Bishop Taylor's exemplary conduct. Violent invectives of the sectarists. Conciliatory conduct of the bishop. "as the law of the Church requireth;" and that the principles and provisions of the Church herself may not be misapprehended, in a matter of such infinite importance as the due ordination of candidates for the sacred ministry. In the mean time, the conduct of Bishop Taylor, in endeavouring to remove the irregularities, which had spread over his diocese of Down and Connor, was exemplary, and confirmed the judgment of those, who had been instrumental in placing him in that most arduous and responsible situation. The obstructions which there assailed him, the persevering assiduity with which he endeavoured to surmount them, the wisdom and gentleness of his personal deportment, and the happy success, which to a great extent blessed his exertions, are thus stated by Carte, in his Life of the Duke of Ormonde. "The pulpits of the diocese, filled with Scots Covenanters, rang with nothing but warm exhortations to stand by the Covenant even unto blood, violent invectives against the bishop's person, and vehement harangues against episcopacy and liturgics. These were the only subjects of their preachings for four months together, notwithstanding all the endeavours of that excellent man, who soon gained upon all the nobility and gentry, one only excepted, but still found the ministers implacable. He invited them to friendly conferences, desired earnestly to speak with them, went to them, sent some of their own sect to invite them, offered to satisfy them in anything that was reasonable, preached every Sunday among them in the several churches of his diocese, and courted them with the kindest offers. All the effect, which this had upon the ministers, was, that it put them upon entering into a new Covenant, whereby they pledged themselves to speak with no bishop, and to endure neither their government nor their persons. But it wrought very differently upon the better sort of people: who by these methods, and by the refusal of the ministers to dispute, (to which their own followers urged them, and interpreted their declining to be ignorance and tergiversation,) were so far gained, that the bishop, in less than two years, found his diocese generally conformable." the sectarian With respect to the ministers, whom he found His course with in possession of the churches, there was only one of ministers. two courses which it was possible for him to pursue. The course, chosen by the Primate, we have seen was that of giving episcopal ordination to the individuals, and so permitting them to retain the benefices. The same course might have been adopted by Bishop Taylor, had it depended upon his choice. But the Presbyterian ministers in his diocese assumed from the first an attitude of determined hostility against him. They refused to submit themselves to his episcopal jurisdiction; and when the day of his visitation was announced, they confederated together, and in a body agreed not to attend it. The obvious consequence followed. Not Prescribed by having received episcopal ordination, these persons could not be recognised, as ministers of the Church of Ireland: and the benefices, which they were thus not qualified to hold, were declared to be, what in law they were, actually vacant, and the vacancies were supplied by the bishop in the exercise of his legitimate authority. law. Similar course in Raphoe and The same course was taken in the other northern dioceses, especially in those of Raphoe and Clogher. Clogher. In the whole, fifty-nine persons declined to qualify themselves for ministering in the Church in such ways as the laws prescribed, and were of course precluded from the enjoyment of her privileges: of these thirty-eight were in the united diocese of Down and Connor, eight in that of Clogher, and thirteen in Sentiment in favour of the Church. Earl of Orrery's letter to the Mar Jan. 2, 1661. that of Raphoe1. The disinclination to treat them with undue severity, and the inclination on the contrary to treat them with indulgence, lenity, and kindness, and to receive them into the ministry of the Church on their becoming properly qualified, are sufficiently proved by the fact of several persons, similarly circumstanced, being ordained by Bishop Taylor, on their conforming, and thereupon collated to benefices in his diocese. SECTION II. Prevailing sentiment in favour of the Church. The Primate THE tyranny of anti-episcopal and anti-liturgical, as The government was at this time administered quis of Ormonde, by lords justices: namely, Sir Maurice Eustace, lord chancellor, and Roger Boyle and Charles Coote, earls of Orrery and Mountrath. Their determination to support the Church was expressed on the 2nd of January, 1661, by one of the number, to the tried and effective friend of the Church, the Mar 10 WODROW'S Hist. of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, vol. i. Appendix, p. 72. quis of Ormonde, on occasion of some dissatisfaction shown by the Presbyterian body at a recent proclamation of the government. In this letter, the writer signified his assurance that "The Protestants of this province will be on all occasions, and in all places, ready to lay down their lives and fortunes in obedience to any of his majesty's commands. We are now generally in these parts all common prayer men; and I hope we shall have a general conformity thereunto throughout all the kingdom." Such was the prevailing sentiment as conveyed by the Earl of Orrery's letter, wherein was enclosed the following narrative. Presbyterians to exercise their "We have had these two days four ministers before us, Desire of the which were sent from the several Presbyteries in Ulster to the lords justices and council, desiring liberty to exercise ministry. their ministry in their respective parishes, according to the way they have hitherto exercised it in: and expressing their great sorrow to find themselves numbered with Papists and fanaticks in our late proclamation, which prohibited unlawful assemblies. "After many debates upon several proposals how to Answer of the answer them, we resolved on this answer: That we neither lords justices. could nor would allow any discipline to be exercised in Church affairs, but what was warranted and commanded by the laws of the land. That they were punishable for having exercised any other. That we should not take any advantage of them for the past, if they would comport themselves conformably for the time to come. That if they were dispensed withal, by pleading that a submission thereunto was against their consciences, Papists and fanaticks would expect the like indulgence from the like plea, which we knew their own practice, as well as judgments, led them to disallow of. That we took it very ill, divers of those, which had sent them, had not observed the time set apart for humbling themselves for the barbarous murder of his late majesty, a sin which no honest man could avoid being sorry for. That some of their number had preached sedi Reply of the ministers. tiously, in crying up the Covenant, the seeds of all our miseries; and in lamenting his majesty's breach of it, as setting up Episcopacy as introductory to Popery, which they had not punished in exercising any of their pretended discipline over such notorious offenders. And lastly, that, if they conformed themselves to the discipline of the Church, they should want no fitting countenance and encouragement in carrying on their ministry; so, if they continued refractory, they must expect the penalties the law did prescribe. "To all which they answered, that, as far as their consciences would permit them, they would comply, and what it would not, they would patiently suffer. That it was their religion to obey a lawful authority, and such they owned his majesty was, either actively or passively. That if any of their judgment had preached sedition, they left them to themselves, and disowned them: and if they had the exercising of their discipline, they would punish severely all such. That many of them had according to the proclamation kept the fast for the king's murder, which they heartily detested; and for the doing thereof in the usurper's government many of them had been imprisoned and sequestered; and that, to the last of their lives, they would continue loyal to his majesty. And lest they might offend against our proclamation, they desired to know what was meant by unlawful assemblies, because some were so severe as to interpret their meetings to pray and preach on the Lord's-day, to come under that head. To which we told them, that by unlawful meetings was only meant such assemblies as were to exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdictions, which were not warranted by the laws of the kingdom, and not to hinder their meetings in performing parochial duties in those benefices, of which they were possessed legally or illegally. 66 They seemed much comforted with the last assurance : so that, having again exhorted them to conformity, and promised them therein all encouragement, we dismissed them to try what this usage and the admonition will produce. I have had several private discourses with them, and I leave no honest means unessayed to gain them'." 1ORRERY's State Letters, vol. i. p. 29. |