Martin
Holland
2010
2006
2005
2001
2000
This paper traces the complex and evolving relationship between Canterbury and the Irish church in the context of church reform in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the political attitudes and activities of the diocese of Dublin which aimed to be a metropolitan see with all Ireland as its province but under the primacy of Canterbury. It traces the role of the astute Muirchertach Ua Briain, king of Munster and of Ireland, in ecclesiastical politics and argues that the threat from the Canterbury-Dublin alliance and the urgings of Ua Briain brought a hitherto conservative Armagh over to the side of the reformers. This led to the creation of an Irish hierarchical and diocesan structure independent of Canterbury and ultimately to the absorption of Dublin into that structure, to the intense displeasure of Canterbury and contemporary English observers.
This paper traces the complex and evolving relationship between Canterbury and the Irish church in the context of church reform in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the political attitudes and activities of the diocese of Dublin which aimed to be a metropolitan see with all Ireland as its province but under the primacy of Canterbury. It traces the role of the astute Muirchertach Ua Briain, king of Munster and of Ireland, in ecclesiastical politics and argues that the threat from the Canterbury-Dublin alliance and the urgings of Ua Briain brought a hitherto conservative Armagh over to the side of the reformers. This led to the creation of an Irish hierarchical and diocesan structure independent of Canterbury and ultimately to the absorption of Dublin into that structure, to the intense displeasure of Canterbury and contemporary English observers.