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been very averse to Bishop Bedell's mode of proceeding towards the Irish, but his scruples with respect to instructing them in the Irish language must have been entirely removed, when he recommended Mr. King as a fit person to translate the Bible into Irish. The cause of the Primate's abandoning the Bishop to his enemies must have been, that his Grace felt alarm at the novel measures which were adopted by Bishop Bedell, and dreaded the subversion of the Establishment. While this contest with Bailey was proceeding, Bishop Bedell had summoned a synod of his clergy, and enacted canons for their government. This was considered as a measure of a very questionable character, and though the High Commission Court did not take any proceedings against the Bishop, and though it is said that the Primate recommended his opponents to let him alone, “lest he should be thereby provoked to say more for himself, than any of his accusers could say against him," yet many able civilians considered that the assembly was illegal, and that the enacting of canons subjected him to a Præmunire; and certainly no bishop, either in England or Ireland, ever ventured to follow his example. The Primate's mild disposition might have shrunk from engaging in such turbulent discussions, as he had some years before from the contro

oath and witnesses; that by reason of his sickness he was hindred, whereby he was brought to death's door, and could not appear and prosecute his defence and that by the cunning of his adversary he was circumvented, intreating that he might be restored to liberty and his cause into the former estate. But it hath not availed him: my reverend colleagues of the High Commission do some of them pity his case, others say the sentence passed cannot be reversed, lest the credit of the Court be attached. They bid him simply submit himself and acknowledge his sentence just. Whereas the Bishops of Rome themselves after most formal proceedings do grant restitution in integrum and acknowledge that, Sententia Romanæ Sedis potest in melius commutari. My Lord, if I understand what is right divine or humane, there be wrongs upon wrongs; which if they reached only to Mr. Kings person were of less consideration; but when through his side that great work, the translation of Gods book, so necessary for both his Majesty's kingdoms, is mortally wounded, pardon me, I beseech your Lordship, if I be sensible of it, I omit to consider what feast our adversaries make of our rewarding him thus for that service; or what this example will avail the alluring of others to conformity."—Life of Bedell by Bishop Burnett, pag. 103, 104.

versies about the ecclesiastical courts, yet we must deplore the abandonment of the pious and ardent Bishop to the tyrannical proceedings of the High Commission Court, and the suspension of his most salutary measures for the propagation of true religion among the Irish peasantry. From a passage in the letter of Bishop Bedell to the Lord Deputy, it would seem that Bishop Bramhall had taken his part against Bailey, but without success. It is strange that, when so many circumstances connected with the Church, of much less consequence, are mentioned in the correspondence between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Deputy, there should be no allusion to the case of Bishop Bedell. It might reasonably be expected, that the enactment of diocesan canons would have attracted the notice of the Archbishop, ever watchful about the minutest questions of Church discipline, but, while the disputes in remote parishes form a subject of correspondence, not the slightest mention is made of the diocese of Kilmore.

In August, 1639, was published the Primate's long expected work, "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates." It had been commenced at the request of King James, and, at the interval of nearly twenty years, was published with a dedication to his son. To panegyrize this extraordinary

The precise date is given in the following letter from the Primate to the Bishop of Derry, published in the Rawdon Papers:

"MY VERY GOOD LORD,

ances.

"I joyed much to receive a letter written with your own hand after so dangerous an accident, and so much the more, that I understood thereby what good use you have made of that fatherly chastisement wherewith it hath pleased God (with so gracious an event) to visit you, for the continuance of whose blessings towards you my prayers shall never be wanting. The public troubles that are feared from Scotland begin now to drown all the thoughts we have had either of our own or our friends private grievThe first day of July came out that Protestation of the Covenanters, which manifested how guilefully they have circumvented their good King with a semblance of a pretended peace. The 29th of the same month at four of the clock in the morning His Majesty went in poste from Barwick and afterwards rested at Theobalds, whence he now-(with safety of his sacred person) expecteth the issue of that conferred assembly, which is to begin on Monday next. In that same month of July victorious Duke Bernard died of a burning fever. Yesterday I received the first entire copy of my book and I now give order that one of them shall be presently

monument of human learning is unnecessary, to detail its contents impossible. The author, commencing with the first introduction of Christianity into the British isles, continues his laborious researches to the close of the seventh century. He commences his history with the various fabulous narratives respecting the introduction of Christianity into Britain, through which he steers his course with great caution. He thence proceeds to the formation of the different British sees, and the first notices of British bishops in ecclesiastical history, with the accounts of the Diocletian persecution, and the early events of the life of Constantine. Upon the introduction of the Pelagian heresy he dwells more fully, and gives a minute and detailed account of its various forms and various authors, down to the arrival of Augustine in Eng

sent down unto you. How my woods of Lisson are used, your Lordship may see by the enclosed letter of Mr. Chambers. Whether that Mr. Church which he speaketh of be the man whom your Lordship committed the care of marking the trees unto, I know not; and thus doth Sir Thomas Staples serve his own turn sure enough; but for the payment of his rent returneth me for answer, that there is no money in the country. I should take it for a great favour at his hands, that I should have no rent paid me at all, and that he would leave my woods entire and unwasted to my succesWhereby I know your Lordship will have a care also, when God shall restore you to your perfect strength: for which none shall more heartily pray than

sor.

"Your Lordship's most faithful

"friend and loving brother
"JA. ARMACHANUS.

86

Termonfeckin Aug. 10 1639."

Thus superscribed:

"To the Right Reverend Father

in God, my very good Lord and brother, the Lo. Bishop of Derrye These D. D."

Archbishop Ussher had frequently borne testimony to the care with which Bishop Bramhall executed his task as one of the Royal Commissioners. In a letter, dated within a year after the Act passed for the preservation of Church property, the Primate says: "I find by the catalogue of compositions, that the augmentation of the rents of this see amounteth to £735. 4. 4 per annum, and that you have now passed the greater part of your journey. Not only myself but all my successors will have cause to honor the memory of the Lord Deputy and yours, whom God hath used as an instrument to bring this work to such perfection."

land. The learned author then turns his attention to another part of the country, and traces the colonies of the Picts and Scots in their various movements. He concludes with their conversion to Christianity, and a full account of the preaching of St. Patrick and other Irish saints. The first edition of this work was printed in quarto, 1639. The author prepared numerous additions for another edition, but did not live to publish it. It was printed long after his death at London, in folio, in the year 1677.

The Primate was called upon to preach before the Parliament assembled in March, 163. His text was: "Moses' commanded us a law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together." This was the last public act which the Primate performed in Ireland, and immediately after he went over to England with his family, intending to remain for a considerable time, in order to pursue his literary labours in London and Oxford. It proved, however, a final farewell to his native country, which was soon after plunged in all the horrors of massacre and civil war, and only recovered from them with such a change in its ecclesiastical constitution that the Primate's return there was impossible. The Primate found the King in unfortunate collision with his newly assembled Parliament, and having waited on his Majesty, by whom he was most graciously received, proceeded without delay to Oxford. He was lodged in Christ Church, where apartments were provided for him by Dr. Morice, one of the Canons, and Hebrew Professor in the University. There he was allowed to devote himself to study only for a short period, having been called up to London, in order that his influence and advice might calm the contentions, which were now assuming a most alarming appearance. Sir George Wentworth, writing to the Bishop of Derry, in June, 1640, mentions, that "My Lord Primate is very much followed here upon Sundays, hath been often with his Majesty and well used, but I cannot well tell whether

Deuteron. cap. 33. v. 4. 5.

he is commanded to print his sermons, or to state the question of Scotland; I hear it said the latter. Mr. Pryn is very much with his Lordship, who lives at Warwick House whose company we have sometimes."

The clamor against episcopacy being then very violent, the Primate endeavoured to devise a plan which might satisfy the more moderate reformers. He appears to have been employed in drawing up some paper on the subject, whether at the request of the King or not is unknown, when the unfinished manuscript was stolen out of his writing desk and printed with the following title, "The directions of the Archbishop of Armagh concerning the Liturgy and episcopal government." The Primate immediately applied to the House of Commons, and an order was issued for suppressing the book, in the following form:

"An order of the Commons House of Parliament for the

suppressing of anothers pamphlet falsely fathered upon the said Archbishop of Armagh Die Martis 9. Feb.

1640.

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"Whereas complaint hath been made unto us by James Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, that a certain pamphlet hath been lately most ingeniously fathered upon him and spread under the false title of the Bishop of Armagh, Directions to the House of Parliament concerning the Liturgy and episcopal government.' It is this day ordered in the Commons House of Parliament, that the Master and company of Stationers and all others whom it may concern shall take such course for the

Dr. Bernard states, that this alludes to a pamphlet called "Vox Hyberniæ," which had been published in the Primate's name, and suppressed by an order of the House of Peers, but in this he must be mistaken, as the order against the publisher of "Vox Hyberniæ" was not made for a year after. I have not discovered the pamphlet referred to.

'Notwithstanding this application of the Primate, declaring the book to be spurious, the Puritans republished it in 1660, as a genuine work, so that, as Dr. Bernard says, "it is sold up and down as his and accordingly produced at this day by many upon all occasions to his great injury.” They added to the title the following paragraph, which was notoriously false: "Being thereunto requested by the Honourable the House of Commons, and then presented in the year 1642."

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