in Ireland'. Carte, the biographer of Ormond, having observed that the Popish schism did not commence in England until the twelfth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, but that for eleven

1 Phelan, ii. 131. 138.-It is remarkable that the only peaceful period of Irish history was that at which the supremacy of the Pope was renounced. So universal was the tranquillity, that a considerable body of troops was spared for the King's service before Boulogne, while another force of three thousand men was sent into Scotland, to the aid of the Lord Lenox.

2 "The Romish sect in England at first was governed by Jesuits and missionary priests, under the superintendence of Allan, a Roman Cardinal, who lived in Flanders, and founded the colleges at Douay and Rheims. In 1598, Mr. George Blackwall was appointed Arch-Priest of the English Romanists, and this form of ecclesiastical government prevailed amongst them till 1623, when Dr. Bishop was ordained titular Bishop of Chalcedon, and sent from Rome to govern that Society in England. Dr. Smith, the next Bishop of Chalcedon, was banished in 1629, and the Romanists were without bishops till the reign of James II." (See the History of this Sect, by Dodd.)-Palmer, ii. 252.

be

Mr. Butler, following Dodd's "Church History," says of the Roman priests in England, that "many of them conformed for a while, in hopes that the Queen would relent, and things come round again."-Memoirs, ii. p. 280. "He may right," says Dr. Phelan, " in complimenting their orthodoxy at the expense of their truth: yet it is a curious circumstance, that their hypocrisy, while it deceived a vigilant and justly suspicious Protestant Government, should be disclosed by the tardy candour of their own historians." The admission, however, as it respects both England and Ireland, is most imporRomanism having at one period become extinct in these

tant.

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years those who most favoured the pretensions of the Pope conformed to the reformed Catholic Church of England, remarks, "the case was

much the same in Ireland, where the Bishops complied with the Reformation, and the Roman Catholics" (meaning, of course, those who afterwards became Roman, instead of remaining Protestant Catholics) "resorted in general to the parish churches in which the English service was used, until the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign.' Now, mark here, it is said that the Bishops of the Church of Ireland-that is, as our adversaries will

islands, and the present sect being one which commenced at a later date, their clergy, however valid their orders, can now have no pretence to mission. The difference between order and mission is not generally understood, even among sound episcopalians. It is thus explained by Mr. Palmer :-" It is essential that the true ministers of God should be able to prove that they have not only the power but the right of performing sacred offices :-There is an evident difference between these things, as may be seen in the following cases. If a regularly ordained priest should celebrate the Eucharist in the Church of another, contrary to the will of that person and of the bishop, he would have the power of consecrating the Eucharist, it actually would be consecrated, but he would not have the right of consecrating,—or, in other words, he would not have mission for that act. If a bishop should enter the diocese of another bishop, and, contrary to his will, ordain one of his deacons to the priesthood, the intruding bishop would have the power but not the right of ordaining, he would have no mission for that act."-ii. 247.

admit, the then successors of St. Patrick and his suffragans, those who had the right to reform the Church-consented to the Reformation; and that until the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and she reigned above forty-four years, there was no opposition Church in that country under the dominion of the Pope. Altar had not yet been raised against altar by the Pope and his agents, contrary to the canons of the Church universal. But our author goes further: he tells us the origin of the existing Popish sect. "Swarms of Jesuits," he continues," and Priests educated in the seminaries founded by King Philip II. in Spain and the Netherlands, and by the Cardinal of Lorraine in Champagne (where, pursuant to the views of the founders, they sucked in as well the principles of rebellion, as of what they call Catholicity), coming over to that kingdom as full of secular as of religious views, they soon prevailed with an ignorant and credulous people to withdraw from the public service of the church 1." Here, then, we have the history of the introduction of the existing Popish sect into Ireland-we have seen before why they prospered-they being supported by foreign potentates2, while the national Church was robbed of

1

2 66

Life of Ormond, i. 32.

During the whole of the reign of James, and part of the following reign, the (Romish) priesthood of both islands were in the interest, and many of them in the pay, of the Spanish

all her rights, and unsupported by the national Government. Nor is this a mere party statement, as may be seen by reference to Leland, the historian, or even to Bishop Berrington1, a Popish prelate in England; the fact is universally admitted to have been as it has just been narrated. So then the case stands thus :—the existing Irish clergy can trace their succession up to the Bishops of Queen Elizabeth, under whom the old Church was reformed, not a new one introduced; and the Bishops of Elizabeth's reign, by the admission of our adversaries, were the successors of St. Patrick

monarchy. The titulars of Dublin and Cashel are particularly mentioned as pensioners of Spain; the general memorial of the Irish (Roman) hierarchy in 1617, was addressed to the Spanish court; and we are told by Bishop Bovington (a Romanist) that the English Jesuits, 300 in number, were all of the Spanish faction.' Phelan, ii. 294.

1 Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani-Introduction. Mr. Palmer observes: "The Irish bishops almost unanimously consented, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, to remove the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff. See Leland's History of Ireland, book iv. ch. i.—The consequence was, that for a length of time there were scarcely any Popish bishops in Ireland. Macgarran, titular Archbishop of Armagh, was sent over from Spain, and slain in the act of rebellion against his sovereign. In 1621, we are informed by O'Sullivan, Hist. Cath. Iberniæ, that there were two Popish bishops in Ireland, and two others resided in Spain. These persons were ordained in foreign countries, and could not trace their ordinations to the ancient Irish Church."-Origines Liturgicæ, ii. 252.

and the other first planters of the Church in Ireland; while the present Popish priests and prelates can only trace their succession from certain foreign Bishops who came over in the reign of James I. The clergy, therefore, of the Church of Ireland are the successors of the Apostles in that country, to whom, and to whom alone, belong both order and mission, both the power and the right to minister in sacred things: they are the Catholic clergy of that country-Protestant Catholics, if you will-Catholics who protest against the usurpations of the Pope of Rome, and the abominable practices of his adherents, but still the true Catholics of Ireland.

But here the adversary will object: "Admitting that you have both order and mission, still ours are the doctrines which were originally held by the Irish Church, and for the promulgation of which that Church was established and endowed." This is easily said, but how will it bear the historical probe? Did the founder, under God, of the Irish Church,-did St. Patrick, as the Church of Rome now does, declare that "if any man shall say"-I am quoting a Canon of the Council of Trent" that the clergy may contract marriages, or that such marriages are valid, let him be accursed1?" If he had done so, he would have been

1 Conc. Trent. Sess. xxiv. c. 9.