The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-22 00:00:00

LORD DENBIGH ON THE I

DISH CHURCH.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SUN."

SlR,—When the Bishop of Oxford uttered his
bold challenge respecting the early Irish Church
in his speech on the Suspensory Bill, I endeavoured,
though unsuccessfully, to obtain a hearing, that I
might give to his statement an unqualified denial.
There now only remains for me to meet them on
paper. Having asked for his authorities, he sent
me those he relied on, and I propose, as shortly as
possible, in order not to transgress the limits of a
letter, to examine them and expose their worthless-
ness for the object in view, viz., as proofs that the
early Irish Church was entirely iniependent of
the Roman See, and did not in any way acknow-
ledge the jurisdiction of the Pope; also that the
doctrines of that Church were the same as those
held by High Churchmen of the present day.
I will commence by quoting the Bishop's words
as reported in your columns of June 30.

" Three fourths of the whole of the Irish Church
property was given between the time of St. Patrick
and Henry 11. to the native Irish Church. Do
they teach the same doctrine ? I maintain, an 1 I
lefy any one to contradict, that the Church of
Ireland at that time agreed more completely with
the High Church of England at this time than
with the Ultramontanists on the other side.
They were jealous of Rome; they boldly refused
to come under the Rornish yoke ; they were con-
demned by the Church of Rome as schismatics, if
nut as heretics, because they resisted the oppres-
sions which were brought upon them. The Church
of Rome forbid the marriage of the clergy, the
Church of Ireland allowed it. St. Patrick's father
and grandfather were married clergymen. Which,
then, did the ancient Church agree with—our
Church or the Church of Rome ?"

In proof of these statements I am referred by
the Bishop principally to the annals of Cardinal
Baronius for the years 516 and 604, and to the life
of St. Wilfrid. As these refer to the most im-
portant points, I will, to avoid prolixity, confine
myself to them.
The first of these passages, No. 21, refers to a
schism into which the Irish bishops, as well as
certain African and Italian bishops, fell, through
an opinion which they had formed that the Fifth
General Council which the Roman Church had
approved had by its condemnation of the three
chapters infringed in some degree the decrees of
the Fourth General Council. This misunderstand-
ing lasted some time, but was removed by St.
Gregory the Great, says the same Barouius, under
the year 592, No. 6, who remarks, " A certain
proof that the Irish gave up their schism and re-
turned to Catholic Communion and unity is found
in the fact that afterwards, like all other Orthodox
men, they consulted Gregory on doubtful points,
which they would not have done had they con-
tinued still in schism."

You will observe that there was no question
here of " tyranny "or " Romish yoke." The Irish
bishops were deceived into thinking that the Ca-
tholic faith had been infringed, and when their
error was removed, they returned to their ac-
customed attitude towards the Roman See. I may
here remark, by way of parenthesis, that the most
unimpeachable writers, Irish as well as foreign,
bear witness that Ireland received her Hierarchy
directly and immediately from Rome, along with
her first teachers of the Gospel, St. Palladius first,
and after his death St. Patrick, having been sent
by Pope St. Celestine.
The Bishop's second reference to Baronius, in
the year 604, No. 65, relates to the difficulties
which Archbishop Lawrentius, the first successor
of St. Augustine, experienced from the temper and
conduct of the Celtic bishops of that day in Wales
and in Ireland. The heathen Saxon, for 150
years, had inflicted on the British Christians the
most terrible calamities. They had finally driven
them into Wales and the western parts of the
island, and the enmity felt by the remaining British
was so intense that they refused to communicate
the Christian faith to those who had expelled them
from their country. This was the cause of the
little co-operation which they offered to the Roman
missionaries in their efforts to convert the Saxon.
But whatever differencies that existed as to the
Irish time of celebrating Easter and the Tonsure,
the Parliament of Whitby, convened by King
Oswy in 664, discussed all the questions at issue
between the. Celtic and the Roman missionaries.

The Celtic party was then represented by Col-
man, a monk of that great monastery of lona,
whose missionaries, the spiritual children of St.
Columba, had converted the north of England.
The Roman part was represented by St. Wilfrid,
and I quote from Montalembert's recent work*
the issue of the conflict. The bishop had pleaded
the practice of St. Columba and his successors--
men eminent for the works they had done, and for
their miracles. Wilfrid replied—" Admitting the
holiness of your fathers, how can one prefer to the
Church spread over the whole earth a handful of
saints in a corner of their remote isle ? And as to
your Columba, whom I will willingly call ours, as
a servant of Christ, however holy and powerful he
may have been by his wonderful virtues, can he
be preferred to the blessed Prince of the Apostles,
to whom our Lord said—' Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my Church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will
give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.'"
Tiien the Saxon king said to his bishop—" Is it
true, Colman, that these words were said by our
Lord to Peter ?" "That is true,O king," answered
the bishop. " Can you," rejoined the king, "show
me a like authority given to your Columba ?"
"No," said the bishop. "You are, then," said
the king, " both agreed that the keys of the
kingdom of heaven were given to Peter by our
Lord ?" " Yes," both adversaries at once replied.
" l hen," said the king, " I say as you do, that he
i 3 the doorkeeper of heaven, and that I will never
contradict him ; but, on the contrary, obey him in
everything, lest when I reach the gates of the
heavenly kingdom there be nobody to open them
to me if I oppose him who bears the keys. In my
life never will I do aught, or approve thing or
person contrary to him." And the whole assembly
approved, by its vote, this conclusion of the king
by lifting their hands—the Lords who were seated,
and the Freemen, who were standing —and all de-
cided to adopt the Roman usages. From that
time forth these contests between- the Celtic and
Roman custom, which had never touched matters
of faith, dropped away. The British Church was
united in its obedience to the Roman See, and
all on which the bishop relies, as showing a repug-
nance to the " tyranny of Rome" and " the yoke of
the Papal See," disappears.
But the Bishop specially referred to a transient
schism, lasting about thirty years, of the Irish
bishops in the latter half of the sixth century.
Now, it so happens that this period coincides
exactly with the missionary labours of the great
St. Columba above referred to, and that in his life

by his successor, Adamnus, in the seventh
century, we have an authentic picture of what the
Irish Church then believed, and which the Bishop
of Oxford claims as agreeing with the present
High Church Anglican. St. Columba was an
Irishman of the Irish, a prince of the Royal house
of O'Donnell, who, in the year 562, at the age of
forty, imposed on himself the penance of leaving
his country, and founded the monastery of St.
lona. In the thirty-fifth year which followed, up
to his death in 597, he set himself to the work of
converting the heathen Picts and Caledonians, and
he did so by settling monasteries throughout their
country. "Modern erudition," s :Lys Montale t,

" has discovered and registered the names of ninety
churches, which trace their origin to him, and all,
or nearly all, of which must have been attached,
according to the usages of the time, to monastic
communities." This, I presume, is the first point
of resemblance which the Bishop would establish
between the Irish Church of the sixth century and
the High Church at present.
St. Columba was the father of a great number
of monasteries, which followed his rule, and obeyed
the government of his successors. I refer again
to Montalembert (vol. 3, p. 299).
" The most attentive and conscientious exami-
nation of all the monastic peculiarities which can
be found in his biography (by Addumna, Abbot of

0:&r

lona, in the seventh century), reveals absolutely
nothing as to the observance or obligations distinct
from the rules drawn by all the religious commu-
nities of the sixth century, from the tradition of

the Fathers of the Desert. But that which is evident
in them is—first, the necessity of a vow or solemn
profession (Votum. monachiale voverient—votunt
monochicum—devolus vovit—Adamn.l., 31-2., 39)
to establish the definite admission of the religious
into the community after a trial of various dura-
tion. Next the absolute conformity of the reli-
gious life followed by Columba and by his monks
with the precepts and rights of the Catholic.
Church of all ages. Texts, both incontestable and
uncontested, demonstrate the existence of.
Auricular Confession (expressly indicated in the
history of Libranius, 2, 39), the Invocation of
saints at every page, their protection and inter-
vention in temporal affairs, 2,5, 13, 39, 40, cele-
bration of feasts and offices in their honour, 2, 45.
—3, 11—), the celebration of the Mass (a sancta.
Jussus Christi corpus con ficere Eucharistix mysterim
celebrare pro aninzo sancta Colgan vita prima, C. St,
.4dammus, 3, 12) ; the real presence in the Eucha-
rist ; ecclesiastical celibacy, fasts, and abstinence& ;
prayer for the dead; the sign of the Cross, and
especially a constant and profound study of the
Holy Scriptures."
These, I presume, are the other points of resem-
blance which the Bishop asserts between the Irish
Church, from 431 to 1170, and tha present High
Church. The Right Rev. Prelate is doubtless
prepared to rise in his place in the House of Lords
and make this profession of his faith.
Certainly all this exactly agrees with what the
Ultramontanists, as he terms them, of the present
day hold and profess, and St. Columba was a fit
representative of the faith of the Irish Church in
the sixth century; and these proofs of his faith are
drawn from an almost contemporary author, who
lived the same life and governed the same
monastery as he did. The argument o the Bishop
is that the Irish Establishment should not be dis-
established ; because, first, it holds the same faith
as did the Irish Church between the years 431 and
1170 ; and, secondly, that the faith is the belief of
the High Church of England of the present day.
Which of these daring assertions would appear to
be the furthest from the truth it is difficult to
say, in testimony whereof I confidently appeal, first,
to the evidences I have given above of the faith and
practice of the Irish Church in the time of St.
Columba ; and, secondly, to those who know what
the temper of the present Irish Establishment
has always been.

The Bishop's last argument, drawn from the

- •
fact of St. Patrick's father and grandfather having
been married men, is a mere sophism, unless he
can prove that they married and had cb ildren while
in holy orders. It is not at all infrequent for
those who have been married to enter 203 widowers
into holy orders. The present -Archbishop of
Westminster was a married man, and Dr. Clifford,
the Bishop of Clifton, is the grandson of Cardinal
Weld, who was likewise a bishop.

To conclude, the Irish Church was part of that
great spiritual community termed the Catholic
Church, of which the Apostolic See is the head
and bond, from the time of St. Patrick to Henry
U., and the High Church of England during the
whole term of its existence has, on the
contrary, never formed a part of it, but has ever
protested, as it does now through the mouth Of
the bishop, that this community is corrupt in doe-

trine and tyrannical in Government. -
Were I to pursue the Bishop through his argu-
ments I should fill a pamphlet instead of confining
myself to a letter. Those who wish to see the
whole subject treated in extenso,.may refer to Rev.
Dr. Rocks' letter to Lord John Manners, published
by Dolman in 1844.--I remain, sir, yours obedi-
ently, DENBIGH.
July 21, 1868.

* Les Moines d'Occident, 4, 171, translated from Bede?
3, 25, and from Eddi, c. 10.
____

i-C777;
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giff rt .9LoitEL, Ciraibr.

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, July 21.

,
The Queen, accompanied by the Duchess of
Coburg, Princess Christian, and Princess Louis°
drove out yesterday afternoon.

The Queen, accompanied by Prince and Princes;
Louis of Hesse, Prince awl Princess Christian, Prin-
cess Louise, Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice
walked in the grounds this morning.

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.—Their Royal Highnesso
the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh, acorir.
panied by his Royal Highness Prince Louis of IfeBr'
honoured the performance at this theatre last night With
their presence.