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appointment to Armagh was owing largely to that fact that six of his former students were bishops at the time of his appointment.88

The most significant change in the educational background of the Irish episcopate in the first decades of the nineteenth century was the establishment of diocesan seminaries. As might be expected, the establishment of a national seminary network was tied to the geopolitical situation of Europe at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century. Moreover, the crisis of the continental colleges coincided with the softening of the London government’s attitude towards Catholics. Within the British Empire, the loss of the American colonists, the Quebec experience and the need to keep up large armies alerted the English political elites to the necessity of fostering Catholic loyalty in other parts of the empire, most notably through the granting of legal

concessions to the Catholics in England, Scotland and Ireland.89

As the political situation in Ireland changed, a growing number of Irish bishops considered establishing seminaries in Ireland. This took place in the context of the legislative acts that granted Catholic relief from the penal laws. Precipitated by Catholic relief measures in Quebec (1774), England and Scotland (1778), steps were finally taken to deal with the political quagmire in Ireland to which the penal laws and

anomalous civil status of Irish Catholics contributed.90 Charles Grattan, member of the Irish Parliament and proponent of legislative freedom of the Irish Parliament from London oversight was widely praised for helping these modest relief measures through Dublin parliament.91 At Luke Gardiner’s initiative, the first easing of such laws took place in 1778. This was a watershed in the eighteenth century, dividing the age of enforcement of the Penal Laws from that of Catholic relief.92 _{The Gardiner Relief Act} of 1778 resembled Sir George Saville’s Act in England, with the difference that the Irish Act dealt primarily with land ownership. For the first time Irish Catholics were

88 _{For a more thorough account of Curtis’ career see William McDonald, ‘Irish ecclesiastical colleges}

since the Reformation: Salamanca VI’ in I.E.R., 2nd ser., xi (1874), pp 101-14; Ambrose MacCauley, ‘The appointments of Patrick Curtis and Thomas Kelly as archbishop and coadjutor archbishop of Armagh’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, x, no. 2 (1982), pp 331-65.

89 _{Thomas Bartlett, The fall and rise of the Irish nation: the Catholic question 1690-1830 (Dublin,}

1992), p. 83.

90 _{Catholic relief in England was largely the result of Sir George Saville as the senior ecclesiastics in}

England and Scotland remained absent from the process. Political involvement by the English clergy was not adequately formulated until after the Act of Union (1800) (Edward Norman, Roman Catholicism in

England from the Elizabethan settlement to the Second Vatican Council (Oxford, 1985), pp 54-64).

91 _{For a biographical account of Charles Grattan’s life, see R. B. McDowell, Grattan: a life (Dublin,}

2001).

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granted the right to purchase land on equal terms with Protestants.93 There was

opposition from Anglo-Protestants, naturally, but in large part the relief measure ‘was the first step which really emancipated’ Irish Catholics.94

The education component of the Relief Act of 1782 was important for Catholics as they now enjoyed the freedom to open schools. However, this concession was

conditional as new schools required the permission of the local Church of Ireland bishop95 _{and school founders were required to take an oath of allegiance to the king.} Moreover, the education component of the legislation only applied to institutions entrusted with providing education to Catholic youth, institutions resembling

universities were not allowed: ‘…nothing herein contained shall be construed to allow the erection or endowment of any Popish university or endowed school within this realm’.96

It could be argued that some dioceses proceeded to test these restrictions and conditions. In Kilkenny, St. Kieran’s College was set up in 1782 by Bishop Troy. The stated mission of this ‘Academy’ was to educate young boys in humanities and Christian morals. This meant that it was intended to prepare young men for the professions, trade and for further education. Troy entrusted the leadership of this academy to two priests of the diocese who subsequently succeeded him as bishop. John Dunne, later bishop of Ossory (1787-1789) was educated at Paris where he was

ordained in 1769. Upon returning to Ireland he was appointed curate of St. Mary’s in Kilkenny. With the establishment of St. Kieran’s he became co-rector along with James Lanigan, later bishop of Ossory (1789-1812). Lanigan was similarly educated at Nantes as he was chair of mathematics at the University of Mathematics before returning to Ireland. He was briefly appointed curate of St. Canice’s before joining Dunne as co- rector.

Academically, the courses offered at the Academy were classical in scope ranging from Latin, History, Geography, to Natural Philosophy.97 _{For the most part, the students}

93 _{Dáire Keogh, The French disease: the Catholic Church and Irish radicalism, 1790-1800 (Dublin,}

1993), p. 20.

94 _{Keogh, The French disease, p. 20.}

95 _{This section of the initial relief attempts was repealed in 1792 and Catholics were able to teach}

without their permission.

96 _{M. Brenan, ‘Bishop Keeffe of Kildare and Leighlin, A. D. 1702-1787’ in I.E.R., 5th ser., l (1937),}

pp 113-26, at p. 120.

97 _{By 1789 the institution had expanded to offer courses like trigonometry, navigation and English}

(Peter Birch, Saint Kieran’s College Kilkenny (Dublin, 1951), pp 37-9; Fearghus Ó Fearghail, St.

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who attended St. Kieran’s College in the 1780s were intended to transfer to an Irish seminary on the Continent. Kyran Marum, bishop of Ossory (1814-1827) studied at St. Kieran’s where he received a prize in second Greek class (1785) and the following year transferred to the Irish College at Salamanca.98 _{However, with the events spiralling out} of control on the Continent following the French Revolution, the college administration decided to add philosophy to the curriculum in 1793, a clear indication that the

institution was now expected to function as a seminary as well as a traditional primary or early secondary school. The stated purpose of the school was that of preparing students for holy orders, which was certainly contrary what the framers of the repeal of the penal laws had in mind. The precise date of the introduction of philosophy is unknown, but it has been claimed that by the end of 1793 the number of students entering the seminary had risen to thirty, some of whom may already have been priests.99

Similar events were occurring in nearby Carlow. Unlike the Academy in Kilkenny, which saw its ‘mission’ evolve as a result of the French Revolution, the central object of Carlow College was, from the beginning, to act as a seminary. Like Troy, O’Keefe of Kildare and Leighlin set out to establish an educational institution in his diocese shortly after the passing of Gardiner’s Relief Act of 1782. In Freeman’s Journal an article appeared on 22 September 1785 stating that construction of the college was on-going ‘…under the direction of Drs Keeffe and Delany, the workmen are employed on the fourth, or attic story, and it is expected that they will have the shell of that great building complete in a few weeks’.100 _{Although seemingly completed by the end of 1785,}

students did not arrive until October 1793, an unexplained delay of eight years. In a letter to Archbishop Troy dated 14 November 1788, Bishop Delany of Kildare and Leighlin (1783-1814) claimed he could not send funds to Paris as the establishment of Carlow College had depleted his resources:

I fear I shall be able to do little or nothing at least for the present in this Diocese for Lombard. In reality the Priests are all perfectly drained by their past, and indeed, daily subscriptions to the Seminary in Carlow; which is still not completely finished

98 _{Marum would have been thirteen when he transferred to Salamanca (Birch, Saint Kieran’s College,}

p. 36).

99 _{The students came from three dioceses: Ossory, Waterford and Lismore and Cashel (Birch, Saint}

Kieran’s College, pp 63-6).

100 _{Freeman’s Journal, 22 September 1785. The deed for the land was not finalised until 30}

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and unfinished, very considerably indebted, besides the yearly growing rent, which they have generously agreed to pay.101

From this letter it is clear that Carlow was being referred to as an ecclesiastical seminary as early as 1788, some years before the situation in France developed into a full-blown revolution. Eventually Carlow College opened its doors on 1 October 1793 and provided an education to two bishops covered in this study: Michael Collins, bishop of Cloyne and Ross (1827-1832) and William Kinsella, bishop of Ossory (1829-1845).

Although both St. Kieran’s and Carlow College are significant, the most important element of the emerging domestic seminary network was Maynooth College.102 Established in 1795 by a government grant, Maynooth quickly became the ‘bishop- making’ institution par excellence as many of its early students, faculty members and presidents received episcopal preferment. The first in this cohort of Irish-educated bishops was Thomas Coen, who was appointed to Clonfert (1816).103 Coen entered Maynooth College the year it opened and undertook a five year programme of studies. He was then twenty-four years old and had already been ordained for his native diocese of Clonfert.104 _{Given that he stayed at Maynooth for only five years, it can be assumed} that he came to Maynooth with some form of classical training, as he was judged capable of entering directly into the philosophy programme. Following the appointment of Coen the number of Irish-educated bishops increased exponentially, accounting for 63% of the total number of bishops appointed between 1816 and 1829.

The educational programme that many of these Irish-educated bishops followed was similar to the programmes they followed on the Continent. Many of the early

nineteenth-century bishops would have received their classical education locally near their home and then matriculated into a course at one of the Irish seminaries, normally either the rhetoric or logic course. For instance, James Browne, bishop of Kilmore (1827-1865) was educated at an academy established by one Patrick Lambert in

101 _{Bishop Delany to Archbishop Troy, 14 Nov. 1788 (D.D.A., Dublin, AB1 116/5/72). After the}

Council of Trent the term ‘seminary’ was solely applied to institutions preparing students for ministry (John W. O’Malley, Trent: what happened at the Council (London, 2013), p. 213).

102 _{For more on the foundation of Maynooth College, see Patrick Corish, Maynooth College, 1795-}

1995 (Dublin, 1995).

103 _{Colin Barr erroneously claims that John MacHale, bishop of Killala (1825-1834) and archbishop of}

Tuam (1834-1881) was the first bishop to be entirely educated in Ireland. However, by his appointment in 1825 there had been eight bishops educated in Ireland (Colin Barr, ‘MacHale, John’ in James McGuire and James Quinn (eds), Dictionary of Irish biography (Cambridge, 2009)

(http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a5220) (13 June 2013)).

104 _{Coen was the only bishop of this study who entered Maynooth already ordained as after 1799}

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Wexford before matriculating into the rhetoric course at Maynooth (1806). Those students who were deemed sufficiently advanced could matriculate into a higher programme, normally entering the logic course. This was the case with William Abraham, bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1829-1837) who matriculated into the logic course at Maynooth (1813) and was ordained a priest four years later (1817). Students then took two years of philosophy (logic and metaphysics) and four years of theology comprising speculative theology, moral theology and scripture.105 _Although this programme of study appears rather straightforward, clerics were routinely called back to their native diocese without having finished their programme. This appears to have been the case for John Ryan, bishop of Limerick who studied at Maynooth for only two and a half years.106

Unlike Ryan, a majority of the future Irish-educated bishops remained at these seminaries and entered administrative positions. After Coen of Clonfert completed his studies he stayed on at Maynooth where he served as assistant to the dean and in 1802 was appointed dean. This path was similar to that of Thomas Kelly, bishop of Dromore (1826-1832) and later archbishop of Armagh (1828-1835), who also became dean of discipline and then became professor of dogmatic theology in Maynooth.107 In a few cases students joined the College administration before they were ordained. These included John MacHale who was later appointed coadjutor bishop of Killala (1825) and subsequently archbishop of Tuam (1835). This practice was not confined to Maynooth as the example of Kinsella of Ossory and Collins of Cloyne and Ross indicate.108 Kinsella joined Carlow College as a day scholar in 1807 and then joined the College full-time as an ecclesiastical student in 1814. While a student, he was first appointed secretary of the College and then, before ordination, was appointed professor of natural philosophy and later chair of theology. Although he did not continue in academia after completing his studies, Collins also assisted in the College as a lecturer of belles-

lettres.109

105 _{Eighth report of the commissioners of Irish education inquiry, London, 2 June 1827 (House of}

Commons Papers, 1826-27 (509)), pp 450-1.

106 _{Patrick J. Hamell, Maynooth students and ordinations index, 1795-1995 (Maynooth, 1982), p. 156.} 107 _{Macaulay, ‘The appointment of Patrick Curtis and Thomas Kelly’, p. 358.}

108 _{Michael Collins was coadjutor bishop of Cloyne and Ross from 1827-1830 and bishop from 1830-}

1832.

109 _{John McEvoy, Carlow College 1793-1993: the ordained students and teaching staff of St. Patrick’s}

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By moving into these administrative positions these talented and ambitious clerics not only enhanced their public profile but they better positioned themselves for eventual episcopal preferment. This is especially evident when one considers the age profile of Irish-educated bishops compared to the continental-educated bishops. On average, Irish- educated bishops received their episcopal promotion at the age of 38.7 whereas

continentally-educated bishops received their episcopal promotion at the age of 50.2. Examining these figures further, one notices that there was no difference in the age- profile of those Irish-educated bishops who entered administrative positions at Irish seminaries and those who returned to their diocese serving as parish priests, 38.9 and 37.8 respectively. However, the same cannot be said for those bishops educated on the Continent. The bishops who returned and entered parish work were on average 51.2 years of age and those who went into education were 44.4 years of age. There were notable exceptions to this pattern. For instance, James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin was the youngest bishop appointed between 1801 and 1829; he was thirty-two at the time of his appointment. The reason for his appointment at such a young age was probably the esteem the local clergy had for him and the high profile he had serving as chair of theology at Carlow College.110 What is clear from this is that not only were Irish-educated bishops more likely to receive episcopal preferment at a much younger age than those educated on the Continent, there was also an unmistakable link between having held an administrative position at one of the newly established Irish seminaries and receiving episcopal preferment, a point that will be elaborated on in the next chapter.

The differences between Irish-educated bishops and continentally-educated bishops were also noticeable in the differing episcopal attitudes bishops had towards the

‘quality’ of education these newly established Irish seminaries provided. The institution that received the most scrutiny was Maynooth owing to it being endowed by a royal grant. It was subject to a visitation by government officials every three years. Ultimately this oversight had some impact on the level of education students received as the

college administration appears to have been more reticent in their attitudes towards controversial content and/or expression of their political leanings. This point is

110 _{For more on the life of Bishop Doyle see Thomas McGrath, Religious renewal and reform in the}

pastoral ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, 1786-1834 (Dublin, 1999); ibid., Politics, interdenominational relations and education in the public ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, 1786-1834 (Dublin, 1999).

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highlighted in a series of exchanges Bishop Michael Collins and others had following his dismissal from Maynooth College in 1803. Writing to Roche in Fermoy he claimed:

There is considerable difference between this place [Carlow College] and that to which we have left [Maynooth College]. Equal, and to my particular disposition of mind, superior opportunities of improvement because less hampered to particular reading and by the constant inspection of ignorance and zeal. More mildness, and affability of manners in authority arising perhaps from difference of establishments. There the pride of national endowment swells their gait and dignity of power. Here those who superintend have not the temptation nor believe the disposition to inflate their fancied dignity.111

Moreover, the restrictions placed on reading material alluded to by Collins were elaborated on by a Maynooth College student named Tim McCarthy who probably had an axe, or two, to grind:

You have heard before of the exclusion of all English Books. Particularly those on history, poetry &c. As yet they are not fully prohibited, but we expect every day a bull from his holiness the president;112 wherein he will thunder out his anathemas against such and their readers. The principal reason which he alleged in support of his assertion…[was]…reading hinders students from performing their duties with the alacrity and cheerfulness which are the greatest steps to perfection.113

McCarthy further stated that Cicero and Virgil were banished along with Greek, ‘…[i]f the new testament was not originally written in it I am sure it would be expulsion to speak of it.’114 _{McCarthy claimed that ‘…the only sign of orthodoxy was French; and} you may use any French books excepting Voltaire and Rousseau.’115 _{Although their} assessment of Maynooth might be skewed by Collins’ ‘unfair’ dismissal by college

111 _{M. Collins, Carlow to J. Roche, Fermoy, 1 March 1804 (C.D.A., Cobh, Bishop Michael Collins,}

Box A, 1792.04/1/1804).

112 _{Andrew Dunne was president of Maynooth College from 1803-1807. He was a priest from Dublin}

and was educated at Bordeaux. He was appointed secretary to the Maynooth Trustees (1795) and librarian and treasurer (1800). Following his tenure as president he was re-appointed secretary to the Trustees and parish priest of St. Catherine’s, Meath Street. He resigned as parish priest and acted as librarian at Maynooth College until his death, 17 June 1823 (Corish, Maynooth College, p. 453).

113 _{Tim McCarthy, Maynooth to M. Collins, Cork, 22 October 1803 (C.D.A., Cobh, Bishop Michael}

Collins, Box A, 1792.04/3/1803).

114 _Ibid.

115 _{Ibid. Another complaint McCarthy had was that the ‘…reading of newspapers was absolutely}

prohibited too [sic.] enquiring for news. Tho since the prohibition I am more curious than ever all politics are absolutely prohibited’ (ibid.).

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administrators, the curriculum at Maynooth came under constant scrutiny for being focused on divinity and logic as the unum necessarium116 and its perceived rigidity.117

Moreover, the attitudes detailed by Collins and McCarthy were expanded upon by some of the bishops themselves. When Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin was asked to provide his opinions on the ‘quality’ of education received at Irish seminaries he offered a qualified reply: ‘I feel a partiality for education at a regular university, because I have been educated at such a place myself. …[For] a certain classes of persons, an education at a university, where there is more emulation and more zeal, a longer time allowed for study, greater rewards and distinctions held out, would be far preferable to that of a private seminary or college, such as Carlow or Maynooth’.118 _{His opinion was shared by} another continentally-educated bishop, James Magauran, bishop of Ardagh and

Clonmacnoise (1815-1829). Magauran stated ‘I think there is a sort of feeling in favour of continental education; but much depends upon the manner in which they discharge