The Puritans in Ireland (1647-1661) PDF

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The ecclesiastical history of Ireland during the period 1647 - 61, with which this book deals, is one that has been almost entirely neglected by students.

Such writers on the Church of Ireland as Mant and Olden either contented themselves with inaccurate generalities, or else drew entirely upon printed works such as Ware's Antiquities of Ireland or Monck Mason's History of St.

Patrick's Cathedral. The Pres byterian writer Reid has gone more fully into the period, While his successor Dr. Latimer has made use of the lists in the manuscript Commonwealth Books now deposited in the Public Record Office, Dublin.

It is to these priceless volumes that I have turned for information, and from which I have drawn the major portion of the contents of this book.

The examination of these page by page has resulted in the dis covery of a mass of entirely new material for the ecclesiastical history of the period.

That some facts have been overlooked is quite possible, though I do not think that anything of importance has been omitted, for the nature of the entries renders a slip but too easy.

Of course, the vast majority of them deal with various aspects of the land question, but sandwiched in among them in a most puzzling manner we find references, not only to ecclesiastical matters, but as well to pirates, to rewards paid for the heads of wolves, or for the apprehension of priests or tories, to base money, to ships and shipping, to the administration of the revenues, to Witchcraft (certainly in one instance), to the Army, &c.

The study of each of these component parts of the Commonwealth Government in Ireland might well be pursued with pleasure and profit; and in respect of one I have attempted to do so.