shall leape as calves of the heard And Iob 20. 15 16. The riches which he shall gather unjustly shall be vomited out of his belly the Angel of death draweth him Hee shall be mulcted with the wrath of Dragons the tongue of the Serpent shall kill him where the Vulgar Latin readeth The riches which he hath devoured he shall vomit out and God shall draw them forth out of his belly He shall suck the head of Aspes and the Vipers tongue shall kill him The same course is likewise observed by Sedulius in his citations But Gildas the Briton in some Bookes as Deuteronomy Esay and Ieremy for example useth to follow the Vulgar Latin translated out of the Hebrew in others as the bookes of Chronicles Iob Proverbs Ezekiel and the small Prophets the elder Latin translated out of the Greeke as also long after him his country man Nennius in reckoning the yeares of the age of the world followeth the LXX and Asser alledgeth the text Genes 4. 7. If thou offer aright and dost not divide aright thou sinnest according to the Greek reading whereas the Vulgar Latin hath it If thou doe well shalt thou not receive againe but if thou doest ill shall not thy sinne forthwith be present at the doore Of the Psalter there are extant foure Latin translations out of the Greeke namely the old Italian the Romane the Gallican and that of Millayne and one out of the Hebrew composed by St. Hierome which though it bee now excluded out of the body of the Bible and the Gallican admitted in the roome thereof yet in some Manuscript Copies it still retaineth his ancient place three whereof I have seene my selfe in Cambridge the one in Trinitie the other in Benet and the third in Iesus Colledge Librarie where this translation out of the Hebrew and not the Vulgar out of the Greek is inserted into the context of the Bible In the citations of Gildas and the Confession of Saint Patrick I observe that the Roman Psalter is followed rather than the Gallican in the quotations of Sedulius on the other side the Gallican rather than the Roman Claudius speaking of a text in the 118 th or as he accounteth it the 117 th Psalme saith that where the LXX Interpreters did translate it O Lord save me it was written in the Hebrew Anna Adonai Osanna which our Interpreter Hierom saith he more diligently explaining translated thus I beseech thee O Lord save I beseech thee Before this translation of S. Hierome I have seene an Epigram prefixed by Ricemarch the Briton who by Caradoc of Lhancarpan is commended for the godliest wisest and greatest Clerke that had been in Wales many yeares before his time his father Sulgen Bishop of S. Davids only excepted who had brought him up and a great number of learned disciples He having in this Epigramme said of those who translated the Psalter out of Greeke that they did darken the Hebrew rayes with thir Latin clowde addeth of S. Hierome that being replenished with the Hebrew fountaine hee did more cleerely and briefly discover the truth as drawing it out of the first vessell immediately and not taking it at the second hand To this purpose thus expresseth he himselfe Ebraeis nablam custodit littera signis Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino Edidit innumeros Linguâ variante libellos Ebraeumque jubar suffuscat nube Latina Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labrasaporem Sed sacer Hieronymus Ebraeo fonte repletus Lucidiùs nudat verum breviusque ministrat Namque secunda creat nam tertia vascula vitat Now for those bookes annexed to the Old Testament which S. Hierom calleth Apocryphall others Ecclesiasticall true it is that in our Irish and Brittish writers some of them are alledged as parcels of Scripture and propheticall writings those especially that commonly bare the name of Salomon But so also is the fourth booke of Esdras cited by Gildas in the name of blessed Esdras the Prophet which yet our Romanists will not admit to be Canonicall neither doe our writers mention any of the rest with more titles of respect than wee finde given unto them by others of the ancient Fathers who yet in expresse termes doe exclude them out of the number of those bookes which properly are to be esteemed Canonicall So that from hence no sufficient proofe can bee taken that our ancestours did herein depart from the tradition of the Elder Church delivered by S. Hierome in his Prologues and explained by Brito a Briton it seemeth by nation as well as by appellation in his commentaries upon the same which being heretofore joyned with the Ordinarie Glosse upon the Bible have of late proved so distastefull unto our Popish Divines that in their new editions printed at Lyons anno 1590. and at Venice afterward they have quite crossed them out of their books Yet Marianus Scotus who was borne in Ireland in the MXXVIII yeare of our Lord was somewhat more carefull to maintaine the ancient bounds of the Canon set by his forefathers For he in his Chronicle following Eusebius and S. Hierom at the reigne of Artaxerxes Longimanus writeth thus Hitherto the divine Scripture of the Hebrewes containeth the order of Times But those things that after this were done among the Iewes are represented out of the booke of the Maccabees and the writings of Iosephus and Aphricanus But before him more plainly the author of the book de mirabilibus Scripturae who is accounted to have lived here about the yeare DCLVII In the bookes of the Maccabees howsoever some wonderfull things bee found which might conveniently bee inserted into this ranke yet wâ—ll wee not weary our selves with any care thereof because wee only purposed to touch in some measure a short historicall exposition of the wonderfull things contained in the divine canon as also in the apocryphall additions of Daniel hee telleth us that what is reported touching the lake or denne and the carrying of Abackuk in the fable of Bel and the Dragon is not therefore placed in this ranke because these things have not the authority of divine Scripture And so much concerning the holy Scriptures CHAP. II. Of Predestination Grace Free-will Faith Workes Iustification and Sanctification THe Doctrine which our learned men observed out of the Scriptures the writings of the most approved Fathers was this that God by his immoveable counsaile as Gallus speaketh in his Sermon preached at Constance ordained some of his creatures to praise hâ—m and to live blessedly from him and in him by him namely by his eternall predestination his free calling and his grace which was due to none that hee hath mercie with great goodnesse and hardneth without any iniquitie so as neyther he that is delivered can glory of his own merits nor he that is condemned complain but of his own merits for asmuch as grace onely maketh the distinction betwixt the
of Liturgie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Lords Supper TOuching the worship of God Sedulius delivereth this generall rule that to adore any other beside the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost is the crime of impiety and that all that the soule oweth unto God if it bestow it upon any beside God it committeth adultery More particularly in the matter of Images hee reproveth the wise men of the heathen for thinking that they had found out a way how the invisible God might bee worshipped by a visible image with whom also accordeth Claudius that God is to bee knowne neither in mettall nor in stone and for Oathes there is a Canon ascribed to Saint Patricke wherein it is determined that no creature is to bee sworne by but onely the Creator As for the forme of the Litugrie or publicke service of God which the same St. Patrick brought into this country it is said that hee received it from Germanus and Lupus and that it originally descended from S. Marke the Evangelist for so have I seene it set downe in an ancient fragment written wellnigh 900. yeeres since remaining now in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton my worthy friend who can never sufficiently bee commended for his extraordinary care in preserving all rare monuments of this kinde Yea St. Hieromes authority is there vouched for proofe hereof Beatus Hieronymus adfirmat quòd ipsum cursum qui dicitur praesente tempore Scottorum beatus Marcus decantaâ—it which being not now to bee found in any of Saint Hieroms workes the truth thereof I leave unto the credit of the reporter But whatsoever Liturgie was used here at first this is sure that in the succeeding ages no one generall forme of divine service was retained but diverse rites and manners of celebrations were observed in diverse parts of this Kingdome untill the Romane use was brought in at last by Gillebertus and Malachias and Christianus who were the Popes Legates here about 500. yeeres agoe This Gillebertus an old acquaintance of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury in the Prologue of his booke De usu Ecclesiastico directed to the whole Clergie of Ireland writeth in this manner At the request yea and at the command of many of you dearely beloved I endevoured to set downe in writing the Canonicall custome in saying of Houres and performing the Office of the whole Ecclesiasticall Order not presumptuously but in desire to serve your most godly command to the end that those diverse and schismaticall Orders wherewith in a manner all Ireland is deluded may give place to one Catholicke and Romane Office For what may bee said to bee more undecent or schismaticall than that the most learned in one order should bee made as a private and lay man in another mans Church These beginnings were presently seconded by Malachias in whose life written by Bernard wee reade as followeth The Apostolicall constitutions and the decrees of the holy Fathers but especially the customes of the holy Church of Rome did he establish in all Churches And hence it is that at this day the Canonicall Houres are chanted and sung therein according to the manner of the whole earth whereas before that this was not done no not in the Citie it selfe the poore city of Ardmagh he meaneth But Malachias had learned song in his youth and shortly after caused singing to be used in his own Monasterie when as yet aswell in the citie as in the whole Bishoprick they eyther knew not or would not sing Lastly the worke was brought to perfection when Christianus Bishop of Lismore as Legate to the Pope was President in the Councell of Casshell wherein a speciall order was taken for the right singing of the Ecclesiasticall Office and a generall act established that all divine offices of holy Church should from thenceforth be handled in all parts of Ireland according as the Church of England dâ—d observe them The statutes of which Councell were confirmed by the Regall authoritie of King Henry the second by whose mandate the Bishops that met therein were assembled in the yeare of our Lord 1171. as Giraldus Cambrensis witnesseth in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland And thus late was it before the Romane use was fully settled in this Kingdome That the Britons used another manner in the administration of the Sacrament of Baptisme than the Romanes did appeareth by the proposition made unto them by Austin the Monke that they should performe the ministerie of baptisme according to the custome of the Church of Rome That their forme of Liturgie was the same with that which was received by their neighbours the Galls is intimated by the Author of that ancient fragment before alledged who also addeth that the Gallican Order was received in the Church throughout the whole world Yet elsewhere doe I meete with a sentence alledged out of Gildas that the Britons were contrary to the whole world and enemies to the Roman customes aswell in their Masse as in their Tonsure Where to let passe what I have collected touching the difference of these tonsures as a matter of very small moment eyther way and to speake somewhat of the Masse for which so great adoe is now adayes made by our Romanists wee may observe in the first place that the publike Liturgie or service of the Church was of old named the Masse even then also when prayers only were said without the celebration of the holy Communion So the last Masse that S. Colme was ever present at is noted by Adamnanus to have beene vespertinalis Dominica noctis Missa He dyed the mid-night following whence the Lords day tooke his beginning 9â— viz. Iunii Anno Dom. 597. according to the account of the Romanes which the Scottish and Irish seeme to have begunne from the evening going before and then was that evening-Masse said which in all likelihood differed not from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Leo the Emperour in his Tacticks that is to say from that which we call Even-song or Evening prayer But the name of the Masse was in those daies more specially applied to the administration fo the Lords Supper therfore in the same Adamnanus we see that Sacra Eucharistiae ministeria and Missarum solemnia the sacred ministerie of the Eucharist and the solemnities of the Masse are taken for the same thing So likewise in the relation of the passages that concerne the obsequies of Columbanus performed by Gallus and Magnoaldus we finde that Missam celebrare and Missas agere is made to be the same with Divina celebrare mysteria and Salutis hostiam or salutare sacrificium immolare the saying of Masse the same with the celebration of the divine mysteries and the oblation of the healthfull sacrifice for by that terme was the administration of the sacrament of the Lords Supper at that time usually designed For as in
our beneficence and communicating unto the necessities of the poore which are sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased wee are taught to give both our selves and our almes first unto the Lord and after unto our brethren by the will of God so is it in this ministery of the blessed Sacrament the service is first presented unto God from which as from a most principall part of the dutie the sacrament it selfe is called the Eucharist because therein wee offer a speciall sacrifice of praise and thankesgiving alwaies unto God and then communicated unto the use of Gods people in the performance of which part of the service both the minister was said to give and the communicant to receive the sacrifice as well as in respect of the former part they were said to offer the same unto the Lord. For they did not distinguish the Sacrifice from the Sacrament as the Romanists doe now adayes but used the name of Sacrifice indifferently both of that which was offered unto God and of that which was given to and received by the communicant Therefore wee read of offring the sacrifice to God as in that speech of Gallus to his scholler Magnoaldus My master Columbanus is accustomed to offer unto the Lord the sacrifice of salvation in brasen vessels Of giving the sacrifice to man as when it is said in one of the ancient Synods of Ireland that a Bishop by his Testament may bequeath a certaine proportion of his goods for a legacie to the Priest that giveth him the sacrifice and of receiving the sacrifice from the hands of the minister as in that sentence of the Synod attributed unto S. Patrick He who deserveth not to receive the sacrifice in his life how can it helpe him after his death and in that glosse of Sedulius upon 1. Cor. 11. 33. Tarry one for another that is saith he untill you doe receive the sacrifice and in the Brittish antiquities where we reade of Amon a noble man in Wales father to Samson the Saint of Dole in little Brittain that being taken with a grievous sicknesse hee was admonished by his neighbours that according to the usuall manner he should receive the sacrifice of the communion Whereby it doth appeare that the sacrifice of the elder times was not like unto the new Masse of the Romanists wherein the Priest alone doth all but unto our Communion where others also have free libertie given unto them to eat of the Altar as well as they that serve that Altar Again they that are communicants in the Romish sacrament receive the Eucharist in one kinde onely the Priest in offering of the sacrifice receiveth the same distinctly both by way of meat and by way of drinke which they tell us is chiefly done for the integritie of the Sacrifice and not of the Sacrament For in the Sacrifice they say the severall elements be consecrated not into Christs whole person as it was borne of the Virgin or now is in heaven but the bread into his body apart as betrayed broken and given for us the wine into his bloud apart as shed out of his bodie for remission of sinnes and dedication fo the new Testament which bee conditions of his person as hee was in sacrifice and oblation But our ancestours in the use of their Sacrament received the Eucharist in both kinds not being so acute as to discerne betwixt the things that belonged unto the integritie of the sacrifice and of the sacrament because in very truth they tooke the one to be the other Thus Bede relateth that one Hildmer an officer of Egfrid King of Northumberland intreated our Cuthbert to send a Priest that might minister the sacraments of the Lords body and bloud unto his wife that then lay a dying and Cuthbert himselfe immediately before his owne departure out of this life received the communion of the Lords body and bloud as Herefride Abbat of the monsterie of Lindisfarne who was the man that at that time ministred the sacrament unto him made report unto the same Bede who elsewhere also particularly noteth that he then tasted of the cup. Pocula degustat vitae Christique supinum Sanguine munit iter lest any man should thinke that under the formes of bread alone he might be said to have been partaker of the body and bloud of the Lord by way of Concomitance which is a toy that was not once dreamed of in those daies So that we need not to doubt what is meant by that which wee reade in the booke of the life of Furseus which was written before the time of Bede that he received the communion of the holy body and bloud and that hee was wished to admonish the Pastors of the Church that they should strengthen the soules of the faithfull with the spirituall food of doctrine and the participation of the holy body and bloud or of that which Cogitosus writeth in the life of Saint Brigid touching the place in the Church of Kildare whereunto the Abbatesse with her maidens and widowes used to resort that they might enioy the banquet of the body and bloud of Iesus Christ. which was agreeable to the practice not only of the Nunneries founded beyond the seas according to the rule of Columbanus where the Virgins received the body of the Lord and sipped his bloud as appeareth by that which Ionas relateth of Domnae in the life of Burgundofora but also of S. Brigid her selfe who was the foundresse of the monasterie of Kildare one of whose miracles is reported even in the later Legends to have happened when shee was about to drinke out of the Chalice at the time of her receiving of the Eucharist which they that list to looke after may finde in the collections of Capgrave Surius and such like But you will say these testimonies that have beene alledged make not so much for us in proving the use of the communion under both kindes as they make against us in confirming the opinion of Transubstantiation seeing they all specifie the receiving not of bread and wine but of the body and bloud of Christ. I answer that forasmuch as Christ himselfe at the first institution of his holy Supper did say expresly This is my body and This is my bloud hee deserveth not the name of a Christian that will question the truth of that saying or refuse to speake in that language which hee hath heard his Lord and Master use before him The question onely is in what sense and after what manner these things must bee conceived to bee his body and bloud Of which there needed to be little question if men would bee pleased to take into their consideration these two things which were never doubted of by the ancient and have most evident ground in the context of the Gospel First that the subject of those sacramentall propositions delivered by our Saviour that is to say the demonstrative particle THIS
can have reference to no other substance but that which hee then held in his sacred hands namely bread wines which are of so different a nature from the body and bloud of Christ that the one cannot possibly in proper sense be said to be the other as the light of common reason doth force the Romanists themselves to confesse Secondly that in the Predicate or latter part of the same propositions there is not mention made only of Christs body and bloud but of his body broken and his bloud shed to shew that his body is to be considered here apart not as it was borne of the Virgin or now is in heaven but as it was broken and crucified for us and his bloud likewise apart not as running in his veines but as shed out of his body which the Rhemists have told us to be conditions of his person as hee was in sacrifice and oblation And lest wee should imagine that his body were otherwise to bee considered in the sacrament than in the sacrifice in the one alive as it is now in heaven in the other dead as it was offered upon the Crosse the Apostle putteth the matter out of doubt that not onely the minister in offering but also the people in receiving even as often as they eate this bread and drinke this cup doe shew the Lords death untill hee come Our elders surely that held the sacrifice to bee given and received for so we have heard themselves speak as well as offered did not consider otherwise of Christ in the sacrament than as hee was in sacrifice and oblation If here therefore Christs body be presented as broken and livelesse and his bloud as shed forth and severed from his body and it be most certaine that there are no such things now really existent any where as is confessed on all hands then must it follow necessarily that the bread and wine are not converted into these things really The Rhemists indeede tell us that when the Church doth offer and sacrifice Christ daily hee in mysterie and sacrament dyeth Further than this they durst not goe for if they had said hee dyed really they should thereby not only make themselves daily killers of Christ but also directly crosse that principle of the Apostle Rom. 6. 9. Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more If then the body of Christ in the administration of the Eucharist be propounded as dead as hath been shewed and dye it cannot really but onely in mysterie and sacrament how can it be thought to bee contained under the outward elements otherwise than in sacrament and mysterie and such as in times past were said to have received the sacrifice from the hand of the Priest what other body and bloud could they expect to receive therein but such as was sutable to the nature of that sacrifice to wit mysticall and sacramentall Coelius Sedulius to whom Gelasius Bishop of Rome with his Synod of LXX Bishops giveth the title of venerable Sedulius as Venantius Fortunatus of conspicuous Sedulius and Hildephonsus Toletanus of the good Sedulius the Evangelicall Poet the eloquent Orator and the Catholicke Writer is by Trithemius and others supposed to be the same with our Sedulius of Scotland or Ireland whose Collections are extant upon St. Pauls Epistles although I have forborne hitherto to use any of his testimonies because I have some reason to doubt whether hee were the same with our Sedulius or no. But Coelius Sedulius whatsoever countryman hee was intimateth plainly that the things offered in the Christian sacrifice are the fruit of the corne and of the vine Denique Pontificum princeps summusque Sacerdos Quis nisi Christus adest gemini libaminis author Ordine Melchisedech cui dantur munera semper Quae sua sunt segetis fructus gaudia vitis or as hee expresseth it in his prose the sweete meate of the seede of wheate and the lovely drinke of the pleasant vine Of Melchâ—sedek according to whose order Christ and he onely was Priest our owne Sedulius writeth thus Melchisedek offered wine bread to Abraham for a figure of Christ offering his body and bloud unto God his Father upon the Crosse. Where note that first hee saith Melch sedek offered bread and wine to Abraham not to God and secondly that hee was a figure of Christ offering his body and bloud upon the crosse not in the Eucharist But we saith he doe offer daily for a commemoration of the Lords passion once performed and our owne salvation and elsewhere expounding those words of our Saviour Doe this in remembrance of me hee bringeth in this similitude used before and after him by others He left a memory of himselfe unto us even as if one that were going a farre journey should leave some token with him whom hee loved that as oft as hee beheld it hee might call to remembrance his benefits and friendship Claudius noteth that our Saviours pleasure was first to deliver unto his Disciples the sacrament of his bodie and bloud and afterwards to offer up the body it selfe upon the altar of the crosse Where at the first sight I did verily thinke that in the words fractione corporis an error had beene committed in my transcript corporis being miswritten for panis but afterwards comparing it with the originall whence I tooke my copie I found that the author retained the manner of speaking used both before and after his time in giving the name of the thing signified unto the signe even there where the direct intention of the speech was to distinguish the one from the other For hee doth expresly here distinguish the sacrament of the bodie which was delivered unto the Disciples from the body it selfe which was afterwards offered upon the Crosse and for the sacramentall relation betwixt them both hee rendreth this reason Because bread doth confirme the body and wine doth worke bloud in the flesh therefore the one is mystically referred to the body of Christ the other to his bloud Which doctrine of his that the sacrament is in it owne nature bread and wine but the body and bloud of Christ by mysticall relation was in effect the same with that which long afterwards was here in Ireland delivered by Henry Crumpe the Monke of Baltinglas that the bodie of Christ in the sacrament of the altar was onely a looking glasse to the body of Christ in heaven yea and within fifty or threescore yeeres of the time of Claudius Scotus himselfe was so fully maintained by Iohannes Scotus in a booke that hee purposely wrote of that argument that when it was alledged and extolled by Berengarius Pope Leo the ninth with his Bishops assembled in Synodo Vercellensi anâ— Domini 1050 which was 235. yeeres after the time that Claudius wrote his commentaries upon St. Matthew had no other meanes to avoide it but by flat condemning of it Of what great
Irish Bishops that submitted themselves unto him and concludeth in the end that the Bishops of Ireland being infected with the Pelagian errour sought absolution first of Pelagius the Pope but the same was not effectually done untill S. Gregory did it But in all this hee doth nothing else but bewray his owne ignorance For neyther can hee shew it in Cesar Baronius or in any other author whatsoever that the Irish Bishops did ever seeke absolution from Pope Pelagius or that the one had to deale in any businesse at all with the other Neyther yet can hee shew that ever they had to doe with Saint Gregory in any matter that did concerne the Pelagian heresie for these bee dreames of Coppingers owne idle head The epistle of S. Gregory dealeth onely with the controversie of the three chapters which were condemned by the fifth generall Councell whereof Baronius writeth thus All the Bishops that were in Ireland with most earnest study rose up jointly for the defence of the Three Chapters And when they perceived that the Church of Rome did both receive the condemnation of the Three Chapters and strengthen the fifth Synod with her consent they departed from her and clave to the rest of the schismatickes that were eyther in Italy or in Africke or in other countries animated with that vaine confidence that they did stand for the Catholicke faith while they defended those things that were concluded in the Councell of Chalcedon And so much the more fixedly saith he did they cleave to their error because whatsoever Italy did suffer by commotions of warre by famine or pestilence all these unhappy things they thought did therefore befall unto it because it had undertaken to fight for the fifth Synod against the Councell of Chalcedon Thus farre Baronius out of whose narration this may bee collected that the Bishops of Ireland did not take all the resolutions of the Church of Rome for undoubted oracles but when they thought that they had better reason on their sides they preferred the judgement of other Churches before it Wherein how peremptory they were when they wrote unto St. Gregory of the matter may easily be perceived by these parcels of the answer which hee returned unto their letters The first entry of your epistle hath notified that you suffer a grievous perfecution◠which persecution indeed when it is not sustained for a reasonable cause doth profit nothing unto salvation and therefore it is very unfit that you should glory of that persecution as you call it by which it is certaine you cannot be promoted to everlasting rewards And whereas you write that since that time among other provinces Italy hath beene most afflicted you ought not to object that unto it as a reproach because it is written Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every sonne that he receiveth Then having spoken of the booke that Pope Pelagius did write of this controversie which indeed was penned by Gregory himselfe hee addeth If after the reading of this booke you will persist in that deliberation wherein now you are without doubt you shew that you give your selves to bee ruled not by reason but by obstinacie By all which you may see what credit is to be given unto the man who would beare us in hand that this epistle of St. Gregory was sent as an answer unto the Bishops of Ireland that did submit themselves unto him whereas to say nothing of the copies wherein this epistle is noted to have beene written to the Bishops of Iberiâ and not in Hiberniâ the least argument of any submission doth not appeare in any part of that epistle but the whole course of it doth cleerly manifest the flat contrary In the next place steppeth forth Osullevan Beare who in his Catholick history of Ireland would have us take knowledge of this that when the Irish Doctors did not agree together upon great questions of Faith or did heare of any new doctrine brought from abroad they were wont to consult with the Bishop of Rome the Oracle of truth That they consulted with the Bishop of Rome when difficult questions did arise wee easily grant but that they thought they were bound in conscience to stand to his judgement whatsoever it should bee and to entertaine all his resolutions as certaine Oracles of truth is the point that wee would faine see proved For this hee telleth us that when questions and disputations did arise here concerning the time of Easter and the Pelagian heresie the Doctors of Ireland referred the matter unto the See Apostolicke Whereupon the errour of Pelagius is reported to have found no patron or maintainer in Ireland and the common course of celebrating Easter was embraced both by the Northren Irish and by the Picts and Britons as soon as they understood the rite of the Romane Church Which saith hee doth not obscurely appeare by the two heads of the Apostolicke letters related by Bede lib. 2. cap. 19. But that those Apostolick letters as he calleth them had that successe which hee talketh of appeareth neither plainly nor obscurely by Bede or any other authority whatsoever The errour of Pelagius saith he is reported to have found no patron or maintainer in Ireland But who is he that reporteth so beside Philip Osullevan a worthy author to ground a report of antiquity upon who in relating the matters that fell out in his owne time discovereth himselfe to bee as egregious a lyar as any I verily thinke that this day breatheth in Christendome The Apostolicke letters he speaketh of were written as before hath bin touched in the yeere of our Lord DCXXXIX during the vacancie of the Romane See upon the death of Severinus Our Countryman Kilianus repayred to Rome 47. yeeres after that and was ordained Bishop there by Pope Conon in the yeere DCLXXXVI The reason of his comming thither is thus laid downe by Egilwardus or who ever else was the author of his life For Ireland had beene of old defiled with the Pelagian heresie and condemned by the Apostolicall censure which could not bee loosed but by the Romane judgement If this be true then that is false which Osullevan reporteth of the effect of his Apostolicall Epistle that it did so presently quash the Pelagian heresie as it durst not once peepe up within this Iland CHAP. IX Of the controversie which the Britons Picts and Irish maintained against the Church of Rome touching the celebration of Easter THe difference betwixt the Romanes and the Irish in the celebration of Easter consisted in this The Romanes kept the memoriall of our Lords resurrection upon that Sunday which fell betwixt the XV. and the XXI day of the Moone both termes included next after the XXI day of March which they accounted to bee the seat of the Vernall aequinoctium that is to say that time of the Spring wherein the day and the night were of equall length and in reckoning the age of the