income of 200 marks per annum, he resigned his post, and died" a public papist" in 1611. And Bishop Bramhall complains, in 1633, of "the ugly oppressions of that wicked bishop Melerus," viz. Miler Magrath, who departed this life at the advanced age of 100 years, in December, 1622, and who also is said to have died a Romanist. He governed the see of Cashel "for 52 years and three months, during which time he made most scandalous wastes and alienations of the revenues and manors belonging to it." And so in other cases, as that of Ferns above, &c. p. 1214. But such offences of these men could not annul their authority, nor transfer it to others; nor are the effects of the Reformation to be judged of, nor its genuine fruits expected, from persons born and bred in the bosom of the Church of Rome.*

No. XXVI.

Romish authors not luminous on this topic.

OF RICHARD CREAGH, AND HIS SUCCESSORS THE TITULAR PRIMATES
OF ARMAGH, &c.

It is to be regretted that the members of the modern Hiberno-Romish communion have done

Strafford's Letters, 172. Harris's Ware, in the Archbishops of Cashel. O'Sullivan Hist. Cath. Ib., fol. 92, and Mr. Brennan's Ec. Hist. ii. 111-116, where any reader particularly interested about Meiler, will find his life and death largely discoursed upon.

but little in their publications to throw any light
of learned research on the origin, history, or suc-
cession of their new hierarchy. For the subject,
although certainly not a very advantageous one
for them to enter much into, is by no means un-
worthy of the careful attention of all who take
an interest in the history or welfare of the Irish
Church. The only works by any Irish members
of the Church of Rome which I have been able
to meet with on this subject, or treating of it
even partially, are these :-
:-

some works

can be had

1. Mr. Dalton's account of the Bishops and Mention of Archbishops of Dublin; in which, after giving the in which inlives of the prelates in the true and legitimate telligence succession of that see, from Donatus in the 11th regarding it. century, to Archbishop Whately, its present occupant, he subjoins an enumeration of the titular archbishops of the same diocese, commencing with Matthew de Oviedo.

2. Mr. Brennan's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, in which is contained a history of the Church of Rome in Ireland, subsequently to the date of the Reformation, forming the latter part of the work, with notices of the titular prelates of Ireland, and of those of Armagh in particular, continued to the present age.

And 3rdly, The Complete Catholic Directory, in which we find a unique attempt to set forth, in a tabular view, the pretended succession

Mr. Stuart's contributions to the study.

Some infor

Derry

of the modern Romish Church in Ireland. For more on the Synopsis alluded to, see No.68, infra. Mr. Stuart however, author of the valuable "Historical Memoirs of the city of Armagh," and a protestant writer, has furnished us with much fuller and more satisfactory information concerning the titular prelates of the diocese with which his book is more immediately connected. And to his useful work we are indebted (as will appear from the references) for the subjoined notices of the bishops in this series who came after Creagh, commencing with E. Mac Gauvran. In the same work Mr. Stuart refers to an "Appendix to the Life of St. Patrick (p. 319) edit. Dub., by H. Fitzpatrick, A.D. 1810," as containing "the only printed list of the Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh" which he had ever seen.

In the excellent Ordnance Memoir of the Hismation as to tory and Antiquities of the city of Londonderry is contained a brief, but not uninteresting, account of the Romish intruders into that see, from the time of Terence O'Donelly, (about A.D. 1720) the first Romish prelate whose name is recorded in

diocese in the Ordnance Memoir.

* Ch. 20, p. 352. See "the Life of S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, to which is added Saint Fiech's Irish Hymn, also a copious appendix of the various ecclesiastical institutions, &c. in Ireland. By P. Lynch, Secretary to the Gaelic Society. Dublin: Printed by T. Haydock and Son, 8, Lower Exchange-street, next door to the Chapel, 1828. Entered at Stationers' Hall, 12mo. pp. 328." Fitzpatrick's work above cited seems to have been an Edition of this work of Lynch's, published in 1810.

connection with it subsequently to the accession of King James in A.D. 1603.

SUCCESSION OF TITULAR PRELATES IN THE SEE OF ARMAGH, SUB-
BEQUENTLY TO THE REFORMATION OF THE BRITISH CHURches.

[ROBERT WAUCOP, called also Venantius, might in a sense be R. Waucop regarded as the first of these personages, having been appointed by the a precursor pope, and received by a so called general council for primate of Ire- of the new land. But as he was entirely rejected by the Irish Romanists, and as succession moreover the lawful prelates of Ireland had not finally cast off the of Irish Roman yoke in his day, it seems that we shall be more correct in re- primates. garding Richard Creagh, the first papal claimant of the primacy of this island after the Reformation under Elizabeth, as the proper apostle and tutelary saint, the modern Patrick, of the new Roman communion in Ireland. Waucop however, as being a kind of precursor of the system, and at least a candidate, in the papal interest, for the office, should not be wholly omitted from this catalogue; in which accordingly we may add one or two particulars concerning him to those already noticed in the text of this work.

It appears that it was prior to his appointment to the titular pri- Date of his macy that he had, under the patronage of Pope Paul III., introduced introduction the order of Jesuits into Ireland. This service, performed by him in of the JeA.D. 1541, must no doubt have been a strong recommendation in his suits. favour, to procure him so high a rank among the friends and supporters of the Romish cause in this country.*

In Lent, 1545, we find Waucop holding private communication, in Donegal, with the French ambassador to Scotland, O'Neill, O'Dogherty, and others, relative to the invasion of Ireland, and throwing off the English yoke. While on a visit with O'Dogherty "the ambassador met in secret with O'Neill and his associates, and heard their offers and overtures. And the Patriarch of Ireland did meet him there, who was a Scotchman born, called Waucop, and was blind of both his eyes, and yet had been divers times at Rome, by his post. He did great honour to the ambassador," took him to see St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg, &c.t

Stuart's Armagh, p. 235.

↑ Sir J. Melvill's Memoires, pages 8 and 9. Lond. 1683. De Falkirk's Annals of Irish Popery No. II. p. 15.

His eques

trian pow

ers.

His dying words, A.D. 1551.

Abp. Mac Mahon's confusion of the dates connected with R. W

Memoirs of Rd. Creagh, first papal primate

Mr. Stuart is at a loss to conceive how a blind ecclesiastic should have been so laboriously occupied, and at such severe and hazardous exercise as Waucop must have been engaged in, to become famous for riding post better than any man in Christendom. But the circumstance noted in the text, if there correctly stated, viz., that Waucop was rather very short sighted than quite blind, will help to remove the difficulty.

His death took place at Paris on the 10th of November, A.d. 1551, and his last words, if we may therein believe O'Sullevan, were these: "Lord, if my existence here be necessary for the good of thy people, I will not shrink from the useful task which I ought to perform. If not, I shall willingly yield up my station in this most laborious life, that my spirit may enjoy beatitude in thy presence."

The famous and learned Mac Mahon, titular archbp. of Armagh, seems to have been aware of the damage which the true story of his predecessor Waucop was calculated to do to their cause. In his cele brated work Jus Primatiale Armacanum, c. 27, in giving a list of some of their primates, he says, "Dow DALLO Pauli Tertii concessione sccCESSIT in sede Armachana (qui concilio Tridentino interfuit, ibique a patribus agnitus et declaratus hujus regni primas, Vide superius 10) ROBERTUS VENANTIUS. Waucop's recognition at Trent was of too much importance to this author's argument to allow of his neglecting the point; and yet the assertion that the same Waucop succeeded to Dowdall, shows how the author of the Jus Primatiale felt the difficulty in which the matter was involved. How could he succeed to Dowdall, a man who died some seven years after himself. No wonder is it that the Irish Romanists have been slow to furnish us with an account of their succession of Primates. Here one of those very primates, and the one of whose learning they are most justly proud, could not give a short list of some of his own predecessors, without a most outrageous violation of historical truth, contradicting all the historians and records of the Council of Trent.]

1. RICHARD CREAGH, the first papal primate subsequently to the establishment of the Reformation in Ireland, succeeded, or rather was appointed, to the titular dignity, (as appears from the text at after the Re- p. 773, sup. and notes there,) in or about A.D. 1564; having been conformation, secrated, it would seem, by Pope Pius IV. (not V, as stated in Rothe's Analecta) some five or six years after the death of Abp Dowdall. There appears indeed to be some authority (as will be seen presently)

A.D. 1564.

*Stewart's Armagh, 236, and O'Sullevan, H. C. pp. 79, 80. Spondani, Ann. ad an. 1546. Palavicino, Hist. Conc. Trident. l. 6, c. 5; 1. 15, c. 13. Pere Orleans, 1. 3, p. 85. Jus. Prim. Arm., pp. 7, 19, referred to by Stuart in loc. cit.