IRELAND. 763 General Synod, composed of a Houne of Bishops and a House of clerical and lay delegates, meet- ing annually in Dublin. The House of Bishops Las the right to veto, but seven members must agree upon a veto to render it valid. The bishops are chosen by the diocesan convention, but if the convention fail to elect a candidate to a vacant see bv a majority of two-thirds of each order, the election falls to the House of Bishops. The Primate, the Archbishop of Armagh, is elected by the House of Bishops from their own order. The property of the Cluirch is vested in a perma- nent representative body, composed of three classes — the ex-oflicio archbishop and bishops, one clerical and two lay representatives for each diocese, and the co-opted members chosen by the cx-officio and representative members, and equal in number to the dioceses. One-third of the elected members retire by rotation. In 1901 t!ie Church of Ireland had two archbishops (Armagh and Dublin), eleven bishops, a membership of over 600,000. and £8.128.440 in funds in custody of the financial trustees, the so-called representa- tive body made up of the hierarchy, and 13 cleri- cal and 36 lay representatives, elected by the General Svnod. The general feeling among the members of this Church has been hostile to the introduction of High Church doctrines and prac- tices, and the Prayer-Book has, since the dis- establishment, been modified in this sense. See EXGL.ND, CHlTtCH OF. IRELAND, Joii.N (1838—). An American Konum Catholic prelate. He was born at Burn- church, County Kilkenny, Ireland. September II, 1838, but was brought to the United States at the age of eleven, his parents settling at Saint Paul, ilinn. In 1853 he was sent to France to be educated for the priesthood, to which he was ordained in 1861 on his return to Saint Paul. Here he remained, except for a period of service with the Fifth Minnesota Regiment in the Civil War, becoming rector of the cathedral. In 1875 he was made Coadjutor Bishop of Saint Paul, and on Bishop Grace's resignation, in 1884, suc- ceeded him, the .see being made metropolitan with the title of archbishop in 1888. The influence of his personality has made him a C(»mmanding figure in many important movements, especially those for txital abstinence, for colonization in the Xorthwest (he was a director of the Xational Colonization Association), and for the estab- lishment of the Catholic University at Washing- ton. He is the author of The Church and Modern Societi/ (1897). IRELAND, WiLLi.M Hexby (1777-1835). A Shakespearean forger, son of Samuel Ireland, engraver and author, born in London in 1777. After attending various private schools, he was sent to schools in France, where he remained four years. On returning to London, he was ap- prenticed to a conveyancer. In 1794 he visited Stratford-on-Avon with his father, who was pre- paring a book descriptive of the town. Here he met .John Jordan, a Stratford poet, who had published much gossipy information in regard to Shakespeare, even forging the will of the dramatist's father. After the return of the Irelands to London, William began on his own account a series of remarkable itorgeries. which deceived first his credulous father and then many scholars. He nrodueed legal documents, verses, and letters purporting to be Shakespeare's, a Vol. X.-4fl. IREN.EUS. number of si.teenth-century volumes with Shake- speare's name on the title-pages, the manuscripts of Lear and of a fragment of Hamlet, and finally two plays, yortigern and Henry II., which he tried to foist as Shakespeare's. On April 2, 1796, Vortigtrn was performed at Drury Lane amid peals of laughter. The same year young Ireland published a written confession, which he enlarged in 1805. .Subsequently he wrote con- siderable verse in imitation of Chatterton, fKiliti- cal squibs, and several Gothic romances. He died in London. April 17, 1835. His Confessions t 1805; were reissued by k. G. White ( Xew York, 18741 . In December. 1795, the elder Ireland pub- lished facsimiles of the forged documents bearing the title Miscellaneous Pafiers and Legal Instru- ments Under the Hand and Heal of William Hhakespeare. These forgeries James Paj-n made the subject of an interesting novel, The Talk of the Toirii (1885). IRELAND ISLAND. One of the Bermudas (q.v.l. IRE'NA. The personification of Ireland, in Spenser's I'urrie Queene. IREN.a:US, ir^-ne'us (Lat., from Gk. Elpij- paiot, Ltrcnaios), .Saixt (c.l.30-c.'202) . Bishop of Lugdunum (Lyons), and one of the leading Church Fathers of the West. He* was born in Asia Minor, perhaps about 130, and died after the year 200. He was a impil of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who had been a disciple of the Apostle John. Thus Iren*us preserves a direct line of apostolic tradition. In 155 he accompanied Polycarp on a mission to Ani- cetus. Bishop of Eome, concerning the dispute between the Asiatic and the Western churches over the time of observing Easter. (See Easteb. ) Some time after this he removed to Gaul, where he became a presbyter in the Church of Lugdunum. Polhinus. the aged Bishop of Lyons, suffered death in the persecution imder Marcus Aurelius (177), and Irenieus was chosen to succeed him. Shortly before this time he visited Rome again, carrying letters with refer- ence to the Montanists. (.See Moxtaxu.s.) The remainder of his life seems to have been passed in the successful administration of his see. When toward the end of the century the Easter con- troversy broke out afresh, and Victor, Bishop of Rome, threatened the Asiatic churches with excommunication unless they conformed to the Roman usage, Irenteus intervened with a fra- ternal letter to Victor, admonishing him to peace. Nothing is known about Irenicus's life after this time. A fifth-century tradition, which cannot be traced further back than Jerome, says that he met a martyr's death in the persecution under Septimius Severus (202). Gregory of Tovirs gives a full account of the alleged martyr- dom in his Historii of the Franks. Irenaeus wrote in Greek. His work Against Heresies has sur-ivcd only in a Latin translation. It was written in Gaul to combat the Gnostic teaching (see Gnosticism), and dates from 181- 180. It is valuable for the history of doctrine. Fragments of some of his other works are pre- served by the later writers. Harnack has recently shown that the so-called 'Pfalfian Fragments' were forged by Pfaff himself. The first edition of Irena>us's works was edited by Erasmus (Basel. 1526). Modern editions are by Migne, Patrologia Uraca, vii., and Harvey (Cambridge, 1857). An
