Enforcing the English Reformation in Ireland: Clerical Resistance and Political Conflict in the Diocese of Dublin, 1534-1590

Description

This book examines the efforts of the Tudor regime to implement the 'English Reformation' in Ireland during the sixteenth century. Centred on the diocese of Dublin, the book challenges the traditional assumption that the Reformation was ultimately defeated by Tridentine Catholicism and Counter-Reformation missionaries. Instead, it contends that the most significant opposition came from a survivalist clerical elite who rejected the 'new religion' on the grounds that its adoption would ruin the English cultural ethos of the Pale community, of which traditional medieval Catholicism was a fundamental part. Thus, as well as demonstrating that the task of enforcing the Reformation was more formidable than has been accepted, and its failure more complex that has been assumed, the book also questions some commonly held assumptions concerning the contribution of religion to the formation of national identity on these islands.

Dr James Murray has published a number of articles on aspects of Ireland's sixteenth century religious history. He is Director of Framework Implementation and Qualifications Recognition at the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland.

Review of the hardback: '... Murray's work ... provides a modern analysis of the physical makeup of the Tudor diocese of Dublin and also illuminates the careers of the individuals who headed that diocese following Henry VIII's split with Rome. Furthermore it supplies one of the most succinct accounts yet written of how the religious changes enacted by the Tudors impacted upon the wider public life of Dublin and the Irish kingdom. As such it makes an important advance in our understanding of many aspects of the Tudor Reformations in Ireland and contributes significantly to the debate thereon.' David Heffernan, Oenach '... this much anticipated volume has a great deal that is new and important to say on the subject [of why the Reformation failed in Ireland] ... the author's fresh perspective on an old problem marks this as a Reformation study of high quality.' Irish Economic and Social History