Prohibited times of marriage. Character of the alterations. A preferable mode. Relative posi tion of the two Churches. And by the 49th, persons were directed to marry, "neither in the time of Lent, nor of any publick fast, nor of the solemn festivities of the nativity, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, or of the descension of the Holy Ghost." That these additions, considered in their application to the state of religion in Ireland, were generally improvements to the English canons, may be readily admitted: that the omissions likewise were improvements, may be questioned at least, perhaps denied. Nor can I think that any good purpose was answered by the dismemberment and reconstruction of the entire body upon a different plan. If the object was to maintain the independence and free agency of the Irish Church, that object might have been attained by appending to the English canons, or interweaving with them, such additions as appeared requisite for national purposes, and then adopting the code, in pursuance of Bishop Bramhall's proposal, in its original form, with those additions. Such a code would have been more complete in itself, and better fitted for preserving that unity of Christian profession, which was avowedly manifested by the adoption of the English Articles, than by rejecting some of the English canons, and new-modelling the whole. For, whilst the wisdom of these objections is by no means palpable or indisputable, the new-modelling of the code gives an appearance of discrepancy, which really does not exist. I have judged it expedient to go into some detail on this subject. And the reader may thus be made aware of the general agreement between the two Churches, in their Canons as well as in their Articles; and better apprehend the position of the Church of Ireland after the accomplishment of these important acts of legislation. Congratulatory letter from Arch Archbishop Thus various affairs of no small difficulty and delicacy, and deeply affecting the character and well- bishop Laud to being of the Church, were finally completed: and the Lord Primate had soon afterwards the satisfaction of receiving the following letter of congratulation from the Archbishop of Canterbury. "Salutem in Christo. "My very good Lord, "I thank you heartily for your letters; and am as heartily glad that your parliament and convocation are so happily ended, especially for the Church; and that, both for the particular of your letting leases, which is for maintenance, and for the quiet, and well ordering, and ending of your book of canons. I hope now the Church of Ireland will begin to flourish again, and that both with inward sufficiency and outward means to support it. May 10, 1635. Prospects of benefit to the Church. the canons; tion. "And for your canons, to speak truth, and with wonted His opinion of liberty and prudence, though I cannot but think the English canons, especially with some few amendments, would have done better; yet since you, and that Church, have thought otherwise, I do very easily submit to it, and you shall have my prayers, that God would bless it. As for the particular And of subscripabout subscription, I think you have couched that well, since, as it seems, there was some necessity to carry that article closely. And God forbid you should, upon any occasion, have rolled back upon your former controversy about the Articles. For, if you should have risen from this convention in heat, God knows when or how that church would have cooled again, had the cause of difference been never so slight. By which means the Romanist, which is too strong a party already, would both have strengthened, and made a scorn of you. And therefore ye Cause of thankare much bound to God that, in this nice and picked age, you have ended all things canonically, and yet in peace. And I hope you will be all careful to continue and fulness to God. Letter from Sir G. Radcliffe to hall, September Alarm at the publication of the Canons. maintain that which God hath thus mercifully bestowed upon you. "Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother, "Lambeth, May 10, 1635." But if these proceedings were an occasion of thankfulness and congratulation to the Church and her friends, they produced different sentiments in her enemies. This appeared on their publication in the ensuing autumn. For in a letter from Sir George Radcliffe, principal secretary to the Lord Deputy, Dublin Castle, September 22, 1635, he observes to the Bishop of Derry, "The Canons are published in print this week and by occasion of speaking thereof, here is a panick fear risen in this town, as if a new persecution, so they call it, were instantly to be set on foot. Here is also much talk of a book, newly come over, out of England, printed at Cambridge. The author, a country ministry, styles himself priest; and of five treatises which the book contains, one is, that charity is to be preferred before faith, hope, or knowledge: another, that Antichrist is yet to come: and a third, that the law of God, as it is qualified in the Gospel, may be performed in this life. This startles a Puritan as much as the Canons do a Papist"." 11 Rawdon Papers, p. 23. SECTION VI. Measures for improving the Temporalties of the Church. Bishop Bramhall's valuable services, Petition from the Clergy in Convocation, 1636. Improvements relative to the Clergy and Church Service. Repair of Cathedrals. Final sentence of deposition by Bishop Echlin on the Nonconforming Ministers. Henry Leslie, bishop of Down and Connor. Fice of the Clergy of that Diocese refuse to subscribe to the Canons. The Bishop's solicitude to retain them in the Church. His Visitation Sermon, 1636. His conference with the Dissentients, and sentence upon them. His exemplary conduct. IN pursuance of the Acts of Parliament, recounted in the last section, and with the support of the Lord Deputy, means were promptly taken for improving the temporalties of the Church. The Bishop of Derry was employed for this useful purpose: and Sir James Ware, or rather Mr. Harris, bears the following honourable testimony to the zeal and efficacy with which he executed his undertaking. hall's valuable services. "The foundations being laid, the bishop immediately Bishop Bramapplied himself to the building, which he carried up with incredible expedition. The fee-farms and impropriations stuck like ivy to the old walls, and it was hard to separate them. In all the numerous controversies arising from thence, he was the moderator to state the rents, and compromise the whole differences; generally by consent of parties, sometimes by order from the council-table, which then determined many matters, especially where forms and niceties had rendered the laws incompetent for that end. "But, to carry on the work with effect, he recommended able and prudent persons to the Lord Deputy for the higher preferments of the Church. Dean Sing was made Bishop of Cloyne, of which he soon gave a good account, and raised every mark of the revenue to an hundred Fit persons re commended for high prefer ments. Improvement of the primacy. Letter from Bramhall. pounds; and Dean Lesly was made Bishop of Down and Connor both prelates of parts and learning." To these specifick instances of Bishop Bramhall's profitable exertions, Sir JAMES WARE'S History adds the following, in correspondence with his Life by Bishop VESEY. "It would be an endless labour to be particular in all the services he did the Church. I shall mention only one instance of what he did in this sort, in relation to the primacy, as it appears in a letter from Archbishop Ussher to him, dated the 25th of February, 1635, not a year after the statute had passed. I find,' says he, by the catalogue of Ussher to Bishop compositions, that the augmentation of the rents of this see amounteth to 7351. 48. 4d. 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 honour the memory of the Lord Deputy, and yours, whom God hath used as an instrument to bring this work to such perfection.' If," observes the biographer, "so great an improvement was made in this one see, by the surrendering of fee-farms, and compositions for the rents, and that this was only the half of his journey, what may we judge was done by him through the kingdom1?" Benefits pro cured for the inferior clergy. Forwarded by the King. By the Lord But they were not the episcopal revenues only, which were improved by Bishop Bramhall. "He was not less industrious or successful," continues the same writer, "in behalf of the inferior clergy, whose case he often lamented, and often singly sustained. He obtained for them some few impropriations, by power of reason and persuasion; more by the law; but most of all by purchase. The king's example was of great influence upon the occasion. He had by his letter restored all impropriate tythes, as fast as the leases should expire. The Lord Deputy, in pursuance thereof, restored several livings kept by his predecessors for their provisions, reserving something to be annually paid out of them for that end; and this noble precedent had its influence on some of the 1 WAKE'S Bishops, p. 120. VESEY's Life of Bramhall. |