Penal Laws (Ireland)
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The Penal laws in Ireland refers to a series of laws imposed under British rule that sought to discriminate against Roman Catholics and Protestant non-Conformists (those not conforming to the Anglican Church) in Ireland in favour of the established Church of Ireland which recognised the English monarchy as its spiritual head.
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[edit] Background
English attempts to govern Ireland had long been marked by the passing of various acts to secure its rule: in 1367, the Statutes of Kilkenny sought to prevent the Old English from any further adoption of Gaelic culture, and Poynings Law of 1494 made the Irish parliament subservient to the English one. These were approved of by the Holy See. But the English Reformation from 1535 under Henry VIII brought a new religious division to the relationship between Ireland and England, though he also persecuted Protestants. His son Edward VI (1553-57) was fully Protestant, and Queen Mary supported Catholicism in 1553-58, while settling the new 'King's' and Queen's' counties in the midlands. During her reign it was agreed under the Treaty of Augsburg in 1555 that Europeans should follow their ruler's faith. However, after 12 years of difficulties the Papacy excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) as a heretic in 1570. Decades of wars and tensions followed until her death in 1603. Her principal opponent, Philip II of Spain, encouraged Catholic rebellions in Ireland and was offered the kingship of Ireland by some important Gaelic chieftains in 1595, which he refused. Whenever they sought support, it was a hindrance that the important Irish Catholic families, whether of Gaelic or English descent, had never supplied Rome with a Pope or a Cardinal.
In Ireland, new laws were put into force from the late 1500s and coincided with a determined effort to bring all of Ireland under English government for the first time (see Tudor re-conquest of Ireland) and the colonisation of the country in the Plantations of Ireland. The Penal legislation had a pronounced effect over two centuries, disenfranchising in 1728 the richer part of the majority of the Irish population, who were Roman Catholic, and most Scottish settlers, who were Presbyterian, in favour of the much smaller official Church of Ireland - initially mostly composed of English settlers. Though the laws affected adherents of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (who were concentrated in Ulster), their principal victims were the wealthier, landed members of the Roman Catholic Church, whose co-religionists comprised over three quarters of the people on the island. The English had, intentionally or otherwise, punished the faith of the overwhelming majority of the "mere Irish" (this derived from the Latin 'merus', meaning 'pure'). There was no law forbidding Catholics from converting to the state religion, but few chose to do so. Little attempt was made to convert the poor.
[edit] Stuart and Cromwellian rule
Initially, English monarchs were cautious about applying the Penal Laws to Ireland because they needed the support of the Roman Catholic upper classes to put down Gaelic Irish rebellion in the Nine Years War (1594-1603). In addition, a significant section of the Roman Catholic aristocracy was Old English who had traditionally been loyal to English rule in Ireland. However, the ascent of James I to the English and Irish thrones in 1603 and eventual victory in the Nine Years War saw a series of laws put into force. In 1605 the 'Gunpowder Plot' was planned by a tiny group of English Catholics, as James I was technically a heretic, and this provided a further justification for laws restricting all Catholics in Ireland, Scotland and England.
From 1607, Catholics were barred from holding public office or serving in the army. This meant that the Irish Privy Council and the Lords Justice - who, along with the Lord Deputy of Ireland constituted the government of the country, would in future be Protestants. In 1613, the constituencies of the Irish Parliament were altered to give Protestant settlers a majority. In addition, Roman Catholics had to pay 'recusant fines' for non-attendance at Protestant services. Roman Catholic churches were transferred to the Protestant Church of Ireland. Roman Catholic services, however, were generally tacitly tolerated as long as they were conducted in private. Roman Catholic priests were also tolerated, but bishops (who were usually trained in Roman Catholic Europe) had to conceal their presence in the country. In the 1630s the issue of the 'Graces' arose. Charles I, whose Queen was Catholic, levied a vast fee off Irish Catholic landlords to reform the laws, but once the money was paid he lost interest.
Catholic resentment boiled over into the Irish Rebellion of 1641 which was marked by the massacre of Protestants and was eventually put down in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649-53, which included the mass slaughtering of Catholic Irish including the town of Drogheda in which all 9000 inhabitants, men, women, and children were murdered. After the Act of Settlement in 1652, Catholics were barred from membership in the Irish Parliament, had most of their lands confiscated and were banned from living in towns for a short period. To the Cromwellians, all Catholics were, in turn, heretics. Catholic clergy were expelled from the country and liable to instant execution where found. Many had to attend their devotions at 'Mass Rocks' in the countryside. Much of this legislation was rescinded after the English Restoration, but a new and more comprehensive series of Penal Laws were passed after the Roman Catholic 'Jacobites' sided with James II in the Williamite war in Ireland 1689-91. At the European level, the Papacy supported William III's alliance against France, and on the news of the Battle of the Boyne a Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving at the Vatican. But from 1693 the Papacy supported James against William.
[edit] Ascendancy rule 1691-1778
With the defeat of Catholic attempts to regain power and lands in Ireland, the new Protestant Ascendancy sought to insure dominance with the passing of a number of laws to restrict Catholics and Dissenters . The son of James II, the Old Pretender, was recognised by the Holy See as the legitimate king of Britain and Ireland until his death in 1766, and Catholics were obliged to support him. This provided a further political excuse for the new laws. Among the discriminations now faced by victims of the Penal Laws were:
- Exclusion of Catholics from most public offices (since 1607), Presbyterians were also barred from public office from 1707.
- Ban on intermarriage with Protestants
- Presbyterian marriages were not legally recognised by the state
- Catholics barred from holding firearms or serving in the armed forces (rescinded by Militia Act of 1793)
- Exclusion from membership in either the Parliament of Ireland or the Parliament of Great Britain from 1652, rescinded 1688, reinstated 1691;
- Disenfranchising Act 1728, exclusion from voting;
- Exclusion from the legal professions and judiciary;
- Education Act 1695 - ban on foreign education;
- On a death by a Catholic, a legatee could benefit by conversion to the Church of Ireland;
- Popery Act- Catholic inheritances of land were to be equally subdivided between all an owner's sons.
- Ban on converting from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism
- Ban on Catholics buying land under a lease of more than 31 years
- Ban on custody of orphans being granted to Catholics
- Ban on Catholics inheriting Protestant land
- Prohibition on Catholics owning a horse valued at over £5 (in order to keep horses suitable for military activity out of the majority's hands)
- Roman Catholic lay priests had to register to preach under the Registration Act 1704, but seminary priests and Bishops were not able to do so.
- When allowed, Catholic churches were to be built from wood, not stone, and away from main roads.
- No person of the popish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning within this realm. [1]
[edit] Analysis
The Penal laws were ostensibly passed to displace Catholicism as the majority religion in Ireland, and although the Book of Common Prayer was first translated into Irish in 1608 there was no real desire convert the majority population or to proselytise in Irish until the 19th century. The lack of effort by the Protestant Ascendancy to actively convert the bulk of the population to Protestantism, suggests an economic rationale; a greater number of poor Protestants would mean a loss of income as they would have to be supported from the local church tithes which were the source of income for most clergymen.
The main intended effect of the Penal Laws was to ease the conversion or dispossession of the landed Catholic population. In 1641 Catholics had owned 60% of land in Ireland and by 1776 Catholic land ownership in Ireland stood at only 5%. In the 1735 census some 30% of Irish declared that they were not Catholics, and it may have appeared that eventually most or all would conform, but in hindsight this was the Protestants' highest point. Conversion from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism occurred sporadically, especially among the gentry usually from material considerations converting to keep the family lands intact, the sincerity of such conversions often open to question.
Some large Catholic landowners such as the Earl of Antrim were untouched by the penal laws and still own their ancestral lands today. Others of Gaelic origin such as the Lords of Inchiquin, descendants of Brian Boru, saved their lands by converting to Protestantism.
Historians disagree over whether the Penal Laws were a tool of political as opposed to religious repression. Some argue (for instance Eamonn O Ciardha) that they were intended make Catholic in Ireland powerless and to place landed and political power in Ireland in the hands of an English Anglican settler class. Others (for instance Sean Connolly) argue that it was intended to convert the Irish en masse to the Protestant faith and that it should be likened to the Irish Government's efforts to revive the Irish language since Irish independence.
[edit] Gradual emancipation 1778-1869
In 1766 the Holy See recognised the Hanoverian dynasty, and so the main political excuse for the laws was removed and the slow process of Catholic Emancipation began with the repeal of the Penal Laws by the Catholic Relief Acts of 1771, 1778 and 1793. However, the long drawn-out pace of reform ensured that the question of religious discrimination dominated Irish life and was a constant source of division. An emerging Catholic middle class became more vocal, and in 1760 the surviving Catholic gentry founded the first Catholic Committee in Waterford to press for reforms.
From 1782 reformist Protestant politicians like Henry Grattan and Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, a Protestant bishop, added their voices in support, and in 1792 William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster, the eldest brother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, founded the 'Association of the friends of liberty' whose program sought Catholic members in the Irish House of Commons. They could not persuade most Protestant MPs to effect a bigger change than the reforms of 1793 where Catholics were now allowed to buy freehold land, become grand jurors and vote.
Opposition to Catholic Relief ensured that when relief when granted it was often accompanied by what were seen to be unpleasant concessions to the system. Relief in 1793 was accompanied by a widely unpopular Militia Act which removed the ban on Catholics holding firearms to allow for their conscription into the milita, but not their admittance into the officer ranks. However, wealthier Catholics did not oppose this as it was further proof of their gradual inclusion into the establishment.
France declared war on Britain and Ireland in February 1793 and the war took priority over further reliefs. As the French government opposed the Holy See from 1792, and as Irish Catholic priests were often trained in France, the Prime Minister Pitt funded the establishment of St. Patrick's seminary in Maynooth in 1795.
The slow pace of reform was one factor which led to many reformers despairing of peaceful change and the ignition of the failed 1798 rebellion. The subsequent passing of the Act of Union of 1801 was supposed to bring Catholic Emancipation, as power was moved from the hands of the Protestant Ascendancy to the London Parliament. This was agreed by most of the British Cabinet, including William Pitt. The personal opposition of George III ensured no change would be forthcoming during his reign.
On his death in 1820, Daniel O'Connell launched the Catholic Association and campaign for Catholic emancipation which was largely achieved in 1829, primarily benefitting the middle classes. However, the obligation of Catholics to pay tithes to the Protestant Church remained until its disestablishment in 1869 and Catholic Emancipation was quickly followed by a period of violent resistance known as the Tithe War. The Catholic Church became resurgent from the 1840s, uniting with the Protestant churches to oppose the integration of students of differing religion in the new primary or 'National' schools, and in the 1850s a debate arose over whether some proposed universities should be mixed or just for Catholics.
