The Four Masters were not the only Irish historians at work in the early seventeenth century. Others were writing histories of Ireland, using Irish manuscripts. Geoffrey Keating wrote a prose narrative in Irish, Foras feasa ar éirinn in the 1630s. This history followed the reigns of kings of Ireland and proved immensely popular. Keating framed his history as a defence of Ireland's reputation against the criticisms of foreign detractors. The Franciscans Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and John Colgan were among the first to copy Foras feasa.
From a Protestant perspective the works of James Ussher, the scholarly archbishop of Armagh, and Sir James Ware were also rooted in medieval manuscript sources. Although in contact with Franciscan historians, Ussher argued that the early church had been corrupted by Roman influence and that the Reformation had been necessary. Thus the disputes of Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe impinged on the writing of Irish history.
