Church of Ireland

Church of Ireland, independent Anglican church within both Ireland and Northern Ireland. It traces its episcopal succession from the pre-Reformation church in Ireland.

Christianity was probably known in Ireland before the missionary activities of Patrick, the patron saint of the country, in the late 5th century. As the early church developed it was monastic, without parochial or diocesan divisions or central government. What authority there was rested with the abbots, and the bishops were limited to their purely spiritual functions. At a very early date the monasteries became centres of learning with a reputation that extended far outside Ireland.

The early Irish Church was independent of Rome and proudly clung to its own usages in preference to those adopted by the rest of Christendom. It maintained until 704 its method of calculating the date of Easter, despite pressures to adopt the Roman calendar. The Norse invasions in the late 8th century, however, caused a decay in culture and learning in Ireland. The weakness of an uncoordinated ecclesiastical organization became evident, and the Roman Church, through the see of Canterbury in England, began influencing the Irish. Obedience to Rome was finally accepted by the Irish Church in the 12th century. The native liturgies were abandoned, and the liturgy of the English Church was adopted. Throughout the medieval period Englishmen were appointed to the more important positions in the Irish Church.

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The Reformation period began with the passage in 1537 of the Irish Supremacy Act, which asserted the English king’s supremacy in the Irish as well as the English Church. It was, however, a superficial Reformation. The dissolution of the monasteries was only partial, and, because of the scant knowledge of English, liturgical changes were few. No attempt was made to win the mass of the Irish people to Reformation principles, nor were the differences of religious outlook of succeeding English sovereigns made known to the Irish as they were to the English. The majority of the Irish remained faithful to the Roman Catholic Church.

The (Anglican) Church of Ireland, however, was the established church. By the late 18th century Roman Catholics and Presbyterians both received more tolerant treatment, but the privileged position of the Church of Ireland minority continued to irritate many people.

The Act of Union of 1800 united the parliaments of England and Ireland, and the church became part of the United Church of England and Ireland. Discontent with the established church and its privileged position increased, because the church drew its tithes largely from Roman Catholic tenant farmers. In the 1830s agitation against this practice became known as the tithe war. The census of 1861 showed that less than one-eighth of the population belonged to the established church, and four-fifths were Roman Catholic. This fact led to the passing of the Irish Church Act of Disestablishment in 1869, which became law on Jan. 1, 1871.

The Church of Ireland was thus brought to rely on its own resources. It reorganized its ecclesiastical system during a convention of bishops, clergy, and laity held in 1870. Under the constitution then agreed on, the supreme governing body of the church is the General Synod, consisting of the bishops and clerical and lay representatives of the several dioceses, whose local affairs are managed by diocesan synods. Diocesan bishops are elected by an electoral college representative of all dioceses of the province in which the vacancy occurred. The seats of the archbishops of the two provinces are in Armagh and Dublin.

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