:--

"So far from assisting the government in its schemes, they are
among its bitterest opponents. Dr. Cullen himself is hardly more
hostile to the National Education System than these paid officials
of the state, for whom the one possible excuse would be an
unflinching support of state measures. The Church Education
Society numbers something like two-thirds of the Established clergy
among its adherents, and is one of the most serious difficulties
with which at present the cause of National Education has to
contend. What shall be done with these spaniels that forget to
cringe, but bark and snap at the hand that feeds them? Might they
not, at any rate, be scourged and starved into a more submissive
mood?"--page 43.

These words reveal to us the position which men of the world would
expect a clergy paid by the state to assume towards the state. From
being ministers of God, they are to become paid officials of the state;
from being the stewards of things divine, they are to recommend
themselves to their masters by an unflinching support of the state
measures. And if conscience should at any time call upon them to refuse
the support demanded at their hands, the government has the power and
the will to scourge and starve them into a more submissive mood. What a
practical commentary does Mr. Cunningham here offer on the words used by
Mgr. Brancadoro,[C] in declining the pension offered by the British
Government in 1805! Better, far better, poverty with the liberty of the
sanctuary, than rich endowments with slavery. We demand the abolition of
the Establishment on the broad grounds of social equality and justice,
and not because we wish to enrich ourselves with its spoils. We are rich
enough in the love of that noble Irish race, than which none other ever
gave more blessed consolation to the ministers of Christ.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote C: I. E. RECORD, No. II., page 50-55.]

ANCIENT RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS OF ARDAGH.

I.

SAINT BRIGID'S DOMINICAN CONVENT, LONGFORD.

The early history of the See of Ardagh is involved in much obscurity and
some little confusion. After Saint Mel, its first bishop, and Melchuo,
his brother and successor, for several centuries there is little
available information of the state of the diocese, the succession of its
bishops, or the condition of its religious foundations. For the most
part, up to the twelfth century, we find on