Miler Magrath

Miler Magrath, contemporary representation

Tomb in the ruins of St. Patrick's Cathedral on the Rock of Cashel

Miler Magrath (also Meiler , Myler , McGrath , eigtl. Irish Maolmhuire Mag Raith ; * 1522 in County Donegal ; † November 24, 1622 ) was an Irish bishop of the Elizabethan era . Because of his double play between Catholicism and Anglicanism and his unrestrained collecting of benefices and sales of offices , he went down in history as the Scoundrel of Cashel - "the villain of Cashel".

Life

Magrath came from a family from Ulster , which was hereditary with church property; Bishops Richard Creagh and Dermot McGrath also emerged from it. It was the time of the English Reformation , which began with the royal family ( acts of supremacy ) and encountered national, feudal and religious resistance in Ireland . Elizabeth I tried to break this by force.

Nothing is known about Miler Magrath's education. The biographical testimonies show that he was literary and juridical and skilled in rhetoric. The pilgrimage site of St. Patrick's Purgatory , which was part of his father's administrative area, was perhaps religiously influential . In the 1540s he joined the Franciscan conventuals in an unknown location . In 1549 he was ordained a priest , perhaps in the Netherlands or Italy .

In 1565 Magrath was in Rome when the controversial question of the occupation of the vacant bishopric of Down and Connor in Ulster was being discussed. Pope Pius IV had personally become aware of Magrath; he appointed him and caused his episcopal ordination , which took place on October 12, 1565 in Rome. Magrath also recommended himself through a proposal to introduce the Inquisition in Ireland. The Latin writing, however, had no consequences.

When Magrath arrived in Ireland, his relative and metropolitan , Archbishop of Armagh Richard Creagh, was in exile. In the summer of 1566 he returned to Ireland, and Magrath brokered a meeting between him and the most powerful clan chief of Ulster Shane O'Neill ; it was about the question of whether ecclesiastical loyalty to the Pope could be reconciled with recognition of the secular rule of the English queen. Creagh set his hopes on that, while O'Neill vehemently refused. The conversation was only a passing approximation, in which Magrath may not have had any real interest. O'Neill was declared a traitor by the English. He financed his rebellion a. a. from income from the Diocese of Down and Connor, which Magrath lost as a result.

On May 29, 1567, Miler Magrath declared his submission to the secular and ecclesiastical rule of Elizabeth I. She welcomed the step in a letter and expressed the hope that other bishops appointed by the Pope would follow this example and receive their episcopal seats from her hand. Magrath's ecclesiastical loyalty, however, remained unclear. At the end of 1567 he turned to Rome with a request to be transferred to Clogher . Archbishop Creagh, who had been prisoner in the Tower again since April 1567 , warned the Pope in a letter about this appointment. Magrath, for his part, sued Creagh in Rome for heresy . However, his evidence was found to be forgeries. Thereupon Magrath left Ireland in 1569 and traveled to London, where he was arrested and held until 1571. During this time he managed to gain the queen's esteem. On February 3, 1571 he received the royal appointment as Archbishop of Cashel and Emly in Munster , while at the same time he continued to be Bishop of Down and Connor under papal law.

Magrath's “Protestantism” consisted primarily of material considerations. He did nothing to influence the religious life of his diocesans. Instead, through his alliance with English rule and his self-enrichment, he attracted the hatred of the poor and the resistance of the local feudal lords. When the Anglican Bishop of Down and Connor died, Magrath tried unsuccessfully to be transferred there - he would then have held the papal and royal bishop titles at the same time. It was not until 1580 that Pope Gregory XIII withdrew . Magrath officially received the (Catholic) title of bishop from Down and Connor and excommunicated him.

During his fifty-year tenure in Cashel, Magrath was absent frequently and long. His representatives, including his brother Niall, took care of the collection of ever higher taxes and duties. He sold diocesan offices to the highest bidders or left them vacant and collected their benefices himself. He leased church land, which was intended for the maintenance of the lower clergy and church buildings, for his own benefit. From 1582 until the new award in 1588 he was also (Anglican) Bishop of Waterford and Lismore and used the title in the same way. As bishop of the established church , he was also a member of the royal provincial government of Munster; he also used this influence to the advantage of himself and his family.

In 1575 he married Amy O'Meara from Toomevara . She was Catholic and remained so after the marriage. The marriage resulted in nine children who were baptized and confirmed as Catholics . Catholic clergy, religious and even bishops who preached “illegally” and donated sacraments in his diocese were allowed to live and even live in his palace; but then he delivered her to Dublin Castle and thereby gained further reputation in London.

Nevertheless, he had to answer to the Privy Council in 1592 , because the accusations against him were unmistakable even by those loyal to the king. He was, however, adept at defending himself and showing Irish conditions in his favor, and the Queen's confidence remained in him. After his return, a new journalistic campaign was directed against him, which painted his excessiveness in the darkest colors. He traveled to London again and presented the charges as papist calumny and the royal representatives' distrust of him as papist seeds. His life was in danger on the streets of his own diocese and could not go out unarmed. Again he managed to avert sanctions and consequences from the government.

During his long tenure, Magrath played a major role in the ruin of the established church in Munster. In 1607 a visitation under the direction of the (Anglican) Archbishop of Dublin came to a damning verdict, and it was decided to downsize Magrath's jurisdiction. In the same year Magrath asked Pope Paul V for absolution and reconciliation, which however did not take place. A second attempt in 1612 was answered by the Pope with an invitation to Rome, which the 90-year-old could not or would not accept.

Miler Magrath died in 1622 at the age of 100. While he was sick for two years, he wrote his epitaph, which can still be read in his burial niche in the dilapidated old cathedral of Cashel; underneath is the half-relief figure of an archbishop with a pallium , which is obviously a medieval spoil and not a portrait of Magrath. The inscription makes conventional reference to Saint Patrick and the unworthiness of his successor, as well as to his loyalty to English rule in times of war. The following lines are puzzling and hardly translatable, which probably mean the separation of body and soul, but were also related to a different burial place or to the double ecclesiastical affiliation of the deceased:

Hic ubi sum positus non sum.

Sum non ubi non sum.

Sum nec in ambobus,

sum sed utroque loco.

The biblical closing words "It is the Lord who judges me" ( 1 Cor 4,4  EU ) and "Whoever stands, watch out that he does not fall" ( 1 Cor 10.12  EU ) sound like a defense or apology .

Web links

Commons : Miler Magrath  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry on Miler Magrath on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Leaving Certificate History Case Study: Meiler Magrath's Clerical Career (English)
• Seamus J. King: Miler McGrath (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ askaboutireland.ie
2. ↑ King, paragraph "Protestant"
3. ^ Full text of the Latin epitaph