Pope. SECTION I. Accession of the King followed by a Bull of the Pope. Condition of the Church in general; particularly of the Diocese of Armagh. Project of allowing Privileges to the Papists. Judgment of the Primate and other Bishops thereupon. Published by the Bishop of Derry. Its consequences. Measures of the Government. Proclamation irreverently received. Danger of the Archbishop of Dublin from an Insurrection. Proceedings concerning the Papists. New Bull of the THE accession of King Charles the First to the throne was soon followed by a bull of Pope Urban the Eighth, wherein he exhorted the Catholick, or, speaking more properly, the Popish subjects of the king, rather to lose their lives than to take that pernicious and unlawful oath of allegiance, whereby not only provision was made for maintaining fidelity to the King of England, but for wresting the sacred sceptre of the Universal Church from the Vicars of Almighty God; and which Paul the Fifth, his predecessor, of happy memory, had condemned as such: an exhortation which did not fail to operate on the Irish subjects of the papacy, and to encourage their raturally unquiet spirits to fresh agitation'. Its effect on the 1 Cox, ii. 41. Primate Ussher The new primate had been detained for some Return of months in England by a quartan ague, the conse- to Ireland. quence of extraordinary professional exertions in the pulpit; and, on his return to Ireland, in 1626, he found that, whatever was his accession of dignity from his late promotion, it brought no diminution of labour or difficulty; and that the state of the Church was such as to require all the exertions of her faithful sons under the new reign. from the Bishop of Kilmore, March 26, 1625. A letter of congratulation, addressed to him, Letter to him soon after his promotion, by Thomas Moygne, bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, may be here transcribed from Dr. PARR'S Collection, as opening a general prospect of the actual condition of the Irish Church. "Most reverend, and my honourable good Lord, the growth of "I do congratulate, with unspeakable joy and comfort, your preferment, and that both out of the true and unfeigned love I have ever borne you, for many years continued, as also out of an assured and most firm persuasion that God hath ordained you a special instrument for the good of the Irish Church, the growth whereof, notwithstanding all his majesty's endowments and directions, receives every day more impediments than ever. And that Impediments not only in Ulster, but begins to spread itself into other the Church. places; so that the inheritance of the Church is made. arbitrary at the council table; impropriators in all places may hold all ancient customs, only they, upon whom the cure of souls is laid, are debarred; St. Patrick's Ridges, which you know belonged to the fabrick of that church, are taken away within the diocese of Armagh, the whole Revenues of the elergy, being all poor vicars and curates, by a declaration clergy taken of one of the judges this last circuit, (by what direction I know not,) without speedy remedy will be brought to much decay the which I rather mention because it is within away. your province. The more is taken away from the king's Augmentation to clergy, the more accrues to the Pope's: and the servitors the Popish and undertakers, who should be instruments for settling a clergy. Importance of the Primate's station. St. Patrick's Church, do hereby advance their rents, and make the 66 "In a word, in all consultations which concern the Church, not the advice of sages, but of young counsellors, is followed. With all particulars the agents, whom we have sent over, will fully acquaint you, to whom I rest assured your lordship will afford your countenance and best assistance. And, my good lord, now remember that you sit at the stern, not only to guide us in a right course, but to be continually in action, and standing in the watch-tower to see that the Church receive no hurt. I know my Lord's Grace of Canterbury will give his best furtherance to the cause, to whom I do not doubt, but after you have fully possessed yourself thereof, you will address yourself. And so, with the remembrance of my love and duty unto you, praying for the perfect recovery of your health, "I rest, your lordship's most true and "March 26, 1625"." A particular phrase in the foregoing letter, that of "St. Patrick's Ridges," appears to require some explanation. Among the duties reserved in ancient leases, that which is denominated "ridges" occurs frequently. It appears probable that the service of a certain number of days in harvest, to which the lord was entitled, was commuted, and the duty ascertained by the measure of the space, in preference to that of time; hence a "ridge" of work, in sowing or reaping, became, by mutual consent, a substitute for the service of one or more days. The economy fund of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, that is, the fund for sustaining the fabrick and other expenses of the cathedral, received from the dioceses of the suffragan bishops a revenue, not unfrequently mentioned under the name of "St. Patrick's Ridges." PARR'S Life of Ussher, p. 322. By an instrument of May 10, 1550, these "ridges," throughout the dioceses of Ferns, Ossory, Leighlin, and Kildare, and the deaneries of Omurthy, Rathmore, and Salmon-leap, were leased for an annual rent. And a pecuniary consideration was received from them so late as the year 1606, for they are noticed in the proctor's accounts of that year'. From the foregoing letter, it appears that these Taken away duties were recently taken away in 1625; a privation which the writer notices, amongst others, as a diminution of the inheritance of the Church. The following statement, by one of his biogra phers, of the primate's conduct, so soon as the restoration of his health allowed him to enter on the personal discharge of the duties of his high office, may serve to throw additional light on the condition of the Church, that part of it, at least, which was especially under his metropolitical superintendence. from the Church. State of the Diocese of by the Primate. "Being now returned into his native country," says Dr. Parr, "and settled in this great charge, (having not only many churches, but dioceses, under his care,) he began carefully to inspect his own diocese first, and the manners Inspection of it and abilities of those of the clergy, by frequent personal visitations; admonishing those he found faulty, and giving excellent advice and directions to the rest, charging them to use the Liturgy of the Church in all publick administrations; and to preach and catechise diligently in their respective cures; and to make the Holy Scriptures the rule, as well as the subject, of their doctrine and sermons. Nor did he only endeavour to reform the clergy, among whom, His exertions for in so large a diocese, and where there was so small its improvement. couragements, there could not but be many things amiss; but also the proctors, apparitors, and other officers of his ecclesiastical courts, against whom there were many great complaints of abuses and exactions in his predecessor's time: nor did he find that Popery and prophaneness had increased 3 MASON's St. Patrick's, p. 75. en Projected indul gences to the Papists, 1626. Assembly of the prelates on the occasion, Nov. 26, 1626. in that kingdom by anything more than the neglect of due catechising and preaching; for want of which instruction the poor people, that were outwardly Protestants, were very ignorant of the principles of religion; and the Papists continued still in a blind obedience to their leaders. Therefore he set himself with all his power to redress these neglects, as well by his own example as by his ecclesiastical discipline; all which proving at last too weak for so inveterate a disease, he obtained his majesty's injunctions to strengthen his authority, as shall be hereafter mentioned." An increase of the army in 1626 having been found necessary, in order to make the Papists more willing to contribute to its support, it was proposed to suspend all proceedings against them for marriages and christenings by priests, and to allow them other privileges without taking the oath of supremacy, with the design of introducing a more publick toleration of their religion. To this end a great assembly of the nation was convened by the Lord Deputy, Lord Falkland, at the castle of Dublin, without any religious distinction. But to obviate this design, the Lord Primate invited all the archbishops and bishops to his house for the purpose of consulting upon the course fit for them to take upon a question of so delicate a nature, and so abundant in the most momentous consequences to religion and the Church: and there the assembled prelates, on the 26th of November, unanimously drew up, agreed to, and subscribed, the Their protesta following protestation against any toleration of ration of Popery. Popery, especially from regard to secular advantages. The instrument was entitled "The Judgment of divers of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, concerning Toleration of Religion;" and it bore the signatures of the Archbishops of Armagh and Cashel, + PARR'S Life of Ussher, p. 27. tion against tole * Cox, ii. 48. |