Richard Challoner (1691-1781)
While the history of Irish Catholicism in the popular imagination is usually counted among the most distinctly "Irish" of cultural features, evidence from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century devotional material suggests otherwise. This should not be a surprise, since the the history of Catholicism cannot be told from a purely national standpoint--it demands an international perspective . . .
This project, which will have its start here at the Newberry Library where I am working at the moment, intends to follow up on various hints about that close relationship between the evolution of English Catholicism on the one hand, and Irish Catholicism of the so-called 'devotional revolution' on the other. The archival materials at the heart of my initial research are the numerous Catholic printed prayer books, spiritual guides, and translations of Christian classics that were churned out simultaneously on presses in Dublin, London, and elsewhere in the two countries between 1750 and 1850.
The idea for this topic had its origins in reading Thomas Wall's The Sign of Doctor Hay's Head, Being Some Account of the Hazards and Fortunes of Catholic Printers and Publishers in Dublin from the Late Penal Times to the Present Day (1958), a title that itself suggested the love that Wall (who was the head librarian at Ireland's National Library) held for the printers and printed works that provided his historical subject. Wall identified a network of Catholic printers active in Dublin who, in the wake of the careers of three notable bishops, the Englishman Richard Challoner (1691-1781), the Scotsman George Hay (1729-1811), and the Irishman John Carpenter (1729-1786), had managed to produce a whole slate of devotional materials to supply Ireland's Catholics.
The span of time in which these printers were most active, roughly the mid-18th century to the mid-19th, is the very same time that historians have identified as a period of major change in Irish Catholicism. These changes, first labeled a 'devotional revolution' by Emmet Larkin and other scholars actively considering this topic in the 1970s, have been seen as the basis of the later distinctiveness of modern Irish Catholicism--most notably its depth of devotion. Moreover, Wall must have been aware of the widespread perception that Ireland possesses a distinctivly Irish variant of Catholicism--a position held not just by many in the public at large before and after Wall's time, but also by many scholars then and now. This makes it all the more notable that Wall asserted that most of the Catholic works that Dublin printers selected to reprint were English in origin.
Although most subsequent histories of this time period have identified some sort of international dimension to Irish Catholicism, most have looked toward European continental devotion, not English trends, to explain Ireland. The exception--at least in my initial impression--appears to be lesser-known Irish-language writing in this field by earlier historians such as Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin (e.g. "Clódóireacht Chaitliceach in Éirinn sa Ochtú hAois Déag," Irisleabhar Muighe Nuadhad, 1964), who, along with Hugh Fenning and Malachy McKenna more recently, managed to heroically tracked down the titles of many of these works.
Although I haven't explored all of the secondary literature yet that will frame this project, I suspect that an account of this printed material will ultimately intrude on broader historiographical concerns. Not only the story of the developments of the Irish church is at stake here, but also a fuller understanding of how English Catholicism changed as it moved from a recusant church of the post-Reformation period to its renewal during the Oxford Movement of the 19th century. Shouldn't English Catholicism be seen as a product of Irish influence if the reverse is considered? And what of England's Irish immigrants of the 19th century who are said to have changed English Catholicism with their arrival?
These are just preliminary thoughts, but future posts will consider both these questions and larger issues as I work through some of the material.
The idea for this topic had its origins in reading Thomas Wall's The Sign of Doctor Hay's Head, Being Some Account of the Hazards and Fortunes of Catholic Printers and Publishers in Dublin from the Late Penal Times to the Present Day (1958), a title that itself suggested the love that Wall (who was the head librarian at Ireland's National Library) held for the printers and printed works that provided his historical subject. Wall identified a network of Catholic printers active in Dublin who, in the wake of the careers of three notable bishops, the Englishman Richard Challoner (1691-1781), the Scotsman George Hay (1729-1811), and the Irishman John Carpenter (1729-1786), had managed to produce a whole slate of devotional materials to supply Ireland's Catholics.
The span of time in which these printers were most active, roughly the mid-18th century to the mid-19th, is the very same time that historians have identified as a period of major change in Irish Catholicism. These changes, first labeled a 'devotional revolution' by Emmet Larkin and other scholars actively considering this topic in the 1970s, have been seen as the basis of the later distinctiveness of modern Irish Catholicism--most notably its depth of devotion. Moreover, Wall must have been aware of the widespread perception that Ireland possesses a distinctivly Irish variant of Catholicism--a position held not just by many in the public at large before and after Wall's time, but also by many scholars then and now. This makes it all the more notable that Wall asserted that most of the Catholic works that Dublin printers selected to reprint were English in origin.
Although most subsequent histories of this time period have identified some sort of international dimension to Irish Catholicism, most have looked toward European continental devotion, not English trends, to explain Ireland. The exception--at least in my initial impression--appears to be lesser-known Irish-language writing in this field by earlier historians such as Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin (e.g. "Clódóireacht Chaitliceach in Éirinn sa Ochtú hAois Déag," Irisleabhar Muighe Nuadhad, 1964), who, along with Hugh Fenning and Malachy McKenna more recently, managed to heroically tracked down the titles of many of these works.
Although I haven't explored all of the secondary literature yet that will frame this project, I suspect that an account of this printed material will ultimately intrude on broader historiographical concerns. Not only the story of the developments of the Irish church is at stake here, but also a fuller understanding of how English Catholicism changed as it moved from a recusant church of the post-Reformation period to its renewal during the Oxford Movement of the 19th century. Shouldn't English Catholicism be seen as a product of Irish influence if the reverse is considered? And what of England's Irish immigrants of the 19th century who are said to have changed English Catholicism with their arrival?
These are just preliminary thoughts, but future posts will consider both these questions and larger issues as I work through some of the material.
RSS Feed