upon myriads swell 
 its Tables of Population. The waters which thou sawest, 
 upon which the harlot sitteth, enthroned as a Queen (we 
 read), are (that is, they represent) peoples, and multi- 
 tudes, and nations, and tonr/ues^. Of this, therefore, we 
 may be sure, that Tables of Population are very falla- 
 cious, when applied to the question before us. 
 
 Besides, what are Tables of Population ? What is a 
 Census ? It is an enumeration of human beings. And 
 what are human generations ? Their breath is in God's 
 hand. They are like leaves on the trees in autumn, 
 quivering on the bough for a while, eddying in the air, 
 and then falling to the earth and strewing the ground. 
 God can wither them in a moment. He often sweeps 
 them away by Plague, Pestilence, and Famine ; or they 
 disappear by emigration. By one breath of His mouth 
 He disturbs all our calculations which are grounded on 
 Tables of Population. 
 
 Look at Ireland herself. In the year 185 J, her Popu- 
 lation was not so large as it had been thirty years before ^ 
 Twenty-five years ago, Ireland contained more than 
 
 ' Rey. xvii. 15. 
 
 2 Population of Ireland : 
 
 lu 1821 6,801,827 
 
 1831 7,767,401 
 
 1841 8,175,124 
 
 1851 6,515,794 
 
 1861 5,798,987 
 
 X 
 
3o6 The Church History of Irela^id. 
 
 eight millions of souls. But in 1861 she numbered only 
 jive millions and three-quarters. She lost more than two 
 millions of her people in twenty years. In 18 34' there 
 were about six and a half millions of Roman Catholics 
 in Ireland; but in 1861 they had dwindled downi to fotir 
 and a half millions. And it is doubtful whether there 
 are as many. It is notorious (as Romish Priests them- 
 selves complain) ^, that as soon as they cross the Atlantic 
 many of them cease to profess that religion. Romanism 
 has lost two millions in Ireland in about ticenty-Jive years. 
 And it is certain, that though all classes of religionists 
 have decreased greatly in Ireland during the last quarter 
 of a century, yet the members of the Established Church 
 have decreased less in proportion than those of any other 
 religious communion. 
 
 These Tables of Population ebb and flow like the 
 rolling billows of the restless sea. Will any wise man 
 build his reasonings concerning religion on the fickle 
 fluctuations of such an Euripus as that? Are its 
 wavering undulations to be set against that which has 
 no ebb and flow, but remains for ever crystallized in a 
 pure, deep, eternal calm, — the Word of God? Is the 
 ship of the State to be drifted about by veering gusts 
 and shifting currents, and not to be steered with a firm 
 hand, by the unerring chart and compass of God's Word 
 within her, and by the light of the fixed stars above 
 her ? If this be the case, alas for her and for her crew ! 
 
 ^ As tlie BuhUn Beview says, July, 1865, p. 228, "We fear that 
 there can be little doubt that in the United States the [Roman Catho- 
 lic] Church loses more souls than it gains. In the sccoud generation 
 the faith of the [Roman] Catholic immigrant is constantly lost." 
 
TJie Irish Church as an Establishment. 307 
 
 She must split and founder upon rocks, or else be 
 stranded on quicksands. There is no surer sign of 
 moral decline in statesmanship, and of religious de- 
 generacy and degradation in nations, than when men's 
 minds are enslaved by the gross materialism of Num- 
 bers, Time, and Space, instead of holding spiritual com- 
 merce and communion with the unseen world. There is 
 no surer sign of decay in Governments and States, than 
 when men, who ought to lead others, begin to gauge 
 moral Truths by mechanical standards, and set them- 
 selves to measure holy things — such as the existence of 
 national Churches — by the capricious ciphers of Time, 
 and not by the unchanging truths of Eternity. And 
 there is no surer sign of a great and noble mind, than to 
 cling loyally to Truth, when it is scorned, forsaken, and 
 persecuted by the world. 
 
 4. But we are not yet allowed to have done -with 
 Tables of Population. 
 
 It is objected by the opponents of the Church of 
 Ireland, that there are many Parishes in that country, 
 where the members of the Established Church are very 
 few, and that therefore she ought not to be maintained 
 as the national Church. 
 
 This objection involves many fallacies. 
 
 (1) There is scarcely a single benefice in Ireland 
 where there are no members of the Established Church 
 
 (2) Though there are some benefices in which the 
 members of the Church are few, it by no means follows 
 that the Church should be despoiled of her revenues, to 
 
 * See Dr. Lee's " Pacts," &c., p. 16. 
 
3o8 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 the detriment cf her people who dwell in benefices 
 where her memb'jrd are not few ' . 
 
 
 1 i i s i 3 s a i B « a 
 
 
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 Illllillllil 
 
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 17,!!r)'2 
 
 1G,6()7 
 12,047 
 37,315 
 7,770 
 10,206 
 13,131! 
 19,032 
 10,260 
 20,092 
 
 
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 liiiiinsjii 
 
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The Irish Church as an Establishment. 309 
 
 (3) Is it any where revealed in Scripture that God 
 does not care for a few? Christ left the ninety and 
 nine, to seek and to save the one". There is joy in 
 heaven over one sinner that repenieth ^. A single soul is 
 worth more than worlds of matter. If the Church of 
 Ireland is not a true Church of Christ, then, in heaven's 
 name, let her perish ! But, if she is, then Christ is with 
 her; and no congregation can be called small where 
 Christ is. No persons are to be despised ab few, who 
 enjoy the presence of Him who is Infinite and Eternal. 
 Hear His own words : Wliere two or three are gathered 
 together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them ^. 
 We do not hesitate to say, that the two or three faithful 
 worshippers — be they aged men or women, or poor chil- 
 dren — joining together in prayer to God, and offering 
 to Him a reasonable service, and listening to the pure 
 Word of God preached to them in the parish churches of 
 Ireland, are far more pleasing to God than large and 
 crowded congregations which offer prayer and praise to 
 other objects of adoration besides Him ; and they may 
 avert from a nation His wrath, which is provoked by 
 creature-worship and idolatry; and they may bringdown 
 His blessing upon it. 
 
 If the Church of Ireland preaches the Gospel of 
 Christ, if she dispenses His Sacraments by an Apostolic 
 Ministry, do not, I entreat you, anger God by despising 
 and despoiling those few worshippers, because they are 
 few. Remember Christ's fearful malediction : It were 
 better that a millstone were hanged about a man's nech 
 
 Matt, xviii. 12. " Luke xv. 7. 
 
 8 Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
3IO The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 and he cad into the depths of the sea, than that he should 
 offend one of these little ones^. Eather cherish them 
 the more, because they are few. Their fewness is due, 
 in a great measure, to our sins. Destroy not the cluster 
 on the vine, for a blessing is in it^. And you will be 
 blessed by Him who said. Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done 
 it unto Me ^. 
 
 5. But we may go further. If the Church of Ireland 
 is a true Church of Christ, as we have shown her to be ; 
 if she holds and teaches the true faith ; if she is the 
 rightful representative of the ancient Church of Ireland, 
 then we do not hesitate to say, that there is not a single 
 person in Ireland, whether Protestant or Roman Catho- 
 lic, who does not in a certain sense belong to her. 
 
 Let us not be betrayed into the fallacy of deciding 
 questions of Church-membership by Tables of Popula- 
 tion, and not by the Word of God, and by sound prin- 
 ciples of Theology. ludge not according to the appear- 
 ance, hut judge righteous judgment. 
 
 Consider, What is a true Church? She is no other 
 than the " Body of Christ All His members are 
 hers. Some may be sounder members than others. 
 But, so far as they hold the true Faith, and receive the 
 Word of God and His Sacraments, so far they belong 
 to her ; so far as they are Christians, they belong to 
 Christ ; and so far as they belong to Christ, they belong 
 to Christ^s Church, Is the Church of Ireland a true 
 Church? Is she the true Church of that country, or 
 
 9 Matt, xviii. 6. 
 " Matt. XXV. 40. 
 
 1 Isa. Ixv. 8. 
 
 3 Eph. i. 23. Col. i. 24. 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 311 
 
 is she not? Doubtless she is. Are Roman Catholics 
 Christians, or are they not? If they are, then we do 
 not scruple to affirm, that, as far as they are so, they 
 belong to the true Church of Ireland. There is no 
 way of becoming a Christian except by the Word and 
 Sacraments of Christ. And the Word and Sacraments 
 of Christ are the dowry of His Church. By whomsoever 
 they are administered, they are hers, because she is 
 Christ's body and Spouse. It is notorious that many 
 of the Roman Catholic peasantry of Ireland look to the 
 Protestant Pastor of the Parish as their best friend. 
 But even if it were true that the Roman Catholics of 
 Ireland ignore the Church of Ireland, and even though 
 they may reject her ministrations, and desire her de- 
 struction, yet still the truth remains, they are her 
 children ; she owes motherly love and motherly care to 
 them, and they owe a filial duty to her 
 
 6. But again; it is alleged to be very unjust, that 
 the Church of Ireland should be maintained by pay- 
 ments of Roman Catholics who derive no benefit from 
 her. 
 
 What shall we say here ? Our reply is, — 
 
 (1) That a large portion of the endowments were 
 given to her by Protestants*, and, — 
 
 (2) That almost all the property in Ireland from 
 which tithe is paid, is in the hands of Protestants, 
 and not of Roman Catholics. 
 
 ' These principles have been further confirmed and illustrated from 
 Holy Scripture and the ancient Fathers of the Church, in " Theophilus 
 Anglicanus," part iii. chap. iii. 
 
 'o See above, p. 278, and Dr. Lee's " Facts," pp. 19, 20. 
 
312 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 But we do not rest on such arguments as these ; 
 
 We do not hesitate to affirm that no tithe at all is 
 paid from Roman Catholics to the Church of Ireland. 
 Our assertion is this : Tithe may be paid in some cases 
 through them, but in no single instance is it paid from 
 them. They may in some cases be the channels through 
 which the payment is made; but they are not the 
 sources from which that which is paid springs. The 
 Hii\iQ-pai/er is not the Tithe-o?^'^*??-. All this is perfectly 
 clear from the single consideration, that if all the Tithes 
 of the Church of Ireland were taken away from her 
 to-morrow, not a shilling of them would be given to 
 the Tithe-payer. A few years since, it was proposed to 
 despoil the Church of Ireland of part of her revenues, 
 but no one ever dreamt that the supposed surplus, of 
 which she was to be robbed, should be given to Roman 
 Catholic or any other Tithe-payers, but it was to be 
 applied to general instruction in Ireland. And at this 
 present time also, when some Roman Catholic leaders 
 have thought fit to combine with a very different class 
 of religionists in an endeavour to deprive the Irish 
 Church of her tithes, it is not proposed by any one that 
 any of those Tithes should be given to Roman Catholic 
 Tithe-payers j which surely ought to be the case, if 
 Tithes are really owned by those through whom they are 
 paid^. 
 
 The fixct is,— the overthrow of the Church of Ireland, 
 as a national Establishment, is desired by Romanists, 
 because she is the strongest bulwark against Romish 
 
 6 On this point compare the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Napier's observa- 
 tions in bis paper on the Position of the Irish Church, 1865, pp. 9, 10. 
 
TJie Irish CJmrch as an Establishment. 313 
 
 dogmas and Romish domination; and her subversion is 
 aimed at by others of a very different character, as a 
 preparation to the destruction of all Church Establish- 
 ments. And if these two parties should gain their pur- 
 pose, then, when they have done so, they will tear one 
 another in pieces, and distract the country by deadly 
 feuds. 
 
 7. And here we come to another count of the indict- 
 ment against the Church of Ireland. 
 
 She ought not, it is said, to be maintained as the 
 national Church of that country, because so many per- 
 sons there are alienated from her, and derive no lenefit 
 from her. 
 
 If this argument were sound, then no religious national 
 Establishment could ever be maintained. The argument 
 which is good against the Church in Ireland to-day, will 
 be equally good against the Church in Wales to-morrow, 
 and against the Church of England the day after. 
 
 There is not a national Christian Establishment any 
 where, to which a large portion of the people are not indif- 
 ferent or even hostile. Christ Himself and His Apostles 
 have foretold this ' . The latter days — the days before 
 His second Coming — will be days of worldliness, unbelief, 
 and apostasy. 
 
 But if the Church'of Ireland is, as we affirm, a true 
 Church of Christ, then we do not scruple to say that she 
 is a blessing, not only to those who love her, but to those 
 who would destroy her. She is a blessing to the Nation 
 at large. 
 
 ' Matt. xxiv. 4—12. 21—24. 37. 2 Thess. ii. 3. 2 Tim. iii. 1. 
 2 Pet. iii. 3. 1 John ii. 18. Jude 18. 
 
3 1 4 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 T\ bat does Holy Scripture say here ? The men of 
 Sodom hated Lot, and reviled him, saying, This fellow 
 came m to sojourn, and he will needs he a judge ®. But 
 if there had been nine other men in Sodom like Lot, 
 then Sodom would not have been desti*oyed°. The 
 house of Potiphar prospered, because Joseph was there'. 
 The presence of the Ark of God brought a blessing on 
 the house of Obed-edom ^ God gave to St. Paul the 
 lives of all them who were with him in the ship ^. So 
 we doubt not that the presence of the Church in Ireland, 
 preaching the pure Gospel of Christ, and ministering 
 His holy Sacraments, is — whether men own it or no — 
 a source of inestimable blessing to Ireland; and the 
 destruction of that Church as a national Establishment 
 would be a public calamity. 
 
 Consider also this. It is true that the Bishops, and 
 Clergy, and Laity of the Church of Ireland are a small 
 minority as compared with those Bishops, and Clergy, 
 and Laity in that land who own the supremacy of Rome. 
 But what is the first duty of a Church ? To diffuse the 
 Light of God's Word. And therefore a Church is sym- 
 bolized in Holy Scripture by a seven-branched golden 
 candlestick \ And what is the use of the candlestick of 
 a Church, if the wicks of its lamps are clotted and 
 fungous, and if its pipes are dogged up with the 
 sediment and dregs of corrupt traditions, and if the 
 liquid oil of Scriptural truth does not flow freshly and 
 freely through them, and it does not dispense spiritual 
 
 * Gen. xix. 9. 
 ' Gen. xxxi.\. 3. 
 ' Acts xxvii. 24. 
 
 3 Gen. xviii. 32. 
 2 2 Sara. vi. 11. 
 See Kev. i. 12, 13. 20. 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishme7it. 315 
 
 light, and if the atmosphere around is gloomy, murky, 
 and fetid? Its doom is, to be removed by Christ, 
 Who walks among the golden candlesticks and observes 
 them ^ . And what has the Church of Rome in Ireland 
 done for diffusing the light of God's Word there? 
 "With her superior number of Bishops and Priests, and 
 with the vast crowd of hungry multitudes needing to 
 be fed, she might reasonably be expected to have done 
 much. But is it so ? Has she promoted the spread of 
 God's Truth? Has she not hindered it? Has she 
 encouraged the circulation of the Scriptures ? Has she 
 not obstructed it? Can the Church of Rome in Ire- 
 land, with her boasted majority of Bishops, Priests, and 
 people, point to a single theological work of acknow- 
 ledged celebriiy which she has produced in Ireland for 
 the elucidation of Holy Scripture? What then would 
 be the condition of Ireland, if she were to be left, for 
 a supply of spiritual light, to the candlestick of the 
 Church of Rome? She would be plunged in darkness. 
 
 On the other hand, the national Church of Ireland, 
 despised though she be by many, as a puny and paltry 
 minority (and the fewer her numbers are, " the greater 
 share of honour"), has never been wanting, and God 
 grant she never may be, in bright spiritual luminaries. 
 She has had her Usshers, her Bedells, her Bramhalls, 
 her Jeremy Taylors, her Boyles, her Berkeleys, her 
 Edmund Burke, and her Alexander Knox. She has 
 had her Hales, her Graves, her Magees, her Jebbs, 
 her Elringtons, her Phelans, her Archer Butlers, her 
 M'Cauls, her Brinkleys, and her Robinsons; and she 
 s Rev. i. 13. 
 
3 1 6 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 has many others, whose names will occur to you — and 
 in them it has been clearly proved that there is no 
 restraint to the Lord to save hy many or ly few And 
 of late years she has been zealous in her endeavours 
 to diffuse the spiritual light of the Holy Scriptures 
 throughout the land. 
 
 In the days of old, Egypt was much larger and far 
 more populous than Goshen. But who, that had eyes 
 to see, would prefer the darkness of Egypt to the light 
 of Goshen ? In comparing the Church of Ireland and 
 her claims with those of the Church of Eome in that 
 country, do not be deluded by Tables of Population. 
 Do not contrast their numbers; but place the two 
 Candlesticks side by side, and ask yourselves this ques- 
 tion, — Which of the two Candlesticks diffuses moi'c 
 light around it? And be assured t])at the Church 
 which shines most brightly, is most pleasing- to the God 
 of Light and Truth, and ought to be maintained by man. 
 
 8. Once more. The Tithes and Endowments of the 
 Church of Ireland do not belong to the State of Eng- 
 land, nor do they belong to the Roman Catholics of 
 Ireland, nor do they belong to the Protestants of Ire- 
 land, nor do they belong to the Church of Ireland, 
 except as their usufructuary and trustee. But they 
 belong to Almighty God. They have been solemnly 
 dedicated to Him. This act of dedication has been 
 confirmed in the most sacred manner by the English 
 nation. That confirmation is engrafted on the Coro- 
 nation Oath, taken by her Sovereigns, speaking in 
 God's presence, in His house, before His altar, and 
 ^ 1 Sam. xiv. 6. 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 3 1 7 
 
 holding His Scriptures in their hands. It utters its 
 voice in the legislative Act of Union with Ireland. 
 It speaks in oaths of abjuration. If there is such a 
 thing as a solemn pledge upon earth, if there is such a 
 thing as a holy vow registered in heaven, it is that 
 which the British nation has taken, to maintain invio- 
 late that property which has been consecrated to Al- 
 mighty God, for the use of His Church in Ireland. 
 
 Are we prepared to rob God? Are we prepared to 
 commit sacrilege ? Are we prepared to imitate the sin, 
 and to incur the penalty of Achan in the Old Testament, 
 and of Ananias and Sapphira in the New ? Are we pre- 
 pared to imitate Herod Agrippa, who stretched forth his 
 hands to vex certain of the Church'', and was smitten 
 by an Angel, and was eaten up of worms and died * ? 
 Are we prepared to make war against God ? 
 
 It is said indeed by some who would take away the 
 Tithes and Endowments from the Church of Ireland that 
 they will "respect vested interests hy which it is 
 meant that they will not disturb the present Incum- 
 bents, and will give compensation to the Lay Patrons of 
 livings. 
 
 But let us ask this question — Are the Patrons and 
 the present Incumbents the only persons who have 
 "vested interests" in these things? Have the Protestant 
 Laity no vested interest in them? Have the Poor no 
 vested interest? Is it a small thing for cottagers and 
 peasants to be deprived of the ministration of Pastors for 
 themselves and households, in the Church, and School, 
 at the sick-bed, the death-bed, and the grave ? And can 
 
 ' Acts xii. 1. 8 ^cts xii, 23. 
 
31 8 The Church History of I Iceland. 
 
 they who rob the Poor of these their most precious privi- 
 leges, be said to respect vested interests ? And has God 
 no vested interests in His Church ? Are we prepared to 
 leave Him out of the account, and to deprive Him of 
 the produce of His own soil ? Are we prepared to take 
 up arms against Him, Whose armies are Plagues and 
 Pestilences, Famines, and Wars, civil and foreign ? If 
 so, hearken to His words, Ye have robbed Me. But ye 
 say, Wherein have we robbed Thee ? In Tithes and offer- 
 ings. Ye are cursed with a curse. Ye have robbed Me ; 
 even this whole nation God sent a three years' famine 
 on Israel \ And why? because Saul their king had 
 killed the Gibeonites. And who were the Gibeonites? 
 The meanest of God's ministers; the hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water in His Tabernacle. And will He 
 not much more punish those who dare to rob Him in 
 His Church ? Will not they be made to feel the wrath 
 of Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords ^, and 
 Who said to him who persecuted His Church, Saul, Saul, 
 why persecutest thou Me ' ? 
 
 9. Consider the signs of the times. 
 
 An effort has long been in progress in Roman Catho- 
 lic Countries, to bring about the declaration of a new 
 dogma, and to impose it on Christendom. This is the 
 dogma of the personal Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff*. 
 
 9 Mai. iii. 7. 9. '2 Sam. xxi. 1. 
 
 2 Rev. xvii. 14 ; xix. 16. = Acts ix. 4. 
 
 * It is not improbable that an endeavour will be made by a certain 
 powerful party to obtain the promulgation of this dogma at the Council 
 to be held in St. Peter's at Rome on Dec. 8, 1869. The official organ 
 of Ultramoutanism, the Civilla CatioUca, which is published at Rome 
 with the Papal sanction and encouragement, asserts that the Church of 
 Rome is about to proclaim in the approaching Council the doctrine 
 
TJie Irish CJmrcli as an Establishment, j 1 9 
 
 These efforts are forcing a great part of society onward 
 into two hostile camps, — Infidelity on one side, and 
 Ultramontanism on the other. They are repelling many 
 from Christianity (which is presented to them in that 
 extravagant form), and are inspiring others with hopes of 
 seeing the spiritual monarchy of the Roman Pontiff 
 aggrandized and exalted so as to be supreme upon 
 earth. 
 
 Let us thei'efore look forward. Suppose a personage, 
 deemed to be invested with Infallibility, to issue his 
 mandates from Rome, and suppose those mandates to be 
 received in Ireland by ardent votaries and daring enthu- 
 siasts, who revere that Potentate as a God upon earth, 
 what imaginable deed is there, however atrocious, that 
 they would scruple to perform at his bidding, especially 
 against a Protestant power and heretical dynasty ? The 
 more terrible the crime, the more glorious and merito- 
 rious it would appear in their eyes, as an act of unflinch- 
 ing courage, and of unwavering faith in him. Assassi- 
 nations, poisonings, secret conspiracies, open rebellions 
 (if likely to be successful), would become the ordinary 
 events of the day. Rome will repeat in Ireland the 
 horrors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries^. 
 And if the Church of Ireland is to be separated from 
 
 of Papal infallibility. "The infallibility of the Roman Pontiff," says 
 the Civilla CaitoUca, " is at this day a certain doctrine of the Church 
 Catholic ;" and, joining example to precept, the same review adds, in 
 another number, "The bishops convoked to the approaching council 
 at Rome are the same prelates who by their instant prayers implored 
 and obtained (on Dec. 8, 1854) from this same Pontilf who now con- 
 vokes them, that he should declare hy his infallible decision tlie unique 
 privilege of tlie Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God." 
 5 See above, pp. 227, 228. 243—245. 
 
320 The CJmrcJi History of Ireland. 
 
 the State, and the State to be secularized there ; and if 
 no religious organization is to exist for the defence of 
 the Monarchy and the Nation; and if party-strife' is to 
 become more bitter, and faction to be more rife (which 
 would be the inevitable consequence of such a separa- 
 tion), what is to resist the domination of a Power, 
 which, as history shows, has ever been ready to com- 
 bine with revolutionists and regicides for its own 
 spiritual and temporal aggrandizement ? 
 
 The disestablishment of the Church of Ireland will be 
 the exaltation of tlie Roman Papacy, and the humiliation 
 of the English Crown. 
 
 The days in which we live are days of severe trial. 
 And times of severer trial await us. The present times 
 prove what men really are. They sift men through 
 and through. They show whether they have faith in 
 God. They prove whether men believe that God is the 
 Governor of the world, and the Judge of human actions, 
 and that His Truth will finally prevail. 
 
 Let us not be perplexed by what we see around us. 
 Let us not be staggered by the power and prosperity 
 of evil. Christ Himself came to His own, and His own 
 received Him not. He was rejected by the World, and 
 crucified. But He raised Himself from the dead, and 
 ascended in triumph into heaven; and He will come 
 again with great glory to judge the quick and dead, 
 and to reward His faithful servants, and to put all 
 enemies under His feet. The course of Christ in this 
 world was a foreshadowing of the course of His Word 
 and of His Church upon Earth. The Word of God, 
 the Church of God, they also will have their Geth- 
 
The Irish Church as an Establishment. 321 
 
 semane and their Calvary. But they ioo, like Christ, 
 will have their day of Resurrection, and their day of 
 glorious Ascension. They who suffer with Him on earth, 
 will reign with Him for ever in heaven. 
 
 Therefore, judge not according to the appearance, but 
 judge righteous judgment. Prefer not popular fallacies 
 to unpopular truths. Look forward, and look upward. 
 Remember the end. In this great question concerning 
 the Church of God in Ireland, and in all similar 
 questions which are now trying the faith and moral 
 courage of many among us both in Church and State, 
 ask not yourselves what men think, or what men say ; 
 but ask yourselves what is in accordance with the Will 
 of God, and with the Word of God. Men will not be 
 our judges at the bar of Christ; but all men will be 
 judged by Him. Heaven and Earth shall pass away, 
 hut His Words will not pass away. And the Word tohich 
 He hath spoken, that will judge us at the Last Bay ^ 
 Even in this present world, as we have seen in tracing 
 the history of Christianity in Ireland, the violation of 
 great principles is followed by severe retribution. And 
 it needs no gift of prophecy to foretell, that if the 
 measures should be adopted which are now devised 
 against the Church of Ireland, some of those who 
 eagerly abet them may be the first to rue their result ^ . 
 
 « John xii. 48. l uke xxi. 33. 
 
 ' Especially the English Nobility and Gentry who possess landed 
 estates in Ireland. Let me be allowed to. insert here a record of 
 a personal incident at Paris which may throw some light on this 
 point. It is taken from the present writer's " Diary in France," 
 published by him in the year 1844 : — 
 
 " Went in the afternoon (Aug. 31, 1844) to the College des Irlandais, 
 
 Y 
 
322 The Church History of Ireland. 
 
 The Church of Ireland is the true Church of Christ in 
 that country. She is a faithful teacher of religion 
 and of loyalty. She is the best safeguard of order and 
 law. A Christian Church with an open Bible and a 
 Scriptural Liturgy is the best defence of a nation. 
 And if she is overthro^vn, then it is greatly to be feared 
 that we may see a war in Ireland of race against race, 
 of Democracy against Monarchy, of Socialism against 
 property, of Turbulence against Law, of Anarchy against 
 Order, and, it may be, eventually of Fanaticism and 
 Infidelity against Christianity itself. And then Eng- 
 land may see Ireland converted into a hostile fortress 
 against her, from which a foreign foe may one day spring 
 upon us, and assail us in our homes. 
 
 Almighty God now speaks to us and says. Sow not the 
 iohul, lest ye reap the whirlwind. Dismantle not your own 
 fortress. Pluck not down your own house with your own 
 hands. Snap not the golden chain asunder which binds 
 Ireland to England. Discourage not your best friends, 
 alienate not your most faithful allies. Bestow not prizes 
 on faction, and give not a triumph to sedition. But 
 cherish, improve, and strengthen the true Scriptural, 
 Primitive, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Ireland. 
 
 i?ae des Posies, with Sir R. A. Chermside, who introduced me to one of 
 the Professors and to the Principal. The College, as I was told by the 
 former, was founded ' in the time of the persecution ' in Queen Eliza- 
 beth's reign. It now contains about a hundred students ; this is vaca- 
 tion time, but nearly half the number still remain here. In the Prin- 
 cipal's room is a Map of the estates of Ireland as they were in olden 
 time, before they came (by confiscation, &c.) into the hands of the pre- 
 sent English and other landed proprietors. He pointed out to me the 
 estates which had belonged to his own family." — Diary in France, 
 pp. 184—186, 2ud ed. Lond. 1845. 
 
TJie Irish Church as an Establishment. 323 
 
 Have faith in God. He now tries us by difficulties. 
 Our difficulties are His opportunities; our midnig-ht 
 is His noon. Have faith in Him. Obey Him. Then 
 He who said, One man of you shall chase a thousand 
 and who would not use the 33,000 men of Gideon in 
 order to vanquish the countless myriads of Midianities, 
 but who winnowed them down to 300, and by those 300 
 gained the victory, will add fresh glory to England by 
 means of the Church of Ireland, and will unite the two 
 countries for ever, by the hands of Christ Himself, in 
 the indissoluble bonds of Truth, and Love, and Peace. 
 
 Lastly, whatever may be the issue in this short 
 and fleeting world, yet of this we may be sure, that no 
 labour in the cause of God can be in vain. It is above 
 chance, and beyond failure. When all earthly Empires 
 shall have passed away as a dream, when the Earth itself 
 shall he dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat^, when the visible Church on earth shall have 
 finished her course, and Christ Himself shall appear on 
 the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and 
 call all men from their graves; then all who have been 
 true to Him in times of trial and defection, will have 
 their portion for ever in the Church triumphant, and 
 will be enrolled as citizens in the everlasting census 
 of the heavenly Jerusalem, and will receive from His 
 hands a palm of victory, and a crown of glory which 
 fadeth not away. 
 
 8 Josh, xxiii. 10. 9 2 Pet. iii. 10. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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i«Ussrs. 3aifamgton's i^tSn ^ulilttations 23 
 
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JWcssrs. Bibington's i^etn ^ublitattons 25 
 
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 Xonuon, ©ifortt, anti CambriUge 
 
JWfssrs. Bibington's iacto publications 27 
 
 CATENA CLASSICORUM, 
 
 A SERIES OF CLASSICAL AUTHORS, 
 
 EDITED BY MEMBERS OF BOTH UNIVERSITIES UNDER 
 THE DIRECTION OF 
 
 THE REV. ARTHUR HOLMES, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW AND LECTURER OF CLARE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, LECTURER AND LATE 
 FELLOW OF ST. JOHN's COLLEGE, 
 AND 
 
 THE REV. CHARLES BIGG, M.A. 
 
 LATE SENIOR STUDENT AND TUTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, SECOND 
 CLASSICAL MASTER OF CHELTENHAM COLLEGE. 
 
 The following Parts have been already published:— 
 
 SOPHOCLIS TRAGOEDIAE, 
 Edited by R. C. Jebb, M.A. Fellow and Assistant Tutor of Trinity- 
 College, Cambridge. 
 [Part I. The Electra. 3s. 6d. Part II. The Aja.-c 3s. 6d. 
 JUVENALIS SATIRAE, 
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 THUCYDIDIS HISTORIA, 
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 ham College. 
 
 [Vol. I. Books I. and II. with Introductions. 6s. 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE, 
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 ARISTOPHANIS COMOEDIAE, 
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 A PERSII FLACCI SATIRARUM LIBER, 
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28 
 
 JWcssrs. ^Aibington's iBcto ^iublications 
 
 CA TEN A CLASSICORUM— Opinions of the Press. 
 Mr. Jebb's Sophocles. 
 
 " Of Mr. Jebb's scholarly edition of 
 the 'Electra' of Sophocles we cannot 
 speak too highly. The whole Play 
 bears evidence of the taste, learning, 
 and fine scholarship of its able editor. 
 Illustrations drawn from the literature 
 of the Continent as well as of England, 
 and the researches of the highest clas- 
 sical authorities are embodied in the 
 notes, which are brief, clear, and 
 always to the point." — London Re- 
 vinu, March i6, 1867. 
 
 " The editorship of the work before 
 us is of a very high order, displaying 
 at once ripe scholarship, sound judg- 
 ment, and conscientious care. An ex- 
 cellent Introduction gives an account 
 of the various forms assumed in Greek 
 literature by the legend upon which 
 ' The Electra ' is founded, and institutes 
 a comparison between it and the 
 ' Choephorae ' of .Eschylus. The text 
 is mainly that of Dindorf In the notes, 
 which are admirable in every respect, 
 is to be found exactly what is wanted, 
 and yet they rather suggest and direct 
 further inquiry than supersede exertion 
 on the part of the student." — At/ie- 
 
 " The Introduction proves that Mr. 
 Jebb is something more than a mere 
 .scholar, — a man of real taste and 
 feeling. His criticism upon Schlegel's 
 remarks on the Electra are, we believe, 
 new, and certainly just. As we have 
 oftenhad occasion to say in this Review, 
 it is impossible to pass any reliable 
 criticism upon school-bcoks until they 
 have been tested by experience. The 
 notes, however, in this case appear to 
 be clear and sensible, and direct at- 
 tention to the points where attention is 
 most needed. " — H'esiixinsUr Revieiu. 
 
 "We have no hesitation in saying 
 that in style and manner Mr. Jebb's 
 notes are admirably suited for their 
 
 purpose. The explanations of gram- 
 matical points are singularly lucid, the 
 parallel passages generally well chosen, 
 the translations bright and graceful, 
 the analysis of arguments terse and 
 luminous. Mr. Jebb has clearly shown 
 that he possesses some of the qualities 
 most essential for a commentator." — 
 Spectator 
 
 "The notes appear to us exactly 
 suited to assist boys of the Upper 
 Forms at Schools, and University 
 students ; they give sufficient help 
 
 without over-doing explanations 
 
 His critical remarks show acute and 
 exact scholarship, and a very useful 
 addition to ordinary notes is the scheme 
 of metres in thechoruses." — Guardian, 
 
 " If, as we are fain to believe, the 
 editors of the Catena C lassicortint 
 have got together such a pick of 
 scholars as have no need tn play their 
 best card first, there is a bright promise 
 of success to their series in the first 
 sample of it which has come to hand 
 —Mr. Jebb's 'Electra.' We have seen 
 it suggested that it is unsafe to pro- 
 nounce on the merits of a Greek Play 
 edited for educational purposes until it 
 has been tested in the hands of pupils 
 and tutors. But our examination of the 
 instalment of, we hope, a complete 
 ' Sophocles,' which Mr. Jebb has put 
 forth, has assured us that this is a 
 needless suspension of judgment, and 
 prompted us to commit the justifiable 
 rashness of pronouncing upon its con- 
 tents, and of asserting after due perusal 
 that it is calculated to be admirably 
 serviceable to every class of scholars 
 and learners. And this assertion is 
 based upon the fact that it is a by no 
 means one-sided edition, and that it 
 looks as with the himdred eyes of 
 Argus, here, there, and everywhere, to 
 keep the reader from straying. In a 
 
 lEonUon, ©xforU, anti Cambridge 
 
JWcssrs. Ulttjington's Jgcto ^ublitattons 29 
 
 CA TEN A CLA SSICOR UM—Opiiiions of the Press. 
 
 concise and succinct style of Englisfi | 
 annotation, forming the best substitute 
 for the time-honoured Latin notes which 
 had so much to do with making good 
 scholars in days of yore, Mr. Jebb 
 keeps a steady eye for all questions of 
 grammar, construction, scholarship, and 
 philology, and handles these as they 
 arise with a helpful and sufficient pre- 
 cision. In matters of grammar and 
 syntax his practice for the most part is 
 to refer his reader to the proper section 
 of Madvig's ' Manual of Greek Syn- 
 tax :' nor does he ever waste space 
 and time in explaining a construction, 
 unless it be such an one as is not satis- 
 factorily dealt with in the grammars 
 of Madvig or Jelf. Experience as a 
 pupil and a teacher has probably taught 
 him the value of the wholesome task 
 of hunting out a grammar reference 
 for oneself, instead of finding it, handy 
 for slurring over, amidst the hundred 
 and one pieces of information in a 
 voluminous foot-note. But whenever 
 there occurs any peculiarity of con- 
 struction, which is hard to reconcile 
 
 I to the accepted usage, it is Mr. Jebb's 
 general practice to be ready at hand 
 with manful assistance." -0>.vA-w>- 
 
 I "Mr. Jebb has produced a work 
 which will be read with interest and 
 profit by the most advanced scholar, 
 as it contains, in a compact form, not 
 only a careful summary of the labours 
 of preceding editors, but also many 
 acute and ingenious original remarks. 
 We do not know whether the matter 
 or the manner of this excellent com- 
 mentary is deserving of the higher 
 praise : the skill with which Mr. Jebb 
 has avoided, on the one hand, the 
 wearisome prolixity of the Germans, 
 and on the other the jejune brevity of 
 the Porsonian critics, or the versatility 
 which has enabled him in turn to 
 elucidate the plots, to e.vplain the 
 verbal difficulties, and to illustrate the 
 idioms of his author. All this, by a 
 studious economy of space and a re- 
 m.-irkable precision of expression, he 
 has done for the 'Ajax' in a volume 
 of some 200 pages." — Atkettteinn. 
 
 Mr. Simcox's Juvenal. 
 
 " Of Mr. Simcox's ' Juvenal ' we can 
 only speak in terms of the highest com- 
 mendation, as a simple, unpretending 
 work, admirably adapted to the wants 
 of the school-boy or of a college pass- 
 man. It is clear, concise, and scru- 
 pulously honest in shirking no real 
 difficulty. The pointed epigrammatic 
 hits of the satirist are every where well 
 brought out, and the notes really are 
 what they profess to be, explanatory in 
 the best sense of the term." — London 
 
 '^''tWs is a link in the Catena Ciasst- 
 conim to which the attention of our 
 readers has been more than once di- 
 rected as a good Series of Classical 
 works for School and College purposes. 
 The Introduction is a very comprehen- 
 sive and able account of Juvenal, his 
 
 satires, and the manuscripts." — AHie- 
 
 "This is a very original and en- 
 joyable Edition of one of our favourite 
 
 " Every class of readers— those who 
 use Mr. Sijncox as their sole inter- 
 preter, and those who supplement 
 larger editions by his concise matter 
 —will alike find interest and carefid 
 research in his able Preface. This 
 indeed we should call the great feature 
 of his book. The three facts which 
 sum up Juvenal's history so far as we 
 know it are^soon despatched : but the 
 
 of his writing and publishing his Sa- 
 tires, and as to his character as a 
 writer, occupy some fifteen or twenty 
 pages, which will repay methodical 
 study." — Chnrchtnan. 
 
30 Jtlcssrs. ■JKibmgton's igtiu ^u6Iications 
 
 CA TEN A CLA SSI COR UM— Opinions of the Press, 
 
 Mr. Bigg's 
 
 "Mr. Bigg in his ' Thucydides ' 
 prefixes an analysis to each book, and 
 an admirable introduction to the whole 
 work, containing full information as to 
 all that is known or related of Thucy- 
 dides, and the date at which he wrote, 
 followed by a very masterly critique on 
 some of his characteristics as a writer." 
 — A thentpum. 
 
 " While disclaiming absolute ori- 
 ginality in his book, Mr. Bigg has so 
 thoroughly digested the works of so 
 many eminent predecessors in the same 
 field, and is evidently on terms of such 
 intimacy with his author as perforce 
 to inspire confidence. A well-pondered 
 and well-writtenintroduction has formed 
 a part of each link in the ' Catena ' 
 hitherto published, and Mr. Bigg, in 
 addition to a general introduction, 
 has given us an essay on ' Some Cha- 
 racteristics of Thucydides,' which no 
 one can read without being impressed 
 
 Tluicydides. 
 
 with the learningand judgmentbrought 
 to bear on the subject." — Standard. 
 
 " We need hardly say that these 
 books are carefully edited : the reputa- 
 tion of the editor is an assurance on 
 this point. If the rest of the history is 
 edited with equal care, it must become 
 the standard book for school and 
 college purposes." — Jolm Bull. 
 
 " Mr. Bigg first discusses the facts 
 of the life of Thucydides, then passes 
 to an examination into the date at 
 which Thucydides wrote ; and in the 
 third section expatiates on some cha- 
 racteristics of Thucydides. These 
 essays are remarkably well written, 
 are judicious in their opinions, and 
 are calculated to give the student much 
 insight into the work of Thucydides, 
 and its relation to his own times, and to 
 the works of subsequent historians." — 
 Museum. 
 
 Mr. Hcslofs Demosthenes. 
 
 " The usual introduction has in this 
 case been dispensed with. The reader 
 is referred to the works of Grote and 
 Thirlwall for information on such 
 points of history as arise out of these 
 famous orations, and on points of 
 critical scholarship to ' Madvig's 
 Grammar,' where that is available, 
 while copious acknowledgments are 
 
 works Mr. Heslop has based his own. 
 Mr. Heslops editions are, however, 
 no inere compilations. That the points 
 required in an oratorical style differ 
 materially from those in an historical 
 style, will scarcely be questioned, and 
 accordingly we find that Mr. Heslop 
 has given special care to those cha- 
 racteristics of style as well as of lan- 
 guage, which constitute Demosthenes 
 the very first of classic orators."— 
 Standard. 
 
 '[We must call attention to New 
 Editions of various classics, in the 
 excellent ' Catena Classicorum' series. 
 The reputation and high standing of the 
 editors are the best guarantees for the 
 accuracy and .scholarship of the notes." 
 — lVcsitiii?is/er Kf7>ic7u. 
 
 " The notes are thoroughly good, so 
 far as they go. Mr. Heslop has care- 
 fully digested the best foreign com- 
 mentaries, and his notes are forthemost 
 part judicious extracts from them." — 
 Museum. 
 
 "The annotations are scarcely less to 
 be commended for the exclusion of 
 superfluous matter than for the excel- 
 lence of what is supplied. Well-known 
 works are not quoted, but simply re- 
 ferred to, and information which ought 
 to have been previously acquired is 
 omitted." — Athenceum. 
 
 llonljon, ©iforU, anU ©ambrittge 
 
i*lcssrs. IRtbington's i5cto \BubIications 
 
 CATENA CLASSICOR 
 Mr. Green's 
 
 " Mr. Green has discharged his part 
 of the work with uncommon skill and 
 ability. The notes show a thorough 
 study of the two Plays, an independent 
 judgment in the interpretation of the 
 poet, and a wealth of illustration, from 
 which the Editor draws whenever it is 
 necessary. " — M uscum. 
 
 "Mr.i Green'sadmirable Introduction 
 to 'The Clouds' of the celebrated 
 comic poet deserves a careful perusal, 
 as it contains an accurate analysis and 
 many original comments on this re- 
 markable play. The text is prefaced 
 by a table of readings of Dindorf and 
 Meineke, which will be of great senice 
 to students who wish to indulge in 
 verbal criticism. The notes are copious 
 
 UM—Opinio7is of the Press. 
 Aristophanes. 
 
 and lucid, and the volume will be found 
 useful for school and college purposes, 
 and admirably adapted for private 
 reading. " — Exa7niJtcr. 
 
 "Mr. Green furnishes an excellent 
 Introduction to 'The Clouds' of 
 Aristophanes, explaining the circum- 
 stances imder which it was produced, 
 and ably discussing the probable object 
 of the author in writing it, which he 
 considers to have been to put down 
 the Sophists, a class whom Aristo- 
 phanes thought dangerous to the morals 
 of the community, and therefore ca- 
 
 I ricatured in the person of Socrates, — 
 not unnaturally, though irreverently, 
 
 1 choosing him -as their representative." 
 
 : — A tliettaum. 
 
 Mr. Sandy s Isocrates. 
 
 *' Isocrates has not received the 
 attention to which the simplicity of 
 his style and the purity of his Attic 
 language entitle him as a means of 
 education. Now that we have so ad- 
 mirable an edition of two of his Works 
 best adapted for such a purpose, there 
 will no longer be any excuse for this 
 neglect. For carefulness and thorough- 
 ness of editing, it will bear comparison 
 with the best, whether English or 
 foreign. Besides an ample supply of 
 exhaustive notes of rare excellence, 
 we find in it valuable remarks on the 
 style of Isocrates and the state of the 
 text, a table of various readings, a list 
 of editions, and a special introduction 
 
 I each 
 
 I other edil 
 
 this series, short summaries of the 
 argument are inserted in suitable 
 places, and will be found of great 
 service to the student. The commen- 
 tary embraces explanations of difficult 
 passages, with instructive remarks on 
 grammatical usages, and the deriva- 
 tion and meanings of words illus- 
 trated by quotations and references." 
 — A ihenceum, 
 
 "This Work deserves the warmest 
 welcome for several reasons. In the 
 first place, it is an attempt to introduce 
 Isocrates into our schools, and this 
 attempt deserves encouragement. The 
 
 Ad De7nonicuin is very easy Greek. 
 It is good Greek. And it is reading of 
 a healthy nature for boys. The prac- 
 tical wisdom of the Greeks is in many 
 respects fitted to the capacities of boys ; 
 and if books containing this wisdom are 
 read in schools, along with others of a 
 historical and poetical nature, they will 
 be felt to be far from dry. Then the 
 Editor has done every thing that an 
 editor should do. We have a .series of 
 short introductory essays ; on the style 
 of Isocrates, on the text, on the Ad 
 Demonicum, and on the PantgyrUus. 
 These are characterized by sound sense, 
 wide and thorough learning, and the 
 capability of presenting thoughts clearly 
 and well." — Museum. 
 
 " By editing Lsocrates Mr. Sandys 
 does good sen'ice to students and 
 teachers of Greek Prose. He places 
 in our hands in a convenient form an 
 author who will be found of great use 
 in public schools, where he has been 
 hitherto almost unknown. . . . Mr. 
 Sandys worthily sustains as a com- 
 mentator the name which he has 
 already won. TTie historical notes are 
 good, clear, and concise ; the gram- 
 matical notes scholar-like and practi- 
 cally useful Many will be welcome 
 alike to niasterand pupil "—Camirid^e 
 University Gaze:, c. 
 
 Ilonlron, CBiforti, anK (iTamliriijcic 
 
33 
 
 jtlESsrs. IRibington's ilctn ^Sublicattons 
 
 CATENA CLASSICORUM. 
 The following Parts are in course of preparation:— 
 
 PLATOMS PHAEDO, 
 Edited by Alfred Barry, D.D. late Fellow of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge ; Principal of King's College, London. 
 
 DEMOSTHEXIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE, 
 Edited by G. H. Heslop, M.A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor 
 of Queen's College, Oxford ; Head Master of St. Bees. 
 
 [Part III. De Falsa Legatione. 
 MARTIALIS EPIGRAMMATA, 
 Edited by George Butler, M.A. Principal of Liverpool College ; 
 late Fellow of Exeter College, O.xford. 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PRIVATAE, 
 Edited by Arthur Holmes, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Clare 
 
 College, Cambridge. [Part I. De Corona. 
 
 HOMERI ILIAS, 
 Edited by S. H. Reynolds, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose 
 
 CoUege, Oxford. [Vol. I. Books I. to XII. 
 
 HORATI OPERA, 
 Edited by J. M. Marshall, M.A. Fellow and late Lecturer of 
 
 Brasenose College, Oxford ; one of the Masters in Clifton 
 
 College. 
 
 TERENTI COMOEDIAE, 
 Edited by T. L. Papillox, M.A. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of 
 Merton College, Oxford. 
 
 HERODOTI HISTORIA, 
 Edited by H. G. Woods, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Trinity 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 TACITI HISTORIAE, 
 Edited by \V. H. SiMcox, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Queen's 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 OVIDI TRISTIA, 
 Edited by Oscar Browning, M.A. Fellow of King's College, 
 Cambridge ; and Assistant Master at Eton College. 
 CICERONIS ORATIONES, 
 Edited by Charles Edward Graves, M..V. Classical Lectiu-cr 
 and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 
 [Part I. Pro Ligario et Pro Rege Deiotaro. 
 
 ■Eontton, ©ifort, antt (CambrtUge 
 
1 1012 01118 5271 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 HIGHSMITH #45230