*

and Councils of the Church, belonging to the ages in question, by way of proving that they admitted certain unwritten apostolical traditions as the word of God, equally with the written Bible, and that they unanimously rejected from their communion, as heathens and publicans, all those who refused to hear the Church †. II. It is objected by Usher, that what is called St. Patrick's Purgatory was not instituted by the saint of that name‡.—This I readily grant; but if he argues from thence, that St. Patrick and the early Christians did not believe in a middle state of souls after death, which may be assisted by the prayers of living Christians, he is guilty of an error both in reasoning and in fact. It will be seen in this saint's second council, that he forbids the holy sacrifice to be offered up for those persons after their death, who had render

66

*See in particular the speech of St. Wilfrid, commended by Bede, -Hist. 1. iii. c. 27. also the decrees of the synods of Herudford, 1. iv. c. 5. and of Hedfield, 1, iv. c. 17. Sir Richard Musgrave, referring to the assertions of Usher, which he recommends to the consideration of Catholics, takes upon himself to assert, that "until Archbishop Anselm's time, (namely, the 12th century) the Irish clergy "were totally ignorant of the councils of the Church, and derived. "their knowledge of Christianity for near 800 years from no other 66 source but the Bible." Memoirs of the Rebellion, p. 2. It is not by way of entering into a controversy with Sir R Musgrave that I notice this revolting falsehood, but only by way of shewing Sir Richard's propensity to assert with the utmost confidence facts that he is totally ignorant of.

† Matt. xviii. 17.

It was set on foot by an Abbot Patrick several ages later, and was once suppressed by an order of the Pope, in 1497.

ed themselves unworthy to have it offered up for them in their life time *. The writings of Bede abound with testimonies in favour of prayersfor the dead, of purgatory, &c.† and he himself, when he came to die, earnestly desired that prayers and masses' might be offered up for him .

-III. It is said that St. Patrick condemned the worship of images. It is true, he condemned and extirpated the use of pagan idols; but there is not the shadow of an argument that he deviated from the received doctrine and practice of the Universal Church with respect to the paying a proper reverence to the cross of Christ, his image, or the images or relics of the martyrs and saints, or with respect to the pious usage of desiring the saints to offer up prayers for us. At the time when St. Patrick arrived in Ireland, he saw the cross of Christ exalted upon the imperial standards, and he left the great doctors of Christiaty, a Chrysostom, an Augustine, a Prosper, and a Leo, bearing ample testimony to the piety and utility of these practices §. He himself is recorded for bringing relics into this island |. With respect to our native historian and theologian, Venerable Bede, he describes St. Augustine of Canterbury preaching the gospel to King

1

2 Concil. S. Patricii, cap. 12. Spelman, Concil. p. 57.

Hist. 1. iv. c. 22. l.iii. c. 19.

Cuthbert in Vit. Bed. Act. Bened. tom. 3.

§ See the Liturgy of St. Chrysost. Aug. Serm. 25. de Sanctis, &c. Prosper de Vita Contemplat. c. iv. Leo Serm, de S. Vinc.

Jocelin.

Ethelbert, with the cross for an ensign, and the figure of Christ for an emblem *; he represents the same saint consecrating pagan temples with holy water and relics †, and offering up homage to God by the sacrifice of the mass. With respect to images in particular, Venerable Bede proves that God did not interdict the total use of them, by his commanding the figures of cherubims and oxen to be placed in the temple:

for certainly," he adds, "if it was lawful to "make twelve oxen of brass to support the "brazen sea, it cannot be amiss to paint the "twelve apostles going to preach to all na"tions §."-IV. We are told that the liturgy of St. Patrick differed from that of the Roman Church. It is not, however, proved to have differed, in the smallest tittle, from that which was followed at Rome when St. Patrick received his mission; much less is it proved to have de viated in any point which is essential to the natúre of the sacraments and sacrifice of the

church in all ages and countries. That the catholic liturgies of all times and countries have been essentially the same in this respect, is abundantly proved by divines and canonists . Nevertheless, it is to be remarked, that a certain

* Lib. i. c. 25.

† Lib. i. c. 26.

‡ Lib. i. c. 30.

§ De Templo Salom. cap. 19.

See Explication de la Messe, par Le Brun, Goarius, Mo. rinus, &c.

latitude in mere ceremonies and particular devotions has always been allowed to great or national churches, under the regulation of their head pastors. St. Gregory permitted our apostle, St. Augustine, to adopt any usages of this nature for the infant church of the English, which he might choose to borrow from the French or other catholic nations* and the court of Rome at the present day, so far from requiring the orthodox Greeks who have colleges there to conform to her ritual in these unessential points, obliges them to adhere to their own.V. It appears that mass was sometimes, in former ages, said by the Irish clergy at night.-So it was, in the same ages and on the same occasions, namely, on the eves of certain great festivals, by the clergy of every other catholic country. It is still said by them at midnight on Christmas night. In the mean time, we learn from Bede that nine of the clock in the morning was the usual time of saying it f.VI. Bede and Cogitosus speak of "the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood:" whence it appears that the sacrament was in an, cient times administered in both kinds.-I answer, that the Catholics use the same language at the present day, though the laity receive the sacrament only under one kind; that the difference in this respect is a mere point of discipline, which may be, and has been changed as the circum

Hist. Ecc. 1. i. c. 27.

+ Hora tertia. Hist. Eccl. 1. iv. c. 22.

U

stances of time and place required, and that, nevertheless, the present practice of the Church, in communicating the laity under the form of bread alone, was the practice of our infant English church, as appears from Bede himself *. In the mean time, we are to observe that this illustrious doctor of the English church, at the beginning of the ninth century, expressly teaches, not only that the mass is a true sacrifice, in which Christ is truly and really present, but also that a true and proper change or TRANSUBSTANTIATION of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ takes place in it. I will transcribe his words in the margin, and I defy the subtilty of the most disingenuous controvertist of your acquaintance to give them any other meaning than that which I have assigned †.— VII. Archbishop Lanfranc complains that the Irish neg

*See the History of the Sons of Sabereth, 1. ii.

5.

+ "Lavat nos (Christus) a peccatis nostris quotidie in sanguine suo, cum ejusdem beatæ passionis memoria ad altare replicatur, cum "panis et vini creaturæ in sacramentum carnis et sanguinis ejus, inef"fabili spiritus sanctificatione TRANSFERTUR : sicque corpus et sanguinis illius non infidelium manibus ad perniciem ipsorum funditur et occiditur, sed fidelium ore, suam sumitur ad salutem.". Bed. Hom. in Epiph. tom. 7. As the doctrine of the eastern church is particularly implicated in the present controversy, I shall select, from amongst scores of other testimonies relating to it, a passage from the catechistical discourses of a holy father who was bishop of the primitive church of Jerusalem in the fourth century: "The "bread and wine of the eucharist, before the invocation of the ador"able Trinity, were mere bread and wine; but that invocation hav"ing taken place, the bread becomes the body of Christ, and the "wine becomes the blood of Christ.-Since, then, Christ thus de"clares concerning the bread: THIS IS MY BODY, who can