Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on Conventions
- Titles in the Series
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Handmaid’ of the English Church: the diocese of Dublin on the eve of the Reformation
- 2 Faithful Catholics of the English nation: patriotism, canon law and the corporate clergy
- 3 Rebellion and supremacy: Archbishop Browne, clerical opposition and the enforcement of the early Reformation, 1534–40
- 4 ‘God's laws and ours together’: Archbishop Browne, political reform and the emergence of a new religious settlement, 1540–2
- 5 The rise and fall of the viceroy's settlement: property, canon law and politics during the St Leger era, 1542–53
- 6 Archbishop Dowdall and the restoration of Catholicism in Dublin, 1553–5
- 7 Rejuvenation and survival: the old religion during the episcopacy of Hugh Curwen, 1555–67
- 8 Archbishop Loftus and the drive to protestantise Dublin, 1567–90
- Afterword
- Appendix 1 The division of administrative responsibilities between the two Dublin cathedrals
- Appendix 2 The parishes of the diocese of Dublin, 1530–1600
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - The rise and fall of the viceroy's settlement: property, canon law and politics during the St Leger era, 1542–53
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on Conventions
- Titles in the Series
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Handmaid’ of the English Church: the diocese of Dublin on the eve of the Reformation
- 2 Faithful Catholics of the English nation: patriotism, canon law and the corporate clergy
- 3 Rebellion and supremacy: Archbishop Browne, clerical opposition and the enforcement of the early Reformation, 1534–40
- 4 ‘God's laws and ours together’: Archbishop Browne, political reform and the emergence of a new religious settlement, 1540–2
- 5 The rise and fall of the viceroy's settlement: property, canon law and politics during the St Leger era, 1542–53
- 6 Archbishop Dowdall and the restoration of Catholicism in Dublin, 1553–5
- 7 Rejuvenation and survival: the old religion during the episcopacy of Hugh Curwen, 1555–67
- 8 Archbishop Loftus and the drive to protestantise Dublin, 1567–90
- Afterword
- Appendix 1 The division of administrative responsibilities between the two Dublin cathedrals
- Appendix 2 The parishes of the diocese of Dublin, 1530–1600
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the late summer of 1542 the Henrician Church of Ireland acquired a new religious settlement. This settlement was not enshrined in any legislation enacted by the Irish parliament. Nor was it set out in any formularies or injunctions issued in the name of the king. It rested instead upon the word and authority of the viceroy, Sir Anthony St Leger who, in dealing with the fallout from Henry VIII's sudden call in March 1541 for a statutory prohibition on clerical concubinage, had shifted the crown's religious policy away from the radical reforming agenda of the late 1530s, by affirming royal support for traditional forms of doctrine, liturgical practice and clerical behaviour. In plotting this change of direction, St Leger was attempting to do more than simply satisfy the theological demands of his capricious sovereign. He was equally determined that it would address two of his most pressing, domestic political concerns: his need to attract native, and locally influential, conservative clergymen into the ranks of the ‘king's party’, in support of his plans to make Henry VIII's kingly rule a political reality in Ireland; and his need to protect, on account of their dependability as supporters of the royal supremacy, the married ecclesiastics in his own administration. The settlement that emerged in 1542, then, was not the product of rigid, confessional design.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Enforcing the English Reformation in IrelandClerical Resistance and Political Conflict in the Diocese of Dublin, 1534–1590, pp. 159 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009