Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomous member church of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second-largest Christian church on the island after the Roman Catholic Church. Like other Anglican churches, it has retained elements of pre-Reformation practice, notably its episcopal polity, while rejecting the primacy of the pope.
In theological and liturgical matters, it incorporates many principles of the Reformation, particularly those of the English Reformation, but self-identifies as being both Reformed and Catholic, in that it sees itself as the inheritor of a continuous tradition going back to the founding of Christianity in Ireland. As with other members of the global Anglican Communion, individual parishes accommodate differing approaches to the level of ritual and formality, variously referred to as High and Low Church.
As of 2013, the Church of Ireland ranked "second in the State in terms of the provision of primary schools with 174 schools under its Patronage." There were "over 500 teachers and over 13,500 pupils in Church of Ireland Primary schools." There were at the time "twenty post-primary schools in the State which are either affiliated with the Church of Ireland at diocesan level or" are self-identified as Church of Ireland.
Overview
The Church of Ireland sees itself as that 'part of the Irish Church which was influenced by the Reformation, and has its origins in the early Celtic Church of St Patrick'. This makes it both catholic, as the inheritor of a continuous tradition of faith and practice, and protestant, since it rejects the authority of Rome and accepts changes in doctrine and liturgy caused by the Reformation.Following the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111, Irish Catholicism transitioned from a monastic to a diocesan and parish-based mode of organisation and governance. Many Irish present-day dioceses trace their boundaries to decisions made at the synod. The work of organizing the Church was completed by the Synod of Kells which took place in 1152, under the presidency of Giovanni Cardinal Paparoni. Diocesan reform continued and the number of archbishoprics was increased from two to four. The synod granted the Primacy of Ireland to the Archdiocese of Armagh.
Some modern scholarship argues that early Irish Christianity was functionally separate from Rome but shared much of its liturgy and practice, and that this allowed both the Church of Ireland and Irish Catholicism to claim descent from Saint Patrick. It is also said that the Catholic Church in Ireland was jurisdictionally independent until 1155, when Pope Adrian IV purported to declare it a papal fief and granted Henry II of England the Lordship of Ireland in return for paying tithes; his right to do so has been disputed ever since.
In 1534, the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which broke communion with the papacy and recognised Henry VIII as head of the Church of England; two years later, the Irish Parliament followed suit by acknowledging him as head of the Irish church. Although many bishops and most of the clergy refused to conform, the Church of Ireland was left with diocesan buildings and lands, since under the feudal system bishops held that property as vassals of the Crown. Despite the political and economic advantages of membership in the new church, a large majority of the Irish remained loyal to the Catholic Church centred in Rome, while in Ulster the church was outnumbered by Presbyterians. However, it remained the established church of the whole of Ireland until the First Gladstone ministry's Irish Church Act 1869 disestablished it, with effect from 1 January 1871.
The modern Church of Ireland is the second largest religious organisation in the Republic of Ireland, and the third largest in Northern Ireland, after the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian churches.
History
Formation
in Ireland is generally dated to the mid to late 5th century AD, when the Romano-British cleric Saint Patrick began his conversion mission, although the exact dates are disputed. Prior to the 12th century, the Irish church was independent of Papal control, and governed by powerful monasteries, rather than bishops. While the Kingdom of Dublin looked to the English Diocese of Canterbury for guidance, in 1005 AD Brian Ború made a large donation to the Monastery of Armagh and recognised its Archbishop as Primate of all Ireland in an attempt to secure his position as High King of Ireland.Inspired by Máel Máedóc Ua Morgair, reformist head of Bangor Abbey, the 1111 Synod of Ráth Breasail sought to reduce the power of the monasteries by creating Dioceses headed by bishops, as was common outside Ireland. Under the 1152 Synod of Kells, the Irish church received its own archbishops, rather than being subject to Canterbury. Under the Laudabiliter in 1155, English-born Pope Adrian IV granted Henry II of England the Lordship of Ireland in return for paying tithes to Rome. His claim was based on the 4th-century Donation of Constantine, which allegedly gave the Papacy religious control over all Christian territories in the western Roman Empire. Its legality was disputed at the time, since Ireland had never been part of the empire, while the Donation itself was later exposed as a forgery.
Since Ireland was now considered a papal fief, its bishops were appointed by Rome but generally adopted English liturgy and saints, such as Edward the Confessor, and Thomas Becket. In 1536, the Irish Parliament followed their English colleagues by accepting Henry VIII of England as head of the church, rather than the Pope. This marks the founding of the reformed Church of Ireland, confirmed when Henry became King of Ireland in 1541. Largely restricted to Dublin, led by Archbishop George Browne, it expanded under Edward VI, until Catholicism was restored by his sister Mary I in 1553.
File:BecketHenryII.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Henry II with Thomas Becket; the 1155 intervention was the start of efforts to Anglicise the Irish church
When Elizabeth I of England became queen in 1558, only five bishops accepted her Religious Settlement, and most of the Irish clergy had to be deposed. This was hampered by the church's relative poverty, while adapting to the changes of regime damaged the reputation of those who remained. Hugh Curwen was Dean of Hereford until 1555, when Mary made him Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, before returning to the reformed church in 1558. Despite accusations of 'moral delinquency', he remained Archbishop and Lord Chancellor until 1567, when he was appointed Bishop of Oxford.
The absence of Gaelic-speaking ministers led to the adoption of a gradualist policy, similar to that used in Catholic areas of Northern England. 'Occasional conformity' allowed the use of pre-Reformation rites, combined with acceptance of the established Church; this practice persisted in both England and Ireland well into the mid-18th century.
Lack of Irish Gaelic literature was another restriction; shortly before his death in 1585, Nicholas Walsh began translation of the New Testament. Continued by John Kearny and Nehemiah Donnellan, it was finally printed in 1602 by William Daniel, who also translated the Book of Common Prayer, or BCP, in 1606. An Irish version of the Old Testament was published in 1685 by Narcissus Marsh, but the revised BCP was not available until 1712.
17th century
At the beginning of the 17th century, most native Irish were Catholic, with Protestant settlers in Ulster establishing an independent Presbyterian church. Largely confined to an English-speaking minority in The Pale, the most important figure of the Church's development was Dublin-born theologian and historian, James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh from 1625 to 1656. In 1615, the Church of Ireland drew up its own confession of faith, similar to the English version, but more detailed, less ambiguous and often explicitly Calvinist. When the Thirty-Nine Articles were formally adopted by the Irish church in 1634, Ussher ensured they were in addition to the Irish Articles; however, they were soon superseded by the Thirty Nine Articles, which remain in use to the present day.Under Charles I, the Church of Ireland claimed to be the original and universal church, while the Papacy was an innovation, thus vesting it with the supremacy of Apostolic succession. This argument was supported by Ussher, and Charles' former personal chaplain, John Leslie, a key supporter of Caroline reforms in Scotland, appointed bishop of Derry & Raphoe in 1633. During the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars, nearly two-thirds of Ireland was controlled by the largely Catholic Confederacy, and in 1644, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini became Papal Nuncio to Ireland. Irish Catholicism had developed greater tolerance for Protestants, while sharing their hostility to elaborate ritual. Rinuccini's insistence on following Roman liturgy, and attempts to re-introduce ceremonies such as foot washing divided the Confederacy, and contributed to its rapid collapse in the 1649–1652 Cromwell's re-conquest of Ireland.
File:AcquittalSevenBishops.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.0|The Seven Bishops acquitted, June 1688; a key factor in the removal of James, five later became Non-Jurors
The church was re-established after the 1660 Restoration of Charles II and in January 1661, meetings by 'Papists, Presbyterians, Independents or separatists' were made illegal. In practice, the penal laws were loosely enforced and after 1666, Protestant Dissenters and Catholics were allowed to resume their seats in the Parliament of Ireland. In 1685, the Catholic James II became king with considerable backing in all three kingdoms; this changed when his policies seemed to go beyond tolerance for Catholicism and into an attack on the established church. His prosecution of the Seven Bishops in England for seditious libel in June 1688 destroyed his support base, while many felt James lost his right to govern by ignoring his coronation Oath to maintain the primacy of the Protestant religion.
This made oaths a high-profile issue, since ministers of the national churches of England, Scotland and Ireland were required to swear allegiance to the ruling monarch. When the 1688 Glorious Revolution replaced James with his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III, a minority felt bound by their previous oath and refused to swear another. This led to the Non-Juring schism, although for the vast majority, this was a matter of personal conscience, rather than political support for James.
The Irish church was less affected by this controversy, although the Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh became a Non-Juror, as did a handful of the clergy, including Jacobite propagandist Charles Leslie. The Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland is traditionally viewed as beginning in 1691 when the Treaty of Limerick ended the 1689–1691 Williamite War. The Church re-established control and the 1697 Banishment Act expelled Catholic bishops and regular clergy from Ireland, leaving only the so-called secular clergy.