XXI. Of St. Malachy, before he became archbishop of Armagh, and of the state of the Church of Ireland in his time, 202 XXII. Of the acts of St. Malachy, subsequently to his appoint- XXIII. Proceedings of the Synod of Cashel,.. XXIV. The dark ages of Ireland, XXV. Alterations in the state of religion in the reign of King XXVI. Progress of the Reformation under King Edward VI... 270 XXVII. The work of Reformation checked for a time by Queen XXVIII. Establishment of the Reformation in the reign of Queen XXIX. Of the attempts made in Queen Elizabeth's reign to throw off the English yoke, and to crush the Reformation in Ireland. The earl of Desmond's rebellion, XXX. The same subject continued.-The rebellion of Hugh, earl I. Bull of Pope Adrian IV. addressed to King Henry II. of England, giving him leave to invade and seize on Ireland, 361 IV. Historical narrative of eleven priests confined in Newgate for not renouncing the pope's pretended deposing power, (rom O'Conor.) WHEN we make inquiry concerning the origin and first beginnings of Christianity in Ireland, our thoughts turn naturally to St. Patrick, whom we have so often heard mentioned as the apostle of our island and from the way in which he is spoken of by many, we might be inclined to think that he was the first person who came to preach the Gospel in this country. It is, however, a fact admitted by the best historians, Roman Catholic and Reformed, that there were many Christians here before he commenced his ministry; and the south of Ireland in particular is pointed to as having been distinguished above the other parts, for the number of converts to the faith already to be found there, before the visit of this celebrated individual. B Writers on the subject are pretty generally agreed in fixing on A.D. 432 as the year in which St. Patrick came to commence his missionary labours in Ireland. In the preceding year, A.D. 431, another eminent Christian teacher, named Palladius, had arrived here, as a missionary from Celestine, who was at that time Bishop of Rome. The ancient Chronicle of Prosper, in which his mission is first recorded, gives us the following brief account of it :-"Palladius having been ordained by Pope Celestine, is sent as first bishop to the Irish believing in Christ." This statement of Prosper is somewhat ambiguous, and leaves us uncertain whether he meant to say that Palladius was to be the chief bishop of the Irish, or that he was the first in point of time who exercised the episcopal office among them. However this be, Palladius had but little success, and it would seem as little perseverance, in his mission; and after having, as tradition informs us, baptized a few converts, and built three churches for their use, he met with such discouragement and opposition from the enemies of the Gospel, as caused him to withdraw from his work before a year had expired from the commencement of it. The part of the country which was the scene of his brief labours is supposed to have been somewhere on the confines of Wicklow and Wexford. From that he withdrew to Britain, and died very soon after. The manner in which his mission to Ireland is spoken of in the words just quoted from Prosper's Chronicle, illustrates the fact already stated, that there were Christians in Ireland before those whom St. Patrick was the means of converting from heathenism, for Palladius is spoken of as having been sent to those who were already believers in Christ. St. Patrick himself, in a tract called his "Confession," (which the most learned writers admit to be a genuine work of his,) makes use of language which implies that others had preached the Gospel before himself in some parts at least of Ireland: for in that tract, addressing the Irish people, he says to them, "I journeyed in every direction for your sakes, even to remote places to which no person had ever come to baptize or ordain clergymen : from which it is evident that some of the less remote parts had been visited by Christian missionaries already. Several earlier authors also have 66 passages in their works which seem to express the same thing. Thus, Eusebius, a celebrated writer of Church History, who lived about A.D. 325, tells us that some of the apostles crossed the ocean to the British Isles. St. Chrysostom, also, writing a little later, about A.D. 390, informs us that there were in his time many persons in the British Isles familiar with the Holy Scriptures. His words are, Although thou didst go unto the ocean and those British Isles, although thou didst sail unto the Euxine sea, although thou didst go to the southern quarters, thou shouldst hear all men every where discoursing matters out of the Scripture, with another voice indeed, but not with another faith, and with a different tongue, but with an according judgment." The use of the plural word "Isles " here shews that the remark of St. Chrysostom refers to Ireland as well as England. Moreover, we learn from St. Jerome, that the celebrated Colestius, who flourished somewhat before this, and is noted in Church History as a promoter of the Pelagian heresy, was an Irishman. And further when we consider that it is almost certain that the Gospel was preached in Britain at |