rejecting the Pope's authority,' p. 24. For, what were these overtures? They were these three: that they, the Welsh Bishops, would keep Easter at the right time; that they would adopt the Roman Ritual in the administration of Baptism; and that they would join with the Roman Missionaries in preaching the word of God to the Pagan English (1). This last overture demonstrates, that neither on the two former points, nor on any other point, and least of all on that of the Pope's Supremacy, was there, in the opinion of St. Austin, any difference, of essential consequence, between his doctrine and that of the Welsh Bishops. For, if there had been such a difference, and especially if they had denied the Supremacy of his master, the Pope, would he have invited and even pressed them to join with him in preaching the Gospel to his new and increasing flock in England? As well may we believe that a faithful shepherd, would collect together and turn into his fold a number of hungry wolves! It is true they then said, they would not receive St. Augustin for their Archbishop (2): but neither did he nor the Pope require them to do so; nor is the vindication of the rights of an ancient Church, at any time, a denial of the Pope's general Supremacy. So far from this, within two years from the holding of that conference, we find Oudoceus, Bishop of Landaff, going to Canterbury to receive consecration from the same St. Austin, and we find him received, on his return into Wales, by the King, Princes,

(1) Ut genti Anglorum unà nobiscum prædicetis verbum Domini.' Bed. Eccl. Hist. L. ii. c. 2.

(2) Bed. Eccl. Hist. L. ii. c. 2.

Clergy, and people, with the highest honour (1). We have, moreover, the testimony of the above. quoted British Register, that the Bishops of Landaff, from this period, were always subject and obedient to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was at all times the Pope's Legate.-The Right Rev. Bishop's argument to prove that the Irish Church was not, anciently, in communion with the Church of Rome, because it was in communion with the British Bishops, p. 24, is as great a paradox as any of the above-mentioned; since it has been proved that the British Bishops themselves were always in communion with the Church of Rome. Of the same description are the assertions, that no legate was appointed by the Pope in Ireland before Gillebert in the twelfth century,' and that the Pope's jurisdiction was first introduced into Ireland by the mercenary compact of the Pope and Henry II.' p. 25. To expose the inconsistency of these assertions, nothing more is necessary than to consult the Antiquities of Usher himself, on whose authority they are said to be grounded. This Protestant Archbishop, then, testifies from ancient records, which he cites, that first St. Palladius, and after him St. Patrick, was sent into Ireland by Pope Celestine, to convert its inhabitants from Pagan Idolatry; the former in 431, the latter in 432; that St. Patrick having established the church of Ireland, and ordained Bishops and Priests throughout the whole Island, went to Rome, in 462, where he procured from Pope Hilary the confirmation of whatever he had done in Ireland, together with the

(1) Vita Oudocei, quoted by Godwin De Præsul, and Usher.

Pallium and the title of Pope's Legate;' (1) that in 540 the celebrated St. Finan, of Clonard, having spent seven years at Rome, and being consecrated Bishop, returned into Ireland, where he instituted schools and convents, one of which contained 3000 monks (2). It appears from the same annalist, that in 580 the renowned St. Columban passed from Ireland to the continent, where he was protected by different Bishops and Princes, for his orthodoxy and piety, and even by the Popes themselves with whom he corresponded; that in 630 a deputation of learned and holy men was sent from Ireland 'to the fountain of their baptism, like children to their mother,' (3) namely, to the Apostolic See of Rome, to consult with it on matters of religion; that among these was St. Lasrean, who was consecrated Bishop by Pope Honorius, and appointed his Legate in Ireland; (4) that in 640 Tomianus and four other Bishops, being still anxious about the right observance of Easter, and about the Pelagian heresy, wrote to consult Pope Severinus, and that they received an answer to their letter from his successor Pope John.-Numerous other testimonies, not only of the communion of the Church of Ireland with that of Rome, but also of its acknowledging

(1) Usher's Antiq. Index Chronl. (2) Usher Primord.

(3) Usher.

(4) Gillebert was succeeded in the Legatine Office by St. Malachy, who by a special authority erected the See of Tuam into an Archbishopric. After his death, namely in 1151, Cardinal Papario was sent by Pope Eugenius III. into Ireland, with four Palliums for the four Archbishoprics. So false is the Prelate's account of the origin of the Pope's jurisdiction in Ireland!

the Pope's Supremacy, may be, collected from Usher, Ware, and other Protestants, no less than from the original Catholic writers, down to the very time of Gillebert, Bishop of Limerick, whom the Catechist admits to have been the Pope's Legate in Ireland. This happened, according to Usher, in 1130, twenty-five years before the date of what the Catechist calls the mercenary compact of the Pope and Henry II. by which,' he says, the Pope's Jurisdiction was first introduced into Ireland,' and forty years before the latter invaded Ireland; which island, after all, as every child knows, he invaded, not as the executor of Pope Adrian's legacy, but as the ally of the dethroned King, Dermot.

But,

In speaking of the beginning and progress of the Religion of our own ancestors, the English, it might be expected the Right Rev. Catechist would have paid more attention to truth and consistency, than he has done with respect to the foregoing more obscure histories. This, however, is not the case. previously to the writer's entering on this particular subject, he wishes to observe what is more fully demonstrated in the following work, that the Catechist totally misrepresents our Apostle, Pope Gregory the Great, as having 'reprobated the Spiritual Supremacy,' and also his successor Boniface, as being the first Pope to assume it,' p. 16. In short, the question at issue, is not concerning the title, but the power of a head Bishop; which power as it will appear below, no Pope exercised more frequently or extensively than 'the learned and virtuous St. Gregory' to use the Prelate's own epithets. His Lordship does not deny that our ancestors, the Anglo Saxons, were converted to Christianity by the Pope's Missionaries,' p. 28,

:

namely, by St. Austin and his companions, sent hither by the same Pope Gregory, in 597; nor does he contradict the account of our venerable historian, Bede, who describes the whole jurisdiction and discipline of our Church, as being regulated by that Pope and his successors. Still the Prelate most paradoxically denies that the Pope ever exercised jurisdiction in England or Ireland, except during the four centuries before the Reformation!' p. 11; and he maintains, in particular, that the Anglo Saxon Churches differed from the Church of Rome in their objection to Image worshipping, the Invocation of Saints, Transubstantiation, and other errors,' p. 28. Here are two paradoxes to be refuted; one concerning the spiritual power, the other concerning the doctrine of the See of Rome. With respect to the former is it not a fact, my Lord, known to every ecclesiastical antiquary, that each one of our Primates, from St. Austin down to Stigand, exclusively, who was deposed soon after the Conquest, either went to Rome to fetch, or had transmitted to him from Rome, the emblem and jurisdiction of legatine authority, by which he held and exercised the power of a Metropolitan over his suffragan Bishops? An original author, Radulph Diceto, exhibits a succinct but clear demonstration of this, in a series of all the Archbishops, and a list of the different Popes, from whom the former respectively received the Pallium. Did not St. Wilfred, Archbishop of York, appeal to the Pope from the uncanonical sequestration of his diocese by the Primate Theodore? Did not Offa, the powerful Mercian king, engage Pope Adrian, to transfer six suffragan Bishoprics from the See of Canterbury to