John Cumin, first English archbishop of Dublin - En- glishmen promoted to Irish dignities - Synod of THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. THERE is a period in all histories when conjecture must supply the place of authentic fact. This is in an especial manner the case in the earlier history of Christian Churches, when the only persons to record the passing events were themselves engaged in more pressing avocations. Such men could have little leisure to commit to writing the success or failure of their missionary exertions. They were content to sow the seed that was afterwards to spring up and bear a rich harvest; not solicitous about their own fame, or anxious for the praise of men. In many cases, also, no apparent success could crown their labours during their own lifetime. So difficult is it to prepare the neglected soil for the reception of true religion to make "the crooked straight and the rough places plain"—that although the seed has taken root, its growth and progress may B be too slow and feeble even to cheer on with hope those who are engaged in the task. Thus they would have little to narrate, except their own fears and fruitless exertions, the opposition they had met with, and the persecutions they had endured. But such events a strong religious principle would not permit them to record; they therefore laboured in silence, yet in faith, expecting to reap the fruits of their toil in a future world. Whether it be from want of authentic information, or from the existence of a general tradition, it is impossible to say; but it is certain, that most of the ancient European Churches have wished to connect their plantation with the personal preaching of the Apostles, or their immediate followers. Thus, St. Paul is said, with much probability, to have visited Britain, and some have gone so far as to hint that he extended his visit to Ireland; others have wildly asserted, that Christianity was introduced into Ireland by St. James the Great; while a third, and more numerous party, tell us of Asiatic missionaries, perhaps, they say, some of those who accompanied Pothinus and St. Irenæus into Gaul in the second century. All these conjectures are insufficiently proved; and, if we are to be guided by mere considerations of comparative probability, England rather than any other country must be looked to, for the first missionaries to the Irish coasts. The period of their arrival is very likely to have been the early part of the fourth century, when British Christians may have sought refuge in Ireland from the fury of the Diocletian persecution, then raging throughout all the provinces of the Roman empire; for, as Ireland was beyond the boundary of the emperor's dominions, it was almost the only place that could afford an asylum to the Christians, until the return of peace and security. Christianity was for a long time confined to the southern portion of the island; but even here its progress was slow. A few families and solitary hermits constituted the infant Church. A strong and apparently well-founded tradition asserts, that among these there were four bishops, — Kiaran, Declan, Ailbe, and Ibar. Kiaran has received the honorary title of "First-born of the Saints of Ireland," and is commonly regarded as the first bishop of Ossory. Declan lived at Ardmore, in the county of Waterford, where a succession of bishops was kept up for some time after his death. Ailbe is reported to have been the first bishop of Emly; and Ibar passed a very strict life in the island of Beg-erin (or Little Erin),' where the ruins of his small cell, or monastery, are still to be seen. It would be wrong, because these bishops are some of them considered the founders of sees, to suppose that they had any fixed sphere of duty. They were rather plain and zealous ascetics, who endeavoured to live by some strict rule of piety. No doubt they did what they could towards the conversion of their 1 Situated near the town of Wexford. |