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
to make a journey into Scotland the greater Scotland he meaneth and there to enter into S. Patricks Purgatory and then he giveth him his word that he shall no more doubt of the paines of Purgatory If Doctor Terry who commendeth this unto us as the testimony of a most famous Authour should chance to have a doubtfull thought hereafter of the pains of Purgatory I would wish his ghostly Father to injoyne him no other penance but the undertaking of a pilgrimage unto S. Patricks purgatorie to see whether he would prove any wiser when he came from thence than when he went thither In the meane time untill he hath made some further experiment of the matter he shall give me leave to beleeve him that hath beene there and hath cause to know the place as wel as any the Iland wherein it is seated being held by him as a part of the inheritance descended unto him from his ancestours and yet professeth that hee found nothing therein which might afford him any argument to thinke there was a Purgatorie I passe by that Nennius and Probus and all the elder writers of the life of S. Patrick that I have met withall speake not one word of any such place and that Henrie the monke of Saltrey in the daies of King Stephen is the first in whom I could ever finde any mention thereof this only would I know of the Doctor what the reason might bee that where hee bringeth in the words of Giraldus Cambrensis touching this place as an authenticall authoritie he passeth over that part of his relation wherein he affirmeth that S. Patrick intended by this means to bring the rude people to a perswasion of the certaintie of the infernall paines of the reprobate and of the true and everlasting life of the elect after death The Grecians alledge this for one of their arguments against Purgatory that whereas their Fathers had delivered unto them many visions and dreames and other wonders concerning the everlasting punishment wherewith the wicked should be tormented in Hell yet none of them had declared any thing concerning a purgatorie temporarie fire Belike the Doctor was affraid that wee would conclude upon the same ground that S. Patrick was carefull to plant in mens minds the beleefe of Heaven and Hell but of Purgatory taught them never a word And sure I am that in the booke ascribed unto him De tribus habitaculis which is to be seene in his Majesties Librarie there is no mention of any other place after this life but of these two only I will lay downe here the beginning of that treatise and leave it to the judgement of any indifferent man whether it can well stand with that which the Romanists teach concerning Purgatorie at this day There be three habitations under the power of Almighty God the first the lowermost and the middle The highest whereof is called the Kingdome of God or the Kingdome of Heaven the lowermost is termed Hell the middle is named the present World or the circuit of the earth The extremes whereof are altogether contrary one to another for what fellowship can there be betwixt light and darkenesse betwixt Christ and Belial but the middle hath some similitude with the extremes For in this world there is a mixture of the bad and of the good together whereas in the Kingdome of God there are none bad but all good but in Hell there are none good but all bad And both those places are supplyed out of the middle For of the men of this world some are lifted up to Heaven others are drawne downe to Hell namely like are joyned unto like that is to say good to good and bad to bad just men to just Angels wicked men to wicked Angels the servants of God to God the servants of the Divell to the Divell The blessed are called to the Kingdome prepared for them from the beginning of the world the cursed are driven into the everlasting fire that is prepared for the Divell and his angels Thus farre there Hitherto also may be referred that ancient Canon of one of our Irish Synods wherin it is affirmed that the soule being separated from the body is presented before the judgement seat of Christ who rendreth it owne unto it according as it hath done and that neither the Archangel can leade it unto life untill the Lord hath iudged it nor the Divell transport it unto paine unlesse the Lord doe damne it as the sayings of Sedulius likewise that after the end of this life eyther death or life succeedeth and that death is the gate by which wee enter into our kingdome together with that of Claudius that Christ did take upon him our punishment without the guilt that thereby hee might loose our guilt and finish also our punishment Cardinall Bellarmine indeed alledgeth here against us the vision of Furseus who rising from the dead told many things which he saw concerning the paines of purgatory as Bede he saith doth write But by his good leave we will be better advised before wee build articles of faith upon such visions and dreames as these many whereof deserve to have a place among the strange narrations of soules appearing after death collected by Damascius the heathen Idolater rather than among the histories and discourses of sober Christians As for this vision of Furscus all that Bede relateth of it to this purpose is concerning certain great fires above the ayre appointed to examine every one according to the merits of his workes which peradventure may make something for Damascius his Purgatory in Circulo lacteo for in that circle made hee away for the soules that went to the Hades in Heaven and would not have us wonder that there they should be purged by the way but nothing for the Papists Purgatory which Bellarmine by the common consent of the Schoolemen determineth to bee within the bowels of the earth Neyther is there any thing else in the whole booke of the life of Furseus whence Bede borrowed these things that looketh toward Purgatorie unlesse peradventure that speech of the Divell may bee thought to give some advantage unto it This man hath not purged his sins upon earth neither doth he receive punishment for them here Where is therefore the justice of God as if Gods justice were not sufficiently satisfied by the sufferings of Christ but man also must needs give further satisfaction thereunto by penall workes of sufferings eyther here or in the other world which is the ground upon which our Romanists doe lay the rotten frame of their devised Purgatorie The later visions of Malachias Tundal Owen and others that lived within these last five hundred years come not within the compasse of our present inquirie nor yet the fables that have beene framed in those times touching the lives and actions of elder Saints whereof no wise man will make any reckoning Such for example is
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