History of the Church of Ireland; For Use in Schools (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...1515 the Pope (Leo X) issued a Bull against the admission of Irishmen to any office in connexion with St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. This scandalous enactment was only one of many similar measures of which I have told you; but fortunately for England and Ireland the days were soon to dawn when the Papal bulls would be no longer dreaded. The commencement of these brighter days was seen in England in 1534, when an Act was passed abolishing the Pope's Supremacy, and appointing the King Supreme Head of the Church of England. This Act was bound to have its effect in Ireland. Indeed the nature of the Act was such that it could not concern England alone, for, if it were true that the Pope had usurped powers which were never really his, and if his claims were unscriptural and opposed to history, then they were as much so in Ireland as in England. But up to this time no Irish bishop had declared against the Papal claims. The Archbishopric of Dublin happened, however, to fall vacant during the very year (1534) when the Act abolishing the Pope's supremacy in England was passed; and George Browne, a monk of the Augustinian Order, who favoured the cause of reform, was appointed to the Sec of Dublin. He was consecrated in England by Archbishop Cranmer and two other bishops; but as the Papal authority in England had passed away, he came to Ireland free from all obligations to the Pope. Archbishop Browne had much to say to the progress of the Reformation in Ireland, of which we shall speak in another chapter, for two years later the Papal Supremacy was abolished, and the decree of the Synod of Kells, which had imposed the foreign authority of the Pope upon the native Irish Church, was repealed. It had been a long and trying period for...