Lombard, Peter (1554-1625)

Archbishop of Armagh and active promoter of the Irish Counter-Reformation. Lombard was born into an Old English family in Waterford, and studied at Louvain in 1575, later becoming professor of philosophy and theology there. While in Rome in 1598, he wrote De regno Hiberniae sanctorum insula commentarius to secure papal support for the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, against English government forces which had begun in 1593. In the aftermath of O'Neill's defeat in 1603 and the subsequent Flight of the Earls from Ireland in 1607, Lombard advocated a conciliatory policy toward James I to reduce anti-Catholic feeling, arguing for his recognition as king by the Irish, criticizing confrontation with the English government in Ireland, and discouraging plans for renewed rebellion.

Estranged from the exiled O'Neill, Lombard pursued a successful career in the Vatican and was actively involved in several doctrinal decisions, including the condemnation of Copernicus in 1616, who had defied church doctrine with his hypothesis that the Sun was the centre of the Solar System. Despite plans to assume an Irish see, he never returned to Ireland.