SWAYN died a few years after he had surrendered the see, and was buried in Saint Peter's church, Drogheda.* On the twentieth of March 1413, died Henry IV. who was succeeded by Henry V. the conqueror of France. This hero died on the thirty-first of August, 1422, and was succeeded by Henry VI. who was proclaimed king in Paris, whilst yet an infant of nine months old. In the year 1421, Mac Mahon chieftain of Monaghan, wasted Uriel with fire and sword.+ JOHN PRENE L. L. B. archdeacon and official of Armagh was, by provision of Pope Eugene IV. appointed archbishop of Armagh, and consecrated about the end of November, 1439. This prelate was obstructed by the archbishop of Dublin in bearing his crosier through that diocess, and therefore refused to attend personally in parliament. About the year 1441, Primate PRENE removed a cross stone, of uncertain antiquity, from Raphoe to Armagh. In the "Annals of the Four Masters," it is said that this stone had restored one Hugh Matthews to his eyesight. Now after the death of Laurence O Galchor, bishop of Raphoe, in 1438, PRENE was guardian of the spirituals and temporalties of that see. But O Donel prince of the Clan-O-Donel, conspiring with the dean and chapter, usurped the profits of the bishopric. Displeased with this usurpation, the primate prosecuted the offenders to excommunication, and interdicted O Donel as an obstinate heretic. He not only deprived the dean and chapter of their benefices, but removed the cross stone which stood in the cathedral of Raphoe, to the church of Armagh; and thus, it is probable, divested them of considerable emolument, derived from its supposed miracle-working powers. We have already seen that long before this period various other crosses had been erected in the city of Armagh; it is therefore doubtful whether that now in question, was the one Ware's Bishops, p. 85, Swayne, tom. 1, p. 8, 68, + Ware's Annals ut supra p. 71. Reg. § Ware's Bishops, p. 274. which lately stood in the centre of Market-street, as traditionally asserted and believed. "JOHN PRENE was for some time sick, in his manor of Drummiskin, from which he was gently carried between two horses on the twelfth of June 1443, to his manor of Termonfechan, where he thought the air was more pure and salubrious. On the thirteenth he died, and was buried on the fifteenth, after celebration of a solemn mass, in the choir or chancel of Saint Fechan's church, of Termonfechan, in the presence of a multitude of clergy and people.* During the vacancy which ensued, John Lyde, prior of Louth and his colleagues, were appointed subcustodes of the spiritualties and spiritual jurisdiction of the see amongst the English, (inter Anglicos.)"+ On the decease of archbishop PRENE, RICHARD TALBOT, brother to the illustrious hero, JOHN TALBOT Lord Furnival, was elected primate by the dean and chapter of Armagh, but refused to accept the proffered dignity.‡ JOHN MEY, L. L. B. official of the court of Meath, vicar of Delvin and Kilmessan and clerk of Armagh,§ succeeded to the see of Armagh, by provision of Pope Eugene IV. and was consecrated on the twentieth of June, 1444. He also was obstructed, in the exercise of his primatial right, in the diocess of Dublin, and therefore refused to attend in parliament. By a deed dated at Armagh, 19th November, 1455, Primate MEY, with consent of the dean and chapter, annexed his mensal tithes of Rathcool, for ever, to the choir of Saint Anne's chapel, in Saint Peter's church, Drogheda. To this he added his mensal portion of tithes in Drummyng church, in pure alms. The object of these donations was that a greater number of priests might he maintained to pray for his soul, and the souls of his predecessors and successors, and of all benefactors to the same church. Reg. Mey. 1. 3, p. 10. Ibid. 1. 1, p. 3. Lodge's Mss. notes, ut § Lodge's Mss: notes ut supra. || Ibid. In a similar spirit, forty days indulgences were granted by him to all persons who should contribute to the providing of a great bell, and the making of some repairs in Saint Patrick's cathedral, Dublin. Primate MEY was, for a time, lord-deputy to James Butler, earl of Ormond, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, but the English cabinet having been dissatisfied with this appointment, Ormond was commanded to do the duty himself, and on his refusal, he was superseded, and the government committed to Thomas earl of Kildare. MEY died in the year 1456. A. D. 1447, a curious act of parliament was passed, which prohibited the English settlers, from wearing their beards after the Irish fashion, and ordered them to shave the upper lip once a fortnight. Those who refused to comply with this arbitrary statute were liable to be seized, by any person whatever, together with their goods, as Irish enemies. Nor could either their personal liberty or their chattels be restored, until they had paid ransom to the captor. Such impolitic laws must have excited, in the minds of the Irish, the most implacable hatred both against the British colonists and the system of jurisprudence which they had absurdly adopted.+ Amongst the provisoes of an act passed in 1457, there was a singular clause which ordered that every man should be held responsible for the offences of his son, to the same extent as the offender himself, except when death was the punishment annexed to the perpetrated crime !‡ In June 1457, JOHN BOLE abbot of Saint Mary's monastery at Navan in Meath, succeeded JOHN MEY, in the see of Armagh. He held a provincial synod in Saint Peter's church, Drogheda, on the ninth of June, 1460, and died on the eighteenth of February, 1470. This prelate obtained from Edward IV. a confirmation of the privileges of the see of Armagh. The mode by which funds were obtained, in the fifteenth century, for Cox vol. 1, p. 164. + Vesey's Statutes vol. 1, p. 7. Ibid. the repair of religious and other public edifices may be exemplified by reciting some of JOHN BOLE's acts. Whilst yet abbot of Navan, he obtained a grant of indulgences, from Pope Nicholas, for pilgrims who should offer oblations at his abbey.* The year after his promotion to the primacy, Arthur Mac Kerrny "of Armagh, carpenter, intended, for the salvation of his soul and that he might avoid imminent dangers, to build a wooden bridge over Kilcrewe river, and a chapel at the place. Having in part begun the work, and prepared much timber, he found himself unable to complete it at his own expense, nor without the aid of charitable Christians. For this end, the primate, on the twentieth of June, 1458, granted forty days indulgences, out of the trea sures of the church, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, to all who should contribute to the finishing of the work."+ It is a curious fact that in 1458, "Henry O Nial, captain of his nation and prince of the Ulster Irish, granted and confirmed by deed, to JOHN BOLE, archbishop of Armagh and his successors, and to the church of Armagh for ever, all his lands and possessions of Moydoyn, in his lordship of Moydoyn Clondawyll, in the diocess of Armagh, in the honor of God, the Virgin Mary and Saint Patrick, apostle and patron of Ireland, for the health of his soul and the souls of his parents, and for obtaining the special blessing of the church of Armagh for ever." The church appears to have totally forgotten this dona. tion of O Nials; and the special blessings with which his soul was to have been for ever greeted, are now no longer uttered. So futile are the hopes and cares of man, when he calculates on the gratitude of posterity, and seeks to prescribe laws to future ages. "June nineteenth, 1458, Primate BOLE granted a license to the prior and Colidees of his church of Ar • Ware's Bishops p. 86. Reg. p. 35. Lodge's Mss. ut supra, Reg. Dowdal. p. 141. Lodge's Mss, ut supra. magh, upon their request to choose an able and fit con fessor to hear their confession and to grant them absolution."* On the twenty-eighth of June, 1461, Edward IV. was crowned king of England. A. D. 1465, parliament enacted that every Irishman who dwelled amongst Englishmen in the counties of Dublin, Myeth, (Meath,) Uriel and Kildare, should be apparelled after the English fashion, and should shave the beard above the mouth, and take an English surname, derived either from a town, a colour, an art, science or office. Hence are derived many family names, such as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Cork, Black, Brown, White, Smith, Carpenter, Cook, Butler, &c. Names thus adopted were to be transmitted to posterity under penalty of forfeiture of goods, &c. The Macangabhans became Smith, the Geals White, &c.+ The same parliament enacted (cap, 4,) that every Englishman, and Irishman who resided amongst the British and spoke their language, should have "an English bow of his own length, and a fistmele at least between the necks." Buts were ordered to be erected in every town, and constables appointed, whose business it was to muster every man from sixteen to sixty years of age, that they might practise with the bow on stated holydays, under pain of a fine to be levied by the warden.‡ The English seem to have been greatly indebted to their skill in archery, for the superiority which they maintained, during the middle ages, over the Irish, and indeed over the continental nations, in military affairs. Some of their more eminent archers greatly astonished the natives of this country. It is said that Little John the redoubted friend of Robin Hood, had visited Dublin, about the year 1188, and had shot an arrow from Dublin-Bridge to the little hill in Oxmantown.§ The people of those ages probably calculating the magnitude of Vesey's Statutes, p. 29. Reg. Bole p. 51. Lodge ut supra. #Ibid $ Cox vol. 1, p. 44. |