ON THE ORIGIN AND PURITY OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH OF THE British Isles, AND ITS INDEPENDENCE UPON THE CHURCH OF ROME. BY THE REV. WILLIAM HALES, D.D. Printed by R. WILKS, 89, Chancery Lane; AND SOLD BY F. C. & J. RIVINGTON, BOOKSELLERS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1 1819. ΤΟ FRANCIS MASERES, Esq. CURSITOR BARON OF THE EXCHEQUER, LEARNED HIMSELF, AND A PATRON OF LITERATURE; This Essay, WRITTEN ON HIS RECOMMENDATION, AND PUBLISHED AT HIS EXPENSE, IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED, BY HIS OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, WILLIAM HALES. PREFACE. THE following is a sketch of the plan of this Publication. In the INTRODUCTION, is detailed circumstantially that artful and refined system of policy, by adhering to which, under a succession of able, ambitious, and persevering Pontiffs, the Church of Rome was at length enabled to domineer over her Sister Churches in the west of Europe, and to establish her usurped supremacy over them for many ages, till the blessed Reformation, which emancipated the Protestant Churches from her despotic dominion. In the ESSAY itself, the primitive Churches of the British Isles are considered as composing the integral parts of one National Church; and that Church a venerable branch of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic a b |