SECTION IV.

Sectarists. New Covenant. Scarcity of Churches. Porerty
of Benefices. Mr. Boyle's attempt at Converting the
Irish Papists. Death of distinguished Churchmen.
Primate Margetson. Bishop John Leslie. Bishop
Jeremy Taylor.

FROM the foregoing enumeration of particulars, an
estimate may be formed of the continual activity of
the Popish spirit in pushing forward its encroach-
ments; and of the necessity, which was felt by the
best and most enlightened friends of the Church,
for unremitting vigilance and diligence in her sup-
port and defence. But, in 1680, new cause of
uneasiness arose from a different quarter: namely,
the fanaticks and disaffected sectarists through the
kingdom, who were engaging in a new Covenant,
and forming a combination, which, unless promptly
impeded, might be as destructive to the peace of the
nation, and produce consequences as pernicious to
the well-being of the Church, as those which had
not long before resulted from the Solemn League
and Covenant.

Protestant rec

tarists engaged

in a new Cove

nant, 1680.

Ireland.

This new Covenant was spread with great assi- Its extension in duity over several parts of Ireland, especially in the northern counties, where the Presbyterian ministers were generally of that class, called in Scotland Remonstrators, and several of them had actually subscribed it. The Oath of Supremacy was now decried as unlawful by those men, some of whom had lately visited Scotland, where the Archbishop of St. Andrews had been barbarously assassinated under the pretext of religion, the true character of which was attested by its fruits; and where a new

Presbyterian assembly at St. Johnstown.

Ill effect counteracted by care of

insurrection was fermenting and appeared likely to break forth among the people, especially the ignorant fanaticks of the west. In consequence, probably, of this correspondence with the Scotch Cameronians, a solemn day of fasting and humiliation was soon afterwards kept at St. Johnstown, in the county of Donegall, and barony of Raphoe, where were assembled sixteen Presbyterian ministers, and six or seven thousand persons from that barony, and the neighbouring counties of Derry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh. The Lord Lieutenant knew by experience the Lord Lieutenant. mischief of such meetings, and took effectual care for preventing their continuance and evil consequences. One Nathaniel Johnson, who had been engaged in the late Scotch rebellion, and had passed over into Ireland for the purpose of creating disturbances in Ulster, being apprehended, made some discoveries; and offering to make more upon an assurance of pardon, he was removed to Dublin from the north, having been kept some days in custody under a strong guard, for fear of his being killed by the Presbyterians, who were apprehensive of their secrets being revealed by him. From this man the government received such intelligence as proved the means of keeping in awe and subjection the unquiet and turbulent spirit of those sectarists: and of giving a proper direction to that vigilance, which the Lord Lieutenant constantly employed, and which enabled him, silently and without alarm, to intercept whatever designs were formed for raising disturbances in that quarter of the kingdom'.

Thus the watchfulness, the zeal, and the discretion of this excellent viceroy were blessed by Divine CARTE'S Life of Ormonde, ii. 508.

Providence for the protection of the Church against
both classes of her restless enemies. And thus, not-
withstanding the evil meditated in the English court,
the latter years of the reign of King Charles the
Second passed quietly away with little of incident to
fix the mind on the history of the Irish Church, but
not without the too customary causes for concern at
the insufficient supply of sacred buildings and of want of
ministers, to make provision for the spiritual wants ministers.
and necessities of the people.

An example of a dilapidated church, laudably re-edified by the exertions of one of the restored prelates, is thus recorded by Williams, bishop of Ossory, in the narrative of his persecutions and oppressions.

"Things being somewhat settled, I went to live upon my bishoprick, in Kilkenny, where I found the cathedral church and the bishop's house all ruined; and nothing standing but the bare walls, without roofs, without windows but the holes, and without doors: yet I resolved presently to mend and repair one room, and to live in the bishop's house; and, as I had vowed, that if I should ever come to my bishoprick, I would wholly and fully bestow the first year's profit for the reparation of the church, so my witnesses in heaven know that I have done it: and have since bestowed more, as 407. the last summer for repairing the steeple of the cathedral, and yet 10007. more will not sufficiently repair that church.

And an instance of the defect on a larger scale, and in both particulars, is detailed by the same prelate, in his tract on "the sad condition of the Church and Clergy in the Diocese of Ossory; and I fear," as his title-page adds, "not much better in all Ireland."

"If you walk through Ireland," he observes, "as I rode from Carlingford to Dublin, and from Dublin to Kilkenny, and in my visitation thrice over the diocese of Ossory; I believe, that throughout all your travel you shall find it, as

churches and

Kilkenny cathe

dral repaired by

Bishop Williams.

condition of

General sad churches and

clergy.

Very great dis

proportion of

ruined churches.

Insufficiency of

ministers and of benefices.

Ecclesiastical livings given to laymen.

Two classes of benefices.

I found it, in all the ways that I went; scarce one church standing and sufficiently repaired, for seven, I speak within compass, that are ruined, and have only walls, without ornaments, and most of them without roofs, without doors, without windows, but the holes to receive the winds to entertain the congregation." (Page 2.)

And again: "What shame and what punishment do we deserve, for suffering the tombs and the sepulchres of our heroick fathers, and the temples, houses, and altars, of our good God and our Redeemer Jesus Christ, to lie so waste, so ruined, and so defiled, as they are here in this kingdom of Ireland! For I do believe, that of about a hundred churches that our forefathers built and sufficiently endowed in the diocese of Ossory, there are not twenty standing, nor ten well repaired at this day." (Page 6.)

Then, with respect to the deficiency of ministers, he observes,

"As God is without churches for his people to meet in to serve him, so He is without servants, enabled to do him. service, to praise his name, and to teach his people; and to have churches, and no churchmen, is to no purpose. But why have we not such churchmen as are able to instruct God's people? I say it is easily answered: that it is not so casy to get able, worthy, and sufficient churchmen, unless there were sufficient means and livings to maintain them."

After some intermediate remarks on the insufficiency of the means for educating the clergy, "since Henry the Eighth overthrew the abbies and monasteries, which were as universities to breed scholars," he then proceeds to show the insufficiency of the maintenance of the clergy, in consequence of "the ecclesiastical livings of the Church having been given to the king's nobility and lay gentry."

To exemplify his position, he then divides the benefices of his own diocese into two classes; naming the denomination and the holder of each.

from the Church.

In the first class are "the rectories, the best Rectories kept and the chiefest livings, that are of any worth, or of any note within the diocese: and, as I showed you, the nobility, gentry, and cities do hold them from the Church, and do yield little or nothing for the service of God in those churches; neither dare the poor vicars and curates, according to the bishop's appointment, ask them anything for the serving of those churches, nor is it to any purpose for any incumbent to sue for any tythes or rights that belong unto his church." (Page 18.)

clergymen.

The second class contains "what livings the Livings held by poor clergymen hold in their possession; and of what value they are unto them, deductis deducendis, communibus annis, as by the inquisition of three or four of the ablest clergymen in my diocese, with myself, I have understood the same in my visitation; and thereby the reader may understand the meanness of our Irish livings, and judge, whether these many livings, that each clergyman holds, are more or enough to make one competent living for a worthy and able man, that will constantly reside, and conscionably preach unto God's people."

In illustration of these livings of the second class it should be stated, that a "living," in about six instances, according to Bishop Williams's digest, consists of a single "parish;" that in two instances a "living" comprises as many as nine "parishes;" and that the number of "parishes" constituting a "living," continually varies between these two extremes that the entire number of "livings" is twenty-two, and the number of "parishes" seventyseven, forming therefore on an average an union of three parishes and a half to one living.

Also, that the value of the livings continually

Average number

of parishes in a

living.