In the first half of the seventeenth century, Ireland developed a peculiar ecclesiastical configuration as the site of the only resident episcopate in the territory of a non-Catholic state. During the same time frame, the regular orders and especially the Franciscans enjoyed a period of spectacular growth. Not surprisingly, very significant tensions erupted at frequent intervals between different branches of the Irish clergy as they adapted to the sui generis conditions of the island, and these have left a deep mark on the archival record of the period. Yet the level of complaint and recrimination which has been preserved can perhaps obscure the degree to which the Irish secular and regular clergy managed to co-exist in relative harmony. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a number of reasons why the peculiar Irish system actually functioned quite effectively in a way which allowed both for a very vibrant contribution from the religious orders and the development of a genuinely functioning hierarchy.

Regulars in the Irish Episcopate

In 1632, Paul Harris, an English secular priest originally surnamed Green and resident in Dublin since about 1613, somewhat counter-intuitively noted that as a result of the Franciscan friars’ teaching in the archdiocese ‘every tradesman, Kitchen-maide and three-footed old trot’ had ‘rammed into their heads’ the doctrine that ‘the Bishop is to be obeyed in right and wrong, and that no inferior unto him may examine or call in question his Censures, Decrees or Judgments.’ He continued nastily: