''

"Fryars there are in diverse places, who go about, though not in their habit, and by their importunate "begging impoverish the people; who indeed are gene"rally very poor, as from that cause, so, from their

paying double tythes to their own clergy and ours, "from the dearth of corn, and the death of their cattle "these late years, with the contributions to their sol"diers and their agents: And which they forget not to "reckon among other causes, the oppression_of_the "court ecclesiastical, which in very truth, my Lord, I "cannot excuse, and do seek to reform. For our own, "there are seven or eight ministers in each diocese of "good sufficiency; and (which is no small cause of the "continuance of the people in popery still) English, "which have not the tongue of the people, nor can perform any divine offices, or converse with them "and which hold many of them two or three, four, or more vicarages apiece; even the clerkships themselves are in like manner conferred upon the English; and sometimes two or three, or more, upon one man, and "ordinarily bought and sold or let to farm. His Majesty "is now with the greatest part of the country, as to "their hearts and consciences, king, but at the pope's "discretion.

66

166

Kilmore, April 1, 1630.

66 WILL. KILMORE & ARDAGH."

;

Here was a melancholy prospect to a man of so good a mind, enough to have disheartened him quite, if he had not had a proportioned degree of spirit and courage to support him under so much weight. After he had recovered somewhat of the spoils made by his predecessor, and so put himself into a capacity to subsist, he went about the reforming of abuses: And the first that he undertook was pluralities, by which one man had a care of souls in so many different places, that it was not possible to discharge his duty to them, nor to perform those vows, which he made at his ordination, of feeding and instructing the flock committed to his care. And though most of the pluralists did mind all their parishes alike, that is, they neglected all equally, yet he thought this was an abuse contrary both to the nature of ecclesiastical functions, to the obligations that the care of souls naturally imported, and to those solemn vows that churchmen made at the altar when they were ordained: And he

knew

knew well that this corruption was no sooner observed to have crept into the Christian church, than it was condemned by the fourth General Council at Chalcedon.

He thought it a vain, and indeed an impudent thing, for a man to pretend that he answered the obligation of so sacred a trust, and so holy a vow, by hiring some mercenary curate to perform offices: Since the obligation was personal, and the ecclesiastical functions were not like the Levitical service in the temple, in which the observing their rites was all that was required. But the watching over souls had so many other things involved in it, besides officiating according to the rubric, that it drew this severe reflection from a witty man, in which though the wit of it may seem too pleasant for so serious a subject, yet it had too much sad truth under it; That when such betrayers and abandoners of that trust, which Christ purchased with his own blood, found good and faithful curates that performed worthily the obligations of the pastoral care, the incumbent should be saved by proxy, but be damned in person.' Therefore the Bishop gathered a meeting of his clergy, and in a sermon with which he opened it, he laid before them, both out of Scripture and antiquity, the institution, the nature, and the duties of the ministerial employment; and after sermon he spoke to them largely on the same subject in Latin, styling them, as he always did, "his brethren and "fellow presbyters:" And exhorted them to reform that intolerable abuse, which as it brought a heavy scandal on the church, and gave their adversaries great advantages against them, so it must very much endanger both their own souls, and the souls of their flocks. And to let them see that he would not lay a heavy burden on them, in which he would not bear his own share, he resolved to part with one of his bishoprics. For though Ardagh was considered as a ruined see, and had long gone as an accessary to Kilmore, and continues to be so still; yet since they were really two different sees, he thought he could not decently oblige his clergy to renounce their pluralities, unless he set them an example, and renounced his own; even after he had been at a considerable charge in recovering the patrimony of Ardagh, and though he was sufficiently able to discharge the duty of both these sees, they being contiguous, and small; and though the revenue of both did not exceed a competency, yet he would not seem to be guilty of that which he so severely condemned in others: And therefore he resigned Ardagh

to

to Dr. Richardson; and so was now only Bishop of Kil more. The authority of this example, and the efficacy of his discourse, made such an impression on his clergy, that they all relinquished their pluralities.

The condemning pluralities was but half of his project. The next part of it was to oblige his clergy to reside in their parishes: But in this he met with a great difficulty. King James, upon the last reduction of Ulster after Tyrone's rebellion, had ordered glebe-lands to be assigned to all the clergy: And they were obliged to build houses upon them, within a limited time, but in assigning those glebelands, the commissioners that were appointed to execute the king's orders, had taken no care of the conveniencies of the clergy: For in many places these lands were not within the parish, and often they lay not all together, but were divided in parcels. So he found his clergy were in a strait. For if they built houses upon these glebelands, they would be thereby forced to live out of their parishes, and it was very inconvenient for them to have their houses remote from their lands. In order to remedy this, the bishop, who had lands in every parish assigned him, resolved to make an exchange with them, and to take their glebe-lands into his own hands for more convenient portions of equal value that he assigned them: And that the exchange might be made upon a just estimate, so that neither the bishop nor the inferior clergy might suffer by it, he procured a commission from the Lord Lieutenant for some to examine and settle that matter, which was at last brought to a conclusion with so universal a satisfaction to his whole diocese, that, since the thing could not be finally determined without a great seal from the king, confirming all that was done, there was one sent over in all their names to obtain it; but this was a work of time, and so could not be finished in several years; And the rebellion broke out before it was fully concluded.

By his cutting off pluralities there necessarily fell many vacancies in his diocese; his care to fill these comes to be considered in the next place. He was very strict in examinations before he gave orders to any. He went over the articles of the church of Ireland so particularly and exactly, that one who was present at the ordination of him that was afterwards his archdeacon, Mr. Thomas Price, reported, that though he was one of the senior fellows of the college of Dublin, when the bishop was provost, yet his examination held two full hours: And

when

when he had ended any examination, which was always done in the presence of his clergy, he desired every clergy, man that was present to examine the person further, if they thought that any material thing was omitted by him; by which a fuller discovery of his temper and sufficiency might be made. When all was ended, he made all his clergy give their approbation before he would proceed to ordination: For he would never assume that singly to himself, nor take the load of it wholly on his own soul. He took also great care to be well informed of the moral and religious qualities of those he ordained, as well as satisfied himself by his examination of their capacity and knowledge.

He had always a considerable number of his clergy assisting him at his ordinations, and he always preached and administered the sacrament on those occasions himself: And he never ordained one a presbyter, till he had been at least a year a deacon, that so he might have a good account of his behaviour in that lower degree, before he raised him higher. He looked upon that power of ordination as the most sacred part of a bishop's trust, and that in which the laws of the land had laid no sort of imposition on them, so that this was entirely in their hands, and therefore he thought they had so much the more to answer for to GOD on that account; and he weighed carefully in his thoughts the importance of those words, Lay hands suddenly on no man, and be not a partaker of other men's sins. Therefore he used all the precaution that was possible for him in so important an affair. He never prevailed on by any recommendations nor importunities to ordain any; as if orders had been a sort of freedom in a company, by which a man was to be enabled to hold as great a portion of the ecclesiastical revenue as he could compass, when he was thus qualified: Nor would he ever ordain any without a title to a parti cular flock. He remembered well the grounds he went on, when he refused to pay fees for the title to his benefice in Suffolk, and therefore took care that those who were ordained by him, or had titles to benefices from him, might be put to no charge: For he wrote all the instruments himself, and delivered them to the persons to whom they belonged, out of his own hands, and adjured them in a very solemn manner to give nothing to any of his ser vants. And, that he might hinder it all that was possible, he waited on them always on those occasions to the gate of his house, that so he might be sure that they should not

was

give any gratification to his servants. He thought it lay on him to pay them such convenient wages as became them, and not to let his clergy be burdened with his servants. And indeed the abuses in that were grown to such a pitch, that it was necessary to correct them in so exemplary a manner.

His next care was to observe the behaviour of his clergy; he knew the lives of churchmen had generally much more efficacy than their sermons, or other labours could have; and so he set himself much to watch over the manners of his clergy; and was very sensibly touched, when an Irishman said once to him in open court, that the king's priests were as bad as the pope's priests.' These were so grossly ignorant, and so openly scandalous, both for drunkenness and all sorts of lewdness, that this was indeed a very heavy reproach: Yet he was no rude nor morose reformer, but considered what the times could bear. He had great tenderness for the weakness of his clergy, when he saw reason to think otherwise well of them: And he helped them out of their troubles, with the care and compassion of a father. One of his clergy had two livings; but had been cozened by a gentleman of quality to farm them to him for less than either of them was worth, and he acquainted the Bishop with this: Who upon that wrote very civilly, and yet as became a bishop, to the gentleman, persuading him to give up the bargain: But having received a sullen and haughty answer from him, he made the minister resign up both to him; for they belonged to his gift, and he provided him with another benefice, and put two other worthy men in these two churches; and so he put an end both to the gentleman's fraudulent bargain, and to the churchman's plurality.

When he made his visitations, he always preached himself, and administered the sacrament; and the business of his visitations was, what it ought truly to be, to observe the state of his diocese, and to give good instructions both to clergy and laity. Some slight inquiries were used to be made, and those chiefly for form's sake; and indeed nothing was so much minded, as that which was the reproach of them, the fees, that were exacted to such an intolerable degree, that they were a heavy grievance to the clergy. But our Bishop reformed all these excesses, and took nothing but what was by law and custom established, and that was employed in entertaining the clergy: And when there was any overplus, he sent it always to

the