John Alen

John Alen (1476–1534) was an English canon lawyer, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who was murdered during the Rebellion of Silken Thomas.

Life

He was born in Coltishall, Norfolk.The Alans were a numerous clan and six of his cousins settled in Ireland including his namesake John Alan, who was Lord Chancellor in his turn. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge,^[1] graduated in the latter place, and spent some years in Italy, partly at Rome, for studies and for business of Archbishop Warham of Canterbury. He was ordained priest 25 August 1499, and held various parochial benefices until 1522, about which time he attracted the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, whose supple and helpful commissary he was in the matter of the suppression of the minor monasteries. As such, his conduct, says James Gairdner, "gave rise to considerable outcry, and complaints were made about it to the king".^[2]

He continued to receive ecclesiastical advancement, assisted Wolsey in his legatine functions, among other things in the suit instituted by the cardinal against Henry VIII in May, 1527, by which it was sought at first to have the marriage with Catharine of Aragon declared invalid without her knowledge. In the summer of the same year he accompanied the cardinal on his mission to France, and finally (August, 1528) was rewarded with the archiepiscopal see of Dublin.^[2] At the same time he was made by the king chancellor of Ireland.^[3] For a short time until Wolsey's downfall Alen was a dominant figure in the Irish administration, forming one of an "inner council of three" on the Privy Council of Ireland.

He was relieved from asserting, against George Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh, the legatine authority of Wolsey by the latter's fall (October, 1529). With the rest of the English clergy he had to pay a heavy fine (1531) for violation of the Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire, in recognizing the legatine authority of Wolsey, then, in the king's eyes, a heinous crime, and a reason for the cardinal's indictment.^[2] Alen survived Wolsey's downfall but his political influence was never the same.

Murder

Archbishop Alen was murdered at Artane Castle near Dublin, 28 July 1534. As a former follower of Wolsey, he was hated by the followers of the great Irish house of Kildare (Fitzgerald), whose chief, Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, had been imprisoned by Wolsey in the Tower of London from 1526 to 1530, and again, by the King, early in 1534. Soon a false rumour spread through Ireland that the earl had been put to death, and the archbishop was killed in consequence of it by two retainers of his son, the famous "Silken Thomas" Fitzgerald.^[2] Alen had attempted to escape to England, but his ship was driven ashore at Clontarf.^[4] He fled for refuge to his friend Thomas St. Lawrence at Artane, but his hiding place was betrayed.^[5] Whether Silken Thomas actually ordered the killing or not remains a subject of dispute:^[2] there is a well-known tradition that his men misunderstood his command in Gaelic to "take this fellow away".^{[lower-alpha 1]} He afterwards sent his chaplain to Rome to obtain absolution for him from the excommunication incurred by this murder.^[2]

Character

Sir James Ware says of Alen^[6] that "he was of a turbulent spirit, but a man of hospitality and learning, and a diligent inquirer into antiquities".^[2]

Works

Alen wrote a treatise on the pallium, Epistola de pallii significatione activa et passiva on the occasion of his reception of this pontifical symbol, and another De consuetudinibus ac statutis in tutoriis causis observandis. He seems also to have been a man of methodical habits, for in the archives of the Anglican archdiocese of Dublin are still preserved two important registers made by his order, the Liber Niger, or Black Book, and the Repertorium Viride, or Green Repertory, both so called, after the custom of the age, from the colour of the binding.^[2] The former is a chartularium of the archdiocese, or collection of its most important documents, and the latter a full description of the see as it was in 1530.^[2]

Notes

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Shahan, Thomas Joseph (1907). "John Allen (I)". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia 1. Robert Appleton Company.  Endnotes:
  • Brady, Episcopal Succession in England, Ireland, and Scotland (Rome, 1876), I, 325 sqq.
  •  Gairdner, James (1885). "Allen, John (1476-1534)". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 305–307.  ;
  • Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (ed. Bliss), I, 76
  • Meehan, in tr. Daly, Rise, Increase and Fall of the Geraldines, Earls of Desmond (Dublin, 1878), 53, 54
  • Ware, Annals of Ireland, ad an. 1534
  • Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, 234
  • Ware, Irish Bishops (ed. Harris, Dublin, 1764), 347
  • Alphons Bellesheim, Gesch. D. kathol. Kirche in Irland (Mainz, 1890), II, 5, 6, 16, 17.