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townlands, and others, which, in 1641, were in the occupation of members of the Mac Brody sept, are described, in the survey of that time, as belonging to the See of Killaloe, and formed, probably, some of the ancient possessions of the Abbey of InisCeltra. And in the same survey (Petty's), only one person of the name is mentioned as occupying any land in the vicinity of the Abbey.

The truth of the tradition referred to by O'Clery, according to which the MS. was written by a holy man who died in 553, may be a matter of question, although handed down from sire to son in a family identified with the preservation of historical tradition from a very early age. The Abbey, of which he was the founder, produced many eminent literary men, including St. Coelan, who lived within half a century of St. Camin's time, and St. Corcran, who died in 1040, and who is described as the most celebrated ecclesiastic of Western Europe in his time. But St. Corcran's age would certainly be too late a date to which to assign the writing of the MS.

The MS. contains some Irish glosses, which will be illustrated in a future number of the IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

DR. JOHN RIDER,

PROTESTANT BISHOP OF KILLALOE (FROM 1612 TO 1632),

ONE OF THE ENGLISH IN IRELAND.

(Continued from page 232, No. ci.)

"To expect logic from Mr. Rider were to ask wool at a

goat's house. His digressions are made to dazzle the reader's eyes, that in such a mist he may sneak off from his matter without being perceived. As painters, that by skill could not make a difference between a cat, a horse, or a dog, were wont to tell, by words under their pictures-'this is a cat,' 'this is a horse, this is a dog'-even so Mr. Rider, when he maketh an argument in his own opinion substantially, lest you should not so conceive it, he addeth before, behind, or in the margin'this is an unanswerable argument."1

"A serpent that is crushed in the head, wresteth and wryeth himself up and down, infolding his whole body into many vain circles, with all his struggling purchasing nothing else but that others may conceive the extremity of his pains: so Mr. Rider, being wholly suppressed by this powerful testimony of Scrip

166 Confutation," p. 71.

ture, with manifold writhings tumbleth up and down to talk of all by-matters. What a mind he must have to discuss the Real Presence, when he makes a preface so far wide of it, and ranges roving to antiphonaries, to prelates' lives, to to the Pope's supremacy, to the plots of the King of Spain, and the habitations and weapons in Naples and Milan! He gamboled over my preface, and never so much as saluted it in passing by, but rather, with a squint given thereto, turned his back towards it. What had any, much less all of these points to do with all or any of the things propounded by him-by what engine or cable can they be hauled thereto? But a tottering religion is like a giddy drunkard, who must waver tc and fro whether he will or no. The objections and matters of my opponent are handled by him in a manner worthy of all deploration, and are huddled, shuffled, and juggled miseably, disorderedly, intricately, and erroneously. His objetions are out of date, too, like a cracked grote, not lawfuly current any longer. A tub is never so full of sound as when it is emptiest; so is Mr. Rider not more full of noise than when he is destitute of all other matter, for then he flourisheth in his exceptions, exclamations, apostrophes, etc., as a mere circulator or tooth-drawing physician, under a banner of rotten teeth and impostumes, when his stomach and purse are most empty, then he pleadeth and prateth most endlessly.

"Behold a desperate dealing in my gentle friend, Mr. Rider. He leaves the point and bids us read elsewhere, here and there, and we should find wonders. There was a certain preacher in Paris, who pointed his audience to authors by him named, without quoting from them, but saying: 'seek here in such a one, and there in such another, and you shall find store.' For this he was named 'the poster over to seek where nothing could be found.' Judge you whether my cavaliero was not his scholar. Think you that to the passage alleged Mr. Rider hath said nothing? You are deceived, for he answers thus :

"If a great divine be asked to prove the manner, and he proves the matter, what will the reader think of him? When all the Catholics in the kingdom (who so liberally relieve you and so dearly have loved you)2 hang their souls on your saying, are these the contentments you give them? And yet you will be called Fathers, Doctors, and what not.'

"He says we run from the manner to the matter: marry, he telleth not how. But because these two words have some consonance in sound, having coupled them together as hunters 1" Confutation," p. 60.

2 Rider says this in another page, the number of which I have lost.

do hounds of like colour and proportion, he taketh his leave and gallops away. I have some time noted the same refuge and evasion in Latimer. It serveth as a commonplace or answer to all objections, and as a harbour against all foul weather; as they that know not what matter and what manner are, surmise that some answer is given. For this Mr. Rider deserves to be capped with a hood of eight colours in SchoolLane. I have seen many nimble riders gambol over stools and stocks in Dublin on Shrove Tuesday; but such stools and stocks, as Damascene objecteth, so lightly vaulted over by Mr. Rider, I never could hitherto observe.

"This Puritan says the adoration cannot be but spiritual, because the man coming to receive is spiritual. One would think that the man to receive is not only spiritual but also corporal, and therefore that the adoration might be not only spiritual but also corporal. If such sequel had any force, Protestants should not hereafter bow their corporal knees to the supper, nor to God himself; nor put off their corporal hats, nor hold up their corporal hands, because the adoration can, by his saying, not be corporal to any spiritual things adored. O Riderian reasons, how pleasant you are!2 Here, again, is good stuff! St. Ambrose did not write upon the ninth psalm, because he did write but upon a part thereof.' If, therefore, one buffeted Mr. Rider upon the ear, he could not be said to have struck Mr. Rider, because he struck but part of him! Again, Mr. Rider, you say the Mass is not spoken of in a text, because it is not mentioned expressly. Yet you would think him to cavil in the Close of St. Patrick's, who, when anything is well affirmed of Mr. Dean, would deny it to be understood of you, because, forsooth, your name, John Rider, is not expressed. Again, to infer that what cannot be proved out of the Gospel is condemned by the Gospel, is a blasphemous Riderian sequel.

"In your fourth answer is your 158th untruth—' that whatsoever Christ giveth by promise must be received by faith.' He giveth damnation to wicked infidels, which he had often promised, yet they had no faith. He giveth by promise food to the birds of the air, to the fishes of the sea, and to the beasts of the earth. Can these be said to have faith? Yet, I confess, they have as much as the Puritans, and have none at all. O rich Deanery of St. Patrick's, how wouldst thou groan if thou couldst feel the heft of the divinity of thy Dean, wherein such falsehood standeth for infallible principles, and such impiety is termed the word of the Lord !5

"You say there is an ill use of miracles, therefore no good

2.

1" Confutation," pp. 261, 262. Confutation," 317. 3 "Confutation," 314. 4" Confutation," 373. 5 Confutation," 299.

use. So you might prove that eating and drinking were not to be used because abused. Your reasoning is quite Riderian, that is, more than ridiculous and preposterous. If it were allowable, this would follow as reasonably. Sometime Mr. Rider hath been known in London to use legerdemain, and all to have abused divers by the deceitful suggestions of the devil. Therefore, in all other places he is to be accounted not seen but by legerdemain and deceit of the devil.

"He affirmeth that I said Scriptures and divine service had been in unvulgar tongues, but should prove that they were unvulgar and unknown of that people wherein they were practised. Have you ever heard the like? I shewed, according to him, that they were unvulgar, and yet I am willed to prove that they were unknown of the common people. Who are

the vulgar sort but the common people? Must not, then, it that is unvulgar be unknown to the common people? 'He that teacheth a fool, is as one that glueth a potsherd :"1 he may well propound learning to his brains, but never glue them and it to hold together.

"The words of Beda are:-'This island at this present to the number of the five books of Moses, with five sundry languages, doth study and set forth the knowledge of one perfect truth, that is, with the language of the English, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latin, which, by study of the Scriptures, is made common to all the rest.”2 If of these words, saith Mr. Rider, with all my Jesuitical and transmarine logic, I can make one sound syllogism to prove Scriptures to have been in an unvulgar tongue, I shall be to him. Magnus Apollo, a great prophet. You behold what a high preferment is offered to me for so small pains in the thing itself; although to the party it may be a hard task, by reason that 'The man accustomed in words of reproach, in all his days will not be instructed.' Nevertheless, if I can, by a vulgar similitude I will accommodate this easy matter to his capacity. There is no doubt, but if four divers families by right did draw water out of one common well, you might well say the water of those four families not to be in the private possession of any one of them. So Beda, saying that the Latin tongue became common to four divers nations by their meditation of Scriptures, doth not he intend that the meditation of Scriptures was not in the private language of any one of them? An enthymeme is less than a syllogysm, and yet this hard riddle is dissipated in less than an enthymeme, and consequently I must be more than a great Apollo to Mr. Rider. I had rather, by much, to enjoy my old privilege during his prejudicated conceit that he esteem me an apostate rather than an Apollo, a proBeda, 1. 2, cap. i.

1 Ezech. xxii.,

9.

2

3 Eccl. xxiii., 20.

selyte rather than a prophet, a dolt rather than a doctor. For, "quod ille maledictum vehemens existimat laudem ego duco maximam"-" his greatest dispraise is my desired disblame.'

"His argument from a text about married priests proves nothing. For Dublin is well acquainted that Mr. Hall, of happy memory, and Mr. G. B., of rare virtue, had been married; yet both were exemplary priests. And at this instant of my writing this, a gentleman, called Mr. Anselm Crucius, of exceeding ability, being married, and his wife living and recently entered into a cloister of nuns, after having lived thirty years with his aforesaid wife in inviolable chastity, only for more exact devotion towards God, she having entered into religion, he became a priest and Jesuit. With him I am daily familiar, to my great delight and edification.

"Upon the true and literal meaning of Christ's words of the Institution, you walk as nicely as if you were treading upon eggs-fearing, saith Luther, to stumble and break your necks at every word which Christ pronounceth. I trust in God's mercy before I die, to justify the least syllable and parcel of the Mass against the gates of hell and all thereto belonging. You say you will show that in all the Mass, from the first word to the last, there is nothing but magical superstition, heresy, and idolatry. I trust you will not be as ill as your word. Is the Psalm of David, 'Judica,' magical superstition, etc.? Is the 'Gloria in excelsis Deo,' the song of Angels, magical superstition, etc.? Are all the Epistles and Gospels, which are parcels of Scripture? Is the Creed of the First Council of Nice? Are Christ's words? Is the Lord's Prayer? All are included betwixt the first and last words' -are they but superstition, heresy, or idolatry? But soft, Mr. Rider, your time is not yet come to abolish juge sacrificium, which is reserved for Antichrist, as Scriptures and Fathers affirm.

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"Alas! let St. Augustine alone; in his life he was a Catholic monk, in his books a Catholic Doctor, in both an enemy and triumpher against heretics. Hitherto you have never brought St. Augustine's testimonies, but as Urias took unfortunate letters, to your own destruction. You object to certain expressions of ours towards the Mother of God. Listen to Ascham's Latin epigram to our late Queen Elizabeth, which I will thus do into English:

'Hail, England's fame divine: hail, Princess bright!
Elizabeth, the Briton's Goddess great!

Give us new times, new bliss, by ruling right;
Appease this world from furies' hateful heat;
Grant joyful times, for joy we humbly pray,
Thou Briton's only bliss and only stay.'

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