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*Parsons, Priests, and the People: The Rise of Irish Anti-Clericalism 1785–1789

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

R. E. Burns
R. E. Burns
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
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Extract

During the eighteenth century the major problem confronting the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was that of survival. Throughout most of the century the Irish Catholic clergy had to live and work under a code of laws designed to destroy the ecclesiastical organization of their church and, thereby, to end Catholic religious observances in Ireland. In their effects, however, the Popery laws failed their purpose. Ireland was not transformed into a state, “Protestant and past all danger of relapsing again into Popery.” In all of their respective parts, the laws against priests were impossible to enforce, perhaps never even meant to be enforced. Although the laws were sufficiently enforced to affect profoundly Catholic religious institutions and religious practices, Ireland's Catholic environment was never destroyed and never replaced by a Protestant one. The Irish language, divisions among Protestants, self-interest, jobbery, politics, missed opportunities, and stupidity combined to prevent rigorous enforcement of the laws and to frustrate the missionary and educational schemes planned by the leaders of the Established Church.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 1962 , pp. 151 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1962

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References

1 For some of the problems of historical interpretation, particularly that of the purpose of the Popery laws, see Burns, R. E., “The Irish Penal Code and Some of Its Historians,” Review of Politics, January, 1959, 276–299.Google Scholar For the most recent study of the laws and their consequences, see Wall, Maureen, The Penal Laws, 1691–1760 (Dublin Historical Association, 1961).Google Scholar For a different approach and somewhat different conclusions than those of Mrs. Wall, see Burns, R. E., “The Irish Popery Laws: Law and Human Behavior During the Early Eighteenth Century” seheduled for publication in the Review of Politics, April, 1962.Google Scholar

2 Synge to Wake, April 13, 1715, British Museum Additional Manuscripts 6116.

3 Wall, op. cit., 10.

4 The many usages and powerful connotative effect of a term like “anti-clerical” makes its employment in seholarly work very difficult. Nevertheless, no other term so accurately describes the mood of the rural masses in the south of Ireland during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

5 For these societies see G. C. Lewis, On Irish Disturbances (London, 1836); R. R. Madden, The United Irishmen, Their Lives and Times (Dublin, 1858), I, 21–123; W. E. H. Lecky, History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1892), II, 1–51.

6 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Fourteenth Report: Appendix, Part I (Rutland, Mss., lll) 1894, 318, Here after cited as HMC Belvoir.

7 Lecky, op. cit., II, 12ff; L. F. Renehan, Collections On Irish Church History (Dublin, 1861), I, 333–336.

8 Faulkner's Dublin Journal, July 15–18, 1775. Hereafter cited as FDJ.

9 FDJ, Feb. 28-March 2, 1775.

10 Brady, John, “Catholics and Catholicism in the Eighteen Century Press,” Archivium Hibernicum, XVII (1955)Google Scholar, Appendix, 179. Hereafter cited as AH.

11 FDJ, Jan. 20–23, 1776.

12 Fitzgibbon to Eden, Aug. 25, 1787, Snyed Muniments, University of North Staffordshire Library, Keele.

13 Idem.

14 HMC, Belvoir, III, 252.

15 Idem.

16 Ibid., 258.

17 Ibid., 265.

18 Ibid., 257–258.

19 Idem.

20 Idem.

21 See Rutland's review of the situation in Munster, Rutland to Sydney, August 24, 1786. Public Records Office HO 100/18, fol. 270–73.

22 AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 231.

23 Idem.

24 Ibid., 232.

25 FDJ, Feb. 22–24, 1787.

26 Historical Manuscripts Commission Twelfth Report: Appendix, Part II (Donoughmore Mss., 1891, 350–351. Hereafter cited as HMC Donoughmore.

27 Memorandum Concerning Tythe (undated). Public Records Office H. O. 100/21, fol. 390.

28 Idem.

29 Idem.

30 Idem.

31 Thomas Newenham, A View of the Natural, Political, and Commercial Circumstances of Ireland (London, 1809), 259.

32 See pamphlets of Theophilus, Address to the nobility and clergy of the church of Ireland by law established, (Dublin, 1786); Richard Woodward, Bishop of Cloyne, The Present State of the Church of Ireland (Dublin, 1787); and The parliamentary register of the history of the proceedings of the house of Commons of Ireland (Dublin, 1782–1801), VII, 57–61.

33 Rutland to Sydney, August 24, 1786. Public Records Office H. O. 100/18, fol. 270–273.

34 Idem.

35 Rolleston to Secretary of State, August 9, 1786. Sydney Papers 52, National Library, Dublin.

36 Idem.

37 HMC, Donoughmore, 350–351.

38 Idem.

39 Arthur O'Leary, A Defence of the Conduct and Writings of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary (London, 1787), Appendix I, 143–158. For O'Leary's employment, see Lecky, History of Ireland, ll, 405–406.

40 AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 232–233.

41 Ibid., 238.

42 Idem.

43 Idem.

44 Idem. For more details, see FDJ, July 15–18, 1786.

45 Ibid., 234.

46 FDJ, June 24–27, 1786; AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 243.

47 AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 235–237.

48 One of the priests was Reverend John Seanlon. He resigned his parish of Donoughmore; Bishop McKenna reassigned him to Mallow, but the people refused to receive him there. AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 257.

49 Ibid., 235–237.

50 Idem.

51 Idem.

52 Idem.

53 Idem.

54 Ibid., 241–243.

55 Idem.

56 FDJ, September 3–5, 1786.

57 AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 245–247.

58 Ibid., 244.

59 Ibid., 252–253.

60 Idem.

61 HMC, Belvoir, III, 336.

62 AH, XIX (1956), Appendix, 240, 243, 244.

63 HMC Donoughmore 318; William Beresford, The Correspondence of the Rt. Hon. John Beresford (London, 1854), I, 308–309.

64 John, Duke of Rutland, Correspondence between the Rt. Hon. William Pitt and Charles, Duke of Rutland 1781–1787 (London, 1890), 164.

65 Ibid., 173–177; Historical Manuscripts Commission: Thirteenth Report, Appendix, Part III (Fortescue Mss., I),1892, 314.

66 Lifford to Camden, November 29, 1786, Westmoreland Papers 886, National Library, Dublin.

67 Idem.

68 Idem.

69 Newenham op. cit., Appendix, xxix, 41.

70 Finegan, Francis, “The Irish Catholic Convert Rolls,” Studies (March, 1949), 73–82.Google Scholar