to believe of their fresh exaltation; it is on the contrary a lot most com- He encoumon to Christ's faithful people; for persecution opens a rages them path for experience, and experience becomes a ground that their of merit. For the struggles engaged in by His valiant troubles warriors are under the eye of Him who is ready to be- were a token stow an abundant recompense, whose promise has as- Christian sured us that he will confess them before His father who character; confess Him before men: faithful is He who hath given misapplying this promise. Wherefore, children most entirely be- Holy Scriploved, be stedfast; and with unshaken resolution hold ture as fast your faith immoveable, to secure for yourselves the honour of perseverance to the end, wherein lieth your salvation. usual. For if it hath been given unto you, not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for the maintenance of His true faith, you have also reason to believe that in torments and sufferings of the kind you receive your calling to the heavenly kingdom. This is the path which leads to heaven; and a narrow one it is indeed, open to a few only, and these the tried and experienced. Ye know that that the Lord hath said, He that will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. Christ's discipline seemeth to be not of joyous, but sorrowful character. You remember that it was said to the disciples, They shall persecute you, and beat you in the synagogues. For as it behoved Christ to suffer, and thus to enter into His glory, so also they that will strive to follow the steps of Christ unto the heavenly kingdom, have of necessity many sufferings to encounter; for the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord and we have proofs of this in our daily experience, but especially in your present afflictions-for though absent in the body, we are yet with you in spirit, and bear our portion with you in your troubles, your calamities, and all your sorrows; a portion undoubtedly ances occamore distressing and weighty in our case, inasmuch as sion him a He says their griev more bitter anxiety and heaviness than themselves. Some of the customary pious exhortations to are next added. each one of you suffers his own sorrows only ;-while we are concerned for the whole body of you as for those who are our dearest children. The peril to which you are exposed is, that you may suffer loss of worldly wealth, or of this transitory life; yet have you set before you an assured hope of attaining to a life of never ending blessedness in heaven. Our eye rests on the imminent danger which threatens a Treasure precious beyond all price, purchased at the inestimable cost of the blood of His only begotten Son, which the everlasting Father of our family hath committed in trust unto our care-even your souls, the loss of which can by no possibility be repaired. Wherefore as we suffer continual affliction, so we never cease to cry unto the Lord, that He may arise, and look upon your distress, and give you relief out of your tribulation. As we do likewise exhort you, in all the affection of our hearts, (we use the language of the apostle,) to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and consider Him that endured such contradiction from sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. YOU THE LORD HATH CHOSEN TO EXHIBIT ANEW IN THESE LAST AND CALAMITOUS TIMES AN EXAMPLE OF THE GLORY OF HIS CHURCH, REVIVING AS IN HER FIRST imitate the AGES, [sic] Remember then what fearful sufferings the martyrs, &c. martyrs underwent, and what crowns the Lord afterwards bestowed upon them in the day of their Solemnity and rejoicing, and imitate their faith and constancy, their humility and patience. Giving no offence unto any man, using forbearance in love, praying continually for them that afflict you and persecute you. The meekness of Christ overcame the power of the devil: yes, He subdued the world not by the steel, but by wood, viz. in His most bitter passion, which redeemed mankind from the service of the devil. Put your trust in God, for Ile, when it shall please His goodness, will cause your patience, your charity, to have at one time or another, the effect of softening the cruelty of those that rage so against you. Who knoweth whether they may by this means be converted from their evil way, and acknowledge God. How many do we read of, who having never heard preaching, but only witnessed the constancy of the martyrs, were led to embrace the faith of Christ, and forthwith to submit readily and willingly to torture and to death! The mercy of God is able, if you abide stedfast in your tribulation, to impute the amendment of others also to your earning. exhorted to pattern of tors, &c. Be zealous then of good works; abounding in pray- The Irish ers; looking diligently lest ye offend in any wise against recusants the majesty of God; doing nothing which may be at follow the variance with the Catholic religion, and the integrity of that faith which your ancestors received from this Holy their gloSee. And ever keep in mind that it is a more horrible rious ancesthing to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of men. You, as we are informed, glory in the thought that your ancestors were men of such eminent piety towards God, that Ireland obtained, from this origin, the appellation of the ISLAND OF SAINTS. [sic.] Show yourselves then a people worthy of such a stock. And we, besides that we are ever mindful of you in our prayers, to inflame you the more to uphold the salutary discipline of Christ, having been informed that in the several cities and towns of that realm there are, in particular localities, congregations of the faithful of each sex, under the invocation of the ever most Blessed Virgin, &c.' "Here ends the writer from whom I take those golden Burke's auwords, i. e. Donagh Roirk* in the work entitled Ireland's thority for "That David Roth, [titr.] bp. of Ossory, was the real author of that production, is affirmed by Ussher of Armagh in his Primordia, pag. 737; and Harris, Writers of Ireland, p. 124. VOL. III. 2 M the above document, and its date. Resurrection, printed at Rouen, A.D. 1621. From the context however it is obvious enough that the Supreme Pontiff Paul V. aforesaid, in order to impress on the minds of the Irish a more agreeable and forcible motive towards the imitating of their ancestors, benignly included in this Diploma Indulgences, of sufficiently liberal amount, for the said people, attainable at certain times and places therein specified. And although Donagh does not include the date of this letter apostolic, still none can doubt but that it was issued about the year 1614." (p. 630.) No. LXX. LETTER OF POPE URBAN VIII. CONSTITUTING THE IRISH MISSION T. Fleming, Dublin obtains The "Apostolic Letter" subjoined is derived titr. Abp. of from the same source as that in the preceding Ar(A.D. 1623,) ticle, (Hib. Dom. p. 874, c. lxxxv.) As an illustrafrom P. Ur- tion of the means employed at the commencement ban VIII. a of the seventeenth century for getting up the new lishing "the Romish establishment in Ireland, it seems not Irish misundeserving of a place in the present collection. letter estab sion" as a "The most reverend lord Fr. Thomas Fleming, of the Order of the Friars Minor. having been elected [for titular] archbishop of Dublin by pope Urban 8, previously to his consecration obtained from the said pontiff, the following letter apostolic, establishing the Title of the Mission in Ireland as a sufficient one for admission to holy orders, and granting other privileges, &c. :— 'Urban, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for Urban, havthe future memory of the matter herein set forth. ing a special respect for To the pious desires of any of Christ's faithful peo- the wishes ple, and especially those of such as have been raised by of archietheir own merits to the government of metropolitan piscopal friends, churches, and who are banished from their churches on account of the faith, or continue near them for the maintenance and propagation of the said faith, we ever give our willing assent, shewing them such countenance and favour as may be adapted for securing their desired ends. Now it hath been lately represented to us in a peti- readily action set forth on the part of our beloved son Thomas cedes to the [F., titr.] bp. elect of Dublin, that there have been al- petition of T. Fleming ready established by the help of God, in the French and in favour of Spanish realms, and in the provinces of Flanders, very certain Irish many seminaries for the Irish nation, and that it is fully Colleges behoped that others will from day to day be added to the yond sea; number, wherein young persons, having completed their studies, may be made priests, to return to their afflicted country, there to expend their talent in the vineyard of the Lord, and exert themselves to bring forward in that vineyard such a supply of fruit as their circumstances may permit -and therefore, that they might be enabled to accomplish such their pious purpose with all possible expedition, an humble supplication was presented to us on the part of the said Thomas elect, desiring that we should, of our apostolic benignity, bestow on them such indulgence, and enact for them such favourable provi sions, as are hereinaf er detailed : them pecu 'Cherishing therefore as we do a cordial and sincere granting to desire to see the propagation of the said Catholic faith the pupils of carried on with energy in all places, and especially in liar priviparts ruled over by heretics, we feel well disposed to leges accede to the supplication so presented to us, and to bestow on the pupils of the said seminaries tokens of our special favour; to which end we do to the pupils of the |