publicam incitantur: boni, nescio quo modo, tardiores sunt, et principiis rerum [novarum] neglectis, ad extremum, ipsâ deínque necessitate excitantur; adeo ut, nonnunquam, cunctatione ac tarditate, dum otium volunt etiam absque dignitate retinere, ipsi utrumque amittant!

daring and desperate men are impelled by a nod from their leaders, and are readily incited, even of their own accord, to assail the Commonwealth; while the wellaffected, by some unaccountable fatality, are too tardy, and, neg lecting the beginings of innovation, are at length excited, toward the conclusion, by absolute necessity; so that sometimes, by tardiness and procrastination, while they wish to retain tranquillity even without dignity, themselves lose both!

MELANCTHON'S FIFTH LETTER.
(See page 365.)

The Effects of the Papal Supremacy, and the Doctrines of the Romish Church during the three last centuries in Ireland.

In my Second Letter I shewed the origin of the Papal Supremacy;in my Third, I gave the leading doctrines of the Romish Church, extracted from its General Councils and Canon Law, I shall now shew the effects of both in Ireland for nearly 300 years.

It has been proved by the learned Primate Ussher, in his treatise on the religion of the antient Irish, that they had no connexion whatsoever with the See of Rome, till the year 1152, when Cardinal Paparon, sent to Ireland by Pope Eugenius III, with palls to the four Metropolitans, extinguished the antient doctrines and discipline, and new modelled the Hierarchy of the national Church. From that period to the reign of Henry VIII, as the Papal supremacy was never questioned or disputed, it is probable that the Clergy did not take any pains to inculcate it into their flocks, as a fundamental and practical principle of their religion, it being taken for granted, that they ought not to acknowledge any person in this world superior to the Pope in spiritual affairs, and to their liege Sovereign, in temporal concerns. This accounts for what Sir John Davis tells us, in his Discovery of the true Causes why Ireland never was entirely subdued, that in the reign of Henry VIII, and during the administration of Lord Grey," the Irish chieftains made their submission to the crown of Eng. land, and signed indentures of submission, in which all the Irish do ac This is universally allowed to be the best book ever written on the State of Ire

land.

knowledge Henry VIII. to be their Sovereign Lord and King, and desire to be accepted of him as subjects. Superadding to the ordinary declaration. of allegiance, an affirmation that they do "confess the King's supremacy in all cases, and do utterly renounce the Pope's jurisdiction, which I conceive to be worth noting, because when the Irish once resolved to obey the King, they made no scruple to renounce the Pope; and this was done not only by the mere Irish, but the chief of the degenerate English families did perform the same." There cannot be a doubt, but that the pure system of Christianity* which existed in the Church before the usurpation of Gregory VII, in the year 1073, and which, by promoting social order and prosperity in England, makes it the envy and admiration of the world, would have been established in Ireland at that time, by a renunciation of the Papal supremacy, but for the intemperate zeal and active interference of the Romish Clergy. Cromer, the Titular Primate, and his Clergy, applied to the Court of Rome, and solicited its aid to prevent the progress of heresy; and in consequence of it, Pope Paul III. sent them a bull of excommunication against such persons as should acknowledge the King's supremacy, in temporals or spirituals. It contained a curse on all those, who should not, within 40 days after the publishing it, repair to their confessors, and make a confession, of which the following was part :-" I do further declare him or her, father or mother, brother or sister, son or daughter, husband or wife, uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, kinsman or kinswoman, master or mistress, and all others, nearest or dearest relations, friend or acquaintance whatsoever, "accursed," that either do, or shall hold, for the time to come, any ecclesiastical or civil power above the authority of the mother Church; or that do or shall obey, for the time to come, any of her, the mother of churches, opposers or enemies, or contrary to the same, of which I have here sworn unto; so God, the blessed Virgin, St. Peter and St. Paul, and the holy Evangelists, help me." Though it is allowed by all bistorians of veracity, that the government of Ireland, at that time, was so mild and conciliatory, that all orders of the people were emulous in manifesting their attachment to it; this inflamma. tory bull, joined to the active agency of the Popish Clergy, suddenly spread universal disaffection, and produced a rebellion, in which O'Neal, the great Northern Chieftain, declared himself the Pope's champion. In year 1539, he marched towards Dublin with a numerous army, but was defeated at Bellahoe, on the borders of Meath, by the Viceroy, Lord Grey, whose force consisted chiefly of such loyal citizens of Dublin and Drogheda, as had embraced the reformation. In the year 1545, O'Neal,

the

* I gave a concise but clear account of this in my first letter, page 213, ard of Gregory's usurpation in my second, p. 262.

O'Donnel, and the other Irish chieftains, offered Ireland to Francis I. pro vided the Pope approved of it; and that monarch was so well pleased with the offer, that he sent Joha De Montiuc, Bishop of Valence, to them, to negotiate the business. The following Popes fulminated bulls against Queen Elizabeth, in which hey declared her to be deprived of her crown, absolved her subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and called upon them to rise in arms against her; and it is well known, that the Irish Papists, instigated by their Clergy, readily obeyed the summons: Pius V. in 1569, Gregory XIII. in 1580, Sixtus V. in 1587, and Clement VIII. in the year 1600. In obedience to the first, the Fitzgeralds of Munster raised a dreadful rebellion in that province, in which the Earl of Desmond, and most of the Irish chieftains, joined. The next year, they sent the Titular Bishop of Cashell to the Pope and the King of Spain, to solicit their assistance, and to encourage them in their rebellious designs, his Holiness sent to Ireland Owen Saunders, a Jesuit, as his Nuncio, and Owen MacEgan, as his Vicar Apostolic; and the Spanish Monarch dispatched thither Mendoza, whom the Pope, at his instance, appointed Primate of all Ireland. It is observabie, that as the King of Spain declared himself the Pope's champion, to conquer the territories of that Arch-heretic, Eliza beth, his Holiness nominated at his instance, Spanish Ecclesiastics, to pre side over the Church of Ireland. James Fitzgerald, Desmond's brother, published a manifesto, in which he declared, that this rebellion was raised for the extirpation of heresy, and in support of the Papal suprema. cy; and in justification of it, he quoted the bull of Pope Pius V. by which Queen Elizabeth was deposed, and deprived of her dominions, as the patroness of heresy.- (Borlase, p. 9, edit. 1753.)

In the course of this dreadful rebellion, which lasted 14 years, the Irish introduced three Spanish armies; and the province of Munster was so desolated, that Spencer, secretary to Lord Grey, in his excellent work on the state of Ireland, observed, "that there was little left to the Queen to reign over, but miserable carcases, and the ashes of sacked and destroyed towns."

In the year 1594, McGuire and McMahon, two Irish chieftains, raised a rebellion, to which they were incited by Guaranus, a Spanish ecclesiastic, whom the Pope had made Primate of Ireland, but they were defeated by Sir Richard Bingham.(Moryson, p. 12, folio edition.)

The next general rebellion was raised by Hugh O'Neal, Earl of Tyrone, who had been so great a favourite of the Queen, that she restored to him the family estates and honours, which had been forfeited by John O'Neal; though Hugh was a spurious branch of the family. He obtained pardon five times under the great seal, in consequence of feigned repentance, and

of having taken oaths of allegiance, which he uniformly violated; for Moryson tells us, that notwithstanding his delusive declarations of contrition, and returning loyalty, he constantly kept an agent in Spain, to negotiate for assistance. (Idem, p. 12, 126, 139.)—This rebellion was much promoted by an active incendiary, Don Mattheo Oviedo, a Spanish ecclesiastic, whom the Pope appointed Archbishop of Dublin, at the instance of the Spanish Monarch. Sir George Carew, Lord President of Munster, tells us, "that in the year 1600, Tyrone, O'Donnel, and most of the Northern chieftains, being in Donegall, made a new combination to continue the rebellion; at which the Spanish Archbishop of Dublin was present, with sixteen Irish Priests in his company; and that, for the better assurance of their confederacy, the sacrament was taken by them all.” (Pacata Hibernia, p. 302, edition of 1810.) In the course of this rebellion, Owen McEgan, the Pope's Vicar-general, and a most active and turbulent incendiary, fell in battle, like Father Murphy at the battle of Arklow, in 1798, with his sword in one hand, his beads and porteus in the other, while exhorting the Irish and their Spanish allies.-(Idem. p. 661). On his death, all the rebels in Munster came in and submitted.-(Moryson, p. 274.) Their submission was reluctant, and the result of fear; for Sir George Carew observes, (p. 148) " that some persons of quality sent certain priests to Rome, to purchase absolution from the Pope, for the sin which they had committed, in submitting, and for not continuing in open hostility." Consider, therefore, I say, the dutiful obedience of those men, whose obedience depends upon the Pope."-(Idem )-He, also observes, that they had the free and uninterrupted exercise of their religion, p. 318; and Moryson makes the same remark, p. 15. Both these writers observe, that they meant, with the assistance of the Spaniards, to have separated Ireland from England, and to have organized an army in the former, for the conquest of the latter.-(Moryson, p. 136, 227, Carew, p. 351.)

Notwithstanding the annuities repeatedly granted by Queen Elizabeth to the Irish chieftains, in the course of her reign, they made a desperate effort to separate Ireland from England, by inviting a descent of the Spa-. niards, who, in the year 1601, landed at Kinsale an army of 5000 men, commanded by Don John D'Aquila, a celebrated general; and they were soon after joined by 2000 more. Though reinforced by numerous armies of the Irish, headed by their chieftains, they were subdued and made pri

* It should be recollected that Buonaparte has the Pope completely in his power, and that he will probably nominate such Irish Bishops as will forward his designs against the British Empire.