Protestant Episcopal Church of Ireland. Until 1*71 this body formed an integral part of the United Church of England and Ireland. It is still call- ed by a majority of its members the Church of Trt land. Its official title is ■• The Irish Church."
Of the lirst introduction of Christianity into Ireland we have written under the article [RELASD (q. v.). It has been shown there that the Roman Catholic Church succeeded in establishing her hierarchical power in the 12th century, and that even after the Reformation ill England the Irish Church remained attached to Koine, and only by the influence of the bishop of Home, tirst felt in the island through the Dams, who made their earliest settlements on the east coast at the close of the *th century. Bishop Malachy. who tilled successively several sees in Ireland, and who was full of enthusiasm for papal authority, strove hard to induce the [rish bish- ops to accept palls from the pope. But it was not till after his death, in 1152, that, at the Synod ofKells, the four archbishops received these honors, which, though
ostensibly marks of distinction, were in realit\ badges of servitude, binding Ireland to the footstool of the pa- pacy. Three years later, pope Adrian IV. the only Eng- lishman who ever wore the triple crown, sent Iburv II of England a bull, authorizing him to invade In- land. What the papal see then thought ol the relig- ious 1 lition Of tin » Ihurch Of Ireland may be learned
* The above article «:e originally written for our pages by the Rev. J. A. Spj k< 1 it, D.D., of New ^ ork city, and w;is afterwards reprinted by its author, from proofs, in another work which he was then editing. We
have sliu'lilly modified one or two expressions to which
many or our readers might take exception.— Ei>.
PROT. EPISC. CII. OF IRELAND GS9 PROT. EPISC. CJJ. OF IRELAND
from a bull published in 1172, confirming that of 1155. The pope states the object of permitting the invasion of Ireland to be that " the filthy practices of the land may be abolished, and the barbarous nation which is called by the Christian name may, through your clem- ency, attain unto some decency of manners; and that when the Church of that country, which has hitherto j been in a disordered state, shall have been reduced to better order, that people may by your means possess for the future the reality as well as the name of the Christian profession."
In the reign of Henry VIII., papal supremacy was abolished in Ireland, the bishops and clergy all accept- ing the king as head of the Church. Queen Mary re- established the pope's authority, but Elizabeth's rei.^n gave a distinctively Reformed character to the Church. Many rebellions occurring among the native Irish dur- ing this reign, and Koine astutely throwing all her weight against England, the Reformation came to be regarded as essentially English, though the leading clergy of the time assented to the change. The pope took advantage of the anti-English feeling by send- ing to the island multitudes of missionary bishops and priests, who succeeded in holding the native Irish with- in the pale of Roman Catholicism. During the two folbwiug centuries, the Protestant Episcopal Church (to which we now give this name, as during this period the Presbyterian Church of Ireland rose to importance), suffered many vicissitudes; but by the Revolution of 1G88 and the battle of the Boyne it was placed in a po- sition of assured stability as a Protestant body. Still, the very intimate connection between the Church and the government, necessitated by the hostile elements with which both had been surrounded, had exercised upon the former a very unwholesome influence. The Church had been treated as little more than a mere de- partment of government. " Many of the bishops, dur- ing this period, seem to have held High-Church views; and, with some bright exceptions, a general deadness in religious matters prevailed, and along with it an indisposition to tolerate dissent in any shape whatev- er. This deadness of religious life characterized all the churches in the reigns of Anne and the Georges, though bright examples may be cited of the contrary spirit. The names of Richardson, Atkins, and Brown may be mentioned with honor as those of clergymen j who, in the early part of the 18th century, took an ac- tive interest in the work of evangelizing the native Irish through the medium of their own language. Archbishop Boulter, bishop Berkeley, and others may be noted among the members of the Episcopal bench who exhibited an earnest spirit of devotion and prac- tical godliness. Wesley and his followers among the Methodists did much by their labors, first inside and th?n outside the Church, to awaken evangelical life among all ranks of the national clergy. But English influence was, during this period, too often used in a wrong direction. English clergymen were frequently thrust into the best Church livings in Ireland, and Irish bishoprics were filled with Englishmen, while the earnest parochial clergymen of the land were neglected and despised. Dean Swift's witty description of the honest clergymen nominated to Irish bishoprics being waylaid and murdered by highwaymen on Hounslow Heath, who then seized on their 'letters patent,' came to Ireland, and got consecrated in their room, shows what was thought, in some quarters, of many of the men who, at this dark sera, bore spiritual rtde in the Church of Ireland" (^Wright's Lecture on the Church nf freland).