the brothers of the Christian Schools have a large num- ber of institutions.
The following is a statistical summary of the Itoman Catholic Church in Ireland in 1869 :
1 Uerrv . . . Cloiriler . Raplioe.,
Armagh Province.
Publin
Kildare and Leighl
Cashel and Emly..
Clonfort .
ht;-::
for the priesthood, formerly under the necessity of ob taining their education in continental colleges, are now educated at home. Tlie jirincipal clerical college is that of JMaynooth, which was founded in 1795 as Koyal College of St. Patrick at Maynooth. The Irish Parlia- ment made to it an annual grant of £14,000; the Eng- lish Parliament sanctioned the grant, but reduced it to £8927, out of which the professors and 480 students were supported. The Irish lord Dunbo^-ne founded 20 more scholarships. In 1845, the government, under the administration of Sir Robert Peel, raised the annual grant to £26,000; more recently this sum was again raised to £38,000. In 1809, when the Anglican Church was disestablished, a capital sum equal to the amount of the Maynooth grant, valued at fourteen years' pur- chase, was handed over to the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Univer- sity at Dublin was established at a synodal meeting of the Catholic bishops held on Jlay 18, 1854. At a con- ference held in 1863 the bishops resolved to enlarge the university, and to erect a new building at the cost of £100,000. There are, besides, the Catholic colleges of St. Patrick, Carlow ; St. Jarlath, Tuam ; St. John's, Wa- terford ; St. Peter's, Wexford ; St. Colman's, Fermoy ; St. Patrick's, Armagh ; St. Patrick's, Thurles; St. Ky- ran's, Kilkenny ; St. jMcl, Longford ; All Hallows (devo- ted exclusively to prepare priests for foreign missions), and CUoulifte, Dublin, all supported by voluntary con- tributions.
There are also for the education of Irish priests two colleges in Rome, the Irish College and the College of St. Isidor, and one in Paris. The number of religious communities of men has decreased during the last hun- dred j-ears. The Dominicans, at the time of Benedict XIV, had 29 houses, in 1860 onlj* 13 houses, with about 50 monks; the Augustines had formerly 28, no^v 14 con- vents; the Carmelites have 81 houses, formerly 167; the Jesuits 4 colleges, 1 home, and 80 members; the Lazarists, Passionists, and Redemptorists 2 houses each ;
The first Preshytei-y in Ireland was formed at Car- Candidates j rickfergus in 1642, and gave rise to the Synod of Ulster.
The Preshyierian Synod of Mimster was formed about 1660. The Presbytery of Antrim separated from the Synod of Ulster in 1727, and the Remonstrant Synod in 1829. A number of seceders formed themselves into the Secession Synod of Ireland about 1780. In 1840, the General and Secession synods, having united, as- sumed the name oi' the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church in Ireland, comprising in 1856 510 con- gregations, arranged under 37 presbyteries. The min- isters were supported by A'oluntary contributions, the rents of seats and pews, and the interest of the reyium domim, or royal gift. This was first granted in 1672 by Charles II, and in 1869 26 (first class) ministers received from the state £92 Gs. 2d. each, and 551 (second class) £69 4s. 8d. each per annum. As the ministers in the first class died, their successors only received the latter amoimt. The reyium doniim. as annual grant, was abol- ished by the Irish Church Bill, but a capital sum equal to the amount of the donum, valued at fourteen years' purchase, was handed over to the representatives of the Presbyterian body. The total sum for reyium domnn voted by Parliament for the year ending ]\Iarch 31, 1869, was £40,547. The minutes of the General Assembly for 1869 state that in the year ending March 31 there were 628 ministers (besides 51 licentiates and ordained ministers without charge), 560 congregations, and 262 manses. The seat rents produced £38,011; the sti- pends paid to ministers, £37,853 ; raised for builduig or repairing churches, manses, and schools, £17,830 ; Sab- bath collections, £13,575; mission collections, £12,124; other charitable collections, £6,835. The Congrega- tional Debt was £37,167.
The Presbyterians liave the General Assembly's Col- lege at Belfast, and IMagce College at Londonderrj'. The latter was opened Oct. 10, 1865. In the year 1846, jNIrs. ]\Iagee, widow of the late Rev. AVilliam Magee, Presbyterian minister of Lurgan, left £20,000 in trust for the erection and endowment of a I'resbyterian col- lege. This sum was allowed to accumulate for some
IRELAND 6^
years, until eventually the trustees were authorized, by 'a decree of the lord chancellor, to select a convenient site at or near the city of Londonderry. The citizens of Derry subscribed upwards of £5000 towards the erec- tion of" the building, which cost about £10,000. The Irish Society have granted an annual endowment of 4:250 to the chair of natural philosophy and mathemat- ics, and £-->oO for five years towards the general expenses of the college.
Rfmonstrant Synod of Ulster.— This sjmod was form- ed in :\Iay, 1830, in consequence of the separation of seventeen "ministers, with their congregations, from the General Synod of Ulster, on the ground that, contrary to its usages and code of discipline, it required from its members "in 1827 and 1828 submission to certain doc- trinal tests and overturi s df liunian invention. There arc 4 presbyteries aii.i -'7 ,dii-r(gations in this synod.