Adam Loftus (bishop) - To Dublin

To Dublin

Following a catastrophic clash with Shane O'Neill, the real power in the province during these years, he came to Dublin in 1564 and in 1565, while still holding the office of Archbishop of Armagh, was offered the Deanery of St. Patrick’s Cathedral “in lieu of better times ahead”.

In 1567 Loftus was made Archbishop of Dublin, where the queen expected him to carry out reforms in the Church. On several occasions he temporarily carried out the functions of Lord Keeper, and in August 1581 he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Loftus was constantly occupied in attempts to improve his financial position by obtaining additional preferment (he had been obliged to resign the Deanery of St Patrick's in 1567). In 1582, he acquired land and built a castle at Rathfarnham, which he inhabited from 1585 (and which has been recently restored to public view).

In 1569–1570 the divisions in Irish politics took on a religious tinge with the first Desmond Rebellion in Munster and the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis issued in 1570. The bull questioned Elizabeth's authority and thereafter Roman Catholics were suspected of disloyalty by the official class unless they were discreet.

Loftus took a leading part in the execution of Dermot O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel. When O'Hurley refused to give information, Francis Walsingham suggested he should be tortured. Loftus replied to Walsingham: "Not finding that easy method of examination do any good, we made command to Mr Waterhouse and Mr Secretary Fenton to put him to the torture, such as your honour advised us, which was to toast his feet against the fire with hot boots." Although the Irish judges repeatedly decided that there was no case against O'Hurley, on 19 June 1584 Loftus and Sir Henry Wallop wrote to Walsingham "We gave warrant to the knight-marshal to do execution upon him, which accordingly was performed, and thereby the realm rid of a most pestilent member."

Much has been written about Loftus during this time but between 1584 and 1591; he had a series of clashes with Sir John Perrot on the location of an Irish University. Perrot wanted to use St Patrick’s Cathedral as the site of the new University, which Loftus sought to preserve as the principal place of Protestant worship in Dublin (as well as a valuable source of income for himself). The Archbishop won the argument with the help of his patron, Queen Elizabeth I, and Trinity College Dublin was born at its current location, named after his old college at Cambridge, leaving the Cathedral unaffected. Loftus was named as its first Provost in 1593.

The issue of religious and political rivalry continued during the two Desmond Rebellions (1569–83) and the Nine Years' War (1594–1603), both of which overlapped with the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), during which some rebellious Irish nobles were helped by the Papacy and by Elizabeth's arch-enemy Philip II of Spain. Due to the unsettled state of the country Protestantism made little progress, unlike in Celtic Scotland and Wales at that time. It came to be associated with military conquest and was therefore hated by many. The political-religious overlap was personified by Adam Loftus, who served as Archbishop and as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. An unlikely alliance formed between Gaelic Irish families and the Norman "Old English", who had been enemies for centuries but who now mostly remained Roman Catholic.