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Why the Reformation Failed in Ireland: Une Question Mal Posée1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Nicholas Canny
Nicholas Canny
Affiliation:
University College, Galway
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Extract

The question of why the Reformation failed to win any significant number of adherents from among the native population in Ireland has, since the nineteenth century, been posed frequently by historians and, until very recently, the question has been accepted as valid and the answers provided have generally been considered plausible. That the problem of the Reformation in Ireland should be approached in this way is at least a concession by scholars that Irish history is a part of European history and that Irish society has always been influenced to some degree by general European movements. Historical practice has unfortunately not conformed with appearance, and historians have lost sight of the broad comparative perspective implied in the question and, as a consequence, have shirked the fundamental issue of whether or not a reform movement developed within Ireland, or whether the necessary conditions for such a development existed. Instead, the problem has been pondered almost exclusively within the context of the Reformation in England with die result that historians, while appearing to be embarked upon a general discussion of the pre-conditions for reformation, have in fact confined their attention to the much more specific issue of why measures which in a relatively short time produced a solidly Protestant society in England failed to achieve anything like the same result in Ireland.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , October 1979 , pp. 423 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

2 Richard Bagwell, writing in 1885, took it as given that the Reformation had failed and thought the reasons so evident that he stated them in his preface; see Ireland under the Tudors, London 1885-1890, i. pp. vii–xGoogle Scholar.

3 For the classic exposition of this view see Edwards, R. D., Church and State in Tudor Ireland: a history ofthe penal laws against Irish Catholics, 1534-1603, Dublin and London 1935;Google Scholar another view, which explained failure in terms of Irish social conditions being unsuited to the development of the Reformation, was best presented in G. V. Jourdan's contribution o t vol. s of Phillips, W. Alison (ed.), History ofthe Church ofIreland, 3 vols, London 1933-1934Google Scholar.

4 This quotation is from Mary Hayden's foreword to Edwards, R. D., Church and State, p. viiGoogle Scholar.

5 The works of Brendan Bradshaw discussed in this essay are as follows, and will henceforth be referred to in an abbreviated form; Bradshaw, Brendan, The Dissolution ofthe Religious Orders in Ireland under Henry VIII, Cambridge 1974;Google Scholar‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical reformation in the Irish reformation parliament’, I[rish] H[istorical] S[tudies], xvi (1969), 285–303;Google Scholar‘George Browne, first reformation archbishop of Dublin, 1536-1554’, in this JOURNAL, xxi (1970), 301–26;Google Scholar‘The beginnings of modern Ireland’, in The Irish Parliamentary Tradition, ed. Farrell, Brian, Dublin 1973, 68–87;Google Scholar‘Fr. Wolfe's description of Limerick, 1574’, North Munster Antiquarian Journal, xvii (1975), 47–53;Google Scholar‘The Edwardian reformation in Ireland’, in Archivium Hibemicum, xxvi (1976/1977), 83–99;Google Scholar‘The Elizabethans and the Irish’ in Studies, xlvi (1977) 38–50;Google Scholar‘Cromwellian reform and the origins of the Kildare Rebellion, 1533-4’, in Trans. Royal Historical Society, xxvii (1977), 69–93;Google Scholar‘Sword, word and strategy in the Reformation in Ireland’, in Historical Journal, xxi (1978), 475–502Google Scholar.

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8 Bradshaw, ‘Cromwellian reform’; idem, ‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical legislation’; idem, Dissolution, 49-65; idem, ‘The beginnings of modern Ireland’, 75-8.

9 , Bradshaw, ‘The Edwardian reformation’, 83, 87-92;Google Scholaridem, ‘The beginnings of modern Ireland’, 75-8.

10 , Bradshaw, ‘Cromwellian reform’, 73–7;Google Scholaridem, ‘The Edwardian reformation’, 88-92.

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14 , Bradshaw, ‘Sword, word and strategy’, 477–88.Google Scholar

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20 The criticism offered here is of Dr Bradshaw's views as expressed in ‘The beginnings of modern Ireland’; the present writer is aware that Dr Bradshaw has since developed this subject in ‘The Irish constitutional revolution, 1515-1557’ (Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, 1975), but since a revised version of this will shortly be available in book form it seemed better to limit the discussion to what has already appeared in print.

21 Canny, Nicholas, The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, Hassocks 1976, 141–52;Google Scholaridem, The Formation of the Old-English elite in Ireland (O'Donnell lecture published by the National University of Ireland, Dublin 1975), 1–12,Google Scholar 22-3; see also ‘Edward Walshe's “Conjectures” concerning the state of Ireland’, ed. Quinn, D. B., IHS, v (1947), 303–33.Google Scholar Further evidence of these tensions is evident in Nicholas Walshe to Walsingham, 14 March 1581 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/81/31); Patrick Bermingham to the queen, 4 Apr. 1582 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/91/13); Fitzwilliam to Cecil, 29 Apr. 1562 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/5/98).

22 Cited in , Bradshaw, ‘The beginnings of modern Ireland’, 85Google Scholar.

23 A note concerning thejustice Walsh, undated (P.R.O., S.P. 63/142/41).

24 Haigh, Christopher, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire, Cambridge 1975; see esp. 159–77.Google Scholar

25 See for example Andrew Trollope to Walsingham, 12 Sept. 1585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/85/39, esp. fos. 99V-100V).

26 The phrase ‘backward in religion’appears frequently in official correspondence, see for example Wallop to Burghley, 21 May i585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/116/45).

27 Edward Cusack's petition to Burghley, Sept. 1582 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/95/83); Brady, J., ‘Father Christopher Cusack and the Irish college at Douai’, in Measgra igcuimhne Mhichil Ui Chléirigh, ed. O'Brien, S., Dublin 1944, 99–100Google Scholar.

28 Ormond to Walsingham, 24 July 1580 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/74/64); Loftus to Burghley, 6 April 1581 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/82/11).

29 Loftus to Burghley, 12 Sept. 1582 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/95/36).

30 The detail on Brady's marriage is presented in Wallop to Walsingham, 7 May, 1584 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/110/18).

31 On White see ‘Rowland White's “Discors touching Ireland” c. 1569’ ed. Canny, Nicholas in IHS, xx (1977), 439–63; andGoogle Scholar‘Rowland White's “The dysorders of the Irisshery”’ ed. Canny, Nicholas in S[tudia] H[ibemica], xix (1979)Google Scholar forthcoming; the second known exposition is that of Sir Turlough O'Brien to Burghley (P.R.O., S.P. 63/161/52).

32 John Ussher to Walsingham, 8 March 158a (P.R.O., S.P. 63/90/14); Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam to Burghley, 14 May 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/144/34).

33 Andrew Trollope to Walsingham, 26 October 1587 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/131/64, fo. 200v).

34 Pelham to Walsingham, 29 July 1580 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/74/75).

35 ‘Book of Barnaby Rich on the reformation of Ireland’, 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/144/35, fos. 104-13, esp. fo. 110); for slightly later views of Rich see his Greenes newes from heaven and hell, 1593, reprinted by McKerrow, R. B., London 1911Google Scholar.

36 Bishop of Waterford and Lismore to Walsingham, 29 June 1580 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/73/70) see the account of this episode in R. D. Edwards (above note 3), 257-8.

37 See for example Perrott to privy council, 25 Oct. 1584 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/112/45).

38 ‘Book of Barnaby Rich on the reformation of Ireland’, (P.R.O., S.P. 63/144/35, fos. 106-7).

39 Andrew Trollope to Walsingham, 26 Oct. 1587 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/131/64, fo. 200).

40 In the 1630s Protestants complained repeatedly of such a counter structure in parts of Ireland, which, as one put it, was ‘such as no king in Christendom either Papist or Protestant will permit it, being the mere erection of a foreign kingdom within this dominion’. Aungier to Wentworth 28 June 1632 (Sheffield City Library, Strafford Papers, Letter Book I, fos. 43-4).

41 Bossy, John, The English Catholic Community, London 1975, esp. 108–10, 193-4.Google Scholar

42 , Canny, The formation of the Old-English elite (above note 21), 1–12.Google Scholar

43 Hammerstein, Helga, ‘Aspects of the continental education of Irish students in the reign of Elizabeth 1’, in Historical Studies viii, ed. Williams, T. D., Dublin 1971, 137–53.Google Scholar

44 See Rich as in note 35 above; much of that treatise is devoted by Rich to attacking those bishops who neglected their duties, but this neglect he attributed to worldliness, not to principle— ‘Bishops and prelates that preach not are none of Christ's anointing but servants and children of their father the world;’ the work of Dr Bradshaw referred to in this paragraph is ‘Sword, word and strategy’.

45 Wallop to Walsingham, 6Jan. 1581 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/80/1).

46 Loftus to Walsingham, 4 Oct. 1584 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/112/4).

47 Fitzwilliam's account, 1573 (P.R.O., S.P. 65, no. 7, f. 36); payment of £22 131. $d. to John Carney.

48 Even authors who emphasised the need for full-scale military conquest and the creation of a completely new society stressed the need for educational institutions during the second phase of the programme of regeneration; see, for example, ‘Discourse for the government of Ireland’, 1581? (P.R.O., S.P. 63/87/81).

49 Loftus to Walsingham, 4 Oct. 1584 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/112/4); same to Burghley, 4 Oct. 1584 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/112/5); in the second letter Loftus mentioned that St Patrick's provided 26 livings, and of those who occupied them 15 besides himself were university men.

50 The charge brought against Loftus by his English opponents in Ireland was that he was excessively solicitous for the welfare of his large family; see Loftus to Burghley, 19 June, 1585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/117/43) where he enumerates the charges brought against him by Perrott.

51 Those who justified the use of the commission stressed that it was being used with ‘temperance’; see Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam to Walsingham, 3 July 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/145); Perrott, whom Dr Bradshaw has placed in the persuasive tradition because of his involvement in the university debate, attached considerable importance to compulsion, even to the extent of forcing the oath on prospective J.Ps; see Perrott to Burghley, 8 Sept. 1585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/119/13); those who were most extreme in their views stand out not because of the importance they attached to compulsion over persuasion in enforcing the Reformation, but rather because of their response to rebellion which they welcomed as an opportunity for further confiscation; see Waterhouse to Walsingham, 28 Dec. 1580 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/79/33); Wallop to Walsingham, 6 March 1583 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/100/5).

52 Grey to Walsingham, 24 April 1581 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/82/48); Perrott to Burghley, 8 Sept. 1585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/119/13); Fitzwilliam to Walsingham, 3 July 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/145/59).

53 Fitzwilliam to Walsingham, 29 April 1589 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1588-92, 115); Perrott to Burghley, 8 Sept. 1585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/119/13).

54 On this point see Elton, G. R., Policy and police: the enforcement of the reformation in the age of Thomas Cromwell, Cambridge 1972Google Scholar.

55 Nicholas White to Burghley, 27 May 1584 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/110/50).

56 This point was made by Sir Henry Wallop when suggesting the insufficiency of Sir Lucas Dillon and Robert Dillon to deal with rebels in the Pale—Wallop to Walsingham 24 Oct. 1581 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/86/31).

57 , Bradshaw, ‘The beginnings of modern Ireland’, esp. 75–80;Google Scholar the clearest contemporary exposition of the Anglo-Irish political programme appears in ‘Rowland White's “Discors touching Ireland”’ (above note 31).

58 See, for example, Nicholas White to Burghley, 3 Feb. 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/141/4) where he recommends for the see of Armagh John Garvey on the grounds that he is ‘an ancient grave councillor, a great housekeeper, expert in the language of this country, by which with his own good example of life and conversation he doth edify more than many that be apter for the pulpit’.

59 See, for example, Herbert, William, Crofus, sive de Hibemia ed. Buckley, W. E., London 1887, 21Google Scholar.

60 Richard Stanyhurst, ‘Description of Ireland’ in Holinshed, Raphael, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, vi, London 1808, 13–16;Google Scholar, Canny, The formation of the Old-English elite (above note 21), 13–16,Google Scholar 26; ‘Rowland White's “The dysorders of the Irisshery’” (above note 31); Ussher, James, A discourse of the religion anciently professed by the Irish and Scottish, Dublin 1622Google Scholar.

61 Report of the commissioners, 1622 (BL., Add. MS 4756, fo. 64).

62 ‘Rowland White's, “The dysorders of the Irisshery’” (above note 31).

63 , Bradshaw, ‘Sword, word and strategy’ (above note 5), 475.Google Scholar

64 Kearney, H. F., ‘The court of wards and liveries in Ireland, 1622-41’, in Royal Irish Academy, Proc., lvii sec. c. (1955), 29–68;Google ScholarTreadwell, Victor, ‘The Irish court of wards under James i’, IHS, xii (1960), 1–27Google Scholar.

65 Wentworth and council to Secretary Coke, 27 Feb. 1638 (Sheffield City Library, Strafford Papers, Letter Book 11, a, fos. 48-9).

66 Loftus to Burghley, 30 June 1588 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/135/56); McNamara Fyn to Burghley, 3 March 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/142/4).

67 Turlough O'Brien to Burghley, undated (P.R.O., S.P. 63/161/52); petition of Thomond et al. to Wentworth (Sheffield City Library, Strafford Papers, vols 124/125, no. 290); the plausibility of the claim is evident from the 1641 depositions for county Clare in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. I wish to thank Mr Kenneth Nicholls for having drawn my attention to Turlough O'Brien's crucial letter which would otherwise have escaped me.

68 The intriguing problem of explaining the different responses in Clanricard and Thomond to the reformation effort is a subject currently being investigated by Bemadette Cunningham, an M.A. student at University College, Galway; that an effort was made to influence the ruling element through education is evident from Richard Burke, Lord Dunkellin to Walsingham, 8 Sept. 1588 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/136/26); George Bingham to Sir Richard Bingham, 5 Sept. 1588 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/136/27, iii); Neameas Folain to Lord Chamberlain, 1579 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/70/79); the letter of Turlough O'Brien mentioned in note 67.

69 Wentworth to Coke, 3 Aug. 1637 (Sheffield City Library, Strafford Papers, Letter Book 9, fo. 243); I am indebted to Kenneth Nicholls for these details on the Donnellan family.

70 This charge was made persistently by Wentworth; see for example Wentworth to Coke, 14 july 1635 (Sheffield City Library, Strafford Papers, Letter Book 9, fo. 63).

71 Services done by James Myaghe during the Munster rebellion (P.R.O., S.P. 63/125, nos. 4 and 5 fos. 8-16).

72 Fitzwilliam to Burghley, 12 Feb. 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/141/21); in the same letter it was mentioned that a congregation of 2,000 attended at Cork with ‘a greater number of communicants’, and at Ross 600 attended the sermon of whom 300 communicated.

73 , Bradshaw, ‘Fr. Wolfe's description of Limerick’, 47.Google Scholar

74 Malby to Burghley, 24 May 1580 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/73/24).

75 Sir Nicholas Malby was forced to defend himself against White's charge that he did not seek the advancement of the Reformation; Malby's reply to Edward White's objections, 12 April 1582 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/91/25, fo. 65r).

76 O'Bric, B., ‘Galway townsmen as the owners of land in Connacht, 1585-1641’ (M.A. thesis, University College, Galway, 1974);Google Scholar this seminal study, which has remained unpublished because of the tragic death of the author shortly after completion, is, I understand, now being considered for publication in book-form.

77 Trollope to Walsingham, 26 Oct. 1587 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/131/64, fo. 203).

78 Malby's reply to White's objections, 12 April 1582 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/91/25, fo. 65r.); Turlough O'Brien to Burghley, as in note 67.

79 Párlaiment Chlainne Tomáis, part I, ed. Bergin, O. J. in Gadelica, i (1928), 36–50,Google Scholar 127-31; 137-50.

80 Fitzwilliam to Burghley, 12 Feb. 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/141/21); same to same, 28 Feb. 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/141/42).

81 Council Book of Munster, 20 Aug. 1611 (BL, Harley MS, 697, fo. 37V).

82 Report of 1622 commissioners, (BL, Add. MS, 4756, fo. 22).

83 For one Ulster example see NLI. MS 18, 648 (from the Manchester Papers) which includes a list of the Irish on Lord Grandison's proposition in Ulster ‘that come to church and receave the communion’; see also Barnard, T. C., Cromwellidn Ireland, Oxford 1975, 171–82, esp. 180-2Google Scholar.

84 Lord Aungier to Wentworth, 28 June 1632 (Sheffield City Library, Strafford Papers, Letter Book, I, fos. 43-4V); see also ‘General recommendation on reform of the Irish Church, 1622’ (Kent Archives Office, U2 69, 7535, 7535(a)).

85 Sir Matthew de Renzi to Lord Deputy, 6 Jan. 1617 (P.R.O., S.P. 46, 90 De Renzi Papers, fos. 43V-4V).

86 See , Canny, The Elizabethan Conquest (above note 21), 117–36;Google Scholar and for the Anglo-Irish view ‘Rowland White's “Discor s touching Ireland’” (above note 31).

87 Nicholls, Kenneth, Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages, Dublin 1972, 91–113.Google Scholar

88 Kearney, H. F., ‘Ecclesiastical politics and the counter-reformation in Ireland, 1618-48’, in this JOURNAL, ii (1960), 202–12.Google Scholar

89 , Canny, The Elizabethan Conquest (above note 21), 117–36.Google Scholar

90 , Herbert's considered opinion is to be found in his Croftus, sive de Hibernia (above note 59) see esp. 4–5,Google Scholar 20-5, 36–40, 41-2; see also Herbert to Burghley, 25 Mar. 1589 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/144/57).

91 Croftus, sive de Hibernia (above note 59), 41-2, 46/53.

92 In ibid., 16-18, Herbert argues against the proposition that Ireland would best be left unrefofmed; for the same argument see E.C.S. The government of Ireland…under Sirfohn Perrott, London 1626Google Scholar.

93 ‘The efficient and accidental impediments of the civility of Ireland, 1579?’ (P.R.O., S.P. 63/70/82).

94 Archbishop Long to Burghley, 27 Sept. 1585 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/119/37); Wallop to Walsingham, 11 Oct. 1582 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/96/8); Loftus to Burghley, 12 Feb. 1583 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/99/60).

95 This point has also been treated of in Nicholas , Canny, ‘Dominant minorities: English settlers in Ireland and Virginia–1550-1650’ in Minorities in history, ed. Hepburn, A. C., London 1978, 51–69; see alsoGoogle ScholarJackson, Donald, ‘Violence and assimilation in Tudor Ireland’, in Essays in honour of j. D. H. Widdess, ed. O'Brien, Eoin, Dublin 1978, 113–26Google Scholar.

96 This has been developed in a study of Boyle by the present author and forthcoming from the Harvester Press under the title The Upstart Earl: a study of the social and intellectual world of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, 1566-1643.

97 On the worldly concerns of the clergy see Sir Matthew de Renzi to Lord Deputy, 6 Jan. 1617 (De Renzi family papers, P.R.O., S.P. 46, 90, fos. 43V-4.V); I owe this reference to Brian Mac Cuarta, a graduate student at Galway who is engaged upon a study of plantations in the Irish midlands. On the problem of permissiveness generally see Canny, Nicholas, ‘The permissive frontier: social control in English settlements in Ireland and Virginia, 1550-1650’, in The Westward Enterprise: English activities in Ireland, the Atlantic and America, 1480-1650, ed. Andrews, K. R., Canny, Nicholas and Hair, P. E. H., Liverpool 1978, 17–44;Google Scholar for examples of the 1615 survey see ‘The royal visitation of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh, 1615’ed. Egan, P. K., Jnl of Galway Archaeological & Historical Society, xxxv (1976), 67–76Google Scholar.

98 See Clarke, Aidan, ‘Colonial identity in early seventeenth-century Ireland’in Nationality and the Pursuit ofNational Independence, ed. Moody, T. W., Belfast 1978, 57–71.Google Scholar

99 Kearney, H. F., Strafford in Ireland, 1633-41, Manchester 1959, 104–29.Google Scholar

100 Bossy, John, ‘The counter-reformation and the people of Catholic Ireland, 1596-1641’, in Historical Studies, viii, ed. Williams, T. D., Dublin 1971, 155–71.Google Scholar

101 Lecky's estimate of 25% for the Protestant population has gone unchallenged. That the Irish language was used by both sides for reforming purposes is beyond dispute, but this subject still awaits its historian. For some leads see Breathnach, R. A., ‘The end of a tradition: a survey of 18th century Gaelic literature’, in SH (1960), 128–50Google Scholar.

102 Bowen, Desmond, The Protestant Crusade in Ireland, 1800-1870, Dublin 1978;CrossRefGoogle Scholar most of those engaged in this crusade were Englishmen who despaired of the apathy of the Church of Ireland.