Second Reformation

Last updated

The Second Reformation was an evangelical campaign from the 1820s onwards, organised by theological conservatives in the Church of Ireland and Church of England.

Contents

History

Evangelical clergymen were known as "Biblicals" or "New Reformers". The Second Reformation was most zealously prosecuted in Connacht where it was encouraged by Thomas Plunket, 2nd Baron Plunket, [1] the Anglican Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry. Opposition in the west was led by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, John MacHale. The movement endeavoured (unsuccessfully) and in ecumenical terms disastrously, to proselytise amongst the Roman Catholic population of Ireland, frequently by highly dubious means in which material benefits were offered as a reward for conversion. [2] The occasion of the Great Famine (Ireland) was also seized upon by the "new Reformers". To get food, starving Catholics were obliged to apply to the work house of the local Poor Law union. Conversion was expected upon admittance. Quaker and Irish politician Alfred Webb later wrote:

"Upon the famine arose the wide spread system of proselytism ... and a network of well-intentioned Protestant associations spread over the poorer parts of the country, which in return for soup and other help endeavoured to gather the people into their churches and schools... The movement left seeds of bitterness that have not yet died out, and Protestants, and not altogether excluding Friends, sacrificed much of the influence for good they might have had..." [3]

Conversions exacted under the duress of those circumstances were often not long lived as the convert may not have been acting out of personal conviction.

"At the time those families who took the "soup" became known for generations as "soupers" after the Famine many re-converted back to being Roman Catholics and in turn they became known as "jumpers", so one could have the "souper Doyles" or "souper Murphys" and later, after the famine was over, the "jumper Doyles or "jumper Murphys". [4]

The Second Reformation was also opposed by moderates in the Church of Ireland. It petered out during the 1860s.

Other meanings

The term 'Second Reformation' has been used in a number of contexts in Protestantism, and continues to be used by some to refer to contemporary events. In Germany and Northern Europe generally it is likely to refer to a period of Calvinist pressure on Lutheranism from about 1560–1619. [5] The "Dutch Second Reformation" or Nadere Reformatie ("Another Reformation") is usually placed rather later, from about 1600 onwards, and had much in common with English Puritanism.

Notes

  1. ↑ Thomas Plunket
  2. ↑ Search, A Church of Ireland Journal, Summer 2008, p. 151
  3. ↑ Alfred Webb, unpublished biography, c. 1868, pp. 120–122
  4. ↑ Purcell, Michael, The Cursed Famine (1845-1848), July 2006.
  5. ↑ Michalski, 84

Related Research Articles

The Irish Church Missions (ICM) is a conservative and semi-autonomous Anglican mission. It was founded in 1849 as The Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics chiefly by English Anglicans though with the backing and support of Church of Ireland clergy and bishops, with the aim of converting the Roman Catholics of Ireland to Protestantism. The reference to Roman Catholics in the title was removed in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestant Ascendancy</span> Anglican domination of Ireland, late 17th to early 20th centuries

The Protestant Ascendancy, also known simply as the Ascendancy, was the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland between the 17th century and the early 20th century by a minority of landowners, Protestant clergy, and members of the professions, all members of the Established Church. The Ascendancy excluded other groups from politics and the elite, most numerous among them Roman Catholics but also members of the Presbyterian and other Protestant denominations, along with non-Christians such as Jews, until the Reform Acts (1832–1928).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Protestantism</span> Bias, hatred or distrust against Protestantism and its followers

Anti-Protestantism is bias, hatred or distrust against some or all branches of Protestantism and/or its followers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church</span> Anglican Communion church in Portugal

The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church in Portugal is a member church of the Anglican Communion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John MacHale</span> Catholic bishop

John MacHale was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Catholic</span> Variant of Lutheran

The term Evangelical Catholic is used in Lutheranism, alongside the term Augsburg Catholic, with those calling themselves Evangelical Catholic Lutherans or Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship stressing the catholicity of historic Lutheranism in liturgy, beliefs, practices, and doctrines. Evangelical Catholics teach that Lutheranism at its core "is deeply and fundamentally catholic". The majority of Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and parishes are members of mainstream Lutheran denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conversion to Christianity</span> Conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity

Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. Different Christian denominations may perform various different kinds of rituals or ceremonies of initiation into their community of believers. The most commonly accepted ritual of conversion in Christianity is through baptism, but this is not universally accepted among them all. A period of instruction and study almost always ensues before a person is formally converted into Christianity and becomes a church member, but the length of this period varies, sometimes as short as a few weeks and possibly less, and other times, up to as long as a year or possibly more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham</span>

The Rt Hon. Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham, K.P., was an Irish peer, a Member of Parliament, an evangelical Orangeman and County Cavan landowner. During the hunger years of late 1820s and late 1840s, he was much reviled for evicting tenants and for offering relief only on condition of conversion to Protestantism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam</span> Catholic archdiocese in Ireland

The Archdiocese of Tuam is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in western Ireland. The archdiocese is led by the Archbishop of Tuam, who serves as pastor of the mother church, the Cathedral of the Assumption and Metropolitan of the Metropolitan Province of Tuam. According to tradition, the "Diocese of Tuam" was established in the 6th century by St. Jarlath. The ecclesiastical province, roughly co-extensive with the secular province of Connacht, was created in 1152 by the Synod of Kells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Anna Cusack</span>

Margaret Anna Cusack, also known as Sister Mary Francis Cusack and Mother Margaret, was first an Irish Anglican nun, then a Roman Catholic nun, then a religious sister and the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, and then an Anglican. By 1870 more than 200,000 copies of her works which ranged from biographies of saints to pamphlets on social issues had circulated throughout the world, the proceeds from which went towards victims of the Famine of 1879 and helping to feed the poor.

James Warren Doyle, O.E.S.A. (1786–1834) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland, who used the signature "JKL", an acronym from "James Kildare and Leighlin." Doyle was active in the Anti-Tithe movement. A campaigner for Catholic Emancipation until it was attained in 1829, he was also an educator, church organiser and the builder of Carlow cathedral.

Souperism was a phenomenon of the Irish Great Famine. Protestant Bible societies set up schools in which starving children were fed, on the condition of receiving Protestant religious instruction at the same time. Its practitioners were reviled by the Catholic families who had to choose between Protestantism and starvation. People who converted for food were known as "soupers", "jumpers" and "cat breacs". In the words of their peers, they "took the soup". Although souperism did not occur frequently, the perception of it had a lasting effect on the popular memory of the Famine. It blemished the relief work by Protestants who gave aid without proselytising, and the rumour of souperism may have discouraged starving Catholics from attending soup kitchens for fear of betraying their faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom</span>

Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom dates back to Roman times. Attacks on the Church from a Protestant angle mostly began with the English and Irish Reformations which were launched by King Henry VIII and the Scottish Reformation which was led by John Knox. Within England, the Act of Supremacy 1534 declared the English crown to be "the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England" in place of the Pope. Any act of allegiance to the latter was considered treasonous because the papacy claimed both spiritual and political power over its followers. Ireland was brought under direct English control starting in 1536 during the Tudor conquest of Ireland. The Scottish Reformation in 1560 abolished Catholic ecclesiastical structures and rendered Catholic practice illegal in Scotland. Today, anti-Catholicism remains common in the United Kingdom, with particular relevance in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestantism in Ireland</span> Religious community

Protestantism is a Christian minority on the island of Ireland. In the 2011 census of Northern Ireland, 48% (883,768) described themselves as Protestant, which was a decline from approximately 50% from the 2001 census. In the 2011 census of the Republic of Ireland, 4.27% of the population described themselves as Protestant. In the Republic, Protestantism was the second largest religious grouping until the 2002 census in which they were exceeded by those who chose "No Religion". Some forms of Protestantism existed in Ireland in the early 16th century before the English Reformation, but demographically speaking these were very insignificant and the real influx of Protestantism began only with the spread of the English Reformation to Ireland. The Church of Ireland was established by King Henry VIII of England, who had himself proclaimed as King of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Power Le Poer Trench</span> Irish clergyman

Power Le Poer Trench (1770–1839) was an Anglican clergyman who served in the Church of Ireland as firstly Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, then Bishop of Elphin and finally Archbishop of Tuam.

Benjamin John Plunket was a 20th-century Anglican bishop in Ireland.

Charles Bourke was an Irish priest.

Many Christians believe in a widespread conversion of the Jews to Christianity, which they often consider as an end-time event. Some Christian denominations consider the conversion of the Jews imperative and pressing, and as a result they make it their mission to proselytize among them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Nangle</span> Irish minister and founder of a mission village

Edward Nangle was a Church of Ireland minister and the founder of the Achill Mission Colony. He established a Protestant mission on Achill Island, County Mayo, in 1834 and worked there for eighteen years with the aim of bringing Protestantism to the Native Irish Christians who were impoverished in large part due to the Penal Law policies of the Protestant Ascendancy. Edward Nangle was involved in evangelical attempts to convert Catholics to Protestantism. He opened a Christian school on the island where children were taught reading, writing, agricultural skills and Christianity as part of a Missionary Colony. His presence on the island led to some press coverage and parliamentary debates. The island itself was developed with a pier built at Dugort, a courthouse at Achill Sound and a road network between numerous key locations on the island. A plaque hanging in St. Thomas Church, Dugort, dedicated to Edward Nangle and erected by friends after his death, reads: "He devoted his life from the year 1834 to the welfare of the people of Achill among whom he lived for many years."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe</span> Anglican diocese of the Church of Ireland

The Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe is a diocese of the Church of Ireland that is located in the west of Ireland. The diocese was formed by a merger of the former Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry and the former Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe in 2022, after the retirement of the separate dioceses' bishops and the appointment of Michael Burrows as bishop of the united diocese. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. It is one of the eleven Church of Ireland dioceses that cover the whole of Ireland. The largest diocese by area in the Church of Ireland, it covers all of counties Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick and Mayo, plus parts of counties Cork, Sligo, Roscommon, Offaly, Laois and Tipperary.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.