the different patentees, when considerable portions were reclaimed by the clergy as their rightful property. And so far had the estates of the northern bishopricks been embarrassed, both by the usurpations of the Irish lords, and the claims of patentees, that they scarcely afforded a competent, much less an honourable provision for men of worth and learning; while the state of the parochial clergy was still more deplorable. Most of the northern churches had been either destroyed in the late wars, or fallen to ruin: the benefices were small, and either shamefully kept by the bishops in the way of commendam or sequestration, or filled with ministers as scandalous *They were reclaimed by the title of Termon, Corbe, and Herenach lands. In the northern parts of Ireland, which had not been completely reduced, and where the pope still disposed of clerical dignities, the antient ecclesiastical institutions remained unaltered. And these terms were strange and inexplicable to English government. Jurors in the several inquisitions were required to give such informa tion about them as they could obtain. Sir John Davis en deavoured to investigate the nature of the lands called Termon, and of the persons styled Corbes and Herenachs; and it appears from his letter to lord Salisbury, among the MSS. of Trinity College, Dublin, that he thought them pecu, liar to the mere Irish countries of all other parts of Christendom. The learned doctor James Usher employed his abilities on this occasion with more success, investigated their nature and origin, and demonstrated the similitude of the antient ecclesiastical institutions of Ireland, to those of other countries of Europe. The original of his tract, on this subject, still remains in the same repository of papers relative to Irish affairs. "The following is the substance of it, omitting the learned authorities produced by the author, as their income. The wretched flock was totally abandoned; and for many years divine service had not been used in any parish church of Ulster, except in cities or great towns. To remedy these abuses, and to make some proper provision for the instruction of a people immersed in lamentable ignorance; the king ordained, that all ecclesiastical lands should be restored to their respective sees and churches; and that all lands should be deemed ecclesiastical, from which bishops had in former times received rents or pensions: that compositions should be made with the patentces for the scite of cathedral churches, the residences of bishops and dignitaries, and other church "In old times it was provided, that whoever founded church should endow it with certain lands, for the mainte nance of divine worship therein. The founder was to deli ver to the bishop an instrument of such donation before the church could be dedicated: and from thenceforward the ordering and disposing of these lands pertained entirely to the bishop. "In consequence of such donation these lands became exempt from all charges of temporal lords, were entitled to the right of sanctuary and other immunities. Hence they were called Tearmuin or Termon, that is priviledged lands. They were occupied by laymen, both villains and free tenants, who husbanded the same, both for the behoof of themselves and families, and likewise for the use of the church: and were called ecclesiastical tenants. Servi et homines ecclesiastici. "To receive and to apply the rent, paid by such tenants, it was thought necessary that every church should have its œconomus or archdeacon, called by the Irish eireinneach or herenach. 66 I mean," ," saith the author, "the antient archidiaconi, who, in degree, were inferiour to the presbyteri, not the archdeacons of higher rank that exercise jurisdiction under the bishop; and to that former kind of archdiaconi do lands, which were not intended to be conveyed to them; who were to receive equivalents, if they compounded freely: else, to be deprived of their patents, as the king was deceived in his grant; and the possessions restored to the church. "To provide for the inferiour clergy, the bishops were obliged to resign all their impropriations, and relinquish the tythes paid them out of parishes, to the respective incumbents, for which ample recompence was made out of the king's lands. Every proportion allotted to undertakers was made a parish, with a parochial church to each. The incumbents, besides their I refer the herenachs; who therefore were so many in number in every diocese, and, for ought I can learn, were wont to be admitted ad primam tonsuram, et diaconatum, and not promoted ad presbyterium." "A number of these Herenachs were again superintended by an officer of greater dignity, called Corbe, Corbah, or Comhurba; whom the author supposes to be the same with chorepiscopus or archipresbyter. The Irish clergy called him, in Latin, plebanus, quia plebi ecclesiasticæ matricis ecclesiæ præfuit. The name comhurba, he observes, occurs frequently in the early annals of Ireland. But it is no impeachment of the learned prelate's accuracy to observe, that in these annals the word is taken evidently in another sense, and signifies the prelate himself, or successor of the first Irish saint who presided in his diocese. Thus the comhurba of Saint Patrick means the then archbishop of Armagh, the comhurba of Kiaran, the bishop of Clonmacnoise. And so the word is explained by Colgan in his Trias-Thaumaturga. The herenachs, under the direction and care of the corbes, or chorepiscopi, resided on the termon lands, and distributed their profits to the bishop, the inferiour clergy, to the repairs of churches, and the maintenance of hospita lity, in the proportion established in each diocese. tythes and duties, had glebe-lands assigned to them of sixty, ninety, or one hundred and twenty acres, according to the extent of their parishes. To provide for a succession of worthy pastors, free-schools were endowed in the principal towns, and considerable grants of lands conferred on the university of Dublin, together with the advowson of six parochial churches, three of the largest, and three of the middle proportion, in each county."* Such was the general scheme of this iniquitous northern plantation, formed for the avowed purpose of excluding the old inhabitants, and introducing a new religion; in which not even a labourer would be allowed to dwell, unless he took the oath of supremacy.† Too sad, too dismal to dwell upon, is the reflection, of the multitude thus forcibly dipossessed, deprived of even the means of subsistence in the lowest employment of their new lords and masters, unless they abjured what their conscience required them to obey. Fatally true was the prophetic reply of O'Molley, "Since you have come among us we will not fail of martyrs." At the moment when the crowns of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, centered in James, instead of admitting Ireland to an equal participation of rights and privileges with England, he "dispeopled one-fourth of the kingdom, and doled out a large extent of the most ancient inheritances in Europe (or the universe) to strangers, adventurers, and oppres * Leland. Hist. Ireland, B. IV. c. vi. p. 430, &c. sors."* Full of the fiery spirit of the Scottish reformers, these enthusiastic followers of Calvin viewed the natives, who remained firm to the faith of their forefathers, as the imps of Antichrist; while the Irish, who saw their progress marked with violence and rapine, considered them as the children of perdition, the blind ministers of Satan. During the three succeeding reigns, this colony took an active part in the tragic affairs which disfigure the Irish historic page. The small number of the Irish, who acquiesced in the religious innovations of James, tacitly or actually, may be estimated from the small portion of lands allotted to them, which is preserved by Sir Richard Cox, in the following statement of the general distribution. To the Londoners and other Undertakers The Bishops Mensall Lands The Bishops Termon and Erenachs The College of Dublin. 209,800 3,413 72,780 5,600 In the further progress of history, the Milesians no longer appear as principal figures, or leading characters, on the blood-stained theatre * Plowden. |