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A. D. 1014. and nobles fell on that day, and among them Brian Boru himself, his son Morogh, and his grandson Turlogh. Mælmurry, king of Leinster, was also among the slain. But the Danes were totally defeated and overthrown, and their power in Ireland received a decisive blow, from which they never were able to recover. We must not however suppose that the Danish troubles of Ireland ended with this battle; on the contrary we read of Armagh, Swords, Clonard, and other places being plundered by them in the very next year; and the same kind of depredations were continued by them more or less during the remainder of this century.*

Yet their outrages continue.

The supreme monarchy

After the battle of Clontarf, Malachy regained once more the title of king of all Ireland, restored to which had originally belonged to him; but after his death in 1022, there was no king recognised as of all Ireland for many years.†

Malachy,

falls into abeyance after his death.

of Brian

The character of Brian Boru has been greatly A.D. 1022. eulogised and extolled by the Irish annalists. He is represented as having been one of the Character greatest benefactors of his country that can be found in the lists of her ancient kings, and not more heroic in war than distinguished for promoting and extending the blessings of peace. His memory is thus honored as that of one whose reign was spent in the service of his country,

Boru ;

* Annals of Innisfallen, and Lan. ut sup. &c. † Lan. iii. 425, 426.

CH. III.] and the effects of his government on the country.

417

and marked with incessant and successful en- A. D. 1014. deavours for the improvement and welfare of

ertions for

ment of his

his people. Under his fostering care, and the and his influence of the religious disposition for which patriotic exhe is commended, learning and piety, we are the improvetold, flourished throughout his dominions: the dominions. clergy were reinstated in their ecclesiastical rights; churches, schools, and other religious establishments were erected or re-built; roads and bridges were constructed through the country, and the public highways put into repair: the lands too which had been usurped by the Danes were by him restored to their original proprietors, the pagan foreigners being expelled from them: the laws of his kingdom were revised, and administered with a spirit of impartial justice and equity that created universal satisfaction: in short, civilization and improvement were promoted by all possible means. His merit His merit however as a patriotic prince, appears to be some- however is what obscured by his having disturbed the long ther without established regal succession of his native isle, and by his having employed the assistance of his country's most inveterate foes, to enable him to usurp the hereditary rights belonging to another family.*

not altoge

a cloud.

* Vid. Lan. iii., 422, 414, 417.

BOOK IV.

THE IRISH CHURCH MADE SUBJECT TO THE
POPE THE NATION TO ENGLAND.

L

The Irish

nation free

and inde

pendent of foreign power to this time.

CHAP. I.

DANISH INFLUENCE IN THE CHURCH OF IRELAND, AND HOW IT
HELPED TO INTRODUCE ROMANISM.-STATE OF LEARNING IN
IRELAND AT THIS TIME. A.D. 1014-1100.

A.D. 1014. THUS far we have been considering the circumstances of our native Church in the days of her Church and freedom and independence, when Irishmen enjoyed the reputation of being Catholics and saints, yea and models of piety, without acknowledging any obedience as due from them to the bishop or Church of Rome; or without even regarding communion with the pope as any very important pivilege, or one at all necessary to be enjoyed for the maintenance of healthful Christian life. During the same period the Irish nation also was equally independent of any foreign jurisdiction. But the annals of the times upon which we now enter bring at once

CH. I.] Origin of Romish influence in Ireland.

419

before our view the first successful efforts of the A. D. 1014. Roman see to extend its authority to our native land. And the measures adopted for the furtherance of that object, led also at the same time, as we shall see presently, to the permanent subjugation of this island to the kings of England.

of Romish

Ireland may

The first circumstance which afforded to the The first inRoman Church an opportunity for obtaining a troduction footing in England, was, as we have already power into seen, the conquest of that country by the Pagan be traced to Saxons.* Somewhat similar was the occasion the Danes; of the first establishment of the power of the Church of Rome in Ireland; for the introduction of that system into our country appears, when traced to its source, to have been closely connected with the influence of the Danes or Ostmans who had settled here somewhat before its arrival. It was through England that Ire- assisted by land first became connected with the Roman the English. Church, and subject to the authority of the pope and the first connection of the kind which existed between any Irish Christians and the English Church, was formed between the Ostman bishops of Ireland and the archbishops of Canterbury. Even after the battle of Clontarf the Ostman race and Ostman influence prevailed in some places in Ireland, and parti*Sup. p. 128, seqq.

420

L

The inhabi

Danish ci

Limerick,

and Water

their bi

shops under

the archbi

shop of Canterbury.

The Bishops of the Danish cities in Ireland

* 66

[Book IV.

A. D. 1014. cularly in Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, which were still regarded as being Danish cities. tants of the Now their inhabitants being, as Archbishop ties, Dublin, Ussher has it,* a colony of the Norwegians and Livonians, and so countrymen to the Norford, place mans, when they had seen England subdued by the Conqueror, and Normans advanced to the chief archbishopric there, would needs now assume to themselves the name of Normans also, and cause their bishops to receive their consecration from no other metropolitan but the archbishop of Canterbury. And forasmuch as they were confined within the walls of their own cities, the bishops which they made had no other diocese to exercise their jurisdiction in, but only the bare circuit of those cities; whereupon we find a certificate made unto Pope Innocent III., in the year 1216, by the archbishop of Tuam and his suffragans, that John Papiron, the legate of the Church of Rome coming into Ireland, found that Dublin indeed had a bishop, but such an one as did exercise his episcopal office within the walls only."

Dunan

of the Dublin Danes.

"The first bishop which they had in Dublin, first bishop as it appeareth by the records of that Church, was one Donatus, (or Dunanus, as others call him,)" and his appointment is also the first clear indication that exists of any active interest being

* Religion of Ancient Irish, chap. viii.

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