"To our dread Sovereign Charles by the grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland.

"The Humble petition of his Highness's most loyal and devoted subjects the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland assembled in Convocation by his Majestys special command

"Sheweth unto your sacred Majesty

"That in the whole Christian world the rural clergy have not been reduced to such extreme contempt and beggary, as in this your Highness's kingdom by the means of the frequent appropriations, commendams and violent intrusions into their undoubted rights in times of confusion: having their churches ruined, their habitations left desolate, their tythes detained, their glebes concealed, and by inevitable consequence an invincible necessity of a general non residence imposed upon them, whereby the ordinary subject has been left wholly destitute of all possible means to learn true piety to God, loyalty to their Prince, civility towards one another, and whereby former wars and insurrections have been occasionally both procreated and maintained. Whereas by settling a rural clergy, endowed with competency to serve God at his altar, besides the general protection of the Almighty, which it will most surely bring upon your Majesty and this kingdom, barbarism and superstition will be expelled, the subject shall learn his duty to God and his Sovereign, and true religion be propagated.

"Our most humble suit is, that your Highness would be graciously pleased for God's cause and for his Churches cause and for the encouragement of others by your Royal example to so good a work: to perfect the pious intentions of your blessed Father and your sacred Majesty by establishing upon a rural and resident clergy those appropriations, which are yet in the crown undisposed. So as the same may bring no diminution to your revenue, nor considerable prejudice to the rights of the Imperial Crown of this Realm, as by a representation of the true state of these benefices made to the Lord Deputy and hereunto annexed may appear. And your devoted beadsmen, as they are more obliged in the strictest bonds of duty and gratitude, than any clergy

in the whole world to a Prince, will be incessant suitors to the God of Heaven for the long continuance of your blessed reign, and the perpetuation of this crown and scepter to your posterity until the second coming of Christ Jesus. "JA. ARMACHANUS. "ARCH. CASSELENS."

The Lower House of Convocation were in the meantime discussing the question of the canons, in which was included that of the Articles of religion. The narrative, as given by Lord Strafford to Archbishop Laud, is so complete and so minute, that it bears the stamp of truth, and must be followed in preference to that of Dr. Parr, or that of Bishop Vesey in his Life of Archbishop Bramhall. Lord Strafford commences his narrative by stating, that he was so much employed upon the business of Parliament, that he neglected the affairs of the clergy, "reposing secure upon the Primate, who all this while said not a word of the matter." At length he learned, "that the Lower House of Convocation had appointed a committee to consider the canons of the Church of England, that they did proceed to the examination without conferring at all with their Bishops, that they had gone thorough the book of Canons and noted in the margin such as they allowed with an A. and on others they had entered a D. which stood for Deliberandum; that in the fifth article they had brought the Articles of Ireland to be allowed and received under the pain of excommunication, and that they had drawn up their Canons into a body and were ready that afternoon to make report in the Convocation." The Lord Deputy immediately sent for the Chairman of the Committee, Andrews' Dean of Limerick, re

9 He means the fifth canon, which in the English canons establishes the Thirty-nine Articles as settled in 1562, under pain of excommunication.

Lord Strafford proposed a curious punishment for Dean Andrews. "If your Lordship think Dean Andrews hath been to blame and that you would chastise him for it, make him Bishop of Fernes and Laughlin to have it without any other commendam than as the last Bishop had, and then I assure you he shall leave better behind him, than will be recompensed out of that Bishoprick, which is one of the meanest of the whole Kingdom." The punishment was inflicted, and the Lord Deputy reported

quiring him to bring the volume of Canons so noted in the margin, and also the draught he was to present to the House. When he had read over the proceedings, he expressed with great indignation his opinion of what had been done; told him, not a Dean of Limerick, but Ananias, had sat in the chair of the Committee, and commanded him on his allegiance not to report any thing from the Committee until he heard again from him. On the following morning he had a meeting of the Primate, the Bishops of Meath, Raphoe, Kilmore, and Derry, the Prolocutor, and all the members of the Committee, and publicly told them, "how unlike clergymen, that owed canonical obedience to their superiors, they had proceeded in the Committee; how unheard a part it was for a few petty clerks to presume to make articles of faith without the privity or consent of State or Bishop; what a spirit of Brownism and contradiction he observed in their deliberations, as if indeed they purposed at once to take away selfgovernment and order forth of the Church, and leave every man to chuse his own high place where liked him best." The Lord Deputy then laid his injunctions,

First. Upon Dean Andrews, that he should report nothing from the Committee to the House.

Secondly. He enjoined the Prolocutor, Dean Lesley, that in case any of the Committee should propound any question', he should not put it, but break up the sitting for that time, and acquaint the Lord Deputy with it.

Thirdly. That he should put no question at all touching the receiving or not of the Articles of the Church of Ireland.

that the Dean was well satisfied. "Never any so well pleased or so much desirous to take a Rochet to loss as he: Had he not died Bishop, he had been immemorial to posterity, where now he may be reckoned one of the worthies of his time."-Strafford's Letters, vol. i. pag. 344, 378.

The Bishop of Meath was Antony Martin; the Bishop of Raphoe John Lesley; the Bishop of Kilmore William Bedell, and the Bishop of Derry John Bramhall.

Lord Strafford says that there were some hot spirits, who moved that they should petition him for a free synod, but in fine they could not agree among themselves who should put the bell about the cat's neck, and so this likewise vanished.

Fourthly. That he should put the question for allowing and receiving the Articles of the Church of England, wherein he was by name and in writing to take their votes, barely, content or not content, without admitting any other discourse at all, for he would not endure that the Articles of the Church of England should be disputed.

And finally; because there should be no question in the Canon that was thus to be voted, he desired the Lord Primate would be pleased to frame it, and after he had perused it, he would send the Prolocutor a draught of the Canon to be propounded, enclosed in a letter of his own.

The Lord Deputy then proceeds, in his letter to the Archbishop: "The Primate accordingly framed a canon, a copy whereof you have here, which I not so well approving drew up one myself more after the words of the Canon in England, which I held best for me to keep as close as I could and then sent it to my Lord. His Grace came instantly to me, and told me he feared the canon would not pass in such form, as I had made it, but he was hopeful as he had drawn. it, it might besought me therefore to think a little better of it. But I confess having taken a little jealousy, that his proceedings were not open and free to those ends I had my eyes upon, it was too late now either to persuade or affright me. I told his Lordship I was resolved to put it to them in those very words, and was most confident there were not six in the House that would refuse them, telling him by the sequel we should see whether his Lordship or myself better understood their minds on that point, and by that I would be content to be judged: only for order sake I desired his Lordship would vote" this canon first in the upper House of Convocation; and so voted, then to pass the

Dr. Parr states: "In the Convocation the Lord Primate at the instance of the Lord Deputy and the Archbishop of Canterbury thought fit to propose, that to express the agreement of the Church of Ireland with that of England both in doctrine and discipline, the thirty nine articles should be received by the Church of Ireland, which proposal was thereupon consented to by both Houses of Convocation and the said articles were declared to be the confession of faith of the Church of Ireland." This is certainly not the same statement of the transaction which Lord Strafford gave, and must be rejected as incorrect.

question beneath also. Without any delay then I writ a letter to Dean Lesley the Prolocutor with the Canon enclosed, which was that afternoon unanimously voted" first with the Bishops and then with the clergy, excepting one man."

Bishop Vesey, in his Life of Primate Bramhall, has given a narrative of the proceedings in the Convocation, which he states to have received from Archbishop Price, then Archdeacon of Kilmore, and a member of the Lower House, yet the narrative cannot be easily reconciled with the letter of the Lord Deputy. Bishop Vesey's statement is as follows: "The Bishop of Derry laboured in the Convocation to have the correspondence between the two Churches more entire and accurate and discoursed with great moderation and sobriety of the convenience of having the articles of peace and communion in every national Church, worded in that latitude that dissenting persons in those things, that concerned not the Christian faith, might subscribe, and the Church not lose the benefit of their labours for an opinion, which it may be they could not help that it were to be wished that such Articles might be contrived for the whole Christian world, but especially that the Protestant Churches under his Majesty's dominion might all speak the same language; and particularly that those of England and Ireland being reformed by the same principle and rule of Scripture, expounded by universal tradition, Councils, Fa

▾ Mr. Moore, in his History of Ireland, has given an account of the transaction which certainly has the claim of novelty. He says: "Notwithstanding the lively protest of the Lord Deputy, the Articles of Usher, chiefly in consequence of the general deference felt for his character, were retained by the Irish Church; and the Canon enjoining them is the first of the hundred then passed in Convocation and approved by the King." Moore's History of Ireland, vol. iv. p. 191. This is not the only extraordinary blunder about the ecclesiastical history of Ireland which this volume contains. The meeting of the Bishops at the Primate's house, and the sermon of Bishop Downham at Christ Church (see pag. 75), are thus described: "A synod was forthwith held in Christ Church, Dublin, by Downham, Bishop of Derry, at which eleven other Bishops attended, and the following grave resolution was the result."-Pag. 178. The author's ignorance of ecclesiastical affairs is scarcely credible, when he makes the Bishop of Derry hold a synod in a cathedral in the diocese of Dublin.