hierarchy persisted to the last in following the example of the non-jurors in England, and refused to take the oaths to the new Government.1

But though at this critical period so many of the established clergy pursued a very equivocal course,2 most of them were ready, in the hour of victory, to claim the rewards of the conquerors. Nowhere was this spirit exhibited more offensively than in Derry. Upwards of three-fourths of the defenders of that city were Scoto-Irish Presbyterians; and their co-religionist, Colonel Adam Murray, was unquestionably the hero of the siege; but the Rev. George Walker, an episcopal clergyman who had contrived to worm himself into the appointment of Assistant Governor, and who had more than once betrayed a disposition to capitulate, published a pamphlet immediately after the place obtained relief, in which he appropriated almost exclusively to himself the credit of its successful resistance. Walker-who was a most plausible character-for a time enjoyed immense popularity. He was promoted to the see of Derry;5 and the English Universities joined with the English monarch in loading him with honours. But, as he became better known, his reputation declined: and, when he was killed at the battle of the Boyne, King William is said to have heard of the disaster without any emotion."

1 These were Sheridan, Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, and Otway, Bishop of Ossory, Mant, ii. preface. Sheridan was deprived, and died in poverty in 1716. Mant, ii. 28. Otway, who died in March, 1693, contrived to hold his see till his death.

2 One of the most distinguished of the non-juring clergy was Charles Leslie, Chancellor of Connor-second son of Dr. J. Leslie, Bishop of Clogher. He was deprived of his preferment for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. He made several vain attempts to convert the Pretender to Protestantism. He died at Glasslough in March, 1722. See before, pp. 163, note (1).

3 See Reid, ii. 374, and Professor Witherow's Derry and Enniskillen, pp. 265, 266. Belfast, 1873.

* Sec his "True Account of the Siege of Londonderry." Mackenzie's Narrative strips Walker of his false plumage. Lord Macaulay has given a very incorrect account of this affair. See Professor Witherow's Derry and Enniskillen, pp. 267-280. 5 Walker was never consecrated bishop. His predecessor Hopkins, whose death had been anticipated, survived until the 22nd of June, 1690—about a week before the battle of the Boyne.

6 44 William," says Macaulay, “thought him a busybody who had been properly

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEPARTURE OF JAMES II. FROM IRELAND AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. A.D. 1660 TO A.D. 1690.

THE Restoration was like life from the dead to the Irish Protestant Episcopacy. Eight members of its hierarchy still remained and Charles II. very soon proceeded to fill up the vacancies. As early as August, 1660, two new archbishops and ten new bishops were nominated. Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, was promoted to the Primacy; and the celebrated Jeremy Taylor was made Bishop of Down and Connor. In January, 1661, the new prelates were consecrated' in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, in presence of a large and brilliant auditory. The friends of the restored Establishment were delighted above measure with the ceremony; and an anthem which was sung on the occasion, and which was composed by Dr. Fuller-afterwards Bishop of Limerick-was specially admired. Its concluding words may be quoted as a specimen of this jubilant piece of devotional poetry:

1 Mant states that the Bishop of Clogher was associated as one of the assistants at the consecration. Mant, i. 608. This is a mistake; as Henry Jones was not permitted to lay on hands on the occasion. The rest of the bishops, it appears, objected to allow the blood-stained hands of Cromwell's Scoutmaster-General to take part in the ceremony. See Harris's Ware, Bishops of Meath, Works, vol. i., P. 160. For further information respecting this bishop, see Nalson's Collections, vol. ii. 535; and Carte, ii. 58, 498.

* Mant, i. 611; Reid, ii. 256, note. Fuller, the author of the anthem, was a VOL. II.

K

Adversity had not improved the spirit of the Irish Episcopal Church. Among the prelates who flourished immediately after the Restoration, there were none at all to be compared to Bedell or Ussher. In the selection of the new dignitaries, political services or family connections had generally more influence than piety or learning. Instead of devoting themselves to the spiritual duties of their office, and thus seeking to remove the odium which had so long rested on their order, most of the bishops still continued to give offence by their covetousness, secularity, and ambition. Thomas Price, who was now promoted to the see of Kildare, and who subsequently became Archbishop of Cashel, was noted for his penuriousness and indolence.1 Michael Boyle-appointed in 1660 Bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross-was not satisfied with these three sees. Under the groundless plea that he could not find clergymen to supply six parishes within the bounds of his jurisdiction, he contrived for years to appropriate their incomes, and permitted them meanwhile to remain without a Protestant ministry. This gross misconduct did not prevent his promotion. In 1663 he was made Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland; and he was subsequently advanced to the Primacy of Armagh. Even Bramhall, though now verging on threescore years and ten, had not ceased to be a keen political partizan. At the opening of the new Parliament he was chosen speaker of the Irish House of Lords. The selection was ominous. "In such a choice," says a contemporary peer, "we let the

native of London, and a warm loyalist. About this time he was made Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. In 1664 he was made Bishop of Limerick, but he held the Deanery of St. Patrick's in commendam for two years afterwards. In 1667 he exchanged the see of Limerick for the English bishopric of Lincoln. He died in 1675. Cotton's Fasti, i. 385-6; ii. 100.

1 Harris's Ware, i. 393. It should, however, be mentioned, to his credit, that he encouraged the instruction of the natives through the medium of their own tongue. In the time of Bedell he was Archdeacon of Kilmore, and his intercourse with the good bishop had doubtless led him to take some interest in this matter. See Cotton's Fasti, i. 15, note..

2 Harris's Ware, i. 569; Elrington's Life of Ussher, pp. 107, 108, note.

3 He held the office of Lord Chancellor for twenty-two years, viz., from 1663 to 1685. He died in 1702.

dissenters and fanatics see what we intend as to Church government."1

There are times when the utter want of principle in persons holding a high social position is revealed with startling evidence. Never, perhaps, was a disregard even for outward consistency more glaringly exhibited than at the period of the Restoration. Many of the leading men in Ireland now, all at once, changed their religious profession. In the days of the Commonwealth, Sir Charles Coote had been the bitter persecutor of both Prelatists and Presbyterians. Now, created Earl of Mountrath, he was not ashamed to take the lead in urging conformity to the Book of Common Prayer. Lord Broghill had been won over to the side of Cromwell: and had supported the Protector in his policy. Now, under the title of the Earl of Orrery, he made himself conspicuous as an ardent Royalist and high-flying Episcopalian. Others, who had pledged themselves by oath to adhere to the Solemn League and Covenant, now assailed it in the language of execration. Most of the members of the Irish House of Commons of 1661 had been long connected with Independent, Baptist, or Presbyterian congregations and yet, with marvellous facility, they agreed to require all the subjects of the kingdom to conform to the Episcopal mode of Church government and the English Liturgy. The Covenant, which not a few of them had sworn to maintain, was ordered to be burned in all cities, and corporate and market towns, by the hands of the common hangman. Nor did the Irish senators stop even here in their anxiety to testify their zeal for the restored ritual. At their own request the Lord's Supper was administered to the members of the House of

1 See letter from the Earl of Orrery to the Duke of Ormond. Mant, i. 631. 2 Reid, ii. 239.

3 Mant, i. 632. The Declaration on this subject, agreed to by both Houses, was adopted in the Lords on the motion of Viscount Montgomery of the Ards, who had twice sworn to the Solemn League and Covenant. Reid, ii. 272,

note.

The only Irish magistrate who scrupled to burn the Solemn League and Covenant was Captain John Dalway, Mayor of Carrickfergus. He was involved, in consequence, in considerable trouble; and he appears to have very reluctantly complied. Reid, ii. 273, note.

Commons in June, 1661, by Primate Bramhall-the most distinguished representative of High Church intolerance.

These legislators had special reasons of their own for their ecclesiastical subserviency. They held their estates by a most precarious tenure. These estates consisted, to a large. extent, of confiscated lands which they had very recently acquired, and which were still claimed by the former proprietors. The present holders were therefore most anxious to recommend themselves to the King-who was known to be bent on the re establishment of prelacy; and they were well aware that, by opposing the Royal wishes in relation to the Church, they would imperil their possessions. Powerful influence was used to induce Charles to restore the forfeited lands to their previous Roman Catholic owners; and, had not reasons of State interposed, he would have felt very much inclined to eject those who now enjoyed them. The new senators were sensible of the insecurity of their position and as most of them had all along been mainly desirous to accumulate wealth in Ireland, it is not difficult to account for the time-serving spirit which they now exhibited.

There is nothing more remarkable in this portion of the ecclesiastical history of the country than the sudden collapse of both Anabaptism and Independency. We have seen1 that,

1 Mant, i. 633. It would appear that at this time there was only one Roman Catholic returned to the Irish House of Commons. Froude's English in Ireland, i. 147. Of the Peers, twenty-one are said to have been Romanists, and seventy-two Protestants. Haverty, p. 602.

2 At the Restoration there were two classes to whom no favour was to be shown, that is, those directly implicated in the massacre of 1641, and those concerned in the death of Charles I. Many of the Anglo-Irish Roman Catholic nobility and gentry had all along been more favourable to the King than most of those who had recently obtained possession of their forfeited lands.

3 The great difficulty in the way was the influence of those who now had possession. The attempt to expel them might have sent Charles a second time into exile. 4 See before, p. 123. Those who at the present day are called Baptists were then generally known as Anabaptists; because they rebaptized their converts. Roman Catholic writers account, in their own way, for the disappearance of the Protestant colonists. They declare that they were struck with Egyptian plagues" which carried them off in vast numbers! "They were not," says one writer, "as yet three months in Ireland when most fetid vermin crawled forth from their bodies in such swarms that their hair, and beard, and garments were covered with them, so that they could not appear in public through shame, nor could they