proceeding to a gate opposite the well, they kneel down and move in procession to the entrance, where five paters, five aves, and a creed are repeated, and where they all bow down to a picture of the Virgin suspended there by the priest for the occasion. There is a small pool of water, convenient to the well, into which they descend, as a preservation from evil, KILLEREERAN. CRIVOC BAN-There is a stone over this well to which religious adoration is paid. An old woman who frequents it informed Gunning, that she was in the habit of performing there for Mrs. B— of M, by whom she was paid one shilling a day on such occasions, and often received a plate of oatmeal from the priest. The Isle of Saints, or City of the Saints, off the coast of Westport, still retains the religious character it once enjoyed in the good old Pagan times, when it was resorted to as the Sacred Island in the mysteries. Every boat that passes this now is left to its own conduct, while the sailors fall upon their knees, and repeat the proper number of paters, aves, and creeds to the honor of the saints. KILBANNAN, near Tuam-A well-no image-within a mile of it a mound of small stones where they show the marks of St. Patrick's knees the people kneel upon the same spot and repeat their lip-service. It appears to have been anciently a druidical altar, one remaining stone of which is revered, as having been honored with the sacred, but not light or gentle pressure of the saint's knees. No luxurious kneeling stool of these degenerate days, nor no modern flooring could have resisted the attrition of such ponderous devotions. J. D. S. ON ECCLESIASTICAL COMPUTATION OF TIME. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. Mr. EXAMINER-Your Correspondent, T. K's. difficulty, as to the date assigned by Dr. Grier, in common with other writers, for an alleged event (which, if it ever took place, must he thinks be dated at least one year later), may be removed by considering, that formerly the Church adopted the festival of the Annunciation as the commencement of her year, thus differing from the common, or Julian mode of reckoning from the 1st of January.* In consequence of this difference, a variation of an entire year arises in assigning its date to any event occurring from the 1st of January to the 24th of March inclusive, according as the writer adopts the Ecclesiastical, or the common mode of computation. Thus, Boniface commencing his Pontificate on the 19th of February, the Ecclesiastical historian says he became Bishop of Rome in the year 606, whilst * Thomas Bennet on the thirty-nine articles, p. 247, as quoted in a note upon Is. Walton's life of George Herbert in Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog, vol. 4. p. 533. the civil annalist refers the same event to the year 607. Now, if the alleged grant of Phocas be assigned to the commencement of Boniface's Pontificate, i. e. to any date between the 19th of February, and the 25th of the ensuing March, (and if it was an Ecclesiastical figment, such a recognition of Boniface as "Universal Bishop" would be readily assigned to as early a period as possible after his mounting the Pontifical chair), the Ecclesiastical recorder of such supposed grant would refer it to the same year 606, whilst the civil writer, if he noticed it at all, would assign 607 as its date. This difference in the manner of computing the commencement of the year, occasions much perplexity in the chronology of Fox, he sometimes following the one, sometimes the other method. It requires also to be borne in mind, in comparing the statements of Strype in his annals, with those of Burnet in his history of the Reformation, the former having adopted the ecclesiastical mode of dating the year, the latter, that in common use. Some writers adopted a double mode of notation from the 1st of January to the 24th of March, inclusive; thus we find the first number of the Spectator dated March 1, 1710-11. The CHURCHMAN, who enquires, why the epithet holy has been omitted in our translation of the clause of the Nicene Creed relating to the Church, will find, most probably, that it arose from a various reading in the copies of the creed now extant. Certain it is, that a more important one occurs in the copy in Duport's Bißros Tns dnμorias vxns, K. 7. λ. the clause, “God of God," not occurring in it. But perhaps a still more extraordinary variation from the original is that in our translation of the Apostle's Creed, in which, after the profession of belief in the Holy Ghost, the original proceeds, πιστευω την ἅγιαν ἐκκλησίαν καθολικήν ; which I apprehend should be rendered, "I believe that there is a holy Catholic Church," a position differing somewhat from that suggested prima facie by our translation, in the interpretation of which, as your clerical readers have no doubt often found in catechising, the beginner is apt to carry on the preposition, and to suppose that he is called on to profess his belief in the church. Now though even thus worded, we have Pearson's authority for saying no more is meant than "that there is a church which is holy, and which is Catholic;" yet this is not the idea most obviously presented by such a form of expression. The due authority of the Church no man can regard with deeper reverence than I do, yet, surely, not that authority is the object of the clause of the Creed in question, but the permanence of her existence, as secured by the promise of her adorable Founder, when he declared, that "the gates of hell should not prevail against her." I remain, Mr. Examiner, your sincere well-wisher, Ω. Wordsworth, Eccl. Biog. vol. 3. p. 54. n. 33 QUERE. TO THE EDITOR OF The christIAN EXAMINER. SIR,-I am a magistrate resident in a part of Ireland, where nine out of ten of the population are of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Some years ago I visited Rome, where I purchased a crucifix, which I had blessed (as it is termed) by the Pope. I placed this on the cover of the New Testament which I use for those persons coming before me to make affidavits in all matters appertaining to my magisterial office. I am very confident that individuals of the Roman Catholic church, of the lower order, speak the truth much more unequivocally when this figure is on the book, than they would otherwise; and as it is of the first importance that, by every fair means, the truth should be got at, where life and property may be at stake, I have almost invariably used this means of extracting that truth. I would be glad to have the opinion of some of your correspondents, whether a member of the Church of England is justifiable, under any circumstances, in presenting or making use of this figure or image in the way I have above stated, and in so doing, is he free from indirectly infringing upon the second commandment, or sanctioning its infringement by others? I am, Sir, yours, &c. &c. N. H. W. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF POPERY IN IRELAND. to the Editor of the christian eXAMINER. SIR-It is now more than a year and a half since certain articles were inserted in your Magazine, purporting to be a History of Popery in Ireland-These brief notices brought down a review of the Romish Church to the period of the breaking out of the Rebellion of 1641; they were then relinquished, because, with infinite satisfaction, I saw the ground I had taken, and intended to take occupied by one whose time, talents, and varied sources of information, rendered him more adequate to the task. And when one volume came forth, purporting to be the first of a series; I concluded that these my outlines were to be happily superseded by a perfect and full length portrait of Popery, from the hands of Dr. Phelan-But finding that the learned gentleman has stopped short and withheld his pen at the very period when a full exposure of the political and ecclesiastical transactions of Popery in Ireland, was most desirable; and, as it would appear, none of your correspondents are willing to enter on this ground, it may be well to come forward again, and take up my series of historical notices; at the same time disclaiming, as I do, any peculiar power or opportunity of placing what is new before your readers, or even of throwing a juster or a clearer light on the transactions which are to be noticed; my humbler object being, at this particular juncture, to call the attention of Protestants to the effects which the Church of Rome has had on the prosperity of our common country. To be sure, if history is to be considered as valueless as an old almanack-supposing it to be waste paper, mine must be but waste time: but if, on the contrary, prudence, while placed as centinel to watch overexperiment, may be allowed to call experience to heraid— if the present may take counsel from the analogies of past time-then perhaps, it may not be walking in a vain shadow, for Protestants to retrace the path of history, and learn how men of like passions, acting on similar principles, and placed in almost parallel positions, have heretofore fulfilled their parts. The constant reader of this Journal will, perhaps, recollect, that the Number for May, 1827, brought my former notices to the verge of the rebellion of 1641; and I then had taken pains to show, that it was no passionate or unconcerted ebullition of a hot and angry people; but, on the contrary, a long designed, and deliberately matured scheme, of cunning churchmen, to overwhelm Protestantism, and make this Island of Saints a kingdom of priests. The design originally concocted in the vengeful mind and fertile brain of Cardinal Richlieu, who, as a statesman, a courtier, and a churchman, was determined to be avenged on Charles and his minion Buckingham, for their sins against him while at the court of France, was fostered, furthered, and prayed for, in every region of Popish Christendom; France, Spain, Italy, and Austria, stood in suspense, and having aided in the experiment, awaited its consummation. A surprisingly active intercourse, through the medium of Jesuits and friars, was carried on with the Spanish ambassador in London, with the young Lord Tyrone in Spain, with the pope, and with the French ministry: and crowding as they did from all parts, and landing at every port, ecclesiastics of all grades and denominations, the regular and secular, the friar and Jesuit, flocked to the one point as ravens soar from all quarters of heaven to prey upon a carcase. As Lord Castlehaven, a Romanist, says, "The counsels of Spain and Rome, and the Irish monasteries and seminaries in so many countries of Europe, very many of the churchmen returning home out of them, and chiefly the titular bishops, together with the superiors of the regular orders, took an effectual course, under colour of religion, to add continued fuel to the burning coals." We are informed in Jones's deposition from information which he received from the guardian of the Franciscan order, that a conclave composed of these foreign and native ecclesiastics, met in the old Franciscan abbey of Multifernam in Westmeath: that they there for many days deliberated, on the course to be pursued with the Protestants; some were for their instant extermination, others were for expelling them, like the Moors, from Spain,-but all decided that it was God's cause in which they were engaged. Friar Peter Walsh, that honest Franciscan unto whom the world is so indebted for his full exposure of the effects of foreign influence on the character and conduct of Popish churchmen, thus describes the spirit which actuated the Romish clergy of Ireland: "They considered that the pope was, by divine right, universal monarch and governor of the world; and had independent sovereign authority over kings and subjects in temporal as well as spiritual concerns; that he might deprive and dethrone kings, and had the power of both swords, to which every soul, upon pain of damnation, was bound to give obedience; that he had the power to absolve from all oaths, and that those who were slain in the great quarrel of the church against an excommunicated prince, die martyrs for Christ, and their souls fly to heaven immediately." These men seeing the wealth and honour of the Roman prelates abroad, witnessing as they did the pomp and luxury of a purple cardinal, or an archbishop of Toledo. To have such splendours revived for their church, and provided for themselves, was their being's end and aim. It was no satisfaction to them that the laity of their communion enjoyed a large share of the power, benefits, and honours of the state; that the lords and commoners of their sect sat in parliament-that their men of property could represent the king in their respective counties, as sheriffs-that their lawyers might plead and practice in the courts of law-that their merchants could enjoy corporation privileges-and their church be allowed to celebrate all its religious rites fully, though in a modest and unobtrusive way. No, nothing but power and predominance would satisfy; and knowing well that these could not be expected from parliamentary concession, or royal graces, they were determined to involve the Irish people in a revolution, which, while it compro * * Bishop Jones in his deposition, relates, that a Friar lately landed from Flanders, and, allocated at Naas, gave information to the then Lord Deputy, that there was a constant intercourse of letters between Lord Tyrone and the Popish Primate Reilly, concerning a rebellion and invasion; and he offered to direct to the very place where Reilly kept those letters. Reilly was accordingly committed to the Castle of Dublin, but soon released; and the informer was rewarded with ten pounds and a suit of clothes. "Indeed," as Doctor C. O'Connor says, "who can tell how many consultations were held, how many letters were written in Irish, how many in cypher, such as those Lord Clanricarde discovered in the apartment of Father A. Geoghegan-all for the grand object of seizing Dublin and all the castles of Ulster, at one and the same hour!" Doctor Barnard, who was an eye-witness, wrote a History of the Siege of Drogheda," which was ordered to be printed, in 1642, by a Committee of the House of Commons. In that work he gives the following account of the intrigues of the Priests and Friars, that came within his knowledge :-" Many Friars and Priests were posting to and fro, and were busy in giving the people their benedictions, and had a quarter of a year before, enjoined the vulgar, one fasting day in the week extraordinary, for the good success of the Catholic cause, which we dreamed not of. Often have I heard them acknowledge, which we know very well ourselves, that the Priests and Friars were the chief movers of them. Our Alderman-Captain said, a Friar, lately come from Spain, threatened him, that if he did not readily join with them, he should have his head struck off, and hung behind his back. He also acknowledged that the titular Popish Bishop made a large oration to them, to encourage them to rebel, assuring them that they should all be saved, and reputed as martyrs, who died in that quarrel. One Dowdall, of Killalee, confessed that, when his brother went out first, his own mother, upon her knees, dissuaded him, but a Priest urged him to it, and prevailed. And an Abbot was heard to speak in |