succeeded him did tread just in his steps so farre that being put downe in the Synod of Streanshal yet for feare of his country as before we have heard out of Stephen the writer of the life of Wilfrid he refused to conforme himselfe and chose rather to forgoe his Bishoprick than to submit himselfe unto the Romane lawes Colmanusque suas inglorius abjicit arces Malens Ausonias victus dissolvere leges saith Fridegodus Neither did hee goe away alone but tooke with him all his countrymen that he had gathered together in Lindisfarne or Holy Iland the Scottish monks also that were at Rippon in Yorkshire making choice rather to quit their place than to admit the observation of Easter and the rest of the rites according to the custome of the Church of Rome And so did the matter rest among the Irish about forty yeeres after that untill their own countryman Adamnanus perswaded most of them to yeeld to the custome received herein by all the Churches abroad The Picts did the like not long after under King Naitan who by his regall authority commanded Easter to be observed throughout all his provinces according to the cycle of XIX yeeres abolishing the erroneous period of LXXXIIII yeeres which before they used and caused all Priests and Monkes to bee shorne croune-wise after the Romane manner The monkes also of the Iland of Hy or Y-Columkille by the perswasion of Ecgbert an English Priest that had been bred in Ireland in the yeere of our Lord DCCXVI forsooke the observation of Easter and the Tonsure which they had received from Columkille a hundred and fiftie yeeres before and followed the Romane rite about LXXX yeeres after the time of Pope Honorius and the sending of Bishop Aidan from thence into England The Britons in the time of Bede retained still their old usage untill Elbodus who was the chiefe Bishop of Northwales and dyed in the yeere of our Lord DCCCIX as Caradoc of Lhancarvan recordeth brought in the Romane observation of Easter which is the cause why his disciple Nennius designeth the time wherein he wrote his history by the character of the XIX yeeres cycle and not of the other of LXXXIV But howsoever North-wales did it is very probable that West-wales which of all other parts was most eagerly bent against the traditions of the Romane Church stood out yet longer For we finde in the Greeke writers of the life of Chrysostome that certaine Clergie men which dwelt in the Iles of the Ocean repaired from the utmost borders of the habitable world unto Constantinople in the dayes of Methodius who was Patriarch there from the yeer DCCCXLII to the yeere DCCCXLVII to enquire of certaine Ecclesiasticall traditions and the perfect and exact computation of Easter Whereby it appeareth that these questions were kept still a foot in these Ilands and that the resolution of the Bishop of Constantinople was sought for from hence as well as the determination of the Bishop of Rome who is now made the only Oracle of the world Neither is it here to be omitted that whatsoever broyles did passe betwixt our Irish that were not subject to the See of Rome and those others that were of the Romane communion in the succeeding ages they of the one side were esteemed to be Saints as well as they of the other Aidan for example and Finan who were counted ringleaders of the Quartadeeiman party as well as Wilfrid and Cuthbert who were so violent against it Yet now adayes men are made to beleeve that out of the communion of the Church of Rome nothing but Hell can bee looked for and that subjection to the Bishop of Rome as to the visible Head of the Universall Church is required as a matter necessary to salvation Which if it may goe currant for good Divinity the case is like to goe hard not onely with the twelve hundred British Monkes of Bangor who were martyred in one day by Edelfride king of Northumberland whom our Annals style by the name of the Saints but also with St. Aidan and St. Finan who deserve to bee honoured by the English nation with as venerable a remembrance as I doe not say Wilfrid and Cuthbert but Austin the Monke and his followers For by the ministery of Aidan was the kingdome of Northumberland recovered from paganisme whereunto belonged then beside the shire of Northumberland and the lands beyond it unto Edenborrow Frith Cumberland also and Westmorland Lancashire Yorkshire and the Bishopricke of Durham and by the meanes of Finan not onely the Kingdome of the East-Saxons which contained Essex Middlesex and halfe of Hertfordshire regained but also the large Kingdome of Mercia converted first unto Christianity which comprehended underit Glocestershire Herefordshire Worcestershire Warwickshire Leicestershire Rutlandshire Northamptonshire Lincolneshire Huntingtonshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Staffordshire Darbyshire Shropshire Nottinghamshire Chesshire and the other halfe of Hertfordshire The Scottish that professed no subjection to the Church of Rome were they that sent preachers for the conversion of these countries and ordained Bishops to governe them namely Aidan Finan and Colman successively for the kingdome of Northumberland for the East-Saxons Cedd brother to Ceadda the Bishop of Yorke before mentioned for the Middle-Angles which inhabited Leicestershire and the Mercians Diuma for the paucity of Priests saith Bede constrained one Bishop to bee appointed over two people and after him Cellach and Trumhere And these with their followers notwithstanding their division from the See of Rome were for their extraordinary sanctity of life and painfulnesse in preaching the Gospel wherein they went farre beyond those of the other side that afterward thrust them out and entred in upon their labours exceedingly reverenced by all that knew them Aidan especially who although hee could not keepe Easter saith Bede contrary to the manner of them which had sent him yet he was carefull diligently to performe the workes of faith and godlinesse and love according to the manner used by all holy men Whereupon hee was worthily beloved of all even of them also who thought otherwise of Easter than he did and was had in reverence not only by them that were of meaner ranke but also by the Bishops themselves Honorius of Canterbury and Felix of the East-Angles Neither did Honorius and Felix any other way carry themselves herein than their predecessors Laurentius Mellitus Iustus had done before them who writing unto the Bishops of Ireland that dissented from the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and many other things made no scruple to prefixe this loving and respectfull superscription to their letters To our Lords and most deare brethren the Bishops or Abbots throughout all Scotland Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus Bishops the servants of the servants of God For howsoever Ireland at that time received not the same lawes wherewith other nations were governed yet it so
esteeme this Iohn was with king Alfred may be seene in William of Malmesbury Roger Hoveden Matthew of Westminster and other writers of the English history The king himselfe in the Preface before his Saxon translation of St. Gregories Pastorall professeth that he was holpen in that worke by Iohn his Masse-priest By whom if he did meane this Iohn of ours you may see how in those dayes a man might be held a Masse-priest who was far enough from thinking that he offered up the very body and bloud of Christ really present under the formes of bread and wine which is the onely Masse that our Romanists take knowledge of Of which wonderfull point how ignorant our elders were even this also may be one argument that the author of the booke of the wonderfull things of the holy Scripture before alledged passeth this quite over which is now esteemed to be the wonder of all wonders And yet doth he professe that he purposed to passe over nothing of the wonders of the Scripture wherein they might seeme notably to swerve from the ordinary administration in other things CHAP. V. Of Chrisme Sacramentall Confession Penance Absolution Marriage Divorces and single life in the Clergie THat the Irish did baptize their infants without any consecrated Chrisme Lanfranc maketh complaint in his letters to Terdeluacus or Tirlagh the chiefe King of that country And Bernard reporteth that Malachias in his time which was after the daies of Lanfranc and Pope Hildebrand did of the new institute the most wholesome use of Confession the sacrament of Confirmation and the contract of marriages all which he saith the Irish before were either ignorant of or did neglect Which for the matter of Confession may receive some further confirmation from the testimonie of Alcuinus who writing unto the Scottish or as other copies read the Gothish and commending the religious conversation of their laity who in the midst of their worldly imployments were said to leade a most chaste life condemneth notwithstanding another custome which was said to have continued in that country For it is said quot he that no man of the laity will make his confession to the Priests whom we beleeve to have received from the Lord Christ the power of binding and loosing together with the holy Apostles They had no reason indeed to hold as Alcuinus did that they ought to confesse unto a Priest all the sinnes they could remember but upon speciall occasions they did no doubt both publikely and privately make confession of their faults aswell that they might receive counsaile and direction for their recovery as that they might bee made partakers of the benefit of the keyes for the quieting of their troubled consciences Whatsoever the Gothish did herein by whom wee are to understand the inhabitants of Languedok in France where Alcuinus lived sure wee are that this was the practice of the ancient Scottish and Irish. So wee reade of one Fiachna or Fechnaus that being touched with remorse for some offence committed by him he fell at St. Colmes feet lamented bitterly and confessed his sinnes before all that were there present Whereupon the holy man weeping together with him is said to have returned this answer Rise up Sonne and bee comforted thy sinnes which thou hast committed are forgiven because as it is written a contrite and an humbled heart God doth not despise We reade also of Adamanus that being very much terrified with the remembrance of a grievous sinne committed by him in his youth he resorted unto a Priest by whom hee hoped the way of salvation might bee shewed unto him hee confessed his guilt and intreated that hee would give him counsell whereby hee might flee from the wrath of God that was to come Now the counsell commonly given unto the Penitent after Confession was that hee should wipe away his sinnes by meet fruits of repentance which course Bede observeth to have beene usually prescribed by our Cuthbert For penances were then exacted as testimonies of the sincerity of that inward repentance which was necessarily required for obtaining remission of the sinne and so had reference to the taking away of the guilt and not of the temporall punishment remaining after the forgivenesse of the guilt which is the new found use of penances invented by our later Romanists One old Penitentiall Canon wee finde laid downe in a Synod held in this country about the yeere our Lord CCCCL by S. Patrick Auxilius and Isserninus which is as followeth A Christian who hath kild a man or committed fornication or gone unto a Southsayer after the manner of the Gentiles for every of those crimes shall doe a yeere of Penance when his yeere of penance is accomplished he shall come with witnesses and afterward hee shall be absolved by the Priest These Bishops did take order we see according to the discipline generally used in those times that the penance should first be performed and when long good proofe had bin given by that means of the truth of the parties repentance they wished the Priest to impart unto him the benefit of Absolution wheras by the new device of sacramentall penance the matter is now far more easily transacted by vertue of the keyes the sinner is instantly of attrite made contrite and thereupon as soon as hee hath made his Confession hee presently receiveth his Absolution after this some sorry penance is imposed which upon better consideration may bee converted into pence and so a quicke end is made of many a foule businesse But for the right use of the keyes we fully accord with Claudius that the office of remitting and retaining sinnes which was given unto the Apostles is now in the Bishops and Priests committed unto every Church namely that having taken knowledge of the causes of such as have sinned as many as they shall behold humble and truly penitent those they may now with compassion absolve from the feare of everlasting death but such as they shall discerne to persist in the sins which they have committed those they may declare to be bound over unto never ending punishments And in thus absolving such as be truly penitent we willingly yeeld that the Pastors of Gods Church doe remit sinnes after their manner that is to say ministerially and improperly so that the priviledge of forgiving sinnes properly and absolutely bee still reserved unto God alone Which is at large set out by the same Claudius where hee expoundeth the historie of the man sicke of the palsey that was cured by our Saviour in the ninth of S. Matthew For following Bede upon that place he writeth thus The Scribes say true that none can forgive sinnes but God alone also forgiveth by them to whom hee hath given the power of forgiving And therefore is Christ proved to bee truely God because he forgiveth sinnes as God They render a true testimony unto God but in denying the person of Christ they
are deceived and againe If it bee God that according to the Psalmist removeth our sins as far from us as the East is distant from the West and the Sonne of man hath power upon earth to forgive sinnès therefore hee himselfe is both God and the Sonne of man that both the man Christ might by the power of his divinitie forgive sinnes and the same Christ being God might by the frailtie of his humanitie dye for sinners and out of S. Hierome Christ sheweth himselfe to bee God who can know the hidden things of the heart and after a sort holding his peace he speaketh By the same majestie and power whereby I behold your thoughts I can also forgive sinnes unto men In like manner doth the author of the booke of the wonderfull things of the Scripture observe these divine workes in the same historie the forgiving of sinnes the present cure of the disease the answering of the thoughts by the mouth of God who searcheth all things With whom for the propertie of beholding the secret thoughts Sedulius also doth concurre in those sentences God alone can know the hidden things of men To know the hearts of men and to discerne the secrets of their minde is the priviledge of God alone That the contract of Marriages was either unknown or neglected by the Irish before Malachias did institute the same anew among them as Bernard doth seeme to intimate is a thing almost incredible although Giraldus Cambrensis doth complaine that the case was little better with them after the time of Malachias also The licentiousnesse of those ruder times I know was such as may easily induce us to beleeve that a great both neglect and abuse of Gods ordinance did get footing among this people Which enormities Malachias no doubt did labour to reforme and withall peradventure brought in some new matters not knowne here before as hee was very desirous his country men should generally conforme themselves unto the traditions and customes of the Church of Rome But our purpose is here only to deale with the doctrine and practice of the elder times in which first that Marriage was not held to bee a sacrament may bee collected from Sedulius who reckoneth it among those things which are gifts indeed but not spirituall Secondly for the degrees of Consanguinitie hindering marriage the Synod attributed unto St. Patricke seemeth to referre us wholly unto the Levitical law prescribing therein neyther lesse nor more than the Law speaketh and particularly against matching with the wife of the deceased brother which was the point so much questioned in the case of King Henrie the eighth this Synodicall decree is there urged The brother may not ascend into the bed of his deceased brother the Lord having said They two shall be one flesh Therefore the wife of thy brother is thy sister Whereupon we finde also that our Kilianus did suffer martyrdome for dissolving such an incestuous marriage in Gozbertus Duke of Franconia and that Clemens Scotus for maintaining the contrary was both by Boniface Archbishop of Mentz and the Councell held at Rome by Pope Zacharie in the yeare DCCXLV condemned as a bringer in of Iudaisme amongst Christians Yet how farre this condemned opinion of his prevailed afterward in this countrey and how foule a crime it was esteemed to be by others abroad notwithstanding the Pope doth now by his Buls of dispensation take upon him to make a faire matter of it may easily be perceived by this censure of Giraldus Moreover saith hee which is very detestable and most contrary not only to the faith but also unto common honesty brethren in many places throughout Ireland do I say not marry but marre rather and seduce the wives of their deceased brothers while in this sort they filthily and incestuously have knowledge of them cleaving herein not to the marrow but to the barke of the Old Testament and desiring to imitate the ancient in vices more willingly than in vertues Thirdly touching divorces wee reade in Sedulius that it is not lawfull according to the precept of our Lord that the wife should be put away but for the cause of fornication and in the Synod ascribed to St. Patrick It is not lawfull for a man to put away his wife but for the cause of fornication as if he should say for this cause he may Whence if hee marry another as it were after the death of the former they forbid it not Who they were that did not forbid this second marriage is not there expressed that Saint Patrick himselfe was of another minde would appeare by this constitution following which in another ancient Canon-booke I found cited under his name If any mans wife have committed adulterie with another man he shall not marry another wife as long as the first wife shall be alive If per adventure she be converted and doe penance he shall receive her and she shall serve him in the place of a maid-servant Let her for a whole yeare doe penance in bread and water and that by measure neyther let them remaine in the same bed together Fourthly concerning single life I doe not finde in any of our records that it was generally imposed upon the Clergie but the contrary rather For in the Synod held by St. Patrick Auxilius and Isserninus there is a speciall order taken that their wives shall not walke abroad with their heads uncovered And St. Patrick himselfe confesseth at leastwise the Confession which goeth under his name saith so and Probus Iocelinus and others that write his life agree therewith that hee had to his father Calphurnius a Deacon and to his grandfather Potitus a Priest For that was no new thing then among the Britons whose Bishops therefore Gildas doth reprehend as for the same cause he did the chiefe of the Laity that they were not content to be the husbands of one but of many wives and that they corrupted their children by their evill example whereas the chastitie of the fathers was to be esteemed imperfect if the chastitie of their sonnes were not added thereunto Nennius the eldest Historiographer of the Britons which wee have after him who in many copies also beareth his owne name wrote that booke which we have extant of his to Samuel the childe of Benlanus the Priest his master counting it a grace rather than any kinde of disparagement unto him to bee esteemed the sonne of a learned Priest Which maketh him in the verses prefixed before the worke to say Christe tribuisti patri Samuelem But about 60. or 70. yeares after I finde some partiall eclipse here and the first I thinke of this kinde that can bee shewed among the Britons in the lawes of Howel Dha where it is ordered that if a Clerk of a lower degree should match with a woman and have a sonne by her and that Clerke afterward
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