The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish explores the ways in which religion was used to justify the English invasion and subsequent colonization of Ireland. It focuses on Ireland’s medieval heresy trials, which all occurred within the tumultuous fourteenth century, when the Anglo-Irish colony was under considerable strain. The first trial, of the Templars, was part of international proceedings in which the colonists were compelled to participate. The second occurred when the lone local inquisitor, the dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, tried the tactic in his ongoing feud with the canons of Holy Trinity Cathedral (Dublin is exceptional with its two cathedrals so close together, leading to bitter rivalry between them). The third, the sensational Alice Kyteler case in Kilkenny prosecuted by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, marks the dawn of the devil-worshipping witch in medieval European trials. Inspired by such proceedings, the colonists then intensified the rhetoric that had justified the twelfth-century English invasion, claiming the Irish were heretics, executing an Irishman for heresy where Trinity College now stands, and trying to convince the papacy to call a crusade against the native Irish and those Anglo-Irish infected with their heresy—the heresy, that is, of being Irish, by culture if not blood. Fortunately for the Irish, the papacy was not persuaded. I also propose several possible reasons for apparent native Irish disinterest in heresy proceedings and for the concentration of the island’s certifiable heresy trials in such a short timespan. And I integrate these trials within their greater European context, particularly with regard to civil and ecclesiastical relations, tensions within the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and allegations against reputed heretics and witches.
All the best,
Maeve
