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not the same communication between Ireland and Rome in the earlier as in later ages. It was not easy, on the death of each bishop, to despatch messengers or letters for confirmation from the Pope; but the Pope could commission the metropolitan or the senior bishop to give canonical institution without reference to the Holy See at each vacancy. Such was the case, on account of the distance and difficulty of communication. Such had been the case in reference to countries that lay nearer to.Rome than Ireland. Pope Honorius wrote to the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, Honorius and Paulinus, gave them the palliums, and leave that one, on the death of the other, should appoint a successor to the deceased, and invest him with the pallium, on account of the distance of place.[1] We have, then, the earliest Irish canons, drawn up by the great apostle, recommending connection with and submission to Rome. These were acted on in the life and writings of the saints and doctors of the Irish Church. The Irish Church was free, and is free—no creature of the state. Its ministers do not owe their advancement to flattering the vicious, or crouching to the tyrannous and the great. They are no mere decent police for the preservation of power. They derive their authority from no civil sanction, and defy the mightiest earthly potentate to unfrock them. The Irish Church is free, because subject to the chair of Peter. There is freedom in that subjection, because rational, and founded on legitimate law and religion. There is slavery in the absence of respect for and obedience to that chair; and whenever the link is snapped binding one to it, one is laid at the mercy of a lay pope, whether in England, in Russia, or Constantinople. I am reminded of a savage roaming without restraint through the desert or forest, without any laws but what the wild passions dictate, who boasts that he only enjoys the freedom for
- ↑ Epistle 6th, in the reign of King Edwin.
