though a melancholy, it may not be an unuseful occupation, briefly to retrace the principal obstacles, that have so long thwarted the progress of divine truth. We may discover, in such a review, the seeds of those parties that are become matured in our own times, and the springs of the movements, by which we are, even now, agitated.

Religious disquisitions and investigations found their way into Ireland, before the period of the Reformation, and so early as the tenth year of Henry the Seventh, an act was passed, to prevent the growth of the Holland heresy. Indeed, about the middle of the fourteenth century, Fitzralph, who, there is reason to believe, was an Englishman by birth, though most Irish writers make him a native of Dundalk, distinguished himself by his bold preaching against the abuses of the Friars, whom he charged with violating the express precepts of Scripture, which he frequently quotes, and to which as a paramount authority, he constantly appeals. He is said to have been the first who translated the Bible into the Irish tongue, and was advanced to the See of Armagh in 1347. He has been called the Irish Wycliffe, and is mentioned by the latter in terms of high commendation. When his death was made public, it was said of him, that the same day a mighty pillar of Christ's church was fallen.

But we pass to the period in which the Reformation was introduced into Ireland-a period, when the old system of clanship was beginning to moulder away. Its dissolution, how ever necessary to the final settlement of the country, and the establishment of liberty and law, was urged most unseasonably, when the nobles were earnestly uniting with the crown of England, in the renunciation of the temporal supremacy of Rome, and it contributed incalculably to strengthen and rivet the influence of the Roman Catholic Clergy.

The spirit of clanship tended powerfully to subordination; and if the feudal attachments of the multitude had remained unimpaired, there can be little doubt, that they would have followed the examples of their lords, and passed on, in course of time, from political to religious Protestantism. It was about the year 1535 that George Browne, the first Protestant Prelate

in Ireland, was appointed to the See of Dublin; he was an Englishman by birth, and no less remarkable for the sincerity of his life, charity, and benevolence, than for the candour and liberality of his sentiments; he had been a provincial of the friars of St. Augustine, and had become celebrated in England by preaching against pilgrimages, and penances, a dependence on the merits and intercession of saints, and by inculcating the alone-mediation of Christ, and the duty of addressing prayer directly to God; he was one of the commissioners appointed to confer with the clergy and nobility of Ireland, to procure a general acknowledgment of the supremacy of the crown. It was not long after, however, that a counter commission was transmitted by the Pope, enjoining the clergy to support the papal authority, and empowering them to absolve from their oaths all such persons as had acknowledged the king's supremacy. The archbishop exerted himself strenuously to have relics and images removed from the churches, and substituted the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, which proceedings not a little alarmed the papacy, and to stimulate the chieftains in the cause of Rome, a letter was written to O'Neill, by the bishop of Metz, in the name of the council of cardinals, stating that His Holiness had discovered an ancient prophecy of Saint Lazerianus, that the Church of Rome should surely fall, when the Catholic faith should be overthrown in Ireland; and that when the Roman faith should perish there, the See of Rome was fated to destruction. This letter was written a few years after the "terrible, thundering bull of Pope Paul," as it is called by a Roman Catholic writer, in which he dethroned Henry the Eighth, pronounced him infamous, denied to him and his abettors Christian burial, and doomed him "to eternal curse and damnation."

Other obstacles, and these insurmountable, presented themselves to the rapid or general reformation of the church in Ireland. The people were not connected by one and the same system of polity-they were strangers to the benefits of political union-they had been long harassed by a succession of petty wars, distracted by mutual jealousy, living in constant excitement

and alarm, and being continually called out to repel invasion, had as little leisure as inclination, for inquiries, which were prosecuted so vigorously in countries more composed. Neither the New Testament nor the Book of Common Prayer, were yet printed in the Irish language, and the prelates of the church, except where roused by some attempt to circumscribe the privileges of their order, dozed away their time in monastic indolence. While their brethren in other countries were occupied by the most interesting and important investigations in religion, we find an Irish bishop amusing himself with the composition of a hymn in barbarous Latin rhyme in praise of a Saint Macartin and others, depending for salvation on being wrapped, in their last hours, in the cowl of Saint Francis.

The church property, moreover, had been so scandalously plundered, that few parishes could afford even a bare subsistence to a Protestant minister, and, therefore, few ministers were to be found. Mean time, the Romish clergy were not inactive, and they were powerfully aided by a continued supply of fellow-labourers from the seminaries established in the Spanish dominions; men who, by their temper and education, were fitted for any work in which policy might think proper to employ fanaticism. The Franciscans have made it their boast, that, at the time of the Irish massacre, there appeared among the rebels more than six hundred Friars Minorite, who had been instigating them to that rebellion, while living among them in disguise. A system of half persecution was pursued, at once odious for its injustice, and contemptible for its inefficacy-good principles and generous feelings were thereby provoked into an alliance with superstition and priestcraft; and the priests, whom the law recognised only for the purpose of punishing them, if they discharged the powers of their office, established a more absolute empire over the minds of the Irish people than was possessed by the clergy in any other part of the world.*

About the fifth year of Edward the Sixth, Browne directed that the liturgy and the Scriptures should be read in church, in English. The Roman Catholic

*

Primate, Dowdall, was indignant, and exclaimed, "then shall every illiterate fellow read mass ?" "No," answered the Lord Deputy, St. Leger, "your Grace is mistaken, for we have too many illiterate priests amongst us already, who know no more what the Latin means, than the common people that hear it; but both they and their priest will now understand what they pray for." Beware of the clergy's curse!" exclaimed Dowdall, “I fear no strange curse, so long as I have the blessing of that church which I believe to be the true one," said the Lord Deputy coolly. Dowdall and his ecclesiastics retired.

Browne had, some years before, represented to the English government the extreme ignorance of the Irish clergy, that they were incapable of performing even the common offices, and were strangers to the language in which they celebrated the mass. The miserable condition of the church is evinced by the ordinances of the parliament for the regulation of Munster and Connaught, one of which declares, that laymen and boys should no longer be admitted to ecclesiastical preferments.

About 1551, on Easter day, the archbishop preached a sermon in Christ's church, in which he prophetically described the character and fate of the sect of Jesuits, who had been lately brought into Ireland by a Scotchman, Robert Wauchop, a man who was remarkable not only for this eminent service, but also for being blind from his birth, for riding post, better than any man of his time, and for being one of three cotemporary archbishops of Armagh. In speaking of the "new fraternity sprung up, who call themselves Jesuits," Browne said, They shall turn themselves into several forms: with the heathens, a heathenist; with the Atheists, an Atheist; with the Jews, a Jew; with the Reformers, a Reformade, purposely to know your intentions, minds, hearts, and inclinations. These shall spread over the whole world, they shall be admitted to the councils of princes, yet in the end God shall cut off this society, even by the hands of those who have most succoured them, and made use of them; so that at the end, they shall be

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come odious to all parties." How exactly have these prophetic words been since verified in Europe! About the same year the Book of Common Prayer was first printed in Dublin, and great exertions were made by Browne to propagate a knowledge of it among those who understood English. Little time, however, was allowed for these good endeavours, which met with every species of opposition, for within two years Edward the Sixth died and was succeeded by Mary, who deprived the archbishop of his see. The memorials of his life have been woven into an instructive chapter in the late Bishop Middleton's delightful Sketches of the Reformers, and are noticed in the History of Armagh, by James Stuart, Esq. L.L.D., a book of much curious, learned, and valuable information on Irish history and biography. Browne is described by Usher and others as a prelate of truly apostolic character, of a peaceful and compassionate disposition, the cheerfulness of his countenance, being the index of a heart enjoying the blessedness of the hope of salvation. This description is confirmed by the traits which his life and writings uniformly present; yet a candid and ingenuous Roman Catholic historian of our own day, Dr. Lingard, briefly dismisses him, as "a courtly prelate, raised to the See of Dublin, in reward of his subserviency to the politics of Cromwell."

Such are the too common expedients of the opponents of the Reformation; nor are they made available in relation to the persons and events of past ages only; we need but open our eyes to what is daily passing in Ireland, to know that the Protestant institutions, advocates of our own times, are treated

with much the same spirit of truth, candour, and conciliation by the Church of Rome. It is but a few years since the Rev. Dr. Machale, a prelate of that church, thus explained the origin, and commented on the principles of the Bible Society :-" To share in the overflowing wealth of the country was devoutly wished for by many a needy adventurer, who could not reach it by the ordinary channels of trade or commerce, or the learned professions; hence, a new and unheard of factory of bibles was set up, to which all contributed, who sought a character for sanctity, and which employed a vast number of hands in their printing and circulation. Such is the real origin of the Bible system, affording evidence of England's wealth, but none of her piety!" When this reverend gentleman, then the Titular Bishop of Maronia and Coadjutor Titular Bishop of Killala, was asked by the Commissioners of Education in 1826, whether in writing the above paragraph he meant, that pecuniary gain was the object and motive of those who first established, or promoted the establishment of the Bible Societies, he replied, I did mean it then, and it is still my conviction !"

So in a letter to Lord Farnham, Dr. Doyle thus spoke of the Established Church of Ireland :—when men gaze for a considerable time at the most hideous monster, they can view it with diminished horror: but a man of reflection, living in Ireland, and coolly observing the workings of the Church Establishment, would seek for some likeness to it among the priests of Juggernaut, who sacrifice the poor naked human victims to their impure and detestable idols."*

Do we advert to these melancholy and every-day instances of uncandidness, misrepresentation and calumny in the Church of Rome in Ireland, to rouse retaliation or indignation in the breasts of Protestants? Far from it. He who has drunk deepest of the spirit of Protestantism rejects all weapons against his adversaries but those of truth and love, and answers with the apostolic Leighton, when urged to act harshly to the Presbyterians in Scotland, in return for their unkind treatment of the Episcopalian Church-" for that very reason, let us not do so, but shew them the difference between their principles and ours." If our creed is more pure, and our church more scriptural than the Church of Rome, our spirit will be proportionably more charitable, our temper more subdued, our judgment more candid, and our hearts more sincere.

But we resume our subject. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, the Reformation met with an insuperable obstacle in the prevailing ignorance of the English language. Moreover, the long series of troubles, which, through almost her entire reign, disturbed the Government, were terminated but just before her death, and though the humiliation of O'Neill and the suppression of the rebellion, in the last moments of her reign prepared a way for the blessings of order, tranquillity, and religious improvement, the lengthened struggle had raised up a Roman Catholic party strongly opposed to the Government; and to this were added the continued agitation of foreign influence, the Bulls of three Pontiffs and the interference of the arms and Universities of Spain. The great mass of the population was thus arrayed in a bitter hostility to the Government of the country that has continued to our own day, and is strongly illustrated by the spirit of the discussion, from 1799 till 1821, on the Veto, which it was proposed to give to the Crown on the appointment of the Roman Catholic Prelates in Ireland. No effectual exertions were made during Elizabeth's reign to give the people an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Scriptures in the Vernacular tongue, nor was the New Testament translated into Irish till the year 1602, nor the Book of Common Prayer till 1608. In 1629, Bedell, who it has been well remarked, was

worthy to have Sir Henry Wolton as a patron, and Father Paolo Sarpi as a friend, and who, as well as Browne, was an Englishman, was advanced to the See of Kilmore. His exertions in the cause of Reformation were unceasing; but he had fallen upon evil times, and the small still voice of Scripture, which he laboured earnestly to spread over the land, was stifled amidst the tumultuous cry of massacre and rebellion. Between the accession of the House of Stuart and the year 1637, six incipient or meditated rebellions had been frustrated in Ireland: in 1605, 1607, 1628, and 1634. The voice of loud commotion now grew high in England also; a storm of discontent brooded over Scotland, and taking advantage of these circumstances, internal discord in the sister island rapidly increased.

From the rebellion of 1641 to the Restoration, Ireland was a scene of continual commotion. The Restoration, followed by the confiscation of a great portion of the lands of the Roman Catholics, produced a rancour of hostility, that set at defiance the progress of the Reformed Religion. Yet there were not wanting some active labourers in the good cause. In 1702 Atkins and Browne exerted themselves in the conversion of the native Irish, and addressed them in the Irish tongue. The latter used to attend a congregation of his Roman Catholic parishioners, when their service was concluded in the chapel, and read to them in their own language, the prayers of the Established Church. In 1710 a favourable opportunity presented itself of prosecuting the Reformation in the country. But it was about this time that the Parliament had completed that Penal Code which the great Burke pronounced, "a machine, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man." When, in concluding this hasty retrospect, we add to the abovementioned cases, the ill-judged zeal of the Government who, in the maintenance of the connection with Great Britain, were vainly bent on enforcing amongst the reluctant Irish, the acquisition of the English language, instead of encouraging education and preaching in the vernacular tongue, it is no

matter of wonder that the knowledge of the Scriptures and the Reformation of Religion made so little progress in the land.*

Bishop Berkeley, one of the best, wisest, and greatest men whom Ireland has produced, saw this last evil more than a century ago, and what ought to be the remedy. In his Querist he asks, "whether there be an instance of a people being converted, in a Christian sense, otherwise than by preaching to them and instructing them in their own language? Whether Catechists in the Irish tongue may not easily be procured and subsisted? and whether this would not be the most practicable means for converting the natives? Whether it be not of great advantage to the Church of Rome that she hath clergy suited to all ranks of men, in general subordination, from cardinals down to mendicants? Whether her numerous poor clergy are not very useful in missions, and of much influence with the people? Whether it is not to be wished that parts of our Liturgy and Homilies were publicly read in the Irish language, and whether in these views it may not be right to breed up some of the better sort of children in the charity schools, and qualify them for missionaries catechists, and readers?"

This much-to-be-desired object is now in part attained. One of the greatest obstacles to the knowledge of Divine truth in Ireland, is, in a great degree, removed. The exertions of "The Irish Society," whose main ob

ject is the circulation and preaching of the Scriptures in the Irish tongue, have been already crowned with cheering success-though the public are strangely lukewarm in their pecuniary support of this admirable Institution. There is no society in the land more deserving of the countenance of every friend to the religious reformation and education of the people. Its proceedings are fraught with the deepest interest, and assuredly there never was a period when especial exertion for the spread of scriptural knowledge in this country was so loudly called for as now, when it is notorious, that every other branch of education is spreading most rapidly among the people. We are not among those who deprecate the too great amount or diffusion of secular education. Let the "march of intellect" go forward, if the "march of righteousness" keep pace with it; but we sincerely and earnestly raise our voice against its disproportionate cultivation, for if the intellect is exercised in the acquisition of physical or political knowledge, without a proportionate moral and religious culture, a contemptuous scepticism, selfishness and discontent, and a spirit of unquiet, intole rant scorn will be engendered, which no human means can remove. It is well remarked by an able writer in our church, of the present day, that "what is sufficient sacred knowledge for an uneducated person, becomes inadequate for him when educated. If the balance of intellectual exercise is not preserved, an utter indifference or