Catholicism in a Protestant Kingdom: A Study of the Irish Ancien Régime

Escaping from narrative history, this book takes a deep look at the Catholic question in eighteenth-century Ireland. It asks how people thought about Catholicism, Protestantism and their society, in order to reassess the content and importance of the religious conflict. In doing this, Dr Cadoc Leighton provides a study of very wide appeal, which offers new and thought-provoking ways of looking not only at the eighteenth century but at modern Irish history in general. It also places Ireland clearly within the mainstream of European historical developments. "Escaping from narrative history, this book takes a deep look at the Catholic question in eighteenth-century Ireland. It asks how people thought about Catholicism, Protestantism and their society, in order to reassess the content and importance of the religious conflict. In doing this, Dr Cadoc Leighton provides a study of very wide appeal, which offers new and thought-provoking ways of looking not only at the eighteenth century but at modern Irish history in general, which places Ireland clearly within the mainstream of European historical developments."--BOOK JACKET Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Unimportance and Importance....Pages 3-19 The Irish Ancien Régime....Pages 20-41 Front Matter....Pages 43-43 The Catholic Question and the Irish Confessional State....Pages 45-66 The Meaning of the Quarterage Dispute....Pages 67-85 Front Matter....Pages 87-87 Questioning the Catholics....Pages 89-111 Land and History....Pages 112-127 Front Matter....Pages 129-129 New Critiques....Pages 131-144 The Meaning of Gallicanism....Pages 145-156 Conclusion....Pages 157-160 Back Matter....Pages 161-218