DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES.

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PTOLOMY'S MAP OF IRELAND to face Page 3 of the APPENDIX.

ROUND TOWERS IN IRELAND to fuce Page 38 of the APPENDIX.

ANTIQUE MEDALS to face Page 113 of the APPENdix.

ON THE ORIGIN

OF THE

Primitive British and Irish Churches.

INTRODUCTION.

THE several primitive Churches planted by the Apostles, throughout the world, were originally independent of each other, and governed by their own respective Ecclesiastical Constitutions. This was the natural and necessary result of the equality that subsisted between the Apostles themselves; none of whom had any jurisdiction over the rest. Hence, the Apostles of the circumcision, or of the Jews, and the Apostles of the uncircumcision, or of the Gentiles, had all their separate provinces or districts, within the sphere of which they preached, without "building upon another's foundation," or encroaching upon the Churches founded by others. Gal. ii. 7; Rom. xi. 13; xv. 20. And accordingly, we learn from Scripture and Ecclesiastical History, that Peter preached to the Jews of the Dispersion in Pontus, &c.; Matthew, in Palestine; Theudas, or Jude, in Persia; Thomas, in India; Paul, in Asia Minor, Greece, and Roine, &c. &c.

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And the four first and purest of the General Councils of Nice, A. D. 325; of Constantinople, A. D. 381; of Ephesus, A. D. 431; and of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, recognized, and confirmed this equality and independence of the Original Churches; only allowing to the Church of Rome, as the ancient Imperial City, a precedence of rank, as prima inter pares, "first among equals," but not of jurisdiction.

But the Church of Rome was naturally highminded, or aspiring, from the very beginning; Rom. xi. 20, and soon began to encroach on the rights and liberties of the Sister-Churches, and to domineer over their Prelates. Hence, in the first Controversy of importance, A. D. 255, about Re-baptizing Heretics after their Conversion to the Faith; for the propriety of which, the Asiatic and African Bishops contended, in opposition to Stephen, Bishop of Rome; after he had branded Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, with the epithet of "False Christ," False Prophet, and Deceitful Worker, &c. Cyprian replied in the following truly Christian strain, accompanying the protest of a Synod of 87 African Bishops against Stephen's arbitrary proceedings *.

Hæc ad conscientiam tuam, Frater charissime, et pro honore communi, et pro simplici delectione pertulimus; credentes etiam tibi, pro religionis tuæ et fidei veritate, placere quæ et religiosa pariter et vera sunt Cæterùm, scimus quosdam, quod semel imbiberint nolle deponere, nec propo

"These considerations, Dearest Brother, we offer to your conscience, both from public respect and private affection: believing (such we presume is the truth of your Religion and Faith) that what is equally religious and true, is also pleasing to you. But some there are, we know, who are not easily brought to relinquish what they have once imbibed, or change their purpose; but (saving the bond of peace and concord, between colleagues) still retain some peculiarities which they have once adopted. In which matter, neither do we offer violence to any one, nor impose law; since every Prelate should have the use of his own free will in the administration of the Church; being accountable for his conduct [only] to THE LORD."

Such mild expostulations, however, had but little weight with the turbulent Stephen, and his Successors. They watched all opportunities of aggrandisement; and under a succession of artful and enterprizing Pontiffs, acting by a refined and systematic, and undeviating course of policy, the See of Rome, from small beginnings,

situm suum facilè mutare, sed (salvo inter collegas pacis et concordia vinculo) quædam propria quæ apud se semel sint usurpata, retinere. Quâ in re, nec nos vim cuiquam facimus, aut legem damus; quando habeat in Ecclesiæ admi. nistratione, voluntatis suæ liberum arbitrium unusquisque præpositus, rationem actûs sui DOMINO redditurus.

Vid. Cyprian Epist. 72. Edit. Rigalt, Paris.

realized Daniel's "little horn," which sprouted in the last stage of the Roman empire, "with eyes like a man," in the character of a Seer, Overseer or Bishop; and a mouth speaking great things, fulminations or blasphemies,"-" whose look was more stout than his fellows," the other bishops, Dan. vii. 8, 20, at length attained to a pitch of political supremacy, both ecclesiastical and temporal, conferred by the old Dragon; at which, "all the world wondered," Rev. xiii. 2, 3.

And such was her overweening pride and arrogance, that at length, that last and most degenerate of the general Councils, the Council of Trent, after five-and-twenty Sessions, beginuing A.D. 1549, and ending A. D. 1563, and acting, all along, under the Pope's controul and direc. tion, finally established the modern Church of Rome, upon its present basis; and sanctioned a confession of Faith, by Pope Pius IV. drawn-up chiefly for the use of the Clergy, but extended to the Laity, also, requiring "the Roman Church to be acknowledged, as THE HOLY, CATHOLIC, and Apostolic CHURCH; the Mother and Mistress of all Churches:" and the Roman Pontiff to be obeyed as the successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles; and the Vicar of JESUS CHRIST "."

*Sanctam, Catholicam, et Apostolicam, Romanam Ecclesiam, omnium Ecclesiarum Matrem et Magistram, cognosco; Romanóque Pontifici, B. Petri, Apostolorum principis, successori, et Jesu Christi vicario, veram obedientiam spondeo et Juro.