The Church of Ireland: power and distance in the early-seventeenth-century Atlantic

Abstract

ABSTRACT The complex identities of the Church of Ireland – independent of the Church of England but often treated as if it were subservient, like the ambiguities of the Irish state – part English colony, part-independent kingdom, have confused both contemporaries and historians. This chapter examines the position of the Church of Ireland from the wider perspective of Atlantic Protestantism. Using the example of John Winthrop who, before he decided to emigrate to America, had considered settling in Ireland, it shows how the early-seventeenth century the Church of Ireland exploited its distance from England to develop a distinctive ecclesiastical polity. Later, however, that freedom was reined in, as closer ties with England led to greater conformity.