Jeffrey Cox. Parish churches, the state & religious change, 1c.560-1630: case study of Kildare by History Hub published on 2014-09-25T18:52:49Z Recording of a paper by Jeffrey Cox (University College Dublin) at the 2014 Tudor and Stuart Ireland Conference. About the paper: If you build it, will they come? Parish churches, the state and religious change, c. 1560-1630: a case study of County Kildare. The late fifteenth century witnessed a considerable period of church building and re-edification within and along the borders of County Kildare. Endowments, repairs, ornamentation, and church furnishings were bestowed upon parish churches by even modest patrons, while more prominent gentry were able to make greater contributions commensurate with their social status. Such building programmes suggest that the re-edification or renovation of parish churches was a consequence of vigorous popular piety. After the Elizabethan Settlement, however, a prolonged period of decay beset the parish churches. By 1630, eighty one per cent of parish churches in Kildare were in some state of disrepair, fifty-nine per cent of which were wholly ruined. On the one hand, the seeming abandonment of churches is a poignant indication of a shift in the relationship between the community and its church. On the other, the decay of church fabric was an impediment to the inculcation of religious conformity. Although state officials bemoaned the condition of ecclesiastical buildings, measures to secure their re-edification met with only limited success during the period under review. This paper will examine the reasons reported in state correspondence for the prolonged deterioration church fabric, and assess why attempts to encourage re-edification garnered so little community support. The 2014 Tudor and Stuart Ireland conference was generously supported by UCD School of History and Archives, UCD Research, Marsh's Library, Graduate Studies at NUI Maynooth, and the Department of History at NUI Maynooth. Recorded for podcasting by Real Smart Media (https://soundcloud.com/real-smart-media) for History Hub. Genre irish
