Salvador Ryan
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Popular Religion in Gaelic Ireland 1445-1645 (2 volumes) Part 2 Salvador Ryan THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D DEPARTMENT OF MODERN HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: Professor Vincent Comerford SUPERVISOR OF RESEARCH: Dr. Raymond Gillespie November 2002 t. NUI MAYNOOTH OilsciSi! m fi£traann Mi T a b le o f C o n te n ts Part I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v INTRODUCTION ix 1. Towards a definition of Gaelic theology: the God question 1 2. Mary: Mediatrix and Kinswoman 116 3. The Saints: a hierarchy of intercessors 211 4. The Sacraments: gateways to God 293 Part II INTRODUCTORY NOTE ii 5. Continental Change: catechising the Gaelic Irish 1 6. Defending and defining doctrine: the Louvain literature 95 7.‘Bringing it all back home’: tracing the impact of Trent in early seventeenth -century Ireland 200 CONCLUSION 273 BIBLIOGRAPHY 276 i Introductory Note to Part 2 In the first part of this work, the world of Gaelic popular devotion in the pre- Tridentine period (broadly covering the mid-fifteenth to late sixteenth centuries) was examined, using ideas expressed in bardic religious poetry as a principal source. This second part, however, contains a shift in focus. Firstly, the change (at least in chapters 5 and 6) is geographical. Secondly, there is a change of source material. Both require some explanation. The first element is straightforward enough. As is explained in some depth in the introductory section of chapter 5, the late sixteenth century witnessed a wave of emigration among the Irish Catholic community to continental Europe. Many left Ireland in search of a Catholic education in one of the many Irish colleges that were founded in Spain, Portugal, France and the Netherlands during this period. While there, they encountered a Counter-Reformation movement that was in a far greater state of advancement than what they had left at home. The shaping of ideas in the minds of these Irish émigrés was to become the channel for the eventual introduction and implementation of these ideas in Ireland, especially by the continentally educated Counter-Reformation clergy, who would eventually be charged with significant leadership roles in the recusant Irish Church. The second element of change in part 2, namely a change in the nature of the source material, necessitates some comment. Political events of the late sixteenth century witnessed a whittling away of structures of patronage and privilege on which members of the bardic order depended. Recent discussion of bardic reactions to this sort of change, most notably that of Marc Caball, suggests that, in many instances, far from battening down the hatches and waiting for the doom, the bardic order, chameleon-like, adapted themselves to changing circumstances: While the poems are undeniably illustrative of the institutional paralysis enveloping the profession, they also demonstrate an elite wrestling with crisis and formulating a range of responses characterised by an alternation of tradition and innovation. 1 One way in which poets sometimes reacted involved a clear rapprochement between the Gaelic and Anglo-Norman worlds, in effect a union brought about by a common threat - the increasingly evident extension of English (and Protestant) rule in Ireland. Tadhg Dali O hUiginn (d. 1591) reflects this approach in a poem composed in 1579, which attempted to justify the status of Sean, the lower MacWilliam (d. 1580), arguing that land title in Ireland is based on force of arms. Like the Anglo-Norman population, he argues, the Gael had no more right to land in Ireland than the right achieved by conquest, thus placing Gaelic and Anglo-Norman holdings on an equal footing.2 Another poem by O hUiginn attempts to convince Richard Og Burke (¿7.1586), of the lower MacWilliam family to resist accepting a new English title which would involve the rejection of his Gaelic-style appellation ‘Richard, son of MacWilliam’ .3 The change in relationship between the Gaelic Irish and Old English, spurred on by the arrival of New English settlers, was noted by George Carew in 1614. He comments on ‘...the late plantation of new English and Scottish in all parts of the kingdom whom, with an unanime consent, the natives refute as a common 1 Caball, Poets and politics: continuity and reaction in Irish poetry, 1558-1625, p.74. 2 idem, ‘Faith, culture and sovereignty: Irish nationality and its development’, pp 126-7. 3 Ibid. iii enemy’, identifying this as the ‘first and principal cause of their union.. .which.. .they endeavour to disguise, covering the same under the mask of religion.’ 4 An alternative reaction to change, adopted by some poets, was to leave the country itself and travel to Europe in order to pursue an academic or religious career, or both. The poet to the Màg Uidhir, Giolla Brighde Ó hEoghusa is a good example of such an individual. His journey took him to Douai and then to Louvain, where he entered the Franciscan order. His decision did not so much involve the forsaking of his profession as an application or adaptation of his talents. O hEoghusa would proceed to apply himself diligently to the task of transmitting the teachings of the Council of Trent, via his Gaelic translation of the catechism, to an Irish audience. In doing this, however, he remained loyal to his bardic background, applying his skills to the composition of poetic summaries of the principal teachings of the catechism, which he included in his An Teagasg Criosdaidhe (1611 and 1614). Bardic adaptation to the religious life and the cut and thrust of the Counter- Reformation project, as exemplified by O hEoghusa, largely contributes to the change in the nature of sources used in part 2. The publications of the Franciscan scholars of Louvain, inspired and executed by many who were previously members of the bardic order, embody the most significant redefinition of the bardic order in the early seventeenth century. Formerly the purveyors of the propaganda of individual chieftains, the poets now assumed the greater task of applying themselves to the spiritual and political (in the case of the more radical activists such as Flaithri O Maolchonaire) resurrection of their land and its inhabitants (Gaelic and Anglo- Norman alike). 4 Cai. Carew.MSS., 1603-24, pp 305-6. iv That some bardic poets were now employed in the publication of material involves another significant shift in source material. Publications such as those that emerged from the printing press at Louvain, were designed to be read by audiences who were obviously literate. The invention of the printing press led, not only to a wider-reading public, but also to a change in the kind of audiences exposed to bardic poetry. There was a shift from the semi-public poem, addressed to a chieftain in front of a large gathering at a banquet, to the letter-poem, intended only for one reader, and finally to the fully public poem contained in a widely-distributed publication.5 As the kinds of audience changed, so did the variety of themes. Poems composed for an individual chieftain and his clan were necessarily introspective and tended to be rather narrow in theme. However, later poems, addressed to wider audiences (such as those lamenting the demise of Éire) adopted broader themes such as exhortations to patriotism etc.6 Publications such as the Gaelic translations of the Roman Catechism from Louvain reached wider audiences than the literate public, however. Because of the importance of the material, priests and the learned were encouraged to instruct the illiterate in the contents of such works, establishing what Brian Stock refers to as a ‘textual community.’ 7 The exposure of the Irish émigrés to Tridentine ideas on the continent resulted in the desire to import these ideas to their native land. The publication of Tridentine works in the native language was one step. The second step involved the implementation of these ideas at home. This was largely undertaken by clerics returning from the continent to the Irish ministry. The most dynamic example of this was undertaken by 5 Simms, ‘Literacy and the Irish bards’, pp 251-2. 6 Ibid., p.252. 7 Ibid., 247. V the Jesuit order in their third mission to Ireland, from 1596 onwards. The seed sown. How well the Irish soil actually received it is examined in chapter 7. Chapter 5 Continental change: catechising the Gaelic Irish Aodh Mac Aingil, an Irish Franciscan scholar of St Anthony’s College, Louvain, in the introduction to Scathan Shacramuinte na hAithridhe (1618), his work on the sacrament of Penance, explained that his aim was not to present any new teaching to the reader but instead something that was already long-established and needed to be recalled: M nualeighionn do bheirim dhuit achd an seanphort aithridhe do sheinn Padruig 7 a ttainig do naomhuibh ‘nar ttir fein le gniomh is le breithir as e sheinn[i]m.1 The position taken by Mac Aingil was not unique. Those whose onerous task it was to implement the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-63) did not regard themselves as innovators. Rather they adopted the role of defenders and promoters of a traditional set of beliefs that had become all but forgotten in popular consciousness, or alternatively had suffered scathing attacks from reformist doctrines. The catechising movement of Trent, according to John Bossy, ‘did not require much new legislation but called for a decidedly new attitude to old legislation.’2 The setting for this chapter is continental Europe in the aftermath of that defining Ecumenical Council. It focuses principally on the Irish who left their homeland for an education abroad. In the wake 1 ‘I do not give you new teaching but [instead] the old tune of repentance that Patrick played and that came before to saints in our land with deed and word; this is [the tune] I play’ (my translation): Aodh Mac Aingil, Scathan Shacramuinte na hAithridhe (ed.