Value of the bishoprick of Leighlin. Number and average value of the benefices in Ferns. Residence and other particulars of the incumbents. both, namely Fethard (seated in the remotest part from Leighlin of the whole diocese of Ferns,) and Old Leighlin, are but twenty-seven English miles asunder." He afterwards states himself to hold the bishoprick of Leighlin, by union with that of Ferns, "durante vitá, by virtue of his majesty's letters patent. The annual rent thereof is 24/. ster., besides the demesnes, which are very large, if the bishop might enjoy his right. But in respect they are almost all mountain ground, and much of them is withholden by the neighbours thereof, yield very little profit." The benefices in Ferns were twenty-seven, consisting of the deanery and seven prebends; seven rectories and twelve vicarages. The value of them is given in two parallel columns, in time of peace and as reduced by rebellion. The highest value in the former time is 507., and in the latter 307.; being the deanery: the next highest, respectively, is 251. and 201. The lowest value is 47., reduced by re bellion to 40s. But in one case 77. is reduced to nothing. The united amount is 3801. or 2617.: yielding an average in the twenty-seven benefices of about 147., or 97. 13s. 4d., in peace or rebellion. With two or three exceptions, the incumbents were residing on their benefices. Some are specified as being "preachers," and some as being "reading ministers." One of the incumbents was "a student in Trinity College, near Dublin, aged about twenty years." Of the vicarages one was of so small worth, that no man would pass the patent for it, and thereupon the curate enjoyed the profit." Seven of the incumbents are reported as "ministers of Irish birth, skilful in, or having, the English, Irish, and Latin tongues:" two "of Irish birth, having the incumbents in In Leighlin were the treasurership and arch- Benefices and deaconry, and four prebends, eleven rectories, and Leighlin. thirty-four vicarages; one of the rectories being as high as 30%. But the benefices in general varied between 127. and 37. in time of peace; but so much affected by rebellion, that twenty-five of them are returned as worth nothing. The same distinction occurs between "preachers" and "reading ministers," there being, however, very few of the former class. There were about twelve "of Irish birth, having the English, Irish, and Latin tongues." And two are mentioned of "English birth," of whom one had "some skill in the Irish tongue," and the other was "skilful" in that language. One of the vicarages was holden "in commendam by the Bishop of Kerry;" and two of the rectories of very small value, by two scholars respectively of sixteen and seventeen years of age, or thereabouts, "dispensed withall gratia studii.” several of the The bishop explains some of the foregoing par- Explanation of ticulars, as well as his own practice in matters con- foregoing parnected with them, in the following observations appended to his return. ticulars. care to provide "At my first preferment unto these bishopricks, and The bishop's finding such want of clergymen within both my dioceses, ministers. especially of Leighlin, that some of the parishioners, being by me blamed for carrying their children to Popish priests to be christened, answered (though rather for excuse, as I found afterwards, in that they reformed not themselves, than for conscience sake), that they were compelled so to do, in regard they had no curate of our religion near unto them in imitation of the reverend bishops, living in the beginning of the reign of our late queen of happy memory, I entreated three or four men of English birth, and staid English, And Irish. carriage, and good report, being well able to give an account of their faith in the English tongue, and to instruct the people by reading, to enter orders of the Church; and provided for them first cures among the English parishes, afterward small vicarages, which they enjoy at this time, and reside upon them. And whereas two or three of the natives of this country, being well able to speak and read Irish unto their countrymen, sought unto me for holy orders, I thought likewise fit, in the great scarcity of men of that quality, to admit them thereunto (being likewise of honest life, and well reported of amongst their neighbours), and to provide them some small competency of living in the Irish parts. Furthermore, being desirous, serere alteri seculo, His provision of by providing a learned ministry, which shall be able to preach unto the people hereafter, I have also, according to the ancient custom of my diocese, dispensed with three or four youths of fifteen or sixteen years of age, to hold each of them a church living under ten pounds in true value studii gratia, having taken order with the churchmen adjoining, to discharge the cures of the same, and having had a watchful eye over these young men, that they did and do bona fide follow candidates for the ministry. Impropriations destitute of vicars. The Bishop of Leighlin's advice the defect. [Rest of the sheet mutilated.] The subjoined recommendation of the bishop's was well worthy of attention, and touched a point which has been fruitful in mischief to the Irish Church. "There being divers impropriations within each of my dioceses, which have no vicars endowed, whose possessioners are bound by their leases, or fee-farms to find sufficient curates mine earnest request is, that a competent stipend may be raised out of every such impropriation, whereby the curate thereof may be maintained. And that two or three of the impropriations of small value may be united among themselves, if they be together; and a competency raised out of them all so united for an incumbent. But, if they be asunder, that then they may be united to the next parsonage or vicarage adjoining, and contribute towards the bettering thereof: provided always, that in whichsoever of the united churches divine service is celebrated, thither all the parishioners of the churches united be compelled every sabbath and holyday to repair in their course and turn. Now the competency which I conceive will be fittest for the impropriators to yield, and for the curates to receive, is the small tithes of every such parish. (Signed) "THO. FERNESS AND LEIGHLIN." SECTION III. Christopher Hampton advanced to the Primacy. A Parliament and Convocation of the Clergy. Articles of Religion. Summary of their contents. Their discursive character. Exceptions taken to them at the time. Their discrepancy with those of the Church of England. Regal Visitation of the Province of Dublin. Arrogant conduct of the Papists. Christopher Hampton. 1613. and good deeds. ON the death of Henry Ussher, archbishop of Henry Ussher Armagh, in 1613, Christopher Hampton was ad- succeeded in the vanced to the primacy, and consecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, with three assistant bishops, on the 8th of May. He was born at Calais, had been a student at Christ's College, Cambridge, and elected to the see of Derry, the year of his elevation to the primacy. He is recorded as a prelate of great His character gravity and learning. A handsome palace at Drogheda, then the principal residence of the archbishops of Armagh, was indebted to him for its foundation and erection, as well as an old episcopal house at Armagh for its reparation, the addition of sundry new buildings, and the annexing to the see of three hundred acres of land near the town of Armagh, for mensal lands. By his care also the cathedral of Armagh, which had been destroyed by Shane O'Neal, was restored; the walls with their windows reconstructed, the aisles reroofed, and the steeple rebuilt, Opening of the parliament. Conduct of the recusant nobility. and again furnished with the great bell, newly cast for the occasion. And he appears to have been particularly assiduous in repairing and rebuilding the parochial churches of his diocese'. A few days after his consecration, on the opening of the parliament in great state by the Lord Deputy, Arthur, Lord Chichester, May the 13th, the primate, after divine service, preached in St. Patrick's cathedral before the other prelates and temporal peers of the realm, with the exception of the recusant nobility, who "went not into the church, neither heard divine service or sermon, notwithstanding they were lords of the parliament-house, and rode towards the church with the lords of estate: yet they stayed without during the time of service and sermon. Now when service was done, the Lord Deputy returned back to the castle: and those recusant lords joined themselves again with rest of the estate, and rode to the castle in manner as before they came from thence"." Notwithstanding an ineffectual attempt to place in the chair of the House of Commons a Popish Sir John Davies speaker, Sir John Davies was elected to the office: elected speaker of the House of Commons. in discharging the duties of which he made an excellent speech to the Lord Deputy concerning the condition of the country, observing with regard to its former and its actual ecclesiastical state, as represented in parliament, that in former times "the bishops and archbishops, though their number was greater than now it is, in respect to the divers unions made of latter years, yet such as were resident in the more Irish countries, and did not acknowledge the king to be their patron, were never summoned 1 WARE'S Bishops, p. 97. * Letter from Sir Christ. Plunket, Desiderata Curiosa Hibern., i. 167. |