contents of this work. They are given mostly in the words of original and authentic writers, with references directing the reader to those places where the passages quoted will be found; and as far as I have introduced remarks or comments of my own, you will find them free on the one side from that acrimony and invective which irritates without convincing, and on the other, from that overaffectionate and coaxing style, which in matters connected with controversy, you would perhaps be inclined to look upon as palaver and blarney. Matter-of-fact statements are what I would desire to bring before you; leaving it in great measure to your own sagacity to draw conclusions. And while in a sincere desire for your good, I would avoid wounding your feelings by any unnecessary aspe rity in speaking of your Church; I am not at the same time ashamed nor afraid to express myself as being as decidedly opposed to Rome, as were the ancient Irish thirteen centuries ago, although I believe for far more serious grounds than those which then actuated them.

You

You will see from the whole tenor of this history, how utterly false is the supposition that the Church of Rome is the most ancient in this country. will read here at what particular times many of its pecularities were introduced among us. Thus you will see that in St. Patrick's time the clergy were allowed to marry, as they were indeed long after;

that he and St. Columba, with their followers, were ignorant of such a place as purgatory; and that Holy Scripture was what they were most celebrated for teaching to all their pupils, and the chief cause of their great reputation: that the first pope's legate came to Ireland in 1139, that is seven hundred years after the introduction of Christianity by St. Patrick; and that as to the general feeling of the old Irish Christians towards the Church of Rome, they were so far from having any special regard for her authority in their brightest days, that they rather disputed with her in matters of small importance, (although then considered to be of most vital conséquence,) and things in which she was right, as for instance, the rule for finding Easter. And in fine, whatever practices similar to those of the modern Church of Rome may have been admitted into this land before the twelfth century, you will see that it was not until that period that her authority was formally submitted to, or her doctrines, rites, and ceremonies, completely adopted by the Irish Church. You will find that St. Malachy and other Irish ecclesiastics, with King Henry II. of England, were the persons who brought this work to perfection; and that those hated Saxons, as many of you are taught to style the English, were the persons by whose influence chiefly the system of Romanism was first established in Ireland.

It is of very great importance that you should

observe, that the authorities for all the principal facts contained in this volume, are not what you would call Protestant writers, whose testimony you might naturally receive with suspicion, but many of them persons who lived long before the name of Protestant was used. They were men whose testimony, so far as it is applied to the present work, will be received with respect by all, but with the highest degree of veneration by yourselves, most of them being claimed by you as bishops, saints, and confessors, of that ancient Church of which you consider yourselves to be now the only true representatives. St. Patrick, Bede, Aldhelm, Bernard, &c., are all numbered in the catalogue of your saints, and such other ancient writers as I have quoted, are mostly high authorities with your Church; while even such modern ones, as O'Sul-. levan, Lombard, &c., whom I have had occasion to refer to in a later period of the work, were the Tmost devoted followers and promoters of the system to which you yourselves belong.

ay You will see here what a character our country had for learning in ancient times; and how strangers crowded to it from other lands, to be educated here, looking upon Ireland as the principal nursery of religion and learning in Europe. You will see too, what a noble spirit of zeal for the diffusion of Christian knowledge was manifested by the ancient people of this land, and how they were thus in

fluenced to receive from foreign parts the children of parents high and low alike, whom they supported and/provided with instruction, and books to read, gratuitously. And you will see that the study towhich they prized most highly, and cultivated most -carefully, was that of the Word of God; and that it was to read the Scriptures particularly, that so many persons came to study in Ireland in former times. N

You cannot fail in reading these accounts to be struck with this last feature of ancient Irish Christianity, as a remarkable one. You will see how well St. Patrick was acquainted with the text of Holy Scripture, and how fond he was of quoting it, and how much the same sacred study was attended to by St. Columba and his followers. You will read of fifty persons coming in one vessel from the Continent (in St. Senan's time) into Cork harbour, on their way to the famous school of Iniscarra, on the Lee, (about seven miles above the city of Cork,) their object being "either to lead a life of stricter discipline, or to improve themselves in the study of the Holy Scriptures." You will see that it was "for the purpose of studying the Word of God, or else yto observe a stricter life," that numbers of the nobility and lower classes from England, came to this country in the seventh century; that it was thus Edilwing who was afterwards a bishop in England, came here to be educated; and so Agilbert, who

was afterwards bishop of Paris, "spent no small time in Ireland for the sake of reading the Serip tures ;" and the famous Priest Egbert in like manner, "spent a long exile in Ireland for love to Christ," and thus became "deeply learned in the Scriptures" and Alfred, who was king of Northumberland, having been educated in Ireland, is described as one who was "most learned in the Scriptures." And the same motive, a desire for this sacred knowledge, was that which brought hither Edilhun, and Eahfrid, and Willibrord, the missionary archbishop of Utrecht, and Sulgen, the bishop of St. David's, and so many others whom we cannot name here. And on Sundays when the people flocked to church it was with a desire "to hear the Word of God;" and when St. Columba went as a missionary to heathen Scotland, his object was, we are told, "to preach the Word of God" to those benighted regions. So that in fine, we need not wonder that John, the son of Sulgen above mentioned, in writing of the Irish, describes them, even so lately as the eleventh century, as being "a nation famous for the Word of God."

There are others who address you oftener than I do, and who possess more influence with you, both clergymen and laymen; and they might have supplied you with information on this subject, had they chosen to do so; but unfortunately it is one in which these persons have generally shewed little

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