English efforts to bring the reformed religion to Ireland ended in disaster and helped to bring on centuries of conflict, which even today has repercussions. Historical explanations for this failure have varied widely, at times the result of sectarian interpretations. The task becomes even more difficult because of the scarcity of primary documents to construct a conclusive picture of the Tudor period in Ireland. By focusing primarily on the diocese of Dublin, however, James Murray has put forward a balanced and quite convincing account of that failure through an examination of the archiepiscopates of George Browne, Hugh Curwen, and Adam Loftus and their efforts to accommodate changing religious directives from London at the same time balancing various pressures within Ireland. In the period covered, these various ecclesiastical leaders not only had to come to terms with the religious disarray in England but also with the tensions within Ireland between the English-Irish and the Gaelic-Irish populations.

Murray begins with an examination of the two cultures that existed within the medieval Irish Church. On the one hand, the Church outside the Pale dominated by the Gaelic-Irish was disorganized and poor. Concubinage, Murray points out, was a normal practice among the clergy. On the other hand, the English-Irish clergy of the Pale enjoyed greater prosperity and regarded themselves as the savior of Irish Christianity from barbarism. To illustrate these differences, Murray provides an insightful analysis of the will of John Aleyn, dean of St. Patrick's cathedral. In his will, Aleyn endowed almshouses for “good Catholics of the English variety” who had fallen on hard times. Aleyn feared that Irish infiltration would dilute English influence if the Church did not provide aid for the poor English. The English ethos had to be maintained in order to protect reforms that the English had made to the Irish Church. Within this context, the various archbishops attempted to carry out the changing religious dictates of the English monarch. On the one hand, they had to follow royal dictates; on the other, they had to be sensitive to the special circumstances of the Pale.

The various archbishops found themselves confronted by a powerful corporate clergy within the chapter with whom they had to do battle to achieve their goals. The clergy in the Pale, Murray argues, saw the reforms as a direct threat to their power and position. He suggests that the reform challenged their mission to restructure the Irish Church under papal auspices. Thus George Browne came to Ireland with a firm commitment to enforce the royal supremacy—complicated by the changing political scene in England—only to find strident opposition from the diocesan clergy. Browne had some successes; and unlike other historians, Murray argues that Browne survived the downfall of Thomas Cromwell and successfully entered the orb of Sir Anthony St. Leger, the new Lord Deputy.

At this point, St. Leger eclipses Browne in the analysis. Murray shifts his attention to the political efforts made by St. Leger to conform to Henry's new religious policy, attempting to unite both conservatives and reformers. Browne had lost his effectiveness because of his decision in the 1530s to get married and have children; the need to deal with the former wife and children posed a considerable distraction. Browne had therefore become a liability, and St. Leger worked more closely with the conservative archbishop of Armagh, George Dowdall. St. Leger's efforts at compromise, however, came to an end with the radical Protestant policy that Edward VI's government established and which Browne used to regain his previous position of power within the cathedral precincts. Nevertheless, Browne again found himself sidelined with the restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary. Despite his efforts to curry favor of the new Queen, again his previous marriage, Murray suggests, stood in his way. The book contains a noteworthy subtext to these shifting episodes. Murray argues that through all these archiepiscopal vicissitudes, the English cathedral clergy worked diligently to retain their power, focusing on maintaining their superiority over the unfit Irish. In particular, they utilized canon law as a means of maintaining English-Irish control.

Henry Curwen succeeded Archbishop Browne at the beginning of Mary's reign. Murray points out that few documents from this period exist and much of his analysis is conjecture, although based on rather persuasive arguments. Contemporaries and later historians have regarded Curwen as a “Trimmer,” since he so easily switched his religious loyalties after Mary's death. Yet Murray postulates that while many in the Dublin diocese wanted to use more defiant tactics against the Elizabethan Settlement, Curwen regarded religious settlements of short duration and saw little need to fight. Curwen succeeded in restoring the medieval Church, making it much more difficult for the English policy to dismantle it. Murray suggests that while Curwen appeared outwardly compliant with the settlement, he remained loyal to his conservative clergy.

Curwen utilized canon law as his primary mode of restoring the old religion. His successor Loftus employed the same means in his effort to bring Ireland into compliance with the Elizabethan Settlement. Loftus's partner in this endeavor was the new Lord Chancellor, Sir Robert Weston, who recognized the advantage of Curwen's reforms to bring Ireland in line with the English reform and at the same time provide an air of legitimacy. The policy aimed to discipline recalcitrant clergy who refused to comply, at the same time winning over laymen by not strictly enforcing the penal laws against recusants. The less Protestant the approach, Murray contends, the better. Yet this strategy was not successful because of Weston's untimely death. At that point, the new viceroy, Sir Henry Sidney, co-opted the process and inaugurated a firm policy of enforcement, directed not only at the clergy but the laity. Surprisingly, Murray does not underscore the fact that when Weston died, the effort at conciliation ended, considering his view that the strict religious policies eventually alienated both the corporate clergy and the laity. One might contend that Weston's death brought about the ultimate failure of the Reformation efforts. Murray concludes his study with an examination of Loftus's policies after Sidney's recall. Curiously, considering his more benign approach under Weston, Loftus continued the harsh regime of enforcement begun under Sidney. Murray provides no convincing explanation why Loftus embraced this approach, which permanently alienated both the clergy and the laity against the Protestant religion and made it impossible for the new religion to triumph in Ireland.

Despite this omission, Murray produces an impressive piece of scholarship. Although we see the failure of the English policy only within the microcosm of the diocese of Dublin, we come to appreciate the difficulties of enforcing the Tudor religious policy in this complex setting. The book's title might mislead, however, since the three archbishops' inability to enforce the Reformation defines the book's central premise.