The Protestant Reformation In Ireland

620 Words2 Pages

The Protestant Reformation can be described as a religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches around Europe*. Henry VII during this time wanted Ireland to follow the religious changes which he was making in England and therefore started a reform against the Catholic Church in the country. These changes dealt mainly with the way the Church was run as he closed down monasteries and ordered the bible and other catholic scripture to be written in English. Other rulers after Henry VII tried other methods of reform by attempting to change the beliefs of the Irish people such as Elizabeth I who declared the leader of the Church of Ireland to be an English monarch and she also introduced fines on the failure to attend mass on Sunday. Despite these attempts by the English to spread a reform around Ireland it was largely a fail but certain aspects of the reform have had an effect and can still be seen to this day. This essay will discuss when the Protestant Reformation occurred in Ireland and the reasons why it failed.
Even in the Pale, the Crown‘s authority was being challenged by one of the most powerful of the Anglo-Irish barons, the FitzGerald’s of Kildare. Henry wanted to assert himself throughout Ireland and he attempted to do this in many different ways. He first sent an army of 2.300 to Ireland and also confiscated land off of the Fitzgerald’s. However his most promising idea was attempting to introduce a Protestant country that would be loyal to the crown. After Henry announced himself as King of Ireland in order to get closer to the church situations began to get ugly. Throughout Ireland during this time the Tudors around the country relied heavily on the FitzGerald’s of Kildare to govern the country in the king’s name. The FitzGerald’s never caused enough intervention to cause a rebellion but all this changed in 1534. Thomas Fitzgerald (Silken Thomas), son of the ninth earl of Kildare, announced his allegiance to Henry VIII and therefore started a major rebellion. The rebels believed in supporting the pope and believed that King Henry was a threat and an enemy of the Catholic Church. The rebels stated they supported the ‘pope’s sect and band, and him will they serve against the king and all his partakers; saying further that the king is accursed and as many as take his part, and shall be openly accursed’ Religion was not the

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