THE LIFE

OF

BISHOP BEDELL

WILLIAM BEDEL L was born at Black-Notley, in Essex, in the year 157O. He was the younger son of an ancient and good family. He was sent to Emanuel College, in Cambridge, and put under the care of DR. CHADDERTON, the famous Head of that House. And here all those extraordinary things, which rendered him afterwards so conspicuous, began to show themselves in such a manner, that, he came to have a very eminent character both for learning and piety so that appeals were often made to him, as differences or controversies arose in the University. He was put into Holy Orders by the Bishop-Suffragan of Colchester. In 1593 he was chosen Fellow of the College, and took his Degree of Bachelor of Divinity in the year 1599.

From the University he was removed to St. Edmund's-bury, in Suffolk, where he served long in the Gospel, with great success; the opening of dark passages, and comparing many texts of Scripture, together with a serious and practical application of them, being the chief subject of his sermons. He had an occasion, not long after his settlement in this charge, to show how little he. either courted preferment, or was afraid of great men. For when the BISHOP of NORWIED proposed some things to his Clergy, with which they Were generally dissatisfied, though they had not resolution enough to oppose them, he took that - hard province upon himself; and did it with so much strength of reason, as well as discretion, that many of those things were let fall: upon which, when his brethren magnified him for it, he checked them, and said, that he desired not the praises of men. His reputation was so well established, both in the University and in Suffolk, that

when KING JAMES sent SIR HENRY WOTTON as Ambassador to Venice, at the time of the Interdict, he was recommended as the fittest man to go as Chaplain in so critical a conjuncture. He was very near being an instrument of a great and happy change in that republic. I need not say much of a thing so well known as were the quarrels of POPE PAUL 5: and that republic; especially since the history of them is written so particularly by him that knew the matter best, P. PAULO. Some laws made by the Senate, restraining the excessive donations extorted from superstitious men, and the imprisonment of two lewd friars, in order to the execution of justice upon them, were the grounds of the quarrel; and upon those pretences, the ecclesiastical immunity from the secular tribunals was asserted to such a degree, that after that high-spirited Pope had tried what the spiritual sword could do, but without success, (his interdict not being observed by any but the Jesuits, the Capuchins, and the Theatines, who were upon that banished from the state,) he resolved to try the temporal sword next, according to the advice given him by CARDINAL BARONIUS; who told him, in the Consistory, that there were two things said to ST. PETER;-the first was, " Feed my sheep," the other was, "Arise and kill;"-and therefore since he had executed the first part of ST. PETER'S duty, in " feeding" the flock, by exhortations, admonitions, and censures, without effect, he had nothing left but to " arise and kill." Upon this the POPE, not finding any other Prince that would execute his Bulls, resolved to make war upon them himself. But when he saw that his censures had not created any distractions in the republic, and found their treasure and force likely to prove a match for the Apostolical Chamber, and for such forces as he could levy and pay, he was at last willing to accept of a mediation; in which the Senate, though they were content to deliver up the two profligate friars, yet asserted their right, and maintained their laws, notwithstanding all his threatenings; nor would they so much as ask pardon, or crave absolution. But without going further into matters so generally known, I shall only mention those things in which MR. BEDELL had some share.

P. PAULO was then the Divine of the State; a man equally eminent for vast learning and prudence, and who was at once one of the greatest Divines, and one of the wisest men of his age. It must needs raise the character of BEDELL much, that an Italian, who, besides the caution that is natural to the country, and the prudence that obliged one in his circumstances to a more than ordinary distrust of all the world, was tied up by the strictness of that government to a very great reservedness with all people, yet took BEDELL into his very soul, and, as SIR HENRY WOTTON assured the late King, communicated to him the inward thoughts of his heart; and professed that he had learned more from him in all the parts of divinity, whether speculative or practical, than from any he had ever con-versed with in his whole life. So great an intimacy with so extraordinary a person is enough to raise a character, were there no more to be added. P. PAULO went further; for he assisted him in acquiring the Italian tongue, in which BEDELL became such a master, that he spoke as one born in Italy, and penned all the sermons he then preached, either in Italian or Latin., In this last it will appear, by the productions of his pen yet remaining, that he had a true Roman style, inferior to none of the modern writers, if not equal to the ancients. In requital of the instruction which he received from P. PAULO in the Italian tongue, he drew up a grammar of the English tongue for his use, and for that of some others who desired to learn it, that so they might be able to understand our books of Divinity. - He also translated the English Common-Prayer-Book into Italian; and P. PAULO and the seven Divines, who, during the interdict, were commanded by the Senate both to preach

and write against the POPE's authority, liked it so well, that they resolved to have made it their pattern, in case the differences between the Pope and them had produced the effect which they hoped and longed for.

The intimacy between them grew so great and so public, that when P. PAULO was wounded by those assassins who were set on by the court of Rome, upon the, failing of which attempt a guard was set on him by the Senate, who knew how to value and preserve so great a treasure, and much precaution was used before any were admitted to come to him, BEDELL was excepted out of those, rules, and had free access to him at all times. They had many and long discourses concerning religion. He found that P. PAULO had read over the Greek Testament with so much exactness, that having used to mark every word, when he had fully weighed the importance of it, as he went through it, he had by going often over it, and observing what he had passed over in a former reading, grown up to that at last, that every word was marked of the whole New Testament. And when BEDELL suggested to him critical explications of some passages which he had not understood before, he received them with the transports of one that leaped for joy, and that valued the discoveries of divine truth beyond all other things.

During his stay at Venice, the famous ANT. DE DOMNIS, Ancnsisi:op of SPALATA, came to Venice; and having received a just character of MR. BEDELL, he discovered his secret to him; and showing him his ten books, De Republica Ecclesiastica, which he afterwards printed at London, BEDELL took the freedom which he allowed him, and corrected many ill applications of texts of Scripture, and quotations of Fathers. For that Prelate, being utterly ignorant of the Greek tongue, could not but be guilty of many mistakes, both in the one and the other; and if there remain some places still that discover his ignorance of that language, yet there had been many more, if BEDELL had not corrected them. DE DOMINIS took all this in good part from him; and did enter into such familiarity with him,

and found his assistance so useful, and indeed so necessary to himself, that he used to say, he could do nothing without him.

A passage fell out, during the interdict, tl{at made greater noise than perhaps the importance of it could well amount to; but it was suited to the Italian genius.-There came a Jesuit to Venice, THOMAS MARIA CARAFFA; who printed a thousand Theses of Philosophy and Divinity, which he dedicated to the POPE with this extravagant inscription PAULO 5:, VICE-DEO, Christiana; Reipublict Monarchw invictissimo, et Pont ficice Omnipotentice conservatori acerrimo:--" To PAUL 5:, the Vice-GOD, the most invincible Monarch of the Christian Commonwealth, and the most zealous Asserter of the Papal Omnipotency."-All people were amazed at the impudence of this title; but when MR. BEDELL observed that the numeral letters of the first words," PAULO 5:, VICEDEO," being put together, made exactly 666, the number of the Beast in the Revelation, he communicated this to P. PAULO, and the seven Divines, and they carried it to the Duke and the Senate. It was entertained almost as if it had come from heaven; and it was publicly preached over all their territories, that here was a certain evidence that the Pops was Antichrist. And it is likely that this was more promoted by them, because they found it took with the Italians, than because they could build much upon it. This flew so over Italy, that lest it should take too much among the people, the POPE caused his emissaries to give it out every where, that Antichrist was, now born in Babylon, and was descended of the tribe of Dan; that he was gathering a vast army, with which he intended to come and destroy CHRISTendom; and that therefore all Christian Princes were exhorted to prepare all their forces for resisting so great an invasion. And with this piece of false news, which was given out very confidently, the other conceit was choked.

When the reconciliation with Rome was concluded, P. PAULO wished he could have left Venice, and come over to England with MR. BEDELL;.. but he was so much esteemed by the Senate for his great wisdom, and trusted with their most important secrets, that he saw it was impossible for him to obtain his conge. He therefore made a shift to comply, as &r as he could, with the established way of their worship; but he had in many things particular methods, by which he in a great measure rather quieted than satisfied his conscience. In saying mass, he passed over many parts of the canon, and in particular those prayers in which that sacrifice was offered up to the honor of saints. He never prayed to saints, nor joined in those parts of the offices that went against his conscience; and in private confessions and discourses, he took people off from those abuses, and gave them right notions of the purity of the Christian religion. Thus, he hoped, he was sowing seeds that might be fruitful in another age; and thus, he believed, he might live innocent in a church which he thought so defiled. And when one pressed him hard in this matter, and objected that he still held communion with an idolatrous church, and gave it credit by adhering outwardly to it, all the answer he made to this was, that GOD had not given him the spirit of LUTHER. He expressed great tenderness and concern for-BEDELL, when he parted with him, and said that both he and many others would have gone over with him, if it had been in their power: but that he might never be forgotten by him, he gave him his picture, with a Hebrew Bible without points, and a little Hebrew Psalter, in which he wrote some sentences expressing his esteem and friendship for him; and with these he gave him the invaluable Manuscript of the History of the Council of Trent, together with the History of the Interdict, and of the Inquisition. The first of these will ever be reckoned the chief pattern, after which all, who intend to succeed well in history, must copy.

When BEDELL came over, he brought along with him the ARCHBISHOP of SPALATA, and one DESPOTINE, a Physician, who could no longer bear with the corruptions of the Roman worship, and so chose a more free air. The latter lived near him in St. Edmund'sbury; and was by his means introduced into much practice, which he maintained so well, that he became eminent in his profession, and continued to his death to keep up a constant correpondence with him.

MR. BEDELL had now finished one of the scenes of his life with great honor. The most considerable addition he made to his learning at Venice, was in the improvements of the Hebrew, in which he made a great progress by the assistance of R. LEO. In exchange for it, he communicated to him, that which was much more valuable, the true understanding of many passages in the Old Testament, with which that Rabbi expressed himself often to be highly satisfied. And once, in a solemn dispute, he pressed his Rabbi with so clear proofs of JESUS CHRIST being the true MESSIAS, that he, and several others of his brethren, had no other way to escape, but to say, that their Rabbins every where did expound those prophecies otherwise, ac-cording to the tradition of their fathers.

After eight years' stay, he returned to England; and, without pretending to preferment, he went immediately to his charge at St. Edmund'sbury, and there went on in his ministerial labors. He had a soul too generous to stoop to those servile compliances, which are expected by those that have the distribution of preferments. He thought that they implied an abjectness of spirit which became not a Christian philosopher, much less a churchman, who ought to express a contempt of the world, and a resignation to Divine Providence. He was content to deserve preferment, and did not envy others who arrived at it.

But though he was forgotten at Court, yet Sin THOMAS JERMYN, who was a Privy-Counsellor, and Vice-Chamberlain to KING CHARLES 1:, and a'great patron of virtue and piety, took such a liking to him, that a considerable living, in his gift, falling void, he presented him to it in the year 1615.

When he came to the BISHOP of NORWICH to take out his title to it, he demanded large fees for his institution and induction: but BEDELL would give no more than sufficient gratification for the writing, wax, and parchment; and refused to pay the rest. He looked on it as Simony in the Bishop to demand more, and contrary to the command of CHRIST, who said, "Freely ye have received, freely give: " and he thought it a branch of Simony to sell spiritual things to spiritual persons; and since whatsoever was asked, more than a decent gratification to the servant for his pains, was asked by reason of the thing granted, he thought this unbecoming the Gospel, and a sin both in the giver and in the taker. He had observed, that nothing was more expressly contrary to all the primitive rules.

CHRYSOSTOM examined a complaint made against ATONINE, BISHOP of EPHESUS, for exacting fees at ordination. AUTONINE died before the process was finished; but some Bishops, that had paid those fees, were degraded. Afterwards, not only all ordinations for money, but the taking money for any employment that depended upon the Bishop's gift, was most severely condemned by the Council of Chalcedon. The buyer was to lose his degree, and the seller was to be in danger of it. And after that, severe, censures were every where decreed against all presents that might be made to Bishops, either before or after ordinations, or upon the account of writings, or of feasts, or any other expense that was brought in use to be made upon that occasion; and even in the Council of Trent, it was decreed, that nothing should be taken for letters dimissory, the certificates, the seals, or upon any such like ground, either by Bishops or their servants, even though it was freely offered.

Upon these accounts MR. BEDELL resolved rather to lose his presentation to the parsonage of Horingsheath, than to do that which he thought Simony; and he left the Bishop, and went home. But some days after, the Bishop sent for him, and gave him his titles, without exacting fees of him; and so he removed to that place, where he stayed twelve years, during which time he was a great honor to the church, as well as a pattern to churchmen. His habit and way of living were becoming the simplicity of his profession. He was very tender of those that were truly poor; but was so strict in examining vagabonds, and so dexterous in discovering passes, and took such care of punishing those that went abroad with them, that they came no more to him, nor to his town. In all that time, no notice was ever taken of him, though he gave a very singular evidence of his great capacity: for being provoked by the Letters of his old acquaintance, WADSWORTH, he wrote upon the points in controversy with the Church of Rome with so much learning and judgment, and in so mild a strain, that his book had a good effect on him for whom it was in-tended. This book was printed, and dedicated to the late KING, while PRINCE of WALES, in the year 1624.

He was well satisfied with that which GOD laid in his way, and went on in the duties of his pastoral care; and was a great pattern thereof in Suffolk, in the lower degree, as he proved afterwards in Ireland, in the higher order. He labored not as a hireling, that only raised a revenue out of his parish, and abandoned his flock, trusting them to the cheapest mercenary; nor did he satisfy himself with a slight performance of his duty, only for fashion's sake; but watched over his flock, like one that knew he was to answer to GOD for those souls committed to his charge. So he preached to the understandings and consciences of his parish, and catechised constantly. And, as the whole course of his own most exemplary behavior was a continued sermon, so he was very exact in the more private affairs of his function; visiting the sick, and dealing in secret with his people, to excite or preserve in them a deep sense of religion. This he made his work; and he followed it so closely, lived so much at home, and was so little known, that when DIODATI came over to England, many years after, he could hear of him from no person that he met with; though he was acquainted with many of the clergy. He was much amazed to find that so extraordinary a man, who had been so much admired at Venice, by so good judges, was not so much as known in his own country, and so he was out of all hope of finding him out; but, by a mere accident, he met him in the streets of London, at which there was a great deal of joy on both sides. And upon that, DIODATI presented him to MORTON, the learned and ancient Bishop of DURESME, and told how great a value P. PAULO set on him; upon which that Bishop treated him in a very particular manner. It is true, SIR HENRY WOTTON was always his faithful friend; but his credit at Court had sunk: for he fell under necessities, having lived at Venice in an expense above his appointments. And as necessitous courtiers must grow to forget all concerns but their own; so the favor they are in lessens, when they come to need it too much.

While he was thus neglected at home, his fame was spread into IRELAND; and though he was not known either to USHER, or to any of the Fellows of Trinity College in Dublin, yet he was chosen, by their unanimous consent, to be the Head of their College, in the year 1627; and as that worthy Primate of Ireland, together with the Fellows of the College, wrote to him, inviting him to come and accept of that Mastership, so an address was also made to the KING, praying that he would command him to go over. And that this might be the more successful, SIR HENRY WOTTON was moved to give his Majesty

a true account of him, which he did in the following letter.

May it please your most gracious MAJESTY, "Having been informed, that certain persons have, by the good wishes of the ARCHBISHOP of ARMAGH, been' directed hither, with a most humble petition unto your Majesty, that you will be pleased to make MR. WILLIAM BEDELL Governor of your College at Dublin, for the good of that society;--_and I myself being required to render to your Majesty some testimony of the said WILLIAM BEDELL, who was long my Chaplain at Venice, in the time of my employment there;-I am bound in all conscience and truth to affirm of him, that, I think, hardly a fitter man could have been propounded to your Majesty in your whole kingdom, for singular erudition and piety, conformity to the rites of the Church, and zeal to advance the cause of Go n; wherein his travels abroad were not obscure, in the time of the excommunication of the Venetians.

For, may it please your Majesty to know, that this is the man whom PADRE PAULO took (I may say) into his very soul; with whom he did communicate the inwardest thoughts of his heart; from whom he professed to have received more knowledge in all divinity, both scholastical and positive, than from any in his days; of which all the passages were well known unto the King your father, of blessed memory. And so, with your Majesty's good favor, I will end this needless office: for the general fame of his learning, his life, and Christian temper, and those religious labors which himself has dedicated to your Majesty, better describe him than I am able.

Your Majesty's most humble and faithful servant,

" H. WOTTON."

But when this matter was proposed to Mr. BEDELL, he expressed so much real Christianity in the answer, that I will give it in his own words, in a letter he wrote to one employed to deal with him in this matter.

" SIR,

" I have this day received both your letters, dated the 2d of this month; for answer whereof, although I could have desired so much respite as to have conferred with some of my friends, such as possibly know the condition of that place better than I do, and my insufficiencies better than my LORD Primate, yet since I perceive, by both your letters, that the matter requires a speedy answer, thus I stand.-I am married, and have three children; therefore if the place requires a single man, the business is at an end. I have no want, I thank my GOD, of any thing necessary for this life: I have a competent living of above a hundred pounds a year, in a good air, with a very convenient house near my friends, and a little parish, not exceeding the compass of my weak voice.

" I have often heard, that changing seldom brings the better; especially to those that are well. And I see well, that my wife (though resolving, as she ought, to be con-tented with whatsoever GOD shall appoint) had rather continue with her friends in her native country, than put herself to the hazard of the seas, and a foreign land, with many casualties in travel, which she perhaps, out of fear, apprehends more than there is cause.

" All these reasons I have, if I consult with flesh and blood, which move me rather to reject this offer; yet with all humble and dutiful thanks to my LORD Primate for his good opinion of me. On the other side, I consider the end wherefore I came into the world, and the business of a subject to our Lon]) JESUS CHRIST, of a Minister of the Gospel, of a good patriot, and of an honest man. If I may be of any better use to my country, to GOD's Church, or of any better service to our common Master, I must close mine eyes against all private respects; and if GOD call me, I must answer,' Here I am.' For my part, therefore, I will not stir one foot, or lift up my finger, for or against this motion; but if it proceed from the LORD, that is, if those whom it concerns there, procure those, who may

command me here, to send me thither, I shall obey, if it were not only to go into Ireland, but into Virginia; yea, though I were not only to meet with troubles, dangers, and difficulties, but death itself in the performance.

" Sir, I have as plainly as I can, showed you my mind; desiring you, with my humble service, to represent it to my reverend good LORD, my LORD Primate. And GOD Almighty direct this affair to the glory of his holy name and have you in his merciful protection! So I rest,

" From Bury, " Your loving friend,

" March 5, 1626.

" WILLIAM BEDELL."

The conclusion of this matter was, that the KING, being well informed concerning him, commanded him to undertake the charge, which he cheerfully obeyed; and he set about the duties incumbent on him in such a manner, as showed how well he had improved the long time of retirement he had hitherto enjoyed, and how ripely he had digested all his observations.

He had hitherto lived as if he had been fit for nothing but study; and now, when he entered upon a more public scene, it appeared that he understood government and human life so well, that no man seemed to be more cut out for business. In the government of the College, he resolved to act nothing till he both knew the statutes of the House perfectly well, and the tempers of the people; therefore when he went over first, he carried himself so abstractedly from all affairs, that he passed for a weak man. The zeal which appeared afterwards in him, showed, that this coldness was only the effect of his wisdom, and not of his temper. But when he found that some grew to think meanly of him, and that even USHER himself began to change his opinion of him; when he went over to England' some months after, to bring his family over to Ireland, he was thinking to resign his new preferment, and return to his benefice in Suffolk; but the Primate wrote so kind a letter to him, that, as it made him lay down those thoughts, so it drew from him the following words, in the answer that he wrote to him

Touching my return, I thankfully accept your Grace's exhortation, advising me to have faith in GOD, and not consult with flesh and blood. Now I would to GOD, that your Grace could look into my heart, and see how little I fear lack of provision, or any outward thing in this world. My chief fear in truth was, and is, lest I should be unfit and unprofitable in the place; in which case, if I might -have an honest retreat, I think no wise man could blame me to retain it; especially having understood that your Grace, whose authority I chiefly followed at the first, did, from your own judgment, and that of other wise men, so truly pronounce of me, that I was a weak man. Now that I have received your letters so full of encouragement, it puts some more life in me. For, sure it cannot agree with that goodness of yours, praised among all GOD's graces in you, by those that know you, to write one thing to me, and to speak another thing to others of me, or to go about to be-guile my simplicity with words, laying in the mean while a net for my feet; especially since my weakness shall in truth redound to the blaming of your own discretion in bringing me thither."

Thus was he prevailed on to resign his benefice, and carry his family to Ireland; and then he applied himself with that vigor of mind, that was peculiar to him, to the government of the College. He corrected such abuses as he found among them; he set such rules, and saw these so well executed, that it quickly appeared how happy a choice they had made. And as he was a great promoter of learning, so he thought it his particular province to instruct the house in the principles of religion. In order to this, he catechized the youth in the College once a week, and preached once on the Sundays, though he was not obliged to it. And that he might acquaint them with a plain body of Divinity, he divided the Church-Catechism into fifty-two parts, one for every Sunday; and explained it in a way so mixed with speculative and practical matters, that his sermons were both learned lectures of divinity, and excellent exhortations to piety.

He had not stayed there above two years, when, by means of his friend, Sin THOMAS JERMYN, a patent was sent him to be BISHOP of KILMORE and ARDAGH.--And now, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, he entered upon a different course of life and employment; when it might have been thought, that the vigor of his spirits was much broken and spent. But, by his administration of his diocese, it appeared that there remained yet a vast force of spirit to carry him through those difficult undertakings to which he found himself obliged by his office; which, if it makes a man but a little lower than the angels, so that the term angel is applied to that office in Scripture, he thought it did oblige him to an angelical course of life, and to divide his time, as much as could consist with a body made of flesh and blood, as those glorious spirits do, between beholding the face of their Father which is in heaven, and ministering to the heirs of salvation. He considered that the Bishop's office made him the shepherd of the inferior shepherds, if not of the `whole diocese; and therefore he resolved to spare himself in nothing by which he might advance the interest of religion among them: and he thought it a disingenuous thing to vouch antiquity for the authority and dignity of that function, and not at the same time to express those virtues and practices that made it so venerable of old. For the forms of Church-government must appear amiable and valuable, not so much for the arguments which learned men use concerning them, as for the real advantages that arise from them: so that he determined, with the great NAZIANZEN, " to give wings to his soul, to rescue it wholly from the world, and to dedicate it to GOD, as one that bad, got above all sensible things, and had attained to a familiarity with divine matters; that so his mind might be as an unsullied mirror, upon which he might receive and represent the impresses of GOD and divine things, unallied with the characters of lower objects." He saw that he should fall under envy, and meet with great oppositions; but he considered that as a sort of martyrdom for GOD, and resolved cheerfully to undergo whatsoever uneasy things he might suffer in the discharge of his duty.

He found his diocese under so many disorders, that there was scarcely a sound part remaining. The revenue was wasted by excessive dilapidations, and all sacred things had been exposed to sale in so sordid a manner, that it was grown to a proverb.: One of his cathedrals, Ardagh, was fallen to the ground, and there was scarcely enough remaining, of both these revenues, to support a Bishop that was resolved not to supply himself by indirect and base methods. He had a very small clergy,-only seven or eight, in each diocese, of good sufficiency; but every one of these was multiplied into many parishes, they having many vicarages a-piece. Besides, being English, and his whole diocese consisting of Irish, they were barbarians to them; nor could they perform any part of divine offices among them. But the state of his Clergy will appear best from a letter which he wrote. to ARCHBISHOP LAUD concerning it; which I shall here insert.

"RIGHT REVEREND FATHER,

" My honorable good LORD"

" Since my coming to this place, I have not been unmindful of your Lordship's commands, to advertise you of the state of the Church; which I shall now the better do, because I have been about my dioceses, and can set down, out of my knowledge, what I shall relate. And shortly, to speak much ill matter in a few words, it is very miserable. The cathedral church of Ardagh, together with the Bishop's house, is down to the ground: the church is here built, but without bell or steeple, font or chalice: the parish-churches are all, in a manner, ruined: the people, saving a few British planters, which are not the tenth part of the remnant, are obstinate recusants: the Popish Clergy are more numerous by far than we, and in full exercise of all jurisdiction ecclesiastical, by their Vicar-General and Officials; who are so confident as to excommunicate those that come to our courts, even in matrimonial causes, which affront had), been offered to myself by the Popish Primate's Vicar-General, for which I have begun a process against him. The Primate himself lives in my parish, within two miles of my house; the Bishop in another part of my diocese. Every parish has its priest, and some two or three a-piece; and so their mass-houses also in some places mass is said in the churches. Friars there are, in divers places, who go about, and by their importunate begging impoverish the people; who indeed are generally very poor, as from that cause, so from their paying double tithes to their own Clergy and ours, from the dearth of corn, and the death of their cattle these late years, with the contributions to their soldiers and their agents, and, (which they forget not to reckon, among other causes,) the oppression of the Court Ecclesiastical, which, in very truth, My LORD, I cannot excuse, and do seek to reform. For our own, there are seven or eight Ministers, in each diocese, of good sufficiency, and (which is no small cause of the continuance of the people in Popery still,) English, which have not the tongue of the people, nor can perform any divine offices, or converse with them: Even the clerkships themselves are in like manner conferred upon the English, and sometimes two, or three, or more, upon one man; and are ordinarily bought and sold, or let to farm. His Majesty is now, with the greatest part of this country, as to their hearts and consciences, King only at the Pope's discretion.

" O Kilmore," WILL. KILMORE and ARDAGIL."

April 1, 163O.

Here was a melancholy prospect to so good a mind enough to have disheartened him quite, if he had not had a proportioned degree of courage to support him. After he had recovered somewhat of the spoils made by his predecessor, and put himself into a capacity to subsist, he went about the reforming of abuses. The first he under-took was that of pluralities; by which one man had a care of souls in so many different places, that it was not possible to discharge his duty to them, nor to perform the vows, made at his ordination, of feeding and instructing the flock committed to his care. And though most of the pluralists did mind all their parishes alike, that is, neglected all equally; yet he thought this an abuse contrary both to the nature of ecclesiastical functions, and to the obligations which the care of souls imported, and to those solemn vows which churchmen made at the altar when ordained: and he knew well that this corruption was no sooner observed to have crept into the Christian church, than it was condemned at the fourth General Council of Chalcedon.' He thought it a vain and an impudent thing for a man to pretend, that he answered the obligation of so sacred a trust and vow, by hiring some Curate to perform offices since the obligation was personal, and the watching over souls had so many things involved in it, besides officiating according to the rubric, that it drew this severe reflection from a witty man, " That when such betrayers and abandoners of that trust, which CHRIST purchased with his own blood, found good and faithful Curates that performed worthily the obligations of the pastoral care, the incumbent should be saved by proxy, but be damned in person." Therefore the Bishop gathered a meeting of his Clergy, and laid before them, both out of Scripture and antiquity, the institution, nature, and duties of the ministerial employment; and exhorted them to reform that intolerable abuse, which, as it brought a heavy scandal on the church, and gave their adversaries great advantages, so it must very much endanger both their own souls, and the souls of their flocks. And to let them see that he would not lay a heavy burden on them, in which he would not bear his own share,. he resolved to part with one of his own bishoprics. For though Ardagh was considered as a ruined see, and had long gone as an accessory to Kilmore; yet, since they were really two different sees, he thought he could not decently oblige his Clergy to renounce their pluralities, unless he set them an example, and renounced his own. Even after he had been at a considerable charge in recovering the patrimony of Ardagh, and though he was sufficiently able to discharge the duty of both sees, (they being contiguous and small) and though the revenue of both did not exceed a competency, yet he would not seem to be guilty of that which he so severely condemned in others; and therefore he resigned Ardagh to DR. RICHARDSON. The authority of this example, and the efficacy of his discourse, made such an impression on his Clergy, that they all renounced their pluralities.

This concurrence from his-Clergy in so sensible a point, was a great encouragement to go on in his other designs. There seemed to be a finger of GOD in it, for he had no authority to compel them; and he had managed the minds of his Clergy so gently in this matter, that their compliance was not extorted, but free. One only was excepted, and he, being Dean, exchanged his deanery with another; for he was ashamed to live in the diocese where he would not submit to such terms, after both the Bisnor himself and all his Clergy had agreed to them. The opposition given him by the Dean, his sense of that matter, and his carriage in it, will appear from the following letter, which he wroth concerning it to the PRIMATE.

MOST REVEREND FATHER,

My honorable good LORD;

I cannot easily express what contentment I received at my late being with your Grace at Termonseckin. There had nothing happened to me, I will not say, since I came into Ireland, but, as far as I can call to remembrance, in my whole life, which did so much affect me in this kind, as the hazard of your good opinion. For, loving and honoring you in truth, without any private interest, and receiving so unlooked-for a blow from your own hand, which should have tenderly applied some remedy to me, when smitten by others, I had not present the defenses of reason and grace. And although I knew it to be a fault in myself, since, in the performance of our duties, the judgment of our Master, even alone, ought to suffice us; yet I could not be so much master of mine affections as to cast out this weakness. But blessed be GOD" who at my being with, you refreshed my spirit by your kind renewing and confirming of your love to me; and all humble thanks to you, who gave me place to make my defense, and took upon you the cognizance of my innocency. And as for mine accuser, whose hatred I have incurred only by not giving way to his covetous desire of heaping living upon living, I am glad, and do give GOD thanks, that this malignity, which awhile masked itself in the pretence of friendship, has at last discovered itself by public opposition. It has not been, and I hope it shall not be, in his power to hurt me; he has rather shamed himself. And, although his high heart cannot give his tongue leave to acknowledge his folly, his understanding is not so weak and blind as not to see it. I could be well content to leave him to taste the fruit of it also, without being further troublesome to your Grace, save that I do not despair but your Grace's authority will pull him out of the snare of SATAN, whose instrument he has been to cross the work

of GOD.

" Your Grace's letters of August 23d were not delivered to me till the 29th. In the mean space, what effect those that accompanied them had with MR. DEAN, you shall perceive by the enclosed, which were sent me the 28th, the evening before our communion. I answered them the next morning, as is here annexed. As I was at the LORD'S-table, beginning the service of the Communion before the sermon, he came in; and after the sermon was done, - those that communicated not being departed, he stood forth and spoke to this purpose:-" That whereas the Book of Common Prayer requires, that, before the LORD'S-Supper, if there be any variance or breach of charity, there should be reconciliation, this was much more requisite between Ministers: and because they all knew that there had been some difference between me and him, he did profess, that he bore me no malice nor hatred, and if he had offended me in any thing, he was sorry." I answered, "That he had good reason to be sorry, considering how he had behaved himself: for my part, I bore him no malice, and, if it were in my power, would not make so much as his finger ache. Grieved I had been that he, in whom I knew there were many good parts, would become an instrument to oppose the work of Go', which I was assured he had called me to." This was all that passed. He-offered him-self to the LORD's board, and I gave him the Communion. After dinner he preached out of 1 John 4:21: "And this! commandment have we from him, that he that loves GOD, love his brother also." When we came out of the church, DR. SHERIDAN delivered me your Grace's letters. And thus MR. DEAN thinks he has healed all, as you may perceive by his next letters of August 3O; only he labors about Kildromfarten: whereabouts I proposed to have spoken with your Grace at my being with you; but I know not how, it came not to my mind;-whether it be that the soul, as well as the body, after some travel easily falleth to rest; or else GOD, would have it reserved perhaps to a more seasonable time.

" It is now above a twelvemonth (the day, in many respects, I may well wish may not be reckoned with the days of the year,) since your Grace, as it were, delivered to me with your own hands, Mr. CRIAN, a converted Friar. To him I offered myself as largely as my ability would extend; though I had, already, at your Grace's commendation, received Mr. DUNSTERVILLE to be in my house, with the allowance of twenty pounds per annum. The next day before my; departing, Mr. HILTON made a motion to me, that whereas he had in his hands sufficient to make the benefice of Kildromfarten void, if I would bestow it upon Mr. DEAN, he would do so; otherwise it should remain in statu. I answered with profession of my love and good opinion of Mr. DEAN, whereof I showed the reasons. I added, I did not know the place nor the people;. but if they were mere Irish, I did not see how MR. DEAN could discharge the duty of a Minister to them. This motion was seconded by your Grace; but so, as I easily conceived, that being solicited by your old servant, you could do no less than you did. MR. DEAN afterwards pressed. me, that if, without my concurrence, your Grace would confer that living upon him, I would not be against it; which I promised, but heard no more of it till about April last. In the mean while,,, the, benefice next unto that which MR. DUNSTERVILLE was already possessed of, falling void, whose former benefice was unable, he said, to maintain him, chiefly he promising residence, I united it to his former, and dismissed him to go to his cure; wherein how carelessly he has behaved, I forbear to relate. To return to MR. DEAN. About the middle of April, he brought me a presentation to Kildromfarten under the broad seal. I could do no less than signify it to the Incumbent, who came to me, and maintained his title,;requiring me not to admit. Whereupon I returned the presentation, indorsing

the reason of my refusal; and being then occasioned to write to the LORDs Justices, I signified what I thought of these pluralities, in a time when we are so far over-matched in number by the adverse part. This passed on till the visitation; wherein MR. DEAN showed himself in his colors.

When the Vicar of Kildromfarten was called, he said he was Vicar, but would exhibit no title. Afterwards, the Curate, Ma. SMITH, signified to me, that his stipend was unpaid; and he feared it would be still in the contention of two Incumbents. Upon these and other reasons, I sequestered the profits, which I have heard, by a,Simonaical compact between them, should be for this year the former Incumbent's. Neither did MR. DEAN write or speak a word to me hereabout, till the day before the Communion, in the enclosed. That very morning I was certified that he proposed to appeal to your Grace, which made me in answer to his next to add, Quod fades, fac citius.

Here I beseech your Grace to give me leave to speak freely touching this matter; so much the rather, because it is the only root of all MR. DEAN'S despite against me. I think that of all the diseases of the Church in these times, next to that of the corruption of our courts, this of pluralities is the most deadly and pestilent; especially when those are instituted into charges ecclesiastical, who, were they never so willing, yet for want of the language of the people, are unable to discharge them. Concerning this very point, I know your Grace remembers the propositions of the learned and zealous Bishop of LINCOLN before POPE INNOCENT. I will not add the _confession of our adversaries themselves in the Council of Trent, nor the judgment of that good Father, the Author of the History thereof, touching non-residency. Let the thing itself speak. Whence flow the ignorance of the people, the neglect of Gov's worship, and defrauding the poor of the remains of dedicate things, the ruin of the mansion-houses of the Ministers, the desolation of churches, the swallowing up of parishes by the farmers of them, but from this fountain There may be cause, no doubt, why sometimes, in some place, and to some man, many churches may be committed; but now that there are, besides the titular Primate and Bishop, of Priests in the dioceses of Kilmore and Ardagh, sixty six,-of Ministers and Curates but thirty-two,-in this so great odds as the adversaries have of us in number, (to omit the advantage of the language, the possession of people's hearts, and the countenance of the nobility and gentry,) is it a time to commit many churches to one man Him I will not undervalue: but what has he done in the parishes already committed to him, for the instruction of the Irish, that we should commit another unto him He that cannot perform his duty to one without a helper, or to that little part of it whose tongue he has, is he sufficient to do it to three No; it is the wages which are sought, not the work. And yet with the means he has already, that good.man his predecessor. maintained a wife and a family; and cannot he in his solitary life defray himself Well, if there,can none be found fit to discharge the duty, let him have, the wages to better his maintenance. But when your Grace assureth us we shall lack no men, when there is, besides Ma. CHIAN, (whom Dr. SHERIDAN has heard preach as a friar in that very place; which I account would be more to God's glory, if now he should plant the truth, which before he endeavored to root out,) MR. NUGENT, who offereth himself, in an honest and discreet letter lately written to me,-when we have sundry in the College, and two trained up at the Irish lecture, one whereof has translated your Grace's Catechism into Irish, besides Mr. DUNCAN and others;--with what color can we pass by these, and suffer him to fatten himself with the blood of GOD's people Pardon me, I beseech your Grace, when I say We; I mean not to prescribe any thing to you; my-self, I hope, shall never do it. And so long as this is the cause of MR. DEAN'S wrath against me, whether I suffer by his pen or his tongue, I shall rejoice, as suffering for righteousness' sake. And, sith himself in his last letter excuses my intent, I do submit my actions, after GOD, to your Grace's censure; ready to make him satisfaction, if in any thing, in word or deed, I have wronged him.

Since my being with you, here was with me MR. BRADY, bringing with him the resignation of the benefice of Mullagh, which I had conferred upon MR. DUNSTERVILLE, and united to his. former of Moybolke. He brought with him letters from my Loin) of CORR, and SIR WILLIAM PARSONS, to whom he is allied. But examining him, I found him (besides a very raw Divine) unable to read the Irish; and therefore excused myself to the LORDs from admitting him. A few days after, viz. the 1Oth of this month, here was with me MR. DUNSTERVILLE himself, who signified unto me that he had revoked his former resignation. Thus he plays fast and loose, and most unconscionably neglects his duty. Omnes quw sua Bunt qucsrunt. Indeed I doubted his resignation was not good; in as much as he retained still the former benefice, whereunto this was united. Now I see clearly that there was a compact between him and MR. BRADY, that if the second could not be admitted, he should resume his benefice again.

I Ashamed I am to be thus tedious. But I hope you will pardon me, sith you required, and I promised, to write often; and heaving now had opportunity to convey my letters, this must serve instead of many: concluding with mine and my wife's humble service to your Grace and MRS. USHER, and thanks for my kind entertainment, I de-sire the blessing of your prayers, and remain always

" Kilmore,

" Your Grace's humble servant,

"Sept. 18, 163O.

"WILL. KILMORE and ARDAGH."

The condemning of pluralities was but half of his project. The next part was to oblige his Clergy to reside in their parishes; but in this he met with a great difficulty. KING JAMES, upon the last reduction of Ulster, after TYRONE'S rebellion, had ordered glebe-lands to be as-signed to all the Clergy; and they'were obliged to build houses upon them, within a limited time. But, in assigning these glebe-lands, the commissioners had taken no care of the conveniencies of the Clergy: for in many places these lands were not in the parish, and often they lay not altogether, but were divided in parcels. - So he found his Clergy were in a strait. For if they built houses upon these glebe-lands, they would be thereby forced to live out of their parishes; and it was very inconvenient for them to have their houses remote from their lands. In order to remedy this, the Bishop, having lands in every parish assigned him, resolved to make an exchange with them, for more convenient portions of equal value. And that the exchange might be made upon a just estimate, so that neither the Bishop nor the inferior.Clergy might suffer, he procured a commission from the LORD-Lieutenant for some to examine and settle that matter; which was at last brought to a conclusion with so universal a satisfaction to his whole diocese, that, since the thing could not be finally determined with-out a great seal from the King, confirming all that was done, there was one sent over, in the name of them all, to obtain it.

The LORD-Lieutenant at this time was SIR Thomas WENTWORTH, afterwards EARL of STRAFFORD. At his first coming over to Ireland, he was possessed with prejudices against the Bishop, upon the account of a petition sent up by the county of Cavan, to which the Bishop had set his hand, in which some complaints were made, and some regulations were proposed for the army. This was thought an insolent attempt, and a matter of ill example; so that STRAFFORD, who was severe in his administration, was highly displeased with him: and when any commission or order was brought to him, in which he found his name, he dashed it out with his own pen; and expressed great indignation against him. When the Bishop under-stood this, he was not much moved at it, knowing his own innocence; but he took prudent methods to overcome his displeasure. He did not go to Dublin, upon his coming over, as all the other Bishops did, to congratulate his coming to the government: but he wrote a full account of that matter to his constant friend, SIR THOMAS JERMPH, who managed it with so much zeal, that letters were sent to the Deputy from the Court, by which he was so mollified towards the Bishop, that he well received, and was ever afterwards treated by him, with a very particular kindness. So this storm went over, which many thought would have ended in imprisonment, if not in deprivation. Yet how much soever that petition was mistaken, he made it appear very plain, that he did, not design the putting down of the army: the danger they were in from Popery, or he saw too evidently long safe without it. But a to think he could be vindication from that aspersion, carries in it likewise such a representation of the state of the popish interest then in Ireland, and of their numbers, their tempers, and their principles, that I will set it down. It was written to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

RIGHT HONORABLE,

My very good LORD;

" I have been advertised from an honorable friend in England, that I am accused to his Majesty to have opposed his service; and that my hand, with that of two other Bishops only, was to a writing touching the money to be levied on the Papists for maintenance of the men of war. Indeed, if I should have had such an intention, this had been not only to oppose the service of his Majesty) expose, with the public peace, mine own neck to the skeans of Romish cut-throats. I who knew that of his Majesty's, the Pope has another kingdom in this far; greater in number, and, as I have heretofore signified to the LORDs Justices and Council, constant the order of the new constantly guided and directed by transmitted by the means of he Pope's Nun iosdreat Rome, siding at Brussels; I who knew that the Pope has here a Clergy, if I may guess by my own diocese, double in number to us, the heads whereof are by corporal oath bound to him, to maintain him and his regalities contra omnem hominem, and to execute his mandates to the uttermost of their forces; which accordingly they do, styling themselves in print, " Ego N. Dei et Apostolicce Sedis gratin Episcopus Fermien. et Ossorien.; "-I who knew that there is in the kingdom, for the moulding of the people to the Pope's obedience, a rabble of irregular Regulars, commonly younger brothers of good houses, who are grown to that insolency, as to advance themselves to be members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in better ranks than priests;--I who knew that his Holiness has erected a new University in Dublin, to confront his Majesty's College there, and to breed the youth of the kingdom to his devotion, of which University one PAUL HARRIS styleth himself in print to be Dean;-I who knew, and have given advertisement to the state, that these Regulars dare erect new friaries in the country, since the dissolving of those in the city, and that they have brought the people to such a sottish senselessness, as that they care not to learn the commandments as GOD himself spoke and wrote. them, but flock in great numbers to the preaching of new superstitious and detestable doctrines, such as their own priests are ashamed of, at all which times they levy collections, three, four, five, or six pounds at a sermon;-1 who knew that those Regulars, and this Clergy, have at a general meeting, or synod, as themselves style it, decreed that it is not lawful to take an

oath of allegiance; and, if they be constant to their own doctrine, do account his Majesty in their hearts to be King at the Pope's discretion; in this state of this kingdom, to think the bridle of the army may be taken away, would be the thought not of a brain-sick, but of a brain-less man.

" Your Lordship's

" in all duty,

" WILL. KILMORE."

By his cutting. off pluralities, there fell to be many vacancies in his diocese, so the care he took to fill these comes to be considered in the next place. He was very strict in his examinations before he gave orders to any. He went over the Articles of the Church of Ireland so particularly, that one who was present at the ordination of him that was afterwards his Archdeacon, MR. THOMAS PRICE, reported, that though he was one of the senior Fellows of the College of Dublin, when the Bishop was Provost, yet his examination lasted two full hours. And when he had ended any examination, which was always done in the presence of his Clergy, he desired every Clergyman present to examine the person further, if they thought any material thing was omitted by him; by which a fuller discovery of

his temper and sufficiency might be made. When all was ended, he made all his Clergy give their approbation, before he would proceed to ordination: for he would never assume that singly to himself, nor take the load of it wholly on his own soul. He took also great care to be well informed of the religious qualities of those he ordained, as well as satisfied himself by his examination of their capacity and knowledge. He had always a considerable number of his Clergy assisting him at his ordinations; and he always preached and administered the Sacrament on those occasions himself. And he never ordained one a Presbyter, till he had been at least a year a Deacon, that so he might have a good account of his behavior in that power degree, before he raised him higher. He looked upon that power of ordination as the most sacred of a Bishop's trust, and that in which the laws of the land had laid no sort of imposition on them; so that this was entirely in their hands, and therefore, he thought, they had so much the more to answer for to GOD on that account: and he weighed carefully the importance of those words, "Lay hands suddenly on no man, and be not a partaker of other men's sins." Therefore he used all the precaution that was possible in so important an affair. He was never prevailed on by any recommendations or importunities to ordain any; as if orders had been a sort of freedom in a company, by which a man was to be enabled to hold as great a portion of the ecclesiastical revenue' as he could compass. Nor would he ever ordain any without a title to a particular flock. For he thought a title to a maintenance was not enough, as if the church should only take care that none in orders might be in want; but he saw the abuses of those false titles, and of the vagrant priests that went about as journeymen, plying for work, to the great reproach of that sacred employment. And in this he also followed the rule set by the Fourth General Council, which carried this matter so high, as to annul all orders that were given without a particular designation of the place where the person was to serve. For he made the primitive times his standard; and resolved to come as near it as he could, considering the corruption of the age in which he lived. He remembered well the grounds he went on, when he refused to pay fees for the title to his benefice in Suffolk; and therefore took care that those who were ordained by him, or had titles to benefices from him, might be put to no charge: for he wrote all the instruments himself, and delivered them to the persons to whom they belonged, out of his. own hands; and adjured them, in a very solemn manner, to give nothing to any of his servants. And, that he might hinder it all that was possible, he waited on them always on those occasions to the gate of his house; that so he might be sure that they should not give any gratification to his servants. He thought it lay on him to pay them such convenient wages as became them; and not to let his Clergy be burdened with his servants. And indeed the abuses in that were grown to such a pitch, that it was necessary to correct them in so exemplary a manner.

His next care was to observe the behavior of his Clergy. He knew that the lives of churchmen had generally much more efficacy than their sermons, or other labors, could have; and so he set himself much to watch the manners of his priests, and was very sensibly touched, when an Irish-man said once to him, in open court, " That the King's priests were as bad as the Pope's priests." These were so grossly ignorant, and so openly scandalous, both for drunkenness, and all sorts of lewdness, that this was indeed a very heavy reproach. Yet he was no rude nor remorseless reformer, but considered what the times could bear. He had great tenderness for the weakness of his Clergy, where he saw reason to think otherwise well of them: and he helped them out of their troubles, with the care and compassion of a father.

One of his Clergy held two livings; but had been cozened, by a gentleman of quality, to farm them to hint for less than either of them was worth. He acquainted the Bishop with this; who, upon that, wrote very civilly, and yet as became a Bishop, to the gentleman, persuading him to give up the bargain: but having received a sullen and haughty answer from him, he made the Minister resign up both to him, (for they belonged to his gift,) and he provided him with another benefice, and put two other worthy men in these two churches; and so he put an end to the gentleman's fraudulent bargain, and to the churchman's plurality.

He never gave a benefice to any, without obliging them by oath to perpetual and personal residence, and that they should never hold any other benefice with that. So, when. one BUCHANAN was recommended to him, and found by him to be well qualified, he offered him a collation to a benefice; but when BUCHANAN saw that he was to be bound to residence, and that to hold another benefice, he being already possessed of one, with which he resolved not to part, would not accept of it on those terms. And the Bishop was not to be prevailed upon to dispense with it, though he liked this man so much the better, because he was akin to the great BUCHANAN, whose Paraphrase of the Psalms he loved beyond all other Latin Poetry.

The Latin form of his Collations concluded thus: " Obtesting you in the LORD, and enjoining you, by virtue of that obedience which you owe to the great Shepherd, that you will diligently feed his flock committed to your care, which he purchased with his own blood; that you instruct them in the catholic faith, and perform divine offices in a tongue understood by the people; and, above all things, that you show yourself a. pattern to believers in good works, so that the adversaries may be put to shame, when they find nothing for which they can reproach you."

He put all the instruments in one; whereas devices had been found out, for the increase of fees, to divide these into several writings. Nor was he content to write this all with his own hand, but sometimes he gave induction likewise to his Clergy; for he thought none of these offices were below a Bishop, and he was ready to ease them of charge as far as he could. He had, by his zeal and earnest endeavors, prevailed with all his Presbyters to reside in their parishes; one only excepted, whose name was JOHNSTON. He was of a mean education, yet he had very quick parts; but they lay more to the mechanical than to the spiritual architecture: for the EARL of STAFFORD used him for an engineer, and gave him the management of some great buildings which he was raising in the county of Wicklow. But the Bishop finding that the man had a very mercurial wit, and a great capacity, resolved to set him to work, that so he might not be wholly useless to the church; and therefore he proposed to him the composing of a universal character, that might be equally well understood by all nations; and he showed him, that since there was already a universal mathematical character received, both for arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, the other was not impossible to be done. JOHNSTON undertook it readily, and the Bishop drew for him a scheme of the whole work, which he brought to such perfection, that he put it under the press; but the rebellion prevented his finishing it.

After the Bishop had been for many years carrying on the reformation of his diocese, he resolved to hold a Synod of all his Clergy, and to establish some rules for the better government of the flock committed to him. He appointed that a Synod should be held, thereafter, once a year, in the second week of September; that, in the Bishop's absence, his Vicar-General, if he was a priest, or his Archdeacon, should preside; and that no Vicar should be constituted, after that, unless he were in orders, and should hold his place only during the Bishop's pleasure. He revived the ancient custom of Rural Deans; and appointed, that there should be three for the three divisions of his diocese, who should be chosen by the clergy, and should have an inspection into their deportment, and make report to the Bishop

of what passed among them, and transmit the Bishop's orders to them;-that once a month the Clergy of each division should meet, and preach by turns, without long prayers or preambles;-and that no excommunication should be made but by the Bishop in person, with the assistance of such of his Clergy as should be present. The rest related to some things of less importance, which required amendment. When the news of this was carried to Dublin, some said it was an illegal assembly, and that his presuming to make canons was against law; so that it was expected he would be brought up as a delinquent, and censured in the Star-Chamber, or High-Commission-Court. But others looked on what he had done, as nothing but the necessary discharge of his episcopal function: and it seemed strange, if some rules laid down by common con-sent, for the better government of the diocese, should have furnished matter for an accusation or censure. His Arch-deacon, who was afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, gave such an account of this matter to the state, that nothing followed upon it. The Bishop had indeed prepared such a justification of himself; as would have vindicated him fully before equitable judges, if he had been questioned for it. ARCHBISHOP USHER, who knew well how much he could say for himself upon this head, advised those who moved that he might be brought up upon it, to let him alone, lest he should be thereby provoked to say more for himself than any of his accusers could say against him.

When he made his visitations, he always preached him-self, and administered the sacrament; and the business of his visitation was, what it ought truly to be, to observe the state of his diocese, and to give good instructions both to Clergy and Laity. The visitations in Ireland had been matter of great pomp and much luxury, which lay heavy on the inferior Clergy. Some slight inquiries were made, and those chiefly for form's-sake; and indeed nothing was so. much minded, as that which was the reproach of them,-the fees, which were exacted to such an intolerable degree, that they were a heavy grievance to the Clergy. And as the Bishop's visitation came about every year; so, every third year, the Archbishop made his metropolitan visitation, and every seventh year the King's visitation went round: and in all these, as they were then managed, nothing seemed to be so much aimed at, as how to squeeze and oppress the Clergy, who were glad to purchase their peace, by paying all that was imposed on them by those severe exactors. These fees at visitations were not known in the primitive times; in which the Bishop had the whole stock of the Church in his hands to defray what expense necessarily fell on him, or his Church. It is true, when the Metropolitan, with other Bishops, came and ordained the Bishop at his see, it was but reasonable that their expenses should be discharged, and these came to be rated at a certain sum; and when these grew unreasonably high, the Emperors reduced them to a certain proportion, according to the revenues of the sees. But when the Bishops and the inferior Clergy came to have distinct properties, then the Bishops exacted of their Clergy that which other vassals owed by their tenure to the LORD of the Fee, which was the bearing the expense of their progress. When they began first to demand those subsidies from their Clergy, that practice was condemned; and provision was made, that in case a Bishop was so poor that he could not bear the charge to which his visitation put him, he should be supplied by the richer Bishops about him, but not prey upon his Clergy. And both CHARLES the GREAT, and his son Louts, took care to see this executed. Yet this abuse was still kept up; so that afterwards, instead of putting it quite down, it was only regulated, that it might not exceed such a proportion: but that was not observed; so that an arbitrary tax was in many places levied upon the Clergy. But our Bishop re-formed all these excesses, and took nothing but what was by law and custom established: and that was employed in entertaining the Clergy; and when there was any overplus, he sent it always to the prisons, for the relief of the poor.

At his visitation, he made all his Clergy sit with him, and be covered, whenever he himself was covered. For he did not approve of the state in which others of his order made their visitations; nor of the distance to which they obliged their Clergy. And he had that canon often in his mouth, " That a presbyter ought not to be let stand, after the Bishop was set." He was much troubled at another abuse, which was, that when the metropolitan and regal visitations went round, a writ was served on the Bishops, suspending their jurisdiction for that year: and when this was first brought to him, he received it with great indignation, which was increased by two clauses in the writ. By the one it was asserted, " that in the year of the Metropolitan's visitation, the whole and entire jurisdiction of the diocese belonged to him." The other was the reason given for it, " Because of the great danger of the souls of the people." Whereas, the danger of souls arises from that suspension of the Bishop's pastoral power; since during that year he either could not do the duty of a Bishop, or, if he would exercise it, he must either purchase a delegation to act as the Archbishop's deputy, and that could not be had without paying for it, or be liable to a suit in the Prerogative Court. He knew that the Arch-bishop's power over Bishops was not founded on divine or apostolical right, but on ecclesiastical canons, and was only a matter of order; and that therefore the Archbishop had no authority to come and invade his pastoral office, and suspend him for a year. These were some of the worst of the abuses that the canonists had introduced in the latter ages; by which they had broken the episcopal authority, and had made way for vesting the whole power of the church in the Pope. He laid those things often before ARCHBISHOP USHER, and pressed him earnestly to set himself to the reforming of them; since they were acted in his name, and by virtue of his authority deputed to his Chancellor, and to the other officers of the court called the Spiritual Court.-No man was more sensible of -those abuses than USHER was; no man knew the beginning and progress of them better, nor was more touched with the ill effects of them; and, together with his vast learning, no man had a better soul, and a more apostolical mind. In his conversation he expressed the true simplicity of a Christian: for passion, pride, self-will, or the love of the world, seemed not to be so much as in his nature; so that he had all the innocence of the dove in him. He had a way of gaining people's hearts, and of touching their consciences, that looked like somewhat `of the apostolical age revived. ife spent much of his time in those two best exercises, secret prayer, and dealing with other people's consciences, either in his sermons or private discourses; and what remained he dedicated.to his studies, in which those many volumes that came from him showed a most amazing diligence, and exactness: so that he was certainly one of the greatest and best men that the age, or perhaps the world, has produced. But he was not made for the governing part of his function. He had too gentle a soul to manage that rough work of reforming abuses; and therefore he left things as he found them. He hoped a time of reformation would come. He saw the necessity of cutting off many abuses; and confessed, that the tolerating of those abominable corruptions, which the canonists had brought in, was such a stain upon our church, that he apprehended it would bring a curse and ruin upon the whole constitution. But though he prayed for a more favorable conjuncture, and would have concurred in a joint reformation of these things very: heartily, yet he did not bestir himself, suitably to the obligations that lay on him, for carrying it on: and it is very likely that this sat. heavy on his thoughts when he came to die; for he prayed often, and with great humility, that GOD would forgive his sins of omission, and his failings in his duty. Those that upon all other accounts loved and admired him, lamented this defect in him; which was the only alloy that seemed left, and without which he would have been held, perhaps, in more veneration than was fitting. His physician, DR. Boorius, who was a Dutchman, said truly of him, " If our Primate of Armagh were as exact a disciplinarian, as he is eminent in searching antiquity, defending the truth, and preaching the Gospel, he might without doubt deserve to be made the chief churchman of CHRISTendom." Yet though ARCHBISHOP USHER did not much himself, he had a singular esteem for that vigor of mind, which our Bishop expressed in the re-forming of these matters.

And now I come to the next instance of his pastoral care, which made more noise, and met with more opposition, than any of the former.-He found that his Court, which sat in his name, was an entire abuse. It was managed by a Chancellor, who had bought his place from his predecessor, and so he thought he had a right to all the profits that he could raise out of it; and the whole business of the Court seemed to be nothing but extortion and oppression. For it is an old observation, that men who buy justice will also sell it. Bribes went about almost bare-faced; and the exchange they made of penance for money was the worst sort of simony, being in effect the very same abuse that gave the world such a scandal when it was so indecently practiced in the Church of Rome, and opened the way to the Reformation: for the selling of indulgences is really but a commutation of penance. He found the officers of the Court made it their business to draw people into trouble by vexatious suits, and to hold them so long in it, that for three-pence-worth of the tithe of turf; they would be put to five pounds' charge. And the most solemn and sacred of all the Church-censures, excommunication, was performed in so base a manner, that all regard to it, as it was a spiritual censure, was lost; and the effects it had in law made it be cried out against, as a most intolerable piece of tyranny. And of all this the good Primate was so sensible, that he gives this sad account of the venality of all sacred things, in a letter to the ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY: "As for the general state of things here, they are so desperate, that I am afraid to write any thing thereof. Some of the adverse part have asked me the question, where I have heard or read before, that religion and men's souls should be set to sale, after this manner Unto whom I could reply nothing, but that I had read in MANTUAN, that there was another place in the world where admit est venale, Deusque:-' Both heaven and Go]) himself are set to sale.'" But our Bishop thought it not enough to lament this; he resolved to do what in him lay to correct these abuses, and to go and sit and judge in his own Courts himself. He carried a competent number of his Clergy with him, who sat about him, and there he heard causes, and by their advice he gave. sentence. By this means so many causes were dismissed; and such a change was wrought in the whole proceedings of the Court, that, instead of being any more a grievance to the country, none were now grieved by it but the Chancellor, and the other officers of the Court, who saw that their trade was sunk, and their profits were falling, and were already displeased with the Bishop, for writing the titles to benefices himself, and taking that part of their gain out of their hands: Therefore the Lay-Chancellor brought a suit against the Bishop into Chancery, for invading his office. The matter was now a common cause; the other Bishops were glad at this step our Bishop had made, encouraged him to go on resolutely in it, and assured him they would stand by him and they confessed they were but Half-Bishops, till they could recover their authority out of the hands of their Chancellors. But, on the. other hand, all the Chancellors and Registers of Ireland combined together, who saw this struck at those places which they had bought. The Bishop desired that he might be suffered to plead his own cause himself; but that was denied him. But he drew the argument that his Counsel made for him; for it being: the first suit that ever was of that sort, he was more capable of composing his defense than his Counsel could be.

He went upon these grounds:-That one of the most essential parts of a Bishop's duty was to govern his flock, and to inflict spiritual censures on obstinate offenders; that a Bishop could no more delegate this power to a lay-man, than he could delegate a power to baptize or ordain, since excommunication, and other censures, were a sus-pension of the rights of baptism and orders, and therefore the judging of these things could only belong to him that had the power to give them; and that the delegating of that power was a thing null of itself.` He showed, that feeding the flock was inseparable from a Bishop; and that no delegation he could make, could take that power from himself, since all the effect it could have was, to make another his deputy in his absence. Next, he showed how it had been ever looked on as a necessary part of the Bishop's duty, to examine and censure the scandals of his Clergy and Laity, in ancient and modern times: that the Roman Emperors had by many laws supported the credit and authority of these Courts; that since the practices of the Court of Rome had brought in such a variety of rules, for covering the corruptions which they intended to sup-port, that which is in itself a plain and simple thing was made very intricate; so that the canon-law was become a great study, and, upon this account, Bishops had taken Civilians and Canonists to be their assistants in those Courts; but that this could be for no other end, but only to inform them in points of law, or to hear and prepare matters for them: for the giving sentence, as it is done in the Bishop's name, so it is really his office; and is that for which he is accountable both to GOD and man. And since the law made those to be the Bishops' Courts, and since the King had by patent confirmed that authority, which was lodged in him by his office, of governing those Courts, he thought all delegations, that were exclusive of the Bishop, ought to be declared void.

The Reader will perhaps judge better of the force of this argument than the LORD CHANCELLOR of Ireland, BOLTON, did, who confirmed the Chancellor's right, and gave him a hundred pounds as costs of the Bishop. But when the Bishop asked him, how he came to make so unjust a decree, he answered, that all his father had left him was a Register's place; so he thought he was bound to support those Courts, which he saw would be ruined, if the way he took had not been checked.

As this was a leading case, great pains were taken to possess the Primate against the Bishop; but his letters will best discover the grounds on which he went, and that noble temper of mind that supported him in so great an under-taking. The one is long, but I will not shorten it.

RIGHT REVEREND FATHER,

My honorable good LORD,

I have received your Grace's letters concerning MR. CooKE, and I do acknowledge all that your Grace writes to be true, concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction: neither did I forbear to do him right, in giving him that testimony, when before the Chapter I did declare and show, the nullity of his patent. I have heard of my LORD's attempt; and I do believe, that if this patent had due form, I could not overthrow it, how unequal soever it be. But failing in the essential parts, besides sundry other defects, I do not think any reasonable creature can adjudge it to be good. I shall more at large certify your Grace of the whole matter, and the reasons of my Counsel herein. I shall desire herein to be tried by your Grace's own judgment, and not by your Chancellor's; or, as I think in such a case I ought to be, by the Synod of the Province. I have resolved to see the end of this matter; and do desire your Grace's favor herein no farther than the equity of the cause, and the good, as far as I can judge, of our Church, in a high degree, require. So, with my humble service to your Grace, and respectful commendations to MRS. USHER, I rest,

" Your Grace's in all duty,

" WILL. KILMORE."

" MOST REVEI;END FATHER,

" My honorable good LORD,

" Since it pleased GOD to call me to this place in this church, what my intentions have been to the discharge of my duty, he best knows. But I have met with many impediments and discouragements; and chiefly from those of mine own profession in religion. Concerning MR. HOILE, I acquainted your Grace. SIR EDWARD BAGSIIAW, SIR FRANCIS HAMILTON, MR. WILLIAM FLEMMING, and divers more, have been, and yet are, pulling from the rights of my church. But all these have been light in respect of the dealing of some others, professing me kindness, by whom I have been blazed as a Papist, an Equivocator, a niggardly Housekeeper, an Usurer. And to make up all,. it has been reported that I compared your Grace's preaching to one MR. WRISKINS's, MR. CREIGHTON'S, and MR. BAXTER'S, and preferred them; and that you found yourself deceived in me. These things have been reported at Dublin; and some of the best affected of mine own diocese were induced hereby to bewail with tears the misery of the church. Some of the Clergy also, it was said, were looking about how they might remove them-selves out of this country.

" Omitting all the rest, I cannot but touch upon the last;-preferring others to your Grace's preaching. Thus it was. MR. DUNSTERVILLE acquainted me with his purpose to preach out of Prov. 20:6,' But a faithful man who can find.' From which he said, the doctrine he meant to raise was this, That faith is a rare gift of GOD. I told him, I thought he mistook the meaning of the text, and wished him to choose longer texts, and not bring his discourses to a word or two of Scripture; but rather to declare those of the HOLY GHOST. He said your Grace did so sometimes. I answered, there might be just cause; but I thought you did not ordinarily. As for those men, MR. WHISKIN's, and the rest, I never heard any of them preach to this day. Peradventure, their manner is to take longer texts; whereupon the comparison is made up, as if I preferred them before you. I know your Grace will not think me such a fool (if I had no fear of Got'), as to prefer, before your excellent gifts, men that I never heard. But look, as the French proverb is,' He that is disposed to kill his dog, tells men he is mad.' And whom men have once wronged, unless the grace of GOD be the more, they ever hate. Concerning the wrongs which these people have offered me, I shall take another time to inform your Grace. Where they say, your Grace does find yourself deceived in me, I think it may be the truest word they said yet. For indeed I do think both you and many more are deceived in me; accounting me to have some honesty, discretion, and grace, more than you will by proof find. But if, as it seems to me, that form has this meaning, that they pre-tend to have undeceived you, I hope they are deceived; yea, I hope they shall be deceived, if by such courses as these they think to unsettle me, and the Devil himself also, if he thinks to dismay me.' I will go on in the strength of the LORD GOD, and remember. his righteousness, even his alone,' as by my LORD of Canterbury, when I first carne over, I was exhorted, and have obtained help of GOD to do to this day.

" But' had I not work enough before, but I must bring MR. COOKE upon my top How much better to study to be quiet, and to do mine own business, as at the first I came with a resolution to do.' But I could not be quiet, nor without pity hear the complaints of those that resorted to me, some of them mine own neighbors and tenants, called into the Court, commonly by information of apparitors, holden there without just cause, and not dismissed without excessive fees. Lastly, one MR. MAYOT, a Minister of the diocese of Ardagh, made a complaint to me, that he was excommunicated- by MR. COOKE, notwithstanding the correction of Ministers was excepted out of his patent. Whereupon I desired to see the patent, and to have a copy of it, that I might know how to govern myself. He said, MR. ASKS, being then from home, should bring it to me at his return. Himself went to Dublin to the term. At the first view, I saw it was a formless chaos of authority, conferred upon him against all reason and equity. I had, not long after, occasion to call the Chapter together at the time of ordination. I showed the original, being brought forth by MR. AWE, and desired to know if that were the Chapter-seal, and these their hands: they acknowledged their hands and seal, and said they were less careful in passing it, because they accounted that it did rather concern my predecessor than them. I showed its false Latin, nonsense, injustice, prejudice to them, contrariety to itself, and to the King's grant to me. I showed that there were, in one period, above five hundred words; and, which passed the rest, hanging in the air without any principal verb. I desired them to consider if the seal hanging to it were the Bishop's seal; they acknowledged that it was not: therefore, with protestation that I meant no way to call in question the sufficiency of MR. COOKE, or his former acts, I did judge the patent to be. void, and so declared it; inhibiting MR. COOKE to do any thing by virtue thereof, and them to assist him therein. This is the true history of this business, howsoever Mn,. COOKE may disguise it. I suspended not him absent, and indictd causal; it was his commission, which was present, that I viewed, and which, with the Chapter, I censured; which if he can make good, he shall have leave, and time, and place enough.

" And now to relate to your Grace my purpose herein. My LORD, I account, that to any work, to remove impediments is a great part of the performance. And amongst all the impediments to the work of GOD amongst us, there is not any one greater than the abuse of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This is not only the opinion of the most Godly, judicious, and learned men that I have known, but the cause of it is plain. The people pierce not into the inward and true reason of things; they are sensible in the purse: and that religion that makes men to be despisers of the world, and so far from encroaching upon others in matter of base gain, as rather to part with their own, they magnify.

This bred the admiration of the primitive Christians. Contrary causes must needs produce contrary effects. Where-fore, let us preach never so painfully and piously,-I say more, let us live never so blamelessly ourselves,-so long as the officers in our Courts prey upon them, they esteem us no better than publicans and worldlings; and so much the more deservedly, because we are called spiritual men, and call ourselves reformed Christians. And if the honest and best of our own Protestants be thus scandalized, what may we think of Papists; such as are all, in a manner, that we live among The time was, when I hoped the Church of Ireland was free from this abuse, at least more free than her sister of England. But I find I am deceived; whether it be that distance of place, and being further out of the reach of the sceptre of justice, breeds more boldness to offend, or necessarily brings more delay of redress. I have been wont also, in Ireland, to except one Court.; but trust me, my LORD, I have heard it said,' My LORD Primate is a good man; but his Court is as corrupt as others.' Some say worse; (which, I confess to your Grace, did not a little terrify me from visiting till I might see how to do it with fruit;) viz. that of your late visitation they see no profit, but the taking of money.

" But to come to MR. Coon: of all that have exercised jurisdiction in this land these late years, he is most cried out upon; although he came off with credit when he was questioned, and justified himself by the table of fees, as by a leaden rule any stone may be approved as well as hewed. By what little I met with since I carne hither, 1 am induced to believe that it was not for lack of matter, but that there was some other cause of his escaping in that trial. By this table, he has taken in my predecessor's time, and seeks to take in mine, fees for exhibits at visitations, for unions, sequestrations, relaxations, certificates, licenses, permutations of penance, and sentences (as our Court calls them) interlocutory in causes of correction. Such fees I cannot in my, conscience think to be just. And yet he does it in my name, and tells me I cannot call him into question for it.

Alas, my LORD, if this be the condition of a Bishop, that he standeth for a cipher, and only to uphold the wrongs of other men, what do I in this place Am I not bound by my profession, made to GOD in your presence, to be gentle and merciful for CHRIST'S sake to poor and needy people, and such as be destitute of

help Can I be excused another day with this, that thus it was ere I came to this place' Or, since I am persuaded Mr. Cooen's patent is unjust and void, am I not bound to make it so; and to regulate, if I may, this matter of fees, and the rest of the disorders of the jurisdiction which his Majesty has entrusted me withal Your Grace says, ' Truly it is a difficult thing, if not impossible, to over-throw a patent so confirmed;' and I know in deliberations it is one of the most important considerations, what we may hope to effect. But how can 1: tell till I have tried. To be discouraged ere I begin, is it not to consult with flesh and blood Verily I think so; and therefore must put it to the trial, and leave the success to GOD. If I obtain the cause, the profit will be to this poor nation. If not, I shall show my consent to those my reverend Brethren that have endeavored to redress this enormity before me; and I shall have the testimony of mine own conscience, that I have sought to discharge my duty to God and his people. Yea, which is the main, the work of my ministry and service to this nation shall receive furtherance howsoever, rather than any hinderance thereby. And if by the continuance of such oppressions any thing fall out other-wise than well, I shall have acquitted myself towards his Majesty, and those that have engaged themselves for me. At least I shall have the better reason and juster cause to resign to his Majesty the jurisdiction, which I am not permitted to manage.

And here I beseech your Grace, to consider seriously whether it were not happy for us to be rid of this charge, which, not being proper to our calling, is not possible to be executed without such deputies as subject us to the ill conceit of their unjust or indiscreet carriage Or, if it shall he thought fit to carry this load still, whether we ought not to procure some way to be discharged of the envy of it, and redress the abuse, with the greatest strictness we can devise For my part, I cannot bethink me of any course fitter for the present, than to keep the Courts myself, and set some good order in them. And to this purpose I have been at Cavan, Belturbet, Granard, and Longford, and do intend to go to the rest; leaving with some of the Minis-try there a few rules, touching those things that are to be redressed, that if my health do not permit me to be always present, they may know how to proceed in my absence.

Yea, and if MR. COOKE were the justest Chancellor in this kingdom, I would think it fit for me, as things now stand, to sit in these Courts; and the rather since I cannot be heard in the pulpits to preach, as I may in them. I have showed your Mace my intentions in this matter. Now I should require your direction in many things, if I were present with you. But, for the present, it may please you to understand, that at Granard one MR. NUGENT, a nephew as I take it to my LORD of WESTMEATH, delivered his letter to MR. ASKE, which he delivered me in open court, requiring that his tenants might not be troubled for CHRISTenings, marriages, or funerals, so they pay the Minister his due. This referred to a letter of my LORD Chancellor's, to the like purpose, which yet was not delivered till the Court was risen. I answered generally, that none of my LORD's tenants or others should be wronged. But then I would be strict in requiring them to bring their children to be baptized, and their marriages likewise to be solemnized with us; since they acknowledged these to be lawful and true, so that it was but wilfulness if any forbore. Here I desire your Grace to direct me. For to give way that they should not be so much as called in question, seems to further the schism they labor to make. To lay any pecuniary mulct upon them, as the value of a license for marriage, and three-pence or four-pence for a CHRISTening, I know not by what law it can be done. To excommunicate them for not appearing or obeying, they being already none of our body, and a multitude, it is to no profit, nay, rather makes the case worse.

And now ceasing to be troublesome, I commend your Grace to the protection of our merciful Father:

Your Grace's in all duty,

"Feb. 15, 1629."

The other Bishops did not stand by our Bishop in this matter; but were content to let him fall under censure, without interposing in it. Even the Primate told him, that the tide was so high that he could assist him no more; for he stood by him longer than others of the order had done. But the Bishop was not disheartened by this. And as he thanked him for assisting him so long, so he said he was resolved, by the help of Go), to try if he could stand by himself.

He went home, and resolved to go on into his Courts as he had begun, notwithstanding this censure. For he thought he was doing that which was incumbent on him; and he had a spirit so made, that he resolved to suffer martyrdom, rather than fail in any thing that lay on his con-science. But his Chancellor was either advised by those that governed the state, to give him no disturbance in that matter; or was overcome by the authority he saw in him, that inspired all people with reverence for him: for, as he never called for the costs of one hundred pounds, so he never disturbed him any more, but named a Surrogate, to whom he gave order to be in all things observant of the Bishop, and obedient to him. So it seems, that though it was thought fit to keep up the authority of the Lay-Chancellors over Ireland, and not to suffer this Bishop's practice to pass into a precedent; yet order was given under-hand to let him go on as he had begun. And his Chancellor had so great a value for him, that, many years after this, he said, he thought there was not such a man on the face of the earth as BISHOP BEDELL was; that he was too hard for all the Civilians in Ireland; and that if he had not been borne down by mere force, he would have overthrown the Consistorial Courts, and had recovered the episcopal jurisdictipn out of the Chancellor's hands. But now that he went on undisturbed in his episcopal Court, he made use of it as became him, and not as an engine to raise his power and dominion; but considering that all church-power was for edification, and not for destruction, he both dispensed justice equally and speedily, and cut off many fees and much expense; and also, when scandalous persons were brought before him to be censured, he considered that church-censures ought not to be like the acts of tyrants, who punish out of revenge, but like the discipline of parents, who correct in order to the amendment of their children: so he studied chiefly to beget in all offenders a true sense of their sins. Many of the Irish Priests were brought often into his courts for their lewdness; and upon that he took occasion, with great mildness, and without scoffing or insultings, to make them sensible of the tyrannical imposition of their church, in denying their Priests leave to marry, which occasioned so much impurity among them; and this caused a good effect on some.

This leads me to another part of his character,-the care he took of the natives. He observed with much regret, that the English had all along neglected the Irish, as a nation not only conquered, but undisciplineable; and that the Clergy had scarcely considered them as a part of their charge, but had left them wholly in the hands of their own Priests, without taking any other care of them, but making them pay their tithes. And indeed, their Priests were a strange sort of people, that knew generally nothing but the reading of their offices, which were not so much as understood by many of them; so that the state both of the Clergy and laity was such,. that it could not but raise great compassion in a man that had so tender a sense of the value of those souls which CHRIST had purchased with his blood. He therefore resolved to set about that apostolical work of converting the natives with the zeal and care that. so great an undertaking required. He knew that the gaining of some of the more knowing, of their Priests was likely to be the quickest way; for by their means he hoped to spread the knowledge of the reformed religion among the natives, or rather that of the Christian religion, to speak more strictly. For they had no sort of notion of Christianity; but only knew that they were to depend upon their priests, and were to confess such of their actions, as they call sins, to them, and were to pay them tithes.

The Bishop prevailed on several priests to change; and he was so well satisfied with the truth of their conversion, that he provided for some of them ecclesiastical benefices. This was thought a strange thing; and was censured by many, as contrary to the interest of the English nation. For it was believed that all, those Irish converts were still Papists at the heart, and might be so much the more dangerous, by that disguise which they had put on. But he, on the other hand, considered. chiefly the duty of a Christian Bishop. He also thought that the true interest of England was to gain the Irish to the knowledge of religion, and to bring them by the means of that, which only turns the heart, to love the English nation: and so he judged that the wisdom of that course was apparent, as well as the piety of it; since such as changed their religion would become thereby so odious to their own Clergy, that this would provoke them to further degrees of zeal in gaining others to come over after them. And he took great care to work, in those whom he trusted with the care of souls, a full conviction of the truth of religion, and a deep sense of the importance of it. And in this he was so happy, that of all the converts that he had raised to benefices, there was but one that fell back, when the rebellion broke out: and he not only apostatized, but both plundered and killed the English, among the first. But no wonder if one murderer was among our Bishop's converts, since there was a traitor among the twelve that followed our SAVIOR.

There was a convent of Friars very near him, on whom he bestowed much pains, with very good success. That he might furnish his converts with the means of instructing others, he made a short catechism, to be printed in one sheet, being English on the one page, and Irish on the other; which contained the elements and most necessary things of the Christian religion, together with some forms of prayer, and some of the most instructive passages of Scripture. This he sent about all over his diocese; and it was received with great joy, by many of the Irish, who seemed to be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and received this beginning of knowledge so well, that it gave a good encouragement, to hope well upon further endeavors.