entertaining most freely, furnished with daily provisions, books, and tuition, gratis." Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 27.

Bede also relates, that " Alfred the Great, King of Northumberland, had the reputation of a man most learned in the Scriptures; for, residing in Scotland (Ireland), he there imbibed celestial wisdom in his attentive soul; having left his native country, and his pleasant fields, that, in diligent exile, he might learn the mystery of Godliness." Life of St. Cuthbert. This pious and learned Prince, among his other works, translated into the Saxon tongue St. Gregory's pastoral; and in the preface, professed that he was assisted therein by "John, his Mass-Priest," or Chaplain, usually surnamed, Scotus, or Erigena; one of the most learned Divines of his age; and the Annals of Ulster state, that Alfred's mother was Fiona, the daughter of Colman, King of Meath; whence he was called by the Irish, Flanni Fioni, "the son of Fiona ;" and they say, that he even composed an Irish poem, beginning thus: "Roidheat Iris Finu Fait." 2 Annal. Ull. p. 129.

and the other followers of Columbanus procured their liveli hood by the labour of their own hands; and the monks, in general, practised the apostle's rule, to work with silence, and eat their own bread."

SECTION IV.

OPPOSITION OF THE IRISH AND BRITISH, TO THE USURPED SUPREMACY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

THE slow but sure steps, by which the steady and unremitting policy of the Church and See of Rome, from small beginnings, attained to an enormous ascendancy over her sister Churches in the West, have been detailed at length, in the foregoing Introduction, p. 39-63.

The Irish and British Churches, however, from their first establishment, strenuously resisted the claims and encroachments of the Church and See of Rome; nor was the papal jurisdiction acknowledged in England, till the era of the Norman Conquest; and still later in Ireland, till the era of the invasion of Henry II.

I. The first opposition to the Romish claim of Supremacy, began on the part of the Irish. Sedulius, that celebrated Divine, combated successfully its assumed scriptural foundation, in our Lord's grant to St. Peter, Matt. xvi. 18, 19. He

observes that the title of "foundation" is used ambiguously, in the New Testament; and he critically distinguishes the different senses in which it is so applied ;-Where it is said, 'Behold, I lay in Sion for a foundation, a Stone, an approved "It is Stone,' &c. [Isa. xxviii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 6.] certain," says he, "that by the Rock, or Stone, is signified CHRIST: But when the Saints of God's household are said to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, JESUS CHRIST himself being the chief corner Stone,' [Ephes. ii. 20]; he judiciously infers from thence, that CHRIST is the chief foundation, likewise: "The Apostles," says he, " are a foundation, or rather, CHRIST is the foundation of the Apostles: for CHRIST is the foundation, who is also called the Corner Stone, joining and holding together the two walls; therefore, He is both the [chief] foundation, and the [chief] Corner Stone, because in him the

* " Fundamenta"] CHRISTUM et Apostolos et Prophetas. Sedul. in Heb. xi.-Compertum est in petrá, vel lapide, CHRISTUM significari. Id. in Rom. ix.-Apostoli fundamenium sunt, vel CHRISTUS fundamentum est Apostolorum.Christus est fundamentum, qui etiam lapis dicitur angularis, duos conjungens et continens parietes; ideo Hic fundamen tum et summus est lapis ; quia in ipso et fundatur et consummatur Ecclesia. Id. in Ephes. ii.-Ut ministros Christi, nou ut fundamentum. 1d. in 1 Cor. iv.

Church is both founded and finished and we are to account the Apostles, as Ministers of Christ; not as the foundation itself." Sedul. in Heb.

xi., Rom. ix., Ephes. ii., 1 Cor. iv.

This critical distinction between CHRIST "the Rock," or chief foundation of the Church; and the Apostles as "foundation stones," laid upon the rock, to form a basis for the Church; was given in the foregoing Introduction, p. 35, 36, and discovered long before its coincidence with the exposition of Sedulius was known. Such a venerable Irish authority ought surely to have great weight with the Irish Ecclesiastics of the present day.

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And the grant itself is thus excellently expounded, by his learned countryman and successor Claudius. Upon this rock will I build my Church;" that is, upon the LORD THE SAVIOUR: who granted to his faithful knower, lover, and confessor, a participation of his own name; that from

* Super HANC PETRAM ædificabo Ecclesiam meam"] id est, Super DOMINUM SALVATOREM; qui fideli suo cognitori, amatori, confessori, participium sui nominis donavit, ut scilicet a petra " Petrus" vocaretur. " ædificatur ecclesia ;"-quia non nisi per fidem et dilectionem Christi, per susceptionem sacramentorum Christi, per observantiam mandatorum Christi ad sortem electorum et æternam pertingitur vitam; Apostolo attestante, qui ait: "Fundamentum enim aliud nemo potest ponere, præter id quod positum est, qui est CHRISTUS JESUS." Claud. lib. ii. in Matt.

petra ("the rock") he should be called Petrus ("a Stone.") The Church is built [upon the rock]; because, it is only by the faith and love of Christ, by the reception of the sacraments of Christ, by the observance of the commandments of Christ, that we attain to the lot of the elect, and to eternal life; as the Apostle attests, who says, for other foundation can no one lay beside that which is laid, which is CHRIST JESUS. [1 Cor. iii. 11.

Claudius, however, candidly admits a primacy, or precedence in rank, of Peter among the Apostles of the circumcision; but he contends for an equal primacy of Paul, as the Apostle of the Gentiles: "St. Paul," says he *, "names only

* Petrum solum nominat, et sibi comparat [Paulus]; quia primatum ipse accepit ad fundandam Ecclesiam : se quoque, pari modo electum, ut primatum habeat in fundandis Gentium Ecclesiis. Ab his itaque probatum dicit donum, quod accepit a Deo, ut dignus esset habere primatum in prædicatione Gentium; sicut et habeat Petrus in prædicatione Circumcisionis.-Gratium sibi soli primus vindicat concessam a Deo ; sicut et soli Petro concessa est inter Apostolos. [" Non sum illi inferior,"] quia ab UNO sumus ambo in unum ministerium ordinati.-Apostolum se CHRISTI titulo prænotavit, ut ex ipsâ, lecturos nominis auctoritate terreret ; judicans omnes qui in Christo crederent, debere sibi esse subjectos.-Claud. in Galat. i., ., v.Nam sicut interrogatis generaliter