to the state of things as it existed previous to 1793 than to allow things to remain as they were. The Roman Catholics were in opposition to Government, and there was reason to suppose were desirous to separate Ireland from England, and to extirpate the Protestant religion out of Ireland. The numerous convictions that had taken place of people engaged in the Ribbon societies, Threshers' societies, and a number of others, were a proof that the Catholics were almost universally bound together by oaths of a treasonable nature. The greatest chance of giving tranquillity to Ireland would be by the abolition of the Jesuit societies in England and Ireland, and of all monastic institutions of the Roman Catholic church in both countries; and by the prevention of the Roman Catholic hierarchy from communication with Rome, except through his majesty's privy council. If those points, however, were conceded, he did not think that with safety any further privileges could be extended to the Roman Catholic body. He believed it to be in the power of the Pope and the other authorities of the Roman Catholic church to dispense with and annul the effect of all the oaths required by law to be taken by Roman Catholics. During the rebellions in Ireland many atrocities were committed by Catholics, who acknowledged that they were instigated by their priests. opinion, that there never would be peace or se- MATTHEW DONELAN, Esq.-For the last two years he had been constantly travelling through Ireland as an officer of the Education Society, and had sent in above 300 reports of His Grace the ARCHBISHOP of ARMAGH. Described the state of the unions in his diocese, the state of the residence of the clergy, the value of the livings, the income of the curates, &c. The Rev. OLIVER KELLY, D.D., Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam.-There were three convents and one monastery in the arch-schools. There appeared to be a diminution in diocese of Tuam. In the diocese of Killala he was not aware that there was a convent of any description. In the diocese of Achonry there were two; in the diocese of Elphin there were three; in the diocese of Clonfert there were three, in the wardenship of Galway there were three; and in the town of Galway there were three. In Galway there were four nunneries, and in Loughrea one. The whole number of monks and nuns in his province was scarcely eighty. There were a great many schools in his diocese established by Catholics; and very few children were now growing up without a know-ral policy of those who opposed the different ledge of the English language. the attendance of the children in the various schools he had visited in the south of Ireland, to the extent of one-half in the last year; which he attributed, in a great measure, to the hos tility created in the minds of the Roman Catholic clergy, by the accusation made against them by a member of the House of Commons of their having sanctioned or connived at the introduction of improper books into their schools. Another stronger cause was, the establishment of the present commission for an inquiry into the state of education in Ireland, it being the natu societies for educating the poor in Ireland, by The Rev. JOHN KEILY again examined. withdrawing the children for awhile from the Stated the number of religious houses for men and women within the diocese of Cork. The average value of the Roman Catholic benefices in the diocese he was best acquainted with might be from 2201. to 2501. a year. In one parish, Glanworth, the Protestant clergyman was to receive in future, in consequence of the tithe composition compromise, 12004., while for two parishes in the neighbourhood three Roman Catholic clergymen received only 4007, among them. The Right Hon. DENNIS BROWNE, M.P. He knew Ireland well; and he was decidedly of schools where the commissioners were to derive their information how far those societies were suited to the wants and exigencies of the Irish population, to convince them of their inefficiency. These were temporary causes; but the grand and the predisposing cause he attributed to the decided objection entertained by many of the Roman Catholic clergy to the reading of the Scriptures without note and comment, and their suspicion that proselytism was the secret object of some of the societies. In schools in connexion with the Kildare-street Society he had met with tracts which certainly justified the | some of whom had come over to England. The existence of that suspicion. This, however, great increase in the number of Bibles sold in was not attributable to the society, but to the Ireland was a proof that a considerable shake over-zeal of certain individuals. There was one had been given to the public mind, and that universal cry for education extending from one even among the lower orders of Roman Caend of Ireland to the other; it was sought with tholics a strong desire had been created to the greatest avidity possible, and was every day know what the nature of the book was that becoming an object of increased anxiety among had been so vehemently recommended and prothe lower, the middle, and the higher orders. hibited. But there had been not merely an The schools which had been shut, had been so increase of the circulation of the Bible; there shut, he believed, by the influence of priests; had also been a very great avidity on the part but he had also witnessed the greatest exertions of Roman Catholics of the lower order to attend on the part of the Roman Catholic clergy for Protestant preachers. The churches in Dublin the promotion of education. On his oath, he had been filled with them on the days on which believed that they were not hostile to education it was known that a lecture was to be delivered in the abstract, although they objected to the on the subject of the important points of difconditions on which it was to be conveyed to the ference between the two churches. A similar peasantry of Ireland. He thought that a system feeling had been shewn at Carlow and at Cork. might be adopted that would meet with the ap- Although he approved of the object of the Bible probation of all parties, educating Catholics and Society, he was not a member of it; entertainProtestants together, but confining the educa- ing a preference for the mode of distribution tion to that of letters for four or five days in the adopted by another society, called "The Incorweek, and appropriating the residue to instruc-"porated Association for Discountenancing tion in the peculiar religious tenets of the dif- " Vice, and Promoting the Practice of Religion ferent sects. He had met with two schools" and Virtue." The Tithe Compensation Act founded on that principle; one under Mr. Edge. worth, of Edgeworth's Town, and the other at Bandon; and both enjoyed the warmest cooperation from the Roman Catholic priests. had operated remarkably well in his diocese. His impression was, that the equalisation of civil rights between Roman Catholics and Protestants would unavoidably lead to an endeavour to overturn the Protestant establishment in Ireland, and tend, of course, to endanger its existence, unless Ireland were promptly sustained by the predominating power of Great His Grace the ARCHBISHOP of DUBLIN. Described the nature of the unions in his dioceses. The occasional severance of unions had led to the building of new churches, and he had reason to believe that congregations were always Britain. The impression upon his mind was, found where churches were built. In Dublin, the congregations appeared every day more and more to overflow. Without meaning to cast any imputation on the clergy of former times, he thought there was a marked improvement in the character and exertions of the clergy of the present day; that improvement had been attended by a considerable increase in the number of Protestants. He had little doubt that the principle and spirit that must lead to the conversion of Roman Catholics to Protestanism, were in most active operation, principally caused by the discussions which had drawn the attention of the lower classes of the people to the Bible. He had been addressed by several Roman Catholic priests, desirous to be admitted into the Protestant church; but he had almost uniformly rejected them. One reason for his doing so was, that an Act of Parliament by which formerly a small provision was made for conforming priests while they remained without employment in the established church, expired in 1796. He had, therefore, always thought it his duty to warn them of the privations to which they were about to subject themselves. In one instance in which a priest had repeatedly importuned him on the subject, when his Grace had partly consented to his reception in the established church, the priest suddenly retracted. Nevertheless, several priests had conformed, that the object held principally in view by the influential agitators of the Roman Catholic body, was the subversion of the Protestant establishment. He had observed in Ireland, that every increase of political rights on the part of the Roman Catholics had been an increase of political power; and that that power had been brought continually into more and more active operation, according as they became possessed of greater means. The danger he apprehended was to the Established Church of Ireland in the first instance. What the ulterior consequence might be to the Established Church in England, especially as the numbers and principles of Roman Catholics were well known to be making rapid progress in England, it could not be difficult to predict, should that in Ireland be overturned. Increase of confidence always accompanied increase of power. It had been so in Ireland. According as advantages had been afforded by the legislature to the Roman Catholics, there had been uniformly a progressive advance in the tone, both of confidence and demand. So convinced was he that it was the intention of the Roman Catholic body in Ireland to obtain the country ultimately for themselves, that he had no hesitation in saying, that if England were embarrassed by any very serions war, the attempt would speedily be made to effect a separation of the two countries; principally for the abolition of what the Roman of our great Redeemer. The effect of absolu. Catholics were taught to believe a damnable tion in the Roman Catholic church was quite heresy. A variety of circumstances convinced different. In that church, his Grace believed, him of that fact. Indeed, the intentions of the the minister was considered judicial. In leaders of the Catholic body, with regard to the the Council of Trent he was described as a Protestant establishment, had been expressed judge, who annexed the degree of punishment too openly and too deliberately to render any that he considered to be requisite. There was confirmation upon the subject necessary. As no judicial character whatever assumed by a to the influence which the introduction of a minister of the Church of England. He gave certain portion of the Catholic community into but a conditional absolution, in the strictest the legislature might have on its proceedings, sense of the word. Although the absolution in of course, he could form no definite judgment; the visitation of the sick contained in it one but he could conceive, that there might be some sentence that undoubtedly looked authoritative inode of management that would render it ex- and absolute, yet, governed by the context, it tremely difficult, even for a very firm govern- was not so. The minister in the Protestant ment, to maintain the establishment in Ireland church announced absolution conditionally; and against the union of parliamentary strength yet at the same time he granted it as far as it with the overbearing influence of the people was in the power of man to do. In a certain strongly excited. He believed, that the Roman sense, it was exactly the same in the case of the Catholic population of Ireland looked to what apostles; for they did not grant forgiveness of was called Catholic emancipation as a means, sins to persons who were impenitent. But they not as an end; and that they had still a grand were "discerners of hearts," and therefore object behind. The only doctrine laid down they could pronounce peremptorily on the real respecting secrecy in confession, in the canons state of the penitent, because they knew the of the Church of England and Ireland, was one fact. His Grace feared, that in the ordinary that required, that in the case of offences, which view of it, absolution in the Roman Catholic by the law of the land it was capitally criminal to church was a monstrous abuse; a monstrous conceal, secrecy should not be observed; but in arrogation of that which belonged only to an inall other cases secrecy was imposed, under pain spired person, or to our Lord Jesus Christ himself. of irregularity. The canon alluded to was not Penance, or commutation of penance, was not a canon primarily relating to confession at all, at all of the same nature in the two churches. but was a canon relating to what was called In the Protestant, commutation of penance was "presenting by ministers." Ilis Grace consi- a judicial proceeding in open court; a judicial dered the enjoined secrecy only as a canonical, exchange of an ecclesiastical punishment for a and not as a religious obligation. The clergy- pecuniary fine. In the Roman Catholic church, man was not bound to conceal by what he (the except in some extreme cases, the commutation archbishop) would call the vitality of his priest- of penance was, as his Grace believed, the rehood. But the Roman Catholic clergyman (as ceiving of money in compensation for penance, far as his Grace understood the matter) was by the priest, for the discharge of his office in guilty of the deepest sin against God, through that respect. Adverting generally to the dochis church, if he revealed any thing communi- trines of the Roman Catholic church, his Grace cated to him in confession; it was connected observed, that he could not himself imagine how with a sacrament, was essential to the vitality such doctrines could be derived, except by a of his priesthood, and was an indelible charac-perverted mind, from the Scriptures. The docter of his order. As far as his Grace under-trine of exclusive salvation he considered to be stood the matter, the differences between the widely different in the churches of England and doctrine and practice of confession in the Church of Rome. The Roman Catholic church proof Rome and in the Church of England, were nounced, that salvation was not to be expected by manifold: the latter never compelled confession, any person out of the pale of her communion; —never made it a source of gain,-never con- and we pronounced no such thing with respect sidered it as a sacrament,-was not directed or to ours. We did not presume to limit salvation authorised to accompany it with absolution. to those of our own denomination; but adThe absolution granted by a clergyman of the mitted, that there might be members within the Church of England at the visitation of the sick, pale of any local Christian denomination whatwas an authoritative declaration of the effect soever, by whom it was attainable. We merely produced in the penitent by true repentance, pronounced upon what we conceived to be the coupled with all the proper feelings which in a great fundamental truths which should form Christian mind accompanied it, and embracing, the subject of a Christian's belief; and we anabove all others, the great predominant feeling, nexed to this our Lord's declaration of that that pardon could not be granted in consideration which must be the destiny of those who did not of any thing merely to be found in the indivi-believe. Those two stood connected on the dual, or of any satisfaction offered by him, but authority of our church; and all who submitted from a true contrition, in reference to, and in to that authority must believe, that the assent entire reliance on, the merits and intercession to those doctrines was requisite to salvation. At the same time, there was nothing in the " called the Athanasian Creed. In the third authoritative documents of our church that" clause of this formulary, where it proceeds to compelled upon any an implicit submission to its "define what the Catholic faith is, the Creed, mere authority; on the contrary, the authority" or, more justly speaking, the subject-matter of our church was itself to be tried by the" of the Creed, commences. Those which are authority of Scripture; and, therefore, as on "known by the name of the damnatory clauses, the one hand, they who had not had the benefit" cannot be said, with propriety, to be parts of of a Christian education, could not in any way" the Creed, so much as declarations of the be supposed, by our church, to be subject to the" church; and might, therefore, to mark the denunciation contained in that exposition of the" true distinction of the parts, be presented to Christian faith; so, on the other, neither were "the eye of the reader in a different character those to whom that Creed had been proffered" from the rest. Another distinction, also, pronounced to be, under all possible circum-" might be made in the mode of printing the stances, necessarily liable to its penalties, if they" Creed, which, together with the former, would had not been able to discover its doctrines in the" exhibit at once to the eye of the uninformed Scripture. If the Athanasian Creed were ex- "and unreflecting a true view of the whole, amined with sufficient care and means of know." without causing the slightest difference in the ledge, his Grace hoped no real difference would" sense or force, at the same time that not one be found to exist between it and the interpreta-" word of the formulary itself would undergo tion which he had given of the doctrine of the "variation. If such changes were approved Church of England. He admitted, that the ex-" and admitted by the due authority, I cannot pressions in the Athanasian Creed were not suf-" but think that they would go far towards ficiently clear for the general understanding of "preventing many of the common objections the people. In answer to an inquiry what were" which are brought against this portion of our the sources from which that particular species of" liturgy. A part of this form is in the nature knowledge, which was requisite rightly to un- "of reasoning, and might, for the sake of disderstand that portion of the Athanasian Creed" tinctness, be included in a parenthesis. By which had been referred to, was derived, his" this means the single subject of belief would Grace thought, that the Creed itself, carefully" be presented fairly to the mind, unincum considered, could supply much, and that some "bered by the various distinct assertions which additional lights would supply the remainder." are employed merely to justify the one main "As to what," added his Grace, “may be sup- "position in its full extent; and which, al"plied by the Creed itself, in the first place, it" though they were at the formation of the 66 66 46 66 6 being commonly called' the Creed of St. “Athanasius; and the words here used appear" 66 is right to observe, that the true original of" Creed introduced merely to negative the "the Creed is generally acknowledged to have" various heresies of the day that went to cor “been in the Latin language, although, from" rupt the single truth contained in that one bearing the name of Athanasius, it might" position, and are altogether subsidiary to appear to have been composed in Greek. It" that one, are yet fastened upon as so many 'is in the next place to be noted, that in the" distinct and unconnected subjects of credence, "rubric which precedes it, it is described as "by the mind of the common and unreflecting hearer to whom they are addressed; and as they necessarily, from the nature of the great justly applicable on two grounds. Athana-" subject to which they relate, must deal in "sius is well known not to have been the abstract, and apparently mysterious terms, "author of it, although it is admitted that it" although, in truth, they neither purport to " contains his doctrines; and again, in strict-unfold the nature of the Deity, or of any one ness as to form, it cannot properly be called a "of his attributes, or to present any explana"Creed at all. In form, it differs altogether" tion of that inconceivable union which is "from the Apostles' Creed, and from the "affirmed to subsist between the Persons of the "Nicene Creed, the whole of each of which is "Godhead, but merely assert and repeat, in to be affirmed by the individual as matter of different forms, the one single truth of the “his belief, and consequently, each is strictly Trinity conjoined with Unity; yet, from the "to be denominated a Creed. But this formu-" congeries of apparently mysterious and mys. lary is rather to be viewed as an expositio" tical matter, which they seem to present, "fidei, maintained and announced by the" overpower and confuse the plain and unlet"church; and it should be remembered, that "tered hearer, and withdraw from his observa“it is maintained by the Church of England,“ tion the main position to which his attention "in common with the Church of Rome and should be primarily fixed. The expedient "other churches. At the same time, it is an "which I have suggested would, I apprehend, exposition, certainly, which contains within secure even to the eye of the unreflecting a "it the matter of a Creed, of the Catholic Creed," corrective of that confusion, and supply the "though not, properly speaking, a Creed itself;" want of that more distinct perception, which “ and therefore it is, that the rubric does not "to an informed mind is sufficient, without "denominate it a Creed, but entitles it, The" the use of such expedient, to present the Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly" same result. Your Lordships will see, that 66 46 #6 in what I have said upon this head, I am "these clauses, independently of every other "looking chiefly to the unlettered and unre- "consideration, that such persons as have had "flecting multitudes that fill our churches, and "no means of knowing what the Christian 40 to whom some visible landmark is necessary "faith is are not included under the condem"to enable them to steer the proper course. "nation which these denounce. The clauses, "In those of higher education and reflection," as they stand in the original, are as follow:"such aids must be superfluous, were they to "Quicunque vult salvus esse, ante omnia "give their attention to the subject. The por- opus est ut teneat Catholicam fidem. Quam "tion that I would include within the dis-" nisi quis integram inviolatamque servaverit, "tinctive marks I have mentioned, begins at "absque dubio in æternum peribit. "the fifth clause with the word For,' and "concludes with the twenty-seventh clause," Trinitate sentiat. 46 66 6 Qui vult ergo salvus esse, ita de "so that in all things as is aforesaid, the "Sed necessarium est ad æternam salutem, Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity," ut incarnationem quoque Domini nostri Jesu "is to be worshipped.' That which had been" Christi fideliter credat. "at first laid down as the proposition to be ❝ Hæc est fides Catholica, quam nisi "affirmed, being here arrived at as the final" quis fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse "result, after clearing it from the confusion "non poterit." "attempted to be cast upon it by the early "I apprehend that it will appear by the com"heretical opposers of this great article of the "parison of these, as given in the original, and as "Christian faith. Critical exactness as to the "given in the translation in our Common Prayer "distribution is not pretended to in this" Book, that considerable light is thrown upon "arrangement; but the distinction is sufficient" the latter by the forms of expression employed "for practice, for which alone the whole is in the former. But it is not necessary to enter "designed. The portion of the formulary" into any nice distinction of this sort, to be that is employed in unfolding, in opposition" satisfied of the truth of the position that has to existing heresies, what is the right faith" been just now stated, that the Athanasian "on the subject of the incarnation, and which" Creed does not extend its condemning clauses ends with the thirty-seventh clause, is also" to those who have had no opportunity of "of a character which admits the propriety of being acquainted with its doctrines. The designating it as belonging to one single "very first sentence of the Creed, as it stands "head; but this designation is not equally" in the common translation, seems sufficient 66 necessary for the purpose of clearness, and," to mark that such persons are not included "therefore, a visibly distinctive character is" within its view. The common and popular use "not here equally requisite as before. If, then," of the word 'hold,' as applied to an opinion, con"the formulary, omitting for the present the founding it with the general sense of 'having' consideration of the condemning clauses, be" an opinion, is that alone which has created any "distributed under the special heads of belief" apparent difficulty upon this subject. But it is "which it propounds, it will be found that it clear that a person cannot 'hold' that which ་་ amounts to a declaration, that the doctrines" is not given him to hold; and, therefore, "of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Re-" even in the English, if well considered, it would "demption, the Resurrection, and the final" imply that there must be a proffer of this "Judgment, are doctrines that are here pro-Creed, and of course of the authorities in "nounced to compose the substance of the true "support of it, to the individual, in order to "Catholic faith; and it moreover, with respect" render him liable to its penalties. In like 46 to the first two of these, presents, by the ex- "manner, all the succeeding denunciatory pas❝clusion of the several errors which it had sages imply a possession given, and lay the "been attempted to fasten upon them, the stress upon the faithful preservation of that necessary guards for the preservation of those" which has been intrusted, upon the honesty "doctrines in their Catholic purity. If these" of heart with which it is retained. This is *several doctrines, then, be admitted to be" still more strongly conveyed in the ex"essential to the scheme of Christian belief, it" pressions of the original. The words 'teneat,' "would seem that the condemning clauses, "integram inviolatamque servaverit,' ' fide"which constitute the remaining part of the" liter credat,'' fideliter firmiterque crediderit,' "formulary, have a just foundation in Scrip- all seem to imply a steady perseverance in a "ture; since they will, in that case, present, faith communicated, and therefore rather de"only in another form, that truth which stands "nounce a penalty against those who draw upon the authority of our Saviour's own de- " back from a faith in which they were in"claration, that he that believeth not cannot "structed, or who knowingly corrupt that "be saved. The clauses of the formulary," faith, or hold it lightly and unprofitably, "however, which relate to this subject, and than against those who either have not known "to which your Lordships' question principally" it, or those who, although it has been made "applies, demand further explanation. In the known to them, and offered for their accept. "first place, I think it is quite clear, upon an ance, have, after the most conscientious, and "attentive examination of the language of honest, and faithful examination of the Scrip 66 |