doomed to extinction as chorepiscopi,1 or dignitaries not properly of the episcopal order. But they thus decide without the slightest warrant. There is not in the old annals of our country any statement to sanction this theory.2 No document can be produced, written before the Synod of Rathbreasail, in which any Irish bishop is ever called a Chorepiscopus. Some may have expatiated over a larger territory than others-as parishes even yet are not of the same extent and some may have enjoyed a larger revenue than those around them; but all are described as of the same rank, and as performing the same official duties. In a country thinly populatedwhere a portion of the inhabitants lived at a great distance from a church-a few of the bishops may have spent much time in itinerating, and in supplying the services of religion to those who could not have otherwise enjoyed them; but we have reason to believe that by far the majority of these dignitaries had ecclesiastical buildings in which each statedly ministered to a regular congregation. The old Irish bishops were, generally speaking, pastors of single flocks; and the Synod of Rathbreasail marks the commencement of the transition from congregational to diocesan episcopacy. During the eleventh century the Church of Ireland experienced a sad deterioration. The destruction of so many of her seminaries of learning by the Northmen had extinguished much of the light of scriptural Christianity; and her growing intercourse with Rome had promoted the advancement of superstition and will-worship. Malachy II., who died in A.D. 1022, submitted to receive extreme unction ;3 and, after his time, the rite was more and more observed. We yet hear little of the worship of images; but the invocation of saints 1 Ireland in the twelfth century continued in much the same position as was North Africa in the fourth. See my Old Catholic Church, p. 128. 2 Mr. King has very properly remarked :—“I see no proof whatsoever that the old Irish observed any distinction between ordinaries and chorepiscopi. . . . If such an order had existed I suppose Lanfranc and Anselm would have been as likely to have been aware of the circumstance, and to have made all due allowance for it, as Dr. Lanigan, or any of the moderns.”—Supplementary Volume to Primer of the Church History of Ireland, p. 1013. Dublin, 1851. 3 See O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters, at A.D. 1022. had long been practised, and prayers for the dead were encouraged. We read that, after the death of King Malachy, the clergy "sung masses, hymns, psalms, and canticles for the welfare of his soul."1 Penance often took the place of repentance; and the form of godliness was substituted for faith in Christ. In A.D. 1096 a terrible pestilence swept over Ireland. Since the days of the yellow plague, four or five hundred years before, the country had not been visited by so dreadful a desolator. Multitudes perished; all were filled with consternation; and many believed that the end of the world was at hand. How did the clergy act under these appalling circumstances? They did not acknowledge—if we may judge from the accounts handed down to us—that they themselves had provoked God by neglecting the guidance of His Word, and by "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." They did not proclaim that Christ is the only Mediator, and that there is more sympathy for sinners in His bosom than there is in all the saints and angels of heaven united. They did not call on the chieftains to give up their endless contentions, and to live at peace. We do not read that the people were exhorted to set their hearts in order and to prepare to meet their God. We are not told that the ten commandments were expounded to them, that they were reminded of the awful consequences of departing from the law and the testimony, that they were entreated to search and. try their ways, that they were admonished to believe with the heart unto righteousness, and besought "to bring forth fruits meet for repentance." The remedy adopted was such as was never prescribed by prophets or apostles. "The clergy of Ireland thought good to cause all the inhabitants of the kingdom to fast from Wednesday to Sunday, once every month, for the space of one whole year, except solemn and great festival days: they also appointed certain prayers to be said daily. The king, noblemen, and all the subjects of the kingdom were very beneficent towards the Church and poor men this year--whereby God's wrath was assuaged. The king of his great bounty gave great im 1 Ibid. 2 Evidently Murtogh O'Brien, munities and freedom to churches that were theretofore charged with cess and other extraordinary country charges, with many other large and bountiful gifts." "Many lands were granted to clergymen by kings and chieftains." 2 At this time the ordinance of fasting was sometimes sadly perverted. It was observed-not to cherish a spirit of repentance in those by whom it was practised-but to bring down judgments on others. Any evil which subsequently happened to obnoxious individuals was imputed to its influence. We are told, for example, how in A.D. 1043, there was a "fasting of the clergy" in Westmeath, "against" a certain chieftain at whom they had taken umbrage; and it is significantly added--" In the place where he turned his back on the clergy, in that very place he was beheaded before the end of a month." 3 By the Synod of Rathbreasail, the liberties of the Irish Church were seriously compromised. The pastors throughout the island could no longer look on each other as brethren, and act with the independence of Christian freemen. They were subjected to a diocesan authority which they soon felt to be alike dictatorial and oppressive. What was worsethey were placed under the dominion of the Pope, who quickly taught them to know the bitterness of an iron despotism. 1 Annals of Clonmacnois, at A. D. 1095 (properly 1096). 2 Annals of the Four Masters, at A.D. 1096. The Brehons, or old Irish judges, believed that "tithes, first fruits, and alms prevented the occurrence of plague." Senchus Mor., vol. iii. pp. 13, 15. Dublin, 1873. Tithes were legally established in the century after the date of the occurrence mentioned in the text; but proceedings such as those here described prepared the way for their exaction. 3 Annals of the Four Masters, at A.D. 1043. As to this system of fasting against obnoxious persons, see Reeves's Adamnan. Appendix to preface, liv. note. Sometimes two parties tested their maledictory powers by fasting against each other. Ibid. |