such instruc good fruit of which was apparent in the vulgar Good fruit of people, upon their approach unto the Communion, tions. when, as by the then order the names of the receivers were to be given in, so some account was constantly taken of their fitness for it. An exemplary injunction for this age, having been too much neglected. His order throughout the diocese to the ministers was, to go through the body of divinity once a-year, which he had drawn out accordingly into fifty heads." Exemplary con- duct of Bishop general affairs of his diocese. Such was the exemplary diligence of the Lord Primate; and, in regard to one of his suffragans, the history of the whole Church of Christ does not in all probability contain a more perfect pattern of a Christian bishop, than may be contemplated in the life of Bishop Bedell, as to the care with which he supplied all vacancies within his diocese; the strictness with which he conducted his examinations for holy orders; his constant refusal to ordain any, without a title to a particular flock; his studious observation of the behaviour of his clergy, mixed with paternal tenderness and compassion for their weaknesses; his earnest endeavours in counteracting pluralities, and in prevailing upon all to observe parochial residence; and his constant business at his His visitations. visitations in investigating the state of his diocese, and in giving good instructions and advice both to the clergy and the laity. "The visitations in Ireland," observes Bishop Burnet, "had been matters of great pomp and much luxury, which lay heavy on the inferior clergy. Some slight inquiries were made, and those chiefly for form's sake; and, indeed, nothing was so much minded, as that which was the 7 BERNARD'S Life of Ussher, p. 84. Episcopal, metropolitical, and royal visitations. Questionable alterations proposed by Bishop Bedell. and synodical reproach of them, the fees, that were exacted to such an intolerable degree, that they were a heavy grievance to the clergy. And, as the bishop's visitation came about every year, so every third year the archbishop made his metropolitical visitation, and every seventh year the king's visitation went round; and in all these, as they were then managed, nothing seemed so much aimed at, as how to squeeze and oppress the clergy, who were glad to purchase their peace by paying all that was imposed on them by those severe exactors. But our bishop reformed all these excesses, and took nothing but what was by law and custom established, and that was employed in entertaining the clergy; and, when there was any overplus, he sent it always to the prisons for the relief of the poor." There were, however, two or three alterations of a questionable character, which Bishop Bedell was anxious to introduce into his diocese, and which should hardly be passed without notice, constituting, as they do, memorable occurrences in the history of the Church. I allude to his diocesan synods of his clergy and his synodical canons; his indignation at the undue extent, to which in his opinion the archbishop carried the exercise of the metropolitical power over his suffragans; and his attempt to introduce a correction of abuses in the ecclesiastical courts, by going, and sitting, and judging in his own courts himself. These, indeed, are matters of history as well as of biography. But, as chiefly connected with the personal events of Bishop Bedell's life, it may suffice Diocesan synods briefly to observe, that in the first of these attempts at diocesan improvement, the legality of which was controverted at the time, he has not been imitated in subsequent periods, when convenient opportunities might have been taken, if individual bishops had judged the example fit for imitation: that, with canons. suspension of tion. Bishop acting as judge in his own court. respect to the second, the archbishop's power of Archbishop's suspending the bishop's jurisdiction in his diocese, in bishop's jurisdicthe year of the metropolitical visitation, has been constantly perpetuated without offence or molestation, though the period, during which the suspension is continued, is now, at least in practice, limited to a few weeks, instead of being extended throughout the year, as was the case when it encountered Bishop Bedell's reprobation: and that, with respect to the third particular, namely, that of the bishop's acting as judge in his own court, though at the time "the other bishops were glad at this step our bishop had made," as Bishop Burnet relates, "and encouraged him to go on resolutely in it, and assured him they would stand by him;" yet in the end, as related by the same biographer, "they did not stand by him, but were contented to let him fall under censure, without interposing in it as in a cause of common concern; and even the excellent primate told him, the tide went so high that he could assist him no more; for he stood by him longer than any other of the order had done;" and although the bishop "continued, notwithstanding his censure, to go into his court, as he had done before, and although an order was given underhand to let him go on as he had begun," it has not been subsequently deemed fitting, either by the makers or the interpreters of the laws, to confer that power on the bishops, or to declare that it belongs to them; or by the bishops, in imitation of Bedell's example, to claim that power for themselves. 1633. Early life of SECTION III. A Royal Visitation under Lord Wentworth. Report of it by Dr. Bramhall. Bishop Laud's Letter of Instructions to the Lord Deputy. Bramhall's account of the state of the Church. Growth of Protestant Sectarianism. Irregular Ordinations. Reprehensible conduct imputed to two Northern Bishops. Non-conforming Ministers. Royal visitation. IN 1633, was holden a regal visitation, of which John Bramhall, who afterwards became successively Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Armagh, was one of the commissioners, or at least one of the chief assistants and directors. Bramhall was a man of high distinction in his own country, whence he had been recently brought into Ireland by the new Lord Deputy, Thomas Viscount Wentworth, afterwards the illustrious but ill-fated Earl of Strafford. Having been educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and thence removed into Yorkshire, of which county he was a native, he had become so celebrated for a disputation with three Romish priests of the order of Jesuits, that he was appointed chaplain to the famous Primate of York, Archbishop Mathews, to whom he endeared himself by great dexterity in the conduct of ecclesiastical and civil affairs. And, after the archbishop's death, by his wisdom, eloquence, and deportment, he so gained the affections of the nobility, gentry, and commoners, of that country, that Sir Thomas Wentworth, then Lord President of York, selected him for his chaplain, and after a short time conveyed him to Ireland, as the fittest instrument to serve in the design, which for two years before his arrival he had meditated and resolved; namely, the reformation of religion, Patronized by worth. and the reparation of the broken fortunes of the Church'. visitation. Reduced reve nues of the bishopricks. In the visitation, which now ensued, the reve- Result of the nues of the Church were found to be miserably wasted, the discipline scandalously despised, and the ministers but meanly considered. The bishopricks were wretchedly dilapidated by fee-farms and long leases at small rents: granted partly by the Popish bishops in Queen Elizabeth's reign, who resolved to carry away with them as much as they could, like the wise but unjust steward, gratifying their friends, that they might receive them into their habitations; and partly by their Protestant successors, who might fear, perhaps, another turn of affairs; and, following the example of their predecessors, condescended to the same arts. By these means many bishopricks were made as low as sacrilege could make them. Cloyne was reduced to five marks; hence the bishop of that see was called "Episcopus quinque marcarum." Aghadoe and Ardfert, in the county of Kerry, were reduced respectively, the latter to about 60%. a year, and the former to 17. 1s. 8d. Of Limerick about five parts in six were made away in fee-farms or encroached on by the undertakers. Cashel, Emly, Waterford, Lismore, and Killaloe, all made the same complaint. Cork and Ross fared the best of any; a very good man, Bishop Lyon, having been placed there early in the Reformation, prevented any diminution in the revenues of those churches; and he was succeeded by two prelates of the family of the Boyles, who were distinguished by the like uprightness of character. But with this exception, "there was not," adds Bishop Vesey, the biographer of Primate Bramhall, "one bishoprick in the pro 1 WARE's Bishops, p. 118. |