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Land of Saints and Sinners?SAINT PATRICK
Partisanship has often obscured the real Patrick by seeking to claim his as either a devout Roman Catholic or as a Protestant. In fact he was neither. But beyond doubt, as his extant writings make clear, he was well-read in the Scriptures and had a simple, but informed, faith in God which encompassed the incarnation, Christ's victory over sin and death, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to make us sons of God. He was completely silent on centralised church authority, and on such other accretions to biblical Christianity as purgatory and the doctrine of the sacrificial mass. For Patrick, Ireland (then known by its Latin name Hibernia), was 'the last place on earth'. He had been taken there as a prisoner while a youth and spent six years in virtual slavery among heathen people before he managed to escape. But in response to a Macedonian call he returned. While he was by no means the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, through his ministry it was able to take root and grow.The Christian faith flourished through Patrick's work and those who followed him gave Ireland the reputation of being the 'Land of Saints and Scholars'. In the fifth century the Roman Empire was folding back on its own heartlands; hordes from the East were sweeping across Europe. Christianity was being extinguished. But in Ireland (where the Roman Empire never extended) the flame was kept alive. By the efforts of Irish monks and missionaries who 'wandered about for Christ' the fire was re-kindled in Britain and Europe. The names of these men continue to reverberate with their deeds: Columba of Derry who founded Iona in northern Britain as another Antioch; Brendan who visited Iceland and possibly America; Columbanus who travelled in France, Switzerland and down to Italy, and one of whose companions gave his name to the present Swiss town of St Gallen. This missionary activity came to its peak in the seventh century, but was cut short when Ireland in her turn received the rapacious attention of hordes similar to those that had earlier spilled across Europe. To Ireland they came as the seaborne Vikings from Scandinavia. But as the years passed, the raiders were in time christianised and communications between the continent and Ireland were opened again. Sadly the Christianity being introduced to Ireland then was very different from that which Patrick had earlier brought. The Irish were misled into submitting to Rome and the Irish Church lost both its independence and its vitality. Ever since, Irish Christianity has tended to be subservient to the theologies of other places. The Irish have taken, second-hand, the teaching and the controversies of Rome, Canterbury, Edinburgh or America, along with the lesser emphases of religious movements outside their shores. The coming of a more developed Catholicism brought changes. Irish Christianity had followed the family and clan structure of society; it was monastic and under the leadership of abbots. Now foreign bishops ruled. The newly imported form of Christianity brought a different date for Easter and the Roman style of tonsure. The simpler, genuine faith was overlaid with superstitions and fables growing eventually to full medievalism. Significantly, students no longer travelled to Ireland to study the Scriptures. In 1110 the country was divided into dioceses and in 1152, seven hundred years after Patrick, four Archbishops, (Armagh, Cashel, Tuam and Dublin) were given the pallium to wear, signifying submission to the See of Rome. At about the same time (through a different series of events) the English came and began to impose their rule under the Norman king, Henry II. It is at this point that we meet one of the paradoxes of Irish Christianity: it was England that brought Ireland under the authority of Rome and subsequently the Catholic Church imposed Englishmen as Bishops and leaders on the Irish Church. Indeed by one of the Statutes of Kilkenny (1367) it became illegal for Irishmen to hold office in the Church in those areas under English jurisdiction. The partnership of Roman Catholicism and nationalism is, therefore, not intrinsic or fundamental to the Irish culture: Here Patriotism and Romanism have become almost inter-changeable terms. A strange misalliance, no doubt - when it is remembered that it was a Pope who first robbed Ireland of her independence, and that it was an English invader who was the first to establish in Ireland the supremacy of Rome. Be it so. And those who attack the strongholds of Rome must expect, for a time at least, to be regarded as attacking Irish nationality as well. This in itself is a terrible difficulty.1 THE REFORMATION FAILUREWhen the Reformation came to Europe in the sixteenth century and the dust of ages was blown off biblical truths, Ireland's history and geography left her at a disadvantage. Little or none of the Renaissance revival of learning had reached her shores nor were the Scriptures available in the language of the people. Consequently the liberating truths which elsewhere brought radical spiritual change - justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers and the private appeal to Scripture - did not reach the Irish people at large. As a result, there remained only the enforced political aspects of the Reformation by which few Irish people were impressed or moved. England tried to impose the Reformation through statute by a combination of 'stick and carrot', starting in 1539 but without serious effort until the 1590s. Even then English law had little effect outside the eastern coastal counties known as the Pale. Little was done to carry Reformation truth to people's hearts. Some of the Irish bishops, such as Browne of Dublin, were keen on reform, but others put a very low value on truth. Notorious among the latter was Miler McGrath of Cashel who had been in turn a Franciscan friar, the Roman Catholic bishop of Down and the Protestant Archbishop of Cashel. His loyalty to any cause was always up for auction. Only in the reign of Elizabeth I were efforts made to translate the Prayer Book and Bible into Irish. Later Bishop Bedell also set about translating the Bible and training his clergy to preach in Irish. Then, in the early part of the seventeenth century, James Ussher applied his great learning to the problem and produced an Irish theological credal standard, The Irish Articles (1615). But it was too late. The people had made up their minds; the Reformation had come in English clothes and they wanted no part of it. Thus the spirit of nationalism, the very force which had helped the progress of the Reformation in Germany and England, acted against it in Ireland. The lines were drawn and subsequent centuries did nothing to change them. All that happened in the passing years was that they were dug deeper. Various land settlements, euphemistically described as 'plantations' but in fact 'confiscations', cemented the status quo by bringing land ownership into the equation. Risings and rebellions were put down and stiffer and stiffer laws imposed. Consequently, battles fought 300 years ago are still remembered as vividly as those of World War II. The intervening years did not contribute to a healing of memories. Protestants rested in their political ascendancy, Roman Catholics, bewailing their confiscations and their past, drew closer and closer to their Church. The English had unwittingly made a stick to beat themselves with, as Archbishop Plunkett wrote: England has made an unrestful bed for herself, and she must lie upon it. If she is scourged, she furnished the rod herself. In the twelfth century Romish England planted Popery in Ireland. The upas tree was an exotic unknown in the country; the soil was prepared by treachery; and the instrument of the actual transplanting was the sword. Upon the coincidence, solitary in all history, when an English pope could conspire with an English king, this baneful act was accomplished, and so Ireland became popish. When, in the sixteenth century, the dark cloud of Romanism was rolled off the shores of England, by the 'wind' that 'bloweth where it listeth', no prayerful pains were taken to carry on its course over the sister island; to 'say to the wind, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live'. Laws were made to anglicise the Irish, instead of efforts to Christianise them. The royal supremacy of the King of England was established, and not the supremacy of the Majesty on high. The means employed consisted of Acts of Parliament, and not the Book of God.2 On both sides there was an identification of church and politics. Church membership became as much a matter of patriotism as of faith and a means of 'not letting the side down'. The post-Reformation centuries came and went, but there was little spiritual vision in either Roman Catholic or Protestant community. Church leaders from both sides settled into their place in society. It was assumed that Ireland was a Christian country needing only a little morality and a check on some of the worst excesses. By the end of the eighteenth century Irish Catholicism was slowly coming out from under the worst of the Penal Laws although it was still common for Roman Catholic worship to be conducted in rough shelters by priests in lay clothes. Meanwhile, Protestantism in its Anglican form was virtually an acquiescent arm of Government. Presbyterianism, largely brought in with the plantations, was more radical and at that time closer to the aspirations of nationalism. In College Green, Dublin, an Irish Parliament, though only representative of the Protestant Ascendancy, concerned itself with Irish industries and made noises about nationhood. THE ACT OF UNION1800 is not only an easy date to remember, but one which serves as an authentic new genesis point in Irish history. The short-lived independence of the Irish Parliament did not give the stability and security needed in the face of threats from revolutionary France. The rebellion of 1798, for the most part confined to the Roman Catholics of the South East, some radical Presbyterians of the North East, and a French landing in Mayo, had caused fright to many in authority. From London it seemed that only a complete Union would meet the threats of the hour and give a basis for a better relationship between England and Ireland. In 1800, after well-documented persuasion and bribery, the Irish parliamentarians voted themselves out of authority in Dublin, and settled for a reduced number of seats in London. The Roman Catholic bishops were in favour of the Union, as the best means of achieving greater freedom and full emancipation. The majority of Church of Ireland bishops voted for it, but for different reasons. For them it promised the security of being part of a larger entity with an overwhelming Protestant majority. The Church of Ireland for a time relinquished her independence and became part of 'The United Church of England and Ireland', and the Union Jack gained the red saltire cross of St. Patrick. The Napoleonic Wars cemented this Union with a closing of ranks in the face of a common danger. They also brought some prosperity to land owners and provided a social safety valve through the recruitment of young men for military service. The coast of Ireland was fortified with Martello towers. Apart from the idealistic gesture of rebellion by Robert Emmet in 1803, Ireland was quiet - at least for a while.
(1) H. Seddall, Edward Nangle (London, 1884), p.xxiv. |
Christianity was planted in Ireland in the fifth century by Patrick. Scholars still disagree about his
personal origins and whether he was from England, Wales, or perhaps even a Scot. Various legends have attached themselves to his name, notably the tradition that he used the shamrock to demonstrate the Trinity and that he banished snakes from the country. Both legends are without foundation.