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"St. Patrick, when he left the pleasant and celebrated abode near Lech lafar, to go to Ireland, parted from him (St. David) with many a bitter tear." According to this account St. Patrick went thither immediately from St. David's.

These poems, and others of the kind, handed down to posterity, and the knowledge of their history, could not fail to make them rejoice at a separation from Rome. It was to them to be, as they had been, so far. It is also true that the family of Tudor being on the throne of England, the Welsh were naturally more disposed to agree with the changes they introduced; and it may not be going too far to imagine, that as Henry VIII. could scarcely be ignorant that his ancestors had refused to acknowledge the Pope's supremacy, he might have had the less, if any scruple, in following their example.

But there was also much pious care taken to give the Welsh a knowledge of the Scriptures, and much liberality in the doing of it. The Scriptures were very soon translated into Welsh. An † individual, whose name deserves to be recorded, published, A.D. 1630, a small edition, at his own expense, for the use of those who could not afford to purchase the larger edition. The clergy did their duty with much and continued zeal and care. They studied the language, they preached, they prayed in it diligently, they published religious books in it from time to time, they

* Lech lafar was in the cœmetery of St. David's. See Giraldus Camb.

Sir Thomas Middleton, of Chirk-Castle.

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were assiduous in spiritual attentions to their flock, and the success was proportional.

With respect to Ireland, the disturbed state of the kingdom permitted Elizabeth to do but little, and her successor James inherited nothing of her capacity as a Sovereign. The mantle fell upon his shoulders, but the grand and penetrating spirit, which it had before invested, fell not with it. Else, when, by the recession of the Jesuit Fitzsimmons, this champion of the Romish cause had fairly given it up to the cogency of the arguments of the amazingly learned Usher (afterwards Archbishop, but then a beardless youth), had the proper care been taken, the Reformation, and the work of conversion since, might have been equally as successful in Ireland as it was in Wales, and it be, as it had been, free from the ingraftings and the control of the church of Rome.

Alas! for Ireland!

Deprived of its pristine honours of Christianity pure in its origin and succession, and a church independent of foreign control, the records of its excellence destroyed, its faith corrupted, its revenues made tributary to a foreign Bishop, and, in the election of its venerable pastors, its own Bishops compelled to exchange the suffrages of their brethren at home for the mandate of a distant despot; and for what?— Even now, after six centuries of a submission, which, had it been well founded, would have been respectable for its fidelity, one of the warmest advocates for an extension of privileges to those who promote and strive to perpetuate its subjugation, pitying the state of his countrymen of that persuasion, exclaims, in the

fervour of his eloquence, "Make them Christians." But how is the Romish religion to do this? Will it give them the use of that Bible which is the history, the evidence, and the law of Christianity? Will it free their minds from superstitious observances, and an ignorant devotion? Will it teach, as a duty, that philanthropy which holds persecution for religious differences in abhorrence, and encourage that cultivation of the understanding which gives to man the best use of the distinguishing faculties that raise him above the brute. These things it dares not to do, because it cannot without risking its own destruction, and it therefore has done none of them as to the lower orders; and if the higher have information, it is because, in general, it could 'not be withheld, where the very intercourse of common life necessarily diffuses it. Some portion of illumination it could not avoid receiving, where the overpowering gloom of Papal superstition had been so much dispersed; but still, among the lower orders, where is the improvement? Are they less bigotted, less superstitious, less ignorant? or are they more moral, more industrious, or more intelligent, than they were centuries ago, in Ireland, in Italy, or in Spain? The very acknowledgments of the Hon. Author give no encouragement to think they are.

Perhaps that may here be repeated in reply, which has of late been rather unhappily insisted upon, viz. that "to the Roman Catholic religion every nation in Europe owes its laws, constitu

* Letter to a Member of Parliament, p. 22.

tion, arts, sciences, Christianity, and civilization." In this assertion the Greek church, at least, seems to have been overlooked, and the original Christian churches of Britain and Ireland to be considered as derived from a church of Rome, whose doctrines were the same with those which are now professed under the name of Roman Catholic. This most certainly was not the case. How far the Saxons were humanized by the preaching of Austin, the massacre of above a thousand monks at Bangor may stand as a tolerable criterion. But as the assertion extends so widely, the proper answer will be a statement of facts, as to the several particulars. First, then, as to the laws. Those of Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, no inconsiderable part of Europe, should be excluded from the assertion, as the influence of the church of Rome never extended so as to affect the laws of Russia, and probably not much, if at all, to affect those of Denmark or Sweden. And as to the laws of the rest of Europe, it certainly did zealously endeavour to introduce the code of Justinian into every legislation, because it had been the law of Rome, and the adoption of it would keep alive a general respect for Rome: yet even of this code the greater part was not of Roman Catholic, but of Pagan institution. But there was also another motive for the introduction of the civil law it was the law of despotism and arbitrary Government. Its very leading principles are, * the will of the Sovereign

* Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem.-Imperator solus et conditor et interpres legis existimatur.-Sacrilegii instar est rescripto Principis obviare.

is law: the Sovereign alone is the maker and the interpreter of the law: it is next to sacrilege to oppose the decision of the Sovereign :-principles which the Popes found the means of adapting no less to spiritual than to temporal power. For the extent of this law, and these principles, a great part of Europe is certainly indebted to the Roman-Catholic religion. England, however, was somewhat refractory on the occasion. It was attached to the laws derived from times of Paganism; and opposed the Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari to the strongest temptations that were offered to induce it to adopt the civil code in its temporal courts. As to the ecclesiastics, they very dutifully obeyed their supreme head; withdrew themselves from the temporal courts; and, in courts of their own, adhered to the civil law; but, whether with advantage to the public, may be questioned.

As to the common law of England, its principles were established antecedent to the introduction of Christianity, and it owes nothing to Rome but the endeavour to subvert it.

The statute law, to the end of the reign of Henry VIII, was indeed enacted by those who professed the Romish religion, as to their faith; but they had in Wales an example of resistance to the court of Rome, which probably was not without its effect. At least, they distinguished, in the most pointed manner, be tween the faith and the court of Rome. The statutes of mortmain, provisors, and premunire, will forcibly demonstrate how fatal to the interests of Britain was the tendency of its connexion with Rome, and that the most wholesome laws by statute could owe no

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