church in medieval Ireland

church in medieval Ireland. In 431 the chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine recorded the papally backed mission of Bishop Palladius to the ‘Irish believing in Christ’. This was probably directed to a Christian community which had developed in the east and south‐east of the country through slave and trading links with Roman Britain and contact with Irish colonies in Wales. Toponomy indicates the presence of other early missionaries at Dunshaughlin (Domnach Sechnaill, the church of Secundinus) and Kilashee (Cell Ausaile, the church of Auxilius) in Leinster.

The best known of these missionaries is the Roman‐Briton Patrick who operated among the pagan population around Dún dá Lethglais (Downpatrick) in the north‐east in the mid‐5th century (though earlier and later dates and locations cannot be ruled out). His cult, based on his Confession and Letter to Coroticus, was promoted by the Armagh church from the 7th century to promote its claims to primacy over the other Irish churches.

The spread of Christianity in 5th‐ and 6th‐century Ireland was slow and sporadic but by the 7th century the church was well established and had adapted to its environment. A significant development was the transition from an organization based on territorial dioceses governed by bishops to one in which networks of monasteries (paruchiae) were the norm and in which abbots were the pre‐eminent administrators. This unusual state of affairs was commented on by Bede but there is considerable debate as to its extent. Early Irish monasticism owed much to British influence and the earliest Irish founders received their initial formation in monasteries such as that of St Ninian at Candida Casa at Whitern (modern Scotland) or particularly that of St David at Menevia (Wales).

The high standard of learning, calligraphy, metalwork, and sculpture which characterized the Irish monastic schools was much commented on by contemporaries. Irish monks in Ireland and on the Continent showed a command of Latin composition, biblical exegesis, and computing that had few parallels, even if their views sometimes clashed with contemporary continental scholarship. The practice of peregrinatio or exile for the sake of the gospel was another feature of this period; notable peregrini included Columbanus (d. 615) in Gaul, Switzerland, and Italy, Killian (d. 689) in Germany, and Donatus (d. 876) in Italy, and these (and many others) disseminated Irish ideas and practice throughout Europe (see Monasteries, Irish, in Continental Europe). A particularly important innovation were the penitentials or confessors' manuals which were composed from the 6th century onwards and which greatly influenced the development of confession and spiritual direction in the church.

By the 8th century the Irish church was respected, powerful, and wealthy. As well as controlling church life, monasteries dominated the economy, played a prominent part in secular politics, and were the most important patrons of all branches of the arts. With this increase in prestige came a decline in fervour; contemporary evidence indicates that in many monasteries the abbacy and other major offices had become hereditary. Tension over rights and property sometimes erupted into pitched battles between communities. The Céile Dé reform movement which emerged in the late 8th century was largely a reaction to this decadence. Its main centres were the monasteries of Finglas and Tallaght near Dublin.

In 795 the annals record the first Viking attack on Ireland. Though the Vikings had an initially disruptive effect on church life their impact was not as devastating as monastic chroniclers or later historians have held and has undergone serious revision in recent historiography. From 841 they began to establish permanent bases in Ireland which developed into significant settlements at Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. Through trade links and intermarriage they gradually became Christian and by c.1028 a bishopric was established at Dublin. These Norse‐Irish bishops had strong links with England and some of the first bishops of Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford were consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury and acknowledged his primacy. Other contacts with England and the Continent during the 11th and 12th centuries fostered a reform movement (see twelfth‐century reform) which culminated in 1152 at the Synod of Kells when metropolitan sees were erected at Armagh, Dublin, Tuam, and Cashel and suffragan dioceses were established. The movement, whose chief promoter was St Malachy, also introduced the Cistercian monks (1142) and Arroasian Augustinian canons and attempted to reform marital and sexual mores.

The Anglo‐Norman presence after 1169 led to an Anglicization of the episcopate and by the end of the 15th century ten of the wealthier sees were controlled by the Anglo‐Irish, thirteen were normally held by Gaelic bishops, with the remaining nine fluctuating between the two groups or held by absentees. A similar process in the monasteries led to tension between the Gaelic and Anglo‐Irish Cistercians (see mellifont). In the 13th century the four orders of mendicant friars (Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian, and Carmelite) were introduced and by 1340 had founded 86 friaries. These were also riven by racial tension and all four were controlled by English or Anglo‐Irish superiors until the emergence of the Observant movement among the Gaelic friars in the 15th century.

The Irish church in the century before the Reformation has traditionally been seen as presenting a bleak picture: racial antipathy was rife, conventual life had collapsed in most Cistercian and Augustinian monasteries, and hereditary succession to church office was common in Gaelic areas. Other developments, however, suggest a more positive image. Between 1400 and 1508 90 new friaries were founded, mostly in Gaelic areas, and it was these friars, particularly the Observant Franciscans, who were recognized as the preachers, confessors, and ascetics of the period. In the Pale, where the structure of diocesan synods and episcopal visitation was better organized, growing lay piety found expression in the establishment of chantries and guilds and in devotions like the Jesus mass. In Gaelic Ireland this need was met by the growth of the Franciscan Third Order and the widespread translation of continental devotional texts into Irish.

Bibliography

Corish, P. , The Irish Catholic Experience: A Historical Survey (1985)
Watt, J. , The Church in Medieval Ireland (1972)

Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh