Percy Jocelyn

Percy Jocelyn ( November 29, 1764 - September 3, 1843 ) was an Anglican bishop in the diocese of Clogher from 1820 to 1822.

Life

The third son of Robert Jocelyn, the Earl of Roden , he graduated with a BA from Trinity College Dublin . Jocelyn was the rector of Tamlaght, Archdeacon of Ross (1788-1790), Treasurer of Armagh (1790-1809), Prebend of Lismore (1796-1809) and Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1809-1820), from 1820 Bishop of Clogher .

On July 19, 1822, Jocelyn was surprised during sexual intercourse with Grenadier Guard John Moverley in the back room of The White Lion pub on Sankt Albans Place , Westminster . Both were arrested by the police and released on bail given by the Earl of Roden . Jocelyn fled to Scotland , where he changed his name and worked as a butler.

In absentia, Jocelyn was sentenced in October 1822 by the Metropolitan Court of Armagh for "the crimes of immorality, incontinence, sodomitical practice, habits, and prospensities, and neglect of his spiritual, judicial, and ministrial duties".

Jocelyn as the subject of satires and insults

Jocelyn was the highest cleric in the hierarchy of the Anglican Church who was embroiled in a public sex scandal in the 19th century. The incident was satirized in Ireland. Popular rumors came from the people. Various illustrated, satirical cartoons , pamphlets and limericks appeared such as:

The Devil to prove the Church was a farce
Went out to fish for a Bugger
He baited his hook with a Soldier's ass
And pulled up the Bishop of Clogher

To show the church his farce, Satan went
out of an assfucker to fish a
soldier's ass on the hook, he doesn't have to wait long
and can serve up the bishop of Clogher.

Conjectures about Jocelyn's death and the grave

There are uncertainties about the exact circumstances of his death and the grave of Jocelyn. It is believed that he died anonymously in Edinburgh and was buried under the name Thomas Wilson. On the other hand, when the Jocelyn family crypt at Kilco Parish Church in Bryansford , County Down , Northern Ireland was opened (in 1995 or shortly before) , another unmarked coffin was discovered that could not be identified. This could be the coffin of Percy Jocelyn.

178 years after the incident, the Church of Ireland allowed historians to sift through their papers on the affair. The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, Charles D'Arcy, ordered the written records to be burned in the 1920s. But this order was not obeyed. Hence, historian Matthew Parris was able to use these materials for his book The Great Unfrocked .

literature

• Matthew Parris: The Great Unfrocked: Two Thousand Years of Church Scandal . Robson Books, London 1998, ISBN 1-86105-129-8 .

Footnotes

1. ^ The Bishop of Clogher , accessed April 4, 2018.