you see what a goodly title here is in the meane time First the Donation of Constantine hath been long since discovered to be a notorious forgerie and is rejected by all men of judgement as a senslesse fiction Secondly in the whole context of this forged Donation I find mention made of Ilands in one place only where no more power is given to the Church of Rome over them than in generall over the whole Continent by East and by West by North and by South and in particular over Iudaea Graecia Asia Thracia and Aphrica which use not to passe in the account of St. Peters temporall patrimonie Thirdly it doth not appeare that Constantine himselfe had any interest in the Kingdome of Ireland how then could hee conferre it upon another Some words there be in an oration of Eumenius the Rhetorician by which peradventure it may bee collected that his father Constantius bare some stroke here but that the Iland was ever possessed by the Romanes or accounted a parcell of the Empire cannot be proved by any sufficient testimonie of antiquitie Fourthly the late writers that are of another mind as Pomponius Laetus Cuspinian and others doe yet affirme withall that in the division of the Empire after Constantines death Ireland was assigned unto Constantinus the eldest sonne which will hardly stand with this donation of the Ilands supposed to bee formerly made unto the Bishop of Rome and his successors Pope Adrian therefore and Iohn of Salisbury his sollicitor had need seeke some better warrant for the title of Ireland than the Donation of Constantine Iohn Harding in his Chronicle saith that the Kings of England have right To Ireland also by King Henry le fitz Of Maude daughter of first King Henry That conquered it for their great heresie which in another place he expresseth more at large in this manner The King Henry then conquered all Ireland By Papall dome there of his royaltee The profits and revenues of the land The domination and the soveraigntee For errour which agayn the spiritualtee They held full long and would not been correct Of heresies with which they were infect Philip Osullevan on the other side doth not only deny that Ireland was infected with any heresie but would also have us beleeve that the Pope never intended to conferre the Lordship of Ireland upon the Kings of England For where it is said in Pope Adrians Bull Let the people of that land receive thee and reverence thee as a Lord the meaning thereof is saith this Glozer Let them reverence thee as a Prince worthy of great honour not as Lord of Ireland but as a Deputie appointed for the collecting of the Ecclesiasticall tribute It is true indeed that King Henry the second to the end hee might the more easily obtaine the Popes good wil for his entring upon Ireland did voluntarily offer unto him the payment of a yearely pension of one penny out of every house in the countrey which for ought that I can learne was the first Ecclesiasticall tribute that ever came unto the Popes coffers out of Ireland But that King Henry got nothing else by the bargaine but the bare office of collecting the Popes Smoke-silver for so wee called it here when wee payed it is so dull a conceit that I doe somewhat wonder how Osullevan himselfe could be such a blocke-head as not to discerne the senselesnesse of it What the King sought for and obtained is sufficiently declared by them that writ the historie of his reigne In the yeare of our Lord MCLV. the first Bull was sent unto him by Pope Adrian the summe whereof is thus laid down in a second Bull directed unto him by Alexander the third the immediate successor of the other Following the stepps of reverend Pope Adrian and attending the fruit of your desire we ratifie and confirme his grant concerning the dominion of the KINGDOME of Ireland conferred upon you reserving unto St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome as in England so in Ireland the yearely pension of one penny out of every house In this sort did Pope Adrian as much as lay in him give Ireland unto King Henry haereditario jure possidendam to bee possessed by right of inheritance withall sent unto him a ring of gold set with a faire Emerauld for his investiture in the right thereof as Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was the principall agent betwixt them both in this businesse doth expresly testifie After this in the year MCLXXI the King himselfe came hither in person where the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland received him for their KING and Lord. The King saith Iohn Brampton received letters from every Archbishop and Bishop with their seales hanging upon them in the manner of an Indenture confirming the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres and bearing witnesse that they in Ireland had ordained him and his heyres to bee their KINGS and Lords for ever At Waterford saith Roger Hoveden all the Archbishops Bishops and Abbots of Ireland came unto the King of England and received him for KING and Lord of Ireland swearing fealty to him and to his heyres and power to reigne over them for ever and hereof they gave him their Instruments The Kings also and Princes of Ireland by the example of the Clergie did in like manner receive Henry King of England for Lord and KING of Ireland and became his men or did him homage and swore fealty to him and his heyres against all men These things were presently after confirmed in the Nationall Synod held at Casshell the Acts whereof in Giraldus Cambrensis are thus concluded For it is fit and most meet that as Ireland by Gods appointment hath gotten a Lord and a KING from England so also they should from thence receive a better forme of living King Henry also at the same time sent a transcript of the Instruments of all the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland unto Pope Alexander who by his Apostolicall authority for so was it in those dayes of darknesse esteemed to bee did confirme the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres according to the forme of the Instruments of the Archbishops Bishops of Ireland and made them KINGS thereof for ever The King also obtained further from Pope Alexander that it might bee lawfull for him to make which of his sonnes hee pleased KING of Ireland and to crowne him accordingly and to subdue the Kings and great ones of that land which would not subject themselves unto him Whereupon in a grand Councell held at Oxford in the yeere of our Lord MCLXXVII before the Bishops and Peeres of the Kingdome hee constituted his sonne Iohn KING of Ireland according to that grant and confirmation of Pope Alexander And to make the matter yet more sure in the yeere MCLXXXVI hee obtained a new licence from Pope Vrban the third that one of
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
his sonnes whom hee himselfe would should bee crowned for the KINGDOME of Ireland And this the Pope did not onely confirme by his Bull but also the yeere following purposely sent over Cardinall Octavian and Hugo de Nunant or Novant his Legates into Ireland to crowne Iohn the Kings sonne there By all this wee may see how farre King Henry the second proceeded in this businesse which I doe not so much note to convince the stolidity of Osullevan who would faine perswade fooles that he was preferred onely to bee collector of the Popes Peter-pence as to shew that Ireland at that time was esteemed a Kingdome and the Kings of England accounted no lesse than Kings thereof And therefore Paul the fourth needed not make all that noyse and trouble the whole Court of heaven with the matter when in the yeere MDLV he tooke upon him by his Apostolicall authority such I am sure as none of the Apostles of Christ did ever assume unto themselves to erect Ireland unto the title and dignity of a Kingdome Whereas hee might have found even in his owne Romane Provinciall that Ireland was reckoned among the Kingdomes of Christendome before hee was borne Insomuch that in the yeere MCCCCXVII when the Legates of the King of England and the French Kings Ambassadours fell at variance in the Councell of Constance for precedencie the English Orators among other arguments alledged this also for themselves It is well knowne that according to Albertus Magnus and Bartholomaeus in his booke De proprietatibus rerum the whole world being divided into three parts to wit Asia Africk and Europe Europe is divided into foure Kingdomes namely the Romane for the first the Constantinopolitane for the second the third the Kingdome of Ireland which is now translated unto the English and the fourth the Kingdome of Spain Whereby it appeareth that the King of England and his Kingdome are of the more eminent ancient Kings and Kingdomes of all Europe which prerogative the Kingdome of France is not said to obtaine And this have I here inserted the more willingly because it maketh something for the honour of my Country to which I confesse I am very much devoted and in the printed Acts of the Councell it is not commonly to be had But now commeth forth Osullevan againe and like a little furie flyeth upon the English-Irish Priests of his owne religion which in the late rebellion of the Earle of Tirone did not deny that Hellish doctrine fetcht out of Hell for the destruction of Catholickes that it is lawfull for Catholickes to beare armes and fight for Heretickes against Catholickes and their country or rather if you will have it in plainer termes that it is lawfull for them of the Romish Religion to beare armes and fight for their Soveraigne and fellow-subjects that are of another profession against those of their own religion that trayterously rebell against their Prince and Country and to shew how madde and how venemous a doctrine they did bring these bee the caitiffes owne termes that exhorted the laitie to follow the Queens side he setteth downe the censure of the Doctors of the University of Salamanca and Vallodilid published in the yeere MDCIII for the justification of that Rebellion and the declaration of Pope Clement the eights letters touching the same wherein he signifieth that the English ought to be set upon no lesse than the Turkes and imparteth the same favours unto such as set upon them that hee doth unto such as fight against the Turkes Such wholesome directions doth the Bishop of Rome give vnto those that will be ruled by him far different I wisse from that holy doctrine wherewith the Church of Rome was at first seasoned by the Apostles Let every soule bee subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God was the lesson that S. Paul taught to the ancient Romanes Where if it bee demanded whether that power also which persecuteth the servants of God impugneth the faith and subverteth religion be of God our countryman Sedulius will teach us to answer with Origen that even such a power as that is given of God for the revenge of the evill and the praise of the good although he were as wicked as eyther Nero among the Romans or Herod among the Iewes the one whereof most cruelly persecuted the Christians the other Christ himselfe And yet when the one of them swayed the scepter Saint Paul told the Christian Romanes that they must needes be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and of the causelesse feare of the other these Verses of Sedulius are solemnly sung in the Church of Rome even unto this day Herodes hostis impie Christum venire quid times Non eripit mortalia Qui regna dat coelestia Why wicked Herod dost thou feare And at Christs comming frowne The mortall he takes not away That gives the heavenly crowne a better paraphrase whereof you cannot have than this which Claudius hath inserted into his Collections upon St. Matthew That King which is borne doth not come to overcome Kings by fighting but to subdue them after a wonderfull manner by dying neither is he borne to the end that hee may succeed thee but that the world may faithfully beleeve in him For he is come not that hee may fight being alive but that hee may triumph being slaine nor that he may with gold get an armie unto himselfe out of other nations but that hee may shed his precious bloud for the saving of the nations Vainly didst thou by envying feare him to beâ— thy successor whom by beleeving thou oughtest to seeke as thy Saviour because if thou diddest beleeve in him thou shouldest reigne with him and as thou hast received a temporall kingdome from him thou shouldest also receive from him an everlasting For the kingdome of this Childe is not of this world but by him it is that men do reign in this world He is the Wisedome of God which saith in the Proverbs By mee Kings reigne This Childe is the Word of God this Childe is the Power and Wisedome of God If thou canst thinke against the Wisedome of God thou workest thine owne destruction and dost not know it For thou by no meanes shouldest have had thy kingdome unlesse thou hadst received it from that Childe which now is borne As for the Censure of the Doctors of Salamanca and Vallodilid our Nobility and Gentry by the faithfull service which at that time they performed unto the Crowne of England did make a reall confutation of it Of whose fidelity in this kinde I am so well perswaded that I doe assure my selfe that neither the names of Franciscus Zumel and Alphonsus Curiel how great Schoole-men soever they were nor of the Fathers of the Society Iohannes de Ziguenza Emanuel de Roias and Gaspar de Mena nor of the Pope himselfe upon whose sentence they wholly ground
that which we read in the life of St. Brendan that the question being moved in his hearing Whether the sinnes of the dead could be redeemed by the prayers or almes-deeds of their friends remaining in this life for that was still a question in the Church he is said to have told them that on a certaine night as hee sayled in the great Ocean the soule of one Colman who had beene an angry Monke and a sower of discord betwixt brethren appeared unto him who complaining of his grievous torments intreated that prayers might be made to God for him and after sixe dayes thankefully acknowledged that by meanes thereof hee had gotten into heaven Whereupon it is concluded that the prayer of the living doth profit much the dead But of S. Brendans sea-pilgrimage we have the censure of Molanus a learned Romanist that there bee many apocryhall fooleries in it and whosoever readeth the same with any judgement cannot choose but pronounce of it as Photius doth of the strange narrations of Damascius formerly mentioned that it containeth not only apocryphall but also impossible incredible ill-composed and monstruous fooleries Whereof though the old Legend it selfe were not free as by the heads thereof touched by Glaber Rodulphus and Giraldus Cambrensis may appeare yet for the tale that I recited out of the New Legend of England I can say that in the manuscript books which I have met withall here in St. Brendans owne country one whereof was transcribed for the use of the Friars minors of Kilkenny about the yeere of our Lord 1350. there is not the least footstep thereof to be seene And this is a thing very observable in the ancienter lives of our Saints such I meane as have beene written before the time of Sathans loosing beyond which we doe not now looke that the prayers and oblations for the dead mentioned therein are expressly noted to have beene made for them whose soules were supposed at the same instant to have rested in blisse So Adamnanus reporteth that Saint Colme called by the Irish both in Bedes and our dayes Colum-kille caused all things to be prepared for the sacred ministry of the Eucharist when he had seene the soule of St. Brendan received by the holy Angels and that hee did the like when Columbanus Bishop of Leinster departed this life for I must to day saith St. Colme there although I bee unworthy celebrate the holy mysteries of the Eucharist for the reverence of that soule which this night carried beyond the starry firmament betwixt the holy Quires of Angels ascended into Paradise Whereby it appeareth that an honourable commemoration of the dead was herein intended and a sacrifice of thanksgiving for their salvation rather than of propitiation for their sinnes In Bede also wee finde mention of the like obsequies celebrated by St. Cuthbert for one Hadwaldus after he had seene his soule carried by the hands of Angels unto the joyes of the kingdome of heaven So Gallus and Magnus as Walafridus Strabus relateth in the life of the one and Theodorus Campidonensis or whosoever else was author of the life of the other said Masse which what it was in those dayes wee shall afterward heare and were instant in prayers for the commemoration of Abbat Columbanus their countryman frequenting the memory of that great Father with holy prayers and healthfull sacrifices Where that speech of Gallus unto his Deacon Magnus or Magnoaldus is worthy of speciall consideration After this nights watch I understood by a vision that my master and father Columbanus is to day departed out of the miseries of this life unto the joyes of Paradise For his rest therefore I ought to offer the sacrifice of salvation In like manner also when Gallus himselfe dyed Iohn Bishop of Constance prayed to the Lord for his rest and offered healthfull sacrifices for him although he were certainly perswaded that he had attained the blessing of everlasting life as may bee seene in Walafridus And when Magnus afterwards was in his death bed hee is said to have used these words unto Tozzo Bishop of Ausborough that came to visit him Doe not weepe reverend Prelate because thou beholdest me labouring in so many stormes of worldly troubles because I beleeve in the mercy of God that my soule shall rejoyce in the freedome of immortalitie yet I beseech thee that thou wilt not cease to helpe mee a sinner and my soule with thy holy prayers Then followeth that at the time of his departure this voice was heard Come Magnus come receive the crowne which the Lord hath prepared for thee and that thereupon Tozzo said unto Theodorus the supposed writer of this history Let us cease weeping brother because wee ought rather to rejoyce having heard this signe of the receiving of his soule unto immortality than to make lamentation but let us goe to the Church and be carefull to offer healthfull sacrifices to the Lord for so deare a friend I dispute not of the credit of these particular passages it is sufficient that the authors from whom wee have received them lived within the compasse of those times whereof wee now doe treate For thereby it is plaine enough and if it be not it shall elsewhere be made yet more plaine that in those elder dayes it was an usuall thing to make prayers and oblations for the rest of those soules which were not doubted to have beene in glorie and consequently that neither the Commemoration nor the Praying for the dead nor the Requiem Masses of that age have any necessary relation to the beleefe of Purgatory The lesson therefore which Claudius teacheth us here out of Saint Hierome is very good that while wee are in this present world wee may bee able to helpe one another either by our prayers or◠by our counsailes but when wee shall come before the Iudgement seate of Christ neither Iob nor Daniel nor Noah can intreate for any one but every one must beare his owne burden and the advice which the no lesse learned than godly Abbat Columbanus giveth us is verie safe not to pitch upon uncertainties hereafter but now to trust in God and follow the precepts of Christ while our life doth yet remaine and while the times wherein we may obtaine salvation are certaine Vive Deo fidens saith he Christi praecepta sequēdo Dum modò vita manet dum tempora certa salutis Whereunto Iohn the Briton another son of Sulgen Bishop of St. Davids seemeth also to have had an eye when at the end of the Poëme which he wrote of his owne and his fathers life he prayeth for himselfe in the same manner Vt genitor clemens solitâ pietate remittat Factis aut dictis quae gessi corde nefando Dum mihi vita manet dum flendi flumina possunt Nam cum tartareis nullius cura subintrat CHAP. IV. Of the Worship of God the publicke forme
having received the order of Priest-hood should have another sonne by the same woman the former son should enjoy his fathers whole estate without being bound to divide the same with his other brother Yet these marriages for all that were so held out that the fathers not content their sonnes should succeed them in their temporall estate alone prevailed so far that they continued them in the succession of their spirituall promotions also Which abuse Giraldus Cambrensis complaineth to have been continuedin Wales unto his time out of Hilâ—ebertus Cenomanensis sheweth to have prevailed in little Brittaine also whence he inferreth that this vice was of old common to the whole Brittish nation aswell on this side as on the other side of the sea Whereunto for Ireland also wee may adde the letters written by Pope Innocent the third unto Iohannes Salernitanus the Cardinall his legate for abolishing the custome there whereby sonnes and grand-children did use to succeede their fathers and grand-fathers in their Ecclesiastical benefices CHAP. VI. Of the discipline of our ancient Monkes and abstinence from meats WHat hath beene said of the married Clergie concerneth the Seculars and not the Regulars whereof there was a very great number in Ireland because here almost all the Prelates were wont to bee chosen into the Clergie out of monasteries For our monasteries in ancient time were the seminaries of the ministerie being as it were so many Colledges of learned divines whereunto the people did usually resort for instruction and from whence the Church was wont continually to bee supplied with able ministers The benefit whereof was not onely contained within the limits of this Iland but did extend it selfe to forraine countries likewise For this was it that drew Egbert and Ceaddae for example into Ireland that they might there leade a monasticall life in prayers and continencie and meditation of the holy Scriptures and hence were those famous monasteries planted in England by Aidan Finan Colman and others unto which the people flockt apace on the Lords day not for the feeding of their body but for the learning of the word of God as Beda witnesseth Yea this was the principall meanes whereby the knowledge both of the Scriptures and of all other good learning was preserved in that inundation of barbarisme wherewith the whole West was in a manner overwhelmed Hitherto saith Curio it might seeme that the studies of wisedome should quite have perished unlesse God had reserved a seed in some corner of the world Among the Scottish and the Irish something as yet remained of the doctrine of the knowledge of God and of civill honesty because there was no terrour of armes in those utmost ends of the world And we may there behold and adore the great goodnesse of God that among the Scots and in those places where no man would have thought it so many great companies should bee gathered together under a most strict discipline How strict their discipline was may appeare partly by the Rule and partly by the Daily penances of Monkes which are yet extant of Columbanus his writing In the later of these for the disobedience of Monkes these penances are prescribed If any brother bee disobedient hee shall fast two dayes with one bisket and water If any say I will not do it three dayes with one bisket and water If any murmure two dayes with one bisket and water If any doe not aske leave or tell an excuse two dayes with one bisket and water and so in other particulars In his Rule these good lessons doth hee give unto his Monkes among many others That it profited them little if they were virgins in body and were not virgins in minde that they should daily profit as they did daily pray and daily reade that the good things of the Pharisee being vainly praised were lost and the sinnes of the Publican being accused vanished away and therefore that a great word should not come out of the mouth of a Monke lest his great labour should perish They were not taught to vaunt of their state of perfection and workes of supererogation or to argue from thence as Celestius the Pelagian Monke sometime did that by the nature of their free will they had such a possibility of not sinning that they were able also to doe more than was commanded because they did observe perpetuall virginity which is not commanded whereas for not sinning it is sufficient to fulfill the precepts It was one of the points which Gallus the scholler of Columbanus delivered in his sermon preached at Constance that our Saviour did so perswade the Apostles their followers to lay hold upon the good of virginity that yet they should know it was not of humane industry but of divine gift and it is a good observation which wee reade in Claudius that not only in the splendour of bodily things but also in mournfull abasing of ones selfe there may bee boasting and that so much the more dangerous as it deceiveth under the name of the service of God Our Monkes were religious in deede and not in name only farre from the hypocrisie pride idlenesse and uncleannesse of those evill beasts and slothfull bellies that afterward succeeded in their roome Under colour of forsaking all they did not hooke all unto themselves nor under semblance of devotion did they devoure widowes houses they held begging to bee no point of perfection but remembred the words of our Lord Iesus how he said It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to take When king Sigebert made large offers unto Columbanus and his companions to keep them within his dominions in France hee received such another answer from them as Thaddaeus in the Ecclesiasticall history is said to have given unto Abgarus the governour of Edessa Wee who have forsaken our owne that according to the commandement of the Gospel we might follow the Lord ought not to embrace other mens riches lest peradventure we should prove transgressors of the divine commandement How then did these men live will you say Walafridus Strabus telleth us that some of them wrought in the garden others dressed the orchard Gallus made nets and tooke fish wherewith hee not only relieved his owne company but was helpfull also unto strangers So Bede reporteth of Cuthbert that when hee retired himselfe unto an anchoreticall life he first indeed received a little bread from his brethren to feede upon and dranke out of his owne well but afterwards hee thought it more fit to live by the worke of his owne hands after the example of the Fathers and therefore intreated that instruments might bee brought him wherewith he might till the earth and corne that hee might sowe Quique suis cupiens victum conquirere palmis Incultam pertentat humum proscindere ferro Et sator edomitis anni spem credere glebis The like doth hee relate
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
flourished in the vigour of Christian doctrine as Abbot Ionas testifieth that it exceeded the faith of all the neighbour nations and in that respect was generally had in honour by them CHAP. XI Of the temporall power which the Popes followers would directly intitle him unto over the Kingdome of Ireland together with the indirect power which he challengeth in absolving subjects from the obedience which they owe to their temporall Governours IT now remaineth that in the last place wee should consider the Popes power in disposing the temporall state of this Kingdome which eyther directly or indirectly by hooke or by crooke this grand Usurper would draw unto himselfe First therefore Cardinall Allen would have us to know that the Sea Apostolike hath an old claime unto the soveraigntie of the countrey of Ireland and that before the Covenants passed betweene King Iohn and the same Sea Which challenges saith he Princes commonly yeeld not up by what ground soever they come What Princes use to yeeld or not yeeld I leave to the scanning of those unto whom Princes matters doe belong for the Cardinals Prince I dare be bold to say that if it bee not his use to play fast and loose with other Princes the matter is not now to doe whatsoever right he could pretend to the temporall state of Ireland hee hath transferred it more than once unto the Kings of England and when the ground of his claime shall be looked into it will bee found so frivolous and so ridiculous that we need not care three chippes whether he yeeld it up or keep it to himselfe For whatsoever become of his idle challenges the Crowne of England hath otherwise obtained an undoubted right unto the soveraigntie of this countrey partly by Conquest prosecuted at first upon occasion of a Sociall warre partly by the severall submissions of the chiefetaines of the land made afterwards For wheras it is it free for all men although they have been formerly quitt from all subjection to renounce their owne right yet now in these our daies saith Giraldus Cambrensis in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland all the Princes of Ireland did voluntarily submitt and binde themselves with firme bonds of faith and oath unto Henry the second King of England The like might be said of the generall submissions made in the dayes of King Richard the second and King Henry the eighth to speake nothing of the prescription of divers hundreds of yeares possession which was the plea that Iephte used to the Ammonites and is indeed the best evidence that the Bishop of Romes own Proctors do produce for their Masters right to Rome it selfe For the Popes direct dominion over Ireland two titles are brought forth beside those covenants of King Iohn mentioned by Allen which hee that hath any understanding in our state knoweth to be clearly voide and worth nothing The one is taken from a speciall grant supposed to bee made by the inhabitants of the countrey at the time of their first conversion unto Christianitie the other from a right which the Pope challengeth unto himselfe over all Ilands in generall The former of these was devised of late by an Italian in the reigne of King Henry the eighth the later was found out in the daies of King Henry the second before whose time not one footestep doth appeare in all antiquitie of any claime that the Bishop of Rome should make to the dominion of Ireland no not in the Popes owne records which have beene curiously searched by Nicolaus Arragonius and other ministers of his who have purposely written of the particulars of his temporall estate The Italian of whom I spake is Polydore Vergil he that composed the booke De inventoribus rerum of the first Inventers of things among whom hee himselfe may challenge a place for this invention if the Inventers of lyes bee admitted to have any roome in that companie This man being sent over by the Pope into England for the collecting of his Peter-pence undertooke the writing of the historie of that nation wherein he forgat not by the way to doe the best service hee could to his Lord that had imployed him thither There hee telleth an idle tale how the Irish being moved to accept Henry the second for their King did deny that this could be done otherwise than by the Bishop of Romes anthoritie because forsooth that from the very beginning after they had accepted Christian Religion they had yeelded themselves and all that they had into his power and they did constantly affirme saith this fabler that they had no other Lord beside the Pope of which also they yet doe bragge The Italian is followed herein by two Englishmen that wished the Popes advancement as much as hee Edmund Campian and Nicholas Sanders the one whereof writeth that immediately after Christianitie planted here the whole Iland with one consent gave themselves not onely into the spirituall but also into the temporall Iurisdiction of the See of Rome the other in Polydores owne words though hee name him not that the Irish from the beginning presently after they had received Christian Religion gave up themselves and all that they had into the power of the Bishop of Rome and that untill the time of King Henry the second they did acknowledge no other supreme Prince of Ireland beside of the Bishop of Rome alone For confutation of which dreame we need not have recourse to our owne Chronicles the Bull of Adrian the fourth wherein hee giveth libertie of King Henry the second to enter upon Ireland sufficiently discovereth the vanitie thereof For hee there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended unto Ireland maketh no mention at all of this which had beene the fairest and clearest title that could bee alledged if any such had been then existent in rerum naturâ but is faine to flie unto a farre-fetcht interest which hee saith the Church of Rome hath unto all Christian Ilands Truly saith he to the King there is no doubt but that all Ilands unto which Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse hath shined and which have received the instructions of the Christian faith doe pertaine to the right of Saint Peter and the holy Church of Rome which your Noblenesse also doth acknowledge If you would further understand the ground of this strange claime whereby all Christian Ilands at a clap are challenged to bee parcell of St. Peters patrimonie you shall have it from Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was most inward with Pope Adrian and obtained from him this very grant whereof now wee are speaking At my request saith he he granted Ireland to the illustrious King of England Henry the second and gave it to bee possessed by right of inheritance as his owne letters doe testifie unto this day For all Ilands of ancient right are said to belong to the Church of Rome by the donation of Constantine who founded endowed the same But will