The Protestant Reformation in Ireland 1590-1641

The attempt to create a truly protestant church and people in Ireland in the early seventeenth century succeeded in only one respect: a reformed ministry was created, by attracting university educated clergy, mainly from England and Scotland. But the very protestantism of the church, and its close links with the new English state prevented if from winning over the native Irish. Instead, the protestant church used its Calvinist theology to provide an intellectual justification for its own elitist and minority position.