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An Irish heretic bishop: Robert Clayton of Clogher
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
In 1735 a great change took place in Cork society. Hitherto, wrote John Boyle, fifth earl of Cork and Orrery, ‘we trembled at a bumper and loath’d the Glorious Memory. We were as silent and melancholy as captives and we were strangers to mirth’. But now, he went on, ‘we sing catches, read Pastor Fido and talk love.’ The change was due to the death of Peter Browne, bishop of Cork and Ross, and the advent of his successor, Robert Clayton. Browne, according to Harris, was ‘an austere, retired and mortified man’, but Clayton was a man of the world and given to social life. Browne had written treatises against drinking in memory of the dead (his inclusion of the toast to the memory of king William in his condemnation led to his being regarded by some as a Jacobite) and against the drinking of healths: the former was a blasphemous profanation of the Lord’s Supper, and the latter a pagan custom and a cause of intemperance. Under the more relaxed rule of Clayton glasses could be raised unaccompanied by troubled consciences.
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References
page no 311 note 1 Letter to Thomas Southerne, 20 March 1736-7, in The Orrery Papers, ed Boyle, Emily C. (London 1903) I, pp 206-7Google Scholar.
page no 311 note 2 The Whole Works of Sir James Ware, revised and improved by Harris, W. (London 1764) I, p 541 Google Scholar.
page no 311 note 3 On Browne see Webster, [C. A.], [The Diocese of Cork] (Cork 1920) pp 303-17Google Scholar.
page no 311 note 4 Browne’s two major works were The Procedure, Extent and Limits of the Human Understanding (London 1728), and Things Divine and Supernatural conceived by Analogy with Things Natural and Human (London 1733).
page no 312 note 1 The fullest account of Clayton’s life is in [Andrew], Kippis, [Biographia Britannica] (2 ed, London 1778-84) III, pp 620-8Google Scholar. See also Webster, pp 318-20, and DNB, art. Clayton, Robert.
page no 312 note 2 See Katherine, Thomson, Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon (London 1847) II, ch 1 for letters written by Clayton to Lady SundonGoogle Scholar. These letters reveal his ambition and worldly attitude to ecclesiastical office. ‘ It has not been customary for persons either of birth or fortune to breed up their children to the Church... the only way to remedy which is by giving extraordinary encouragements to persons of birth and interest whenever they seek for ecclesiastical preferment, which will encourage others of the same quality to come into the Church and may thereby render ecclesiastical preferments of the same use to their Majesties as civil employments.’ Letter of 19 March 1730-1.
page no 313 note 1 Kippis, III, p 623. Leslie, J.B., Clogher Clergy and Parishes (Enniskillen 1929) p 19 Google Scholar suggests that the author, who wrote under Clayton’s direction, may have been a certain John Hawkshaw, but he gives no reasons.
page no 313 note 2 History of the Church of Ireland, ed Phillips, W. Alison (Oxford 1933) III, p 231 Google Scholar.
page no 313 note 3 Some Thoughts on Self-Love, Innate Ideas, Free Will, etc, occasioned by reading Mr Hume’s Works (Dublin 1753) p 47.
page no 313 note 4 Ibid p 53.
page no 313 note 5 Gentleman’s Magazine (London 1752) p 13.
page no 313 note 6 Ibid p 159.
page no 313 note 7 Back page of The Bishop of Clogher’s Speech [made in the House of Lords in Ireland for omitting the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds out of the Liturgy,] ‘ London, printed for R. Baldwin and M. Cooper, in Paternoster Row, 1757.’
page no 314 note 1 Kippis, III, p 623.
page no 314 note 2 A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland (London 1777). Thomas Campbell was successively curate 1761, prebendary 1772 and chancellor 1773 of St Macartan’s cathedral, Clogher.
page no 314 note 3 Essay on Spirit (2 ed, London 1751) pp xxxvii, xxxviii. An earlier edition appeared the same year in Dublin, and a third edition in Dublin the following year.
page no 314 note 4 Ibid pp 113-14.
page no 315 note 1 Ibid pp 44-71. The identity of Christ with Michael is held to-day by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
page no 315 note 2 Ibid pp 73-82.
page no 315 note 3 Ibid p 85.
page no 315 note 4 Ibid pp 83-4.
page no 315 note 5 Letter to Hurd, 18 November 1751, in John, Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (London 1812-15) II, p 231.Google Scholar
page no 315 note 6 See appendix to this paper for a list of works appearing in connection with the contro versy over the Essay on Spirit.
page no 315 note 7 Kippis, III, p 624; Mant, R., [History of the Church of Ireland] (London 1840) II, p 615 Google Scholar.
page no 316 note 1 The Bishop of Clogher’s Speech, p 9. Clayton pointed out that in the Act of Uniformity itself assent was demanded only to the use of all things in the Prayer Book.
page no 316 note 2 Ibid p 12.
page no 316 note 3 Ibid p 24.
page no 316 note 4 Ibid p 20.
page no 316 note 5 2 February 1756, Journals of the House of Lords (Dublin 1779-1800) IV, p 47.
page no 316 note 6 A Vindication of the Histories of the Old and New Testaments, in three Parts (London 1759) P387.
page no 317 note 1 Ibid p 431.
page no 317 note 2 Ibid p 442.
page no 317 note 3 Ibid p 443.
page no 317 note 4 Ibid pp 453-8.
page no 317 note 5 Ibid pp 485-8.
page no 317 note 6 Ibid p 487.
page no 317 note 7 Ibid p 491.
page no 317 note 8 Ibid p 497
page no 317 note 9 Ibid p 491.
page no 317 note 10 Ibid pp 500-1.
page no 318 note 1 Clarke taught the eternity of the Son, but held that scripture gave no support to the doctrine of his oneness with the Father. ‘ They are both worthy of censure: both they who on the one hand presume to affirm that the Son was made out of nothing, and they who on the other hand affirm that he is the self-existent substance.’ The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity in Works (London 1738) IV, pp 205-6.
page no 318 note 2 The Formation of Christian Dogma, trans Brandon, S. G. F. (London 1957) pp 120-30Google Scholar.
page no 318 note 3 Kippis, III, p 627; Mant, II, 617-18. According to Burdy, Clayton asked a lawyer whether he thought he should lose his bishopric. When told, ‘My lord, I believe you will’, Clayton replied, ‘Sir, you have given me a stroke I’ll never get the better of.’ Mrs Clayton is said to have warned her husband of the consequence of publishing his opinions. Burdy, [S.], [Life of Philip Skelton], ed Norman, Moore (Oxford 1914) p 138 Google Scholar.
page no 318 note 4 Brady, [W. Maziere], [Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross] (London 1864) III, pp 77-8Google Scholar.
page no 319 note 1 Vindication, pp 326-7.
page no 319 note 2 ‘He eats, drinks and sleeps in taste. He has pictures by Carlo, Morat, music by Corelli, castles in the air by Vitruvius.’ Orrery Papers, I, p 206. The horse-races and balls under the bishop’s patronage in Killala are described by Mrs Delany. Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany (London 1862) I, p 373 Google Scholar.
page no 319 note 3 Burdy, p 139.
page no 319 note 4 Skelton felt gratitude to Clayton for his living of Pettigo and so refused to write against him. Clayton invited Skelton to preach a visitation sermon and is recorded as dining with him in Pettigo. Burdy, pp 115-17.
page no 319 note 5 Brady, III, p 78.