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-
Only in case of one bishop, the notorious Miler Magrath, was Elizabeth
able to secure submission. He was a Franciscan friar, who, having been
sent to Rome to petition that the vacant See of Down and Connor should
be conferred on Shane O'Neill's brother, took steps to secure the
appointment for himself (1565). Finding on his return that he could
not hope to get any revenue from his diocese on account of the
opposition of O'Neill, he made his submission to the queen (1567) and
received as his reward the diocese of Clogher, and later on the
Archbishopric of Cashel (1570). For the greater part of his term of
office as archbishop he held the Sees of Waterford and Lismore, and
when he resigned them in 1607 he obtained a grant of Achonry and
Killala. While pretending to be scandalised by the toleration shown to
Catholics, and especially to Catholic officials, and to be anxious
that the laws should be enforced with the utmost rigour he took
measures to warn the clergy whenever there was danger of arrest. On
one occasion when he was in London, having learned that a raid was
contemplated against the priests, he wrote to his wife to warn Bishop
MacCragh of Cork to go into hiding at once, and to send away the
priests who had taken refuge in his own palace at Cashel lest he
should get into trouble. He was denounced by the officials in Dublin
as a traitor, a drunkard, and a despoiler of the goods of the Church.
He sold or leased the property of his dioceses, kept a large number of
benefices in his own hands solely for the sake of the revenue,
appointed his own sons, his daughter, and his daughter-in-law to
parishes to provide them with an income, built no schools, and allowed
the churches to go into ruins. His children made no secret of the fact
that they were Catholics, and the archbishop himself seemed to think
that though Protestantism had been useful to him in life, the old
religion would be preferable at death. In 1608 faculties had been
granted to Archbishop Kearney of Cashel for absolving Magrath from the
guilt of heresy and schism. Some years later he besought a Franciscan
friar to procure his reconciliation with Rome, promising that for his
part, if the Pope required it, he would make a public renunciation of
Protestantism. This request of his was recommended warmly to the Holy
See by Mgr. Bentivoglio, inter-nuncio at Brussels, but the love of the
archbishop for the revenues of Cashel and of his other bishoprics and
benefices seems to have proved stronger than his desire for pardon,
for he continued to enrich himself and his friends at the expense of
the State Church till his death in 1622. It was believed by his
contemporaries that on his death-bed he abjured his errors, and was
reconciled with the Church by one of his former religious
brethren.[85]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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