Laying the Nineteenth-Century Foundations: Contributions from a Catholic and a Protestant Scholar in the 1820s
The Church of Ireland’s claims to continuity with earlier Christian times had been undermined by Enlightenment scepticism about ‘barbarous ages’, and doubts about the very existence of a historical St Patrick. In the early 1800s Catholic scholars, notably
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Laying the Nineteenth-Century Foundations: Contributions from a Catholic and a Protestant Scholar in the 1820s Jacqueline Hill Yet … no connected history of the Irish Church has been hitherto published, although an abundance of materials for that purpose are still in existence… (John Lanigan, An ecclesiastical history of Ireland (2nd edn, Dublin, 1829), preface, p. iv)
I know many eminent living [Protestant] authors but none has studied ancient Irish history … (William Phelan, The case of the Church of Ireland stated (Dublin, 1823), pp 60–1)
During the seventeenth century, lasting contributions to Irish church history were made by both Catholic and Protestant scholars. However, the age of the penal laws that followed proved to be a less fruitful period for the subject. This was partly because during that time, few Catholic scholars (mostly priests) had the opportunity to pursue such studies, while Protestants, secure in their privileged position (Presbyterians became eligible for public office from 1780), and generally lacking the ability to
J. Hill () National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Ireland © The Author(s) 2017 J. Hill, M.A. Lyons (eds.), Representing Irish Religious Histories, Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700–2000, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41531-4_4
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read early Irish documents, had little incentive to attempt the task. In the 1740s and later, scholars from both the main traditions did display a renewed interest in ancient Irish history.1 But despite the appearance of one particularly influential work mentioned below, Irish church history as such had not been the principal focus for these studies. However, by the 1820s change was apparent, and this chapter will centre on key contributions from a Catholic scholar, Dr John Lanigan, DD (1758–1828), and a Church of Ireland scholar, the Reverend William Phelan, FTCD (1789–1830).2 These two scholars, though born a generation apart, had a certain amount in common. Both were born into Catholic families in County Tipperary; Lanigan in Cashel and Phelan in Clonmel. Both received part of their education in schools run by Church of Ireland clergymen, and both would be ordained: Lanigan into the Catholic priesthood, while Phelan became a clergyman of the established church. Both would publish some of their work pseudonymously (Lanigan as ‘Irenaeus’, and Phelan as ‘Declan’).3 Both would be frequently cited or referenced by later generations of scholars, and both so impressed their admirers that after their death, memoirs were published of them.4 Before their contributions to Irish church history can be discussed, it is worth noting that the limited engagement with the subject in the decades preceding their publications had been compounded by doubts, fostered in part by Enlightenment scepticism, about the authenticity of certain sources for early Christian Ireland. An influential work in this respect was The antiquities of Ireland (Dublin, 1790) by Church of Ireland scholar Reverend Edward Ledwich. Although not free himself from the
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