The Irish Franciscans (1651-1665) (Analecta Gregoriana)

The aim of this study is to examine the history of the Irish Franciscans during the fifteen years immediately following the end of this golden age. In other words, it begins in 1651, at the commencement of the second half of the seventeenth century, and seeks to trance the fate and fortunes of the Irish friars during the Puritan regime and the early years of the Restoration. Why 1665? This is a most convenient terminus and quem, because of the major ecclesiastical events of 1666 and the chain of reactions to which they gave rise. The year 1666 saw the celebration in Dublin in the month of June of a special national synod permitted and indeed engineered by Ormond, the viceroy, for the express purpose of persuading the Irish clergy to accept and sign what was known as the Remonstrance or Protestation of Loyalty to the king, and the theological faculty of Louvain university had censured it. The prelates and clergy rejected the official formula at the synod, but signed an alternative and less obnoxious one.