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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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