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appears that in 1152 there were no less than 300 bishops in the Church of Ireland. What could not be accomplished by force was to be done by stratagem. It is a fact that Popery was introduced into Ireland by an English king under the authority of an English Pope, the only Englishman who ever sat upon the Papal throne. In 1155 Nicholas Brakespear, who assumed the name of Adrian IV., wrote a letter to Henry II., empowering him to possess himself of the island of Ireland, for the purpose of bringing it under the spiritual dominion of Rome. He "claims it, with all other islands on which the Sun of Righteousness has shined, as the patrimony of St Peter and the Roman See," and he requires payment to himself of a penny on each house. The wording of this letter proves that Ireland never before submitted to the tyrannical claims of the Papacy.

Henceforth Ireland was in vassalage and her Church enslaved, though and for some time there remained a large body both of clergy and laity, who, retaining their ancient customs, protested against the aggression of the AngloRoman establishment. But the strong arm of the law and the state-appointment of bishops in the interest of the Pope, at length silenced testimony by dungeons and death. Fearful are the records of persecuting rage at this time, till the little flock seemed almost exterminated. Continual resistance to the English, and fierce interminable wars led to a system of tyranny and oppression under both the Tudor and the Stuart dynasties, which precluded all efforts for her enlightenment; but every reign brought out witnesses for the truth; and in the reign of Henry VIII., Browne, Bishop of

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Dublin, stands forward as a bright light and a zealous reformer. The Church seemed for a time rising from her ashes in spite of a strong counter-influence from Popish prelates both at home and abroad. The English Bible was introduced into Ireland, and the Latin services were in many places changed for English. But this did not last long; and in the country generally, where English was unknown, it was but the change of one foreign language for another.

Queen Mary devoted her first leisure from the fires she kindled in England, to crush the Reformation in Ireland. A commission was instituted to restore celibacy and the mass. Six Protestant bishops were deposed, Browne among them, and violent Papists were appointed in their stead. The reign of Elizabeth seems characterised by strong measures to establish her supremacy in the Church as well as in the nation, rather than by any efforts to forward the progress of the Reformation; and the acts of this reign rather tended to exasperate the Romanists than to diffuse among them the light of the gospel. But that light could not be extinguished; and in 1600 a powerful champion for Protestant truth was again given to the Church in Bishop Usher, one to whom we are deeply indebted for his clear and powerful exhibition of scriptural theology, who at a very early age entered the lists with the Jesuit Stapleton, and silenced him, and who encouraged and promoted controversial sermons in Dublin and in all the principal towns. He was followed by another, who may truly be considered the Reformer of Ireland, and whose life was one of protest and of suffering for the truth's

sake. Bishop Bedell commenced his faithful ministry in the native tongue, and, wherever he could, he appointed clergymen who spoke the Irish language, holding one service in Irish in his cathedral every Sunday. The New Testament having been before translated by Bishop Walsh, he undertook the translation of the Old, and left to his country the precious legacy of the whole Bible in the Irish tongue. He laboured for these two important objects, and it is remarkable that he was nearly sixty years of age when he undertook the work.

The present Primate, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Beresford, in an address which he delivered some years ago, thus mentions the entrance of Papal domination, and the state of degradation to which by it, Ireland was reduced :

"The Church of St Patrick existed for seven centuries. It fell in the year 1172. Then, on an autumnal day, the fleet of the invader was first descried passing up the noble estuary where the waters of the Suir, the Nore, and the Barrow meet below the city of Waterford.

"He came as the messenger of the Papal power, when Ireland was distracted and weakened by the intestine warfare of her petty kings. Her faithless sons and treacherous clergy sold for broad lands and wealth that liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and bowed their necks to Roman bondage. While she was under the Papal dominion, Ireland sank rapidly in the scale of nations; and just as the Reformation was dawning upon Europe, she appears to have fallen to the lowest ebb, from the following extract from the second volume of the State Papers, bearing date 1515-'What common folk in all this world is so poor, so feeble, so evil-be-seen in town and field, so bestial, so greatly oppressed and trodden under foot, and fared so evil, with so great misery, and with so wretched life, as the common folk of Ireland?' England, my lord, might at the time of the Reformation have

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remedied these evils, and conferred unspeakable blessings upon Ireland. But though desirous of improving her social state, and conferring on Ireland the religious light then shining on her own Church, the means her statesmen adopted, unfortunately, did not conduce to that end.

"Pander, a writer, who died in the early part of the reign of Henry VII., said, 'The herbs did never grow that could heal the maladies of Ireland!' but there was one remedy (alas! untried), the leaves of the tree which are for the healing of the nations."

Speaking of the reign of Elizabeth, the Archbishop says:

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"In the second year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Parliament took some measures to further the Reformation in Ireland, and an Act was passed for that purpose, which, after a very sensible preamble, goes on to say, that 'whereas the Irish character was not read by many, and the types were scarce, the Liturgy was to be read to the Irish people in Latin.' In the glorious reign of Elizabeth little else was done to forward the Reformation, and things went on as they were. In the meantime Rome was not idle. She reconstructed her hierarchy, which now derived their orders, not from the ancient Church of Ireland, but from Rome, and took all measures to crush the Reformation and retain her own supremacy. In the meantime, another Act of Parliament, conceived in the same unwise spirit, enacted that when a rectory or deanery becaine vacant, if a man could not be found, after proclamation in the nearest market-town for four days, capable of ministering in English to an Irish-speaking people, then, and not until then, the vacancy should be filled by an Irish clergyman. Then came the reign of James I., who took some measures to benefit the Church, which was in a most miserable condition; and Sir John Davis was appointed to conduct an inquisition with respect to it, who thus reported of the clergy of Cavan :-‘A number of the vicarages are very small, some of them are worth not more than about forty shillings a year. Many of the vicars came before me, and they do not appear to be worth more, such miserable creatures are they. As for the bishop, he is now in these parts, but there is no sermon or divine service in either of

his dioceses.' And yet we wonder the Irish have not become Protestants.

"About twenty years afterwards, a truly great man, William Bedell, was appointed to this very See, the See of Kilmore, which is situated in the county of Cavan. He was a man inspired with great energy and Christian zeal—a man in whom the Spirit of God was. He pitied the spiritual degradation of the people. He spoke to them with kindness and affection, and unfolded to them the gospel of Christ. He principally directed his attention to the Roman Catholic priests, was on very friendly terms with them, and induced very many of them to embrace the Reformation. We have it on the authority of his son-in-law, Alexander Clogy, vicar of Cavan, that during the great rebellion only one of the whole number returned to Rome. Among his converts was a gentleman of independent property, who was a priest, and lived near Kilmore, and who, being the head of an Irish sept, was able to give protection to the bishop, who died at his house during the great rebellion."

Bedell was truly a martyr; for though his life was respected by the rebels, he had to endure indignity and deprivation of all things, and to see all his family put in irons, so that he was a victim to mental sufferings. The twelve years of his episcopal ministry afforded a merciful strengthening to your afflicted Church before the awful carnage which followed. Your St Bartholomew's Day measured not hours but months, and though its records have been suppressed and concealed, it stands on the records of your Church history a glorious witness of the power of Christ to sustain His people, and to strengthen them to suffer; it brought out before the world a noble army of martyrs who loved not their lives unto death. The Romanists of that day gave the number killed at 200,000, though Clarendon estimates it at from 40,000 to 50,000. There seems clear evidence that

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