A DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGION Anciently professed by the IRISH and BRITTISH By IAMES VSSHER Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of IRELAND LONDON Printed by R. Y. for the Partners of the Irish Stocke 1631. ⧠TO MY VERY MVCH HONOVRED Friend Sir Christopher Sibthorp Knight one of his Majesties Iustices of his Court of chiefe place in IRELAND WORTHY SIR I Confesse I somewhat incline to bee of your minde that if unto the authorities drawn out of Scriptures and Fathers which are common to us with others a true discoverie were added of that Religion which anciently was professed in this Kingdome it might prove a speciall motive to induce my poore country-men to consider a little better of the old and true way from whence they have hitherto been mis-ledd Yet on the one side that saying in the Gospel runneth much in my minde If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neyther will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead and on the other that heavie iudgement mentioned by the Apostle because they received not the love of the truth that they might bee saved God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve lyes The woefull experience whereof wee may see daily before our eyes in this poore nation where such as are slow of heart to beleeve the saving truth of God delivered by the Prophets and Apostles doe with all greedinesse imbrace and with a most strange kinde of credulitie entertaine those lying Legends wherewith their Monkes and Friars in these latter daies have polluted the religion and lives of our ancient Saints I doe not deny but that in this Countrey as well as in others corruptions did creep in by little and little before the Divell was let loose to procure that seduction which prevailed so generally in these last times but as farre as I can collect by such records of the former ages as have come unto my hands eyther manuscript or printed the religion professed by the ancient Bishops Priests Monks and other Christians in this land was for substance the very same with that which now by publike authoritie is maintained therein against the forraine doctrin brought in thither in later times by the Bishop of Romes followers I speake of the more substantiall points of doctrine that are in controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and us at this day by which only we must iudge whether of both sides hath departed from the religion of our Ancestors not of matters of inferiour note much lesse of ceremonies and such other things as appertaine to the discipline rather than to the doctrine of the Church And whereas it is knowne unto the learned that the name of Scoti in those elder times whereof we treate was common to the inhabitants of the greater and the lesser Scotland for so heretofore they have beene distinguished that is to say of Ireland and the famous colonie deduced from thence into Albania I will not follow the example of those that have of late laboured to make dissension betwixt the daughter and the mother but account of them both as of the same people Tros Rutulusve fuat nullo discrimine habebo The religion doubtlesse received by both was the selfe same and differed little or nothing from that which was maintained by their neighbours the Britons as by comparing the evidences that remaine both of the one nation and of the other in the ensuing discourse more fully shall appeare The chiefe Heads treated of in this discourse are these I. OF the holy Scriptures pag. 1. II. Of Predestination Grace Free-will Workes Iustification and Sanctification pag. 11. III. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead pag. 21. IIII. Of the Worship of God the publike forme of Liturgie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Lords Supper pag. 30. V. Of Chrisme Sacramentall Confession Penance Absolution Marriage Divorces and single life in the Clergie pag. 45. VI. Of the discipline of our ancient Monkes and abstinence from meats pag. 54. VII Of the Church and various state thereof especially in the dayes of Antichrist of Miracles also and of the Head of the Church pag. 66. VIII Of the Popes spirituall Iurisdiction and how little footing it had gotten at first within these parts pag. 75. IX Of the Controversie which the Britons Picts and Irish maintained against the Church of Rome touching the celebration of Easter pag. 92. X. Of the height that the opposition betwixt the Romane party and that of the Brittish and the Scottish grew unto and the abatement thereof in time and how the Doctors of the Scottish and Irish side have beene ever accounted most eminent men in the Catholike Church notwithstanding their dis-union from the Bishop of Rome pag. 105. XI Of the temporall power which the Popes followers would directly intitle him unto over the Kingdome of Ireland together with the indirect power which hee challengeth in absolving subjects from the obedience which they owe to their temporall Governours pag. 117. OF THE RELIGION PROFESSED BY THE ANCIENT IRISH. CHAP. I. Of the holy Scriptures TWo excellent rules doth St. Paul prescribe unto Christians for their direction in the waies of God the one that they be not unwise but understanding what the will of God is the other that they bee not more wise than behoveth to be wise but be wise unto sobriety and that we might know the limits within which this wisedome and sobriety should bee bounded hee elsewhere declareth that not to bee more wise than is fitting is not to be wise above that which is written Hereupon Sedulius one of the most ancient Writers that remaineth of this Country birth delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule Search the Law in which the will of God is contained and this for the later He would be more wise than is meete who searcheth those things that the Law doth not speake of Unto whom wee will adjoyne Claudius another famous Divine counted one of the founders of the University of Paris who for the illustration of the former affirmeth that men therefore erre because they know not the Scriptures and because they are ignorant of the Scriptures they consequently know not Christ who is the power of God and the wisedome of God and for the clearing of the latter bringeth in that knowne Canon of Saint Hierome This because it hath not authority from the Scriptures is with the same facility contemned wherewith it is avowed Neither was the practice of our Ancestors herein different from their judgement For as Bede touching the latter recordeth of the successors of Colum-kille the great Saint of our Country that they observed onely those workes of piety and chastity which they could learne in the Propheticall Evangelicall and Apostolicall writings so for the former hee specially noteth of one of the principall of them to wit Bishop Aidan that all such as went in his company whether they were of the Clergie or of the Laity were
respect which they ought to shew unto their Metropolitane For that the Irish had their Archbishops beside many other pregnant testimonies that might bee produced Pope Hildebrands owne Briefe doth sufficiently manifest which is directed to Terdeluachus or Tirlagh the illustrious King of Ireland the ARCHBISHOPS Bishops Abbots Nobles and all Christians inhabiting Ireland And for the Archbishops of Armagh in particular it appeareth most evidently by Bernard in the life of Malachias that they were so far from being Metropolitans and Primates in name onely that they exercised much greater authority before they were put to the charges of fetching Pals from Rome then ever they did afterward and that they did not onely consecrate Bishops but erected also new Bishopricks and Archbishopricks too sometimes according as they thought fitting We reade in Nennius that at the beginning St. Patrick founded here 365. Churches and ordained 365. Bishops beside 3000. Presbyters In processe of time the number of Bishops was daily multiplyed according to the pleasure of the Metropolitan whereof Bernard doth much complaine and that not onely so farre that every Church almost had a severall Bishop but also that in some Townes or Cities there were ordained more than one yea and oftentimes Bishops were made without any certaine place at all assigned unto them And as for the erecting of new Archbishoprickes if we beleeve our Legends King Engus and S. Patrick with all the people did ordaine that in the City and See of Albeus which is Emelye now annexed to Cashell should be the Archbishoprick of the whole Province of Mounster in like manner also Brandubh King of the Lagenians with the consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergie did appoint that in the Citie of Fernes which was the See of Moedog otherwise called Edanus should bee the Archbishopricke of all the Province of Leinster But Bernards testimony wee have no reason not to beleeve relating what was knowne to be done in his owne very time that Celsus the Archbishop of Armagh had of the new constituted another Metropoliticall See but subiect to the first See and to the Archbishop thereof By which wee may see that in the erection of new Archbishopricks and Bishopricks all things were here done at home without consulting with the See of Rome for the matter As for the nomination and confirmation of the Archbishops and Bishops themselves wee finde the manner of advancing Saint Livinus to his Archbishoprick thus laid downe by Boniface in the description of his life When Menalchus the Archbishop was dead Calomagnus the King of Scots and the troope of his Officers with the under-courtiers and the concourse of all that countrey with the same affection of heart cryed out that the holy Priest Livinus was most worthily to bee advanced unto the honour of this order The King more devout than all of them consenting thereunto three or foure times placed the blessed man in the chaire of the Archbishoprick with due honour according to the will of the Lord. In like manner also did King Ecgfrid cause our Cuthbert to be ordained Bishop of the Church of Landisfarne and King Pipin granted the Bishoprick of Salzburg to our Virgilius and Duke Gunzo would have conferred the Bishoprick of Constance upon our Gallus but that he refused it and caused another upon his recommendation to be preferred thereunto In the booke of Landaffe which is called Tilo eyther from Teliau the second Bishop of that place whose life is largely there described or rather from the place it selfe which of old was called Telio we reade that Germanus and Lupus did consecrate chiefe Doctor over all the Britons inhabiting the right side of Britanie S. Dubricius being chosen Archbishop by the King and all the Diocesse and that by the graunt of Mouric the King the Nobilitie Clergie and people they appointed his Episcopall See to bee at Landaff that Oudoceus the third Bishop after him being elected by King Mouric and the chiefe of the Clergie and Laitie of the whole Diocesse was by them sent to the Archibishop of Canterbury for his consecration that Gucaunus the 26 th Bishop of that Church was consecrated by Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury the pastorall staffe being given him in the Court by Edgar chiefe King of the English that next after him in the year 983. election being made by the Kings and the whole Clergie and people of Glamorgan and the pastorall staffe given in the Court by Ethelred chiefe King of the English Bledri was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury who is there named Albricus though in truth at the yeare here assigned Dunstan did still hold the place and that after his decease in the yeare 1022. by the election of the people and Clergie of Landaff and the Kings of the Britons namely King Riderch that reigned at that time through all Wales and Hivel the substitute of the King of Glamorgan Ioseph was consecrated Bishop by Aelnod Archbishop of Canterbury at the word of Cnut King of England in whose Court the Pastorall staffe was given unto him Here in Ireland much after the same manner M r. Campion himselfe setteth down that to the Monarch was granted a negative in the nomination of Bishops at every vocation the Clergie and Laity of the Diocesse recommending him to their King the King to the Monarch the Monarch to the Archbishop of Canterbury although this last clause bee wrongly extended by him to the Bishops of the whole land which properly belonged to the Ostmann strangers that possessed the three cities of Dublin Waterford and Limrick For these being a Colonie of the Norwegians and Livonians and so country-men to the Normans when they had seene England subdued by the Conquerour and Normans advanced to the chief archbishoprick there would needs now assume to themselves the name of Normans also and cause their Bishops to receive their consecration from no other metropolitan but the Archbishop of Canterbury And forasmuch as they were confined within the walls of their own cities the Bishops which they made had no other diocesse to exercise their jurisdiction in but onely the bare circuit of those cities Whereupon we finde a Certificate made unto Pope Innocent the third in the yeare 1216. by the Archbishop of Tuam and his suffraganes that Iohn Papiron the Legate of the Church of Rome comming into Ireland found that Dublin indeed had a Bishop but such a one as did exercise his Episcopall office within the wals onely The first Bishop which they had in Dublin as it appeareth by the Records of that Church was one Donatus or Dunanus as others call him upon whose death in the yeare 1074. Gothric their King with the consent of the Clergie and people of Dublin chose one Patrick for their Bishop and directed him into England to bee consecrated by Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury who sent
was in the relicks of the holy Martyrs and the Scriptures which they brought with them For we saw with our eyes a mayde altogether blinde opening her eyes at these relickes and a man sicke of the palsie walking and many divels cast out Thus farre he The Northren Irish and Albanian Scottish on the other side made little reckoning of the authority either of the Bishop or of the Church of Rome And therefore Bede speaking of Oswy king of Northumberland saith that notwithstanding he was brought up by the Scottish yet he understood that the Roman was the Catholike and Apostolike Church or that the Roman Church was Catholike and Apostolike intimating therby that the Scottish among whom he received his education were of another minde And long before that Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus who were sent into England by Pope Gregory to assist Austin in a letter which they sent unto the Scots that did inhabite Ireland so Bede writeth complained of the distaste given unto them by their country-men in this manner Wee knew the Britons wee thought that the Scots were better than they But wee learned by Bishop Daganus comming into this Iland and Abbot Columbanus comming into France that the Scots did differ nothing from the Britons in their conversation For Daganus the Bishop comming unto us would not take meate with us no not so much as in the same lodging wherein we did eate And as for miracles wee finde them as rife among them that were opposite to the Romane tradition as upon the other side If you doubt it reade what Bede hath written of Bishop Aidan who of what merit hee was the inward Iudge hath taught even by the tokens of miracles saith hee and Adamnanus of the life of S. Colme or Columkille Whereupon Bishop Colman in the Synod at Strenshal frameth this conclusion Is it to be beleeved that Colme our most reverend father and his successors men beloved of God which observed Easter in the same manner that wee doe did hold or doe that which was contrary to the holy Scriptures seeing there were very many among them to whose heavenly holinesse the signes and miracles which they did bare testimony whom nothing doubting to bee Saints I desist not to follow evermore their life maners and discipline What Wilfride replied to this may be seene in Bede that which I much wonder at among the many wonderfull things related of St. Colme by Adamnanus is this that where hee saith that this Saint during the time of his abode in the abbay of Clone now called Clonmacnosh did by the revelation of the holy Ghost prophesie of that discord which after many dayes arose among the Churches of Scotland or Ireland for the diversity of the feast of Easter yet hee telleth us not that the holy Ghost revealed unto him that he himselfe whose example animated his followers to stand more stiffely herein against the Romane rite was in the wrong and ought to conforme his judgment to the tradition of the Churches abroad as if the holy Ghost did not much care whether of both sides should carry the matter away in this controversie for which if you please you shall heare a very pretty tale out of an old Legend concerning this same discord whereof S. Colme is said to have prophesied Vpon a certaine time saith my Author there was a great Councell of the people of Ireland in the white field among whom there was contention about the order of Easter For Lasreanus the abbot of the monasterie of Leighlin unto whom there were subject a thousand five hundred monkes defended the new order that lately came from Rome but others defended the old This Lasreanus or Lazerianus is the man who in other Legends of no other credit than this we now have in hand is reported to have been the Bishop of Romes Legate in Ireland and is commonly accounted to have beene the first Bishop of the Church of Leighlin His principall antagonist at this meeting was one Munna founder of the monasterie which from his was called Teach-munna that is the house of Munna in the Bishoprick of Meath who would needs bring this question to the same kinde of triall here that Austin the monke is said to have done in England In defence of the Roman order Bede telleth us that Austin made this motion to the Brittish Bishops for a finall conclusion of the businesse Let us beseech God which maketh men to dwell of one mind together in their fathers house that hee will vouchsafe by some heavenly signes to make knowne unto us what tradition is to be followed and by what way wee may hasten to the entry of his kingdome Let some sicke man be brought hither and by whose prayers he shall bee cured let his faith and working be beleeved to be acceptable unto God and to bee followed by all men Now Munna who stood in defence of the order formerly used by the British and Irish maketh a more liberall proffer in this kinde and leaveth Lasreanus to his choyce Let us dispute briefly saith he but in the name of God let us give judgement Three things are given to thy choyce Lasreanus Two bookes shall be cast into the fire a booke of the old order and of the new that we may see whether of them both shall be freed from the fire Or let two Monkes one of mine and another of thine be shut up into one house and let the house be burnt and wee shall see which of them will escape untouched of the fire Or let us goe unto the grave of a just Monke that is dead and raise him up againe and let him tell us after what order wee ought to celebrate Easter this yeare But Lasreanus being wiser than so refused to put so great a matter to that hazzard and therefore returned this grave answer unto Munna if all be true that is in the Legend We will not goe unto thy judgement because we know that for the greatnesse of thy labour and holinesse if thou shouldest bid that mount Marge should bee changed into the place of the White field and the White field into the place of mount Marge God would presently doe this for thy sake So prodigall doe some make God to be of miracles and in a manner carelesse how they should fall as if in the dispensing of them he did respect the gracing of persons rather than of causes In what yeare this Councel of the White field was held is not certainely knowne nor yet whether S. Munna be that whited wall of whom wee heard Cummianus complaine The Synod of Strenshal before mentioned was assembled long after at Whitby called by the Saxons Streanesheale in Yorkeshire the yeare of our Lord DCLXIIII for the decision of the same question Concerning which in the life of Wilfrid written by one Aeddi an acquaintance of his surnamed Stephen at the commandement of Acca who in the time of Bede was Bishop of
him backe with commendatory letters aswell to the said Gothric King of the Ostmans as to Terdeluacus the chiefe King or Monarch of the Irish. Hereupon after the decease of this Patrick in the yeare 1085. the same Terdeluacus and the Bishops of Ireland joyned with the Clergie and people of Dublin in the election of Donatus one of Lanfrancs owne Monkes in Canterbury who was by him there also consecrated Then when he dyed in the yeare 1095. his nephew Samuel a monke of St. Albans but borne in Ireland was chosen Bishop in his place by Murierdach King of Ireland and the Clergie and people of the Citie by whose common decree he was also sent unto Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury for his consecration Not long after the Waterfordians following the example of the Dublinians erected a Bishoprick among themselves and sent their new Bishop to Canterburie for his consecration the manner of whose election the Clergie and people of Waterford in the letters which they wrote at that time unto Anselme doe thus intimate We and our King Murchertach and Dofnald the Bishop and Dermeth our Captain the Kings brother have made choice of this Priest Malchus a monke of Walkeline Bishop of Winchester the same man without doubt who was afterward promoted to the Bishopricke of Lismore so much commended by Bernard in the life of Malachias The last Bishop of Dublin in the yeare 1122. was sent unto Anselmes next successor for his consecration touching which I have seene this writ of King Henry the first directed unto him Henricus Rex Anglia Radulpho Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo salutem Mandavit mihi Rex Hiberniae per Breve suum Burgenses Dublinae quòd elegerunt hunc Gregorium in Episcopum eum tibi mittunt consecrandum Vndè tibi mando ut petitioni eorum satisfaciens ejus consecrationem sine dilatione expleas Teste Ranulpho Cancellario apud Windelsor Henry King of England to Ralphe Archbishop of Canterbury greeting The King of Ireland hath intimated unto mee by his writ and the Burgesses of Dublin that they have chosen this Gregory for their Bishop and send him unto you to be consecrated Wherfore I wish you that satisfying their request you performe his consecration without delay Witnesse Ranuph our Chancellour at Windsor All the Burgesses of Dublin likewise and the whole assembly of the Clergie directed their joint letters to the Archbishop of Canterburie the same time where in among other things they write thus Know you for verity that the Bishops of Ireland have great indignation toward us and that Bishop most of all that dwelleth at Armagh because we will not obey their ordination but will alwaies bee under your governement Whereby we may see that as the Ostmans were desirous to sever themselves from the Irish and to bee esteemed Normans rather so the Irish Bishops on the other side howsoever they digested in some sort the recourse which they had to Lanfranc and Anselme who were two of the most famous men in their times and with whom they themselves were desirous to hold all good correspondence yet could they not well brooke this continuation of their dependance upon a Metropolitan of another kingdome which they conceived to be somewhat derogatorie to the dignitie of their owne Primate But this jealousie continued not long for this same Gregorie being afterwards made Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishopricks here settled by Iohannes Paparo aswell they of Dublin as the others of Waterford and Limrick for they also had one Patricke consecrated Bishop unto them by Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury did ever after that time cease to have any relation unto the See of Canterbury And now to goe forward as the Kings and people of this land in those elder times kept the nomination of their Archbishops and Bishops in their own hands and depended not upon the Popes provisions that way so doe wee not finde by any approved record of antiquitie that any Visitations of the clergie were held here in the Popes name much lesse that any Indulgences were sought for by our people at his hands For as for the Charter of S. Patrick by some intituled De antiquitate Avalonicâ wherein Phaganus and Deruvianus are said to have purchased ten or thirtie yeares of Indulgences from Pope Eleutherius and St. Patrick himselfe to have procured twelve yeares in his time from Pope Celestinus it might easily bee demonstrated if this were a place for it that it is a meere figment devised by the Monkes of Glastenbury Neyther doe I well know what credit is to bee given unto that stragling sentence which I finde ascribed unto the same authour If any questions doe arise in this Iland let them bee referred to the See Apostolick or that other decree attributed to Auxilius Patricius Secundinus and Benignus Whensoever any cause that is very difficult and unknown unto all the Iudges of the Scottish nations shall arise it is rightly to bee referred to the See of the Archbishop of the Irish to wit Patrick and to the examination of the Prelate thereof But if there by him and his wisemen a cause of this nature cannot easily be made up wee have decreed it shall bee sent to the See Apostolick that is to say to the chaire of the Apostle Peter which hath the authoritie of the City of Rome Onely this I will say that as it is most likely that St. Patrick had a speciall regard unto the Church of Rome from whence he was sent for the conversion of this Iland so if I my selfe had lived in his daies for the resolution of a doubtful question I should as willingly have listened to the judgement of the Church of Rome as to the determination of any Church in the whole world so reverend an estimation have I of the integritie of that Church as it stood in those good daies But that St. Patrick was of opinion that the Church of Rome was sure ever afterward to continue in that good estate and that there was a perpetuall priviledge annexed unto that See that it should never erre in judgment or that the Popes sentences were alway to bee held as infallible Oracles that will I never beleeve sure I am that my countrey-men after him were of a farre other beleefe who were so farre from submitting themselves in this sort to whatsoever should proceed from the See of Rome that they oftentimes stood out against it when they had little cause so to doe For proofe whereof I need to seeke no further than to those very allegations which have been lately urged for maintenance of the supremacie of the Pope and Church of Rome in this Countrey First M r. Coppinger commeth upon us with this wise question Was not Ireland among other Countries absolved from the Pelagian heresie by the Church of Rome as Cesar Baronius writeth then hee setteth downe the copie of S. Gregories epistle in answer unto the
But shortly after the opposition betwixt these two sides grew to be so great that our Cuthbert Bishop of Lindisfarne upon his death-bed required his followers that they should hold no communion with them which did swerve from the unity of the Catholicke peace eyther by not celebrating Easter in his due time or by living perversly and that they should rather take up his bones and remove their place of habitation than any way condescend to submit their neckes unto the yoke of schismatickes For the further maintaining of which breach also there were certaine decrees made both by the Romanes and by the Saxons that were guided by their institution One of the instructions that the Romans gave them was this You must beware that causes bee not referred to other Provinces or Churches which use another manner and another religion whether to the Iewes which doe serve the shadow of the Law rather than the truth or to the Britons who are contrary unto all men and have cut themselves off from the Romane manner and the unitie of the Church or to Heretickes although they should bee learned in Ecclesiasticall causes and well studied And among the decrees made by some of the Saxon Bishops which were to bee seene in the Library of Sir Thomas Knevet in Northfolke and are still I suppose preserved there by his heire this is laid downe for one Such as have received ordination from the Bishops of the Scots or Brittaines who in the matter of Easter and Tonsure are not united unto the Catholicke Church let them bee againe by imposition of hands confirmed by a Catholicke Bishop In like manner also let the Churches that have beene ordered by those Bishops be sprinkled with exorcized water and confirmed with some service Wee have no licence also to give unto them Chrisme or the Eucharist when they require it unlesse they doe first professe that they will remaine with us in the unity of the Church And such likewise as eyther of their nation or of any other shall doubt of their baptism let them be baptized Thus did they On the other side how averse the Brittish and the Irish were from having any communion with those of the Romane party the complaint of Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus before specified doth sufficiently manifest And the answer is well knowne which the seven Brittish Bishops and many other most learned men of the same nation did return unto the propositions made unto them by Austin the Monk who was sent unto their parts with authority from Rome that they would perform none of them nor at all adneit him for their Archbishop The Welsh Chroniclers do further relate that Dinot the Abbot of Bangor produced diverse arguments at that time to shew that they did owe him no subjection and this among others Wee are under the government of the Bishop of Kaer-leon upon Vske who under God is to oversee us and cause us to keepe the way spirituall and Gotcelinus Bertinianus in the life of Austin that for the authority of their ceremonies they did alledge that they were not onely delivered unto them by Saint Eleutherius the Pope their first instructer at the first infancie almost of the Church but also hitherto observed by their holy fathers who were the friends of God and followers of the Apostles and therefore they ought not to change them for any new dogmatists But above all others the Brittish Priests that dwelt in West-wales abhorred the communion of these new dogmatists above all measure as Aldhelme Abbot of Malmesbury declareth at large in his Epistle sent to Geruntius King of Cornwall where among many other particulars hee sheweth that if any of the Catholickes for so he calleth those of his owne side did goe to dwell among them they would not vouchsafe to admit them unto their company and society before they first put them to forty dayes penance Yea even to this day saith Bede who wrote his history in the yeere DCCXXXI it is the manner of the Brittons to hold the faith and the religion of the English in no account at all nor to communicate with them in any thing more than with Pagans Whereunto those Verses of Taliessyn honoured by the Britons with the title of Ben Beirdh that is the chiefe of the Bardes or Wisemen may bee added which shew that hee wrote after the comming of Austin into England and not 50. or 60. yeeres before as others have imagined Gwae'r offeiriad byd Nys engreifftia gwyd Ac ny phregetha Gwae ny cheidw ey gail Ac ef yn vigail Ac nys areilia Gwae ny cheidw ey dheuaid Rhac bleidhie Rhufeniaid A'iffon gnwppa Wo be to that Priest yborne That will not cleanly weed his corne And preach his charge among Wo be to that shepheard I say That will not watch his fold alway As to his office doth belong Wo be to him that doth not keepe From Romish wolves his sheepe With staffe and weapon strong As also those others of Mantuan which shew that some tooke the boldnesse to taxe the Romans of folly impudencie and stolidity for standing so much upon matters of humane institution that for the not admitting of them they would breake peace there where the Law of God and the Doctrine first delivered by Christ and his Apostles was safely kept and maintained Adde quod patres ausi taxare Latinos Causabantur eos stultè imprudenter aequo Duriùs ad ritum Romae voluisse Britannos Cogere antiquum tam praecipitanter amorem Tam stolido temerâsse ausu Concedere Roma Debuit aiebant potiùs quà m rumpere pacem Humani quae juris erant modò salva maneret Lex divina fides Christi doctrina Senatus Quam primus tulit ore suo quia tradita ab ipso Christo erat humanae doctore lumine vitae By all that hath been said the vanity of Osullevan may be seene who feigneth the Northren Irish together with the Picts and the Britons to have beene so obsequious unto the Bishop of Rome that they reformed the celebration of Easter by them formerly used as soone as they understood what the rite of the Romane Church was Whereas it is knowne that after the declaration thereof made by Pope Honorius and the Clergie of Rome the Northren Irish were nothing moved therewith but continued still their owne tradition And therfore Bede findeth no other excuse for Bishop Aidan herein but that eyther hee was ignorant of the canonicall time or if he knew it that he was so overcome with the authority of his owne nation that he did not follow it that he did it after the manner of his owne nation and that hee could not keepe Easter contrary to the custome of them which had sent him His successor Finan contended more fiercely in the businesse with Ronan his countryman and declared himselfe an open adversary to the Romane rite Colman that
you see what a goodly title here is in the meane time First the Donation of Constantine hath been long since discovered to be a notorious forgerie and is rejected by all men of judgement as a senslesse fiction Secondly in the whole context of this forged Donation I find mention made of Ilands in one place only where no more power is given to the Church of Rome over them than in generall over the whole Continent by East and by West by North and by South and in particular over Iudaea Graecia Asia Thracia and Aphrica which use not to passe in the account of St. Peters temporall patrimonie Thirdly it doth not appeare that Constantine himselfe had any interest in the Kingdome of Ireland how then could hee conferre it upon another Some words there be in an oration of Eumenius the Rhetorician by which peradventure it may bee collected that his father Constantius bare some stroke here but that the Iland was ever possessed by the Romanes or accounted a parcell of the Empire cannot be proved by any sufficient testimonie of antiquitie Fourthly the late writers that are of another mind as Pomponius Laetus Cuspinian and others doe yet affirme withall that in the division of the Empire after Constantines death Ireland was assigned unto Constantinus the eldest sonne which will hardly stand with this donation of the Ilands supposed to bee formerly made unto the Bishop of Rome and his successors Pope Adrian therefore and Iohn of Salisbury his sollicitor had need seeke some better warrant for the title of Ireland than the Donation of Constantine Iohn Harding in his Chronicle saith that the Kings of England have right To Ireland also by King Henry le fitz Of Maude daughter of first King Henry That conquered it for their great heresie which in another place he expresseth more at large in this manner The King Henry then conquered all Ireland By Papall dome there of his royaltee The profits and revenues of the land The domination and the soveraigntee For errour which agayn the spiritualtee They held full long and would not been correct Of heresies with which they were infect Philip Osullevan on the other side doth not only deny that Ireland was infected with any heresie but would also have us beleeve that the Pope never intended to conferre the Lordship of Ireland upon the Kings of England For where it is said in Pope Adrians Bull Let the people of that land receive thee and reverence thee as a Lord the meaning thereof is saith this Glozer Let them reverence thee as a Prince worthy of great honour not as Lord of Ireland but as a Deputie appointed for the collecting of the Ecclesiasticall tribute It is true indeed that King Henry the second to the end hee might the more easily obtaine the Popes good wil for his entring upon Ireland did voluntarily offer unto him the payment of a yearely pension of one penny out of every house in the countrey which for ought that I can learne was the first Ecclesiasticall tribute that ever came unto the Popes coffers out of Ireland But that King Henry got nothing else by the bargaine but the bare office of collecting the Popes Smoke-silver for so wee called it here when wee payed it is so dull a conceit that I doe somewhat wonder how Osullevan himselfe could be such a blocke-head as not to discerne the senselesnesse of it What the King sought for and obtained is sufficiently declared by them that writ the historie of his reigne In the yeare of our Lord MCLV. the first Bull was sent unto him by Pope Adrian the summe whereof is thus laid down in a second Bull directed unto him by Alexander the third the immediate successor of the other Following the stepps of reverend Pope Adrian and attending the fruit of your desire we ratifie and confirme his grant concerning the dominion of the KINGDOME of Ireland conferred upon you reserving unto St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome as in England so in Ireland the yearely pension of one penny out of every house In this sort did Pope Adrian as much as lay in him give Ireland unto King Henry haereditario jure possidendam to bee possessed by right of inheritance withall sent unto him a ring of gold set with a faire Emerauld for his investiture in the right thereof as Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was the principall agent betwixt them both in this businesse doth expresly testifie After this in the year MCLXXI the King himselfe came hither in person where the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland received him for their KING and Lord. The King saith Iohn Brampton received letters from every Archbishop and Bishop with their seales hanging upon them in the manner of an Indenture confirming the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres and bearing witnesse that they in Ireland had ordained him and his heyres to bee their KINGS and Lords for ever At Waterford saith Roger Hoveden all the Archbishops Bishops and Abbots of Ireland came unto the King of England and received him for KING and Lord of Ireland swearing fealty to him and to his heyres and power to reigne over them for ever and hereof they gave him their Instruments The Kings also and Princes of Ireland by the example of the Clergie did in like manner receive Henry King of England for Lord and KING of Ireland and became his men or did him homage and swore fealty to him and his heyres against all men These things were presently after confirmed in the Nationall Synod held at Casshell the Acts whereof in Giraldus Cambrensis are thus concluded For it is fit and most meet that as Ireland by Gods appointment hath gotten a Lord and a KING from England so also they should from thence receive a better forme of living King Henry also at the same time sent a transcript of the Instruments of all the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland unto Pope Alexander who by his Apostolicall authority for so was it in those dayes of darknesse esteemed to bee did confirme the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres according to the forme of the Instruments of the Archbishops Bishops of Ireland and made them KINGS thereof for ever The King also obtained further from Pope Alexander that it might bee lawfull for him to make which of his sonnes hee pleased KING of Ireland and to crowne him accordingly and to subdue the Kings and great ones of that land which would not subject themselves unto him Whereupon in a grand Councell held at Oxford in the yeere of our Lord MCLXXVII before the Bishops and Peeres of the Kingdome hee constituted his sonne Iohn KING of Ireland according to that grant and confirmation of Pope Alexander And to make the matter yet more sure in the yeere MCLXXXVI hee obtained a new licence from Pope Vrban the third that one of