The Story of Religion in Ireland. CLEMENT PIKE WITH INTRODUCTION BY BROOKE HERFORD, D.D Author of ‘The Story of Religion in England.' London: The Sunday School Association, 4 & 5, Essex Street, Strand, W.C., 1895. PRINTED BY ELSOM AND CO. MARKET-PLACE, HULL. TIB. • PREFACE. In some cases the authorities from whom information has been derived for this brief sketch of the religious history of Ireland are alluded to in the text ; but I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to the following writers, all of whom I believe are living : — Professor John Rhys, Dr. S. Bryant, Rev. Thomas Olden, Rev. Professor Stokes, Rev. Dr. Healy, Rev. George Hill, Professor Goldwin Smith, Mr. Prendergast, Dr. Joyce, Rev. J. A. Crozier, Professor Hassencamp, Mr. R. Barry O’Brien, The Right Honourable G. Shaw-Lefevre, and others. It was £ The Story of Religion in England,’ by the Rev. Dr. Brooke Herford, which induced me to make this attempt. This little book may therefore be regarded as a child of that work; and it seems an appropriate, and is to me a very gratifying circumstance, that Dr. Herford should have written an introduction to these pages in which I have tried to do for Ireland what he has so well done for the Sister Isle. CLEMENT PIKE. Beechcroft, Holywood, Co. Down. October , 1895. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction .vii. CHAPTER I. The Dim Distance.. CHAPTER II. Christianity in Ireland before St. Patrick’s Day . 5 CHAPTER III. St. Patrick.9 CHAPTER IV. Benignus, Brigit, Enda, and Columba ... 15 CHAPTER V. The Rise of Papal Supremacy.22 CHAPTER VI. The Church of the Conquest.30 CHAPTER VII. The Beginning of the Reformation 35 CHAPTER VIII. The Reformation (continued).44 CHAPTER IX. The Reign of Queen Mary .... . 52 CHAPTER X. Religious Condition of Ireland under Elizabeth , 60 VI. CONTENTS CHAPTER XI. PAGE A Legal Reformation. The Plantation of Ulster 68 CHAPTER XII. Presbyterianism in the Church of Ireland . . 76 CHAPTER XIII. Presbyterianism : its Ejection from the Church . 81 CHAPTER XIV. Bishop Bedall and the Rebellion of 1641 . . 87 CHAPTER XV. Cromwell in Ireland . . . . 94 CHAPTER XVI. The Quakers in Ireland. William Edmundson . 100 CHAPTER XVII. Jeremy Taylor ........ 108 CHAPTER XVIII. Roman Catholicism in Power.114 CHAPTER XIX. First Gleams of New Light. Thomas Emlyn . 122 CHAPTER XX. Wesley and Cennick in Ireland .... 131 CHAPTER XXI. Catholic Emancipation ...... 136 CHAPTERS XXII.-XXIII. Cooke and Montgomery ..... 144—153 CHAPTER XXIV. Disestablishment of the Irish Church . . . 160 CHAPTER XXV. The Churches To-Day.167 Index. , 173 INTRODUCTION. By BROOKE HERFORD, D.D. Having been asked, both by my friend the Author of this work and by the Committee of the Sunday School Association, to write some introduction for it, I gladly embrace the opportunity of saying a word of welcome to this additional study in a subject which has always had a peculiar interest for me. It may be difficult—of course it is—to be sure of the absolute truth of history, and yet I think that, with all its imperfection, it is in such history as we have that we come closest to the real life of man in its earlier stages and develop¬ ments. The history of Ireland, in religion as in every¬ thing else, has always been so closely interwoven with that of England that I could not write my own little book, ‘ The Story of Religion in England,’ without occasionally touching upon the men and the movements of the sister island ; but even the degree to which I had to do this, only Vlll. INTRODUCTION made me more sensible how rich and interesting a study was waiting there for separate and adequate treatment. Christianity in Ireland has had a development and a history of its own. It has had its own leaders and saints, its own struggles, its own sufferings ; its own establishment—and disestablishment; its own movements of Puritan¬ ism and Nonconformity and Liberalism,—all, with elements peculiar to Irish life, and deserving of special study. Especially, the much longer period through which, in Ireland, the primitive Christianity of the Celtic Church maintained its independence of Rome, give it a peculiar interest to those who are concerned to have the elements of history put in their true proportion. Christianity in Ireland was indeed an offshoot of the same Roman Christ¬ ianity which had grown up in Britain during the Roman occupation ; but Rome was not then the head of Christendom, and in that remote island, little disturbed by the changes which over the rest of Europe were at once weakening the Roman Empire and elevating and consolidating the Roman Church, the seeds sown by Patrick and his fol¬ lowers were growing up into a purely Celtic Church. As Green describes it ‘They grew up purely Irish in spirit as in form.’ The Celtic passion ‘stamped itself on Irish religion.’ ‘ Ireland gave to Christianity a force, a passionateness, a INTRODUCTION ix. restless energy, such as it had never known before .’ 1 Its monasteries and schools became the refuge of the learning which was being crushed out of the wasted provinces of the decaying empire ; and there grew up the noble missionary spirit which was by and by to win back the bar¬ barous races which were overwhelming Europe. So Irish Christianity grew and flourished in a character and usages of its own for centuries after the other churches of these isles had merged their separate life in that of the great Papal system. Of course, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these historical sketches in all their details ; and he would be a bold Englishman who should venture upon criticism in matters of such recondite controversy as some of those which Mr. Pike has to treat. But I know well the spirit both of loving interest and of large, appreciative fairness in which he has studied and written, and so I can confidently recommend his work. Especially have I been struck, in the later sketches of this volume, as we come down into the period of our modern controversies, with the broad spirit in which he exhibits the good in different Churches and parties. One reason why this work is needed, is, that the histories which already exist betray their sectarian standpoint so strongly. Even those which manage 1 The Making of England: p. 286. X. INTRODUCTION to write with tolerable impartiality of the earlier periods and of Catholicism, lose all their fairness when they come to the more Liberal movements of our own and recent times. From any such taint of partizanship, at least, this book is free. Even where it has to recall some story of persecution—as in the short-sighted policy of the Episcopal Church in crushing out the Presbyterianism which was perhaps the most earnest element in it, and which was changing the lawless refugees from Scotland into God-fearing and sturdy settlers—the history is free from any tinge of bitterness. That story of Irish Presby¬ terianism, derived from Scotland, and a very dif¬ ferent thing from the English Presbyterianism of Baxter and Matthew Henry, is a specially inter¬ esting episode. And when the same indomitable spirit which led these Irish Presbyterians to come out of the Church, by and by (in 1725) led the freer among them into a further separation as ‘ Non-subscribers,’ we come upon a story of gradual development of free thought which is singularly noble and instructive. It is the story which has been illustrated so often, of how, wher¬ ever the minds of men are left free, they gravitate to the old simple truth, as it was before the Creeds were formed, and as it stands for ever in the teachings of Christ himself. I commend this INTRODUCTION xi. story, and the many others which make up the interest of this little work, to all lovers of truth and freedom on both sides of the channel, in the hope that it may have a useful part in building up religious earnestness and charity in all Churches. , . . . IRELAND HntiH'S Q —- Scotland ... M 3 r & ' /Cf /" /” COUPAlHI leTTISKtXHV O .ONDONDmftY OOKGi v £* ST^ABANE B-U'MENA lAWH |\ ST****** * *owt\ PATKICAv/ OM / Uyiti ff Uv na . m -, MAOHSpAPEtT ^t DONEGAL rV^—ANTHIM J .~ M ^ / QN 4 GH \ / /^MiOP L ULSTER /Wast^^ FI M TOM a ' W “V* C\ ) ,,, GO Armagh ^«r ao 0 wn \ ) > ^ B AA»8P»0C.« euNooRAM 9 KNI$kuun * MONAOHPN fcptCV'M&Tr CtONES aAUygAY NtWRY C*V«« COOT t H«.i. V ir PUNPALK I'v—JCRttHCW* BOVLE KiwG>coo«r OwPCASTlE Jkoci* Cl CAtiT LEKtA LQNGFORO __ Koscommom C 0 N N A U GMT, „„„„ V--- .... Aran |P\L ATH tone N pv HHlUIMk'a LOC S&MAGMfR ros^ruMHA PORT AH/;MGTO»J f DUBLIN ^ , ANGST OWN QOSCRt a KitOARI Mary aowoi'C a ' BALL!# A ) HfeNAGM IV^Vnl A LEIN vSTER ** U "“ ,LX ‘ 4 /vic«wc.« ( OOP T «al rt LIMERICK TNU "“ S K1LK.NHV M UN STER TirrtRA«v UONrttt ftPNOY VVPTCRCOHD ItSMOdC OUGHAL CV^ Jf Dav/*i *'*'<« W ILF rwj? .-<* ■« Sc-ale of £nft|is)» Mil«s 10 l a 20 +0 60 POPULATION i* 1891. 4.704.750. AREA ABOUT 31,759 SQUARE MILES. THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND CHAPTER I. THE DIM DISTANCE. NCE upon a time, long, long ago, men lived in \^_y Ireland who raised huge stones and made circular mounds of earth as graves and monuments for their dead. The great stones and the circular mounds remain, but the race which set up the stones and dug the mounds has left no other traces of its presence. Whence this race came we know not, though it has been conjectured that a people came from the south, through Western Britain, and partly from Spain or France, while another people came from the north round Scotland, and in part through it, and that these peoples came to Ireland, and tarried there, and laid their dead to rest, and did them reverence, and kept their memory green, by these huge blocks of stone and mounds of earth. Irish legend speaks of in- B 2 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND vasions by Partholon, by Nemed, by the Fir Bolg, and by the Tuatha De Danaun, and lastly by Mile and his two sons, Eremon and Eber. The first four of these are entirely mythical. Partholon and his followers find that the country is in¬ habited by a race of savage giants called the Formori, and with these monsters, who are described as having one hand and one foot each, a great battle is fought. The next invader, Nemed, also struggles with the Formori with varying success, and when he dies his people are tyrannized over by them, especially by Conaing, who has a glass tower in the middle of the sea, until the sons of Nemed rouse themselves for a great effort, and defeat the Formori, and kill Conaing, and destroy his tower. Then come the Fir Bolg and their allies, under five leaders, who settle in various parts of the island, and choose the site of what became the capital of the whole island, afterwards called Tara, and of which we shall have more to say later. After them came the Tuatha De Danaun on the wings of the wind. A great battle was fought between the two peoples. It began on Midsummer Day, and the Fir Bolg were defeated, but Nuader, king of the Tuatha D6 Danaun, had his hand cut off, and so had to resign the kingdom until a silver hand was made for him. Lastly came Mile, and his sons, or the Milesians, and they defeated the Tuatha De Danaun, but did not destroy them utterly, for the Tuatha entered the hills and mounds of Erin, and from this invisible THE DIM DISTANCE 3 world they still, it is said, emerge sometimes as Side, or Ban-Shees, that is, fairies. Very old are these legends. We may have in some of them vestiges of the thought of that earlier race which raised the huge stone monuments and made the circular mounds, and which dwelt in Ireland long before even the Celt first found his way thither. But it must be remembered that old as they are they come to us through Christian channels, and the monks in transcribing these old stories altered them. They associated them with such events as Noah’s flood, they turned gods and goddesses into men and women, or into demons and fairies. We must deduct all im¬ portations of Christian thought, and then we have in these stories Celtic ideas, or the notions which the Celt borrowed from an earlier race. The influence which this earlier race exercised over the Celt was very great. His vivid imagination was profoundly affected by the huge monuments of stone and earth. The Tuatha De Danaun, that is, the tribes of the goddess Danu, the spirits of those to whom the monu¬ ments were erected, were worshipped as gods. The mounds were the palaces in which these mighty beings dwelt, or, according to one myth, to which they retired when overcome by mortals; but from which they could emerge to blast the corn and milk if these mortals failed to please them. The King of the Tuatha, Nuader of the silver hand, is one of the chief Celtic deities, and corre¬ sponds, it is said, with Zeus. As for the Formori and the Fir Bolg they are sup- B 2 4 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND posed to represent the cold mists and fogs, to which Erin is so subject, and the Tuatha, who are described as coming on the wings of the wind, may represent the wind blowing away the mist. The Celt in Ireland, like all his Aryan brothers, celebrated four great religious festivals. The first was the feast of Beltim, on May Day. Then the sacred fire was lit at Tara, and no other light was allowed to be visible on all the surrounding plain. The second was held on midsummer eve, when the bonfires are still lighted on the Irish hills. The third festival was held on November eve, and was sacred to the spirits of the dead. It was also associated with the great popular assembly and national council of the kings at Tara. The fourth festival was that of mid-winter, and is perpetuated by the festivities of Christmas time. To the observance of these religious festivals must be added the funeral games in the sacred places held in honour of the dead. The men who presided at these ceremonies were the Druids. Their authority lingered much longer in Ireland than in England, where it was destroyed by Rome. Long after the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, the bards, who were the successors of the druids, survived as a power in the land. Indeed, as Professor Rhys has told us, ‘ Irish Druidism absorbed a certain amount of Christianity; and it would be a problem of considerable difficulty to fix on the point when it ceased to be Druidism, and from which onwards it could be said to be Christianity in any restricted sense of that term.' CHAPTER II. CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. PATRICK’S DAY. I T is as impossible to say when Christianity began in Ireland as to say when Druidism ended. Though unconquered by Rome, the discovery of Roman coins, dating from the age of Nero to Honorius, shows that there must have been intercourse between the subjects of Caesar and the natives of the green isle. Through this intercourse the good seed may have been sown, though who the first missionary was, whether a simple tradesman, a soldier, or a priest, is not known. There is a tradition that an Irish warrior in the service of Rome named Altus, who was present at the Crucifixion, was converted, and that he returned to bring the glad tidings to his countrymen. A more probable tradition is that which asserts the conversion to Christianity of the great King Cormac MacArt. Cormac, the son of Art, like many another great man, began his career under a cloud. His father died in battle when he was an infant, 6 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND and MacCon usurped that father’s throne, and reigned as King of Tara. At the period of his father’s death he was at fosterage, in Connaught, where, it is said, he was carefully educated for his future position. Arrived at man’s estate he went to Tara in disguise, and employed his time in tending sheep for a poor widow. Now it chanced that some of these sheep, as sheep will, strayed, and even had the audacity to graze upon the lawn of the Queen of Tara. This case of trespass was brought before the king, who ruled that the sheep should be forfeited for the trespass. But Cormac, who was present, boldly objected to this decision—‘No,’ said he, ‘the sheep have only eaten the fleece of the land, and in justice only their fleece should be forfeited.’ The speech was warmly ap¬ plauded by a people who, then as now, loved nice legal distinctions, and even the king MacCon ex¬ claimed—‘ It is the judgment of a king.’ Then recognising Cormac he would have seized him, but Cormac, too quick for him, leaped the mound of the Claenfert and escaped. Cormac then succeeded in raising an army, and drove the usurper from Tara, and reigned in his stead in the year a.d. 227. Cormac’s reign was long and prosperous. He was, we are told, not only a warrior and a judge, but a sage and a scholar, who wrote books, and encouraged learning. It is said that he was converted to the faith of Christ, and that when he lay a dying he told them not to bury him at Brugh on the Boyne, but at Ross- naree, where he first believed, and with his face to the rising sun. Whether Cormac became a Christian or CHRISTIANITY BEFORE ST. PATRICK'S DAY 7 not is uncertain, but men so eminent in the Christian world as Sedulius, Caelestius, and Pelagius, have been claimed as Irishmen, or of Irish extraction. The Roman Catholic Church still uses some stanzas from a poem by Sedulius in the Lauds on Christmas Day, and at first Vespers of the Epiphany. Other expressions in her services are said to be borrowed from him, and in this way, though his poems are little read now, ‘ he being dead yet speaketh.’ As for Caelestius and Pelagius they are well known. Morgen, or Morien, better known as Pelagius, whether of Irish extraction or not, was a British Monk who took a decided part in the controversies of the time. He stood forth as the champion of free-will, and denied that the soul of man was utterly corrupt by reason of Adam's sin. He maintained that the heathen, who had never heard of Christ, could, and did obey the law of God. He also held that physical death was not the consequence of Adam’s sin, but a necessity of nature, and that Adam would have died, even if he had not sinned. However reasonable such views may seem to-day, they were then and long after¬ wards regarded as dangerous heresy. The most ardent and energetic of the disciples of Pelagius was Caelestius, a lawyer who practised in Rome, but who is said to have been by birth an Irish¬ man. A recent authority casts doubt upon his Irish origin, maintaining that the passage in St. Jerome’s writings, which was supposed to declare it, refers to Pelagius and not to Caelestius. However this may be, 8 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND Pelagius found a most zealous colleague in Cselestius, who, it is said, even converted the Pope, and might have changed the whole current of Western theology ; but the Pope’s conversion or perversion was short¬ lived, and various Councils declared that Pelagius and Caelestius were heretics. Their views were con¬ demned, and they were banished. But to banish men is one thing, to banish opinions quite another, and so these views have never been entirely banished from the Christian Church, and they are probably held by a greater number now than they ever were before. The first attempt to convert the Irish which has been recorded was made by Pope Caelestine I. He is said to have sent Palladius—in the year a.d. 431 — ‘ to the Scots, who believed in Christ as their first Bishop.’ To the Scots , that is, to the Irish , for it must be remembered that at this period, the only country known as Scotland was this which we call Ireland, the only people known as the Scots were those we know as the Irish. Little is known of Palladius. Some have main¬ tained that he did not precede St. Patrick, the opinion usually held, however, is that he came a short time before Patrick, and landed at Wicklow, and preached in the neighbourhood; but being received with cold¬ ness and hostility, he left the country and died in Pictland, the land we now call Scotland. CHAPTER III. ST. PATRICK HE author of a Life of St. Patrick admits that— X ‘ every page is a trial of faith/ Some, yielding to the trial, have doubted the existence of Ireland’s patron saint. In this, as in other matters, one needs to beware of the ‘ falsehood of extremes ’: the extreme of credulity which credits the saint not only with useless, but malignant miracles, and the extreme of scepticism which, in defiance of satisfactory evidence, doubts his existence. Regarding the stupendous miracles attributed to Patrick simply as the tribute paid by a credulous age to a great man, we are still confronted by some difficulties. These have to do with the dates of his birth, of his mission, and of his death. He is said to have been born in 372, to have commenced his mission to Ireland in 432, and to have died in 492 or 493. According to these dates he was sixty years old when he commenced his mission, and he died at the patriarchal age of a hundred and twenty years. Grave IO THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND doubt has been cast upon all these dates by recent investigation. Doubt is naturally excited by the im¬ probability of so long a life as a hundred and twenty years. It is also highly improbable that Patrick waited until he was sixty before commencing his great work, especially as the urgent call to that work came to him when he was a young man. In fact, these dates appear largely due to such fanciful suppositions as a parallel between the careers of Patrick and Moses, hence the age hundred and twenty. All that we can rely upon seems to be that Patrick was born in the latter half of the fourth century, and that he died sometime in the fifth. The only reliable sources of information for St. Patrick’s life are his own compositions. These are the Confession contained in the Book of Armagh, and the Epistle to the Christian Subjects of King Coroticus. The first of these is a most valuable fragment of autobiography. It was written by Patrick as a defence against a charge of presumption for undertaking a mission for which he was supposed to be incompetent. ‘ The Epistle to the Christian subjects of King Coroticus,’ is an indignant remonstrance against the capture of some Irish converts by these nominal Christians. His first letter, demanding the return of the captives, having been treated with scorn, Patrick, in his second Epistle, excommunicates Coroticus and his followers, and calls upon all Christians to avoid them until they repent of their brutal and cruel conduct. According to his own ‘ Confession ’ Sucath, for that was Patrick’s name, Patricius (whence Patrick ) being ST. PATRICK 11 a title, was born of Christian parents. Ailclyde, now Dumbarton, in Scotland, is now generally supposed to have been his birth-place. His father was Calpornius, a deacon, and also a decurion, or Roman magistrate. Calpornius had a country-house at a place called Bannaven Tabernae. Here Patrick, who was then sixteen years of age, was staying when a band of Irish pirates assaulted this quiet retreat, and carried him to Ireland. He was taken to Antrim, and retained as a slave in the service of a native chief. Here in the valley of the Braid, near the hill of Sleamish, he lived for years, engaged in tending cattle for his master. In this mournful situation, amongst an alien race, far from friends and home, ‘ the love of God began to grow in him/ Religion, of which he had thought but little in the time of his prosperity, became very precious to him now. His great consolation was prayer. On the mountain, and in the woods, in snow, and frost, and rain, he poured out his soul in prayer. After six years he dreamed that he heard a voice saying he should soon return to his native land. A little later he had another dream, in which the voice told him the ship was ready, and indicated the port from which it would sail. Forthwith he escaped, reached the port, and found a vessel ready to sail. He begged to be taken on board, but was angrily refused. He returned dejected, prayed for help, and very soon heard a loud voice crying—‘ Come back, those men are calling you/ He was then received on board, and the vessel sailed, arriving in three days at a port. The 12 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND trial of the journey then began as they had to travel through a desert for twenty-eight days. Provisions failed them, and the men bade Patrick pray for food. He answered that if they turned to God, God might answer their prayers, and lo ! a heard of swine appeared in the way and they killed, and ate, ‘ and their dogs had their fill.’ It is not usual for sailors immediately after a voyage to be accompanied by a large number of dogs, so that it is thought these had been imported from Ireland for sale; Irish dogs being at that time articles of commerce. We do not know what Patrick did for the next few years after leaving the ship’s company. The stories about his studies with St. Martin and St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and of his sojourn on the rocky islets of the Tyrrhene sea appear to have no foundation in fact, and are not mentioned in the Confession. Such important events as his consecration by St. Germanus, and his intercourse with the great St. Martin would hardly have been omitted from the Confession if they had ever occurred, as they would form very important elements in his defence against the charge of presump¬ tion for having undertaken his great work. All the Confession tells us is, that, after a few years, about which he is silent, he was in Britain again with his parents, who gladly welcomed him. But he could not rest at home. A voice called, a hand beckoned, which he could not resist, dear as his home was to him. He dreamed he saw in the middle of the night a man who appeared to come from Ireland, named Victor, and he had ‘innumerable letters’ with him, ‘one of which,’ says ST. PATRICK 13 Patrick, ‘ he gave to me,’ it contained the voice of the Irish, and as he read it, he thought he heard the voice of them who dwelt by the western sea, and they cried out, ‘ We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still among us.’ Precisely when he embarked upon the mission, to which he had received this pathetic call, appears a matter of conjecture, a.d. 397, 405 and 432, are dates wide asunder and they are all given. The probability surely is that like Paul he was not ‘ dis¬ obedient to the heavenly vision ’; but that as soon as he could arrange his passage, after making what preparation he could, he embarked for the land of his captivity. His labours in Ireland were chiefly confined to the north. Little is known of them, except their patience, and persistency, which may be inferred from their success. It is pleasant to suppose that he offered spiritual freedom to his old master, and he is said to have boldly attacked the very seat of the native worship at the ancient capital city of Tara. He aimed high, first attempting to convert the chiefs, knowing well that when this was accomplished the conversion of their followers would be an easier matter. He met with many obstacles and many dangers, and his Confession reveals to us a very different figure from that which legend and false history would conjure up. According to those, we have in Patrick a prelate educated by St. Martin and St. Germanus, consecrated by Pope Caelestine, backed by all the power of Rome, and endowed with supernatural powers which cast in the shade all that has been claimed even for a St. Peter or St. Paul. Compare with this the reality which the H THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND Confession shows.—An old man, surrounded by dangers, humbly acknowledging his disadvantages and ignorance, to whom cattle-herding in his youth has made writing difficult, whose Latin style is corrupt and barbarous, who, despite his success, has to meet a charge of presumption for undertaking his mission, and who meets that charge with the simple assertion that he had heard the call of God, and had obeyed it. This is the real Patrick, the other is an impossible myth. About his death as about his life many legends linger, and its date is quite uncertain. He is supposed to be buried at Downpatrick, on the site of the present cathedral. Such is Ireland’s patron saint. A man who needed no papal consecration, for he felt the call of God. On the lonely heights of Sleamish, far from friends and home, he felt the divine presence, and resolved to live to God. Restored at length to his family, his heart melted in pity for the land of his bondage. Called by God, and moved by love, that surest evidence of God’s presence, he began his life- work. Ever acknowledging his own imperfections with touching humility, but ever trusting in God, he cast forth the good seed: God blessed his labours : God granted the increase, and an abundant harvest rewarded his patient toil. CHAPTER IV. BENIGNUS, BRIGIT, ENDA, AND COLUMBA. HE immediate successor of St. Patrick is said to X have been Benignus, whom he baptised, and named Be 7 iigjius, because of the mildness of his disposition. After the baptism, Patrick, wearied by journeying and preaching, fell asleep, and while he slept, the child Benignus gathered sweet-scented flowers, and gently strewed them over him. When Patrick’s attendant would have prevented this the saint awoke, and thanked the child, and said to those who were present—‘ He shall be the heir of my kingdom ’—so runs the story. Benignus had a sweet and pleasing voice, and led the psalms in the simple worship of those days, and for ten years, from a.b. 455 to 465, he, it is said, ruled the Church and school of Armagh. Even the pre-Christian legends of Erin are noted for the chivalrous respect paid to women, and it is not to be wondered at therefore that next to Patrick the most popular saint in Ireland is a woman. Brigid, Brigit, or Bridget was born in 453. Her father was a 16 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND chief, but her mother was his slave, and was sold by him on account of the jealousy of his wife. A Druid bought her, and on his farm Brigit was born. Here she tended sheep, cared for the blind and fed the hungry; but she longed to see her father, and so he took her to his home, where she appears to have been busy in household matters, not only cooking, but looking after the cattle, and so tender was her heart to all God’s creatures that when a hungry hound came in she would give him part of the dinner. Brigit begged to see her mother, and as her father would not consent, she so pitied her mother’s sad and lonely condition that she went even against his com¬ mandment. And very glad was her mother to see her, and busy, careful Brigit soon made the farm, where her mother toiled, prosper. Perhaps this good management had something to do with the conversion of her mother’s master and mistress, for when they came to visit the farm, it is said they were converted to Christianity, and on the Druid’s conversion he offered to give Brigit all the cattle that she had so well looked after; but Brigit replied, ‘ Take thou the cows, but give me my mother’s freedom.’ Eventually he gave her both, and she distributed the cows amongst the poor, and returned with her mother, a slave no longer, to her father’s house. Again at her father’s house, she excited his anger by giving so much to the poor. So angry was he that he determined to sell her to Dunlaing, king of Leinster. But when he told the King why he wished to sell his own daughter, Dunlaing told him that she was better than either of them, and not to be thus dealt BENI GNUS, BRIGIT, END A, AND COLUMBA 17 with. After this she was dedicated to the service of God, being, it is said, even ordained as a bishop. She founded the monastery of Kildare, a double monastery for men and women, and much to the scandal of ecclesiastical historians, she appointed a bishop under her jurisdiction, and when the said bishop brought over some foreign vestments, she cut them up, and made clothes of them for the poor. Brigit was evidently a good, unselfish, high-spirited, kindly woman, and a true saint, but an exaggerated homage has been paid to her. She has been entitled ‘ the Queen of queens/ £ the Mother of the Lord/ £ the Queen of the true God/ £ the Mary of the West/ She thus competes with the mother of Jesus in the devotion paid to her, a result which has been accounted for by the patriotic thought that no saint could be superior to those of Ireland, the £ Isle of Saints/ St. Enda, who, like Brigit, is supposed to have been converted during the life-time of St. Patrick, was a son of the King of Oriel. His sister persuaded him to adopt a religious life, and from his brother-in-law, the king of Munster, he obtained a grant of the Isles of Aran in order that in one of those barren solitudes he might establish a monastery. Here on the great Island, or Aran Mor, ever within sound of the mighty Atlantic, he founded his monastery, which soon attracted visitors from all parts of Ireland. Here came Brendan, and Finnian of Clonard, and here came Columcille, or Columba, one of the greatest missionaries of all time. Columba was born at Gartan in Donegal, on Dec. c 18 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND 7th, 521. He belonged to the royal family of Ireland, his father being a son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, while his mother was descended from an illustrious provincial king. Educated at the monastic school of Clonard, in due time he went to be ordained as a bishop, and the simplicity of those primitive times is illustrated by the fact that when he inquired for the bishop who was to perform the ceremony, he was told that the good man was ploughing in the field. On his appearance, the Bishop welcomed him heartily, but, it is said, by a mistake, ordained him a priest instead of a bishop. That such a story could have arisen shows how the Irish Church then differed from that of Rome.- After his ordination, Columba began to work with great energy in the evangelization of his country, planting churches and monasteries. He was a noted scribe, and on one occasion borrowed from Finnian, also a great scribe, a Latin Psalter, which he copied. St. Finnian, according to the story, objected, and claimed both the copy and the original. Columba refusing to part with it, the case was brought before the King of Meath, who, on the principle of Brehon law, that—‘ As to every cow belongs her calf, so to every book belongs its copy,’—decided in favour of Finnian. Bitterly resenting this decision, Columba is said to have called upon his fellow-tribesmen to avenge his wrongs, and in the battle that ensued the Ulster men inflicted serious loss on the men of Meath. For this calamity, Columba was excommunicated, and on his submission it was ordered that as a penance for the strife he had BENI GNUS, BRIGIT, END A, AND COLUMBA 19 caused, he should leave Ireland on a mission to the Piets of Pictland (Scotland). This account of the origin of Columba’s mission is very doubtful, but that he was mixed up with several conflicts, and on account of the battle of Cooldrevny, in 5 61, was excommunicated, there appears to be no doubt. It is probable that these circumstances may have suggested the desirability of retiring from a land where his political connections, his martial propensities, and his hot temper tempted him to break the peace. His mission to what is now called Scotland was a remarkable example of religious reciprocity. From thence had come Patrick to convert the Irish, and to that country goes Columba, an Irish¬ man, to convert the Piets. He left Ireland in 563, being in his forty-second year. First, it is said, he landed upon Oronsay, but climbing a hill, and seeing the Irish coast in the dim distance, he again embarked, and landed on the island of Hy, or Iona. And he called a cairn on a hill at the south end of the island the Cairn of Farewell, for from there his eye could never rest upon the dear Irish coast, and so it is named unto this day. Columba’s mission recalls the triumphs of St. Patrick’s. He began by establishing a monastery at Iona, from which he could make his excursions into the surrounding districts. Here were set up the little huts of wattles and clay, or of timber, with the church of oak planks, and all surrounded by a rude fortification of stones and earth. Here an orderly and industrious community was established, gaining a living out of the soil and the sea. Two years were spent in organising c 2 20 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND this community, preaching to the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands, and mastering the Pictish language. Then, like St. Patrick, Columba resolved to strike at the very heart of the country, and make a bold attempt to convert the king. How he succeeded is, like Patrick’s attempt at Tara, involved in a mist' of legend, but that he did succeed there can be no doubt. King Brude became a convert in 565, and churches and monasteries began to spring up in all directions. His conversion was the salvation of the Christian settlement, which had been established some sixty-five years before by emigrants from Ireland, who had come to the rescue of their fellow-Christians when the Roman troops were with¬ drawn. Five years before Brude's conversion, the Piets had conquered these Irish settlers, and but for Columba’s intervention they would probably have been completely destroyed. Columba not only prevented this by his influence with Brude, but reorganized the affairs of the settlement or kingdom of Dalriada, and eventually freed it from its subjection to the Irish kings. With this object, and also to plead for the Irish bards who were threatened with expulsion from Ireland, he returned to his native country. He gained both his objects, and after being received with the greatest honour and veneration at various monasteries, he resolved to return to Iona Legends similar to those which are told of St. Patrick cluster about his death. It is said the prayers of the brethren deferred it for four years. Angels conversed with him. and his cell was illuminated with celestial light. BEN I GNUS, BRIGIT, END A AND COLUMBA 21 Different from these legends is the incident of Columba’s farewell to the old white horse which used to carry milk from the dairy to the monastery. Convinced that his departure was now nigh at hand, Columba visited the monks who were working in the fields, and blessed them. He also examined the granary, to see that there was sufficient store for the winter. Half-way between the granary and the store¬ house, the old horse met him, and putting his head on Columba’s shoulder seemed to take farewell with eyes full of tears. Seeing this, the attendant would have prevented it, but the saint prohibiting him, said, ‘ The horse loves me, let him weep for my departure. Behold, thou, a man knowest not what has been revealed by the Creator to this irrational animal, 7 and thus speaking, he turned to the horse and blessed it, and retired to his cell to work at the transcription of a Psalter. When he came to the tenth verse of the thirty-fourth Psalm— ‘They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing,’ —he paused. ‘Here I must stop,’ he said; ‘letBaithen write the rest.’ This was on Saturday, June 7th, 597. As soon as the midnight bell rang for the matins of Sunday, he rose from his stone couch, ran to the church before the other monks, and was found prostrate before the altar. Columba opened his eyes once, turned them upon his brethren with a look of serene and radiant joy, raised his right hand in an effort to bless them, and so passed away with a face calm and sweet, like that of a man who, in his sleep had seen a vision of heaven. So, according to the record of Adamnan, lived and died the great missionary, Saint Columba. CHAPTER V. THE RISE OF PAPAL SUPREMACY. EVEN years before the death of Columba, Columbanus had begun his mission to the Continent; and Irish missionaries soon rekindled the light of Christianity in many a land. To the labours of the good St. Aidan, and of his successors, Finan and Colman, Saxon England largely owes her Chris¬ tianity. At this period, when the Roman civilization had been succeeded by a night of barbarism, Ireland may well be called The Light of Europe. Nobles and princes flocked to her shores for their education, and her proud title, The Island of Saints and Teachers , was no empty boast. Europe owes a deep debt of gratitude to Ireland for her labours at this period. The Irish Church seemed at this time likely to become the dominant Church of Christendom; but her missionaries were more successful in awakening religious life than in organising it. The Irish Church, which had been moulded by Irish custom, could not stand before the more perfect organisation and more rigid discipline of THE RISE OF PAPAL SUPREMACY 2 3 Rome. Christianity had taken the Roman Empire for her 1 stage and framework/ All the countries conquered by Rome had received Christianity, and the Churches in these countries had been moulded by Roman custom. The organisation of the Empire had been taken as the pattern for the organisation of the Church. But Ireland had never been conquered by Rome. She was therefore in a different position from all these countries, and the difference showed itself in the organisation of her Church. The Irish nation was divided into a number of clans. These clans were virtually independent. The over-king, who, in St. Patrick’s day, resided at Tara, exercised no effective supervision over the other clans. The idea of an effective central government was unknown. The Church was modelled on the same plan. The monastery was a spiritual clan. The founder and ruler of it was succeeded by his heirs, who were called the Coarhs. In the Church, as in the State, there was the same lack of an effective central authority. Such a system had grown up naturally in Ireland, but it did not take so kindly to other soils. Recovering from the shock of barbarian invasion, Rome began to assert more ecclesiastical authority than before, and her missionaries soon came into contact and collision with thoseTrom 'Ireland. The result of such a conflict could not long remain doubtful. The Irish missionaries abroad, who had so bravely borne the heat and burden of the day, were supplanted by their rivals, who could appeal to the authority of Rome, and who were not averse from J 24 THE STORY OR RELIGION IN IRELAND using persecution when other means failed. These events impress upon us the fact, which must be clearly recognised, that Ireland became Christian long before she became Papal. Ireland resisted the supremacy of Rome longer than any other country in Europe. Never conquered by the Roman Empire, she was the last to yield to the Roman Hierarchy. Her Christianity appears to have been derived from the East through Southern Gaul. This Eastern origin is shewn in a variety of ways. Amongst these have been noticed—the arrangement of the Churches into groups of seven, the tonsure of the priests, the liturgy, the ornament of Irish MSS., and many curious customs of Eastern origin. Not only was the Irish Church derived from the East, but Eastern practices were confirmed by inter¬ course between Ireland • and Eastern lands. This intercourse helped to widen the gulf between the Irish and the Papal Churches. When the missionaries of the two Churches came into collision, the most pronounced differences were in the observance of Easter, the form of the tonsure, marriage of the clergy, and acknowledgment of Papal supremacy. The Irish missionaries adhered to the ancient Eastern method of observing Easter, and to the Eastern tonsure, while they allowed the marriage of the clergy, and denied the Papal supremacy. There were other differences, but about these the conflict chiefly raged. It would be difficult for us to understand the momentous importance assumed by this controversv THE RISE OF PAPAL SUPREMACY 25 as to the date of Easter, if we did not remember that the fiercest disputes have been waged about trifles. In the year 463, Pope Hilary, vexed by the fact that Easter was observed at three distinct periods, discarded the old Jewish cycle of eighty-four years for one of five hundred and thirty-two years. Patrick had taught the Irish to compute by the old plan, and they knew nothing of this change until Augustine came to England. It was introduced as a novelty, and resisted as a novelty. St. Columbanus, who found the new system in Gaul, condemned it in a most out-spoken letter to the Pope (Gregory the Great). The new fashion was not adopted till the eighth century, and when adopted, the other differences remained. The Bishop of Rome was respected and venerated, but he was not regarded as supreme over all other bishops. Bishops and presbyters, or priests, still married if they were so inclined, and the great See of Armagh descended for a long period from father to son. Each church had its bishop, and arch¬ bishops exerted no regular control. So the Church of Ireland still kept distinct from the rest of Christendom : a relic of older customs and more primitive times. But all this was to be changed. It was to be changed not by the Irish, but by their conquerors. Rome’s supremacy came to Ireland in the wake of invading hosts. Ireland’s submission to the Pope— Ireland’s Roman Catholicism—is due, not to Patrick, who conquered her for Christ, but to the fierce Danes 26 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND and Normans, who conquered her first for themselves, and eventually for Rome. The Danes had a special antipathy to Christianity, due to Charlemagne's cruel attempts to convert the Saxons by force. This, and a natural love of adven¬ ture and plunder, caused them to descend upon the shores of innocent Ireland in 795, when they landed on the island of Lambay, and sacked the monastery. A more serious invasion of the country occurred about the year 831, when three powerful Danish fleets entered Irish waters. A warrior named Turgesius commanded the expedition. He took Armagh, as¬ sumed the office of Coarb, and established the worship of Thor in the city sacred to St. Patrick. While Turgesius thus officiated at Armagh, his wife, Ota, acted in a similar capacity .at Clonmacnois, which had also been captured, and here, instead of hymn and prayer, the shrieks of human victims rose, with the smoke of sacrifice, to heaven. This attempt to re¬ introduce heathenism was of short duration, Turgesius being in a few years defeated and drowned. But periodical invasions occurred, and the country re¬ mained in a most unsettled state. To this period are ascribed the wonderful round towers, which have excited so much controversy, and which were used, it is supposed, as places of refuge from the plundering Danes. Many learned men left Ireland to pursue their studies abroad, where they could depend upon more tranquillity. Amongst them was one of the most remarkable men of his time, and one whose influence THE RISE OF PAPAL SUPREMACY 27 upon religious thought was to be very great This was John Scotus. A bold thinker for his day, he held reason to be above authority, identifying it with religion. He denied that the bread and wine of the eucharist were actually the body and blood of Christ, and his views, known to Ridley and Cranmer, had some influence on the English Reformation, which was to occur so many centuries later. After various vicissitudes of fortune the Danes settled permanently on the Liffey and created the city and kingdom of Dublin. Though for so long its bitter persecutors they eventually embraced Chris¬ tianity ; but the Christianity they adopted was a recent importation from Rome, and not the same as that professed by the native Irish. Their form of Chris¬ tianity fully recognised the supremacy of Rome, and thus the Danish invasion gained for Rome three bishopricks, Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick. Gil¬ bert, the bishop of Limerick, was an eager advocate for Roman usages. He was moreover Papal Legate, and directly interested in extending his master’s sway. But his effort might have failed if he had not succeeded in gaining the adhesion of the Bishop of Armagh. Celsus, who belonged to the family which had held the greatest bishoprick in Ireland for two hundred years, betrayed the fortress of Irish ecclesiastical independence. Before his day dioceses, and diocesan episcopacy, had no existence in the country. Nearly every church had its bishop; but at the Synod of Rathbreasil, at which Celsus was present, this primi- 28 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND tive form of Church government was altered, and Ireland was divided into twenty-six dioceses. When Celsus was at the point of death, he appointed Malachy of Connor as his successor. Malachy had early imbibed a love for Roman order and discipline, and he devoted his laborious life to bringing the Church of Ireland into subjection to Rome. After resigning the See of Armagh he travelled to Rome, gaining the friendship of Bernard of Clairvaux on his way. He was appointed Papal Legate, and through his exertions, Cashel, Tuam, and Dublin were constituted Arch- bishopricks, while Armagh, which had been an Arch- bishoprick in name, from reverence to St. Patrick, was made one in reality, and declared the seat of the primacy of all Ireland. These innovations were not effected without op¬ position. Some bishops stoutly maintained their in¬ dependence ; but an event soon happened which stamped out all opposition. This event was the Conquest of Ireland in the reign of Henry II. of England. Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspear), an Englishman, and the only Englishman who has ever been Pope of Rome, gave Ireland to the King of England, that it might be brought into complete conformity with Roman Catholic discipline. In 1172 the Archbishop of Armagh made his formal submission to Henry II., and soon hardly a vestige remained of the independ¬ ence of the Ancient Irish Church. We do not know very accurately what the state of that Church was before its union with Rome was consummated. Prob- THE RISE OF PAPAL SUPREMACY 2g ably abuses and disorders prevailed, and doubtless St. Malachy thought he was doing good service when he used his personal influence, and great ability, in bringing the church of his native land into line with the rest of Western Christendom. As to the wisdom of his conduct opinions will vary. Some will hold that rigid order and monotonous uniformity are a poor exchange for freedom, and many will be disposed to sympathize with the resistance, made by the ancient Church of this country, to the imposition of that won¬ derful system of spiritual despotism which chained all Europe to the Papal chair. CHAPTER VI. THE CHURCH OF THE CONQUEST. OME had conquered. Anglo-Norman adven- IV turers, in pursuing their own interests, had served her purpose. Henry II., though somewhat tardily, had done Pope Adrian’s behests. He had extended the borders of the Church, i.e., of the Papal Church. Whether he had ‘ rooted out the weeds of wickedness from the field of the Lord ’ is another question. This the famous Bull of Adrian bade him do, and if the phrase ‘ weeds of wickedness ' means ecclesiastical irregularities, Henry might boast that he had gone far to accomplish this also. It was now decreed ‘ that divine offices should be henceforth celebrated in every part of Ireland according to the forms and usages of the Church of England.’ In this weed-uprooting process some flowers had suffered. Simplicity and freedom were trampled under foot. There was much homely simplicity in the ancient Irish Church. Her bishops sometimes followed the plough. Her monasteries were mud huts; surrounded by a mud wall. Her churches THE CHURCH OF THE CONQUEST 3i were plain square buildings. Plain living was the rule. Gelasius, the Archbishop of Armagh, came to visit Henry II., accompanied by a white cow, whose milk was his only nourishment. This sort of thing did not suit the proud Norman prelates. Gelasius, who had helped to bring the Irish Church into communion with Rome, and who had received the pall, retained the primacy, and Laurence O’Toole remained Archbishop of Dublin; but at their death these sees were filled by men of a very different stamp as well as of a different nationality. Gelasius and O’Toole retained something of the simplicity of more primitive times, their successors were ambitious despotic rulers and shrewd men of the world, with little of the saint in their composition. Such was John Conyer, who succeeded St. Laurence O’Toole in the see of Dublin. At his death a still more astute and unscrupulous Anglo-Norman stepped in. Henry, of London, who was elected Archbishop of Dublin in 1213, has left behind him an unenviable nick-name. He was called ‘ Burn-bill ’ or ‘ Scorch-Villain ’ be¬ cause having called upon his tenants to produce their title-deeds, leases, and grants received from his pre¬ decessors, he put them all in the fire, a very summary way of dealing with inconvenient legal documents. Men of this stamp, grasping and unscrupulous, did much to augment the pomp and power of their bishopricks. They were at once unscrupulous and intolerant. The ancient Irish Church allowed freedom of opinion, and never persecuted. It is a very signifi- 32 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND cant fact that the first ecclesiastical assembly in Ire¬ land presided over by a Papal Legate was the first to close its proceedings with an anathema. An event which occurred in 1324, sheds a lurid light upon the story of religion in Ireland at this period. A woman named Petronilla, a servant of Lady Alice Kettle or Kyttler, against whom a charge of heresy and witchcraft had been brought, was burned to death at Kilkenny as an accomplice of her mistress, while Lady Alice, and another associate, only escaped this cruel fate by doing ample penance. Two or three years later another fire was lit, and Adam Duff, a Leinster man of the tribe of the O’Toole, was burned alive on College Green for denying the doctrine of the Trinity and of the Incar¬ nation, and rejecting the authority of the Pope. We only know the opinions of this Adam Duff from his bitter foes. They said of him, as of old time it was said of another, that he had a devil. All we can gather is that he died for what he deemed the truth. In the thirteenth century the followers of St. Francis, and other orders of monks had brought some sense of religion into the hearts of the masses, by living self-denying lives, and ministering to the poor, and the sick, the oppressed, and the fallen. But they had lost their first love, and in the following century only cumbered the ground. The fourteenth century *vas indeed a dark period in Ireland’s history. The country was devastated by the forces of Edward Bruce: the religious orders were sunk in sloth, sensuality, and THE CHURCH OF THE CONQUEST 33 hypocrisy : the fires of persecution were lit, and that awful pestilence called the Black Death reduced towns and villages to mournful deserts. In this awful time it is cheering to review the life of one true, honest man. The Anglo-Norman Prelates were not all mere grasping avaricious men of the world. A notable exception to this rule is found in the career of Richard Fitzralph, sometimes called St. Richard of Dundalk, Dundalk being his birth-place. Fitzralph may be called the Wickliffe of Ireland. Like Wickliffe he opposed the mendicant friars, and roused their hatred; like Wickliffe, he was accused of heresy, and sum¬ moned before the Papal tribunal; and like Wickliffe, he is said to have translated the Scriptures. The ancient Irish Church was famous for a knowledge of the Scriptures through the Latin version; but Fitzralph is supposed to have been the first to translate the Bible into Irish. Fitzralph had studied at Oxford, and was appointed to the primacy of the Irish Church in 1347. In forcible language he described the shameless impu¬ dence and extortion of the friars. Cited to appear at Avignon he spent three years in maintaining his cause before the Pope. It is said that he was then silenced by the Papal order, and whether it was so or not, he soon entered ‘the silent land,’ dying in 1360. His body was removed to Dundalk and buried in the church of St. Nicholas. So lived and died one who was denounced as a heretic, and revered as a saint. It has been Ireland’s fate never to be completely D 34 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND conquered, and this applies to her ecclesiastical, as to her political system. The ancient Celtic Church had bowed to the storm. Deprived of her independence, she no longer disputed the papal authority. Rome had overcome all organ¬ ised resistance. Wherever the Anglo-Norman power ruled, churches of Anglo-Norman pattern, dedicated to Anglo-Norman saints, sprang up, and pushed aside the frailer edifices of Celtic workmanship. But Celtic tradition and custom were not entirely uprooted. Especially in the west they still flourished. Columcille and Kieran had still their votaries. The Anglo- Norman monastery, with its spacious refectory, and stately church, and its life in common, did not entirely supersede the more modest establishment with its collection of small square stone-roofed churches, its modest mud huts, and its round tower. Such institu¬ tions hallowed by memories of Columba and Aidan still existed almost unchanged, and monks still wore the Celtic tonsure, and Coarb still succeeded Coarb in natural succession. In some of the monasteries in the far west it was as though no Anglo-Norman Con¬ quest had occurred. Under the name of Culdees or servants of God, communities of Celtic monks continued to exist for many centuries, though degene¬ rating in power and influence. Indeed it is said that in a modified form the Culdees of Armagh, as vicars choral, still exist, having survived the Reformation, and having been incorporated by Charles I. CHAPTER VII. THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION. ''HAT remarkable movement known as the Re- X formation made little progress in Ireland. In England and on the Continent its progress was largely due to the awakened consciences and quickened intel¬ lects of those who read the Scriptures in their mother tongue. Wickliffe, Huss, Jerome, and others had prepared the way for it. In Ireland the soil was all unprepared, and one of the greatest calamities that could have happened to the country was the forcible imposition of a religious system which the mass of the people neither desired nor understood. The attempt to quicken religious development by force is more foolish, and hardly less wicked than the attempt to retard it by the same means. In England the soil had been prepared, and John Wickliffe had sown the seeds of a simpler faith. He translated the Scriptures : he circulated his tracts far and wide: he raised an order of preachers, ‘ the simple priests,’ who denounced Rome's corruption in homely language. D 2 36 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND So the rector of Lutterworth and his disciples pre¬ pared England for the harvest of the Reformation. Ireland had no such seed-sowing. The country was divided, and constantly distracted by civil war. The language was a difficulty. Wickliffe’s Bible, and Wickliffe’s tracts had helped to mould the English tongue, and unite the English people, so that it may be said England lisped in Reformation truth. Not so Ireland. If, as it has been affirmed, Richard of Dundalk translated the Scriptures into Irish, their circulation was very limited. Richard’s thirteen years’ primacy, three of which were spent in Italy, left little time for such a work as Wickliffe did for England, and he appears to have formed no school of like- minded men. When the Reformation dawned in other lands, Ireland, which, centuries before, had rekindled the light of Christianity, was sunk in dark¬ ness. The people were left in gross ignorance of religious truth. The morals of the clergy, if no worse, were no better than in other countries. The only preachers were the begging friars. In a report made to the king in 1515 it is stated that—‘There is no Archbishop, nor bishop, abbot, nor prior, parson, nor vicar, nor any other person of the Church, high or low, that useth to preach the word of God saving the poor friars beggars.’ In the seventh century Alfrid had sung :— ‘ I found the good lay monks and brothers Ever beseeching help for others, And, in their keeping, the Holy Word Pure as it came from Jesus the Lord.’ THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION 37 This could not have been said of the teaching of ‘ the poor friars beggars.’ Their teaching at this time was anything but pure, but such as it was, it was all the poor people got. Some evidence of religious thought and life is afforded by the prosecutions for heresy. An act passed in the reign of Henry VII. declaring that ‘ the acts against Lollards and heretics are authorised by the present parliament ’ shows that there was some dissent from the religion then professed and enforced by the State. It is, however, doubtful whether these doctrines spread beyond the cities, and whether they were expressed in language which the majority of the people could understand. The policy of Henry VIII. was not to spread the doctrines of the Reformation amongst the Irish people. His Protestantism began and ended with self-interest. His supremacy as head of the Church, and the lands and wealth of the monasteries were all he required. His reforming zeal could go no further. On other matters no man was more severely orthodox. The reformation in Ireland, so far as Henry VIII. had any¬ thing to do with it, was but an episode in his duel with the Pope. To accomplish this so-called Reformation, Henry raised George Browne to the Archbishopric of Dublin. Browne had been an Augustine friar, and had risen to be provincial of the order in England. He appears to have been influenced by Luther’s writings. Cromwell saw in him a useful agent for carrying out his designs, and through his powerful 38 THE STORY OF RELIGION IN IRELAND patronage, Browne was raised to the See of Dublin. His commission, it is said, was ‘ to root out all that the Pope had planted in the portion of the vineyard committed to his care, and throughout the land generally. This reminds us of that famous Bull of Adrian which commanded Henry II. ‘ to root out the weeds of wickedness from the field of the Lord.’ After this uprooting process, first by Henry II. at the Pope’s order, again by Archbishop Browne at the order of a later Henry, is it much to be wondered at that few flowers and little fruit remained ? The story of religion in Ireland would be a more cheerful story if there had been less of this uprooting, and more patient seed-sowing and planting. Browne was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin early in 1535. In September of the same year he writes to his patron Cromwell in a somewhat doleful strain. His ‘ Brother Armagh ’—/. Naylor, James 103 Nelson, Rev. S. C. 151 Nemed 2 Nero 5 New Light 128 Newry 149 Nial 18 Non-Subscribers 129 Nuader 2, 3 O ’CONNELL Daniel 138, 140, 142, 143 O’Dogherty, Sir Colin 75 O’Donnell 70, 75 O’Gorman Mahon 141 O’Hamill, Rev. P. 120 Oldstone, near Antrim 81, 82 O’Neill 40 ,, Earl of Tyrone 68. 70, 75 ,, Shane 66 „ Con 73, 74 ,, Owen Roe 94 Oriel, King of 17 Ormond, Earl of 94 Oronsay 19 Ota 26 O’Toole, Lawrence, Saint 31 P ACIFIC ACT 128 Palladius 8 Partholon 2 Patrick, Saint 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20 Paul, Saint 13 Peel, Sir Robert 158 Pelagius 7, 8 Peter, Saint 13 Petronilla 32 Pictland 8, 19 Piets, The 19, 20 Porter, Rev. William 150, 154, 156, 157 Portmore 111 Powell, Humphrey 47 I7 6 INDEX XJAKERS 100, 102, 111 R ATHBREASIL, Synod of 27 Remonstrance of Non-Sub¬ scribers 156 Ridge, John 77, 84 Ridley 27 Rinuceini, Papal Nuncio 94 Rosemary St. Meeting House 185 Round Towers, The 26 Tara, City of 2, 4, 6, 13, 20, 23 Taylor, Jeremy, Bishop 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113 Temporalities Church Act 162 Thor 26 Tithe Commutation Act 162 Trench, Hon. William Power, Archbishop 161 Trinity, The 32, 154, 155 ,, College 65, 89 Tuam 28 Turgesius 26 S CHOMBERG, General 119 Scotus, John 27 Sedulius 7 Serpi, Paul 88 Simpson, Professor 127 Sleamish, Hill of 11, 14 Smithurst, Rev. J. 148 Spencer, Edmund 60, C7 Stewart, Rev. Andrew 76, 81 ,, Rev. Robert 149 St. Ledger, Sir Anthony, Lord Deputy 45, 46, 47, 53, 56 Strabane 154 Strafford, Wentworth, Lord 83, 87 Stone, Primate 161 Subscribers 129 Sucath 10 Swift, Dean 122, 123 Sydney, Lord Deputy 63, 64 T^ALBOT, Richard, Earl of Tyr- a connel 116, 117 U LSTER, Remonstrant Synod of 157 TJssher, Archbishop 65, 66, 79, 83, 90 T J ICTOR, The Angel 12 V Volunteers, The 137 W ALSH, Nicholas 64 Waterford 27 Waucop, Robert 44 Wesley, John 131, 134, 153 Wexford 96 Whitfield 132 Whitfield’s Tabernacle 132 Wicliffe 33, 35, 36 Wicklow 8 William III. 119 Wotton, Sir Henry 88 THE END . - BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY HEIGHT^ CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. Books may be kept for two weeks and may be renewed for the same period, unless reserved. Two cents a day is charged for each book kept overtime. If you cannot find what you want, ask the Librarian who will be glad to help you. The borrower is responsible for books drawn on his card and for all fines accruing on the same.