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 only the names of the bishops, of which the meagre list is very incomplete and defective; in some instances whole centuries are passed over, of which we have no published record at all.