A. D. 1622. rived from the usurped power of a foreign prelate. None of them have ever been ordained by any bishops of the ancient Church of Patrick and Columbkille, nor can they possibly shew themselves to be possessed of any succession from those bishops. Nay, they have not even preserved together by any continued series approaching to the nature any sort of of a regular succession, from those first bishops of regular Irish their own above noticed. nor even connected succession. Bishop Downham's testimony in regard to this matter. Some further light on the subject of the first construction and budding forth of this new Romish communion, and on the character of its agents and superintendents, is furnished to us by a respectable prelate of the Reformed Church, who flourished at this time. In the early part of the year 1622, King James having issued a commission for a visitation by royal authority, of the province of Ulster, reports were accordingly furnished by the respective diocesans, of the true state of their several bishoprics; and these reports for all the dioceses except that of Dromore are still extant in a manuscript of the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Now in the report of the condition of the Church in Derry, George Downham, bishop of that diocese, besides giving the usual particulars relative to the state of the benefices, churches, ministers, &c., of his charge, supplies us further with the following information in regard to the members of the Ro mish communion, and the movements of their A. D. 1622. clergy, in the same district.* "Besides the jurisdiction," says he, " exercised by my chancellor and official, there is a jurisdiction usurped by authority from Rome, to the greate disonor of God, hinderance of religion, and shame of the government." system in of Derry. "The chief authority as I understand, derived Working from Rome, is in Eugenius M'Mahon, pretended out of the archbishop of Dublin, and David Routh, the pre- the diocese tended vice-primate of Armagh. By thiese was Bernard M'Cragh made vicar-general of the diocese of Derry, and after him Patterick M'Mahon. By him are priests placed in everie parishe to celebrate the Masse, and to exercise all other priestly functions, who though they be rude, ignorant, and vicious fellows, yet carry the natives after them generally, neither is there any hope of reformation, whiles they are suffered to reside among the people. irregulari "Under the vicar-general are placed four Scandalous officials at the least, who amongst many other ties of the abominations which they practice, doe for small new clergy. rewardes, divorce marryed couples, and sett them at liberty to marry others, insomuch that there is scarce anie man of yeares, but he hath more • See Archbishop Ussher's Visitation Book, MS. in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. Mant i. 476. A. D. 1622, wyves lyving, and few women which have not plurality of husbands. Bishop endeavour ing to stay the evil. "For the removeing of theise popish priests," ill success in adds Bishop Downham, "our lawes are weake, our power lesse, neither can I get the assistance of the military men as I desire, and that which discourageth me most is, that when either I have gotten any of them apprehended, convicted and committed, they have been by corruption set at libertie to follow their former courses; or when I have excommunicated them, and proceeded by writ de excommunicato capiendo, the Sherifes of the county of Londonderry, Tyrone, and Dunnagal cannot be got to apprehend them and bring them to prison." Observation on his mode with it. Such was the state of operations connected of grappling with the formation of the new community in Derry at this time, and such the sort of agents employed in the work, according to the scheme contrived by the foreign influenced party, and promulgated for the use of the province of Armagh in particular, in the titular conference of Drogheda, which has been already described. Similar proceedings were no doubt going on throughout other parts of the country, according as circumstances allowed. But although the treasonable and seditious doctrine propagated by these newly authorized teachers made it both justifiable and necessary for the govern ment to interfere, to restrain a system of teach- A. D. 1622. ing so full of danger to the peace and good order of society, still one cannot but regret, in reading the above extracts from Bishop Downham's report, to find the spiritual pastor of a diocese apparently so familiar with the carnal weapons of the civil power, and so much dependent on them for suppressing error, and inculcating the better principles of the pure and gentle gospel of peace. the titular borated mish autho rities. The bishop, it seems, was very indignant, as Downham's well he might be, at finding the people of his account of diocese misled by such guides as he describes. clergy coroBut no reasonable reader, who has any know- from Roledge of the circumstances of the country at that time, will be tempted to suppose that the description given by him of their characters and condition was an unfounded portraiture, suggested by prejudice and passsion. For it agrees only too well with accounts furnished to us by other authors, and even by the strictest Roman Catholics, of the sort of agents who then under foreign influence, were busily engaged in promoting the division, misery, and ruin of the Irish Church, for the sake of securing the success of their own illjudged, and too often base and heartless, purposes and schemes. That very Peter Lombard, of whom O'Sullevan speaks as being primate of Ireland at the time when he wrote, gives us an exceedingly curious descrip A. D. 1622. tion of the mischievous intercourse which by means of such persons, was then kept up between this country and Rome. Lombard himself was resident in the latter city for many years, and at length ended his days there in A. D. 1626. He was domestic chaplain and private secretary to Pope Clement VIII., and a maintainer of the pope's title to temporal power over Ireland; and yet, as if attempting to throw some part of the disgrace and blame of these transactions off the higher authorities, at least, of his Church, he complains grievously of the mischief caused by the extreme prevalence of foreign influence over this land, and confesses with shame and indignation that those Irish clergymen who flocked to Rome to obtain mitres and benefices in Ireland, were a disgrace to his country. Peter Lom bard's de some of them. "They are," says he, "of the very vilest classes scription of of our people; men who obtain preferment by every species of low cunning, drivelling sycophancy, and hypocrisy. They come carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands, over Alps and Appennines, illotis pedibus, on pretence of persecution, or of pilgrimage to Rome, from the most barbarous parts of Ireland, ignorant, clownish, vile fellows, whose manners are utterly disgusting to all who see them, from their base servility and uncouthness of garb and ad |