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{{Short description|1802 Irish case on priest-penitent privilege}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{italic title}}
'''''Butler v. Moore''''', reported in [[Leonard McNally|MacNally]]'s ''Rules of Evidence'' in 1802, was an [[Ireland|Irish]] case decided by the [[Master of the Rolls in Ireland]], Sir [[Michael Smith (judge)|Michael Smith]]. It is an important [[precedent]] in the issue of [[priest–penitent privilege in the UK]]. The case concerned the [[will (law)|will]] of Bishop [[John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne]], who had converted from [[Catholicism]] to [[Protestantism]]. He was alleged, however, to have returned to Catholicism and, thereby, to have come within a [[Ireland 1691–1801#The Penal Laws|penal law]] which deprived "lapsed papists" of the power to make a will.<ref name="ODNB">Nolan (1913)</ref>

== Facts ==
Butler was Roman Catholic [[Diocese of Cork and Ross (Roman Catholic)|Bishop of Cork]] at the time of the death of his nephew Piers Edmond Butler, the 11th Baron. Anxious to be able to transmit in a direct line the peerage and the headship of an ancient house, the new Lord Dunboyne appealed to the [[Pope]] for a dispensation from his [[vow of celibacy]]. It was refused him, and, thereupon, he became a Protestant and married, but had no issue. It is said that one day while he was driving along a country road a woman rushed out of a cottage, calling for a priest for someone who lay dangerously ill inside. Lord Dunboyne answered her "I am a priest", and, entering the cottage, he heard the dying person's confession. From that moment till the end of his life he conformed again, at least, privately, to the Catholic faith.<ref name="ODNB"/>

== Disputed will ==
His will left all his property to the trustees of the recently founded [[St. Patrick's College, Maynooth]]. The will was disputed by his sister, Mrs. Catherine O'Brien Butler, on the ground that, having reconverted to Catholicism, he was incapable of making one. In order to prove that fact, she administered [[interrogatories]] to the highly respected priest [[William Gahan]], who had attended Lord Dunboyne, with whom he had maintained a long and friendly correspondence, shortly before his death, to the following effect: What religion did Lord Dunboyne profess, first, from 1783 to 1792? and, second, at the time of his death, and a short time before? As to the first question, Gahan answered that Lord Dunboyne professed the Protestant religion. To the second question he demurred on the ground that his knowledge (if any) arose from a confidential communication made to him in the exercise of his clerical functions, which the principles of his religion forbade him to disclose, nor was he bound by the law of the land to answer. The Master of the Rolls held, after argument by counsel, that there was no privilege, and he overruled the demurrer. Gahan adhered to his refusal to answer and he was adjudged guilty of [[contempt of court]] and was briefly imprisoned.<ref name="ODNB"/> This did not end the litigation which went on until 1808, and resulted in a compromise.

==Precedent overturned ==
This authority was decisively rejected by the President of the [[High Court (Ireland)|High Court of Ireland]] in 1945 in ''Cook v Carroll'', where he found that a priest has an absolute privilege not to reveal what is said in the confessional.<ref>[1945] I.R. 151</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{catholic|wstitle=The Law of the Seal of Confession}}
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*{{cite book | author=Costello, C. | title=Bishop Dunboyne's Dilemma: Faith or Fatherhood? - The Story of John Butler, Catholic Bishop of Cork, 1763-1787 | year=2000 | publisher=The Woodfield Press | isbn=0-9528453-9-3 }}
*Nolan, R. S. (1913) "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13649b.htm The Law of the Seal of Confession]", ''[[Catholic Encyclopaedia]]''

[[Category:1802 in British law]]
[[Category:Irish case law]]
[[Category:1802 in case law]]
[[Category:Priest–penitent privilege in England]]
[[Category:1802 in Ireland]]
[[Category:Evidentiary privilege case law]]

Butler v Moore - Revision history

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