the late evil days of rebuke and blasphemy, and persecution, fell upon the church; a fact which is attested by Wodrow, on the authority of bishop Hamilton himself; and it is again attested by bishop Hamilton's biographer, and also by bishop Burnet, who says he had it from bishop Leighton's own mouth1. "This consecration," says Nicol, "was acted with great solemnity, in the presence of many of the nobility and clergy of England, and many of the nobles of Scotland, being there for the time attending his majesty. This order of consecration at Westminster was done of necessity, because there was no bishop alive in Scotland, except only one, to wit, Mr. Thomas Sydeserff, bishop of Galloway. After this consecration, thir new bishops, with many peers of England and Scotland, were feasted in the new parish yard at Westminster; after which the bishops went all to the church, and heard another sermon 2." Baillie says, "their feast to all the Scots and many of the English nobility was great. There they stayed some months longer than was expected, that they might be sufficiently instructed in the English way 3." We are indebted to the pious zeal of the late Dr. Skinner, bishop of Aberdeen, for having procured from archbishop Juxon's register-book a duly attested extract of the consecration of these prelates, as follows: "In the year 1789, bishop Abernethy Drummond, bishop Strachan, and I, being at London, soliciting relief to our church from certain penal statutes, at the desire of bishop Seabury, of Connecticut, who, some years before, had been consecrated by the bishops in Scotland, we applied to the archbishop of Canterbury for an attested extract of the consecration of the Scottish bishops in 1661; and through his grace's condescending attention, received what follows: "Extract from the Register-book of archbishop Juxon, in the library of his grace the archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth Palace, folio 237. "It appears, that James Sharp was consecrated archbishop of St. Andrews; Andrew Fairfull, archbishop of Glasgow; Robert Leighton, bishop of Dunblenen, and James Hamilton, bishop of Galloway, on the 15th day of December, 1661, in St. Peter's church, Westminster, by Gilbert, bishop of London, 1 Perceval's Apology for the Doctrine of the Apostolical Succession.-Wodrow's Analecta, MS. i. 133.-Account of the Family of Broomhill, p. 56.— Burnet's Own Times, i. 251-254. 2 Nicol's Diary, 354, 355. 3 Baillie's Letters, iii. 485. commissary to the archbishop of Canterbury, and that the right reverend George, bishop of Worcester; John [it should be Richard1], bishop of Carlisle, and Hugh, bishop of Llandaff, were present and assisting. "Extracted this 3d day of June, 1789, by me, William Dickes, secretary 2." Only one of the Scottish bishops survived the presbyterian persecution; but the English apostolic company, being more numerous, and having fled to the continent, were not so much subjected to persecution: a greater number of them survived and returned with the king, nine of whom were, by the providence of God," preserved to resettle their own church and to rebuild ours 3." They had been deprived of their sees, and deposed from their episcopal functions, by an ordinance of the Long Parliament, much in the same way as the Scottish bishops had been extirpated by the Glasgow Assembly; but so invalid was this ordinance esteemed, that the survivors on the Restoration took possession of their several sees, without any new authority whatever. During the usurpation, and the consequent persecution, the deans and chapters of the several cathedrals had been deprived, and many were dead or abroad; so that the usual way of filling up the sees was utterly impracticable: upon the petition of the surviving bishops to the king, he granted his royal licence, empowering them to meet together, and make choice of fit persons, according to the canon and practice of the primitive church; and the English consecrations were performed in a canonical manner by the surviving bishops; who were, William Juxon, bishop of London, who had attended his murdered sovereign on the scaffold, and who, on that account, was immediately translated to Canterbury, which had been vacant since the martyrdom of archbishop Laud; William Pearce, bishop of Bath and Wells; Robert Skinner, bishop of Oxford, afterwards translated to Worcester; John Warner, bishop of Rochester; William Roberts, bishop of Bangor; Matthew Wren, bishop of Ely; Bryan Duppa, bishop of Salisbury, afterwards translated to Winchester; Henry King, bishop of Chichester; Accepted Frewen, bishop of 1 Vide Mr. Perceval's Apology, 2d ed. p. 207. 2 Note, on page 351, to "Primitive Truth and Order vindicated from Modern Misrepresentation; with a Defence of Episcopacy, particularly that of Scotland, against an attack made on it by the late Dr. Campbell, of Aberdeen, in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical History: and a concluding Address to the Episcopalians of Scotland. By the Right Reverend John Skinner, in Aberdeen, senior bishop of the Scotch Episcopal Church." 3 Skinner's Ecclesiastical History, ii. 455. Lichfield and Coventry, translated to the see of York', and who is said to have been the author of that excellent work, the "New Whole Duty of Man." On the 18th of October, 1660, Gilbert SHELDON, Humphrey Hinchman, GEORGE MORLEY, Robert Sanderson, and George Griffiths, were consecrated respectively for the sees of London, Salisbury, Worcester, Lincoln, and St. Asaph, by the bishops of Winchester, Lichfield and Coventry, Ely, Rochester, and Chichester. On the 18th November, of the same year, William Lucy, HUGH LLOYD, and John Gauden, were consecrated to the sees of St. David's, Landaff, and Exeter, by the bishops of London, Salisbury, Worcester, and Lincoln. On the 2d of December, of the same year, Benjamin Lany was consecrated to the see of Peterborough by the archbishop of York, and the bishops of London, Salisbury, and Worcester 2. In Ireland, the devastation of the church by the wild boar of popery, and its ally, the covenant, united, was much greater than in England. The papist and the covenanter alternately persecuted the church of Ireland. The former refused the least toleration of the established worship in those places subject to their power; and in a kindred spirit of bigotry and superstition the Ulster covenanters rejected with scorn the remonstrances of the protestant clergy, and menaced them with extirpation for the unpardonable sin of worshipping God by the liturgy. Thus, says Mr. Newland3, " the church buried beneath a heap of corruption, while the whole ecclesiastical government was dissolved; weak from the absence of protection, and from internal imbecility unable to resist the ravages of any invasion; her highest dignities in many cases inquired after as mere merchandize, in other instances possessed by hypocrites, who disbelieved the truths, or execrated the doctrines they had sworn to preach; while apathy and distrust, on the one hand, and profligacy and profaneness on the other, gave awful indication of her dissolution, the church of Ireland, as if Providence had decreed this unanimity of poverty and vice, was at last visited with the scorpion scourge and iron hand of Cromwell's resistless sway." That commander, who was raised up to be a scourge to punish three guilty nations for their sins, shewed as little mercy to the popish as to the catholic Irishmen; indeed, he retaliated on the former for their horrible massacre of the latter, by committing the greatest 1 Collier's Ecclesiastical History, viii. 407. Apology for the Established Church in Ireland, pp. 60, 61. cruelties, both on them and on the presbyterians. One of his usual sayings was, that "I am the only man who has known how to subdue that insolent sect [the presbyterians], which can suffer none but itself," but to whom he allowed as little toleration as to the churchmen and papists. Had it not been for the zeal of Ormond after the restoration, seconded by the small majority of the nobility, who were attached by old recollections, and who had felt the tender mercies of the covenant, the hierarchy and the common prayer would not have been restored in Ireland. He represented to Charles that the reformed catholic episcopacy and the liturgy were still the legal establishment of that kingdom, for they had never been set aside by any lawful parliament. He proposed, therefore, that the vacant sees and benefices should be filled up with men of worth and learning; and Charles happily followed his advice1. ACCORDINGLY, on the 27th of January, John Bramhall, archbishop of Armagh, to which see he had been translated from Derry on the 18th of the same month, consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, two archbishops and ten bishops. He was assisted by John Leslie, bishop of Raphoe, and afterwards translated to Clogher in 1661, and who had been translated by Charles the First from the bishoprick of the Isles in Scotland on the 1st June, 1633, and to which he had been consecrated in 1628; Griffith Williams, bishop of Ossory, and Robert Maxwell, bishop of Kilmore; Henry Jones, bishop of Clogher, was also present, but being the junior bishop he only held the Bible for the archbishop. The following was the order of consecration:-1. James Margetson, D.D. to the see of Dublin, and who succeeded his consecrator in the see of Armagh in 1663; 2, Samuel Pullen, D.D. to Tuam; 3, Michael Boyle, D.D. to Cork, and who was afterwards translated to Dublin in 1663, and Armagh in 1678; 4, Jeremy Taylor, D.D. to Down and Connor, to which was added, in 1662, the adjacent bishoprick of Dromore, "on account of his virtue, wisdom, and industry;" 5, Robert Price, LL.D. to Ferns and Leighlin; 6, George Wild, LL.D. to Derry; 7, Edward Synge, D.D. to Limerick, and who was translated to Cork in 1663; 8, John Parker, D.D. to Elphin, and who was advanced to the archbishopricks of Tuam in 1667, and of Dublin in 1678; 9, Henry Hall, D.D. to Killala; 10, George Baker, D.D. to Waterford; 11, Robert Leslie, D.D. to Dromore; and who was translated to Raphoe in the same year, and to Clogher in 1671; 12, Edward Worth, D.D. to Killaloe. The present 1 Cartes Ormond-Leland's Ireland, iii. 350. Irish bishops derive their orders through most of these twelve prelates, who were consecrated at this time by archbishop Bramhall, assisted by bishop Leslie, who derived his orders through the Spottiswoodian line of Scottish bishops. On the 2d of May, 1644, archbishop J. Usher, assisted by Henry Leslie, then bishop of Down and Connor, and afterwards translated to Meath on the 18th of January, 1661, and Dr. John Maxwell, formerly bishop of Ross, in Scotland, to which he was consecrated whilst Charles the First was in Scotland, at which time this excellent prelate contracted a firm friendship with Dr. Laud, then bishop of London; this bishop was also of the Scottish succession from Spottiswood, but translated to Killala and Achonry, 12th of October, 1640, and was translated to Tuam, 30th of August, 1645;-consecrated at Oxford, William Bailly, D.D. to the bishoprick of Clonfert. On the 20th of March, 1664, Michael Boyle, archbishop of Dublin, assisted by John Leslie, then bishop of Clogher, Robert Price, of Ferns, and Edward Synge, of Cork, consecrated William Fuller, LL.D. to the see of Limerick, from which see he was translated to Lincoln in 1667, and, as Mr. Perceval shews, brought the succession from Leslie to England. On the 5th of June, being Trinity Sunday, 1664, Samuel Pullen, archbishop of Tuam, assisted by the above named William Bailly, of Clonfert, and John Parker, of Elphin, consecrated Thomas Bayly, D.D. to Killala. Edward Wolley was consecrated to Clonfert on 16th April, 1665, by archbishop Pullen and bishops Parker and Thomas Bayly, who, with those above named, afterwards assisted at several consecrations of Irish prelates, and the orders of the present Irish bench may be traced through them to John Maxwell, first bishop of Ross, then bishop of Killala, who died archbishop of Tuam in the year 1646, and to John Leslie, bishop of the Isles, who died bishop of Clogher, both Scottish bishops of the line of John Spottiswood, archbishop of St. Andrews; the last of whom laid his hands on the twelve bishops who were consecrated in 16611. IN ALLUDING to the consecrations of the twelve bishops in Dublin, bishop Mant says-" To Taylor was committed the conspicuous and honourable office of preaching the consecration sermon in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and it was published at the request of the lords justices, the bishops, and general convention;-an anthem, subsequently celebrated Harris's continuation of Sir James Ware's Antiquities.-Perceval's Apology. I am indebted for the above account of the Irish succession to C. H. Davis, Esq., of Wadham College, Oxford, |