of Cloyne, by Archbishop Ussher, for whom he entertained the strongest sentiments of respect and friendship. While Dr. Synge was Dean of Dromore, one Malone, an Irish Jesuit, of the College of Louvain, published a bold paper, entitled, A Challenge, &c. which was learnedly and judiciously answered by Dr. Ussher, Bishop of Meath. About five years after, (Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 167.) when the College of Louvain had long studied how to answer it, the said Malone did at last publish a tedious Reply, stuffed with scurrilous and virulent expressions against the learned answerer, his relatives and profession, (in the style of the Irish Magazine of 1814,) and full of quotations, either falsely cited out of the Fathers, or else out of divers superstitious authors; as also forged miracles, made use of merely to blind the eyes of ordinary readers. Some learned Divines dissuaded Ussher from rejoining thereto, in regard to the indignity of the railer, and virulence of the work; as also, because it would hinder him in other studies more necessary for the Church, and offered their endeavours to examine the same, which being accepted of by him, Dr. Synge prepared the way, by publishing an accurate piece, written with great spirit and life, as well as learning and judgment, under this title " A Rejoinder to the Reply published by the Jesuits, under the name of William Malone, Part I. wherein the general answer to the College is cleared from all the Jesuit's cavils!"-Dublin, 1632, quarto. In this tract, the learned Doctor did so fully and clearly lay open the falsehood and disingenuity of the Jesuit's arguments, and quotations from the ancient records of the Fathers and of the Church, that he left him very little reason to boast of a victory. (Harris's edition of Ware, vol. i. p. 579.)

Nov. 13.-Sir Edward Stanhope wrote a letter to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, containing the following remarkable passage" And truly, (which God forbid) if a time of such calamity should come upon us, it would be like a thief in the night, take us unprovided and dismayed, like a sudden plague or deluge, which would infect and overflow much ground before it could be stayed, and the waters turn home into their own natural channel. Neither do I think the kingdom of Ireland either so fortified by the English plantations, by the peace, plenty, and obligement of the natives, or by the better life the Scots do there enjoy, nor the power that is, or may be, to curb them, will (if these break forth into war) restrain or keep the other quiet; since, when occasion may be laid hold of, I suspect the false hearts of the Irish Natives. I pray God may quit us of these fears, keep us from danger, settle the

hearts of those that waver, confirm the faithful, and confound, if not change, those who pray not for, nor defend the Jerusalem of our God.”—(Strafford's Letters, vol. ii. p. 240.)

The Rebellion, which ensued three years after this letter was written, justified the apprehensions expressed in it, and affords. a salutary lesson of the caution necessary to be used in these days, to avert similar consequences from similar causes.

Dec. 1.-Bishop Bedel again wrote to the Lord Deputy in favour of Mr. King, the translator of the Bible, into the Irish Language, who had been extremely ill used. "If these

wrongs, my Lord," said this good Bishop, "reached only Mr. King's person, it were of less consideration; but, through his side, that great work, the Translation of God's Book, so necessary for both his Majesty's kingdoms, is mortally wounded. Pardon me, I beseech your Lordship, if I be sensible of it. I omit to consider what feast our adversaries make of our rewarding him thus for that service, or what this example will avail to the alluring others to conformity." (Burnet's Life of Bedel, p. 105.)

This number of the Annals of Irish Popery cannot be more properly concluded, than by the following interesting Extract from "A short History of the Attempts that have been made to convert the Popish Natives of Ireland, to the Established Religion," written by Dr. John Richardson, Rector of Belturbet, in the Diocese of Kilmore, published in London, in the year 1713, 2d Edition, page 22 :-" It may be presumed, that according to the good practice of the wise and learned Bishop Bedel, it would contribute somewhat towards reclaiming the natives from their errors, if such as come over to our Church from the Romish communion, were encouraged according to their several circumstances and merits. It is not fit, indeed, that any man should be persuaded to change his Religion for the love of money, or any worldly consideration, because he who doth so is guilty of great hypocrisy and disingenuity before God. But, nevertheless, proselytes should be received with all civility and kindness; and when there is cause to believe that they are men of honesty and integrity, due care should be taken to make up, in some measure, the loss which they generally suffer, by disobliging their friends and relations, and to make some compensation for that hatred and ill-will which they never fail of receiving from the party which they forsake, and for that doubtfulness and suspicion which too many will be ready to entertain of the truth and sincerity of their conversion, which cannot but create great trouble and uneasiness to any generous and virtuous mind. Besides, if proselytes be not

duly countenanced, this will discourage others, and it will be a great temptation to themselves, to return to their former

These were some of the methods used by this great man, in converting the Irish natives; and the most gracious and merciful God (who never fails to prosper those who observe his own directions) was pleased to bless them with success.

And whereas the Irish are represented by some to be so very savage and untractable, that it is not only needless, but also very dangerous, to labour among them; the success which Bishop Bedel had, doth not only confute this, but the great esteem which they shewed to the best of English Bishops, (as they used to call him in his lifetime,) and the singular marks of honour and affection which they paid him at his funeral, even in the great heat and fury of the Rebellion, do shew, from experience, that the Irish may be drawn by the cords of a man; and that gentle usage, and Christian treatment, provided the truth is honestly and boldly propounded to them, will prevail, when the contrary will not.

It has been the misfortune of Ireland, for more than a cèntury, that the Protestant Clergy of it, have despaired of converting their Roman Catholic Countrymen from the fatal errors of the Popish Religion; whilst the Romish Clergy, encouraged by the liberal spirit of the times, have been permitted to delude and corrupt them without mercy and without controul.

The fortieth Canon of the United Church of England and Ireland, orders, "that every Minister, being a Preacher, having any Popish Recusant or Recusants in his Parish, (and thought fit by the Bishop of the Diocese,) shall labour diligently with them, from time to time, to reclaim them from their errors. Whether this Canon has or has not been enforced and obeyed in Ireland for the last century, will be best ascertained by the progress of Popery amongst us during that time, and the consequent danger which has accrued to the true Religion amongst

us.

No. XXXIII.

"Superstitione qui est imbutus, quietus esse non potest."
(Cicero in Sertorio.)

1639, Jan. 12.-Thomas, Lord Viscount Wentworth, on being created Earl of Strafford, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, made an eloquent speech to King Charles the First, in the Presence-chamber, in Whitehall, (Annals of the Reign of King Charles 1. vol. i. p. 312. London, 1681.)

In the spring of this year, the Earl having returned to his Government, obtained from the Parliament of Ireland four subsidies (Strafford's Letters, vol. ii. p. 130.) together with the following public testimony of his conduct in this country: "For that your Majesty hath placed over us so just, wise, and profitable a Governor as the Right Hon. Thomas, Earl of Strafford, Lord Lieutenant of this your said kingdom of Ireland, who, by his great care and travel of body and mind, sincere and upright administration of justice, without partiality, increase of your Majesty's revenues, without the least part or grievance to any of your well-disposed and loving subjects, and our great comfort and security, by the large and ample benefits which we have received, and hope to receive, by your Majesty's commission of grace for remedy of defective titles, procured hither by his Lordship from your sacred Majesty; his Lordship's great care and pains in restoration of the Church; the reinforcing of your army within this kingdom, and ordering the same with singular good discipline; his support of your Majesty's wholesome laws here established; his encouragement of your Judges and other officers, ministers and dispensers of laws, in the due and sincere administration of justice; his necessary and just strictness for the execution thereof; his due punishment of the contemners of the same; and his care to relieve and redress the poor and oppressed. For this your tender care over us, shewed by the Deputy, and supporting so good Governors, &c. we, in free recognition of your great goodness towards us, do, for the abbreviation of some parts of your Majesty's inestimable charges, most humbly and freely offer four entire subsidies, &c. &c."

Notwithstanding these great and acknowledged merits, this great man was not free from the attempts of the beast called Envy, but was most unworthily traduced by several persons, as the Lord Esmond, the ancestor of an unfortunate Irish Roman Catholic, who perished on the scaffold, in 1798, Sir Pierce Crosby and others, who, for raising scandalous rumours to his prejudice, were sentenced to make public acknowledgments, and, together with other persons concerned in the crime, to pay five thousand pounds damages to the object of their calumny. (Annals of the Reign of King Charles I. p. 812.)

In the mean time, the Lord Lieutenant appointed a Council of War, and gave orders to levy eight thousand foot in Ireland, which, together with two thousand foot, a thousand horse, which was the standing army of this country, and five hundred horse to be joined with them, were to be sent into Scotland,

under his Lordship's command. (Strafford's Letters, vol. i. p. 4.)

In this year, Archbishop Ussher published his celebrated and long expected work, intitled, "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates," in which is inserted an History of Pelagius and his Heresy, which he dedicated to the King. To this Work he added a Chronological Index, in which the events of each century are clearly laid down. This book is so great a treasure of British and Irish Ecclesiastical Antiquities, that all who have since written with any success upon this subject, must own how much they are indebted to his labours. (Ware's Bishops, p. 108.)

About this time, Bishop Bedel, preparatory to his intended publication of the Holy Scriptures, in the Irish language, caused some of Chrysostom's and Leo's Homilies, which tended to commend the Scriptures in the highest strains of eloquence, to be translated both into the English and Irish, and reprinting his Catechism, added those to it in both languages, and they were well received, even by the Priests and Friars themselves.

No. XXXIV.

"Can we safely rely on the promises of him, whose Religion "allows him to make them, and, at the same time, obliges him to "break them?"

(Addison's Freeholder, No. 14.)

1639. In this year, Sir James Ware published his Writers of Ireland, in two books. (Ware's Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 290.) May 10-The Lord Deputy wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, informing him of the result of an interview he had with the Earl of Antrim, which was the discovery of that Nobleman's inability to perform a promise he had made to the King, of raising an army of four thousand men, and maintaining them at his own expence.

The Earl was so little ashamed of his insincerity on this occasion, that he attempted to overawe the Lord Deputy, by boasting of the influence and resources he possessed, as the grandson of the great Tyrone. (Strafford's Letters, vol. ii. p. 335.)

The intimate friend and confederate of the Earl of Antrim, was Dr. William Enos, a Secular Priest, Titular Bishop of Ferns, and Apostolic Prothonotary. This bigoted Ecclesiastic took a leading part in the Rebellion that ensued; he joined