7. Presbyterian Church in Ireland.— In Ireland as well as in England there was a strong Puritan section of the clergy holding Presbyterian principles during the earlier years of the 17th century, and the party was con- siderably strengthened by the settlement of Ulster by Scottish colonists during the reign of James I. Scot- tish ministers also carried over to Ireland their peculiar views. But the Presbyterian party was not consolidated into a separate community until the civil war broke out. The first Presbyterian minister who appeared in Ireland ' after the Reformation was the Rev. Walter Travers, the first regular provost of Trinity College, Dublin. He entered on his official duties in 1594; but. owing to the civil war in which the country was then involved, he did not remain long at the head of the university. Of those ministers who went to Ireland in the reign of James I, the earliest was Mr. Edward Brice, who be- came rector of Templecorran, near Carrickfergus, in the county of Antrim. About that time a number of Scotch- men obtained bishoprics in Ulster. These prelates, who had been brought up in the Presbyterian Church, and who had themselves been originally ordained by pres- byters, were not at first disposed to exact conformity to the Episcopal ritual from the Scottish ministers settled around them. Thus it was that the ministers, though refusing to use the Liturgy, were permitted to preach in the parish churches and enjoy the tithes. But when the imperious Wentworth was placed at the head of the government of Ireland, a new policy was inaugurated. All the clergy were obliged to strict conformity ; and in a few years all the Presbyterian ministers were driven into exile. At the time of the horrid massacre in 1641, not one of them was in the country. Thus they most providentially escaped that catastrophe. In 1642, when a Scottish army arrived in Ulster to put down the re- bellion, Presbyterianism obtained a permanent footing in Ireland, and, after various struggles, a Presbyterian Church was founded by the formation of a presbytery at Carrickfergus on the 10th of June, 1642. The Pres- byterian population of Ulster was greatly increased in number by immigration from Scotland about the middle of the 17th century; and notwithstanding many diffi- culties, from the opposition of prelates and of the civil power, the Church continued to increase. While the civil war was going on in Scotland great numbers of the Scotch emigrated to the north of Ireland, and these made a still larger addition to the Presbyterian popula- tion, a strong bond being also established between the two communicants. For a time their ministers in Ire- land were silenced by Cromwell because they refused to take the "engagement" of fidelity to the common- wealth; but for the last five or six years of his admin- istration he treated the Irish Presbyterians with less severity, and at the Restoration they numbered nearly eighty congregations, with seventy ministers. Sixty- one of these were obliged to give up the benefices into which they had been placed (Jeremy Taylor deprived thirty-six in one day), and only seven out of the seventy conformed to the Episcopal establishment. Within a few years, however, the Presbyterians organized into a com- pact body as the Synod of Ulster, and it is a curious fact that the Presbyterian ministers received a pension from government, under Charles II, in 1672, which re- gium donum (q. v.), however, was not regularly paid, and soon ceased to be expected by the Presbyterian minis- ters. In the reign of William the regium donum was augmented, although only to the paltry amount in all of £1200 a year. The sum has since, however, been repeatedly augmented. With the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church of Ireland, under Gladstone's min-
istry, the regium donum was discontinued, and the Pres- byterian Church of Ireland is entirely relieved from State dependence. It was valued at fourteen years' purchase, and the sum of nearly £600,000 was paid over therefor, thus securing the division among the ministers of nearly £30,000 a year of interest. In 1710 the synod of the Presbyterian Church resolved to institute the preaching of the Gospel to the Irish in their own language. During this period of its history the Irish Presbyterian Church experienced the utmost opposition from the High-Church party. Afterwards dissensions sprang up within it, and these with reference to the most important doctrines. Irish Presbyterians could not escape the influence of the latitudinarian spirit which prevailed during the 18th century. Early in the reign of George I, some of their ministers began to speak ambiguously on doctrinal sub- jects, and to oppose subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith. In consequence, in 1720, a schism took place among them, and the non-subscribers formed themselves into what was called '-The Presbytery of Antrim." The separatists did not obtain much support from the mass of the Presbyterian population ; but not a few who remained connected with the larger body, known as "The Synod of Ulster," exhibited very little zeal in upholding and propagating the sound theology of their forefathers. Meanwhile the Scotch Seceders, who appeared in Ireland shortly before the middle of the 18th century, did much to maintain purity of doc- trine in the Northern province, Their congregations rapidly multiplied, and within little more than sixty years after the organization of their first church, there were upwards of ninety Secession ministers in Ulster. In 1761 the Rev. Matthew Lynd, the first Irish Cov- enanting minister, was ordained at Vow, near Rashar- U in, in the county of Antrim. Owing very much to the growing laxity of doctrine and discipline in the Synod of Ulster, the Covenanters, or Reformed Presby- terians, continued, from this date till the close of the century, to make steady progress; and in 1792 their first Irish Presbytery was constituted. But early in the present century indications of a religious revival appear- ed in the Synod of Ulster, and when Arianism was open- ly avowed an earnest protest was raised against it. In 1829 the Arian controversy issued in the separation of the Unitarians from the great Northern Synod, and im- mediately afterwards the Irish Presbyterian Church, as if invigorated with new life, commenced a prosperous career. Its congregations rapidly increased ; its minis- ters exhibited new zeal and enterprise; and some of them attracted attention all over the empire as plat- form-speakers and pulpit orators. In 1835 the Synod of Ulster adopted an overture requiring unqualified subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith from all its licentiates and ministers; and as the grounds of separation between this body and the Secession Syn- od were now removed, a union between them was hap- pily consummated in 1840. The united body, which assumed the designation of "The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland," consisted, at the time of its incorporation, of 433 congregations. Ever since the date of this union, the Irish Presbyterian Church has occupied a more commanding position in the country. It has at present under its care about half a million of people, including a large proportion of the substantial farmers and merchants of Ulster. Very few of the aristocracy were ever attached to it ; but of late its members have been advancing steadily in social position; and at the present time it has in its commu- nion seven members of Parliament, several considerable landed proprietors, and many gentlemen holding the commission of the peace.