After a vacancy of six years (1567–1578), Maurice FitzGibbon, a Cistercian abbot, is promoted to the archbishopric of Cashel by Pope Pius V, but James MacCaghwell is put forward by Elizabeth I of England.

Thus begins the Anglican religion at Cashel.

FitzGibbon, who belongs to the royal Desmond family, being deprived of his see, flees to France and passes into Spain where he resides for a time at the Court.

He confers with the English ambassador at Paris in order to obtain pardon for leaving the country without the Queen's sanction, and to get permission to return.

In this he fails, and going back to Ireland secretly he is arrested and imprisoned at Cork, where he dies in 1578.