Political and Religious conditions in Ulster, 1714-1718
We now turn to the political oppression which was another cause for discontent in northern Ireland. In the early days of the London settlement and the succeeding Scotch migration when linen took the place of woolen, the new settlers felt that superior ity which men who have a strong government behind them are wont to feel. They were independent, and even contemptuous of "the mere Irish." Under Cromwell they grew in strength until there were about eighty churches represented in the presbytery. With the return of Charles II, religious and political restrictions began to be felt. In Ulster sixty-one ministers were ejected from their churches, and curates were appointed to conduct Episcopal serv ices; uniformity in church worship again became a dogma of the State.
It must not be assumed that the disabilities under which Presbyterians in Ireland labored were pecul iar to the time or place. It was held by many to be for the best interest of the State that people should worship God in the accustomed way ; and in Queen Elizabeth's time all persons had been commanded to attend church on Sundays and holy days where the Book of Common Prayer was used. This was no more tyrannical than the policy of the non-conforming assembly in Scotland, which was to induce Crom well to make the Presbyterian religion paramount in England,2 nor more exacting than the aim of the Presbyterians in Ireland who, as soon as they felt their strength, asked to have the army under Pres byterian influences only. The same strong spirit prevailed in early orthodox New England ; and the present large but empty churches there, with ample but idle horsesheds, testify to a more effective and perhaps more wholesome spiritual and social life in country towns of old under the despotism of Cotton Mather and his immediate successors.
Roman Catholic supremacy in Ireland under James II came to an end with the arrival of William and Mary in 1688. In 1691 Parliament decreed that the statute of Queen Elizabeth's time relating to uniformity of church services should not apply to Ireland, thus permitting attendance at non-con formist chapels. After January 1, 1691-2, all candi dates for civil, military and ecclesiastical offices were to take oaths of allegiance to the royal family, and to make declarations against transubstantiation in the mass, and adoration of the Virgin Mary, provi sions intended to bar Eoman Catholics from office. Dissenters now had liberty to worship in their own chapels, and were not compelled to partake of the Lord s Supper according to the rites of the Estab lished church in order to hold office. But they still had disabilities which could be made to bear heavily upon them ; indeed if the magistrate chose, they suffered more than the Roman Catholics. The Synod which met at Antrim in 1698 declared its grievances to be an inability in many places to bury the dead until the Established service had been read, the requirement that school-masters partake of the Lord's Supper according to the customary rites, and the pressure to serve as church-wardens. In 1699 the Synod being asked for advice as to mar riages decided that ministers had better continue to perform the ceremony "in an orderly way," as of old. In 1710 the Synod decided that it might be wise in some places to leave the performance of the cere mony to the Episcopal clergy. In the second year of Queen Anne s reign (1703) a penal statute was carried by the help of the Bishops/ and they ob tained in return for their support the introduction of a clause compelling in Ireland the sacramental test for office holders. This Irish Test Act seems to have been used unscrupulously as a weapon to place the Presbyterians on a level of disability with the Eoman Catholics. Their ministers were almost everywhere turned out of their pulpits or threatened with legal proceedings. Dissenters were debarred from teach ing schools and the legality of their marriages was denied. In 1716 Samuel Smith, Jr., and John Kyle of Belfast were called upon to defend their mar riages in court. These were test cases, followed however by others. The Synod determined to stand by the defendants with the church s funds, but threats from prominent supporters of the denom ination to withhold contributions in the future if the course were persisted in, caused the Synod to aban don the attempt to uphold its claims in this way.
The Eegium Donum, an annual government gift to non-conformist clergy in Ireland, in recognition of the Protestant defence of Ulster in 1688, was sus pended. In short the hardships inflicted under this law of Queen Anne from 1703 to 1719 had much to do with the migration to New England.
The Government found it impossible to pass a more moderate act to quiet discontent until vacan cies in the ranks of the bishops could be filled by more tolerant men, and the Toleration Act1 of 1719 was the first measure of relief that could be obtained. The oath still required loyalty to a King when excommunicated by the Pope; and the customary provisions to disfranchise Roman Catholics, namely : a declaration that in the Sacrament of the Lord s Supper there is no transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and that the adoration of the Virgin Mary and other saints, and Sacrifice of the Mass are superstitious and idolatrous. There were exemptions for dis senters who did not favor baptism in infancy, and for Quakers, and there was no requirement to attend the Lord s Supper; but the thirteenth article of the act shut out all from its benefits who did not believe in the Trinity. This article struck a blow at Presby terian Antrim which was just then divided over the doctrine of Christ s divinity, and weakened the non conformist strength, although the act was con sidered by Archbishop King "such a wide Tolera tion as ... is not precedented in the whole Earth." King George pressed the measure vigor ously and the clergy which had been transplanted from England helped to pass it through the Irish parliament.
This concession did little to allay the fever for migration to America, which by 1728 aroused the fears of Archbishop Boulter of Armagh, and occa sioned a series of letters, chiefly of defence against the charge that excessive tythes rather than rents caused the exodus. Extracts from these letters fol low, but it should be recalled that their author was not so much in sympathy with Ireland as was Arch bishop King of Dublin.
Archbishop Boulter, writing to Lord Carteret from Dublin, March 8, 1728, says: "I do not doubt but some persons in the North may have been oppressed by the farmers of tythes. But I h#ve at every visitation I have held had as great com plaints from the clergy of the hardships put upon them by the people, in coming at their just dues, as the people can make of being any ways oppressed by the clergy or their tythe farmers, and I believe with as much reason.
"As to the expensiveness of the Spiritual courts which they complain of, that will be very much avoided by the act passed last sessions for the more easy recovery of the tythes of small value. And indeed the gentlemen have, ever since I came hither, been putting it into the heads of their tenants, that it was not their rents, but the paying of the tythes that made them find it hard to live on their farms. And it is easy to see that this was a notion that would readily take with Scotch presbyterians. " In a letter to the Bishop of London1 the Archbishop contends that if the rent is doubled that implies that the value of the tythe is doubled ; so the archbishop throws the responsibility on the landlord. The growth of the country after the wars of 1688 un doubtedly warranted somewhat higher rents. He continues: "It is not the tythe but the increased rent that undoes the farmer. And indeed in this country, where I fear the tenant hardly ever has more than one third of the profits he makes of his farm for his share and too often but a fourth or perhaps a fifth part, as the tenant s share is charged with the tythe, his case is no doubt hard, but it is plain from what side the hardship arises. When they find they have 7 or 8 to pay, they run away : for the greatest part of the occupiers of the land here are so poor, that an extraordinary stroke of 8 or 10 [judgment] falling on them, is certain ruin to them."
In a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, written from Dublin March 13, 1728, Boulter shows what efforts were made to better the conditions of the moment, but he could scarcely have expected to upbuild the commercial well-being of Ireland, whatever influ ence he might have had, without the enactment of new laws relating to religious and political equal ity of dissenter and Episcopalian. He writes :
"The humour of going to America still continues, and the scarcity of provisions certainly makes many quit us : there are now seven ships at Belfast that are carrying off about 1000 passengers thither : and if we knew how to stop them, as most of them can neither get victuals nor work at home, it would be cruel to do it:
"We have sent for 2400 quarters of rye from Coningsbery; when they arrive which will probably be about the middle of May, we hope the price of things will fall considerably in the north, and we suppose they will mend pretty much when our sup plies arrive from Munster."
The Established Church in Ireland was fortunate in having several leaders during this period who were able administrators, and conscious of their duty toward Ireland. Archbishops King and Boul ter showed by their correspondence a lively sense of the deplorable condition of the people, both spirit ually and as to their worldly estate. They also strove to bring the clergy to a higher plane. In 1714 King remonstrated with Dr. Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, for his long years of absence from Ireland, on the ground that his conduct justified the reproach of Mr. Boyse, the famous Presbyterian, that his bishopric was "only a pompous sinecure." King himself gives some explanation of this unfortunate habit of the clergy when he says that there was little learning in Ireland and one could do no more than eat, drink and sleep.
The archbishop felt handicapped in trying to rival the Presbyterian influence in the North by the prac tice of the rector who lived abroad, leaving his par ish work to be done by a poorly paid curate. He writes :
i l The people of the North have a peculiar aversion to curates, & call them hirelings ; the difference in point of success amongst them is visible, between a grave resident minister that lives amongst his peo ple, & spends part of what he receives from them in the place, & a poor curate that is not able to keep himself from contempt. . . . The people of the North do not grudge their tithes to the clergy, though they pay more than all the other provinces, because their landlords or the clergy must have them ; the first must spend them in London or Dub lin, whereas the clergy spend them on the place. . . . But if the clergy live in Dublin, tis as good for the people landlords had the tithes. ... In short, the world begins to look on us as a parcel of men that have invented a trade for our easy and convenient living."
In behalf of the clergy it must be said that they were more devoted than the landlords, and a fourth or fifth of the resident justices were taken from the clerical ranks because no other men of education and standing were to be found in those communities,, if we except the Presbyterian ministers who were barred by law from holding the office.
Archbishop King was so devoted to Ireland that Boulter was chosen with a view to counteracting his influence. King was no less devoted to his church. He went from town to town in his " parish visita tion, exhorting his clergy to hold conferences with dissenters to bring them to conformity, making ad dresses to the public which "seemed to flow from the occasion, rather than by design," and obtaining results which seemed to him encouraging.
King, in his struggle with the Scotch in Ulster, wrote a very able book which caused a bitter contro versy for a generation, covering the period before the migration of 1718. The book bore the title "A discourse concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God," and attempted to prove that the Presbyterians, who prided themselves on their devo tion to Scripture, worshipped in direct opposition to its mandates, and rarely read it in their meetings. When the book appeared in print they were, as he said, "irate and excited almost to fury." The Eev. Joseph Boyse of Dublin, a grandson of Matthew Boyse who lived for a time at Rowley in New Eng land, and the Rev. Robert Craighead, whose son migrated to New England and Pennsylvania, replied at great length. King had charged the Presbyterians with failure to attend public worship regularly, with neglect of the celebration of the Lord s Sup per, and with being contented with scant instruc tion in Christian principles. Boyse, as the ablest of several defenders of the dissenters, made the best attempt to refute these charges. The dissenters felt the weakness of their Bible training, but so many ministers had been admitted to preach with insuffi cient education that it was difficult to raise the requirements. The proposition to have candidates for the ministry study the Psalter in Hebrew came before the Synod year after year and failed to pass. Finally Hebrew was deemed necessary, and in 1709 and 1710 the Synods voted that the Rev. Fulk White of Braid be paid 10 a year for teaching Hebrew. Candidates for the ministry were urged, also, to study the New Testament in the original Greek.
Archbishop King by the publication of his book started a discussion which undoubtedly awakened the minds of the people, and must have done good. He said, "Our people, who before almost in silence endured the scoffings and continual disputations of the dissenters, their ears deafened with frequent arguments, and scornful attacks; neither in meet ings, drinking parties, nor feasts, could they any where rest, but conquered and helpless, remained silent; now reviving as with new spirits, and in their turn attacking the adversaries."
It must be granted that the Established church, even with its endowments, had a difficult field for its labor. The Eoman Catholics dominated the lower provinces, and in Ulster the Scotch Presbyterians outnumbered the English Episcopalians, while together the Protestants scarcely exceeded the Eoman Catholic population. The "estated gentle men^ largely belonged to the Established church, and it was feared that their dissenting tenants, if granted privileges, would transfer their loyalty from landlord to dissenting minister. While the dominant class did not have the courage to be generous, it is not unfair to assume also that the Presbyterians were at times strangers to conciliation.
In an address which came before the House of Lords at Dublin in 1711, relating to the "disturb ance of the peace " at Drogheda by two Presbyteri ans who wished to gather a church, the following charges are made:
1. Dissenters have refused to take apprentices that will not covenant to go to their meetings.
2. When in a majority in Corporations they excluded all not of their persuasion.
3. They oblige those of their Communion married
by our Liturgy to do publick Penance.
4. Episcopal order hath been stiled Anti-Scriptural; our worship called superstitious & idolatrous.
5. Ministers openly and violently assaulted. Although Episcopalians have endeavored, by gentle
Usage, to melt them down into a more soft and complying temper.
6. They seek to enlarge their borders by misapplying that Bounty of 1200 a year, extended to
them for charitable purposes :
to the propagation of schism,
to maintain agents,
to support lawsuits against the church,
to form seminaries to the poisoning of the principles of our youth,
to set up synods and judicatories.
The most unfortunate result, however, of a con tentious spirit among Irish Presbyterians appeared when shades of belief became through violent de bates among themselves the source of irreconcilable feuds, to be maintained with Scotch stubbornness.
Presbyterianism, which should have been strong in Ulster, was by virtue of its Scotch origin deprived of its united force through the great theological schism of the time: in other words, through the ascendancy of what we should now call Unitarianism, or the growing disinclination of ministers to subscribe to the Westminster Confession.
The master mind of this time in Scottish theology was Professor Simson, who began his instruction in Divinity at Glasgow a century after the death of the Dutch theologian Arminius, that is in 1708. His liberal views were espoused by Professor Hamilton at Edinburgh, and by a leader in Ulster thought, the Eev. John Abernethy of Antrim in Ireland. Abernethy, a friend of Simson, founded the Belfast Society which rapidly gained prominence as the sup porter of ministers in Ireland who would not sub scribe to the Westminster Confession. In 1707 a minister in the Synod of Aberdeen had been sus pended for asserting that virtue was more natural to man than vice. The opposition of Arminius to the doctrine that God had selected his chosen few for the Kingdom of Heaven, leaving by predestination the unfortunate and sinful majority of mankind to an eternity in hell, became the basis of the liberal movement under Simson and the younger clergy of western Scotland and Ulster. In their platform were many beliefs that have since then influenced all creeds : that man is naturally able through his own powers to seek saving grace ; that corruption which overcame the soul s purity was due to the body inherited from Adam ; that the wish for happiness should inspire Christian living ; that effective pun ishment for sin must be eternal, but that infants would be saved, and even the heathen would be judged according to their opportunity for light. And, most important of all, the elect would, it was hoped, outnumber the damned.
With these liberalizing theories went a change in preaching. Dogma became less important than con duct, and the younger ministers turned to ethics and morality for their themes, drifting away from the homely exhortation to worship and follow Christ. The "non-subscribers" to the Westminster Con fession were joined to the Presbytery of Antrim, and then in 1726 were made independent. In 1736, after years of bitter discord, the Assembly ruled that ministers insist on supernatural revelation, that they base their sermons on Gospel subjects and "let their hearers know that they must first be grafted into Christ as their root before their fruit can be savoury unto God." County Antrim was a theological bat tle-ground during these opening years of the eight eenth century when the doctrinal articles were by many abandoned.
The theological disputes of the time left their im press upon the emigrants to America. To them religion was a vital subject, for constant thought and frequent discussion. In New England this earn est discussion grew into a spirit of discord which weakened the Presbyterian influence there. At the South the Presbyterians were of a milder temper, possibly because their greater numbers gave them less provocation to religious contention; possibly also because the milder English Presbyterianism had taken root early, and made itself felt even when the Scotch Irish had overrun the country.
Their devotion to self-government made them the pioneers in the movement for political independ ence. Eeferring to the Mecklenburg declaration a North Carolinian once said: "Och, aye, Tarn Polk declared independence lang before anybody else!" This Colonel "Tarn" or Thomas was the great uncle of President Polk. He was a leader among the Scotch Irish of North Carolina, and the opening paragraph of the "Declaration" which he read from the steps of the Court-house in Charlotte on a May afternoon in 1775 exhibits the courage of the race from Ireland. These are the opening words which he read :
"Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country - to America - and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man."
As the reading continued, and Colonel Polk s voice declared for a dissolution of the political bonds with the mother country, "that nation who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington," there was breathless silence followed by loud and long cheers. The Polks from Donegal were doing their part in America.
The Scotch Irish puzzled the traveller. Crevecoeur speaks of the varying ability and thrift shown by the settlers. He adds: "One would think on so small an island an Irishman must be an Irishman, yet it is not so; they are different in their aptitude to, and in their love of labour.
If the Scotch Irish differed from the Irish they were not more like the Germans. The fundamental reason was a racial one, although the Scotch Irish selected slaty lands along the river banks where the soil is less productive than the lime-stone formations chosen by the Germans. If we study the bio graphical dictionary, however, to compare Scotch Irish civic achievement with German participation in public life, we shall find the slaty field obstructed by stumps a more productive nursery of statesmen than the well-cleared field of loam that delighted the German heart.