and morals, both in the laity and the
priesthood of the Catholic Church at the Reformation, than at any other
period of the Church's history; but the Jews had been commanded to obey
the Scribes and Pharisees, because they sat in Moses' seat, at the very
time when the Lamb of God could find no milder term to describe their
hypocrisy and iniquity than that of a generation of vipers.

If schism is admitted to be a sin, it is difficult to see how any amount
of crime with which other individuals can be charged, even justly,
lessens the guilt of the schismatic. There can be little doubt that the
members of the Church are most fervent and edifying in their lives, when
suffering from persecution. Ambition has less food when there are no
glittering prizes within its reach. Faith is more sincere when there are
no motives for a false profession, and every natural motive to conceal
religious belief. The Irish clergy were never charged with the gross
crimes which have been mentioned in connexion with some few of their
brethren in England. Those who ministered outside the Pale, lived in
poverty and simplicity. The monasteries were not so richly endowed as
the English conventual houses; and, perhaps, this freedom from the
world's goods, served to nerve them for the coming trial; and that their
purer and more fervent lives saved the Irish Church and people from
national apostacy.

Soon after Dr. Browne's arrival in Ireland, he received an official
letter from Cromwell, containing directions for his conduct there. He is
informed it is "the royal will and pleasure of his Majesty, that his
subjects in Ireland, even as those in England, should obey his commands
in spiritual matters as in temporal, and renounce their allegiance to
the See of Rome." This language was sufficiently plain. They are
required to renounce their allegiance to the See of Rome, simply because
"the King wills it." The affair is spoken of as if it were some
political matter, which could easily be arranged. But the source of this
prelate's authority was simply political; for Henry writes to him thus:
"Let it sink into your remembrance, that we be as able, for the not
doing thereof, to remove you again, and put another man of more virtue
and honesty into your place, as we were at the beginning to prefer you."
Browne could certainly be in no doubt from whom he had received his
commission to teach and preach to the people of Ireland; but that nation
had received the fait