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FORMATION OF PRESBYTERIES IN IRELAND.

CHAPTER VIII.
FORMATION OF PRESBYTERIES IN IRELAND.

THE first meeting of a regular Presbytery in Ireland took place at Carrickfergus on Friday, June 10th, 1642. Previously to that time the ministers in Ireland, who promoted the Revival, acted on Presbyterial principles, though by law of England under the jurisdiction of Bishops of the Church of England. At the Reformation almost the entire Irish nation were Roman Catholics or Papists; and the majority of the nation are to this day. Henry VIII. of England commenced establishing a Protestant national church, and Elizabeth followed up the design; and James perfected the plan as far as he was able. Bishops were sent over, and the clergy were appointed to parishes and supported by the authority of the state; yet the mass of the people remained Papists, and maintained their own bishops and priests, and received the ordinances at their hands. The Scotch emigrants were divided, in their settlements, into parishes; or rather, the boundaries of the old parishes remained, and clergy were supplied by the state to the inhabitants, of whatever country or religious principles they might chance to be. The parishes occupied the same territory embraced by the Papists in their ecclesiastical divisions; and neither the Scotch emigrants nor the native Irish Papists were permitted by law to enjoy their own clergy, or their own religious ceremonies; and both were sufferers under the severities of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. The ministers who went over to Ireland to preach to the Scotch, a short account of whom has been given, were presented to parishes and admitted regularly; some were ordained by the Bishop, in conjunction with other clergy as a Presbytery, objecting more or less strenuously to his prelatical character.

A convocation of the Irish clergy was summoned in 1615, before any number of ministers from Scotland had visited the island. As the Irish Church had always been independent of that of England, it was thought necessary to declare its faith, and settle its form of government. The only statutes in force in the kingdom respected solely the celebration of public worship, which was made