In England, the Protestant reformation began several years earlier than its counterpart in Ireland. Forewarned, concerned individuals were able to watch events unfold across the narrow divide of the Irish Sea. As the divorce crisis grew alongside ill-feeling between the crown and papacy, so did the potential for religious reform in the King’s Irish possessions. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy confirmed Henry as head of the church in England. Although this in itself was problematic, it marked a real beginning, shortly followed by the suppression policies and the doctrinal changes famously detailed in the Act of Six Articles.
“A heresy and a new error sprang up in England, through pride, vain-glory, avarice, and lust, and through many strange sciences, so that the men of England went into opposition to the Pope and to Rome. They at the same time adopted various opinions...and they styled the king the Chief Head of the Church of God in his own kingdom. New laws and statutes were enacted by the king and Council Parliament according to their own will. They destroyed the orders to whom worldly possessions were allowed, namely, the Monks, Canons, Nuns, Brethren of the Cross, and the four poor orders, i.e. the orders of the Minors, Preachers, Carmelites, and Augustinians; and the lordships and livings of all these were taken up for the King. They broke down the monasteries, and sold their roofs and bells, so that from Aran of the Saints to the Iccian Sea there was not one monastery that was not broken and shattered, with the exception of a few in Ireland, of which the English took no notice or heed.”398
Thus, the Irish annals recorded the momentous events of 1537, the schism within the Irish church and the growing strength of Henry VIII there. The sixteenth century chroniclers are damning in their indictment, vilifying the King and his motives. However, these reforms, though of great consequence, were but a part of the wider efforts of English monarchs to expand their influence in Ireland. Their opinions were coloured as much by that as by the break with Rome. Further, despite the suddenness with which the events are announced within the annals, they were rather the result of a gradual build up of intent. A plan for the
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reformation of Ireland was forwarded as early as 1515.399 Increased English activity is recorded within the annals and state papers for the period; the doings of the Henrician Lord Lieutenants are well documented by both contemporary and modern authors.
Still, 1537 did mark a watershed year. The Irish reformation parliament convened in May of the preceding year, and over the following twelve months struggled against obstreperous politicians and peers. In their actions, Brabazon felt that the Irish followed designs created by “their masters the bishops.”400
While the parliament was swift to accept Henry’s royal supremacy, it resisted his ecclesiastical primacy.401
In 1537, the fourth council was convened, at the behest of four royal commissioners sent to Ireland in the September of that year. They carried the King’s threat to the politicians, that those failing to follow his wishes would attract his attentions and, “we shall so look upon them with our princely eye as his ingratitude therein shall be little to his comfort.”402 Along with this threat, they carried with them valuable incentives to end the deadlock and the first monastic suppression campaigns began later that year.
Amongst the secular clergy, the appointment of amenable bishops was crucial to the successful prosecution of Henry’s reformation. Archbishop George Browne, appointed to Dublin in 1536, is perhaps the most famous example of this. He served the reformation policies of two monarchs, before being deposed during the Marian Catholic resurgence. Browne’s role was to provide leadership, guiding the Irish clerics of his see into the Henrician reforms. He encountered vituperative resistance from all levels of the clergy, but remained steadfastly dedicated to Protestant theologies.403 Browne determined that those beneath him should swear oaths of royal supremacy, but opposition continued.404 Still, the centrality of his role remained paramount throughout his tenure as the Archbishop dictated religious policy and reforms. The career of the Dublin Archbishop, though of great interest, is less relevant to the present discussion than the episcopates of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
399
‘State of Ireland and plan for its reformation’ in State Papers for the reign of Henry VIII, iii (London, 1830), 15.. Only a small part of the document is relates to religious matters; the anonymous author, who uses the label Pandarus, is primarily concerned with the Anglo-Norman and Gaelic lordships, the interaction of English and Brehon law, militaristic manoeuvring and domination of the “mere Irish”.
400
SP 60/4/74.
401 Jefferies, The Irish Church, 75. 402 LP, xii, no. 388.
403 Browne was keen to promote his ideals, though was careful not to overstep his authority, nor to go beyond that sanctioned by Henry or Cranmer. B. Bradshaw, ‘George Browne, first Reformation archbishop of Dublin, 1536-54’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 21 (1970), 83-99.
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Just as the development of the parochial network in the dioceses was coloured by the local elites, the monastic tradition across Co. Cork was defined by patronage from individual noble families, both Gaelic and Anglo-Norman. During the sixteenth century, the Tudor reformers would seek to exert the will of the crown on the religion of the region by appointing a succession of Anglican bishops. To their cost, as well as to the detriment of Protestant reform, the influence and power of local elites would remain essential to religious success in the dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
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