Tuesday 21 May 2019
Tuesday 26 March 2019
Saturday 23 March 2019
Thurles
Walsh c. lxi, p. 674.
Thurles in the barony of Eliogarty and is situated on the river Suire AD 1300 the family of Butler founded a monastery for Carmelites When the religious houses were suppressed Donagh O Howleghan the last prior was found seized of his monastery with a church chapter house three chambers a stable two gardens of one acre also ten acres of arable land with four of pasture the great measure in Thurles annual value 13s 4d besides reprises This monastery with its appurtenances was granted to Thomas earl of Ormond Knights of St John of Jerusalem According to tradition the castle erected here belonged to those knights
Thurles in the barony of Eliogarty and is situated on the river Suire AD 1300 the family of Butler founded a monastery for Carmelites When the religious houses were suppressed Donagh O Howleghan the last prior was found seized of his monastery with a church chapter house three chambers a stable two gardens of one acre also ten acres of arable land with four of pasture the great measure in Thurles annual value 13s 4d besides reprises This monastery with its appurtenances was granted to Thomas earl of Ormond Knights of St John of Jerusalem According to tradition the castle erected here belonged to those knights
Kilcomin Abbey
Walsh c. lxi, p. 669.
Kilcomin in the barony of Kilnelongurty nine miles west of Holy Cross Philip de Worcester who was chief governor of Ireland AD 1184 founded the priory of Kilcomin which he supplied with Benedictines from the abbey of Glastonbury in Somersetshire It was dedicated to St Philip St James and to St Comin James one of the brethren was appointed the first prior It became a ruin in the reign of Hebry VIII
Kilcomin in the barony of Kilnelongurty nine miles west of Holy Cross Philip de Worcester who was chief governor of Ireland AD 1184 founded the priory of Kilcomin which he supplied with Benedictines from the abbey of Glastonbury in Somersetshire It was dedicated to St Philip St James and to St Comin James one of the brethren was appointed the first prior It became a ruin in the reign of Hebry VIII
Holycross Abbey
Walsh c. lxi., p. 667-668.
Holycross in the barony of Eliogarty two miles southwest of Thurles and on the river Suire Donagh Carbragh O Brien king of Limerick founded this celebrated abbey in honor of the Holy Cross St Mary and St Benedict for monks of the Cistercian order AD 1182 Gregory was abbot in which year the founder made several grants of land to this abbey AD 1207 died in this abbey the eminent and illustrious Mathew O Heney archbishop of Cashell and apostolic legate of Ireland having received absolution and extreme unction AD 1249 in a general chapter of the order the abbot of Clairvaux in France subjected this abbey to that of Furness in Lancashire AD 1313 Thomas was abbot AD 1538 Phillip Purcell was abbot William O Dwyer was the last abbot of Holycross It was a daughter of Magio in the county of Limerick The abbot was styled earl of Holycross and sat as a baron of parliament and was usually vicar of the Cistercian order in Ireland AD 1559 the great rebel O Neal as Protestants call him made a pilgrimage to the relic of the Holy Cross which had been preserved in this abbey In the fifth of Elizabeth the abbey with two hundred and twenty acres of land in Holycross twenty acres in Thurles one hundred and eighty acres in other places parcel of its possessions were granted to Gerald earl of Ormond The architecture of this abbey was unusually splendid its very ruins which to this day occupy a considerable space evince the former greatness ness of this celebrated establishment Its steeple supported by an immense gothic arch with ogives springing diagonally from the angles has been greatly esteemed The choir is forty nine feet broad and fifty eight long with lateral aisles On the south side of the choir are two chapels intersected by a double row of gothic arches and on the north side are two other chapels finished in the same style as the former The river Suire flows near the base of those extensive and magnificent ruins
Holycross in the barony of Eliogarty two miles southwest of Thurles and on the river Suire Donagh Carbragh O Brien king of Limerick founded this celebrated abbey in honor of the Holy Cross St Mary and St Benedict for monks of the Cistercian order AD 1182 Gregory was abbot in which year the founder made several grants of land to this abbey AD 1207 died in this abbey the eminent and illustrious Mathew O Heney archbishop of Cashell and apostolic legate of Ireland having received absolution and extreme unction AD 1249 in a general chapter of the order the abbot of Clairvaux in France subjected this abbey to that of Furness in Lancashire AD 1313 Thomas was abbot AD 1538 Phillip Purcell was abbot William O Dwyer was the last abbot of Holycross It was a daughter of Magio in the county of Limerick The abbot was styled earl of Holycross and sat as a baron of parliament and was usually vicar of the Cistercian order in Ireland AD 1559 the great rebel O Neal as Protestants call him made a pilgrimage to the relic of the Holy Cross which had been preserved in this abbey In the fifth of Elizabeth the abbey with two hundred and twenty acres of land in Holycross twenty acres in Thurles one hundred and eighty acres in other places parcel of its possessions were granted to Gerald earl of Ormond The architecture of this abbey was unusually splendid its very ruins which to this day occupy a considerable space evince the former greatness ness of this celebrated establishment Its steeple supported by an immense gothic arch with ogives springing diagonally from the angles has been greatly esteemed The choir is forty nine feet broad and fifty eight long with lateral aisles On the south side of the choir are two chapels intersected by a double row of gothic arches and on the north side are two other chapels finished in the same style as the former The river Suire flows near the base of those extensive and magnificent ruins
The United Diocese of Cashel and Emly
Walsh c. xx., p. 211-
Cashel and Emly united in 1569 Maurice Gibbon who was appointed bishop by the Pope about the year 1567 having it is said attempted the life of MacCaghwell Queen Elizabeth's bishop made his escape into Spain and died in the city of Oporto then under the dominion of that country about the year 1578 Dermod O Hurley archbishop of Cashel who was renowned for his learning eloquence and ability in refuting the heresies of England was from the very moment of his arrival in Ireland marked out as the special object of the hate and vengeance of the heretics At Lou vain his studies were finished and there he became a graduate and at length professor of canon law in the university of that city During the pontificate of Gregory XILT he repaired to Rome and in this city his splendid talents and acquirements soon rendered him conspicuous He was introduced to the notice of that pontiff and soon after promoted to the arch see of Cashel Having returned to Ireland he found the persecution raging in all its fury yet Dermod intrepidly proceeded through his diocese traveling from district to district and ultimately from county to county consoling exhorting and confirming the people Tarrying for some time at the residence of Thomas lord of Slane in the county of Meath he was there recognised by the chief justice of the queen's bench who procured without delay two messengers with whom he forwarded this intelligence to Loftus the Protestant or parliamentary archprelate of Armagh and the chancellor of Ireland Some of the family having discovered the treacherous design of the chief justice apprised the venerable Dermod of the danger and earnestly entreated him to consult for his safety by a timely flight from his pursuers Yielding to their tears and entreaties he was conveyed privately from the mansion and proceeded as far as Carrick on Suir in the county of Tipperary Here he was arrested and under an armed escort was conducted to Dublin and brought before the chancellor Loftus left nothing untried
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to shake the constancy of the holy prelate The chancellor engaged to reconcile him to Elizabeth and that he might waive other doctrinal points provided he would recognise her supremacy a proposition which he instantly rejected Another offer was made he would be restored to favor and reinstalled in the see of Cashel if he would reject the title which the Pope had conferred upon him and accept his right to the see by letters patent from the queen but those insidious terms he immediately spurned and he was thereon remanded to prison and bound in heavy irons Thirsting as they were for his blood his enemies hastened to the dungeon and commenced the work of torture First bound to a stake his arms and legs covered over with pitch salt oil and sulphur fire was then slowly applied and managed with such barbarous dexterity that their victim was kept in torture for several hours The night thus spent in a melancholy scene of insults and sufferings he was led out at the dawn of day conveyed to Stephen's green put upon the rack and at last strangled AD 1583 His body was removed in the evening by the faithful and deposited in the neighboring oratory of St Kevin then almost in ruins This church was some years after repaired and several miracles are said to have been wrought at the tomb of this holy and illustrious martyr for the faith of Christ Thurlough O Neil succeeded the martyred Dermod in 1583 Moriarth O Brien bishop of Emly died in a prison at Dublin in 1586 David Kearney bishop in 1625 James O Hurley a Dominican friar elected prior provincial at Youghal of Ireland in October 1638 Appointed to the see of Emly in 1641 by Pope Urban VIII James was a prelate remarkably religious and learned Terence Albert O Brien was promoted to the see of Emly on the death of his predecessor in 1644 was master of theology and alumnus of the Dominican convent of Kilmallock and was elected at Kilkenny in 1643 prior provincial of the order in Ireland When Ireton stormed the city of Limerick he caused the venerable prelate Terence Albert to be brought before him Threats and bribes were tried without success and the prelate continuing inflexible Ireton with a view of overcoming his resolution gave orders to have him bound and thrust into prison but it had no terrors for him as his constancy and confidence in God rendered him superior to his suffering At last sentenced to undergo death he was brought forth to the place of execution When he arrived at the spot the serenity and cheerfulness of his
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countenance excited sentiments of pity on the part of his executioners and the people who had ventured to approach were inconsolable Weep not for me says the holy prelate but rather pray that I may receive strength from the throne of mercy and that I may happily end my course keep the faith submit to the dispensations of Heaven dread the wrath of God observe his commandments and thus shall you possess your souls in peace The martyr then addressed Ireton and in language prophetically awful warned the commander to beware of the vengeance of Heaven which was impending over him He assured Ireton that his days were numbered and that a few weeks would terminate his career and that his end would be miserable Soon after the prediction was verified In three weeks seized with a plague Ireton protesting his innocence of the death of the martyr and affirming it to have been the work of the government died in all the horrors of despair On the eve of All Saints 1651 the venerable prelate was strangled in the public place of execution His head was severed from the body fastened on a spike and set up on the pinnacle of the citadel where it remained without change or decay until the usurpation of Cromwell had ceased Thomas Walsh bishop of Cashel in 1659 Having a long time escaped the vigilance of his pursuers by concealing himself in the wild mountains which run between the counties of Cork and Tipperary at length having embarked in one of the southern ports of the former county arrived after a perilous voyage at Compostella in the kingdom of Gallicia in Spain where he died William Burgott died in the year 1671 John Brennan translated from Waterford in 1676 died in 1685 His name occurs in the Registry Act Edward Comerford died in 1711 Christopher Butler son of Walter Butler whose father was drowned on his voyage to Ireland in December 1619 and of Maria Plunkett the only daughter of Christopher the second earl of Fingal was consecrated in 1712 and died in the year 1757 having sat near forty years James Butler who became an apostate but died in the Catholic Church AD 1800 became coadjutor of Cashel in 1750 See Cork James Butler of Ballyraggat bishop of Cashel in 1791 Thomas Bray bishop of Cashel died in 1821 Patrick Everard coadjutor of Cashel in 1815 died AD 1822 Robert Laffan succeeded died in 1833 Michael Slattery president of Maynooth College during a portion of that year was elected bishop of Cashel and consecrated on the 24th
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of February 1834 still happily presides and is esteemed as a patriot and the fearless opponent of British intrigue against the Irish Church and the faith of her people
Cashel and Emly united in 1569 Maurice Gibbon who was appointed bishop by the Pope about the year 1567 having it is said attempted the life of MacCaghwell Queen Elizabeth's bishop made his escape into Spain and died in the city of Oporto then under the dominion of that country about the year 1578 Dermod O Hurley archbishop of Cashel who was renowned for his learning eloquence and ability in refuting the heresies of England was from the very moment of his arrival in Ireland marked out as the special object of the hate and vengeance of the heretics At Lou vain his studies were finished and there he became a graduate and at length professor of canon law in the university of that city During the pontificate of Gregory XILT he repaired to Rome and in this city his splendid talents and acquirements soon rendered him conspicuous He was introduced to the notice of that pontiff and soon after promoted to the arch see of Cashel Having returned to Ireland he found the persecution raging in all its fury yet Dermod intrepidly proceeded through his diocese traveling from district to district and ultimately from county to county consoling exhorting and confirming the people Tarrying for some time at the residence of Thomas lord of Slane in the county of Meath he was there recognised by the chief justice of the queen's bench who procured without delay two messengers with whom he forwarded this intelligence to Loftus the Protestant or parliamentary archprelate of Armagh and the chancellor of Ireland Some of the family having discovered the treacherous design of the chief justice apprised the venerable Dermod of the danger and earnestly entreated him to consult for his safety by a timely flight from his pursuers Yielding to their tears and entreaties he was conveyed privately from the mansion and proceeded as far as Carrick on Suir in the county of Tipperary Here he was arrested and under an armed escort was conducted to Dublin and brought before the chancellor Loftus left nothing untried
212
to shake the constancy of the holy prelate The chancellor engaged to reconcile him to Elizabeth and that he might waive other doctrinal points provided he would recognise her supremacy a proposition which he instantly rejected Another offer was made he would be restored to favor and reinstalled in the see of Cashel if he would reject the title which the Pope had conferred upon him and accept his right to the see by letters patent from the queen but those insidious terms he immediately spurned and he was thereon remanded to prison and bound in heavy irons Thirsting as they were for his blood his enemies hastened to the dungeon and commenced the work of torture First bound to a stake his arms and legs covered over with pitch salt oil and sulphur fire was then slowly applied and managed with such barbarous dexterity that their victim was kept in torture for several hours The night thus spent in a melancholy scene of insults and sufferings he was led out at the dawn of day conveyed to Stephen's green put upon the rack and at last strangled AD 1583 His body was removed in the evening by the faithful and deposited in the neighboring oratory of St Kevin then almost in ruins This church was some years after repaired and several miracles are said to have been wrought at the tomb of this holy and illustrious martyr for the faith of Christ Thurlough O Neil succeeded the martyred Dermod in 1583 Moriarth O Brien bishop of Emly died in a prison at Dublin in 1586 David Kearney bishop in 1625 James O Hurley a Dominican friar elected prior provincial at Youghal of Ireland in October 1638 Appointed to the see of Emly in 1641 by Pope Urban VIII James was a prelate remarkably religious and learned Terence Albert O Brien was promoted to the see of Emly on the death of his predecessor in 1644 was master of theology and alumnus of the Dominican convent of Kilmallock and was elected at Kilkenny in 1643 prior provincial of the order in Ireland When Ireton stormed the city of Limerick he caused the venerable prelate Terence Albert to be brought before him Threats and bribes were tried without success and the prelate continuing inflexible Ireton with a view of overcoming his resolution gave orders to have him bound and thrust into prison but it had no terrors for him as his constancy and confidence in God rendered him superior to his suffering At last sentenced to undergo death he was brought forth to the place of execution When he arrived at the spot the serenity and cheerfulness of his
213
countenance excited sentiments of pity on the part of his executioners and the people who had ventured to approach were inconsolable Weep not for me says the holy prelate but rather pray that I may receive strength from the throne of mercy and that I may happily end my course keep the faith submit to the dispensations of Heaven dread the wrath of God observe his commandments and thus shall you possess your souls in peace The martyr then addressed Ireton and in language prophetically awful warned the commander to beware of the vengeance of Heaven which was impending over him He assured Ireton that his days were numbered and that a few weeks would terminate his career and that his end would be miserable Soon after the prediction was verified In three weeks seized with a plague Ireton protesting his innocence of the death of the martyr and affirming it to have been the work of the government died in all the horrors of despair On the eve of All Saints 1651 the venerable prelate was strangled in the public place of execution His head was severed from the body fastened on a spike and set up on the pinnacle of the citadel where it remained without change or decay until the usurpation of Cromwell had ceased Thomas Walsh bishop of Cashel in 1659 Having a long time escaped the vigilance of his pursuers by concealing himself in the wild mountains which run between the counties of Cork and Tipperary at length having embarked in one of the southern ports of the former county arrived after a perilous voyage at Compostella in the kingdom of Gallicia in Spain where he died William Burgott died in the year 1671 John Brennan translated from Waterford in 1676 died in 1685 His name occurs in the Registry Act Edward Comerford died in 1711 Christopher Butler son of Walter Butler whose father was drowned on his voyage to Ireland in December 1619 and of Maria Plunkett the only daughter of Christopher the second earl of Fingal was consecrated in 1712 and died in the year 1757 having sat near forty years James Butler who became an apostate but died in the Catholic Church AD 1800 became coadjutor of Cashel in 1750 See Cork James Butler of Ballyraggat bishop of Cashel in 1791 Thomas Bray bishop of Cashel died in 1821 Patrick Everard coadjutor of Cashel in 1815 died AD 1822 Robert Laffan succeeded died in 1833 Michael Slattery president of Maynooth College during a portion of that year was elected bishop of Cashel and consecrated on the 24th
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of February 1834 still happily presides and is esteemed as a patriot and the fearless opponent of British intrigue against the Irish Church and the faith of her people
The beginnings of the See of Emly
Walsh c. xx. p. 207
year See of Emly Saint Ailbe its founder already noticed Conaing O Daithil called abbot and comorban of St Ailbe died AD 661 Conamail MacCarthy successor of St Ailbe died AD 707 Cellach successor of Ailbe died AD 718 Senchair successor of Ailbe died in 778 Cuan died in 784 or 786 Sectabrat died in 819 Flan MacFamchellaic died in 825 Olchobar MacKinede king of Cashel and bishop of Emly died in 850 Maneus MacHuargusa died in 857 Caenfelad king of Cashel and bishop of Emly died in 872 Rudgall MacFingail died in 882 Concenmathair died in 887 Owen MacCenfeolad called prince of Imleach Ibair was slain in 889 Mffil Brigid son of Prolect a holy man and archbishop of Munster died in 895 Miscelus died in 898 Flan MacConail died in 903 Tibraid MacMaelpin prince of Imlioc Jubhair and bishop of Emly died in 912 Edchada MacScanlain died in 941 Huarach died in 953 MelKellach died in 957 Feolan MacKellaid died in 981 Caenfada died in 990 Columb MacLagenan died in 1003 Cormac O Fin the most learned bishop of Munster died AD 1020 Serbrethac died in 1027 Maelfinan died in 1040 O Flanchna died in 1047 Clothna Muimnech died in 1049 Maelmorda died in 1075 Moelisa O Harachtain died in 1093 O Ligbai died in 1122 Maelmorda Maclnclodnai succeeded While he governed the see Emly was plundered in the year 1123 and the mitre of St Ailbe preserved
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served with great care was burned by the robbers The bishop Mael morda escaped by flight Dcicola or Gilla an Comdeh O Ardmail assisted at the council of Kells held under Cardinal Paparo in 1152 Maelisa O Lagenan abbot of Emly and Bellagh Conglais Bishop of this see died in 1163 O Meicstia or O Meicselbe comorban or successor of Ailbe died in 1172 Charles O Buacalla abbot of Mellifont succeeded in 1177 and died at Emly in less than a month Isaac O Hamery succeeded Nothing more is known of this prelate Reginald O Flancea sat in 1192 and died in 1197 About this time the cathedral of Emly was destroyed by fire William a canon of Emly was elected AD 1210 his election was annulled by the Pope as he had by false suggestions obtained three orders in one day from the bishop of Ross under color of a command from the metropolitan of Cashel The archbishop having denied the matter William was suspended from the orders of deaconship and the priesthood and the bishop of Ross was deprived of the power of ordaining Henry an English Cistercian monk and abbot of Bindon in Dorsetshire was consecrated in 1212 King John granted this prelate and his successors the privilege of holding fairs and markets at Emly He died in 1227 having governed the see upwards of fourteen years John Collingham was elected by the dean and chapter ratified by the Pope in 1228 The king refused his approbation and withheld the temporalities because he was chosen without the king's previous license As the archbishop of Cashell on this account refused to consecrate him John appealed to Pope Gregory IX who appointed delegates to hear the cause The king instructed his proctor to defend the rights of his crown before those delegates The Pope issued a bull to the archbishops of Armagh and Dublin and to the bishop of Ferns to examine into the merits of the person and the election and to confirm and consecrate him if canonically elected and to inflict censures on all who should oppose The king was worsted in the contest John having enjoyed the see Christian succeeded in 1236 In 1245 he maintained a suit against Alan O Sullivan bishop of Cloyne for a tenement in Kilcomyr which he claimed in right of his see But the chief justice refused to give judgment without the king's direction because the bishop of Cloyne had threatened to excommunicate him if he did The king made acquainted with the affair issued a writ to the chief justice ordering him to give judgment and damages according to the verdict to amerce the disseisor
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and to give seisin to the disseised bishop and to attach and imprison the ecclesiastical judges for holding plea against his prohibition He also ordered him to imprison the bishop of Cloyne for prosecuting such suit in the spiritual court after his prohibition and to hold him in restraint until he should make ample amends for his contemptuous proceedings Christian is said to have been a great benefactor to his church of Emly His motto was O Lord show me thy ways Christian died in 1249 Gilbert O Doverty dean of Emly was elected by the general voice of the chapter in the year 1249 and was consecrated in 1251 He also obtained the temporals in that year Gilbert died in October 1265 Florence of Emly so called because born there was canon of the cathedral of Emly succeeded and was consecrated about Whitsuntide 1266 the election of Lawrence of Dunlac chancellor of Emly being rejected The Bishop Florence died about the end of the year 1271 and was buried in his own cathedral Mathew MacGorman archdeacon of Emly was elected in June 1272 and consecrated the year following He sat two years and a few months having died in 1275 David O Cussey a Cistercian and abbot of Holy cross in Tipperary succeeded in June 1275 and obtained the temporals He died in June 1281 William de Clifford escheator of England succeeded in 1282 and was consecrated in this year In the year 1299 the temporals of the see were sequestrated for debts which he contracted while escheator The custody of the see was granted hereupon to John Cantock but John did not account either to the king or to the bishop They were then by the justice treasurer and barons of the exchequer committed to the custody of Bartholomew de Sutton in trust for the king and the archbishop and who was made responsible to the exchequer Bartholomew de Sutton was as bad a trustee as John Cantock The bishop died in 1306 Thomas Cantock a native of England and a chancellor of Ireland canon of Emly was elected in 1306 obtained the temporals in the same year He still retained the chancellorship was consecrated in Christ church Dublin in presence of great numbers of the nobility clergy and others all of whom he feasted with unusual magnificence While he was chancellor some records of the chancery which were deposited in Mary's Abbey near Dublin were destroyed by fire Thomas sat but a short time having died on the 3d of February 1308 William Rogened dean of Emly succeeded in 1309 William lived until the year 1335 and was buried in his own church Richard Walsh was elected and consecrated bishop of Emly in the year 1335 He sat about twenty years and died in October 1355 He
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joined Ralph Kelly archbishop of Cashel in opposing the subsidy to the king for which they were indicted John Esmond archdeacon of Ferns succeeded by provision of the Pope and obtained the temporals on the 27th of April 1356 He sat six years and died in April 1362 William archdeacon of Emly succeeded in 1363 by provision of the Pope and was restored to the temporals It seems that the see became vacant by the death of one David who was not restored to the temporals or if consecrated lived but a very short time William governed the see of Cashel a great while as he was living in 1393 He was fined 100 marks for non attendance at a parliament held AD 1377 in Castle Dermot William was vicar general to Philip de Torrington archbishop of Cashel during his absence in foreign parts Nicholas bishop of Emly died in 1422 John Rishberry an Au gustin hermit was declared his successor by Pope Martin V who delayed in expediting his provisional letters whereupon Robert Windell a Franciscan friar was appointed to succeed but it seems he never was consecrated Thomas Burgh an Augustin canon was elected bishop of Emly but he also was slow in expediting his letters Robert Portland a Franciscan friar was appointed to the see by the Pope's provision nor does it appear that he was consecrated or ever saw the see of Emly Thomas bishop of Emly was at length consecrated in the year 1431 Perhaps he was Thomas de Burgh already mentioned He sat twelve years and died in 1443 During the widowhood of the see the temporals were returned into the king's exchequer Cornelius O Cunlis a Franciscan friar was advanced to the see in October 1444 When consecrated he was sent as nuncio to Ireland to collect aid against the Turks Cornelius was translated to the see of Clonfert Cornelius O Mulledy a Franciscan friar bishop of Clonfert was translated to the see of Emly by Pope Nicholas V on the 6th of April 1448 or in the August of this year William O Hedian succeeded by provision of the Pope about the year 1459 and in 1468 was appointed prior commendatory of the con vent of the blessed virgin of Kenlis in Ossory an appointment which excited contests between him and prior Nicholas Philip bishop of Emly died in 1494 Charles MacBrien canon of Emly was advanced to the see in April 1498 the year of his death is unknown Donatus O Brien who was doctor of laws obtained a provision to the see from the Pope in No vember 1494 but it was either annulled or he was not consecrated
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Thomas O Hurley a canonist of great reputation succeeded and died in an advanced age AD 1542 and was buried in his own church He erected a college for secular priests Oeneas O Heffernan an hospitaller and preceptor of Any in the county of Limerick succeeded 1543 he sat about ten years having died AD 1553 Reymund de Burgh an Observantine friar succeeded and died in July 1562 and was buried in a Franciscan monastery at Adare He is said to have apostatized but there is not sufficient proof for the accusation Cashel and Emly united in 1569
year See of Emly Saint Ailbe its founder already noticed Conaing O Daithil called abbot and comorban of St Ailbe died AD 661 Conamail MacCarthy successor of St Ailbe died AD 707 Cellach successor of Ailbe died AD 718 Senchair successor of Ailbe died in 778 Cuan died in 784 or 786 Sectabrat died in 819 Flan MacFamchellaic died in 825 Olchobar MacKinede king of Cashel and bishop of Emly died in 850 Maneus MacHuargusa died in 857 Caenfelad king of Cashel and bishop of Emly died in 872 Rudgall MacFingail died in 882 Concenmathair died in 887 Owen MacCenfeolad called prince of Imleach Ibair was slain in 889 Mffil Brigid son of Prolect a holy man and archbishop of Munster died in 895 Miscelus died in 898 Flan MacConail died in 903 Tibraid MacMaelpin prince of Imlioc Jubhair and bishop of Emly died in 912 Edchada MacScanlain died in 941 Huarach died in 953 MelKellach died in 957 Feolan MacKellaid died in 981 Caenfada died in 990 Columb MacLagenan died in 1003 Cormac O Fin the most learned bishop of Munster died AD 1020 Serbrethac died in 1027 Maelfinan died in 1040 O Flanchna died in 1047 Clothna Muimnech died in 1049 Maelmorda died in 1075 Moelisa O Harachtain died in 1093 O Ligbai died in 1122 Maelmorda Maclnclodnai succeeded While he governed the see Emly was plundered in the year 1123 and the mitre of St Ailbe preserved
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served with great care was burned by the robbers The bishop Mael morda escaped by flight Dcicola or Gilla an Comdeh O Ardmail assisted at the council of Kells held under Cardinal Paparo in 1152 Maelisa O Lagenan abbot of Emly and Bellagh Conglais Bishop of this see died in 1163 O Meicstia or O Meicselbe comorban or successor of Ailbe died in 1172 Charles O Buacalla abbot of Mellifont succeeded in 1177 and died at Emly in less than a month Isaac O Hamery succeeded Nothing more is known of this prelate Reginald O Flancea sat in 1192 and died in 1197 About this time the cathedral of Emly was destroyed by fire William a canon of Emly was elected AD 1210 his election was annulled by the Pope as he had by false suggestions obtained three orders in one day from the bishop of Ross under color of a command from the metropolitan of Cashel The archbishop having denied the matter William was suspended from the orders of deaconship and the priesthood and the bishop of Ross was deprived of the power of ordaining Henry an English Cistercian monk and abbot of Bindon in Dorsetshire was consecrated in 1212 King John granted this prelate and his successors the privilege of holding fairs and markets at Emly He died in 1227 having governed the see upwards of fourteen years John Collingham was elected by the dean and chapter ratified by the Pope in 1228 The king refused his approbation and withheld the temporalities because he was chosen without the king's previous license As the archbishop of Cashell on this account refused to consecrate him John appealed to Pope Gregory IX who appointed delegates to hear the cause The king instructed his proctor to defend the rights of his crown before those delegates The Pope issued a bull to the archbishops of Armagh and Dublin and to the bishop of Ferns to examine into the merits of the person and the election and to confirm and consecrate him if canonically elected and to inflict censures on all who should oppose The king was worsted in the contest John having enjoyed the see Christian succeeded in 1236 In 1245 he maintained a suit against Alan O Sullivan bishop of Cloyne for a tenement in Kilcomyr which he claimed in right of his see But the chief justice refused to give judgment without the king's direction because the bishop of Cloyne had threatened to excommunicate him if he did The king made acquainted with the affair issued a writ to the chief justice ordering him to give judgment and damages according to the verdict to amerce the disseisor
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and to give seisin to the disseised bishop and to attach and imprison the ecclesiastical judges for holding plea against his prohibition He also ordered him to imprison the bishop of Cloyne for prosecuting such suit in the spiritual court after his prohibition and to hold him in restraint until he should make ample amends for his contemptuous proceedings Christian is said to have been a great benefactor to his church of Emly His motto was O Lord show me thy ways Christian died in 1249 Gilbert O Doverty dean of Emly was elected by the general voice of the chapter in the year 1249 and was consecrated in 1251 He also obtained the temporals in that year Gilbert died in October 1265 Florence of Emly so called because born there was canon of the cathedral of Emly succeeded and was consecrated about Whitsuntide 1266 the election of Lawrence of Dunlac chancellor of Emly being rejected The Bishop Florence died about the end of the year 1271 and was buried in his own cathedral Mathew MacGorman archdeacon of Emly was elected in June 1272 and consecrated the year following He sat two years and a few months having died in 1275 David O Cussey a Cistercian and abbot of Holy cross in Tipperary succeeded in June 1275 and obtained the temporals He died in June 1281 William de Clifford escheator of England succeeded in 1282 and was consecrated in this year In the year 1299 the temporals of the see were sequestrated for debts which he contracted while escheator The custody of the see was granted hereupon to John Cantock but John did not account either to the king or to the bishop They were then by the justice treasurer and barons of the exchequer committed to the custody of Bartholomew de Sutton in trust for the king and the archbishop and who was made responsible to the exchequer Bartholomew de Sutton was as bad a trustee as John Cantock The bishop died in 1306 Thomas Cantock a native of England and a chancellor of Ireland canon of Emly was elected in 1306 obtained the temporals in the same year He still retained the chancellorship was consecrated in Christ church Dublin in presence of great numbers of the nobility clergy and others all of whom he feasted with unusual magnificence While he was chancellor some records of the chancery which were deposited in Mary's Abbey near Dublin were destroyed by fire Thomas sat but a short time having died on the 3d of February 1308 William Rogened dean of Emly succeeded in 1309 William lived until the year 1335 and was buried in his own church Richard Walsh was elected and consecrated bishop of Emly in the year 1335 He sat about twenty years and died in October 1355 He
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joined Ralph Kelly archbishop of Cashel in opposing the subsidy to the king for which they were indicted John Esmond archdeacon of Ferns succeeded by provision of the Pope and obtained the temporals on the 27th of April 1356 He sat six years and died in April 1362 William archdeacon of Emly succeeded in 1363 by provision of the Pope and was restored to the temporals It seems that the see became vacant by the death of one David who was not restored to the temporals or if consecrated lived but a very short time William governed the see of Cashel a great while as he was living in 1393 He was fined 100 marks for non attendance at a parliament held AD 1377 in Castle Dermot William was vicar general to Philip de Torrington archbishop of Cashel during his absence in foreign parts Nicholas bishop of Emly died in 1422 John Rishberry an Au gustin hermit was declared his successor by Pope Martin V who delayed in expediting his provisional letters whereupon Robert Windell a Franciscan friar was appointed to succeed but it seems he never was consecrated Thomas Burgh an Augustin canon was elected bishop of Emly but he also was slow in expediting his letters Robert Portland a Franciscan friar was appointed to the see by the Pope's provision nor does it appear that he was consecrated or ever saw the see of Emly Thomas bishop of Emly was at length consecrated in the year 1431 Perhaps he was Thomas de Burgh already mentioned He sat twelve years and died in 1443 During the widowhood of the see the temporals were returned into the king's exchequer Cornelius O Cunlis a Franciscan friar was advanced to the see in October 1444 When consecrated he was sent as nuncio to Ireland to collect aid against the Turks Cornelius was translated to the see of Clonfert Cornelius O Mulledy a Franciscan friar bishop of Clonfert was translated to the see of Emly by Pope Nicholas V on the 6th of April 1448 or in the August of this year William O Hedian succeeded by provision of the Pope about the year 1459 and in 1468 was appointed prior commendatory of the con vent of the blessed virgin of Kenlis in Ossory an appointment which excited contests between him and prior Nicholas Philip bishop of Emly died in 1494 Charles MacBrien canon of Emly was advanced to the see in April 1498 the year of his death is unknown Donatus O Brien who was doctor of laws obtained a provision to the see from the Pope in No vember 1494 but it was either annulled or he was not consecrated
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Thomas O Hurley a canonist of great reputation succeeded and died in an advanced age AD 1542 and was buried in his own church He erected a college for secular priests Oeneas O Heffernan an hospitaller and preceptor of Any in the county of Limerick succeeded 1543 he sat about ten years having died AD 1553 Reymund de Burgh an Observantine friar succeeded and died in July 1562 and was buried in a Franciscan monastery at Adare He is said to have apostatized but there is not sufficient proof for the accusation Cashel and Emly united in 1569
The beginnings of the See of Cashel
From Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish hierarchy: with the monasteries of each county, biographical notices of the Irish Saints, prelates, and religious, 1856, c. xx, pps. 196-200.
Bishops of Cashel
Its founder Cormac MacCullenan king of Munster and bishop of Cashel. His transactions already noticed.
Donald O'Hene who sat in Cormac's chair died in the year 1098 according to the Four Masters who say of him that he was descended of the family of the Dalcassians that he was the fountain of religion in the western parts of Europe second to no Irishman in wisdom and piety, that he was the most learned doctor of Ireland in the Roman law and died on the 1st of December. He assisted at a council held in Ireland AD 1096 in which Waterford was erected into a bishopric.
Miler O'Dunan died at Clonard on the 24th of December 1118 in the seventy seventh year of his age and the most pious man in the western world.
Malisa O'Foglada died in 1131.
Donatus O Conding died in 1137. He was a prelate celebrated for his devotion wisdom and alms deeds.
Donatus O'Lonargan I sat in 1152 and departed life in 1158. In the annals of the Island of All Saints, Donatus is styled arch-elder of Munster, a learned and liberal man especially to the poor. In the incumbency of Donatus, the see of Cashel was raised to the rank of metropolitan at the synod of Kells held in 1152.
Donald O'Hullucan succeeded in 1158.
During his incumbency a synod was held at Cashel by command of King Henry in which Christian O'Conarchy, the legate of Ireland and bishop of Lismore, presided in order to regulate some affairs of ecclesiastical discipline. It has been said that the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, besides the abbots, attended but it is certain that the primate Gelasius or his suffragans of Ulster did not attend, if we may except the bishop of Clogher. The archbishops of Dublin, Cashel and Tuam are said to have assisted with their suffragans, abbots and archdeacons. On the part of Henry were Ralph, archdeacon of Landaff, his chaplain Nicholas and some other ecclesiastics. First decree for the reformation of the abuses prevalent in the Irish church and which the emissaries of England were so intent on reforming, that children should be brought to the church and baptized there in clean water with the triple immersion and that this act should be performed by the priests unless in cases of imminent danger of death and then by any one without distinction of sex or order.
2d It was ordered that tithes should be paid to the churches out of every sort of property.
3d That all laymen who wish to take wives should take them according to the canon law which prohibited marriages within certain degrees of consanguinity or affinity.
4th That all ecclesiastical lands and property connected with them should be exempt from the exactions of laymen.
5th That in case of murder by laymen and of composition on their part with their enemies clergymen the relations of such are not to pay part of the fine &c.
6th That all the faithful lying in sickness do in the presence of their confessor and neighbors make their will with due solemnity.
7th That due respect be paid to those who die after a good confession by means of Masses, vigils and decent burial and likewise that all divine matters be henceforth conducted agreeably to the practices of the holy Anglican Church.
These decrees, the only ones that emanated from the synod, were confirmed by the king and subscribed by its members. Such an important reform in the abuses of the Irish Church must have been highly gratifying to the royal zeal of Henry who was, sometime before, accessory to the death of St Thomas a Becket, because that holy prelate would not allow him to invade the sanctuary of the church which he was bound to protect and defend. In the transactions of the synod his stipulation with Pope Adrian concerning the payment of Peter pence is entirely lost sight of but the crafty monarch in order to gain them over to his views paid great attention to the privileges and immunities of the clergy, though he had been laboring at home to circumscribe the rights of their brethren in England. The canons of this council, the ones relative to baptism and to the celebration of marriage, form the groundwork of slander against the Irish Church. Another clerical defamer, John Brompton, a Cistercian monk, introduces a barefaced calumny on the subject of marriage. Hitherto, Lanfranc nor Anselm of Canterbury, nor St. Bernard nor Gerald Barry accuse the Irish with polygamy, they may have complained against the practice of marrying within the prohibited degrees nor was it an easy undertaking to put a stop to these intermarriages in Ireland because of the system of clanship and of the Irish laws relative to the right by which landed property was held and to the rules of succession thereto. The charge of polygamy is an atrocious one invented for the sole purpose of vilifying the Irish people. There is not the least foundation for it in any portion of the ecclesiastical history of Ireland.
With regard to the administration of baptism it was conferred in the churches when Christianity was well established. Thus it is mentioned in the life of St. Finnian that some women were carrying him to the church of Roscur to be there baptized by the bishop Forchern and that they were met by a St. Abban who stopped those females and baptized Finnian in the water of two united rivers. St. Patrick used to baptize his converts in rivers lakes and fountains. It is also related of St. Senan that his parents took him to the church. Some negligence may have crept in with regard to the conferring of baptism out of the churches, which the synod wished to redress.
Another abuse which is alleged was that of baptizing the children of the rich in milk instead of water. St. Adamnan, in his life of Columbkille, relates that when he was traveling through the country of the Picts an infant was presented by his parents for baptism and that as there was no water in the neighborhood the Saint prayed for a while upon a rock and blessed a part of it whence water immediately flowed in abundance with which he baptized the infant. Had the practice of baptizing with milk prevailed among the Irish, how has it escaped St. Bernard, Lanfranc or Anselm and above all the searching eye of Gerald Barry. St. Jerome observes that milk and wine the former denoting their innocence used to be given to newly baptized infants, in the western churches in some churches honey was given instead of wine. A similar custom in Ireland could be mistaken or misrepresented, nor is it true that the Irish people were careless in having their children baptized by clergymen. St. Fursey was three days after his birth baptized by St. Brendan of Clonfert. St. Fintan of Cluain edneach, on the eighth day of his birth, was baptized by a holy man who lived in a place called Cluain mic treoin. St. Lawrence O'Toole was baptized by the bishop of Kildare. In the 24th and 27th canons of the Synod called that of St. Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus, it is ordered that no stranger do baptize or offer the holy mysteries without the permission of the bishop.
King Henry sent to the Pope certain letters it is said of all the archbishops and bishops of Ireland the synod having terminated its labors recognizing his power over the nation. We have already seen that the Primate Gelasius and his suffragans did not attend the synod of Cashel. He may have at a later period forwarded letters containing copies of those admirable decrees and an account of certain practices which might induce the pontiff to sanction his views. Be this as it may the decrees produced no effect in Ireland and were disregarded by the Irish clergy as if the synod had never been convoked. The Archbishop Donald in whose incumbency those transactions took place died in the year 1182. Three years before his death Cashel was destroyed by fire.
Maurice succeeded in 1182 and died in 1191, was a man of learning and wisdom according to Cambrensis Gerald having taunted the Irish Church with having no martyrs the archbishop replied. Though says he our country be looked upon as barbarous uncultivated and cruel yet they always have paid reverence and honor to ecclesiastics and never could stretch out their hands against the saints of God. But now there is come a people who know how and are accustomed to make martyrs. Henceforth Ireland like other countries shall have hers.
Mathew O'Heney succeeded in 1192 and was appointed legate apostolic of Ireland by Pope Celestine III. Mathew was a Cistercian monk He convened a synod at Dublin in the year of his appointment and at which the best men of Ireland attended. Mathew was the author of the life of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, whom English writers claim as a native of England. He was born at Kells in the county of Meath according to the annals of St Mary's Abbey near Dublin. But it is more probable that he was born in the kingdom of Northumbria. Benedict XIV in his decree regarding the offices of Irish saints enumerates St. Cuthbert among the national ones of Ireland. In the annals Four Masters is recorded the following eulogy of the illustrious Mathew O'Heney in the year 1206: "Mathew archbishop of Cashel and legate of Ireland, the wisest and most religious man of the natives of that country, having founded many churches having triumphed over the old enemy of mankind by working many miracles, voluntarily abandoning all worldly pomp happily went to rest in the Abbey of the Holy cross in the county of Tipperary."
Donagh O'Lonergan II a Cistercian monk succeeded in 1206. Pope Innocent III gave him the pallium and confirmed the possessions of the see of Cashel on the 6th of April 1210. In the Pope's letters Donatus receives instructions as to his behavior in so holy a clothing and the pontiff points out the festivals on which he should wear this badge of dignity and jurisdiction and moreover desires when he or any of his suffragans should die that their pastoral staff and ring should remain in its proper church under a faithful guardian for the use of the successor. That he should take care the churchyards and ecclesiastical benefices should not be possessed by hereditary right and should any attempt of this sort be made to have them restrained by ecclesiastical censures. The annals of Ulster affirm that this archbishop assisted at the council of Lateran in Rome AD 1215 and died there, yet it is said that he was buried in the conventual church of Cisteaux in Burgundy on the gospel side of the great altar.
Donat O'Lonargan III succeeded in 1216. He is said to have erected Cashel into a borough and to have given burgage holdings to the burgesses. Donatus with the consent of the Pope resigned the archbishopric in 1223. Some time before his resignation he interdicted the king's tenants and lands within his diocese upon which the king appealed to Pope Honorius III who enjoined Donatus to relax the interdict in fifteen days and in case of refusal authorized the bishops of Kildare, Meath and Ossory to do so. He survived his abdication nine years and died in 1232.
Bishops of Cashel
Its founder Cormac MacCullenan king of Munster and bishop of Cashel. His transactions already noticed.
Donald O'Hene who sat in Cormac's chair died in the year 1098 according to the Four Masters who say of him that he was descended of the family of the Dalcassians that he was the fountain of religion in the western parts of Europe second to no Irishman in wisdom and piety, that he was the most learned doctor of Ireland in the Roman law and died on the 1st of December. He assisted at a council held in Ireland AD 1096 in which Waterford was erected into a bishopric.
Miler O'Dunan died at Clonard on the 24th of December 1118 in the seventy seventh year of his age and the most pious man in the western world.
Malisa O'Foglada died in 1131.
Donatus O Conding died in 1137. He was a prelate celebrated for his devotion wisdom and alms deeds.
Donatus O'Lonargan I sat in 1152 and departed life in 1158. In the annals of the Island of All Saints, Donatus is styled arch-elder of Munster, a learned and liberal man especially to the poor. In the incumbency of Donatus, the see of Cashel was raised to the rank of metropolitan at the synod of Kells held in 1152.
Donald O'Hullucan succeeded in 1158.
During his incumbency a synod was held at Cashel by command of King Henry in which Christian O'Conarchy, the legate of Ireland and bishop of Lismore, presided in order to regulate some affairs of ecclesiastical discipline. It has been said that the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, besides the abbots, attended but it is certain that the primate Gelasius or his suffragans of Ulster did not attend, if we may except the bishop of Clogher. The archbishops of Dublin, Cashel and Tuam are said to have assisted with their suffragans, abbots and archdeacons. On the part of Henry were Ralph, archdeacon of Landaff, his chaplain Nicholas and some other ecclesiastics. First decree for the reformation of the abuses prevalent in the Irish church and which the emissaries of England were so intent on reforming, that children should be brought to the church and baptized there in clean water with the triple immersion and that this act should be performed by the priests unless in cases of imminent danger of death and then by any one without distinction of sex or order.
2d It was ordered that tithes should be paid to the churches out of every sort of property.
3d That all laymen who wish to take wives should take them according to the canon law which prohibited marriages within certain degrees of consanguinity or affinity.
4th That all ecclesiastical lands and property connected with them should be exempt from the exactions of laymen.
5th That in case of murder by laymen and of composition on their part with their enemies clergymen the relations of such are not to pay part of the fine &c.
6th That all the faithful lying in sickness do in the presence of their confessor and neighbors make their will with due solemnity.
7th That due respect be paid to those who die after a good confession by means of Masses, vigils and decent burial and likewise that all divine matters be henceforth conducted agreeably to the practices of the holy Anglican Church.
These decrees, the only ones that emanated from the synod, were confirmed by the king and subscribed by its members. Such an important reform in the abuses of the Irish Church must have been highly gratifying to the royal zeal of Henry who was, sometime before, accessory to the death of St Thomas a Becket, because that holy prelate would not allow him to invade the sanctuary of the church which he was bound to protect and defend. In the transactions of the synod his stipulation with Pope Adrian concerning the payment of Peter pence is entirely lost sight of but the crafty monarch in order to gain them over to his views paid great attention to the privileges and immunities of the clergy, though he had been laboring at home to circumscribe the rights of their brethren in England. The canons of this council, the ones relative to baptism and to the celebration of marriage, form the groundwork of slander against the Irish Church. Another clerical defamer, John Brompton, a Cistercian monk, introduces a barefaced calumny on the subject of marriage. Hitherto, Lanfranc nor Anselm of Canterbury, nor St. Bernard nor Gerald Barry accuse the Irish with polygamy, they may have complained against the practice of marrying within the prohibited degrees nor was it an easy undertaking to put a stop to these intermarriages in Ireland because of the system of clanship and of the Irish laws relative to the right by which landed property was held and to the rules of succession thereto. The charge of polygamy is an atrocious one invented for the sole purpose of vilifying the Irish people. There is not the least foundation for it in any portion of the ecclesiastical history of Ireland.
With regard to the administration of baptism it was conferred in the churches when Christianity was well established. Thus it is mentioned in the life of St. Finnian that some women were carrying him to the church of Roscur to be there baptized by the bishop Forchern and that they were met by a St. Abban who stopped those females and baptized Finnian in the water of two united rivers. St. Patrick used to baptize his converts in rivers lakes and fountains. It is also related of St. Senan that his parents took him to the church. Some negligence may have crept in with regard to the conferring of baptism out of the churches, which the synod wished to redress.
Another abuse which is alleged was that of baptizing the children of the rich in milk instead of water. St. Adamnan, in his life of Columbkille, relates that when he was traveling through the country of the Picts an infant was presented by his parents for baptism and that as there was no water in the neighborhood the Saint prayed for a while upon a rock and blessed a part of it whence water immediately flowed in abundance with which he baptized the infant. Had the practice of baptizing with milk prevailed among the Irish, how has it escaped St. Bernard, Lanfranc or Anselm and above all the searching eye of Gerald Barry. St. Jerome observes that milk and wine the former denoting their innocence used to be given to newly baptized infants, in the western churches in some churches honey was given instead of wine. A similar custom in Ireland could be mistaken or misrepresented, nor is it true that the Irish people were careless in having their children baptized by clergymen. St. Fursey was three days after his birth baptized by St. Brendan of Clonfert. St. Fintan of Cluain edneach, on the eighth day of his birth, was baptized by a holy man who lived in a place called Cluain mic treoin. St. Lawrence O'Toole was baptized by the bishop of Kildare. In the 24th and 27th canons of the Synod called that of St. Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus, it is ordered that no stranger do baptize or offer the holy mysteries without the permission of the bishop.
King Henry sent to the Pope certain letters it is said of all the archbishops and bishops of Ireland the synod having terminated its labors recognizing his power over the nation. We have already seen that the Primate Gelasius and his suffragans did not attend the synod of Cashel. He may have at a later period forwarded letters containing copies of those admirable decrees and an account of certain practices which might induce the pontiff to sanction his views. Be this as it may the decrees produced no effect in Ireland and were disregarded by the Irish clergy as if the synod had never been convoked. The Archbishop Donald in whose incumbency those transactions took place died in the year 1182. Three years before his death Cashel was destroyed by fire.
Maurice succeeded in 1182 and died in 1191, was a man of learning and wisdom according to Cambrensis Gerald having taunted the Irish Church with having no martyrs the archbishop replied. Though says he our country be looked upon as barbarous uncultivated and cruel yet they always have paid reverence and honor to ecclesiastics and never could stretch out their hands against the saints of God. But now there is come a people who know how and are accustomed to make martyrs. Henceforth Ireland like other countries shall have hers.
Mathew O'Heney succeeded in 1192 and was appointed legate apostolic of Ireland by Pope Celestine III. Mathew was a Cistercian monk He convened a synod at Dublin in the year of his appointment and at which the best men of Ireland attended. Mathew was the author of the life of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, whom English writers claim as a native of England. He was born at Kells in the county of Meath according to the annals of St Mary's Abbey near Dublin. But it is more probable that he was born in the kingdom of Northumbria. Benedict XIV in his decree regarding the offices of Irish saints enumerates St. Cuthbert among the national ones of Ireland. In the annals Four Masters is recorded the following eulogy of the illustrious Mathew O'Heney in the year 1206: "Mathew archbishop of Cashel and legate of Ireland, the wisest and most religious man of the natives of that country, having founded many churches having triumphed over the old enemy of mankind by working many miracles, voluntarily abandoning all worldly pomp happily went to rest in the Abbey of the Holy cross in the county of Tipperary."
Donagh O'Lonergan II a Cistercian monk succeeded in 1206. Pope Innocent III gave him the pallium and confirmed the possessions of the see of Cashel on the 6th of April 1210. In the Pope's letters Donatus receives instructions as to his behavior in so holy a clothing and the pontiff points out the festivals on which he should wear this badge of dignity and jurisdiction and moreover desires when he or any of his suffragans should die that their pastoral staff and ring should remain in its proper church under a faithful guardian for the use of the successor. That he should take care the churchyards and ecclesiastical benefices should not be possessed by hereditary right and should any attempt of this sort be made to have them restrained by ecclesiastical censures. The annals of Ulster affirm that this archbishop assisted at the council of Lateran in Rome AD 1215 and died there, yet it is said that he was buried in the conventual church of Cisteaux in Burgundy on the gospel side of the great altar.
Donat O'Lonargan III succeeded in 1216. He is said to have erected Cashel into a borough and to have given burgage holdings to the burgesses. Donatus with the consent of the Pope resigned the archbishopric in 1223. Some time before his resignation he interdicted the king's tenants and lands within his diocese upon which the king appealed to Pope Honorius III who enjoined Donatus to relax the interdict in fifteen days and in case of refusal authorized the bishops of Kildare, Meath and Ossory to do so. He survived his abdication nine years and died in 1232.
The See of Emly in the Middle Ages
From Fr. Thomas Walsh's History of the Irish hierarchy: with the monasteries of each county, biographical notices of the Irish Saints, prelates, and religious, 1856, c. xx, pps. 200-204.
Marian O'Brien bishop of Cork was translated to the see of Cashel in 1224 and at the Pope's request procured the royal assent to the translation. Soon after, in May 1224, Pope Honorius III confirmed by bull the number of twelve canons in the Cathedral of Cashel. King Henry III remised to Marian and his successors the new town of Cashel and granted it to be held of him and his heirs in free pure and perpetual alms discharged of all exactions and secular services. The charter is witnessed by Jocelin bishop of Bath, Thomas bishop of Norwich and Walter bishop of Carlisle and bears date the 15th of November 1228. Marian soon after granted or confirmed this town to a provost and twelve burgesses reserving some small pensions to his see. By license from this prelate Sir David le Latimer, his seneschal, founded a lazar house or hospital for lepers at Cashel and in it shut up his daughter who was afflicted with that distemper. David MacCarwill afterwards annexed and united this hospital to an abbey of his foundation. In 1231 on a journey he made towards Rome he was seized with a most grievous fit of sickness and fearing that his death was approaching he took on him the habit of a monk in a Cistercian monastery but being restored to health and having dispatched his business at Rome he returned to his native land and died five years after in the monastery of Suir called Innis launaght and was there buried. His death is marked in 1238.
David MacKelly, dean of Cashel, was promoted to the see of Cloyne and was translated to the archdiocese of Cashel in 1238. While dean of Cashel he was wholly devoted to the society of the Dominicans at Cork from whose body he supplied a little convent which he founded at Cashel in 1243. It seems his predecessor entered into agreement with the archbishop of Dublin and their suffragans against the primatial right of visitation. David became a party to the same compact. In 1251 he cited Robert of Emly, elect of Limerick, to appear in his court and receive confirmation, if canonically elected, the king deeming this citation an invasion of his prerogative threatened if he did not revoke it to seize his temporalities. Archbishop MacKelly died on the 2d of March 1252, it is said he was buried in the little chapel of the apostles where formerly was placed the fair statue of a bishop engraved on a monument of stone.
David MacCarwill dean of Cashel was elected in 1253 The king approved the choice of the chapter provided the bishop elect would within a fixed period appear in person and swear fealty David founded the chantry of St Nicholas at Cashel and also the Cistercian abbey of Hore and the abbey of the rock of Cashel which he endowed with the revenues of the Benedictines whom he had displaced He supplied this House with monks from the abbey of Mellifont David is said to have dealt very harshly with his dean Keran of Cashel whom he thrust out of his deanery after an appeal to Rome and into a prison and to have acted many other things with rashness and insolence Pope Alexander IV recommended Keran dean of Cashel and his affairs to the protection and favor of Prince Edward then lord of Ireland In 1272 he seized four hundred pounds of money belonging to an usurer within his diocese The king hearing of it sent a writ to the bishop of Meath who was treasurer of Ireland to demand it of the archbishop as belonging to him by his prerogative and to respite the demand of what debts were due to the usurer until further order In 1274 the archbishop prepared to undertake a journey to the holy land and for that end obtained a bull dated the 4th of October from Pope Gregory X to King Edward recommending the see of Cashel to his care during the archbishop's absence that he might perform his vow with more ease and freedom In the same year he was sued for debts by the king The archbishop procured writs to the treasurer barons and justice of Ireland to suspend all process against him for a time In 1278 he went to England to clear himself before the king of charges or crimes preferred against him While he continued in England soliciting the royal favor a second time Margaret le Blunde in the year 1279 prepared a petition to King Edward I praying redress for several cruelties committed by the archbishop on her and her family and alleging that through corruption or favor she had been hitherto denied justice
201
After his return to Ireland his enemies prepared new accusations against him but he again obtained the king's favor It is said in the annals of Multifernan that this prelate assumed the habit of a Cistercian monk in the year 1269 He appropriated the church of Moy dessel and the chapel of Kilmeinenan to the monastery of the blessed virgin of Kenlis in Ossory reserving a third part of the profits to the vicar He died in an advanced age AD 1289 Stephen O Brogan archdeacon of Glendaloch and a native ot Ulster chosen by the dean and chapter in 1290 was confirmed by the Pope and obtained the temporals in the year following He governed the see above eleven years and died about the beginning of August 1302 and was buried in his own church Maurice MacCarwill archdeacon of Cashel was elected by the dean and chapter in 1203 was confirmed by the king and which the king notified to the Pope He repaired to Rome and was there consecrated and invested with the pallium on his return home he obtained the temporals By license of this prelate Walter Multoc founded a convent for Augustin friars at Fethard AD 1306 By his charities and expensive mode of living his see was not sufficient to sustain his outlay He was present at a parliament held in Kilkenny and was one of those prelates who fulminated anathema against the infringers of the statutes enacted in that parliament This sentence was pronounced in the presence and by the consent of John Wogan justice of Ireland Richard de Burgo earl of Ulster John Fitzthomas afterwards earl of Kildare John Barry Maurice de Rupe or Rochfort and a very great number of the nobility On his confirmation by the king Maurice made a public promise and oath that as the king without any knowledge of his person or any testimonial on his behalf had assented to his election that he would be loyal to the king and kingdom of Ireland and that he would find sufficient security ever to adhere to the king and his heirs he has been assuredly faithful to his promise and in exhibiting his gratitude to the king for the favor of Ms confirmation to the see of Cashel he became instrumental in shutting the temple of the constitution against the natives of his own country a line of distinction was drawn between the English settlers and the ancient inhabitants of the country by the legislative chicanery of the parliament at Kilkenny It became soon after the fertile source of turbulence insurrection and bloodshed accomplishing as the framers of those statutes contemplated the confiscation of the property of the country and the universal beggary of its inhabitants The altar and the cloister became a monopoly in the hands of
202
British plunderers The sanctuaries of Ireland which Irishmen opened and in which shelter and education were once afforded to the youths ol Britain are closed against her own children by laws inflicting penalties for no crime but that of being mere Irishmen In this parliament the following statutes infamous as unjust and never yet attempted to be justified were passed and strengthened by the anathema of the degenerate MacCarwill It was enacted that intermarriages with the natives or any connection with them as fosterers or in the way of gossipred should be punished as high treason That the use of their name language apparel or customs should be punished with the forfeiture of lands and tenements That any submission to the Brehon laws of Ireland was treason That the English should not permit the Irish to graze upon their lands That to compel English subjects to pay or maintain soldiers was felony That no mere Irishman should be permitted to obtain any benefice in the church or be allowed to enjoy the privileges of religious institutes In 1311 this archbishop together with the prelates of Killaloe Lis more Emly and Cloyne were cited to appear personally at the council of Vienne in France convened by Pope Clement V but neither of them appeared in person or by competent proxy He died about the 25th of March 1316 in the 13th year of his consecration William Fitzjolm bishop of Ossory being earnestly recommended by the king to the Pope the elections of John MacCarwill bishop of Cork and of Thomas O Lonchy archdeacon of Cashel were annulled and William confirmed as bishop of Cashel on the 1st of April 1317 In April 1318 the king conveyed to him and his chapter for ever the advowson of the church of Dungarvin with all the appendant chapels in return for a piece of ground in Cashel given by them for the erection of a prison While he sat the city of Cashel was encompassed with a stone wall He died on the 20th of September 1326 John O Caroll or MacCarwell dean of the cathedral of St Barr of Cork was unanimously elected by the dean and chapter bishop of this see of Cork in the year 1302 He succeeded to the see of Meath and thence was promoted to the see of Cashel in July 1327 The king sent a writ to the justice treasurer and chancellor of Ireland to receive his fealty without subjecting him to the trouble of a journey to England ordering them at the same time to examine his provisional letters to oblige him before a notary public openly and expressly to renounce
203
any prejudicial clauses therein and to lay a fine on him for accepting a papal provision In 1329 about the feast of St Peter's chains he died in London on his return from the court of Rome After his death eleven manors belonging to the archbishopric were seized into the king's hands the far greater part of which were subsequently alienated from the church and small annual pensions reserved to the see Walter le Rede or Rufus at first a canon and afterwards bishop of Cork was translated to the see of Cashel in 1330 by the Pope who declared that for this turn while John O Carrol was yet living he had reserved the provision to the see of Cashel to be disposed of by himself and the apostolic see when it should happen to become vacant On the 19th of August following his translation he was restored to the temporals and died in February 1331 A little before his death he granted some tithes to his vicars choral John O Grady some time rector of Ogussin in Killaloe and treasurer of Cashel elected by the dean and chapter was confirmed by the Pope in 1332 John made many donations to his church and gave it a large pastoral staff He died at Limerick on the 18th of July 1345 in a Dominican habit and was buried there in a monastery of that order He was according to the annals of Nenagh a man of great wisdom and industry Ralph Kelley born at Drogheda was educated in a convent of Carmelites at Kildare and became a member of that brotherhood In 1336 he was made prolocutor and advocate general of his order under Peter de Casa the master general In 1345 he was promoted to the see of Cashel by Pope Clement VII In 1346 a parliament was held at Kilkenny which granted a subsidy to the king for the exigencies of the state Ralph opposed the levying of it within his province and for that end convened an assembly of his suffragans at Tipperary Maurice bishop of Limerick Richard bishop of Emly and John bishop of Lismore attending thereat and by themit was decreed that all beneficed clergymen contributing thereto should be by the very fact deprived of their benefices and rendered incapable of obtaining any other promotion within that province That the laity who were their tenants and contributing should be by the very fact excommunicated and their children to the third generation rendered incapable of holding any church living within that province In consequence of those decrees the archbishop and other prelates came to Clonmel and in pontificals in the middle of the street openly excommunicated all those who granted or advised the said subsidy and every one levying the same and particularly William Epworth clerk the king's commissioner in the county of Tipperary for gathering the
204
said subsidy from the several collectors for this offence he was sued a thousand pounds for the king's damage Ralph died at Cashel in November 1361 and was buried in St Patrick's church of that city He has written a book of the canon law and other works not now extant Ralph was a prelate of great learning and approved virtue and it can be added of patriotism George Roche or de Rupe is said to have been the next successor according to the Franciscan annals of Nenagh written at that very time In 1362 Master George Roche archbishop of Cashel was drowned Thomas O Carroll after a vacancy of two or three years and who was archbishop of Tuam was translated in 1365 or the previous year to the see of Cashel by papal provision He is recorded as a prelate of great learning and wisdom He died at Cashel on the 8th of February 1373 and was buried in his own cathedral Phillip de Torrington doctor of divinity a Franciscan friar and conservator of the privileges of the order in Ireland was promoted to the see of Cashel by provision of the Pope in 1374 Having sworn fealty to the king he obtained the temporals in a short time after he was sent as embassador by Richard H to Pope Urban VI Philip died in foreign parts AD 1380 In his absence the bishop of Emly acted as his vicar general In the time of this prelate the dean chapter and clergy of Cashel were fined forty shillings for not sending a proctor to represent them in a parliament held at Castledermot in 1377 Peter Hacket archdeacon of Cashel succeeded to the see in 1384 the see being vacant in the interim He died in the year 1406 the 22d year after his consecration Richard O Hedian archdeacon of Cashel was consecrated archbishop of Cashel in 1406 but did not obtain the temporals until 1408 He recovered the lands belonging to the see which had been unjustly usurped during the incumbency of his predecessor On his promotion he had not one place in any of his manors where to rest his head He built a hall for his vicars choral whom he also endowed with the town lands of Grangeconnel and Baon Thurles beg He repaired some of the archiepiscopal palaces of his manors and rebuilt the cathedral of Saint Patrick which was first founded by Donald O Brien king of Limerick a great builder and repairer of churches and abbeys A parliament met in Dublin AD 1421 in which this prelate was impeached by John Gese bishop of Waterford and Lismore on thirty articles the principal ones being as follow That he made very much of the Irish an awful crime and loved none of the English
205
That he gave no benefice to any Englishman and advised other bishops to the like practice That he counterfeited the king of England's seal and his letters patent That he made himself king of Munstcr That he took a ring from the image of St Patrick of which the earl of Desmond made an oblation and gave it to his whore besides many other enormities which John Gese exhibited against him in writing and at which the Lords and Commons were much troubled In the days of this splendid prelate patriotism was a crime The rule of British plunderers and monopolizers of church and state in the ascendent sympathy with the wrongs of the nation or a due appreciation of individual merit in preference to those Anglo Normans who imported the crimes of their country was sure to be a treason to be denounced before the public tribunals The valuable services of the Archbishop O Hedian to religion were not sufficient to secure him that esteem which his good works merited they rather brought upon hi m odious calumnies that were so ludicrously extravagant that no one pretending to common sense could for a moment entertain The archprelate was honorably acquitted by the parliament to which this singular proceeding gave much uneasiness especially among the peers of the realm and the writers of those days delight in dwelling on the unbending firmness integrity and good qualities of the archbishop of Cashel while to those of modern date it furnishes an instance of persecution to which Irishmen were subjected if they dare manifest any regard for the land of their birth Though the parliament was not the proper tribunal to decide on questions purely or relatively ecclesiastical an insufficiency which this very parliament acknowledged it is strange that the bishop of Water ford should arraign his metropolitan before a secular tribunal To recur to the tribunal of Rome would be the proper mode of dealing with the transgressions which he alleged against the archbishop but in the Roman court where justice and equity preside it would have been unsafe to prefer false accusations against a superior or an equal Richard by an instrument dated the 22d of September 1429 and with the consent of the chapter appropriated the church of Belaghcahail to the monastery of Holy cross He died full of years on the 21st of July 1440 and was buried in his own church After his death the see was vacant ten years and the temporals all that time farmed to James Butler earl of Ormond John Cantwell bachelor of laws was promoted in 1450 by provision of the Pope was consecrated in the year 1452 and in this year granted
206
the vicarage of the church of Rathkellan to the monastery of Holy cross He held a provincial synod at Limerick in 1453 in July 1480 he celebrated another at Feathard Mathew bishop of Killaloe Thomas Limerick John Ardfert William of Cork and Cloyne assisting This prelate obtained many privileges from King Edward IV He repaired the monastery of the Dominicans at his own charge which had been destroyed by fire John Fitzrery vicar general of the order together with the prior and convent in gratitude to the prelate constituted him their patron and founder and granted him the full benefit of all the masses prayers vigils and the fruits of the good works of the Dominicans through Ireland Two years before his death he endowed the college of vicars choral of the cathedral at Cashel with some possessions in the town of Clonmel He died in 1482 and was buried at Cashel David Creagh a native of Limerick and bachelor of the civil and ranon laws was consecrated archbishop of Cashel in 1483 and in two years after granted the vicarage of the parish church of Glankyne to the monastery of Holy cross Gerald Fitz Gerald earl of Kildare inflicted injuries on this prelate which remained without redress on the part of Henry VH king of England David died on the 5th of September 1503 having presided twenty years in the see Maurice Fitz Gerald was promoted by Pope Julius II in 1504 He held a synod at Limerick in the year 1511 the decrees of which were inserted in the registry of Thomas Purcell bishop of Lismore and Wat erford and were destroyed by an accidental fire He convened another synod in 1514 four canons of which relate to the dress and clothing of the Waterford clergy He died AD 1523 Edmund Butler was consecrated archbishop of Cashel in 1527 he was elect of Cashel in 1524 the Pope having earnestly recommended him to the favor of King Henry VHI in the October of that year to whom he was privy councillor after his consecration He was prior of the abbey of Athassel in the county of Tipperary He held a provincial synod at Limerick in June 1529 the suffragans of Lismore and Waterford Limerick and Killaloe assisting In this synod power was given to the mayor of Limerick to imprison debtors among the clergy until they made satisfaction to creditors without incurring the censure of excommunication against which the clergy remonstrated as an infringement and violation of their ecclesiastical privileges He died on the 5th of March about the end of the year 1550 and was buried in his own church Roland Baron or Fitz Gerald was appointed to succeed in 1553 by
207
Queen Mary the dean and chapter having elected him by her command He was descended of the Geraldines was consecrated in the same year He died on the 28th of October 1561
Marian O'Brien bishop of Cork was translated to the see of Cashel in 1224 and at the Pope's request procured the royal assent to the translation. Soon after, in May 1224, Pope Honorius III confirmed by bull the number of twelve canons in the Cathedral of Cashel. King Henry III remised to Marian and his successors the new town of Cashel and granted it to be held of him and his heirs in free pure and perpetual alms discharged of all exactions and secular services. The charter is witnessed by Jocelin bishop of Bath, Thomas bishop of Norwich and Walter bishop of Carlisle and bears date the 15th of November 1228. Marian soon after granted or confirmed this town to a provost and twelve burgesses reserving some small pensions to his see. By license from this prelate Sir David le Latimer, his seneschal, founded a lazar house or hospital for lepers at Cashel and in it shut up his daughter who was afflicted with that distemper. David MacCarwill afterwards annexed and united this hospital to an abbey of his foundation. In 1231 on a journey he made towards Rome he was seized with a most grievous fit of sickness and fearing that his death was approaching he took on him the habit of a monk in a Cistercian monastery but being restored to health and having dispatched his business at Rome he returned to his native land and died five years after in the monastery of Suir called Innis launaght and was there buried. His death is marked in 1238.
David MacKelly, dean of Cashel, was promoted to the see of Cloyne and was translated to the archdiocese of Cashel in 1238. While dean of Cashel he was wholly devoted to the society of the Dominicans at Cork from whose body he supplied a little convent which he founded at Cashel in 1243. It seems his predecessor entered into agreement with the archbishop of Dublin and their suffragans against the primatial right of visitation. David became a party to the same compact. In 1251 he cited Robert of Emly, elect of Limerick, to appear in his court and receive confirmation, if canonically elected, the king deeming this citation an invasion of his prerogative threatened if he did not revoke it to seize his temporalities. Archbishop MacKelly died on the 2d of March 1252, it is said he was buried in the little chapel of the apostles where formerly was placed the fair statue of a bishop engraved on a monument of stone.
David MacCarwill dean of Cashel was elected in 1253 The king approved the choice of the chapter provided the bishop elect would within a fixed period appear in person and swear fealty David founded the chantry of St Nicholas at Cashel and also the Cistercian abbey of Hore and the abbey of the rock of Cashel which he endowed with the revenues of the Benedictines whom he had displaced He supplied this House with monks from the abbey of Mellifont David is said to have dealt very harshly with his dean Keran of Cashel whom he thrust out of his deanery after an appeal to Rome and into a prison and to have acted many other things with rashness and insolence Pope Alexander IV recommended Keran dean of Cashel and his affairs to the protection and favor of Prince Edward then lord of Ireland In 1272 he seized four hundred pounds of money belonging to an usurer within his diocese The king hearing of it sent a writ to the bishop of Meath who was treasurer of Ireland to demand it of the archbishop as belonging to him by his prerogative and to respite the demand of what debts were due to the usurer until further order In 1274 the archbishop prepared to undertake a journey to the holy land and for that end obtained a bull dated the 4th of October from Pope Gregory X to King Edward recommending the see of Cashel to his care during the archbishop's absence that he might perform his vow with more ease and freedom In the same year he was sued for debts by the king The archbishop procured writs to the treasurer barons and justice of Ireland to suspend all process against him for a time In 1278 he went to England to clear himself before the king of charges or crimes preferred against him While he continued in England soliciting the royal favor a second time Margaret le Blunde in the year 1279 prepared a petition to King Edward I praying redress for several cruelties committed by the archbishop on her and her family and alleging that through corruption or favor she had been hitherto denied justice
201
After his return to Ireland his enemies prepared new accusations against him but he again obtained the king's favor It is said in the annals of Multifernan that this prelate assumed the habit of a Cistercian monk in the year 1269 He appropriated the church of Moy dessel and the chapel of Kilmeinenan to the monastery of the blessed virgin of Kenlis in Ossory reserving a third part of the profits to the vicar He died in an advanced age AD 1289 Stephen O Brogan archdeacon of Glendaloch and a native ot Ulster chosen by the dean and chapter in 1290 was confirmed by the Pope and obtained the temporals in the year following He governed the see above eleven years and died about the beginning of August 1302 and was buried in his own church Maurice MacCarwill archdeacon of Cashel was elected by the dean and chapter in 1203 was confirmed by the king and which the king notified to the Pope He repaired to Rome and was there consecrated and invested with the pallium on his return home he obtained the temporals By license of this prelate Walter Multoc founded a convent for Augustin friars at Fethard AD 1306 By his charities and expensive mode of living his see was not sufficient to sustain his outlay He was present at a parliament held in Kilkenny and was one of those prelates who fulminated anathema against the infringers of the statutes enacted in that parliament This sentence was pronounced in the presence and by the consent of John Wogan justice of Ireland Richard de Burgo earl of Ulster John Fitzthomas afterwards earl of Kildare John Barry Maurice de Rupe or Rochfort and a very great number of the nobility On his confirmation by the king Maurice made a public promise and oath that as the king without any knowledge of his person or any testimonial on his behalf had assented to his election that he would be loyal to the king and kingdom of Ireland and that he would find sufficient security ever to adhere to the king and his heirs he has been assuredly faithful to his promise and in exhibiting his gratitude to the king for the favor of Ms confirmation to the see of Cashel he became instrumental in shutting the temple of the constitution against the natives of his own country a line of distinction was drawn between the English settlers and the ancient inhabitants of the country by the legislative chicanery of the parliament at Kilkenny It became soon after the fertile source of turbulence insurrection and bloodshed accomplishing as the framers of those statutes contemplated the confiscation of the property of the country and the universal beggary of its inhabitants The altar and the cloister became a monopoly in the hands of
202
British plunderers The sanctuaries of Ireland which Irishmen opened and in which shelter and education were once afforded to the youths ol Britain are closed against her own children by laws inflicting penalties for no crime but that of being mere Irishmen In this parliament the following statutes infamous as unjust and never yet attempted to be justified were passed and strengthened by the anathema of the degenerate MacCarwill It was enacted that intermarriages with the natives or any connection with them as fosterers or in the way of gossipred should be punished as high treason That the use of their name language apparel or customs should be punished with the forfeiture of lands and tenements That any submission to the Brehon laws of Ireland was treason That the English should not permit the Irish to graze upon their lands That to compel English subjects to pay or maintain soldiers was felony That no mere Irishman should be permitted to obtain any benefice in the church or be allowed to enjoy the privileges of religious institutes In 1311 this archbishop together with the prelates of Killaloe Lis more Emly and Cloyne were cited to appear personally at the council of Vienne in France convened by Pope Clement V but neither of them appeared in person or by competent proxy He died about the 25th of March 1316 in the 13th year of his consecration William Fitzjolm bishop of Ossory being earnestly recommended by the king to the Pope the elections of John MacCarwill bishop of Cork and of Thomas O Lonchy archdeacon of Cashel were annulled and William confirmed as bishop of Cashel on the 1st of April 1317 In April 1318 the king conveyed to him and his chapter for ever the advowson of the church of Dungarvin with all the appendant chapels in return for a piece of ground in Cashel given by them for the erection of a prison While he sat the city of Cashel was encompassed with a stone wall He died on the 20th of September 1326 John O Caroll or MacCarwell dean of the cathedral of St Barr of Cork was unanimously elected by the dean and chapter bishop of this see of Cork in the year 1302 He succeeded to the see of Meath and thence was promoted to the see of Cashel in July 1327 The king sent a writ to the justice treasurer and chancellor of Ireland to receive his fealty without subjecting him to the trouble of a journey to England ordering them at the same time to examine his provisional letters to oblige him before a notary public openly and expressly to renounce
203
any prejudicial clauses therein and to lay a fine on him for accepting a papal provision In 1329 about the feast of St Peter's chains he died in London on his return from the court of Rome After his death eleven manors belonging to the archbishopric were seized into the king's hands the far greater part of which were subsequently alienated from the church and small annual pensions reserved to the see Walter le Rede or Rufus at first a canon and afterwards bishop of Cork was translated to the see of Cashel in 1330 by the Pope who declared that for this turn while John O Carrol was yet living he had reserved the provision to the see of Cashel to be disposed of by himself and the apostolic see when it should happen to become vacant On the 19th of August following his translation he was restored to the temporals and died in February 1331 A little before his death he granted some tithes to his vicars choral John O Grady some time rector of Ogussin in Killaloe and treasurer of Cashel elected by the dean and chapter was confirmed by the Pope in 1332 John made many donations to his church and gave it a large pastoral staff He died at Limerick on the 18th of July 1345 in a Dominican habit and was buried there in a monastery of that order He was according to the annals of Nenagh a man of great wisdom and industry Ralph Kelley born at Drogheda was educated in a convent of Carmelites at Kildare and became a member of that brotherhood In 1336 he was made prolocutor and advocate general of his order under Peter de Casa the master general In 1345 he was promoted to the see of Cashel by Pope Clement VII In 1346 a parliament was held at Kilkenny which granted a subsidy to the king for the exigencies of the state Ralph opposed the levying of it within his province and for that end convened an assembly of his suffragans at Tipperary Maurice bishop of Limerick Richard bishop of Emly and John bishop of Lismore attending thereat and by themit was decreed that all beneficed clergymen contributing thereto should be by the very fact deprived of their benefices and rendered incapable of obtaining any other promotion within that province That the laity who were their tenants and contributing should be by the very fact excommunicated and their children to the third generation rendered incapable of holding any church living within that province In consequence of those decrees the archbishop and other prelates came to Clonmel and in pontificals in the middle of the street openly excommunicated all those who granted or advised the said subsidy and every one levying the same and particularly William Epworth clerk the king's commissioner in the county of Tipperary for gathering the
204
said subsidy from the several collectors for this offence he was sued a thousand pounds for the king's damage Ralph died at Cashel in November 1361 and was buried in St Patrick's church of that city He has written a book of the canon law and other works not now extant Ralph was a prelate of great learning and approved virtue and it can be added of patriotism George Roche or de Rupe is said to have been the next successor according to the Franciscan annals of Nenagh written at that very time In 1362 Master George Roche archbishop of Cashel was drowned Thomas O Carroll after a vacancy of two or three years and who was archbishop of Tuam was translated in 1365 or the previous year to the see of Cashel by papal provision He is recorded as a prelate of great learning and wisdom He died at Cashel on the 8th of February 1373 and was buried in his own cathedral Phillip de Torrington doctor of divinity a Franciscan friar and conservator of the privileges of the order in Ireland was promoted to the see of Cashel by provision of the Pope in 1374 Having sworn fealty to the king he obtained the temporals in a short time after he was sent as embassador by Richard H to Pope Urban VI Philip died in foreign parts AD 1380 In his absence the bishop of Emly acted as his vicar general In the time of this prelate the dean chapter and clergy of Cashel were fined forty shillings for not sending a proctor to represent them in a parliament held at Castledermot in 1377 Peter Hacket archdeacon of Cashel succeeded to the see in 1384 the see being vacant in the interim He died in the year 1406 the 22d year after his consecration Richard O Hedian archdeacon of Cashel was consecrated archbishop of Cashel in 1406 but did not obtain the temporals until 1408 He recovered the lands belonging to the see which had been unjustly usurped during the incumbency of his predecessor On his promotion he had not one place in any of his manors where to rest his head He built a hall for his vicars choral whom he also endowed with the town lands of Grangeconnel and Baon Thurles beg He repaired some of the archiepiscopal palaces of his manors and rebuilt the cathedral of Saint Patrick which was first founded by Donald O Brien king of Limerick a great builder and repairer of churches and abbeys A parliament met in Dublin AD 1421 in which this prelate was impeached by John Gese bishop of Waterford and Lismore on thirty articles the principal ones being as follow That he made very much of the Irish an awful crime and loved none of the English
205
That he gave no benefice to any Englishman and advised other bishops to the like practice That he counterfeited the king of England's seal and his letters patent That he made himself king of Munstcr That he took a ring from the image of St Patrick of which the earl of Desmond made an oblation and gave it to his whore besides many other enormities which John Gese exhibited against him in writing and at which the Lords and Commons were much troubled In the days of this splendid prelate patriotism was a crime The rule of British plunderers and monopolizers of church and state in the ascendent sympathy with the wrongs of the nation or a due appreciation of individual merit in preference to those Anglo Normans who imported the crimes of their country was sure to be a treason to be denounced before the public tribunals The valuable services of the Archbishop O Hedian to religion were not sufficient to secure him that esteem which his good works merited they rather brought upon hi m odious calumnies that were so ludicrously extravagant that no one pretending to common sense could for a moment entertain The archprelate was honorably acquitted by the parliament to which this singular proceeding gave much uneasiness especially among the peers of the realm and the writers of those days delight in dwelling on the unbending firmness integrity and good qualities of the archbishop of Cashel while to those of modern date it furnishes an instance of persecution to which Irishmen were subjected if they dare manifest any regard for the land of their birth Though the parliament was not the proper tribunal to decide on questions purely or relatively ecclesiastical an insufficiency which this very parliament acknowledged it is strange that the bishop of Water ford should arraign his metropolitan before a secular tribunal To recur to the tribunal of Rome would be the proper mode of dealing with the transgressions which he alleged against the archbishop but in the Roman court where justice and equity preside it would have been unsafe to prefer false accusations against a superior or an equal Richard by an instrument dated the 22d of September 1429 and with the consent of the chapter appropriated the church of Belaghcahail to the monastery of Holy cross He died full of years on the 21st of July 1440 and was buried in his own church After his death the see was vacant ten years and the temporals all that time farmed to James Butler earl of Ormond John Cantwell bachelor of laws was promoted in 1450 by provision of the Pope was consecrated in the year 1452 and in this year granted
206
the vicarage of the church of Rathkellan to the monastery of Holy cross He held a provincial synod at Limerick in 1453 in July 1480 he celebrated another at Feathard Mathew bishop of Killaloe Thomas Limerick John Ardfert William of Cork and Cloyne assisting This prelate obtained many privileges from King Edward IV He repaired the monastery of the Dominicans at his own charge which had been destroyed by fire John Fitzrery vicar general of the order together with the prior and convent in gratitude to the prelate constituted him their patron and founder and granted him the full benefit of all the masses prayers vigils and the fruits of the good works of the Dominicans through Ireland Two years before his death he endowed the college of vicars choral of the cathedral at Cashel with some possessions in the town of Clonmel He died in 1482 and was buried at Cashel David Creagh a native of Limerick and bachelor of the civil and ranon laws was consecrated archbishop of Cashel in 1483 and in two years after granted the vicarage of the parish church of Glankyne to the monastery of Holy cross Gerald Fitz Gerald earl of Kildare inflicted injuries on this prelate which remained without redress on the part of Henry VH king of England David died on the 5th of September 1503 having presided twenty years in the see Maurice Fitz Gerald was promoted by Pope Julius II in 1504 He held a synod at Limerick in the year 1511 the decrees of which were inserted in the registry of Thomas Purcell bishop of Lismore and Wat erford and were destroyed by an accidental fire He convened another synod in 1514 four canons of which relate to the dress and clothing of the Waterford clergy He died AD 1523 Edmund Butler was consecrated archbishop of Cashel in 1527 he was elect of Cashel in 1524 the Pope having earnestly recommended him to the favor of King Henry VHI in the October of that year to whom he was privy councillor after his consecration He was prior of the abbey of Athassel in the county of Tipperary He held a provincial synod at Limerick in June 1529 the suffragans of Lismore and Waterford Limerick and Killaloe assisting In this synod power was given to the mayor of Limerick to imprison debtors among the clergy until they made satisfaction to creditors without incurring the censure of excommunication against which the clergy remonstrated as an infringement and violation of their ecclesiastical privileges He died on the 5th of March about the end of the year 1550 and was buried in his own church Roland Baron or Fitz Gerald was appointed to succeed in 1553 by
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Queen Mary the dean and chapter having elected him by her command He was descended of the Geraldines was consecrated in the same year He died on the 28th of October 1561
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