were favourable to the condemned tenets, and Independent Divines are mentioned as discharging their ministry within the parishes of Kilbride, in Lanarkshire, and of Kirkintilloch, in the county of Dumbarton. Persecution appeared in some quarters, and sectaries were excommunicated, imprisoned, and hunted from place to place so that their lives were embittered. These scanty facts indicate at least that Congregationalism found no congenial soil in regions north of the border.[213] [Sidenote: _Congregationalism in Ireland._] The Brownists are reported to have visited Ireland, with some success. Dr. Owen, when in Dublin, lamented the ignorance of religion prevalent in that city, but found "a numerous multitude of as thirsty a people after the Gospel" as he had ever met with.[214] Certain distinguished Independents went over after the completion of Cromwell's conquests, of whom one was Dr. Samuel Winter, appointed to the provostship of Trinity College. Dr. Thomas Harrison accompanied Henry Cromwell, and preached for some years in Christ Church, Dublin. Samuel Mather, a member of the well-known Mather family, also an Independent, became a minister in Ireland; and being a man of singular moderation, when commissioned by the Lord Deputy to displace the Episcopal clergy, he declined the office, on the ground that he had come to Ireland to preach the Gospel, not to hinder others from doing so. Stephen Charnock also spent some time in the island. John Rogers, a Dublin pastor in 1651, may be added to the list, for he thus expresses his ecclesiastical opinions:--"Concerning the Church of Christ, I know that it is one body universal and catholic, and that it is of all saints, past, present, and to come, invisible and visible, yea spiritual and formal. But this I also believe, that God hath left rule in His word for particular congregations here upon earth, as the visible to make up His one entire and universal body."[215] John Murcot, an extraordinary young man, who occupied one of the Dublin pulpits, was another Congregational preacher.[216] Churches of this denomination existed in Youghall, Carrickfergus, Limerick, Tredagh, and other Irish towns.[217] Most of the Irish Independents accepted State support, but a few were averse to maintenance by tithes. The difference between the latter and their brethren is mentioned by the Lord Deputy, who also alludes rather sarcastically to the mutual jealousies of Independents and Anabaptists.[218] [Sidenote: _Cathedral Worship._]