Documents Concerning Primate Dowdall Author(s): Thomas Gogarty Source: Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. 1 (1912), pp. 248-276 Published by: Catholic Historical Society of Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25485461 . Accessed: 30/03/2013 18:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Catholic Historical Society of Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Archivium Hibernicum. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:54:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions documents concerning primate dowdall present collection of documents drawn from various sources is to a fuller THE scattered likely throw light upon career the of Primate Dowdall, and, therefore, upon the critical period in the fortunes of the Irish Church during which he flourished. His Register, however, remains, and until is to the no that document given public, complete careei as estimate of his conduct and Archbishop of Armagh a can be made. The present writer document published" own from Primate Dowdall's pen, entitled The Archbishop of Armachan's Opinion Touchinge Ireland,"1 which illustrates as a statesman. the Primate's activities politician and The present collection illustrates his career as a churchman. To what has been said in the notes which are attached to the various documents little need be added. However, " " concerning the so-called reports of the Disputation and " " at of the Conference St. Mary's Abbey, it should be said as as are not to that, far Dowdall is concerned, they be regarded as serious attempts to render full and accurate records of or the arguments be used, the replies that he made. If even a of the ascribed to him Dowdall possessed tithe learning of Catholic Doctrine by the Protestant Ware his exposition so as Even a cannot have been meagre is represented. slight of the Fathers would have acquaintance with the works and misuse of enabled him to expose the garbled quotations notes we have shown to authority, of which in the Staples the a studied effort have been guilty. Throughout reports 1Loutli Archsealog. Journal, Vol. II., No. 2, p. 149. 248 This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:54:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CONCERNING PRIMATE DOWDALL 249 as a is apparent to represent Dowdall discomfited and almost not in as dumb disputant. He certainly does figure them " a is grave and learned prelate.'7 He scarcely credited a with single intelligent reply, much less with the theological to learning which both history and tradition attribute him. are not on account to as But those reports that be regarded some value. some worthless. They possess They indicate at least of the main questions of doctrine touched upon in the disputes. They array Staples in his best learning. They of preserve valuable specimens bis logic. And when his are a learning and his logic critically tested he proves sorry are not to sophist indeed. We surprised find his quixotic assaults upon the Catholic Church exciting the derisive smiles of the grave Dowdall. In the circumstances, Dowdall needed we courage to smile ; but he needed learning too, and may assurances were accept the of tradition that his replies trenchant as we more became his learning, and, may add, thorough his to to than opponents dared record. The injustice Dowdall is but to his as a regrettable, it will fail impair reputation valiant and learned defender of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, it is well that the intellectual of subtleties the champion of reform have been preserved in the habiliments designed, if not by himself, at least by his friends. They display neither depth nor originality. They even sometimes lack honesty of thought. They represent the higbwater mark of Reformation learning in Ireland, and to they therefore help explain the Reformation failure. to a According pedigree of the Dowdall family, compiled Sir which is in the Record Office by Wm. Betham, preserved of the Castle of Dublin, George Dowdall was born inDrogheda was a in 1487. His father Edward Dowdall, merchant of that town, whom Betham connects with the wealthy family of an that name which, from early date after the Norman invasion till the the seventeenth century, possessed mansion and manor of Newtown, T?rmonfeckin. In 1524 George Dowdall is as the of St. in recorded Prior of Hospital John This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:54:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 25? DOCUMENTS Ardee, an office which he continued to fill with some dis until the of that House in tinction dissolution 1539. Having we or become secularised, find him appointed Rector parochus of Carntell Parish, in the County of Tyrone, August 9, 1540. On March 7, 1542, he became parochus of Clonmore, in the on same was County Louth, and July 27 of the year he collated to the benefice of Killeavy, in Co. Armagh. For two years he acted as Vicar-General of the diocese under a as a Primate Cromer. In civil capacity commissioner, in company with other prominent Palesmen, he adjudicated on the 18th May and 2nd June, 1542, in disputes concerning land and cattle between members of the O'Neill clan, and between these same O'Neills and MacDonnell. In the autumn to of 1542 he accompanied Con O'Neill London, as apparently his chaplain. Henry VIII. showered many favours on this occasion upon O'Neill and his suite. He made O'Neill Earl of Tyrone, and the rewards for valued service to were a a that fell Dowdall pension of ^20 year until the see a of Armagh should become vacant, and promise that he would be the next Archbishop of Armagh. Accordingly, some upon Primate Cromer's death he was, after delay, as appointed and consecrated detailed in the accompanying not documents. It is known whether Dowdall sought the approval of the Holy See. If he did seek it he met with a we to refusal. But if may rely upon the reference the oath at taken by bishops their consecration, which he made in at we the Conference St. Mary's Abbey, may conclude that the usual at his he complied with custom consecration of to swearing allegiance the Holy See. On the other hand, it is. to assurances clear that he tendered Henry VIII. satisfactory to that to of his fidelity monarch's claims the spiritual His career and his activities as supremacy. Archbishop^ to until his resignation in 1551, seem, therefore, have rested an upon the unsafe basis of unexplained compromise between In on these conflicting allegiances. 1545, the 20th June,, he presided at a Synod in Drogheda, which decreed that the This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:54:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CONCERNING PRIMATE DOWDALL festival of Richard be St. Fitzralph should celebrated in the diocese of on the morrow of Feast of Armagh the SS. John same and Paul (27th June). In the year he and the " " Archbishop were as a of Dublin named Slantighe in articles of peace drawn the up by Deputy between O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, and Manus O'Donnell?that is, as bondsmen or sureties, were to censures they empowered fulminate against any party to the who dare to treaty should violate its provisions. In in the to 1546, latest document addressed by Henry VIII. was a Ireland, he nominated member of the Privy Council, and was in 1547 this appointment renewed by Edward VI. are His activities during the years which follow illustrated the He was called to in present documents. London by was con Queen Mary in 1558. During this visit he chiefly that cerned with effecting certain changes he advocated in the civil administration of Ireland. He was seized with illness on in London, and died there 15th August, 1558. His are some to to remains said by have been carried Ireland, and at buried in the ancestral cemetery of his family Termon feckin. The writer wishes to express his grateful acknowledgments Rev. P. of valuable help received from Very Toner, D.D., some of the Maynootb College, in locating passages quoted from the Fathers in the Disputation and the Conference, and comments them in assisting him with valuable upon all, which notes. he availed of in preparing the The of Flemyng Knight Baron of Slane taken Deposition James 23D Oct. 32 Henry VIII. (1540).1 ***** two at last marche in the Lord Leonarde yeres the passion-wyker a Rosse McBren on of the Lest made jornay in Ferney, and preyed an nomber of of the Maghonz of Ferney, and toke from hym grete kyne 1 State Papers. Ireland. Henry VIII. Vol. 9; 63. Cal. S. Papers. Domestic. Henry VIII. Vol. 16. no- 301. xi. This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:54:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 252 DOCUMENTS and a good stede, and at the making of the prey, the constable of Car lingforde and certeyn other Englishmen were slayne and then all the war a Magmahonz of Ferney dydd and prayed and bourned gret parte of Uriell and certeyn townes of Meth and so contynued warr, till yt was within November after the said Marche two yeres agon, that maister Chief Justice and the prior Dowdall then of [the] pryor[y] of Arde at Maynethe made peace betwix theym and the said lorde Leonarde.