Dr Henry Cooke: The Athanasius of Irish Presbyterianism

Abstract

Dr Henry Cooke, the Athanasius of Irish presbyterianism, who might fairly be described as the archetypal Ulster unionist political parson, is an obvious subject for a study in religious motivation. Emerging in the 1820s as a vigorous champion of trinitarian orthodoxy, he led a relentless campaign against Arianism in the Belfast Institution, the college in which at that time the majority of Irish presbyterian ordinands were educated, and in his church, until the Arians had withdrawn from the synod of Ulster and, ultimately, the link had been broken between his church and the college. During the campaign he made clear his opposition, not only to theological liberalism, but also to the political radicalism which had characterised the outlook of many Ulster presbyterians in the eighteenth century.