by Joseph Byrne
Church Education Society. Founded in 1839, the Church Education Society was the Anglican response to the emergence of the non-denominational national school system. It was established because many Anglican clergymen refused to countenance anything other than Anglican control over any system of education the state might introduce. The national system, with its emphasis on non-denominationalism, interfered with their duty to proselytise and they regarded it ‘a conspiracy to keep the light of God’s word from ever shining upon a Roman Catholic child’. Rather than connect with the state system, they created their own – the Church Education Society – which was organised on a nationwide basis through diocesan education societies. Kildare Place Society schools were absorbed by the new system which was open to children of all persuasions. All pupils were required to read scripture but only Anglicans were expected to learn Anglican doctrine. Initially the society was well supported and by 1849 the number of affiliated schools had risen from 825 (43,627 pupils) to 1,848 (111,877 pupils). Catholics accounted for over half of the enrolment in 1848. The society soon realised that education was an expensive business and petitioned in 1845 for public funds to support its work. This request was refused and the financial burdens imposed by the decision to remain outside the national system continued to mount. In 1860 the Anglican archbishop of Dublin recommended the society to come to terms with the commissioners of education and it did so soon after. (Akenson, The Irish education experiment, pp. 147–201, 286–94, 364–5, 371–2.)
churching. The religious ceremony of purification and thanksgiving through which women were socially reintegrated after childbirth. Traditionally, women recently delivered of a child were unable to perform normal household duties or visit relatives and friends until churched. The basis for this prohibition lay in the belief that the pains of labour were akin to the pains of hell and the act of churching cleansed them of this stigma and re-admitted them to church and society.
Church of Ireland. The Church of Ireland, also known as the Episcopalian or Anglican church, traces its episcopal succession to pre-Reformation times. It became the established state church in Ireland in 1537 and remained so until 1869 (see Irish Church Act). The Reformation made little headway in Ireland at first and its few successes were confined to the tiny proportion of the country where the king’s writ ran. No serious attempt was made to convert the native Gaelic-speaking population and the influence of the Catholic counter-reformation ensured that the conservative Anglo-Irish of the Pale chose recusancy rather than attend Anglican services. In tandem with the plantations and an influx of English and Scottish settlers, the church gradually extended its ministry to every diocese in the country with an episcopacy that was largely English – by 1625 only three out of 23 prelates were Irishmen. Throughout much of its history – apart from the early seventeenth century when its Calvinist leanings enabled it to accommodate Presbyterians and puritans within the ministry and the early nineteenth century when it engaged in a vigorous missionary campaign – the church sought to achieve conformity by exclusion or coercion rather than through missionary zeal. Its influence at government level declined when the Act of Union, which created the United Church of England and Ireland, permitted only four prelates to sit in the house of lords at Westminster where their impact was minimal. The growing confidence of the Catholic church, the campaign for Catholic emancipation, the controversial evangelical ‘second reformation’, the injustice of tithe, the disproportionate overendowment of the church relative to the proportion of the population to which it ministered, Anglican attempts to gain control of the national system of education and an inability to effect reform from within all contributed to a diminution of its status and prepared the way for externally-imposed reform by Whig governments. In every century the church attempted to reform administrative and pastoral inadequacies and confront the scandals of absenteeism, plurality of benefices and neglect of duty but genuine reform only came about in the nineteenth century when the Church Temporalities Act (1833) and the Irish Church Act (1869) disendowed the church, stripped it of its privileged position and streamlined its structure. Following disestablishment the church became an independent voluntary body and was compelled to rely on its own resources. A general convention of lay and clerical representatives in 1870 resulted in a restructuring of church administration, the establishment of a supreme governing body consisting of bishops, clergy and lay diocesan representatives (the General Synod) and the creation of the Representative Church Body to handle the fiscal affairs of the church. (Akenson, The Church of Ireland; Milne, The Church of Ireland.)
Church Million Act. During the tithe war of the 1830s many people defaulted on their payments. Government expeditions to compel the payment of arrears yielded less than the actual cost of the expeditions and failed to halt the spread of anti-tithe violence. In 1833 the Church Million Act (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 100) was passed, so called because of the sum of money advanced, and the government assumed responsibility for the payment of tithe arrears for the years 1831–3 inclusive, subject to some scaling down of the actual amounts to be paid. It also ceased to pursue defaulters for arrears.
Church Temporalities Act (1833). Despite being packed with sympathisers, an 1831 royal commission on ecclesiastical revenue and patronage confirmed that the Established church was heavily over-endowed and excessively wealthy relative to the proportion of the population to which it ministered. The advent of a Whig government committed to church reform ensured the passage of the Church Temporalities Act (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 37, amended by 4 & 5 Will. IV, c. 90). The moderate Lord Stanley prepared the bill and eased its passage through parliament by engaging Archbishop Beresford, the primate of all Ireland, step by step in the drafting of the measure. The act provided for major administrative and financial re-structuring of the church. Financial savings from the implementation of the act were to be allocated to a newly established body, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland (comprising the archbishops of Dublin and Armagh and four other bishops), who were to apply the money to effect improvements in the church. With the establishment of the ecclesiastical commissioners, the Board of First Fruits was abolished. The number of archbishoprics was reduced from four to two (Cashel and Tuam were reduced to bishoprics when those sees became vacant) and ten bishoprics were united with neighbouring dioceses. The income of several bishoprics, including Armagh and Derry, was reduced. The act also included the first nineteenth-century land purchase provision for tenants. Tenants holding bishops’ leases were allowed purchase their holding in fee simple subject to annual perpetual rents. The purchase price was paid to the ecclesiastical commissioners who retained any surplus having paid the respective bishops a sum equivalent to the annual rent and renewal fines for the holding. At parish level provision was made for suppressing benefices with congregations of less than 50 souls when next they fell vacant and for their union with neighbouring parishes, a clause which affected more than one-third of Anglican parishes. Non-cures were abolished and the right of church-wardens to levy parish cess was revoked, thereby removing the civil functions of the parish. The income of some ministers was reduced in parishes where the income was disproportionate to the level of spiritual duties performed. The revenue and tithe of the suppressed bishoprics, the surplus from the reduction in income of some of the remaining bishoprics, the income and property of the suppressed parishes, the remaining funds of the Board of First Fruits, the proceeds of a graduated tax on clerical earnings over £300, the income from non-cures and the surplus remaining after bishops’ rents were paid were then applied by the ecclesiastical commissioners towards improving the physical infrastructure of the church. The commissioners funded the building and reparation of churches, purchased land for the construction of glebe houses, supported clergymen on small livings and, since parish cess had been abolished, paid parish clerks. After the passage of the disestablishing Irish Church Act in 1869, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland were replaced by the Representative Church Body. (Report of His Majes
ty’s commissioners of ecclesiastical inquiry, HC 1831 (93) IX; Akenson, The Church of Ireland.)
Church Temporalities Commission. A commission introduced by the Irish Church Act (1869) to receive and administer the temporalities of the Church of Ireland. Under the act the church was deprived of all of its property with the exception of churches in actual use and churchyards, schoolhouses, schoolyards and school lands associated with such churches. Glebehouses and glebelands, however, were not excepted though the church was permitted to acquire the houses on favourable terms and the lands at market value. Later the commissioners transferred ownership of these properties to the Representative Church Body. By 1880 the commission had paid over £7 million to the Representative Church Body to maintain the existing clergy and the surplus, amounting to almost £4.5 million was used to recompense the Presbyterian church and Maynooth College for the loss of government grants, to relieve distress and fund educational provision. The act also allowed for a land purchase scheme by empowering the commissioners to sell church lands to tenants. Under the scheme, three-quarters of the purchase price was advanced to prospective buyers who repaid the loan by mortgage over 32 years.
church-warden. An Anglican parish administrator. Two unpaid church-wardens were elected annually by the select vestry to administer each parish, to protect the church and to serve as its legal representatives. Sextons and parish clerks were often appointed by the select vestry to assist the church-wardens who were also assisted by volunteers and other appointees such as overseers who collected the parish cess and distributed money and assistance to those on the poor list. The records of their administration are contained in the church-wardens’ accounts.
cillín, céiliúrach. (Ir., cillín, little graveyard) A burial site for unbaptised infants, often contained within a walled enclosure and most common in the south-west of Ireland.
cist. A neolithic burial chamber lined with stone.
Cistercian. (The White Monks) A monastic order founded in 1098 at Cîteaux (Cistercium) near Dijon by a group of Benedictines from the abbey of Molesme who were dissatisfied with the lax observance of their abbey and anxious to live according to a strict interpretation of the Rule of St Benedict. The order grew spectacularly, most notably after the founding of Clairvaux by St Bernard in 1115. Cistercian life was characterised by the uniform observance of rules and discipline in all houses. All abbots were required to attend the annual general chapter meeting at Cîteaux and a yearly abbatial visitation of all houses was conducted to ensure discipline was maintained. The first Irish house was established at Mellifont in 1142 as part of St Malachy’s attempt to reform the church and by 1228 there were 34. From 1216 until 1274 the order came under the scrutiny of the general chapter for diverging from key Cistercian observances. The failure of Irish abbots to attend the general chapter, indiscipline within the Gaelic houses, ethnic tension between Gaelic and Anglo-Norman monasteries and vigorous opposition to external visitations led to the deposing of the abbots of Jerpoint and Mellifont and the assignation of Mellifont and its affiliated houses to foreign houses. Most Cistercian houses were suppressed after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and it was not until 1832, with the foundation of Mount Melleray, that the order regained a foothold in Ireland. (Conway, ‘Sources for the history’, pp. 16–23.)
civil bill. A bill of complaint used to initiate legal proceedings, also known as an ‘English bill’ because unlike its alternative, the original writ, it was written in English. It was a short paper document containing the names of plaintiff and defendant, a brief outline of the plaintiff’s claim and the date and place when and where the defendant must appear to answer the complaint. The civil bill was served personally at least six days before the commencement of the assize courts where the case was tried summarily and determined by the judge of assize. Speed, cost and simplicity explain the popularity of civil bill process. Actions by writ often extended over several terms, costs were prohibitive and original writs were not always available. By contrast civil bill proceedings were completed in a matter of days, cost little more than a pound and the preparation of claim couldn’t have been easier; the plaintiff purchased a blank bill, filled in the details and presented it to the defendant. The volume of civil bill proceedings severely taxed the judges of assize and in 1796 an assistant-barrister was appointed to hear civil bills exclusively at the quarter-sessions. (Greer, ‘The development’, pp. 27–59.)
Civil Survey. A nation-wide survey conducted by local inquisition between 1654–56 to establish the amount of land forfeited as a consequence of the rebellion of 1641 that was available to be resettled by adventurers and soldiers. Although superseded by the more precise, mapped Down Survey – which commenced before the commissioners of the Civil Survey had completed their task – the records of the Civil Survey contain details of a highly localised nature of inestimable value to the historian. Here can be found, barony by barony, parish by parish and townland by townland, the names and estates of each landowner, the nature of their tenure, their religious affiliation, the extent, quality and value of the land, the disposition of the tithe, the number, quality and value of houses, and associated appurtenances (mills, kilns, fisheries, dovecotes, etc.), occasional details of mortgages and leases, references to manorial courts and some accounts of landowners’ deportment during the rebellion. Baronial entries usually begin with a short descriptive summary of the barony and its boundaries and conclude with a statistical abstract and index. Parish entries are similarly structured but somewhat briefer. Some caution is required in relation to the acreages assigned to the various lands for these were arrived at by estimation and may be considerably wide of the mark. Although 27 counties were surveyed (the earlier Strafford Inquisition was available for counties Clare, Mayo, Sligo, Galway and Roscommon) only the records for 11 counties survive together with the barony of Muskerry in Cork and some miscellaneous material. All eleven, plus the additional material, have been published by Irish Manuscripts Commission under the editorship of R. C. Simington.
Vol. I County Tipperary, east and south (1931).
Vol. II County Tipperary, west and north (1934).
Vol. III County Donegal, Derry and Tyrone (1938).
Vol. IV County Limerick (1938).
Vol. V County Meath (1940).
Vol. VI County Waterford, Muskerry (Co. Cork) and Kilkenny City (1942).
Vol. VII County Dublin (1945).
Vol. VIII County Kildare (1952).
Vol. IX County Wexford (1953).
Vol. X Miscellanea (1961).
(Simms, ‘The Civil Survey’, pp. 253–63.)
clachan. 1: A loose cluster of bondsmen’s huts 2: An informal nucleated settlement consisting of dwellings and outhouses associated with the rundale field system. Clachan houses (often with an attached gort or small enclosed garden) were usually gathered together in a hollow on a lee slope above the infield or permanently cultivated open field. (Proudfoot, ‘Clachans’, pp. 110–122; Evans, Irish heritage, pp. 47–55; Idem, The personality, pp. 60–61.)
claims, court of. Two courts of this name were conducted in the 1660s and a third in 1700. The first was established by the Act of Settlement of 1662 to adjudicate on claims of innocence of complicity in the 1641 Confederate Rebellion. Persons awarded a decree of innocence in this court were to be restored to land to which they could claim a valid title and since the decree merely confirmed their innocence they were not required to pass new letters patent. It opened in January 1663 and closed in August of that year without having completed its task amidst fears that too many Catholics were being restored to their estates. The second court (1666–1669), procedurally similar to the first, was initiated by the Act of Explanation of 1665 to remedy the innumerable deficiencies in the Act of Settlement. Decrees of this court were awarded in the form of a certificate which was used to obtain a fiant from the lord lieutenant to pass letters patent and thereby establish secure title to an estate. Since the estates processed before this court were considered
to have been forfeited, successful claimants became liable to the crown for quit-rents. A third court of claims was established in 1700 under the Act of Resumption to hear the claims of any person with an interest in an estate forfeited before 13 February 1689 (the date of accession of William and Mary). Over half of the claims were allowed in whole or in part, of which more than half were made by Protestants. The actual amount of land recovered under this court was diminutive. (Arnold, The Restoration; Idem, ‘The Irish court’, pp. 417–30; ‘Abstracts’; Simms, Williamite, pp. 136–147.)
claire. A shallow saltwater basin used for greening oysters, located in marshy regions at high tide level.
Clan na Gael. A militant Irish-American separatist movement founded by Jerome J. Collins in New York in 1867 following the collapse of the Fenian insurrection of that year. Its goal was the ‘complete and absolute independence of Ireland from Great Britain and the complete severance of all political connections between the two countries to be effected by the unceasing preparation for armed insurrection in Ireland’. From the 1870s, under the leadership and influence of John Devoy (an IRB man), Clan na Gael developed formal links with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and recognised the IRB supreme council as the government-in-waiting of the Irish Republic. The Clan viewed home rule as a jumping-off point for armed revolution and to this end provided financial aid to nationalist and home rule politicians in the 1880s. In that decade, too, a militant group within the organisation conducted a campaign of dynamite outrages in Britain. Clan na Gael assisted actively in the preparations for the 1916 Rising, particularly in relation to eliciting German support for the insurrection. The movement split over the terms of the Anglo-Irish treaty, the anti-treaty faction continuing to support IRA action until the death of its leader, Joseph McGarrity, in 1940.