| Notes: | "We know that Christianity was established in Ireland in the fifth century, mainly by the labours of St. Patrick. St. Patrick seems to have organised the Church along monastic lines, bishops dwelling in the monasteries with the Coarb, or head of the monastery. This continued up until the twelfth century, when the Church of Ireland was brought into line with the Church in Europe and Britain under the Pope. Then in the sixteenth century the "Protestant Reformation" took place, and the Church of Ireland followed the Church of England in rejecting the Papacy and revising Church doctrine generally. Thus was drawn up the Prayer Book with its Services and Articles of Religion, which has remained till the present day as the basis of worship and doctrine of all those national Churches throughout the world, which together form the "Anglican Communion." At the end of the nineteenth century (1869), however, the Church of Ireland was "disestablished," that is, separated from the State and given her independence. She retained the Prayer Book, but drew up her own set of Canons, or local rules. Thus, after a long and varied history, we became what we are to-day."
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