478 ST. PATRICK NOT AN ARCHBISHOP OR PRELATE. [BOOK III.

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The Romish mission and character of St. Patrick being thus disposed of, we can have little difficulty in setting aside his alleged archbishopric. This is affirmed in the canons edited among his works. But Mr. Moore himself allows, that it was not till the beginning of the eighth century, that the title of archbishop was known in Ireland.' This title originated with the establishment of christianity by Constantine. At the Ephesine council in 431, Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, and Celestine, bishop of Rome, were publicly honored with this style. Before Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, enjoyed this title in 673, it was unknown in Britain; and Mabillon is confident, that few claimed or assumed it before the ninth century. Neither was St. Patrick a prelate. If,' asks Dr. Ledwich, St. Patrick received his mission from pope Celestine, his orders in the church of Rome were graced with the archiepiscopal dignity, formed an hierarchy and established rites and ceremonies from Roman originals, as all his biographers boast, can the utmost stretch of human ingenuity assign a reason, why Cogitosus, Adamnan, Cumian, and Bede, have passed over these interesting particulars unnoticed?' And that these circumstances afforded strong presumptive proof against the prelatic character of the saint, is admitted by his warm and zealous defender, Mr. Stuart. Now,' adds he, 'whatever negative argument against the episcopal dignity of St. Patrick may be deduced from the silence of Adamnan, Cumian, and Bede, on that subject,' it does not, he thinks, disprove his actual existence. So that, even on prelatical evidence and decision, St. Patrick was not a prelate.

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It is, therefore, very important to consider the form of ecclesiastical polity introduced by Patrick, or Patricius. He was, indeed, a bishop, and he appointed also many other bishops. This we do not deny. The mere fact of a primitive episcopacy, we never questioned. And that, very early, presiding presbyters were regularly appointed, to whom the name of bishop came to be more exclusively applied, this we also grant. But all this might be, and yet presbyterianism - which maintains the essential equality of ministers as to order exist. All this might be, and yet prelacy, which maintains the essential distinction of the three orders of ministers, be unknown. What, then, is it possible for us to know, were the sentiments of St. Patrick on this subject?

p. 33.

1) P. 224, in Dr. Mason's Pr. Ch.

2) Dr. Ledwich, p. 65.

3) In Stuart's Hist. of Armagh. Intr. p. xviii. 4) Ibid.

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It

'St. Patrick,' says Mr. Stuart, seems to have exercised a kind of patriarchal power in this infant church. He is stated to have ordained three hundred and sixty-five bishops, and three thousand presbyters, and to have founded three hundred and sixty-five churches. It is manifest, that such a multitude of prelates could not have been of the nature of diocesan bishops; and it is probable that one of these dignified ecclesiastics was allotted by him TO EACH CHURCH. is, indeed, by no means unlikely, that they officiated in their respective churches, at stated times, and occasionally acted as itinerant preachers, diffusing the light of the gospel from district to district, like their great preceptor, Patrick. A populous nation, from which heathenism was not yet effectually banished, required active and intelligent missionaries of this nature. Besides these, the church of Ireland seems to have acknowledged a species of auxiliary bishop, denominated Comorban, Combarbo, or Cobhanus. Some etymologists assert, that this name was synonymous with 'partner' or 'joint tenant;' and that he who possessed the office acted during the life of the principal ecclesiastic, to whom he was attached as his suffragan and assistant bishop. The bishops of Armagh had various comorbans, many of whose names are recorded in Ware's and in Colgan's elaborate works. It is probable, that many of the three hundred and sixty-five bishops ordained originally by St. Patrick, were of the order of comorbans, &c.; at once coadjutors, suffragans, and successors elect to their principals.'

Nothing could be more satisfactory than this proof of the certain presbyterianism of the churches and bishops founded by St. Patrick. For while, as Nennius reports, Patrick himself founded three hundred and sixty-five bishoprics or churches, yet afterwards the number increased, says Bernard; so that, when Malachias went into Ireland, (nearly six hundred years after Patrick,) Ann. 1150, bishops were so multiplied, that one diocese was not content with one bishop, but almost every parish church had its bishop.3 Yea, there was not only one bishop in such a little precinct, but more than one;4 not only in cities, but even in villages, as Lafranc writes to Terlagh, then king in Ireland, in villis vel civitatibus plures ordinantur.' And their revenue,' adds this learned author,

4) Usher's Disc. on the Relig. of the Anct. Irish, ch. viii.

5) Baron, ad an 1089, n. 16; Ush. Relig. of Irish, c. 8, p. 79.

'was answerable, since some of them, as Dr. Heylin tells us, had no other than the pasture of two milch beasts.'1 This last statement is confirmed by the fact, that, at the council of Nice, the three delegates from Britain were constrained, through their poverty, to accept the public allowance in lodging and food, provided by the emperor. That St. Patrick was not regarded by the ministers in Ireland as having any prelatical authority or office, is further demonstrated by this historical report, that when he came among them, 'he was told by St. Ibar, that they never acknowledged the supremacy of a foreigner.'3

ST. PATRICK, THEREFORE, WAS NOT A PAPIST, that is, A ROMAN CATHOLIC, NOR A PRELATIST, BUT A PRESBYTERIAN AND A PROTESTANT. NEITHER POPERY NOR PRELACY ARE THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. Ireland is consecrated by the genius of a true, primitive, apostolical presbyterianism. Popery in that country is only six hundred and sixty-three years old, and the despotism of a foreign usurping bishop was then first imposed upon her reluctant and down-trodden children. Alas! how fallen, how degraded, how enslaved are her noble offspring. Sons of Ireland!' to reecho the stirring words of one of her own sons, 'Awake from your fatal sleep! Awake to a sense of your spiritual rights, and liberties! The God of your primitive fathers, who guided, protected, and blessed Ireland during the first twelve centuries, calls on you, and commands you to awake from your fatal sleep! The God of your primitive christian fathers, who gave poor bleeding Ireland over, in his wrath, for her sins, into the hands of the cruel pope of Rome and Henry II, now calls on you to rouse up! Are not the long and mournful years of your captivity, of your Babylonian captivity, at last come to an end? By the memory of your dear native land-poor, bleeding Ireland! and by the memory of the pure ancient christian church of your fathers! and by the memory of the unnumbered saints who sleep in the bosom of Ireland, before popery had ever polluted her soil! By all that is solemn, and all that is awful in time, and in eternity, I beseech you, shake off the yoke of popery, and the Roman catholic despotism, which neither you, nor your fathers, could bear! If you have the blood of the primitive Irish and Culdees in your veins! If you have the zeal and patri

1) Cosmogr. p. 342.

2) Stillingfl. pp. 47-109; Lond. Prot. Jour. 1832, p. 253, in Dr. Brownlee, p. 13.

3) Lond. Prot. Journ. ibid, p. 199, in ibid, P. 22.

otism of St. Cathaldus, and Cormac, and St. Albe, and St. Dermit, and St. Ibar, and St. Patrick, in your souls; if you have a spark of ancient Irish piety, honor, and patriotism, arise in your strength; break asunder the chains of popery, priestcraft, and despotism, and dash them from you! Down with the ghostly tyranny of the Italian despot! What right has a wretched Roman priest, at Rome, to lord it over Irishmen, and over American citizens? The watchword is CHRISTIANITY AND LIBERTY FOR EVER! DOWN WITH POPERY, PRIESTCRAFT, AND TYRANNY! DOWN WITH ST. PADRAIG! BLESSED BE THE MEMORY OF ST. PATRICK FOR EVER!'

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CHAPTER II.

THE ANTIQUITY OF PRESBYTERY CONTINUED.

§ 1. The primitive churches in Scotland were presbyterian.

SCOTLAND was, at an early period, chosen as the field of missionary effort. Apart from all conjecture, and independently of mere traditionary evidence, we have reason to believe that before the second century had run its round, the religion of the Cross had gained a hold among not a few of the inhabitants of that portion of the isles of the west. Buchanan was led to the opinion that Donald I, who reigned about the beginning of the third century, first received the christian religion. Spotswood is of the same opinion, saying, 'the christian religion was first publicly received A. D. 203. He adds, 'yet was not that the first time when Christ was here made known. I verily think that under Domitian's persecutions, some of John's disciples first preached the gospel in this kingdom. . . . . Sure not long after the ascension of our Lord, at least when the apostle St. John yet lived, the faith of Christ was known and embraced in divers places of this kingdom. With this account, of a very early proclamation of the gospel in Caledonia, Buchanan concurs. The Scots,' says he, were taught christianity by the disciples of the apostle John;' and 'many christians of the Britons, fearing the cruelty of Domitian, took their journey into Scotland; of whom many, famous both in learning and integrity of life, stayed and fixed their habitation therein."3 Tertullian declares, that in his day the gospel had pierced into all parts of the world, and even as far as to Britain, and to those parts of Britain to which the Roman arms and strength had never

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....

1) Hist. of Scotland, B. iv. § 27, vol. i. p. 191.

2) Alexander Henderson's Review and Consid. p. 392.

3) Hist. of Scotland, lib. iv. and v.