History of the Irish Church from James II. to Emigration of Presbyterians to America, 1725 (3)

From Scotch and Irish Seeds in American Soil by Rev. J. G. Craighead

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CHAPTER VIII. … continued

When King William arrived in Ireland, he received from the commander of his army very favorable accounts of the loyalty of Presbyterians and the support they had given his cause. Their continued fidelity, and their subsequent distinguished services in his behalf, but served to deepen His Majesty’s impressions and incline him to return a gracious response to a petition of their clergy for protection and relief. Recognizing their influence both as to numbers and worth, the king proceeded to redress their grievances and vindicate their rights by establishing civil and religious freedom, which was all that was needed from the government to restore prosperity to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

During the commotions caused by the war between the rival claimants for the throne, the Presbyterians of Ulster suffered terrible privations and losses. Their clergy were especially obnoxious to the troops of James and his adherents, and were forced to leave the country. Public religious worship as a consequence was very generally suspended. Many of their churches were either pulled down or burned, and their people scattered and impoverished by the interruption of all methods of industry. But the few who remained under the protection of King William labored with great zeal to repair the evils which former persecutions and the war had inflicted upon the Church. Notwithstanding the many difficulties they encountered from the scarcity of ministers and the poverty of the people, Presbyterians not only held their own in Ulster, but increased in numbers.

Though their clergy had been prohibited during previous reigns from the public exercise of their ministry, except at brief intervals when the severity of the penal statutes was relaxed, the ordinances were secretly administered by them, and their people were gathered in private houses and instructed in the word of God, so that the great body of them adhered steadfastly to their principles. In 1692, as we learn from the best authority, the Presbyterians constituted by far the largest portion of the Protestants in the north of Ireland. “Some parishes,” says a dignitary of the Episcopal Church, “have not ten, some not six, that come to church, while the Presbyterian meetings are crowded with thousands, covering all the fields.” In some regions, he admits, the Episcopal population did not bear a greater proportion to the Presbyterian than one to fifty. The sixty congregations of 1661 had increased to one hundred, of which three-fourths had settled pastors.

With the close of the war presbyteries and synods were again held, ministers ordained, houses of worship erected and congregations gathered. Ministers and their people returned from their enforced exile, and the Presbyterian Church once more entered upon a period of peace and prosperity. Nor were the loyalty and friendship which the Presbyterians had exhibited in behalf of King William forgotten by that monarch. Moved by their necessities, and by a wish to express his appreciation of the services rendered by their clergy in the maintenance of constitutional freedom, he authorized the payment to them yearly of twelve hundred pounds. This royal grant, known as the REGIUM DONUM, was designed as a testimony, so says His Majesty, to “the peaceable and dutiful temper of our said subjects, and their constant labor to unite the hearts of others in zeal and loyalty toward us,” and because we are “sensible of the losses they have sustained.”

The extent of these losses, and of the ravages occasioned by the war, may be inferred from the fact that nearly or quite fifty of the Presbyterian ministers of Ireland fled to Scotland, whither they were followed by a large number of their people. So great was the number of Ulster Presbyterians in Glasgow that the meeting-houses sanctioned by law for the use of indulged ministers were inadequate for their accommodation. As a number of the Episcopal churches were unoccupied, and had been closed for months, an application was made to the convention-parliament at Edinburgh to permit these Irish exiles with their ministers to occupy some of these deserted churches. This request was at once granted, and two churches were appropriated to their use, and Rev. Messrs. Craighead and Kennedy were appointed to officiate statedly therein. This they continued to do until their return to Ireland to their own parishes, and with such acceptance that they were earnestly entreated by their brethren in Glasgow to protract their stay in Scotland as long as possible. In a letter to the Irish ministers they say, “We cordially bless the Lord for the help and comfort that we have gotten by their ministry hitherto, and continue to supplicate that if you find it necessary to send any of your number to Ireland, you may spare these two reverend brethren for the present to carry on the great work which is now begun by them.” A still more important circumstance was that this large influx of Irish Presbyterians gave occasion to the Scottish estates to take the first practical step toward abolishing the prelatical establishment and setting up the Presbyterian Church in its place. This action probably had a direct and decided influence in inducing many of the Irish ministers to remain in Scotland; for, from the many applications made by congregations to the synod at Belfast for a return of their former ministers, it appears that twenty-five of them settled in Scottish parishes and remained permanently connected with the Church of Scotland.

Presbyterian ministers were left for a period comparatively free to reorganize and build up their Church in Ireland. The laws against dissenters, it is true, were still in force; but owing to the known wishes of the king in favor of toleration, and the impressive lessons of the war enforcing the importance of Protestant unity, the penal statutes were not enforced. The conduct of King James had convinced the Episcopalians of the necessity of forgetting all ecclesiastical differences, and uniting with their Presbyterian brethren for the protection of themselves and their common faith. But scarcely had the impending danger passed by when symptoms of a renewal of the former unfriendly feelings were displayed by the High Church party. Instances of prelatical intolerance again occurred, and the dormant penalties of the law were revived in a few places against Presbyterian clergymen. Such bigotry, however, met with little sympathy. Besides, the Irish government, in accordance with the promises of William to the Presbyterians, protected them in the free exercise of their worship and discipline.

Still, while the laws against dissenters remained unrepealed, there was danger of their revival at any time when it became the interest and policy of the prelates to use the power left in their hands. To relieve Nonconformists from this danger, King William obtained from the English Parliament the abolition of the Irish oath of supremacy, which had been in force since the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth, and had substituted in its place the English oaths of fidelity and allegiance. These the Nonconformists did not object to; and as no sacramental test was in force in Ireland, this English act would have opened all public employments, civil and military, to the Presbyterians. But the liberal policy of the king was opposed by the Irish Parliament, which, after an interval of twenty-six years, met in Dublin. To it was submitted a bill for toleration similar to the one in favor of dissenters in England, but through the paramount influence of the bishops it was defeated, they refusing to give their consent to the legalizing of the public worship of Presbyterians unless the sacramental test was at the same time imposed. To this the king would not assent, and, consequently, Presbyterian worship was continued merely upon sufferance. These magnanimous prelates, moreover, wished to impose additional burdens upon those who had freely shed their blood for their common faith, and without whose assistance the Protestant religion would have been overthrown in Ireland. Among other things, these bigots demanded that all Presbyterians holding office should be required to partake of the communion three times each year in an Episcopal church, and that none of their clergymen should preach against the Established Church, under very severe penalties.

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