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bounds and localities could be ascertained; it has long been considered a hopeless task to recover them, unless access can be procured to the archives of the Vatican, where, it is said that there is an accurate register of every acre that belonged to the church in Ireland, and which, doubtless, will never see the light until the pope becomes a Protestant, or until (and pray which is the more likely?) the Established Church in Ireland becomes again popish.

I have said the confiscation of abbey lands, and the introduction of the Reformed clergy, were but the gradual results of conquest; they followed the successive overthrow of the Desmond in the south, and of the O'Neil in the north; and while there was a rich harvest of spoil for the English adventurers, or for the Irish chieftains who sided with the government, in the abbey lands; there was little care taken to establish an efficient reform, ed clergy, or allocate for their maintenance a suitable provision. The new comers from England, and the long settled anglo Irish lords, seemed to care as little about religion as English nabobs, the Clives, the Watsons, the Hastings, &c. &c. have done, while exhibiting to the Hindoos in the plains of Bengal what finished Atheists men may become, when under the dominion of uncurbed avarice.

In this way the immense territorial possessessions, and all the rich benefices belonging to the abbey of Mellifont, were granted to the Moore family; it has been said that the abbot of that great house could ride from the sea to the Shannon on his ecclesiastical estates, without touching other property. The lands of the abbey of Tintern passed to the Colclough, that of Tristernagh abbey to the Piers family, and so on. It would have been well if the lands alone of those monastic foundations had been alienated from the church; but the government favourites and harpies about Dublin castle, got possession of the rectorial tithe advowsons: and thus the Butlers and Fitzgeralds, the Plunketts and the de Burghs, the O'Moores, the Piers and the Colcloughs, could riot in, and gamble away church property from the days of Henry the Eighth until the present hour.

These Irish Church impropriators appear to have had no conscience at all; they seemed to have been perfectly careless concerning the degradation of the inferior clergy. The bishops were left comparatively well provided; for the Termon-lands and Patrick's-ridges, wherever they could be ascertained, were allocated for their uses: but as for the inferior clergy-the poor vicars and curates-nothing could be more destitute than the state in which they were left. Spenser, in his View of the state of Ireland, gives a most deplorable picture of the misery of the inferior clergy. He says that "the benefices are so mean, and of so small profit in the Irish country, through the ill husbandrie of the Irish people that do inhabit there, that they will not yield any competent maintenance for any honest minister to live upon, scarcely to buy him a gown." The natural consequence of this was, that, as he says, "No sufficient English ministers were sent over; but the most part of such English as did come, were either unlearned, or men of some bad note for which they have forsaken England." Bnt this was not all. The Irish bishops being of the aristocracy, and supported by their strength, Kept their clergy in such awe and subjection under them, that they dare not complain of them, so as they may do to them what they please; for they, knowing their own unworthiness and incapacity, and that they are therefore still removable at their bishop's will, yield what pleaseth him, and he taketh what he listeth."

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This degraded and impoverished state of the inferior clergy of the Es

tablished Church in Ireland, as described by Spenser, is also corroborated by the letter of Sidney, the Lord Deputy, which he wrote to Queen Elizabeth; from which I extract the following statement :

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"I sadly address you on the lamentable state of the church, as foully deformed, and as sadly abused as any other estate in the realm." He then specifies Meath diocese,-part of the English pale,-where it is certain things were better than in the Irish districts; and states, that out of 224 churches, 185 were impropriate. "No parson or vicar there, but only sorry and simple curates of the curates, only eighteen could speak English, the rest Irish priests, or rather rogues, having very little Latin, and less learning and ability-all live upon the bare altarages. The walls of the churches are thrown down, very few of the chancels are covered, and all the windows and doors ruined and spoiled. Easy it is for your Majesty

to conjecture in what case the rest of Ireland is."

It does not at all seem to me that the English monarchs, whether of the house of Tudor or Stuart, were either careless or negligent of the impoverished state of the inferior and working clergy of Ireland. As far as Acts of Parliament could go, they were not wanting to appoint a maintenance for the Irish vicars; in the 33d of Henry the Eighth, a statute was enacted that" Whereas, divers parish churches of the kingdom of Ireland, were beretofore appropriated to monasteries and other religious houses now deposed, wherein divine service was done and kept, and the cure kept by religious persons of the religious house, therefore there should be an able man appointed for that service in every parish church;" in consideration whereof, the Lord Deputy, the Chancellor, Treasurer, and Chief Justice of Ireland, with sundry others to be named in future, were to form them. selves into a quorum, who should have power to appoint a vicar in every such impropriate parish, and appoint him such a maintenance as was fit; but at the same time fixing a maximum for the stipend of £13. 6s. 8d. per year, which, when the twentieth part due to the king was reserved out of it, only netted to the vicar ten pounds. This statute, as Dr. Ryves says in his excellent work, published early in the reign of James the First, called "The Poor Vicar's Plea for Tythe," was never acted on.

"But, (as he says) were it still in force, what proportion hath the sum limited with the end for which it is appointed; or what maintenance is ten pounds sterling at the utmost, for a minister to live in fashion as a minister withal; to find himselfe, to maintaine his wife and children while he is alive; to provide for them after his death, to pay ser vants wages; and over and above all this, to keepe hospitality, which the statute intendeth and commandeth to be kept. It may be, that in those daies it was enough; but what is it at this present time. Had this statute taken his effeet, yet had it beene reason, that at this time the vicars should have claimed a new taxation, seeing that the rates of all things are now raised to a higher price; moreover, it is apparent, that although Henrie the Eighth tooke away the monasteries, and suppressed the usurped tyranny of the pope in his dominions, yet hee reformed not religion, and therefore their oblations and alterages, mass monies, and such like fees, (which were no doubt the greatest part of the poor vicar's maintenance, and yet was never reckoned in his portion) remained all his daies: seeing, therefore, that these are now grown into disuse, reason good that their allowance bee made good againe, and increased some other way. In the same parliament, there was order taken for the hire of slaters and other workmen by the day; and it is ordained that their wages should bee increased from time to time, according to the prices of corn and other victuals; there is now no carpenter or slater heere, which will take lesse than sixteene pence per diem for himselfe, and twelve pence for his men, which amounteth to upwards of thirtie pounds per ann.; what reason therefore that the

poore minister, who ought to be honorabilis in populo, should be held at the old taxation of twenty marks Irish by the yeere at the uttermost, which commeth not to eight pence per diem, for the maintenance of himselfe and all his family. But the poore vicar's lot is not so good as to have the allowance the statute speaketh of. Our horse boies wages

are not great, would God our vicars were no worse ! Our horse boies have commonly forty shillings wages, besides meat, drinke, and lodging, and four pair of brogues per ann. How lamentable then is that which hath of late been discovered, that through the whole province of Connaught, and in sundry other diocesses of this kingdome, the vicarages for the most part are under forty, and many of them not above fifteen shillings sterling, towards all charges by the yeere. But to conclude this point; if any man thinke that twenty nobles, or ten pounds sterling, according to this statute, be at this day a sufficient and reasonable maintenance for a learned minister of the church, and preacher of God's word, to mainteine himselfe, his wife, children, and family, and to keepe hospitality withall, I for my part will not be contentious, nor use farther argument against him, onely I wish him more experience; and that (saving my charity) hee himself, his wife, children, and family, might live but one month according to that rate, and afterwards hee bee asked what bee thought of the sufficiency of such allowance.— Neither yet is this the nihil ultra of our misery; for even unto this day, as if the ghosts of those monks did still walk and haunt us, ecclesiastical livings of all sorts are continually taken from the church, under colour of concelements, and as if in old time they had belonged to their houses; insomuch that in one small diocese, namely of Elphia, twentyfive vicarages, five rectories, and two prebends, are found to have been reft from the church by this occasion."

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Such was the state of the Church as Elizabeth left and James found it. This great Protestant Queen had little opportunity afforded her of bettering the condition of the clergy in general: the island was involved in a continual warfare during her long reign; and in the mighty and uncertain contest between the pope and her for its dominion, she could do little. As Spenser says, "The inconvenience of the time and the troublous occasion wherewith the wretched realme was turmoiled, hindred a sound discipline from being established amongst the clergy; and it was an ill time to preach amongst swords." Elizabeth did her best; she founded the University of Dublin, and thereby desired to secure for the country a well instructed and therefore an efficient clergy. James had the good fortune, if not the merit of establishing peace in Ireland, and he took advantage of it to perfect the settlement of Ulster; and were his designs carried through, Munster, Connaught, and a great portion of Leinster would have been planted in like manner. In the plantation of Ulster, ample lands were allocated, not alone for the bishops, but also for the parochial clergy; and therefore up to this day, Ulster has been a comparatively quiet and happy country. James would have done the same good work for the rest of the kingdom. But he was thwarted in his measures by the then aristocracy, and by the very men whom he employed to carry his plans into effect. The kings of England and their Irish deputies have been accused by a late writer on the Established Church, as neglecting the clergy of Ireland. With all respect, I consider he is mistaken. The English government, and more especially its kings, were always, I hold it, anxious to administer to the prosperity of the struggling Irish Church: but Ireland was so situated, and such was the power of her great lords-such the venality and self-seeking of the English adventurers who were employed to carry on the government business in Ireland, that the good intentions of the powers on the other side of the Irish Channel, were counteracted; and Church property still continued to be the tempting prey of every greedy lord, and of every servant of the state.

Ireland in these times suffered under all the inconveniences and vices of a distant colony. The communication between London and Dublin, instead of being conveyed on the wings of steam, was tedious and dangerous; instead of two days it often took a month; and the English adventurer who undertook office in Ireland, came over to the lawless land prepared to act as free from civil, moral, and religious restraint, as the lawless people he came to govern. This rapacity of men in power, whether composed of the Irish aristocracy, or English adventurers, continued until Sir Thomas Wentworth became Lord Deputy. This great man, though careful to amass Irish property for himself, was a mighty check to restrain the hands of others; and, as his friend Archbishop Laud had taken the Irish Church under his care and patronage, Wentworth, in furtherance of the views of his royal master, and of Laud, did his best to uphold the clergy, and protect and restore church property. In Strafford's letters there are some very curious statements that threw light on the Church and its property at that time. In this Lord Deputy's letter to Laud, bearing date 1633, we bave a precious expose of the rapacity of laymen and churchmen in frittering away church property. He reports that a commission was issued in behalf of the bishop of Killalla for the time being; and it appeared before it how that a former bishop had leased for sixty years a great part of the see property, reserving only the hundreth part of the yearly value in rent to his successor. In consequence of this, Wentworth proposes as a wholesome arrangement, that it should be in future provided, that three parts out of five of the actual value of the land should be reserved to the church for rent, that two years fine of the other two parts should be allowed to the bishop.

It is a melancholy picture that is here given of the state of destitution, ignorance and neglect into which the Established Church appears to have fallen in these days, through the self-seeking of bishops, the rapacity of the nobility and gentry, and the spoliation on all sides of church property. The letters of Lord Strafford are full of instances of this kind, where, in his private communication to Bishop Laud, he pours the bitterness of his contempt upon the spoliators of church property; and he shews up in no measured terms, the Lords Corke, Clanricarde, Sir John De Bathe, and other greedy impropriators, as the blood suckers of the church, and as birds of prey, feathering their nests with ecclesiastical revenues. To such poverty were some bishoprics reduced, that as for the diocese of Kilfenora none could be found to accept of it, and the following is an extract of a letter addressed to Bishop Laud in 1633, by Wentworth :

"The best entrance to the cure will be clearly to discover the state of the patient, which I find many ways distempered. An unlearned clergy which have not so much as the outward form of churchmen to cover themselves with, nor their persons any way protected or reverenced-the churches unbuilt-the parsonage and vicarage houses utterly ruined—the people untaught through the non-residence of the clergy-the rites and ceremonies of the church run over without decency of habit, order, and gravitythe possessions of the church to a great proportion in lay heads -the schools ill provided, ill governed in the most part, or what is worse, applied sometimes underhand to the maintenance of popish school-masters-lands given to charitable use dissipated and leased for little or nothing, concealed contrary to all knowledge and the purposes of the founder--all monies raised for charitable use converted to private benefit."

This was the sad representation as depicted by Lord Strafford; and that it is not an over-wrought picture we have the best of evidence, from

the petition which was sent in by the clergy in convocation to the king in the year 1634, which speaks as follows:

"Sheweth humbly to your sacred majesty, that in the whole Christian world the rural clergy have not been reduced into such extremity of beggary and contempt as in your highness's kingdom of Ireland, by means of so frequent appropriations, commendams, and violent intrusion into their undoubted rights; in times of confusion having their churches ruined, their habitations left desolate, their tithes detained, their glebes cancelled. and by inevitable consequence, a general non-residency imposed on them, whereby the ordinary subject hath been left wholely destitute of all possible means to learu true piety to God, loyalty to their prince, and civility one towards another, and whereby former wars and insurrections have been occasionally both prosecuted and maintained."

Such was the state of the church caused by the spoliation of the Protestant colonists. And if such was the way the Protestant proprietors of Ireland protected their own religion, well might the poor Romanists complain and almost take credit to themselves, as Bishop Bedell relates the saying, "that the king's priests were to the full as bad as the pope's priests." Well might the Lord in just vengeance pour out his fury on a nation like this, and permit Sir Phelim O'Neil, and the hordes of northern creaghts to massacre such a people!

Well, but after the rebellion of 1641, and the conquest of the country by Cromwell, when Protestants again held sway, and the whole property of the island was handed over to English settlers, might we not expect a revival of the Established Church, and respect for its clergy to be felt, and a restoration of its property to take place-alas! no. Those who know how Cromwell's army was composed, must rest assured that there was little regard observed for the Established Church in Ireland, by sectaries who had overturned the same fabric in England. Consequently we find that even after the restoration of Charles, and after the Act of Settlement was brought to adjustment, the Cromwellian proprietors (sectaries in most instances, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Muggletonians, and fifty monarchy men,) had little regard for, and showed little respect to the church which the ministry of the restored king sought to re-establish. The original Cromwellian settlers generally retained the chaplains that came over with their regiments, and to their sermons they listened, and they were in fact their clergy. When they died away, the sons of the Cromwellian settlers retaining much of their father's contempt for the Episcopal Church, and no longer having a clergy of their own, sunk away from the stern doctrines and puritanically pious 'habits of their fathers,' and became, perhaps, the most lawless, ungodly, ungovernable men in existence; they formed that ungodly duel-fighting squirearchy which proved the reproach,. the ridicule, and the curse of Ireland for near a century and a half. We know of no book that lets us into the knowledge of the sad condition of the Church of Ireland in the reign of Charles the Second, more fully, more feelingly, than the tracts of Griffith Williams, Bishop of Ossory, who writes with all the warmth of a Welchman, the devotedness of a suffering loyalist, and the indignation of a churchman, against the spoliations of the Cromwellian possessors of Ireland-his "Persecution and oppression of John Bale and Griffith Williams, two learned men, and Right Rev. Bishops of Ossory," and his "Sad Condition of the Diocese of Ossory," are what we allude to. In the former tract, he thus pictures the Cromwellian, "Here in the County of Kilkenny, where that perfidious rebel and traitor, Axtell,

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