Colloque

The Irish Clergy in the Nineteenth Century

Emmet Larkin

Membre a labase

Emmet Larkin

Résumé du colloque

This presentation is concerned with the role of the Irish clergy in the nineteenth century. The quantitative dimension of the number of clergy in Ireland, and especially the relationship of those numbers to the Catholic population is crucial to any understanding of the pastoral role of the Irish clergy during this period. The ratio of priests to people before the Great Famine (1847) was becoming progressively worse. In 1800 the ratio was about one to 2300 and in 1840 it was increased to about one to 2800. After the Famine, with the enormous exodus of the Catholic population, the ratio had fallen to about one to 1200 in 1880 and one to 800 by 1910. The qualitative dimension of the role of the clergy has to do with their conduct over the course of the century. Before the Famine, the conduct of the clergy left a great deal to be desired, but the gradual transformation that began with the funding of the national seminary at Maynooth in 1795, and which was implemented by synodical legislation at the provincial and national level in 1830, 1850, 1875 and 1900, as well as enforced by several generations of reforming bishops, resulted in a remarkable and accelerating improvement in both the zeal and manners of the Irish clergy by 1900. Indeed, by 1900, the clergy in Ireland provided a model for devotional practice and piety, and that example had been extended to the whole of the English-speaking world.