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
his sonnes whom hee himselfe would should bee crowned for the KINGDOME of Ireland And this the Pope did not onely confirme by his Bull but also the yeere following purposely sent over Cardinall Octavian and Hugo de Nunant or Novant his Legates into Ireland to crowne Iohn the Kings sonne there By all this wee may see how farre King Henry the second proceeded in this businesse which I doe not so much note to convince the stolidity of Osullevan who would faine perswade fooles that he was preferred onely to bee collector of the Popes Peter-pence as to shew that Ireland at that time was esteemed a Kingdome and the Kings of England accounted no lesse than Kings thereof And therefore Paul the fourth needed not make all that noyse and trouble the whole Court of heaven with the matter when in the yeere MDLV he tooke upon him by his Apostolicall authority such I am sure as none of the Apostles of Christ did ever assume unto themselves to erect Ireland unto the title and dignity of a Kingdome Whereas hee might have found even in his owne Romane Provinciall that Ireland was reckoned among the Kingdomes of Christendome before hee was borne Insomuch that in the yeere MCCCCXVII when the Legates of the King of England and the French Kings Ambassadours fell at variance in the Councell of Constance for precedencie the English Orators among other arguments alledged this also for themselves It is well knowne that according to Albertus Magnus and Bartholomaeus in his booke De proprietatibus rerum the whole world being divided into three parts to wit Asia Africk and Europe Europe is divided into foure Kingdomes namely the Romane for the first the Constantinopolitane for the second the third the Kingdome of Ireland which is now translated unto the English and the fourth the Kingdome of Spain Whereby it appeareth that the King of England and his Kingdome are of the more eminent ancient Kings and Kingdomes of all Europe which prerogative the Kingdome of France is not said to obtaine And this have I here inserted the more willingly because it maketh something for the honour of my Country to which I confesse I am very much devoted and in the printed Acts of the Councell it is not commonly to be had But now commeth forth Osullevan againe and like a little furie flyeth upon the English-Irish Priests of his owne religion which in the late rebellion of the Earle of Tirone did not deny that Hellish doctrine fetcht out of Hell for the destruction of Catholickes that it is lawfull for Catholickes to beare armes and fight for Heretickes against Catholickes and their country or rather if you will have it in plainer termes that it is lawfull for them of the Romish Religion to beare armes and fight for their Soveraigne and fellow-subjects that are of another profession against those of their own religion that trayterously rebell against their Prince and Country and to shew how madde and how venemous a doctrine they did bring these bee the caitiffes owne termes that exhorted the laitie to follow the Queens side he setteth downe the censure of the Doctors of the University of Salamanca and Vallodilid published in the yeere MDCIII for the justification of that Rebellion and the declaration of Pope Clement the eights letters touching the same wherein he signifieth that the English ought to be set upon no lesse than the Turkes and imparteth the same favours unto such as set upon them that hee doth unto such as fight against the Turkes Such wholesome directions doth the Bishop of Rome give vnto those that will be ruled by him far different I wisse from that holy doctrine wherewith the Church of Rome was at first seasoned by the Apostles Let every soule bee subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God was the lesson that S. Paul taught to the ancient Romanes Where if it bee demanded whether that power also which persecuteth the servants of God impugneth the faith and subverteth religion be of God our countryman Sedulius will teach us to answer with Origen that even such a power as that is given of God for the revenge of the evill and the praise of the good although he were as wicked as eyther Nero among the Romans or Herod among the Iewes the one whereof most cruelly persecuted the Christians the other Christ himselfe And yet when the one of them swayed the scepter Saint Paul told the Christian Romanes that they must needes be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and of the causelesse feare of the other these Verses of Sedulius are solemnly sung in the Church of Rome even unto this day Herodes hostis impie Christum venire quid times Non eripit mortalia Qui regna dat coelestia Why wicked Herod dost thou feare And at Christs comming frowne The mortall he takes not away That gives the heavenly crowne a better paraphrase whereof you cannot have than this which Claudius hath inserted into his Collections upon St. Matthew That King which is borne doth not come to overcome Kings by fighting but to subdue them after a wonderfull manner by dying neither is he borne to the end that hee may succeed thee but that the world may faithfully beleeve in him For he is come not that hee may fight being alive but that hee may triumph being slaine nor that he may with gold get an armie unto himselfe out of other nations but that hee may shed his precious bloud for the saving of the nations Vainly didst thou by envying feare him to beâ— thy successor whom by beleeving thou oughtest to seeke as thy Saviour because if thou diddest beleeve in him thou shouldest reigne with him and as thou hast received a temporall kingdome from him thou shouldest also receive from him an everlasting For the kingdome of this Childe is not of this world but by him it is that men do reign in this world He is the Wisedome of God which saith in the Proverbs By mee Kings reigne This Childe is the Word of God this Childe is the Power and Wisedome of God If thou canst thinke against the Wisedome of God thou workest thine owne destruction and dost not know it For thou by no meanes shouldest have had thy kingdome unlesse thou hadst received it from that Childe which now is borne As for the Censure of the Doctors of Salamanca and Vallodilid our Nobility and Gentry by the faithfull service which at that time they performed unto the Crowne of England did make a reall confutation of it Of whose fidelity in this kinde I am so well perswaded that I doe assure my selfe that neither the names of Franciscus Zumel and Alphonsus Curiel how great Schoole-men soever they were nor of the Fathers of the Society Iohannes de Ziguenza Emanuel de Roias and Gaspar de Mena nor of the Pope himselfe upon whose sentence they wholly ground
of Liturgie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Lords Supper TOuching the worship of God Sedulius delivereth this generall rule that to adore any other beside the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost is the crime of impiety and that all that the soule oweth unto God if it bestow it upon any beside God it committeth adultery More particularly in the matter of Images hee reproveth the wise men of the heathen for thinking that they had found out a way how the invisible God might bee worshipped by a visible image with whom also accordeth Claudius that God is to bee knowne neither in mettall nor in stone and for Oathes there is a Canon ascribed to Saint Patricke wherein it is determined that no creature is to bee sworne by but onely the Creator As for the forme of the Litugrie or publicke service of God which the same St. Patrick brought into this country it is said that hee received it from Germanus and Lupus and that it originally descended from S. Marke the Evangelist for so have I seene it set downe in an ancient fragment written wellnigh 900. yeeres since remaining now in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton my worthy friend who can never sufficiently bee commended for his extraordinary care in preserving all rare monuments of this kinde Yea St. Hieromes authority is there vouched for proofe hereof Beatus Hieronymus adfirmat quòd ipsum cursum qui dicitur praesente tempore Scottorum beatus Marcus decantaâ—it which being not now to bee found in any of Saint Hieroms workes the truth thereof I leave unto the credit of the reporter But whatsoever Liturgie was used here at first this is sure that in the succeeding ages no one generall forme of divine service was retained but diverse rites and manners of celebrations were observed in diverse parts of this Kingdome untill the Romane use was brought in at last by Gillebertus and Malachias and Christianus who were the Popes Legates here about 500. yeeres agoe This Gillebertus an old acquaintance of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury in the Prologue of his booke De usu Ecclesiastico directed to the whole Clergie of Ireland writeth in this manner At the request yea and at the command of many of you dearely beloved I endevoured to set downe in writing the Canonicall custome in saying of Houres and performing the Office of the whole Ecclesiasticall Order not presumptuously but in desire to serve your most godly command to the end that those diverse and schismaticall Orders wherewith in a manner all Ireland is deluded may give place to one Catholicke and Romane Office For what may bee said to bee more undecent or schismaticall than that the most learned in one order should bee made as a private and lay man in another mans Church These beginnings were presently seconded by Malachias in whose life written by Bernard wee reade as followeth The Apostolicall constitutions and the decrees of the holy Fathers but especially the customes of the holy Church of Rome did he establish in all Churches And hence it is that at this day the Canonicall Houres are chanted and sung therein according to the manner of the whole earth whereas before that this was not done no not in the Citie it selfe the poore city of Ardmagh he meaneth But Malachias had learned song in his youth and shortly after caused singing to be used in his own Monasterie when as yet aswell in the citie as in the whole Bishoprick they eyther knew not or would not sing Lastly the worke was brought to perfection when Christianus Bishop of Lismore as Legate to the Pope was President in the Councell of Casshell wherein a speciall order was taken for the right singing of the Ecclesiasticall Office and a generall act established that all divine offices of holy Church should from thenceforth be handled in all parts of Ireland according as the Church of England dâ—d observe them The statutes of which Councell were confirmed by the Regall authoritie of King Henry the second by whose mandate the Bishops that met therein were assembled in the yeare of our Lord 1171. as Giraldus Cambrensis witnesseth in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland And thus late was it before the Romane use was fully settled in this Kingdome That the Britons used another manner in the administration of the Sacrament of Baptisme than the Romanes did appeareth by the proposition made unto them by Austin the Monke that they should performe the ministerie of baptisme according to the custome of the Church of Rome That their forme of Liturgie was the same with that which was received by their neighbours the Galls is intimated by the Author of that ancient fragment before alledged who also addeth that the Gallican Order was received in the Church throughout the whole world Yet elsewhere doe I meete with a sentence alledged out of Gildas that the Britons were contrary to the whole world and enemies to the Roman customes aswell in their Masse as in their Tonsure Where to let passe what I have collected touching the difference of these tonsures as a matter of very small moment eyther way and to speake somewhat of the Masse for which so great adoe is now adayes made by our Romanists wee may observe in the first place that the publike Liturgie or service of the Church was of old named the Masse even then also when prayers only were said without the celebration of the holy Communion So the last Masse that S. Colme was ever present at is noted by Adamnanus to have beene vespertinalis Dominica noctis Missa He dyed the mid-night following whence the Lords day tooke his beginning 9â— viz. Iunii Anno Dom. 597. according to the account of the Romanes which the Scottish and Irish seeme to have begunne from the evening going before and then was that evening-Masse said which in all likelihood differed not from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Leo the Emperour in his Tacticks that is to say from that which we call Even-song or Evening prayer But the name of the Masse was in those daies more specially applied to the administration fo the Lords Supper therfore in the same Adamnanus we see that Sacra Eucharistiae ministeria and Missarum solemnia the sacred ministerie of the Eucharist and the solemnities of the Masse are taken for the same thing So likewise in the relation of the passages that concerne the obsequies of Columbanus performed by Gallus and Magnoaldus we finde that Missam celebrare and Missas agere is made to be the same with Divina celebrare mysteria and Salutis hostiam or salutare sacrificium immolare the saying of Masse the same with the celebration of the divine mysteries and the oblation of the healthfull sacrifice for by that terme was the administration of the sacrament of the Lords Supper at that time usually designed For as in
Hangustald or Hexham in Northumberland we reade thus Vpon a certaine time in the daies of Colman metropolitan Bishop of the citie of Yorke Oswi and Alhfrid his sonne being Kings the Abbots and Priests and all the degrees of Ecclesiasticall orders meeting together at the monastery which is called Streaneshel in the presence of Hilde the most godly mother of that abbey in presence also of the Kings and the two Bishops Colman and Aegelberht inquiry was made touching the observation of Easter what was most right to bee held whether Easter should bee kept according to the custome of the Brittous and the Scots and all the Northren part upon the Lords day that came from the XIIII day of the Moone untill the XX. or whether it were better that Easter Sunday should bee celebrated from the XV. day of the Moone untill the XXI after the manner of the See Apostolick Time was given unto Bishop Colman in the first place as it was fit to deliver his reason in the audience of all Who with an undaunted minde made his answer and said Our fathers and their predecessors who were manifestly inspired by the holy Ghost as Columkille was did ordaine that Easter should be celebrated upon the Lords day that fell upon the XIIII Moone following the example of Iohn the Apostle and Evangelist who leaned upon the breast of our Lord at his last Supper and was called the lover of the Lord. Hee celebrated Easter upon the XIIII day of the Moone and wee with the same confidence celebrate the same as his Disciples Polycarpus and others did neyther dare wee for our parts neyther will wee change this Bede relateth his speech thus This Easter which I use to observe I received from my elders who did send me Bishop hither which all our fathers men beloved of God are knowne to have celebrated after the same manner Which that it may not seeme unto any to bee contemned and rejected it is the same which the blessed Evangelist Iohn the disciple specially beloved by our Lord with all the Churches whech he did oversee is read to have celebrated Fridegodus a who wrote the life of Wilfrid at the command of Odo Archbishop of Canterbury expresseth the same Verse after this manner Nos seriem patriam non frivola scripta tenemus Discipulo eusebit Polycarpo dante Iohannis Ille etenim bis septenae sub tempore Phoebae Sanctum praefixit nobis fore Pascha colendum Atque nefas dixit si quis contraria sentit On the contrary side Wilfrid objected unto Colman and his Clerkes of Ireland that they with their complices the Pictes and the Brittons out of the two utmost Iles and those not whole neyther did with a foolish labour fight against the whole world And if that Columb of yours saith he yea and ours also if hee were Christs was holy and powerfull in vertues could hee bee preferred before the most blessed Prince of the Apostles unto whom the Lord said Thou art Peter and upon this rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it and I will give unto thee the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Which last words wrought much upon the simplicitie of King Oswy who feared that when hee should come to the doores of the kingdome of heaven there would bee none to open if hee were displeased who was proved to keepe the keyes but prevailed nothing with Bishop Colman who for the feare of his countrey as Stephen in the life of Wilfrid writeth contemned the tonsure and the observation of Easter used by the Romanes and taking with him such as would follow him that is to say such as would not receive the Catholike Easter and the tonsure of the crown for of that also there was then no small question returned back againe into Scotland CHAP. X. Of the height that the opposition betwixt the Romane party and that of the Brittish and 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 IN Colmans roome Wilfrid was chosen Archbishop of Yorke who had learned at Rome from Archdeacon Boniface the course of Easter which the schismaticks of Brittaine and Ireland did not know so goe the words of Stephen the ancient writer of his life and afterward did brag that hee was the first which did teach the true Easter in Northumberland having cast out the Scots which did ordaine the Ecclesiasticall songs to bee parted on sides and which did command S. Benets rule to be observed by Monkes But when he was named to the Archbishopricke he refused it at the first as William of Malmesbury relateth lest he should receive his consecration from the Scottish Bishops or from such as the Scots had ordained whose communion the Apostolike See had rejected The speech which he used to this purpose unto the Kings that had chosen him is thus laid downe by Stephen the writer of his life O my honourable Lords the Kings it is necessary for us by all meanes providently to consider how with your election I may by the helpe of God come to the degree of a Bishop without the accusation of catholike men For there be many Bishops here in Brittaine none of whom it is my part to accuse ordained within these foureteene yeares by the Brittons and Scots whom neyther the See Apostolicke hath received into her communion nor yet such as consent with the schâ—smaticks And therefore in my humility I request of you that you would send me with your warrant beyond the Sea into the countrey of France where many Catholike Bishops are to be had that without any controversie of the Apostolike See I may be counted meet though unworthy to receive the degree of a Bishop While Wilfrid protracted time beyond the Seas King Oswy ledde by the advice of the Quartadecimans so they injuriously nicknamed the Brittish and Irish that did celebrate Easter from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of the moone appointed a most religious servant of God and an admirable Doctor that came from Ireland named Ceadda to be ordained Bishop of Yorke in his roome Constituunt etenim perverso canone Coeddam Moribus acclinem doctrinae robore fortem Praesulis eximij servare cubilia sicque Audacter vivo sponsam rapuere marito saith Fridegodus This Ceadda being the scholler of Bishop Aidan was far otherwise affected to the Brittish and Irish than Wilfrid was and therefore was content to receive his ordination from Wini Bishop of the West-Saxons and tow other Brittish Bishops that were of the Quartadeciman partie For at that time as Bede noteth there was not in all Brittaine any Bishop canonically ordained that is to say by such as were of the communion of the Church of Rome except that Wini only