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
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
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