History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution — Volume 2MacCaffrey, James
Religion
History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution — Volume 2
MacCaffrey, James
Catholic Church -- History -- Modern period, 1500-
The fact that some of the bishops surrendered the religious houses of
which they were commendatory priors, as for example, Edmund Nugent of
Kilmore, Milo Baron of Ossory, and Walter Wellesley of Kildare,[58]
and accepted pensions from the king as a compensation for the loss
they sustained by the suppression of the monasteries, creates a grave
suspicion of their orthodoxy, though it does not prove that they
accepted royal supremacy. Baron was undoubtedly in close communication
with the government officials, and Nugent seems to have been removed
by the Pope. Again, several of the bishops, Roland de Burgo of
Clonfert, Florence Kirwan of Clonmacnoise, Eugene MacGuinness of Down
and Connor, and Thady Reynolds of Kildare[59] surrendered the Bulls
they had received from Rome, and accepted grants of their dioceses
from the king. Such a step, however, affords no decisive evidence of
disloyalty to the Holy See. For years a sharp controversy had been
waged between the Kings of England and the Pope regarding the
temporalities of bishoprics. The Popes claimed to have the right of
appointment to both the spiritualities and the temporalities, and gave
expression to these claims in the Bulls of appointment. The kings on
their part asserted their jurisdiction over the temporalities, and to
safeguard their rights they insisted that the bishop-elect should
surrender the papal grant in return for a royal grant. Such a custom
was well known before any schismatical tendencies had made themselves
felt in England, and compliance with it would not prove that the
bishops involved looked upon the king as the source of their spiritual
jurisdiction. The main point to be considered in case of the bishops
who surrendered their monasteries or their Bulls is what kind of oath,
if any, were they obliged to take. If they consented to swear the form
of renunciation prescribed for Irish bishops by the king their
orthodoxy could not well be defended, but it is possible that, as
Henry VIII. did not wish to press matters to extremes with the Irish
princes, he may have adopted an equally prudent policy in case of the
bishops, and contented himself with the oath of allegiance.
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