Patrick MacMahon (bishop)

Patrick MacMahon, O.F.M. (died c.1572 or c.1575) was Bishop of Ardagh in Ireland, recognised at various times by both the Roman Catholic church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland. His appointment to the see was approved by the Vatican on 14 November 1541.[1][2] The Reformation in Ireland had begun, but there was not yet a definitive break between, on the one hand, the hierarchy recognised by the Roman Curia and, on the other hand, the established church recognised by the Dublin Castle administration of the English king Henry VIII. The Diocese of Ardagh was in the Annaly region of the Farrell clan, of whom Richard O'Ferrall had secured the temporalities of the diocese in July 1541. George Cromer, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland, recognised O'Ferrall and had him consecrated on 22 April 1542.[1] Cromer's successor George Dowdall on 15 May 1544 appointed MacMahon instead as a suffragan bishop inter Hibernicos ("among the [Gaelic] Irish").[3][4] When the Catholic Queen Mary I succeeded to the throne in 1553, papal supremacy was recognised and MacMahon received the temporalities of Ardagh.[1] While Monahan says that Ardagh was vacant in the Church of Ireland after the accession of Elizabeth I,[1] others regard MacMahon as retaining his place in both hierarchies.[5][6] A possibly forged papal bull, dated 1568, deprives MacMahon of his see for simony, non-residence, and neglect of the cathedral.[1] A putative 1572 letter from Marshalsea from a former bishop "Malachy" of Ardagh, abjuring "papistical superstition" and promising loyalty to Elizabeth, may if genuine be from MacMahon.[1] MacMahon's death is inferred to have occurred either before 5 November 1572, when a successor was appointed in the Church of Ireland, or else during 1575, before Richard Brady was appointed by the Vatican on 23 January 1576.[1]

References
  1. Monahan, John (1886). "Records relating to the dioceses of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise". Dublin: M. H. Gill and son. pp. 23–24. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  2. Moody, Theodore William; Martin, Francis X.; Byrne, Francis John (2005). A New History of Ireland: Maps, genealogies, lists. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198217459.
  3. Murray, Laurence P. (December 1926). "A Calendar of the Register of Primate George Dowdall, Commonly Called the "Liber Niger" or "Black Book"". Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society. County Louth Archaeological and History Society. 6 (2): 90–100. JSTOR 27728227.
  4. Jefferies, Henry A. (1998). "The parish church and priests of Loughgall, Armagh, in 1546". Seanchas Ardmhacha : Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society. Armagh Diocesan Historical Society. 17 (2): 158, fn.1. JSTOR 25746806.
  5. Cotton, H (1860). Fasti ecclesiæ hibernicæ: the succession of the prelates in Ireland. 3. Dublin: Hodges & Smith. p. 183. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  6. Archbishops' Council. "Ardagh". Crockford's Clerical Directory. Retrieved 1 June 2013.


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