Part 4

In Wadding's _Annals_, it is told that towards the end of his life, seeing it was not likely he could succeed in his struggle, he withdrew to Belgium, and there died in the mountains of Hannonia. The same account appears in the Camden Annals of Ireland. But Ware[27] tells us that the Armagh copy of these annals agrees with other histories in placing the death at Avignon. In 1370, his remains were removed by Stephanus de Valle (who from the see of Limerick was translated to that of Meath by Urban V. in 1369), and brought back to his native town of Dundalk, where they were desposited in the church of St. Nicholas. The memory of his extraordinary merits soon attracted to his tomb crowds of the faithful. The usage of styling him St. Richard of Dundalk became quite general, and many miracles were ascribed to his intercession. Moved by the report of these prodigies, Pope Boniface IX. appointed John Cotton, Archbishop of Armagh, Richard Young, Bishop-elect of Bangor, and the Abbot of Osney, near Oxford, as commissioners to institute a judicial examination of the miracles. The result of their labours is not known. Stewart, in his _History of Armagh_, mentions[28] that in a synod held at Drogheda in 1545, it was ordered that the feast of St. Richard of Dundalk should be celebrated in the diocese of Armagh with nine lessons, in _crastino Joannis et Pauli_.

Sec. X. THE WORKS OF ARCHBISHOP FITZ-RALPH.

(A.) Printed works:--

1. (_a_) _Richardi Archiepiscopi Armachani, Hyberniae Primalis, Defensorium Curatorum, adversus eos qui Privilegiatos se esse dicunt_, habitum Avinione in consistorio coram D. Papa Innocentio VJ. et D.D. Cardinalibus et Prelatis, anno Christi 1357, nunc recens excusum juxta vetus exemplar et ex fide codicis MS. diligentissime castigatum. Parisiis apud Joan. Libert, via D. Joan. Lateranens. e regione Auditorii Regii, MDCXXI. pagg. 1-136.

(_b_) The same is printed in the _Appendix ad Fasciculum Rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum_ opera et studio Ed. Brown Parochi Sandrigiae in agro Cantiano. London: Chiswell, MDCXC. vol. ii. pag. 466 to 486.

(_c_) The same in Goldast's _Monumenta S. Romani Imperii_, vol. ii. p. 1391 to 1410.

2. _Summa Domini Armachani in quaestionibus Armenorum_, noviter impressa et correcta a magistro nostro Joanne Sudoris, cum aliquibus sermonibus ejusdem de Christi Dominio. "Jehan Petit, venales habentur in vico Divi Jacobi sub lilio aureo ... quinsiene jour de Juillet mil cinq cens et douse., fol. clxxvii."

As this is the most important of all the writings of Dr. Fitz-Ralph, and as the printed book is very rare, it will please our readers to have a more detailed account of its object and contents. The work forms a real encyclopaedia of theological learning, and reveals the vast extent of the author's studies and acquirements. The introduction runs as follows:--

Reverendis in Christo patribus, Versi Manasgardensi, ac fratri Joanni electo Clatensi Majoris Armeniae, Richardus Radulphus Archiepiscopus Armachanus, Hiberniae Primas, per gratiam sitire justitiam donec hauriatis aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris. Ex revelatione Vestrae sanctae devotionis accepi, ob defectum exercitii in Sacris Scripturis antiquas quasdam hereses a Sanctis Patribus reprobatas, et nonnullas contra S. Scripturas novellas assertiones erroneas in vestris partibus pullulasse, propter quas per doctores Latinos ex sacris Literis resecandas, eo quia earum patroni auctoritatem Ecclesiae Romanae non admittunt estimantes ejus auctoritatem ex Sacris Literis probari non posse, ad Romanam curiam zelus domus Dei et Christi charitas vos adduxit. Cum vero super ipsis erroribus vobis cum ibidem aliquoties contulissem, meam exilitatem devotius stimulastis ut super quaestionibus vestris illud vobis scriberem quod mihi dignaretur Dominus aperire. Cui Vestro tam accepto Deo desiderio resistere non audebam, exactiones spiritualis usurae formidans, si de bonis a Domino acceptis officium negligerem institoris, et juxta ipsius promissa _qui evangelizantibus dat verba virtute multa_ ardenter desideratis ampliora ob hoc recipite ut abundem magis. Nec debent indignari mihi majores, ex quo ipsi per quos melius perfici potuit illud penitus neglexerunt, et ego cum vidua evangelica cupiam minuta, quae habeo in Domini domum offerre, ipso teste confidens humilis orationis suffragio amplius quam subtilitate ingenii difficilia penetrare. Nec majorum correctionem renuo sed affecto, et ipsum opus, (cujus titulem volui esse _De quaestionibus Armenorum quod_ in xix. particulas sive libros distinxi, singulis libris materiam fidei et ipsius causam premittendo), approbationi et reprobationi nostri Papae Patris Clementis VI. universalis Ecclesiae Summi Pontificis in toto et in parte committo. In primis quinque libris illa principalis quaestio Armenorum pertractabitur: numquid Christus habuit in se duas plenas naturas, scilicet, divinam et humanam ita quod propter unionen illarum duarum naturarum in ipso fuit Dominus IESVS Christus veraciter suppositum, persona, sive hypostasis in utraque natura verus Deus et verus homo.

Primus itaque liber contra heresim Nestorianam, a quodam Nestorio introductam, affirmantem in Christo naturam humanam duntaxat, ita ut Christus homo fuerit et non Deus; quam heresim secuti sunt Cherintus, Armerintus, Theodocio, et etiam excaecati Judaei, et multae Orientalium nationum usque in prasens, patefacto primitus quis sensus sit literalis Sacrae Scripturae censendus, ex Scriptura N. T. juxta sensum literalem ipsius ostendit Christum quem colimus esse Deum. Secundus liber contra Judaeos specialiter ex V. T. juxta literalem sensum ipsius, probat Christum sive Messiam in sua Scriptura promissum Deum esse debere.

Tertius liber ex eadem V. Scriptura ostendit Christum nostrum quem colimus esse sive fuisse illum qui erat Judaico populo in ipsa Scriptura promissus.

In quarto libro tractantur objectus Judaici populi contra ostensa in lib 2'o et 3'o et dantur et probantur in ipso regulae certae istos objectus, et omnes alios objectus Judaicos dissolvendi.

In quarto libro contra heresim Arii et Apollinarii affirmantem quod in Christo anima humana non fuit, divinitas loco animae in Christo erat: ad hoc, contra heresim Manichaei dicentis Christum non verum corpus humanum sed corpus fantasticum habuisse Scripturae testimonia adducuntur, et consequenter contra heresim ponentem corpus humanum in Christo fuisse et divinitas veluti indumentum ac vestem sicut in angelis cum corpora humana assumuni; et contra heresim Dioscori affirmantis naturam humanam in Christo in divinam fuisse mutatam ex utroque Testamento testimonia proferuntur.

Sextus liber ex Scripturis utriusque Testamenti ostendit Spiritum Sanctum a Filio sicut a Patre procedere, quod a Grecis et ab Armenis plerisque negatur.

Septimus liber probat ex Scriptura quod Romana Ecclesia sit caput totius Ecclesiae Christianae.

Octavus liber de Sacramento baptismi et ejus forma plures Armenorum quaestiones absolvit.

Nonus liber de Sacramentis Corporis Christi et Sanguinis, Confirmationis et Unctionis plures quaestiones eorum tractat.

Decimus liber de modis illicitis, conferendi et acquirendi et detinendi dona Dei gratuita ac praeposituras Ecclesiae quaestiones eorum pertractat, et an requiratur gratia Dei ad habendum dominium.

Undecimus[29] liber de potestate absolvendi simplicis sacerdotis, et de punitione animarum hominum impiorum ante finale judicium quaestiones ipsorum dissolvit.

Duodecimus liber quaestiones Armenorum pertractat de beatitudine animarum quorumdam justorum et de purgatione aliquarum animarum ante finale judicium.

Liber decimus-tertius, quem propter Athanasium Graecum qui negat Purgatorium adjeci, quatuor pertractat articulos, de satisfactione, debita pro peccatis in vita et etiam post hanc vitam.

Liber decimus-quartus tractat quaestiones Graecorum et Armenorum de visione nuda atque clara divinae essentiae a vere beatis quam negant plerique eorum.

Liber decimus-quintus objicit contra auctoritatem nostrae Scripturae per contingentiam futurorum praenuntiatorum in ipsa quae possint non fore, et occasione cujusdam novelli erroris asserentis omnia futura ex necessitate sive inevitabiliter evenire, quare offendit libertatem contradictionis in voluntate humana tam ex physicis scripturis quam ex divinis in multiplici ratione, et contingentiam futurorum.

Liber decimus-sextus ponit tres de pretactis objectionibus acceptis de infallibilitate scripturae divinae, a divina praescientia immutabili, a voluntate divina omnipotente invincibili et etiam efficaci; et solvit eosdem ex propriis principiis evidenter ostendens contingentiam futurorum et libertatem contradictionis voluntatis divinae et humanae.

Liber decimus-septimus residuos sex ponit objectus de Dei cooeperatione speciali cum voluntate hominum operante; de sustentatione rerum intrinseca ab omnipotenti divina potentia; de divina cooeperatione generali eum omni agente creato; de necessitate eventus actuum intrinsecorum nostrorum, etc.

Liber decimus-octavus ostendit auctoritatem Legis Antiquae et Novae, et probat utrumque Testamentum ex lege Saracenorum firmari; et cum in multiplici ratione affirmat Legem nostram traditam in suis majoribus articulis non fuisse aut esse corruptam.

Liber decimus-nonus comparat Legem nostram quoad sacramenta et ceremonias cum lege Judaeorum. Pertractat etiam de miraculis Apostolorum, et ostendit Legem nostram robur amplius habere quam ratio naturalis, aut aliqua secta gentilium et hoc totum opus consummat.

Quia vero per interrogationem et responsionem modus tradendi videtur multis facilior, licet sit aliquantulum prolixior, unum de nostris, mihi discipulum predilectum, quasi mecum disputantem accepi. Ita ut Joannes vicem gerere quaerentis, et Richardus intelligatur vicem gerere docentis licet potius respondentis. Vos igitur, Reverendi Patres, opus accipite quod petistis, orationis si placet mercedem mihi pensantes pro labore hoc.

(B.) Works in Manuscript:--

1. (_a_) _Summa contra Armenos_, lib. xx., fol. 126, xc. New College. Oxford.

(_b_) _Responsio de Armenorum Heresi_, fol. 218, xviii. Lincoln Coll., Oxford.

(_c_) _Armachanus de Questionibus Armenorum_, Cod. 250, n. 4. St. Benedict, Cambridge.

(_d_) _Scriptum Armachani de Questionibus Armenorum_, Cod. 224. Pembroke, Cambridge.

(_e_) _Richardi Armachani lib._ xix., _Questionum adversus Armenos_. Trin. College, Dublin.

2. _Ricardi Radulphi Armachani Opus in P. Lombardi sententias_ in questiones xxix. distributum, praevio sermone super idem. xv. Oriel College, Oxford.

3. (_a_) _Ricardi Rad. Armachani, Propositio facta in consistorio coram Domino Papa et Cardinalibus ac Prelatis super materia mendicitatis ac privilegiorum mendicantium contra Fratres de ordinibus quibuscunque, apud Avinion. die 8 mensis Novemb. Anno Domini MCCCLVIII._, _fol._ 54, xxxviii. Magdal. Coll. Oxford.

(_b_) _Propositio ejusdem facta in consistorio coram Papa, Cardinalibus et Prelatis, ad utilitatem cleri ac populi Christiani super materia mendicitatis ac privilegiorum contra fratres de ordinibus mendicantium quibuscunque apud Avinion. 8 Nov. 1357_, fol. 184. St. John Bapt., Oxford.

(_c_) _Ric. Filii Radulphi, Archiep. Cantuar._ (sic) _sermo habitus Avinionae viii. die mensis Novembris A.D. 1357, in istud Nolite judicare secundum faciem_, etc., fol. 53. Corpus Christi Coll., clxxxii., Oxford.

4. _Propositio Ric. Armachani ex parte Regis Angliae Edwardi III., in consistorio D. Papa Avinione pro gratia jubilaei ejus D. Regis populo obtinenda, anno 1349_, fol. 177. S. J. Bap., Oxford.

5. _Rich. Fil. Rad. Armachani de paupertate Christi_ libri septem, cum prologo ad Innocentium Papam VI. et titulo capitulorum cuique libro praevio, fol. 143. King's Coll. Oxford, cxviii.

6. _Objectiones ejusdem contra seipsum in Materia de Mendicitate et aliis cum suis solutionibus_, fol. 196, S. Q. B., lxv. Oxford.

7. _Responsio ad objectiones Mendicantium._ British Museum.

8. _Excerpta varia ex Ricardo Fitz-Rauf; a) excerpta ex testamento S. Francisci contra fratres Minores; b) excerpta notabilia ex quodam libro qui vocatur Summa Summarum; c) excerpta ex libro Copiosae charitatis._ Bodl.

9. _Rich. Radulphi Armachani Primatis Dialogus vel Disputatio de Rebus ad S. Scripturam pertinentibus._ Lincoln, 75.

10. (_a_) _Sermones Domini Richardi Dei gratia Archiep. Armach. Hiberniae, habiti Avinione et aliis locis quampluribus de diversis Sanctis et temporibus._ S. John B. lxv. Oxford.

(_b_) _Ric. Rad. sive Fitz-Ralph, Archiep. Armach. sermones de tempore et de sanctis, per totum annum._ New Coll., xc.

(_c_) _Sermones tam de tempore quam de sanctis._ Trin. Coll., Dub.

(_d_) _Sermones V. ad crucem Londinensem_, an 1356, et _alii de laudibus S. Deipariae_. Ibid.

(_e_) _Sermones Richardi filii Radulphi de Dundalk, Archiepiscop. Armachani._ _Ibid._

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Theiner's _Vetera Monumenta_, n. 517, p. 263.

[16] _Vet. Monum._, n. 270, p. 286.

[17] _Annal. MSS._, in Bibl. Cotton.

[18] _Vet. Mon._, n. 271, p. 286-7.

[19] _Ibid._, n. 272.

[20] _Ibid._, n. 273.

[21] _Claus. 29-30, Ed. III._

[22] _Pat. 29, Ed. III._

[23] _Commentar. Urbanor, lib. 3._

[24] _Vet. Mon., p. 521._

[25] _Defensorium Curatorum._

[26] _Acts and Monuments_, i. p. 465, seq.

[27] _De Scriptoribus_, lib. i. p. 10.

[28] _Dowdall Register._

[29] Cardinal Bellarmine warns his readers that our author is _caute legendus_ in the 4th cap. of the 10th, and the 4th cap. of the 11th books. The Cardinal does not approve of his doctrine, _de potestate presbyterorum_, nor of his teaching on the mendicant state.

MR. BUTT AND NATIONAL EDUCATION.[30]

No Irish Catholic can examine the system of National Education without being filled with alarm for the safety of our faith in Ireland.

The tendency of the national system is to give a full control over the education of the rising generations in Ireland to the English Government, thus affording them an opportunity of undermining true faith, and of effecting by favours, promises, gifts, and influence, what they sought in vain to obtain by penal laws, by confiscation of property, and by fire and sword. The system also tends to weaken pastoral authority, to deprive the successors of the apostles, who were sent by Christ to teach all nations, of their lawful influence, and to separate priest and people. Such consequences necessarily follow from the operation of model and training schools, and from the vast powers given in all educational matters to a body of commissioners appointed by the government, and dependent on it--commissioners, many of whom are openly hostile to the religion of the people of Ireland, whilst others have given proof that they are either unable or unwilling to defend it or support its rights and interests. But even if the commissioners were most anxious to do justice to Catholics, the nature of the system which they have bound themselves to carry out would frustrate their good intentions. The mixed system proposes to collect into the same school teachers and pupils of every religious denomination, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Jews, and to do nothing and to teach nothing in the school, and to publish nothing in the schoolbooks, offensive to any of them. Hence all prayers, the catechism, all teaching of the special doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church, must be banished from the school during the hours of teaching, and the books placed in the hands of children which are calculated to exercise great influence on their after life, must be compiled in a style of indifference to every religion. Indeed we could not expect to find anything good or religious in books composed by a Protestant archbishop of rationalistic and latitudinarian views, who does not appear to have believed in the Trinity or the Divinity of Christ, who raised himself to the episcopal dignity by publishing the _Errors of Romanism_, and who terminated his career by admitting that his object in compiling some of the books introduced into the national schools was to dissipate the darkness in which the Irish people are sitting, or, in other words, to spread among them his own dangerous principles, and to undermine their faith.

Whilst the national system is beset by so many dangers, we cannot but be anxious that its character and tendencies should be accurately examined, and the objections to which it is liable fairly stated to the public. We are now happy to be able to say that all this has been done by a Protestant barrister, Mr. Isaac Butt, late M.P. for Youghal. This learned and eloquent gentleman has just published a treatise entitled _The Liberty of Teaching Vindicated_, in which he gives the history of the system of National Education, and discusses its merit. The writer appears to have studied the subject with the greatest care, and to have made himself acquainted with all its bearings. His treatise is written with great clearness and moderation; his views upon education are liberal and accurate; and his arguments against allowing the education of Ireland to pass into the hands of a hostile government, are most powerful and unanswerable. Mr. Butt has rendered us an immense service by publishing so valuable a treatise. We recommend all our friends to provide themselves with it, and to peruse it most carefully.

We shall now give some few extracts from it to show the spirit in which it is written. The treatise is dedicated to Mr. Gladstone, and in the dedication Mr. Butt calls on that great statesman to apply to Ireland the principles of justice and liberality, which he had so often advocated in the case of other nations, principles unhappily ignored in the management of Irish affairs by those who have the reins of power in their hands.

"Most of our departments are managed as if the chief art of Irish government consisted in a dexterous thwarting, or, at least, ignoring of all local and national wishes, as they are represented by the class with whom the department has to deal. In no country in the world, not even in the Austrian provinces of Venetia, are national feeling and sentiment so completely excluded from any control over the management of national affairs"--(p. viii.)

Applying what he had stated to the question of national education, he adds:--

"The House of Commons, with an almost prodigal, but a wise liberality, has placed at the disposal of the Irish Government large and ample funds for the purposes of national education. These funds are administered on a plan opposed to the feelings of all creeds and all classes of the Irish nation. Ninety-nine out of every hundred Irishmen condemn it. There is not an Irish constituency from Bandon to Derry in which any man could be returned as an advocate of the national system, if the question were purely one of its approval or disapproval. There is not a parish in Ireland in which the inhabitants, if they had their choice, would adopt it as the system of their parish school. Right or wrong, the present system is one forced, by official coercion, on the Irish people. It is a national system, maintained and supported in defiance of the sentiment of the nation"--(p. viii.)

Looking at the national system in a religious point of view, Mr. Butt adds, that it is in antagonism with the wishes and feelings of all classes of the Irish people.

"There is no nation on earth who cherish religious feelings with a more deep and enthusiastic devotion than do the Irish. They are the very last people among whom the experiment of an education, which excludes the fulness of religious teaching, should be tried. The result of the experiment has been, that by all creeds and classes of Irishmen, the 'national' system is condemned. All who avail themselves of it do so grudgingly and of necessity. It is a system forced upon the people by their rulers.... It is for the Irish nation themselves to judge of the education which is suited to the wants of the Irish poor. The system which is condemned by the universal suffrage of the Irish nation, is unfit for Ireland, because it is so condemned--(p. ix.)

"If we are driven to justify our opinions, we have only to refer to the example of England. In England, every school that receives aid from the funds of the State, is a school avowedly teaching the doctrines of some religious body. Full and unrestricted religious instruction is made an essential part of national education in England. In Ireland, a school which adopts that instruction as its rule, is consequently placed under a ban, and denied all assistance from the national funds. It matters not whether the instruction be Protestant or Catholic, it equally condemns the school in the eyes of our rulers"--p. x.

Treating of the difference between the systems prevailing in England and Ireland, Mr. Butt adds:--

"In point of principle, no reason can be assigned for the difference between England and Ireland. If it be wrong in Ireland to endow and aid a purely Roman Catholic school, it is equally so in England. The difference established between the two countries can neither be justified nor accounted for upon any rational principle. It fosters the belief in the mind of every Irishman that his country is treated as an inferior. In many Irishmen it promotes the belief that religious instruction, which is free in English schools, is placed under restriction in Ireland, because the faith of the majority of the Irish people is proscribed"--(p. xi.)

And may we not ask has not the Irish Catholic sufficient grounds for adopting this opinion? Has not all the legislation of the country for centuries been directed to the destruction of Catholicity?

The question is next referred to of the tendency of the national system to throw the whole education of the country into the hands of the government.

"I do not shrink from inviting your consideration to the complaint--that the Irish national system, as now constituted, is one gigantic contrivance for bringing the whole education of Ireland under government control. I appeal with confidence to you, as an English statesman, against the attempt to 'Anglicise' the education of the Irish people--against the project of bringing up, in government academies, an army of schoolmasters, who, in school, and still more out of school, are to form for government a moral and intellectual police--against the system of lavish bribery by which it is plainly proposed to attract all talent in the humbler classes of Irishmen into the service of an anti-Irish Board--against the institution in our country of a great system of universal education, subject to influences that are not Irish, and administered in a spirit of distrust of the whole Irish people, their national prejudices, and their religion"--(p. xii.)