History of the Irish (Presbyterian) Church from the Reformation to the Great Revival of 1625 (4)

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

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CHAPTER VI. … continued

A better era dawned upon the Protestant Church of Ireland when James I. ascended the throne, April 5, 1603. His claims were recognized by all parties, and the country enjoyed great tranquillity. The victories in the former reign had prepared the way for the adoption of a more peaceful, humane and civilizing policy, which the king’s love of peace and his attachment to religion disposed him to take advantage of and improve to the utmost. He accordingly adopted the wisest and most conciliatory measures toward the natives. He proclaimed a general pardon to all who had been concerned in the late rebellions, and admitted the natives for the first time to the privileges of subjects. The estates of the nobility, held on precarious titles, were now secured to them by the formalities of law. Courts were renewed in the southern provinces and established for the first time in the north, and the administration of justice secured to all classes.

These prudent measures to promote civil order met the general approval of the people. The only exceptions were some of the northern nobles, who, instigated by the Romish clergy, entered into conspiracies against the king; and being subdued, their lands were forfeited to the Crown. The most of this territory James resolved to plant with English and Scottish colonies. In this way the lands would be rendered more valuable by skillful cultivation, peace and prosperity would be promoted and the Reformed faith more speedily disseminated. The province of Ulster, where this scheme of colonization was first tried, had been reduced to a truly wretched condition. It had been the chief seat of the rebellions, and the inhabitants were rendered destitute and the country desolate by the ravages of war. Except a few fortified cities, its towns and villages had been leveled to the ground; scarcely a building remained in the country except the native huts, which were too poor to be plundered; and the remnant of the inhabitants suffered the horrors of both pestilence and famine. The grain and the cattle, in which the wealth of the people consisted, had been destroyed by the rebels, so that the few remaining proprietors were without even the means to cultivate their lands. And the moral and religious state of the province was still worse. In some parts religious worship had entirely disappeared, and in most others, in consequence of the indolence or the vices of the clergy, or the ruinous condition of the church-edifices, “divine service had not for years together been used in any parish church, except in some city or principal towns.”

In 1610 the colonization scheme began to be generally carried into effect, especially in Ulster. Sir Arthur Chichester, lord-deputy of the kingdom, on whom the king had conferred a large estate, was the chief agent. His first act was to have a careful survey made of the forfeited lands, and then to draw up a plan for their settlement. They were allotted to three classes, under certain and fixed regulations of occupancy. First were voluntary emigrants from England and Scotland, then servants of the Crown, consisting of civil and military officers, and finally natives, whom it was hoped this liberality would make orderly and loyal subjects. The colonists were bound to erect substantial dwellings, to clear the lands and cultivate them; and to do this they were obliged to procure and induce to settle on their estates a number of families proportional to the extent of their possessions. Especial care was taken by the king for the support of the Church. He restored to the sees all their ecclesiastical possessions, parochial churches were repaired, glebes allotted to ministers, and a free school was endowed in the principal town of each diocese.

Owing to the nearness of Scotland to Ulster, as well as to the enterprise of the Scotch, the larger part of the colonists came from that kingdom. At first they occupied the northern part of the province, but subsequently spread themselves over the remoter districts. The southern and western parts were settled chiefly by emigrants from England. Londoners gave its name to Londonderry. Other cities bore titles indicating the preponderance of the Scotch element. By means of this scheme the almost deserted cities were again peopled with inhabitants; towns were built and manufactures and trade revived; the lands were cleared of woods and brought under cultivation; farmhouses and homesteads took the place of robbers’ castles, wattled huts and ruined cabins; and everywhere the industry and the peaceable character of the new occupants were apparent. Religion in a good degree also flourished. The sees were filled with Protestant prelates, and a convocation of the clergy was summoned in 1615. Its principal work was to draw up a Confession of Faith for the Irish Church. It was at first proposed to adopt the Thirty-nine Articles of the sister-Church of England, but the majority decided to have a new confession of their own. Dr. James Usher, already distinguished for his theological learning, and as professor of divinity in the College of Dublin, was entrusted with this duty. This he discharged to the entire satisfaction of all the parties concerned, and the Confession was ratified by the king in council, and also by his deputy in Dublin.

The difference in the religious sentiments of England and Ireland appears very clearly in this important document. In the former a rigid conformity was enforced, the hierarchy refusing to consult the scruples of the Puritans. Instead of seeking by some comprehensive plan to retain within the Church the learning and piety of the nonconforming clergy, new tests were devised to detect them and to punish them or compel their removal from the kingdom. But in Ireland a different and a wiser policy was pursued. Many of the exiled clergymen of Scotland, who had accompanied their countrymen to Ulster, had been promoted to high offices in the Church and were universally esteemed, and the confession of faith now adopted indicated the presence and influence of the Scotch and nonconformist element in the Irish Church. It was an honest and praiseworthy effort to compromise the differences between the High Church clergy and the nonconformists.

Calvinistic in doctrine, it retained, almost word for word, the Nine Articles of Lambeth, which the English Puritans vainly sought to have adopted at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604. It asserts strongly the morality of the Sabbath and clearly implies the validity of ordination by presbyters, while many other tenets cherished by the Puritan party in the Church are set forth in the Confession. It is remarkable also in that it claims no authority for framing or enforcing ecclesiastical canons or decreeing rites and ceremonies, and makes no allusion to the mode of consecrating the higher orders of the clergy. Nor was this an unintentional omission. It was designed to sink out of sight that distinction between bishops and presbyters which was so much opposed by nonconformists. To prevent future trouble, the convocation decreed that there should be no public teaching of any doctrine contrary to the articles thus solemnly agreed upon. Such was the comprehensive foundation upon which the Irish Church was settled. Its terms of communion were limited only in respect of doctrine. It embraced all faithful ministers of the gospel, neither compelling them to submit to objectionable ceremonies nor unchurching them for conscientious scruples respecting the government or methods of worship in the Church. This spirit of mutual forbearance showed an honest desire to have devoted ministers settle and exercise their office among the people, however they might differ on minor questions of ecclesiastical discipline.

Nor was it long before this liberal plan bore abundant and precious fruit. Many ministers speedily removed to Ireland, and especially to Ulster, induced by the security they were promised and by the great need of their services.

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