No. XVII. "Quid domini facient, audent cum talia fures ?" (Virgil.) 1618. In this year, Mr. Richard Stanihurst, son of a Recorder of Dublin, and maternal uncle of Dr. James Ussher, died at Brussels. He was an historian of some eminence, and the author of a valuable Treatise, "De rebus in Hibernia gestis." He received his education at Oxford, and in the Inns of Court at London; but afterwards turning Papist and Priest, he became Chaplain of the Archduke of Austria, in which situation he continued till his death. (Bishop Nicholson's Historical Library, p. 5.) About this time, the Pope's Archbishop of Tuam presented to the Court of Spain a book, called, "A Brief Relation of Ireland, and the Diversity of Irish in the same." This work is said to have been written by O'Sullivan Beare, proud of his Milesian descent, and willing to revive his connection with the Spanish Government. 1619, Sept. 30.-The Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland wrote a commendatory letter to the King, by Doctor James Ussher, with a view to setting him right in his Majesty's opinion, who had been informed, as before mentioned, that this Divine was "somewhat transported with singularities and unaptness, to be conformable to the rules and orders of the Church." In this letter, which was signed by the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of Tuam, and several of the Privy Council, as well as the Lord Deputy, Dr. Ussher was represented to his Majesty, as a "man orthodox in the faith, and worthy to govern in the Church, when occasion should offer; being a man who had given himself over to his profession, an excellent and painful preacher, a modest man, abounding in goodness, and his life so agreeable to his doctrine, that those who dissented from him, were yet constrained to love and admire him." (Dr. Parr's Life of Archbishop Ussher.) Oct. 24.-The Jesuits and other Popish Priests having, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, scattered, with a liberal hand, the seeds of Puritanism, and all other fanatical schisms, for the determined purpose of ruining the Church of England, began at this time to accuse such of the Irish Protestant Clergy as seemed formidable to them, from their zeal, of the undefined crime of Puritanism, for the purpose of incensing the King against them. The following letter, written at this time by a worthy Clergyman of the Established Church in Ireland to Doctor Ussher, then in London, shews, in a clear point of view, the refined artifices used by these conspirators to ruin the Protestant cause in Ireland. "REVEREND SIR, "I hope you are not ignorant of the hurt that is come to the Church by this name Puritan, and how his Majesty's good intent and meaning therein is much abused and wronged, and especially in this poor country, where the Pope and Popery are in such esteem. "I being lately in the country, had conference with a worthy painful preacher, who hath been an instrument of drawing many of the meer Irish there, from the blindness of Popery, to embrace the Gospel, with much comfort to themselves, and heart-breaking to the Priests, who, perceiving they cannot now prevail with the juggling tricks, have forged a new device. They have now stirred up some crafty Papists, who very boldly rail both at Ministers and People, saying, they seek to sow this damnable heresy of Puritanism among them; which word, though not understood, but only known to be most odious to his Majesty, makes many afraid of joining themselves to the Gospel, though in conference their consciences are convicted herein. "So, to prevent a greater mischief that may follow, it were good to petition his Majesty, to define a Puritan, whereby the mouths of those scoffing enemies may be stopped; and, if his Majesty be not at leisure, that he would appoint some good men to do it for him ; for the effecting whereof you know better than I can direct; and, therefore, I commit you and your affairs to the blessing of the Almighty, praying for your success there, and safe return thither. "Resting your assured friend to his power, "Dublin, Oct. 24, 1619." When the King had conversed with Doctor Ussher, and heard of the circumstance stated in the foregoing letter, he said, he perceived, that "the Knave Puritan was a bad, but the Knave's Puritan an honest man ;" and, in consequence of the good opinion he formed of Dr. Ussher, he promoted him to the Bishoprick af Meath, on the 16th of January, 1620, who, immediately after his promotion was announced in Ireland, received the following letter from the Lord Deputy: "MY LORD, "I thank God for your preferment to the Bishopric of Meath. His Majesty therein hath done a gracious favour to his poor church here; there is none but are exceeding glad that you are called thereunto; even some Papists themselves have largely testified their gladness of it. Your grant is, and all other necessary things shall be sealed this day or to-morrow. I pray God bless you, and whatever you undertake. So I rest, your Lordship's most affectionate friend, "Dublin, Feb. 3, 1620." "OL. GRANDISONE. (Parr's Life of Primate Ussher.) So much for the elevation of this great pillar of the Protestant cause in Ireland; the history of whose life is necessarily interwoven with that of Irish Popery, to which he and some other eminent Prelates, his contemporaries, would have given a mortal blow, were it not for the Irish massacre in 1641, and the wicked Rebellion which succeeded it in England. At that unhappy time, the plots laid by the Pope and Jesuits, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, arrived to full maturity, and accomplished their end. Hatched in the Scottish Seminaries, founded by Allen and Campion, in 1580, they were justly dreaded by James I. during the whole of his reign, whose timid and temporising policy, but, above all, the Popish connection he made for his unfortunate son and successor, tended but too much to facilitate their progress. Thus were the Protestants of England unconsciously enlisted under the sanguinary banners of the Pope, and set on by his agents to bite and devour one another; till crumbled into innumerable, angry little sects, they levelled into dust their ancient Monarchy, and the true Religion established amongst them. "This plot, by Jesuits invented, "The well-affected that confide: "By setting brother against brother, "To claw and curry one another; "And turn, like bears, our fangs and claws "Upon our own selves, without cause." (Butler.) 1620. In this year, the Popish Clergy of Ireland received from Bourdeaux an edition of the "Rituale Romanum Pauli Quinti;" a copy of which, with many other scarce books, is preserved in the Diocesan Library of Derry. The first article in this book is an office, " pro impeditis in matrimonio a dæmone vel maleficio." The Popish Clergy being in the habit of appealing to the miracles they can work in proof of the truth of their doctrine; are frequently applied to by their besotted followers, to cure impotency, cast out devils, and discover witches. The Rubric, on the subject of casting devils out of females, contains the following order: "Mulierem exorcizans semper secum habeat sacerdos honestas personas quæ obsessam dæmone teneant, atque honestatis memor Exorcista, caveat ne quid dicat vel faciat, quod sibi aut aliis occasio esse possit pravæ cogitationis." We have also in this Ritual, an office for receiving repentant Heretics, to which the following Rubric is a preface: "Hæretico ad Catholicam Ecclesiam venienti, (qui, si in ejus baptismo debita forma servata non est, baptizari debet,) dicatur Horresce hæreticam pravitatem-respue nefarias sectas impiorum.' 1621.-Sir Oliver St. John, being basely traduced to the King and the people of England, was at length obliged to retire from the Government of Ireland; but not before his Majesty, as a proof of his esteem, had conferred on him the titles of Viscount Grandison, and Lord High Treasurer of Ireland. 1622, Sept. 8.-Lord Falkland was sworn Deputy; (Harris's History of Dublin, p. 329,) and the Papists, exulting in their supposed victory over the late worthy Chief Governor, whose removal they attributed to their own clamour, proceeded in a course of insolence, seriously alarming to the Government and Protestants of Ireland, and not unlike their seditious conduct at this present time. This aların was considerably increased by Lord Falkland's discovery of a Romish Hierarchy, with a regular subordination of offices and persons throughout the kingdom by the Papal Power; their jurisdiction exercised with as much regularity, and their decrees executed with as full authority, as if the Pope himself were in actual possession of the realm. (See Leland's History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 489.) No. XVIII. "Incedis per ignes "Suppositos cineri doloso."-(Hor.) 1622.-Much uneasiness arose about this time to the Government, from the miserable condition to which the military establishment of Ireland had been reduced in consequence of the King's pacific system, and this uneasiness was farther increased, and the insolence of the rebellious Papists encouraged, by a body of troops recruited in this country for the Spanish service. The officers employed to raise and transport these men to Spain, were the relatives or adherents of old Rebels, educated abroad in an extravagant pride of a fabulous ancestry, and a rancorous hatred of the English Government and the Protestant Religion. Their levies were soon filled, but they delayed their departure as long as they could; and, violating the orders and limits prescribed to them, ranged through various parts of the country in a tumultuous manner, to the great annoyance and terror of the well affected; confirming the disloyal in their wicked purposes, and spreading disaffection wherever they went, (See Gordon's History of Ireland, vol. i.) In this year, Bishop Ussher published his celebrated "Treatise on the Religion professed by the Ancient Irish ;" in which he proved, that for sum and substance, it was the same with that professed at the Reformation by the opposers of the Papal innovations. (Ware's Bishops, p. 104.) Nov. 22.-Bishop Ussher having been called to the Privy Council, had on this day an opportunity of giving a proof of his wisdom and solid judgment. Some Irish Noblemen being promoted to public offices, refused to take the Oath of Supremacy. They were convened to receive a censure for their obstinacy from the Lord Deputy and Privy Council, and when the Judges had explained to them the nature, reason, and equity of the Oath, the Bishop of Meath, in a learned and able speech, demonstrated, that the King was the Supreme and only Governor within his dominions; that the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff over the Universal Church was usurped and unjust, utterly overturning the foundation on which it was built." Some of those, who were then called to hear the sentence of Præmunire, which they had incurred, were so convinced by the Bishop's arguments, that they submitted willingly to take the Oath. (Parr's Life of Ussher.) 66 |