your hearty supplications of his many wants, A. D. 1622. and ask that he may be refreshed with the graces of the Good Spirit from on high, so as not to be barren or unfruitful in any good word or work; and in particular, that these volumes now brought to their conclusion, may be accompanied by that blessing which alone can render them the honoured instrument of any little usefulness in the Church of God, that by promoting truth only and peace, they may help to minister unto godly edifying, and thus prove indeed, a labour not in vain in the Finished at Cavanreagh, in the Six Towns, In the Parish of Ballynascreen, and in the Diocese of Derry, The 22nd of February, 1847. The transcribing, with revisions, completed Jan. 4, 1848. Δοξα ἐν ὑψίστοις Θεῷ. APPENDIX. No. I. OF THE CHARGE OF SCHISM BROUGHT AGAINST THE IRISH CHURCH THE following are the passages from the Ecclesiastical Annals of Cardinal Baronius, referred to in Book II., Ch. iii. (Vol. I., p. 136, sup.) The first is introduced at A. D. 566, and is headed in the original work with this title"THE BISHOPS OF IRELAND SCHISMATICS :" "But through the malice of the demon of evil it came Statement to pass, that at this period, while the Church of France of Baronius charging was glittering with so many bright luminaries, the the Irish Church in Ireland which had so far been thriving well, with schism became overspread with thick darkness, having made in A. D. 556. shipwreck, in consequence of not following the bark of Peter, which takes the lead of all, pointing out the road towards the haven of salvation; for desiring to appear more righteous than others, and more wise than became her, she is unknowingly led astray by the schismatical faction. For a false report having reached them, through the dishonesty of these schismatics, stating that the Fifth Synod had transgressed against the holy Council of Chalcedon (as if by the condemnation of the Three Chapters it had condemned at the same time the acts of that synod;) all the bishops that were in Ireland rose up with one accord in the most determined spirit of zeal for the defence of the Three Chapters. And they were guilty moreover of this further wickedness, that when they had perceived the Roman Church to be equally determined in condemning the Three Chapters, and strengthening the Fifth Synod by her adhesion, they at once separated from her, and joined themselves with the rest of the schismatics that were in Italy, or Africa, or other places, puffed up with the vain conceit that by defending the acts of the Council of Chalcedon they were making a stand in support of the Catholic faith. So these unhappy, misguided people, influenced by a kind of show of apparent righteousness in their cause, and having a zeal, though not such as was according to knowledge, (since they dwelt in a very remote part of the world where they could not have been very easily admonished or corrected, even independently of those additional embarrassments which are usually connected with wars, pestilence, and famine,) continued in that unfortunate condition for a length of time; entertaining feelings of pity towards those who followed the Fifth Synod, as for persons that were gone astray from the right road of the faith; so far were they from being able to comprehend that it was they themselves who were under the delusion of errors. Yea and they cling to those errors the more obstinately, from conceiving the idea that whatever Italy was suffering from the troubles of war, famine, or pestilence, all such misfortunes had befallen her in consequence of her having acted as the champion of the Fifth Synod against the Council of Chalcedon. And in this most unhappy position they continued ever to the time of pope S. Gregory, that is, to the close of this century; when these bishops aforesaid wrote a letter of inquiry about the matters in question to the said Gregory, knowing him to be a friend of God, and eminent for holiness. As to the answer which Gregory sent them in return, of that we shall make mention in the proper place. The letter itself, from which we have collected these circumstances, is still extant."-(Vid. Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici, tom. 7, p. 557. Antw. 1658.) Ussher's Thus far Baronius in that place, from whose Archbishop narrative Archbishop Ussher concludes "that note on the the bishops of Ireland did not take all the reso- ligion of above. Re viii. lutions of the Church of Rome for undoubted Ancient Irish, ch. oracles; but when they thought that they had better reason on their sides, they preferred the judgment of other Churches before it"—a conclusion true and certain enough, yet gathered in this instance, as we shall see, from premises not the most indubitable or satisfactory. grounds the applied to As to the fact that the bishops above-men- On what tioned applied afterwards for counsel to Pope Bishops in Gregory, the words of Baronius himself are suf- question ficient to suggest to us why they did so; not Gregory for because they considered the bishop of Rome counsel. possessed of authority for regulating with his Church the doctrine of all Christians in the world, but because they regarded him as a worthy counsellor, not only for his high station in the Church, but especially on account of his being one whom they knew to be eminent for holiness and the love of God. This, however, by the way. It may be added, that those bishops, in writing to Gregory, did not exhibit a |