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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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This correspondence arose out of the meeting . which , at the instance of the Evangelical part of the Establishment in Ireland , was held at Cork , in September 1829 , with a view to petition Parliament on the subject of
existing : abuses in the Church . The meeting consisted merely of laymen . The Earl of Mounicashel presided , and he is therefore singled out as the object of his attack by the Church advocate , the Bishop of Ferns . As a logician , the Bishop is the better man ; but the EarL has of all the advantages the greatest , that of a good cause . The Bishop , in the true spirit of a priest , is very wrathful with the Earl and his associates for presuming to intrude into sacred matters , and labours hard to intimidate his readers by assuring them
that that deplorable event , " the great rebellion , " was begun by the interference of the laity , in ' * affairs ecclesiastical . " The Earl of Mountcashel , however , disregards the Bishop ' s terrors , and ventures , and with success , to justify the proceedings at Cork . If the clergy are too idle or too corrupt to care for the Church , it is high time , he thinks , that the laity should look into its condition , and rescue it if possible from the ruin with which it is threatened . The Chairman and all the speakers at the meeting profess the
most ardent attachment to the Church , and the representations , therefore , which they give of its corruptions are the representations not of enemies , but of friends . Among the abuses mentioned by the speakers and alluded to in the resolutions passed at the meeting , and in the petition presented to the Lords , and in the statements of the Earl of Mountcashel in his controversy with the Bishop , we shall briefly detail the chief . From the ensuing specimen , our readers will be able to judge how desirable it is that the Irish Church should continue to receive the protection of the law .
Living instances are not wanting of bishops being appointed from political motives . ; the country is so badly provided with spiritual guides , that there is only one parish clergyman to about 3888 persons , one incumbent to nearly 6000 persons , and one hard-working curate , supposing all to be such , to nearly 12 , 000 persons , many of the rectors confine their weekly labours to performing the Church service on a Sunday , and reading a dull sermon ; the Protestant community of the working classes , except those
who are under the superintendence of Dissenters , are , m the majority of cases , in the depths of ignorance and depravity ; the covetousness of many of the clergy has alienated the affections of the laity , and driven many members of the Church oat of her pale ; the morals of many of the clergy are disgraceful ; the discipline of the ecclesiastical courts relaxed or evaded by bribery and corruption ; many of the clergy set themselves in open opposition to efforts made for the improvement of the people by others of their
bod y , by the union of distinct parishes , of parishes which are sometimes many miles distant from each other , a large income is obtained for a relation or a dependent of a bishop , and the spiritual welfare of thousands totally neglected . A dignitary in Munster holds a large living in Connaught . A union in the neighbourhood of the Earl Mountcashel consists of rive parishes , and is valued at between three and four thousand pounds a year . From a return made to Parliament , iu 1820 , it appears that in the dioceses of Clonfert and Kilmaduah there were 59 parishes united into 14 benefices .
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( 693 )
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CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE LORD BISHOP OP FERNS AND THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF MOUNTCASHEL ON THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page 693, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/37/
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