Charles Reynolds.

About Charles Reynolds

Charles Reynolds was an Irish Catholic cleric, canonist, and diocesan administrator. Born in County Leitrim into an Irish clan of Hiberno-Norse descent and son of Marcus Mac Raghnaill, Reynolds entered a religious order and was appointed to influential posts as archdeacon and military chaplain to the Earl of Kildare. His name in native Irish is Cathal Mac Raghnaill, but he used the Anglicized name of "Archdeacon Charles Reynolds" whenever he was in the Pale or in the company of English-speakers. He was educated at the University of Oxford and was multilingual; being fluent in English, Irish, and Ecclesiastical Latin. Archdeacon Reynolds opposed Henry VIII of England's policy of imposing Caesaropapism upon the Catholic Church in his dominions, declined to acknowledge him as Supreme Head of the Church of England, and refusing to acknowledge the annulment of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon or his uncanonical remarriage to Anne Boleyn.