OLIVER PLUNKETT: A SAINT BETRAYED BY HIS OWN
by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS
In proprio venit et sui eum non receperunt-St John, 1, 11
SEÁN Ó RIORDÁIN'S poem Fill Arís contains one memorable line: Dún do intinn ar a tharla ó bhualadh Chath Cionn tSáile (Close your mind to what happened since the defeat at Kinsale). The Battle of Kinsale in 1602 marks the beginning of the end of the Gaelic Order in Ireland. Gaeldom, at least in Ireland, was necessarily Catholic. When Gregory XIII introduced the calendar reform in 1582, this was accepted throughout Catholic Europe, including the courts of the O'Neill and the O'Donnell. So as Mountjoy's troops fought the Battle of Kinsale in December 1601 under the old style which England would continue to use until 1752, the more advanced Gaelic Irish and their Spanish allies engaged them in January 1602. The fact that the Julian date of 1601 is impressed upon our minds indicates the extent of the Protestant victory.
In 1607, the Ulster princes left Gaelic Ireland leaderless. From then on, most initiative would fall to the Sean Gall or Old English, the descendant of the Anglo- and Cambro-Norman who maintained Catholicism and as a result were only now coming to terms with the Irish identity. These Hiberno-Normans were adept at the law and parliamentary procedure and used both quite well until they found themselves outwitted by Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth. However, Wentworth was deposed in 1641 due to a temporary coincidence between Irish Catholic and Presbyterian interest which suited an increasingly assertive English Parliament for the time being. After Wentworth, things got worse.
Confederation of Kilkenny
The Gaels could not bear it and proceeded with the 1641 Rebellion, unfortunately missing their objective of taking Dublin Castle. This was followed in 1642 by the inaugural meeting of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland, better known as the Confederation of Kilkenny. The Catholic Confederacy was the most incredible gathering of Irish clergy and laity in modern Irish history. It sat as a parliament, raised an army and even chartered a university in Limerick. One could dream about the possibilities, but Gael and Norman clashed with each other and no one took the bigger picture of the civil wars raging in England and Scotland into account. When Charles I was executed in 1649, the Confederacy was doomed.
In 1646, the original papal envoy Father Scarampi left Ireland to make way for the incoming Nuncio, Archbishop Rinuccini. This was shortly after the great victory of Owen Roe O'Neill at Benburb and Ireland was full of hope. Scarampi took a number of young men with him to study for the priesthood in Rome. One of these was Oliver Plunkett.
Oliver Plunkett was born in Meath in 1625. He came from an old Norman family and many of his relatives were titled nobility, both Catholic and Protestant in persuasion. One of the 19th century Anglican Archbishops of Dublin was a relative, as was George Noble Count Plunkett, the first Foreign Minister and his better known son, the executed rebel Commandant Joseph Mary Plunkett. This was in the future. The young man was tutored by his cousin, a Cistercian priest named Patrick Plunkett who held the title Abbot of St Mary's (Dublin) and who subsequently served a as Bishop of Clonmacnois and then Bishop of Meath. At the age of 16, the student was judged to be ready to attend seminary in Rome.
Cromwellian Settlement
The Protestant ascendancy set up Trinity College in 1591 to provide for the education of young men of promise. The Catholic recusants found the Counter-Reformation seminaries a lot more sympathetic and within a century, several Irish colleges sprung up on the continent. Oliver Plunkett went to the Irish College in Rome, studying in the Roman Jesuit College, in Propaganda College and in the Sapienza. His ability was recognised, and he spent most of his early priesthood teaching theology in Propaganda, while holding the office of a consultant on Ireland to the Roman Curia. Ireland was going through one of the worse periods in her history. Cromwell laid waste to the country in his brief military campaign and his generals continued this. The Cromwellian Settlement, colloquially summarised in the phrase "to hell or to Connaught" saw Catholic ownership of the land fall from 60% to about 20%. For all that, the settlement was not nearly as thorough as the Ulster Plantation of 1609.
Cromwell died in 1658 and the Commonwealth fell in 1660, but the restoration of Charles II was not to signal the return to the status quo ante. In the words of Jonathan Swift:
In 1669, Oliver Plunkett was appointed to the vacant primacy. He returned to Ireland on March 17, 1670 following a clandestine consecration to the episcopacy in Ghent. The firs duty he had in Ireland was pastoral and over the next four years, he confirmed nearly 50,000 people of all ages - some as old as 60, and often in the open air. He turned to the topic of education. At a time when the Protestant establishment was all-powerful and no Catholic order was more despised than the Society of Jesus, he succeeded in establishing a Jesuit college in Drogheda. Drogheda, notwithstanding the Cromwellian slaughter on 11 September 1649, was the second largest city in Ireland at the time. Within a few months the school had an enrollment of 150, forty of whom were sons of Protestant gentlemen. The school lasted a few years until its closure and destruction.
Though it was over a century after the Council of Trent, intermittent persecution in Ireland delayed the effective implementation of the Council decrees. Archbishop Plunkett found this problem when he came to Ireland and set about correcting it. This was his undoing. Laxity in clerical discipline was subject to exaggeration, but nevertheless the conduct of some Irish priests left a lot to be desired. Secondly, there was an age-old dispute between regular and secular clergy which made church government difficult. Finally, a dispute arose between Dublin and Armagh in relation to the primacy.
Guerrilla warfare
Disciplinary problems within the Church took place in the background of one grave pastoral problem. Many of the dispossessed Irish gentry took to the continent to join any of several armies. Some stayed at home and conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the British administration and those who now occupied their lands. These Rapparees or Tories varied considerably between those who acted from the highest patriotic motives to those who degenerated into simple highwaymen. However, they uniformly made the lot of the common people worse and present the Irish hierarchy with a problem.
Synod after synod condemned them, but Oliver Plunkett negotiated with the Tories in an effort to resolve the impasse. Many priests working in the Armagh Archdiocese denounced the Primate for colluding with the authorities while the Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot accused him of drawing too close to the felons. The Primate had considerable success with his talks - many Tories left the country to join continental armies - but when a notable Rapparee, Patrick Fleming was killed by government agents in 1677 while travelling under Oliver Plunkett's safe conduct, many criticisms were made.
Oliver Plunkett sough to implement the Council of Trent reforms in Ireland. A century of intermittent religious persecution made this difficult. A proportion of the clergy led scandalous lives and the Primate went far beyond his diocese. The Vicar Apostolic of Derry, Terence O'Kelly, was a notable offender, and he successfully used the civil processes to frustrate any attempt to bring him to book through the Praemunire clause. Here, Archbishop Plunkett used his political skills to outmaneuver the wily prelate. At the same time, several priests - diocesan and religious - were censured for grave deficiencies in their ministry and personal lives. This made the Primate many enemies.
The relationship between the members of religious orders and the diocesan clergy had been very difficult from the days of St Patrick and this was something Oliver Plunkett did his best to address. However, there was a dispute between the friars of the Franciscan and Dominican Orders. The Franciscans argued the Dominicans should not be invited into the Armagh Archdiocese. The Primate disagreed and extended the invitation, earning him the enmity of the very powerful Franciscan order.
The contemporary Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, came from a noble family associated with Malahide Castle (his brother, Richard, was later Duke of Tyrconnell and would serve as James II's viceroy). Archbishop Talbot was aware of the growing importance of Dublin in Ireland and proposed that the Archbishop of Dublin should be primate. Archbishop Plunkett answered with a tract defending Armagh's position. Talbot responded to this and both tracts were published on the continent. This was the beginning of a long-standing dispute between the two metropolitans.
The Popish Plot
If we focus on the internal politics of Irish Catholicism in the 1670s, we should not forget that the overall position of the Church in Ireland was precarious to say the least. Just how delicate the situation was became apparent when Titus Oates hatched the infamous "Popish Plot". Oates was a former Anglican minister with a history of trouble-making who had briefly studied in the English Jesuit colleges oin Valladolid and St Omer. In 1678, he hurled wild allegations against Catholics in Britain and Ireland. Nothing might have happened had not certain prominent anti-Catholics chosen to use this material.
The Popish Plot unleashed a new persecution against Catholics with saw Archbishops Plunkett and Talbot thrown into prison, with many others. At this point the two were reconciled as Oliver Plunkett defied the guards to administer the last sacraments to Peter Talbot, as he died a martyr's death.
The Successor of St Patrick was to follow. It was alleged that Oliver Plunkett had plotted to bring a French fleet into Carlingford Lough with an army of 15,000 men as part of the general conspiracy to overthrow Charles II. A trial in Dundalk collapsed as a Protestant jury refused to convict the archbishop, so he was brought to London.
Clemency refused
There is one point which must be commented upon in Oliver Plunkett's trial. Four of the prosecution witnesses were priests active in the Armagh archdiocese, two of whom were Franciscans. It is a mystery how the Primate did not challenge his accusers, but long incarceration seriously damaged his health. Following the trial and conviction, it was said he was already dead before he might have suffered from the more brutal elements of execution by hanging, drawing and quartering.
The action of priests against the Primate is a testament of how unwilling many Catholics were to accept the Tridentine reform, particularly priests. There is a contemporary satire, Comhairle Commissarius na Cléire, which is believed to mock Oliver Plunkett and his work (and the author is believed to have been a priest). Also there were many demands for clemency which Charles II refused to heed, one coming from the Earl of Essex who originally arrested him. Charles told Essex he would have done more good by testifying at his trial.
Oliver Plunkett was executed on 11 July 1681 and was canonised by Blessed Paul VI on 10 December 1975. His shrine at St Peter's Church, Drogheda, Co Louth attracts a steady stream of visitors. His life and work continue to have revelance to our own day.
The Brandsma Review, Issue 86, September-October 2006
Cromwellian Settlement
The Protestant ascendancy set up Trinity College in 1591 to provide for the education of young men of promise. The Catholic recusants found the Counter-Reformation seminaries a lot more sympathetic and within a century, several Irish colleges sprung up on the continent. Oliver Plunkett went to the Irish College in Rome, studying in the Roman Jesuit College, in Propaganda College and in the Sapienza. His ability was recognised, and he spent most of his early priesthood teaching theology in Propaganda, while holding the office of a consultant on Ireland to the Roman Curia. Ireland was going through one of the worse periods in her history. Cromwell laid waste to the country in his brief military campaign and his generals continued this. The Cromwellian Settlement, colloquially summarised in the phrase "to hell or to Connaught" saw Catholic ownership of the land fall from 60% to about 20%. For all that, the settlement was not nearly as thorough as the Ulster Plantation of 1609.
Cromwell died in 1658 and the Commonwealth fell in 1660, but the restoration of Charles II was not to signal the return to the status quo ante. In the words of Jonathan Swift:
There was to be no significant alteration in Ireland to what it had been under the Commonwealth.Those who cut off the father's head, forced the son to fly for his life, and overturned the whole ancient frame of government...gained by their rebellion what the Catholics lost by their loyalty.
In 1669, Oliver Plunkett was appointed to the vacant primacy. He returned to Ireland on March 17, 1670 following a clandestine consecration to the episcopacy in Ghent. The firs duty he had in Ireland was pastoral and over the next four years, he confirmed nearly 50,000 people of all ages - some as old as 60, and often in the open air. He turned to the topic of education. At a time when the Protestant establishment was all-powerful and no Catholic order was more despised than the Society of Jesus, he succeeded in establishing a Jesuit college in Drogheda. Drogheda, notwithstanding the Cromwellian slaughter on 11 September 1649, was the second largest city in Ireland at the time. Within a few months the school had an enrollment of 150, forty of whom were sons of Protestant gentlemen. The school lasted a few years until its closure and destruction.
Though it was over a century after the Council of Trent, intermittent persecution in Ireland delayed the effective implementation of the Council decrees. Archbishop Plunkett found this problem when he came to Ireland and set about correcting it. This was his undoing. Laxity in clerical discipline was subject to exaggeration, but nevertheless the conduct of some Irish priests left a lot to be desired. Secondly, there was an age-old dispute between regular and secular clergy which made church government difficult. Finally, a dispute arose between Dublin and Armagh in relation to the primacy.
Guerrilla warfare
Disciplinary problems within the Church took place in the background of one grave pastoral problem. Many of the dispossessed Irish gentry took to the continent to join any of several armies. Some stayed at home and conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the British administration and those who now occupied their lands. These Rapparees or Tories varied considerably between those who acted from the highest patriotic motives to those who degenerated into simple highwaymen. However, they uniformly made the lot of the common people worse and present the Irish hierarchy with a problem.
Synod after synod condemned them, but Oliver Plunkett negotiated with the Tories in an effort to resolve the impasse. Many priests working in the Armagh Archdiocese denounced the Primate for colluding with the authorities while the Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot accused him of drawing too close to the felons. The Primate had considerable success with his talks - many Tories left the country to join continental armies - but when a notable Rapparee, Patrick Fleming was killed by government agents in 1677 while travelling under Oliver Plunkett's safe conduct, many criticisms were made.
Oliver Plunkett sough to implement the Council of Trent reforms in Ireland. A century of intermittent religious persecution made this difficult. A proportion of the clergy led scandalous lives and the Primate went far beyond his diocese. The Vicar Apostolic of Derry, Terence O'Kelly, was a notable offender, and he successfully used the civil processes to frustrate any attempt to bring him to book through the Praemunire clause. Here, Archbishop Plunkett used his political skills to outmaneuver the wily prelate. At the same time, several priests - diocesan and religious - were censured for grave deficiencies in their ministry and personal lives. This made the Primate many enemies.
The relationship between the members of religious orders and the diocesan clergy had been very difficult from the days of St Patrick and this was something Oliver Plunkett did his best to address. However, there was a dispute between the friars of the Franciscan and Dominican Orders. The Franciscans argued the Dominicans should not be invited into the Armagh Archdiocese. The Primate disagreed and extended the invitation, earning him the enmity of the very powerful Franciscan order.
The contemporary Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, came from a noble family associated with Malahide Castle (his brother, Richard, was later Duke of Tyrconnell and would serve as James II's viceroy). Archbishop Talbot was aware of the growing importance of Dublin in Ireland and proposed that the Archbishop of Dublin should be primate. Archbishop Plunkett answered with a tract defending Armagh's position. Talbot responded to this and both tracts were published on the continent. This was the beginning of a long-standing dispute between the two metropolitans.
The Popish Plot
If we focus on the internal politics of Irish Catholicism in the 1670s, we should not forget that the overall position of the Church in Ireland was precarious to say the least. Just how delicate the situation was became apparent when Titus Oates hatched the infamous "Popish Plot". Oates was a former Anglican minister with a history of trouble-making who had briefly studied in the English Jesuit colleges oin Valladolid and St Omer. In 1678, he hurled wild allegations against Catholics in Britain and Ireland. Nothing might have happened had not certain prominent anti-Catholics chosen to use this material.
The Popish Plot unleashed a new persecution against Catholics with saw Archbishops Plunkett and Talbot thrown into prison, with many others. At this point the two were reconciled as Oliver Plunkett defied the guards to administer the last sacraments to Peter Talbot, as he died a martyr's death.
The Successor of St Patrick was to follow. It was alleged that Oliver Plunkett had plotted to bring a French fleet into Carlingford Lough with an army of 15,000 men as part of the general conspiracy to overthrow Charles II. A trial in Dundalk collapsed as a Protestant jury refused to convict the archbishop, so he was brought to London.
Clemency refused
There is one point which must be commented upon in Oliver Plunkett's trial. Four of the prosecution witnesses were priests active in the Armagh archdiocese, two of whom were Franciscans. It is a mystery how the Primate did not challenge his accusers, but long incarceration seriously damaged his health. Following the trial and conviction, it was said he was already dead before he might have suffered from the more brutal elements of execution by hanging, drawing and quartering.
The action of priests against the Primate is a testament of how unwilling many Catholics were to accept the Tridentine reform, particularly priests. There is a contemporary satire, Comhairle Commissarius na Cléire, which is believed to mock Oliver Plunkett and his work (and the author is believed to have been a priest). Also there were many demands for clemency which Charles II refused to heed, one coming from the Earl of Essex who originally arrested him. Charles told Essex he would have done more good by testifying at his trial.
Oliver Plunkett was executed on 11 July 1681 and was canonised by Blessed Paul VI on 10 December 1975. His shrine at St Peter's Church, Drogheda, Co Louth attracts a steady stream of visitors. His life and work continue to have revelance to our own day.
The Brandsma Review, Issue 86, September-October 2006
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