CH. II.] Papal Legates begin to preside in Irish Synods. 451 locality the exact site of which is now uncer- A. D. 1118. tain,) at which there were present (in A.D. 1111) the archbishop of Cashel, fifty other bishops, three hundred priests, and three thousand ecclesiastics, besides Murtogh O'Brian, king of Southern Ireland, and the nobles of his kingdom. We have however no authentic account of any thing of much importance having been transacted in this synod. It does not seem to have embraced any of the authorities of "Northern Ireland," excepting, of course, the primate.* Council of The first at But a more important synod was convened Synod or some time after, (and probably in 1118,) at a Rathbreasil. place called Rathbreasil, the position of which, A.D. 1118? strange to say, is now uncertain. † At this synod were present the archbishops of Armagh and Cashel, and a number of bishops, clergy, and distinguished laymen, from all parts of Ireland. And on this occasion for the first time, a pope's legate was the president of an Irish council, which a Gillebert, bishop of Limerick, acting in that pope's legate capacity. The meeting was occupied chiefly in Ireland. forming a regular division of dioceses throughout Ireland, and in fixing their boundaries. And it Attempt to was decreed that exclusively of Dublin, which reduce and was left subject to Canterbury, there should be dioceses of twenty-four dioceses; twelve in Northern Ire- Ireland. land subject to the archbishop of Armagh, and presided in settle the 452 Its success trifling. Dioceses first settled in Ireland. [BOOK IV. A. D. 1118. twelve in Southern Ireland subject to the archbishop of Cashel. But this attempt to reduce the number of the sees of Ireland, and reorganise the system, did not succeed to any considerable extent; the provisions made for the purpose having never been carried into effect. Shortly after the date of this synod it is said that the people of Dublin agreed (in A.D. 1121) to allow Celsus of Armagh to have archiepiscopal jurisdiction over them; but they did not abide by this decision, as appears from their sending Gregory in that same year to be consecrated at Canterbury. It is probably to some dispute on this subject that the letter of the citizens of Dublin, already quoted (at p. 433) refers.* This synod a proof of influence From the transactions of the synod of Rathbreasil, it appears that the prelates and clergy Gillebert's of Ireland were ready to co-operate with Gillebert in his plans for the remodelling of their His travels abroad, foreign education, and intimacy with Anselm, furnished him no doubt with many attractive advantages; with the Irish clergy. Church system. *Lanigan iv. 42, seqq. Of the northern dioceses five were in Ulster, viz., Clogher, Ardsrath, Derry, Connor, Down; five in Connaught, viz., Tuam, Clonfert, Cong, Killalla, Ardcarn; and two in Meath, viz., Duleek and Clonard. Of the southern dioceses (besides Cashel) six were in Munster, viz., Lismore or Waterford, Cork, Rathmaighe Deisgirt, (i.e. Ardfert) Limerick, Killaloe, Emly; and five in Leinster, viz., Kilkenny, Leighlin, Kildare, Glendaloch, and Ferns. Thus Waterford and Limerick were to be withdrawn from subjection to Canterbury.-Vid. Appx. No. x. CH. II.] Advantages possessed by Gillebert's party. and the systematic order and harmonious arrangement of the several parts of the system which he invited them to adopt, with its fair promises of promoting the unity of the Church, and thus strengthening the influence of religion and religious men, were well adapted for winning friends to the cause which he advocated. While on the other hand the low tone of Christianity then prevalent in the Irish Church, and the weakening and debasing effects of the Danish and civil wars, must have left the country in such a state, that people would readily embrace, in the hope of gaining some advantages, a system recommended to them by the most learned, active, and zealous persons then to be found in their Church. We need not wonder therefore if Gillebert's proposals for introducing a reform were readily accepted; although perhaps the members of the Irish Church in that day were far from anticipating the future consequences that would accrue to their successors from the circumstance of their allowing a pope's legate once to gain a footing among them. Little in all probability did they think how the beginning thus made would be in after times improved upon, extended, and shamefully abused. 453 A. D. 1118. Ireland still harrassed The country was still in a miserable state with miserably civil wars; and the Irish princes and nobles with civil involved in them were now become almost as wars. VOL. II. F 454 Outrages by the Irish chieftains. Sacrilegious acts of Irish Princes. [Book IV. A. D. 1109, bad as the Danes themselves, and scrupled not to plunder, devastate, and burn religious houses and churches. Thus we read of the church and perpetrated village of Ardbraccan being burned in A.D. 1109, Clonmacnoise plundered and laid waste in 1111, and again in 1115; the abbot of Kells and others there killed on a Sunday in 1117, Cashel and Lismore burned in 1121, Emly plundered in 1123, and the steeple of Trim church, with a large number of people shut up in it, burned in 1127. In 1134 the cathedral of Tuam was stormed, and Derry, the churches of Raphoe, Clonard, Roscommon, and others were burned. All these barbarous outrages were the work of various Irish princes, and their followers, the O'Brians of Munster, &c. "Thus it appears," as Dr. Lanigan observes,* "that several of the Irish princes and chieftains had imbibed the spirit of the Danes, sparing neither churches, nor monasteries, nor ecclesiastics, according as suited their views; a system which was held in abhorrence by their ancestors, and which often excited them to unite in defence of their altars against the Scandinavian robbers. This was one of the sad effects of the contests between various powerful families aspiring to the sovereignty of all Ireland, and again between divers members of said families quarrelling among * Eccl. Hist. iv. 55, 98. CH. III.] History of Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh. 455 partly the these mis themselves for precedency. In these contests A. D. 1134. the respective parties and their adherents stopped at nothing while endeavouring to establish their claims, and harrassed and persecuted all those whom they looked upon as their opponents." Brian Boru, we have seen, was the first Brian Boru that gave a rise to these unhappy contests, which originator of led to so much evil. When the country was in chiefs. such a state, its princes no longer acting as nursing fathers to the Church, but rather as vultures preying upon its vitals, it is no wonder if the agents of the Church of Rome found it easy to arrange ecclesiastical matters according to their own taste, and to propagate without much opposition their own favorite system, laying its foundations with a degree of strength proportionate to the weakness of the ruined structure in place of which they were now to rear up a new edifice. CHAP III. OF THE LIFE AND ACTS OF MALACHY, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH- lachy arch AMONG those of the Irish clergy who entered Life of Mainto Gillebert's views, and endeavoured to carry bishop of out his plans for the reconstruction of their Armagh. Church, none was more conspicuous for the 1148. A. D. 1095 |