twelfth‐century reform

twelfth‐century reform, an Irish response to the ecclesiastical reform movement associated with Pope Gregory VII (1073–85). The papacy and the archbishopric of Canterbury complained of too many bishops in Ireland, of divorce and other improprieties permitted by Irish marriage law, and of various abuses. In the first documented response, the Synod of Cashel (1101) condemned marriage with certain close relatives and lay encroachment on the church, and required that the (usually lay) ecclesiastical head or erenach be celibate and in orders. The Synod of Ráith Bressail (1111) traditionally is credited with first introducing territorial dioceses to an Irish church previously dominated by monasticism, governed by abbots, and organized in dispersed filiations of monasteries. This view has been challenged recently. Dioceses apparently had developed before the 12th century and are attested, for instance, in 10th‐ and 11th‐century annals, but without the co‐ordination achieved at Ráith Bressail, which ordained a comprehensive network of 24 dioceses under two archbishops of Armagh and Cashel. At the Synod of Kells (1152), archbishoprics of Dublin and Tuam were also sanctioned and the dioceses consequently reallocated. The reform partly succeeded in wresting control of Armagh from a hereditary dynasty of laymen and insisted that it should be headed by a bishop. Prominent in this struggle was Malachy, the best‐known reformer. He introduced the Cistercians, the most celebrated of the European monastic orders. Their arrival was a prominent feature of the reform, although the Augustinian Canons Regular spread more widely. The introduction of new monastic orders and diocesan reorganization were the main innovations of the reform, which clearly separated secular and regular clergy. Many older ecclesiastical establishments lost resources and prestige, and cultivation of secular learning and letters by the church largely ceased. In other respects, notably in regard to clerical celibacy and dynastic control of church offices, the reform was less successful. A perception that further reform was needed prompted papal authorization of Henry II's intervention in Ireland (see laudabiliter). This apparently was endorsed by Irish prelates at the Synod of Cashel (1172), which legislated regarding tithes and wills and was the last of the major reforming assemblies of the 12th century.

Bibliography

Gwynn, Aubrey , The Irish Church in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (1992)
Sharpe, Richard , ‘Some Problems Concerning the Organization of the Church in Early Medieval Ireland’, Peritia, 3 (1984)
Watt, J. A. , The Church and the Two Nations in Medieval Ireland (1972)

Colmán Etchingham