Henry's religious policy
The murder of Alen afforded the King an opportunity of introducing his religious agenda into Ireland. He kept the see vacant for nearly a year, and then filled it without any reference to the Pope, by the appointment of Browne. He was consecrated by Thomas Cranmer, on 19 March 1536, and took up his residence in Dublin in August 1536. The antecedents of Browne and the schismatical character of his appointment did not recommend him to the Dublin clergy. [2] He complained of their resistance to his injunctions and was compelled to send round his own servants in order to cancel the Pope's name in the service books. A warning from the King stirred him up to more demonstrative action, and he had all holy relics preserved in Christ Church cathedral, including St. Patrick's crozier, known as the "Staff of Jesus", gathered into a heap and burned. He cooperated in the suppression of all the religious houses, in changing the prior and convent of Christ Church into a secular dean and chapter, and in the total suppression of the chapter of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
The Irish Parliament, which had been sitting for two months, accepted all the principal acts by which England had declared herself independent of Rome. Opposition to these measures was offered by the clergy, who claimed the power of voting in their own house upon bills which had passed the Irish commons. Under the leadership of the primate George Cromer, their obstruction had succeeded, and they were deprived of their privileges. A speech made by Browne on this occasion, declaring his vote for the king as supreme head of the Irish church, has been preserved; and it was through him, that a separate act was passed granting the first-fruits of all abbeys to the King, thus paving the way for the dissolution of the monasteries, which quickly followed. Browne also held a commission from Thomas Cromwell, to further 'the king's advantage;' and in this cause he journeyed into various parts, preaching, publishing the royal articles and injunctions, and collecting the first-fruits and twentieths of the spiritualties which had been decreed to the King. He put forth a form of prayer, which is the earliest document in which the Church of Ireland is joined with the Church of England under royal supremacy.
Browne had a rough reception in Ireland: he was faced with the open hostility of many colleagues, especially Edward Staples, the Bishop of Meath, and viewed with suspicion by the Privy Council of Ireland. The Lord Deputy Leonard Grey, 1st Viscount Grane was his enemy, and treated him with contempt, on one occasion putting him in prison. The King wrote him a severe letter after receiving complaints.
Browne had greater success with the hierarchy: the prelates who had followed George Dowdall gradually conformed; and when, in the middle of the same year, 1550, Dowdall went from his see at Armagh, declaring that he would not be bishop where there was no mass, he was isolated. Hugh Goodacre, an Englishman sent by Cranmer, was consecrated by Browne at Christ Church as Dowdall's replacement. At the same time the Primacy of Ireland, the ancient dignity of the see of Armagh, was claimed by Browne, and transferred by royal patent to Dublin. He made less progress with evangelism, and the churches were emptier than ever. John Bale, who arrived in Ireland as Bishop of Ossory at the same time as Goodacre, thought Browne himself remiss, and they quarrelled as soon as he was consecrated.
Biography
James Ussher describes him in Memoirs of the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Ireland as: "George Browne is a man of cheerful countenance; in his acts and conduct, plain and downright; to the poor, merciful and compassionate, pitying the state and condition of the souls of the people and advising them, when he was the provincial of the Augustine order in England, to make their application solely to Christ; which advice coming to the ears of Henry VIII., he became a favourite, and was made an archbishop of Dublin. Within five years after he enjoyed that see he caused all superstitious relics and images to be removed out of the two cathedrals in Dublin, and out of all churches in his diocese; and caused the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, to be placed in gilded frames about the altars. He was the first that turned from Romish religion of the clergy here in Ireland, to embrace the reformation of the church of England." [4]
The Primacy of Ireland was historically disputed between the Archbishop of Armagh and the Archbishop of Dublin until finally settled by Pope Innocent VI. Primate is a title of honour denoting ceremonial precedence in the Church, and in the Middle Ages there was an intense rivalry between the two archbishoprics as to seniority. Since 1353 the Archbishop of Armagh has been titled Primate of All Ireland and the Archbishop of Dublin Primate of Ireland, signifying that they are the senior churchmen on the island of Ireland, the Primate of All Ireland being the more senior. The titles are used by both the Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops. The distinction mirrors that in the Church of England between the Primate of All England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Primate of England, the Archbishop of York.
William Alexander was an Irish cleric in the Church of Ireland.
Hugh Boulter was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, from 1724 until his death. He also served as the chaplain to George I from 1719.
The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral is the senior cleric of the Protestant St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, elected by the chapter of the cathedral. The office was created in 1219 or 1220, by one of several charters granted to the cathedral by Archbishop Henry de Loundres between 1218 and 1220.
The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh is the ecclesiastical head of the Church of Ireland, bearing the title Primate of All Ireland, the metropolitan of the Province of Armagh and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Armagh.
The Archdiocese of Armagh is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the northern part of Ireland. The ordinary is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh who is also the Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical province of Armagh and the Primate of All Ireland. The mother church is St Patrick's Cathedral. The claim of the archdiocese to pre-eminence in Ireland as the primatial see rests upon its traditional establishment by Saint Patrick circa 445. It was recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells.
Lord John George de la Poer Beresford was an Anglican archbishop and Primate.
George Dowdall was a sixteenth-century Irish cleric, who was twice Archbishop of Armagh.
The Archbishop of Dublin is a senior bishop in the Church of Ireland, second only to the Archbishop of Armagh. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the metropolitan bishop of the Province of Dublin, which covers the southern half of Ireland, and he is styled Primate of Ireland.
Events from the year 1553 in Ireland.
The Archbishop of Dublin is the head of the Archdiocese of Dublin in the Catholic Church, responsible for its spiritual and administrative needs. The office has existed since 1152, in succession to a regular bishopric since 1028. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of Dublin, and the archbishop is also styled the Primate of Ireland. The cathedral church of the archdiocese is Saint Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin city, although the Church formally claims Christ Church as its cathedra, and the archbishop's residence is Archbishop's House in Drumcondra.
Christianity is, and has been the largest religion in Ireland since the 5th century. After a pagan past of Antiquity, missionaries, most famously including Saint Patrick, converted the Irish tribes to Christianity in quick order, producing a great number of saints in the Early Middle Ages, and a faith interwoven with Irish identity for centuries since − though less so in recent times.
John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg CH (1873–1961) was a Church of Ireland clergyman, from 1915 Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, in 1920 translated to become Archbishop of Dublin, and finally from 1939 until 1959 Archbishop of Armagh. He was also a theologian and historian.
Christopher Hampton (1552–1625) was an Englishman who was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh from 1613 to 1625.
James Margetson was an English churchman, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh from 1663 till 1678.
Hugh Goodacre was an English Protestant clergyman, who was briefly Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland.
Thomas Lancaster was an English Protestant clergyman, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh from 1568.
John Comyn, born in England, was Archbishop of Dublin, Ireland.
Robert Weston was an English civil lawyer, who was Dean of the Arches and Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
Patrick MacMahon, O.F.M. was Bishop of Ardagh in Ireland, recognised at various times by both the Roman Catholic church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland. His appointment to the see was approved by the Vatican on 14 November 1541. The Reformation in Ireland had begun, but there was not yet a definitive break between, on the one hand, the hierarchy recognised by the Roman Curia and, on the other hand, the established church recognised by the Dublin Castle administration of the English king Henry VIII. The Diocese of Ardagh was in the Annaly region of the Farrell clan, of whom Richard O'Ferrall had secured the temporalities of the diocese in July 1541. George Cromer, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland, recognised O'Ferrall and had him consecrated on 22 April 1542. Cromer's successor George Dowdall on 15 May 1544 appointed MacMahon instead as a suffragan bishop inter Hibernicos. When the Catholic Queen Mary I succeeded to the throne in 1553, papal supremacy was recognised and MacMahon received the temporalities of Ardagh. While Monahan says that Ardagh was vacant in the Church of Ireland after the accession of Elizabeth I, others regard MacMahon as retaining his place in both hierarchies. A possibly forged papal bull, dated 1568, deprives MacMahon of his see for simony, non-residence, and neglect of the cathedral. A putative 1572 letter from Marshalsea from a former bishop "Malachy" of Ardagh, abjuring "papistical superstition" and promising loyalty to Elizabeth, may if genuine be from MacMahon. MacMahon's death is inferred to have occurred either before 5 November 1572, when a successor was appointed in the Church of Ireland, or else during 1575, before Richard Brady was appointed by the Vatican on 23 January 1576.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Dixon, Richard Watson (1886). "Browne, George (d.1556)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
