The influence of the Irish Catholic clergy in shaping the religious and political allegiances of Irish Catholics, 1603–41

Abstract

This chapter investigates the ‘conditional royalism’ that governed Irish Catholic behaviour and expectations down to 1641 and beyond. During the period 1603–41 the Irish church's theo-political thinking, shaped by the exigencies of the European and British politico-confessional situation, was frequently reactive rather than committed. Even those regarded as irreconcilables, like archbishops Florence Conry and Hugh MacCaughwell, were willing, at various junctures, to negotiate with the Protestant state for toleration. Nonetheless there remained two constants: first, the churchmen absolutely refused to accept the secular power's right to intervene in spiritual matters; and second, (and this was rarely articulated for obvious reasons) they believed that they possessed the right and duty to intervene in political matters when religion's interests were imperilled.