The episcopate of the Church of Ireland: 1603 to 1660

Abstract

During the seventeenth century, the episcopate of the Church of Ireland underwent a radical transformation. Bishops from the Old English and Irish communities were replaced by English and Scottish émigrés. This thesis is not only the first survey of the Irish episcopate in the seventeenth century, but it also assess the impact of a church ‘governed mostly be strangers’. It analyses the attitudes and episcopal styles of bishops in the church from 1603 to 1660, discovering how the mainly English bishops influenced the development of Protestantism in Ireland and how they responded to the special challenges in the Church of Ireland.

The new English and Scottish bishops entered a church with financial and structural problems. The population was comprised of Irish, English and s
Scottish communities who held a spectrum of religious beliefs, from Catholicism to Presbyterianism. The episcopate attempted to maintain Protestant unity by promoting an ideology that focused on common areas of agreement within the Protestant community, namely, opposition to Catholicism.

This anti-Catholic ideology influenced their attitudes and policies towards the Catholic population. For most of this period, the church followed a counterproductive stance that did little to secure the conformity or conversion of the Irish people.

Bishops held differing views about their role in Ireland. Some saw administration as their priority, others refining the theology of the Church. One group focused upon secular interests and the establishment of their own financial and social positions in Irish society. These ecclesiastical adventurers contributed to a competitive relationship with the New English community.

Rather than protecting the church the New English exploited its resources. The bishops were leaders of a minority church in Ireland and had limited status and political power, in contrast to their counterparts in the Church of England. Consequently, they struggled to make substantive improvements to the church.

Date of Award	Jul 2008
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Mary O'Dowd (Supervisor) & Ian Green (Supervisor)