Once again the events at Drumcree mean the steeple of this parish church is casting a long shadow over the whole Church of Ireland, all in the name of tradition.
It's as though there is only one tradition that can lay claim to the Church of Ireland, hijacking its history, tradition and symbols, and subverting them for political ends. The outsider might be forgiven for assuming the entire Church of Ireland was happy at the end of the 17th century to see William III's victory at the Boyne. But history tells another story.
When William and Mary were invited to take the throne in England, nine bishops of the Church of England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 400 of the clergy refused to take the new oaths of loyalty and were ejected from their church offices. They were supported by many of the laity, including Lord Clarendon, the former lord lieutenant of Ireland, and because they refused to take the new oaths they were known as the "Non-jurors".
Few historians have given much attention to the large number of senior members of the Church of Ireland who also opposed the Orange revolution and became Nonjurors. They included the Bishop of Kilmore and (briefly) the Bishop of Ossory, the Chancellor, Archdeacon and Treasurer of Connor, the Archdeacon of Dublin, the Dean of Lismore and a leading Irish historian at Oxford.
William Sheridan was chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, the first Duke of Ormonde, before becoming Bishop of Kilmore in 1682. After the Boyne, Sheridan absented himself from his diocese, in the hope that he could avoid taking the new oaths. But his absence was deemed to have created a vacancy in his see, and he was deprived of his office in 1692.
Sheridan paid the price for his principles, and lived out his last days in poverty in London among the English Nonjurors. He was regarded by his contemporaries as being "truly conscientious" and the Irish bishops made collections on his behalf.
William King, Bishop of Derry and later Archbishop of Dublin, wrote: "It is not fit one of our order should be exposed to begging". With the death of the deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells, Thomas Ken, Sheridan was the last surviving bishop among the original Nonjurors.
William Otway, Bishop of Ossory and Archdeacon of Armagh, was a Nonjuror, too, for a brief period. He refused to pray for William and Mary in St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, and after the Boyne William ordered his suspension.
But Otway was defiant, and declared that no power of pope or people could dethrone him. Despite advancing age, he was prepared to go into exile. He was sacked as Archdeacon of Armagh, but managed to stay in Kilkenny. Eventually, he took his seat in the Williamite House of Lords and died in office in 1693.
The chancellor, archdeacon and treasurer of Connor also became Nonjurors. The best known of these was the chancellor, Charles Leslie, from Glaslough or Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan. Leslie moved to London, where he was the author of books and pamphlets on the sacraments, liturgy, episcopacy, the creeds and church history.
Later, he became chaplain to the Anglicans at the Jacobite court outside Paris. But with the passage of years Leslie was forgiven by George I and returned from exile to Ireland, where he died in 1722.
The Archdeacon of Dublin, John Fitzgerald, also resigned rather than take the new oath. The Dean of Lismore and Chancellor of Waterford, Barzillai Jones, came from humble origins in Wales. Through the patronage of the first Duke of Ormonde, he became Dean of Lismore, where he rebuilt St Carthage's Cathedral.
Jones was punished by James II's parliament for adhering to his Anglican principles, but later when he objected to taking the oaths to William and Mary and was deprived as both Dean of Lismore and Chancellor of Waterford. The sufferings of Dean Jones under both James II and William III show that not all Nonjurors were Jacobites.
THE most eminent and learned layman among the Nonjurors was the Dublin-born historian Henry Dodwell. He was forced to resign as a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin because, in conscience, he could not go forward for ordination. Later, Dodwell was proposed as Provost of TCD, but instead he went to Oxford as Camden praelector or professor of Ancient History 1684.
After the Boyne, Dodwell refused to take the new oaths and lost his Oxford position. He retired to Cookham, where his Nonjuring friends included Charles Leslie. With the death of the last of the deprived bishops, Ken and Sheridan, in 1711, Dodwell returned to communion with mainstream Anglicanism.
Many of the English Nonjurors had strong Irish connections and links with the Church of Ireland. Thomas Carte was the biographer of the first Duke of Ormonde, patron of both Sheridan and Jones.
Samuel Jebb was a brother of John Jebb, Dean of Cashel, and great-uncle of John Jebb, Bishop of Limerick, a member of the pre-Tractarian High Church movement. In time, the Nonjurors began to dwindle. Their last bishop was Charles Boothe, a Manchester watchmaker, who moved to Ireland. His death in Dublin in 1815 marked the end of the schism.
The Nonjurors had influence beyond their numbers and time. Leslie and Dodwell influenced the Tractarians and later the modern liturgical movement, leaving their mark on all new Anglican liturgies.
The Nonjurors were deeply concerned with guaranteeing the integrity of the church and its independence from political interference. They are a clear demonstration that the Orange tradition and the events at Drumcree have no exclusive claims on the history, traditions, name and good standing of the Church of Ireland.
theology@ireland.com
Patrick Comerford is a Church of Ireland priest and an Irish Times journalist
