Opposition of The order supported by the Lord Deputy. The Primate has recourse to menaces. To this communication of the Lord Deputy an answer was returned by the primate, Archbishop Dowdall, who promptly availed himself of the opportunity, the first which seems to have occurred, in a general meeting of the prelates and clergy of the kingdom, since his elevation, for oppugning the royal authority, and testifying his zeal for the Pope, and discrediting the proposed improvement in religious worship. He accordingly expressed himself in strong terms opposed to the provision caused by the king to be made, and now set forth by his authority: he contended against the Liturgy, that it might not be read or sung in the church: and he accompanied his opposition with the contemptuous reflection, substituting the word "mass" for "service," "Then shall every illiterate fellow read mass." The Primate's reflection was readily met by the Lord Deputy, who made a judicious and sufficient reply; briefly alleging where the charge of illiteracy properly rested, and propounding one incontrovertible argument in favour of a form of prayer in the vernacular tongue, as mutually intelligible both to the minister and to the people. "No," said he, "your grace is mistaken; for we have too many illiterate priests amongst us already, who neither can pronounce the Latin, nor know what it means, no more than the common people that hear them; but when the people hear the Liturgy in English, they and the priests will then understand what they pray for." The primate seems to have felt the force of the appeal, for he did not attempt to refute it; but adopting a course which is no unusual substitute for argument with those who are sensible of the weakness of their cause, he had recourse to the language of menace and intimidation, and bade the viceroy "beware of the clergy's curse." And indeed, in so doing, he was only following the instruction and example of his acknowledged lord and master, the Bishop of Rome, in his commission to his subjects in King Henry the Eighth's reign, and was adopting the usual practice of the papal authorities on similar occasions. The cautionary charge, however, was lost on the viceroy. "I fear no strange curse," said he, "so long as I have the blessing of that Church which I believe to be the true one." "Can there be a truer Church," the archbishop thereupon demanded, "than the church of St. Peter, the mother Church of Rome?" "I thought," returned the Lord Deputy, "we had all been of the Church of Christ: for he calls all true believers in him his Church, and himself the head thereof." The archbishop again demanded, “And is not St. Peter's church the Church of Christ ?" To which the Lord Deputy calmly replied, "St. Peter was a member of Christ's Church; but the church was not St. Peter's; neither was St. Peter, but Christ, the head thereof." The Lord Deputy menace. slights the Altercation con cerning the Church of Rome. his party leave Thus ceased this very remarkable altercation. The Primate and For the primate, indignant, as it should seem, at the the assembly. counteraction offered to his resistance of the proposed measure, and to his zeal for the papal church, and the pretended successor of St. Peter, thereupon rose up and left the assembly, accompanied by several, perhaps all, of the bishops within his jurisdiction who were present, except the Bishop of Meath, who continued behind, together with the other clergy who remained. Order received by Archbishop Browne. Concurrence of other bishops. Bishop Staples. Bishops Lancaster and Travers. Bishop Coyn. The viceroy then took the order, and held it forth to the Archbishop of Dublin, who stood up, and received it with these words: "This order, good brethren, is from our gracious king, and from the rest of our brethren, the fathers and clergy of England, who have consulted herein, and compared the holy Scriptures with what they have done; unto whom I submit, as Jesus did to Cæsar, in all things just and lawful, making no question why or wherefore, as we own him our true and lawful king" Several of the more moderate bishops and clergy adhered to Archbishop Browne; among whom were Staples, bishop of Meath; Lancaster, bishop of Kildare; Travers, bishop of Leighlin; and Coyn, bishop of Limerick. If there were any other bishops, their names have not been recorded. Of these, Staples, who was an Englishman, and had been educated at Cambridge, and had afterwards become one of the canons of Cardinal Wolsey's new foundation in Oxford, was promoted to his bishoprick twenty years before, during the Pope's usurpation. But he appears to have been early instrumental and active in promoting the changes in religion; and had been placed in several offices of trust by King Henry, and latterly been called to the Privy Council, and made Judge of the Faculties, by the reigning sovereign". The Bishops Lancaster and Travers had been recently promoted to their sees, namely, in 1550, both being married men'; and were probably selected for their respective stations from regard to their approval of the Reformation. Bishop Coyn had occupied his see near thirty years, having been promoted in 1522 by the Pope, in opposition to the 11 Ib., p. 152. 10 WARE'S Bishops, p. 350. ' 12 king, who was earnest in his endeavour to place Walter Wellesley, a favourite of his own, in the vacant bishoprick", as before related. What may have been his opinion on the changes now in agitation does not appear; nor what other prelates took part with those who joined the Archbishop of Dublin in acceding to the king's order. Soon afterwards age and infirmity caused Bishop Coyn to resign his see, in which he was succeeded by William Casey, an advocate of the Reformation. The result of this assembly was a proclamation issued by the Lord Deputy for carrying the order into effect, and the consequent celebration of divine worship according to the English Liturgy on Easter Day, in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in the presence of the viceroy, the archbishop, and the mayor and bailiffs of the city, when the archbishop preached a sermon on the eighteenth verse of the 119th Psalm, Open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy law." 66 Order carried into effect. Easter day, 1551. Dublin's sermon. In this sermon, which has been transmitted to Archbishop of us, with commendation not unmerited", he set forth the injuriousness of the Church of Rome in not permitting the use of the Holy Scriptures in any other tongue but the Latin; and the blindness, the folly, and the artifices of her image-worship. But the most memorable feature of it is that sort of prophetick spirit with which he describes the future emissaries of Rome, "false prophets, that shall deceive you with false doctrines, whom you shall take as your friends, but they shall be your greatest enemies; speaking against the tenets of Rome, and yet be set on by Rome; these shall be a rigid people, full of fury and envy." The conduct of those fana13 WARE'S Bishops, p. 510. 1 Cox, i. 290, His anticipation risi of Romish emissaries in disguise; His description of the Jesuits; of their infiuence, and their fall. Recall of Sir ticks and hypocrites, who soon after attempted to subvert the Anglican church, will probably be here present to the reader's mind. And again: "But there are a new fraternity of late sprung up, who call themselves Jesuits, which will deceive many; who are much after the scribes and pharisees' manner. Amongst the Jews they shall strive to abolish the truth, and shall come very near to do it. For these sorts will turn themselves into several forms; with the heathen, an heathenist; with atheists, an atheist; with the Jews, a Jew; and with the reformers, a reformade; purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, and your inclinations, and thereby bring you at last to be like the fool that said in his heart, there was no God. These shall spread over the whole world; shall be admitted into the council of princes, and they never the wiser; charming of them, yea, making your princes reveal their hearts, and the secrets therein, unto them, and yet they not perceive it; which will happen from falling from the law of God, by neglect of fulfilling of the law of God, and by winking at their sins; yet in the end, God to justify his law shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the hands of those who have most succoured them, and made use of them, so that at the end they shall become odious to all nations. They shall be worse than Jews, having no resting-place upon the earth; and then shall a Jew have more favour than a Jesuit"." In the whole of the foregoing transactions, the conduct of the Lord Deputy appears unexceptionable. Shortly afterwards, however, he was recalled: and his removal has been attributed to some repre 15 WARE'S Life of Archbishop Browne. |