The bills here alluded to, were the two statutes of uses and wills; by which," says Mr. Carte," the Roman catholics imagined, and not without reason,* that their religion would in time be affected, and by the due execution thereof, be at last utterly extinguished, by their putting it in his majesty's power, to have the minors of the chief families of the kingdom, educated in the communion of the church of England. These bills were, however, at length passed in that session;7 and the catholics ever afterwards considered them as heavy grievances, and had an eye to them, in all the complaints which they exhibited upon occasion, against the court of wards."

CHAP. XI.

A convocation of the clergy of Ireland.

BUT the catholics of Ireland were not the only objects of the deputy's despotism and control. The protestant archbishops, bishops, and other clergy, then assembled in convocation, with the famous primate Usher at their head, crouched and groaned under his arbitrary dominion. Lord Wentworth had discovered that the generality of that clergy were strongly+ inclined to puritanism;' and therefore he resolved, in concert with archbishop Laud, to compel them "to receive im

6 Carte's Orm, vol. i. Strafford's State Letters.

7 lb.

Id. ib. vol. iii. fol. 381.

"These laws could not be agreeable to the recusants, because they empowered the king to have minors educated from their early years in the communion of the established church."-Lel. Hist. of Ire. vol. iii. P. 24.

And because Strafford had promised in his speech to that parliament, "that religion should not be touched upon."-State Let. vol. i. p. 305.

"They not only sung the psalms after the Geneva-tune, but expounded the text to the Geneva-sense."-Strafford's State Letters, vol. i.

This archbishop was then and since thought to be popishly affected; but the contrary appears from a private letter of the rev. Mr. Gerard, to lord Wentworth, in 1635, as well as from many other passages of that prelate's life. "Some exception," says that clergyman," has been taken by my lord's grace of Canterbury, which he presented, first to the king, and by his majesty's command to the council-table, to the great, I may

plicitly without examination or debate," the canons as well as the articles of the church of England; a condescension, which for the manner, as well as matter, they were exceedingly loath to yield to. It may not, perhaps, be unentertaining to the reader, to find some account here of this extraordinary transaction, from his lordship's own letter to the archbishop, on that occasion.

"I found," says he, "the lower house of convocation had appointed a select committee to consider the canons of the church of England; and that they did proceed in the examination without conferring at all with the bishops; that they had gone thro' the book of canons, and noted in the margin such as they allow ed with an A; and on the others, they had put a D, which stood for deliberandum; that into the fifth article they had brought the articles of Ireland (of 1615) to be allowed and received, under pain of excommunication; and that they had drawn up their canons into a body.

*

"I instantly sent for dean Andrews, that reverend clerk, who sate, forsooth, in the chair of this committee; requiring

3 Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. fol. 342.

say over-great, recourse of his majesty's subjects to the queen's chapel at Somerset-house, and to ambassadors houses in the town, which must needs be the cause of the growth of popery in this kingdom. They (the council) have taken into consideration, and I hope will give a speedy remedy to this growing evil. It pleased his grace to say, that the papists were the most dangerous subjects of the kingdom, and that betwixt them and the puritans, the good protestants would be ground to powder.”— Straff. State Lett. vol. i. fol. 426.

• Dean of Limerick. Lord Wentworth was very angry with this clergyman; and the punishment he intended for him, was somewhat singular, "If," says he, in a letter to Laud on this occasion, "your lordship thinks Dr. Andrews is to blame, and that you would chastise him for it, make him bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, to have it without any other commendam than as the last bishop had it; and then I assure you, he shall leave better behind him.” For that bishoprick, it seems, was then so saddled and spurgauled, (they are Wentworth's own words) "that, if the devil himself were the rider, he could not make well worse of it than it was already.”—State Letters.

The dean, however accepted this preferment with great thankfulness.→ "His lordship elect," says the deputy of him some time after, "gave us a farewell sermon this lent, that had fasted surely, for a lean one it was; only he commended the times, and said, how long! how long! have we heretofore expected preferment, and missed of it. But now, God be praised,

him to bring along with him the aforesaid book of canons, so noted in the margin, together with the draught he was to present that afternoon to the house.

"But when I had opened the book, and ran over the deliberandums in the margin, I confess, I was not so much moved since I came into Ireland. I told him certainly, not a dean of Limerick, but an Ananias, had been there in spirit, if not in body, with all the fraternities and conventicles of Amsterdam; and that I was ashamed and scandalized at it beyond measure.*

4 Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. fol. 342.

we have it. "By my troth,” adds Wentworth," they were his very words; and I had much ado to forbear laughing outright, that understood how he mistook even these times in this point, which did not intend this bishoprick to him for a preferment, but rather as a discipline. Yet he is a good child, and kisseth the rod; so you see it was not a correction ill bestowed upon him."-State Lett. vol. i.

⚫ Wentworth omitted no opportunity of ridiculing this puritan chairman of the lower house of convocation, even after his promotion. "I conceive (says he) the primate (Usher) is well satisfied with dean Andrews's translation to the bishoprick of Ferns and Leighlin, and so is the man himself.— Never any so well pleased or so desirous, I persuade myself, to take a rochet to loss as he; had he not died a bishop he had been immemorial to posterity; whereas now he may be reckoned one of the worthies of his time. But the best jest is, that now he leaves the deanery of Limerick, I find he hath let a lease very charitably to himself, contrary to the act of state, which will cause him to restore, and so make the deanery one three-score pounds a year better than now it is."-Ib.

“The church of Ireland was at this time in a deplorable condition; the cathedrals in many places destroyed, the parish-churches generally ruined; in some dioceses, as in Ferns and Leighlin, there was scarce a living left that was not farmed out to the patron, or to some person for his use, at two, three, or four pounds a-year for a long time, three lives or a hundred years; the vicarages were for the most part stipendiary, and their stipends so miserably sordid, that in the whole province of Connaught there was scarce a vicar's pension that exceeded forty shillings a-year, and in many places they were but sixteen shillings; the bishopricks themselves, though many in number, were but of small revenue, several were no more than fifty pounds ayear, as Waterford, Kilfanora, and others, and some to five marks, as Cloyne and Kilmacduagh; and as "scandalous livings (adds my author) naturally make scandalous ministers, the clergy of the established church were generally ignorant and unlearned, loose and irregular in their lives and conversations, negligent of their cures, and very careless of observing decency and uniformity of divine worship.-Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 68.

K

I therefore said, he should leave the book and draught with me; and then I did command him, upon his allegiance, to report nothing to the house from the committee, till he heard from me again; being thus nettled, I gave present directions for a meeting, and warned the primate (Usher), the bishops of Meath, Kilmore, Raphoe and Derry, together with dean Lesly, the prolocutor, and all those who had been of the committee, to be with me the next morning.

"Then 1 publicly told them, how unlike the clergymen, that owed canonical obedience to their superiors, they had proceeded in their committee; how unheard-of a part it was, for a few petty clerks to make articles of faith, without the privity, or consent of the state, or the bishops; and what a spirit of Brownism, and contradiction, I observed in their deliberandums; but these heady and arrogant courses, they must know, I was not to endure, nor if they were disposed to be frantic, in this dead and cold season of the year, would suffer them either to be mad in their convocations or pulpits."

After this his lordship declared to them all," that no other question should be proposed at their meeting, but that for allow ing, and receiving, the articles of England,* without admitting any other discourse at all; for that he would not endure that the articles of the church of England should be disputed. And finally," proceeds his lordship, "because there should be no question in the canon that should be voted, I desired the lord primate would be pleased to frame it, and send it to me for my perusal; after which I would send the prolocutor a draught of the canon to be propounded in a letter of his own.

"This meeting thus broke, there were some hot spirits, sons of thunder, amongst them, who moved, they should petition for a free synod; but in fine, they could not agree among them

* Yet in the petition of the clergy of Dublin, in 1647, to the parliament commissioners for leave to use the liturgy and common prayer in their churches, we find these words, " hence it was, that till the convocation held at Dublin, anno 1634, the articles of the church of England were not held or reputed the articles of the church of Ireland, and when they were received, they were not received in any acknowledged subordination to the church of England. Hence it is, besides, that our canons were not imposed by the church of England; nay, when somewhat highly the clergy were invited to submit to the book of English canons, the convocation utterly refused to submit to the same, and framed a new book of canons for the church of Ireland."-Borlase's Irish Rebel. fol. 238.

selves, who should put the bell about the cat's neck; so this likewise vanished."

As for the primate Usher's part in this transaction,5" It is very true," says his lordship* "for all his silence, it was not possible but he knew how near they were to have brought in those articles of Ireland, to the infinite disturbance and scandal of the church, as I conceive. And certainly, if he could be content, I had been surprised; but he is so learned a prelate, and so good a man, as, I beseech your grace, it may never be imputed to him."

But to proceed with his lordship's narrative. "The primate accordingly framed the canon, which I," says he, " not so well approving, drew up one myself, more after the words of the canon in England, and then sent it to him. His grace came instantly to me, and told me he feared the canon would not pass in that form, as I had made it, but he was hopeful, as he had drawn it up, it might. He besought me therefore, to think a little better of it: but I confess, having taken a little jealousy, that his proceedings were not open and free to those ends I had my eye upon, it was too late either to persuade or affright me. I told his lordship I was resolved to put it to them in these very words; only for order's sake, I desired his lordship would vote this canon first, in the upper house of convocation, without any delay then I wrote a letter to dean Lesly, with the canon in

5 Lord Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. f. 342.

"The primate is hugely against it. The truth is, I conceive there are some puritan correspondents of his that infuse these notions into his head,” -Strafford to Laud, ib.

"Usher was head of the puritanic party of the clergy, and supported by the judgments and affections of almost all the Irish clergy."-Leland's Hist. of Irelant, vol. iii. p. 28.

He was afterwards one of the witnesses against Strafford at his trial; and had a pension from Cromwell, when he was made protector. Ludlow tells us, "that he was desired by the fanatics, to deal faithfully with the king in the controversy, that was between his majesty and the parliament, about episcopacy, ace rding to his own judgment, which," says he, "they knew to be against it; but he answered, that if he should do as they proposed, he should ruin himself and family, having a child and many debts."Memoirs, vol. i.

"He died the 21st of March, 1655-6, and was buried with great pomp, in Westminster-abbey, by command of the protector, who bore half the expence of his funeral.”—Grainger's Biogxaph. Hist, vol. iii, p. 27,