Charles Reynolds (cleric)

Charles Reynolds (Irish: Cathal Mac Raghnaill; c. 1496 – July 1535) 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.

During the Kildare Rebellion of 1534–1535 against King Henry, Reynolds was dispatched as envoy to Rome to seek support from Pope Paul III. In May 1535 he secured a papal promise to excommunicate King Henry.

Reynolds died of an "incurable fever" and was buried in Archbasilica of St. John Lateran on 15 July 1535. The inscription on his grave slab in Rome gives accurate dates for his birth in Ireland, death in Rome, provides a family setting, and reveals the pope intended to consecrate him as a bishop.

Reynolds was posthumously attained for high treason in the Attainder of the Earl of Kildare Act 1536 and is sometimes included as one of the Irish Catholic Martyrs.