CHAP. V. FURTHER DISORDERS AMONG THE PRELATES.-ACCOUNT OF RICHARD proceedings Cashel and THE same violent and arbitrary spirit which A.D. 1346. the prelates of the Irish Church, during the Seditious reign of Romanism in its body, exhibited towards and violent one another, and towards the members of the of an archflocks committed to their pastoral care, was also bishop of manifested by them in their proceedings towards his suffrathe civil government, whenever its acts appeared gans. to encroach upon their lawful or supposed prerogatives. Thus in A.D. 1346 a parliament, holden in Kilkenny, having granted the King Edward III. a supply of money for the exigencies of the state, Ralph Kelly, archbishop of Cashel, opposed its being levied within his province; and held moreover an assembly of his suffragans at Tipperary, at which were present Maurice bishop of Limerick, Richard bishop of Emly, and John bishop of Lismore, where they decreed that all beneficed clergymen contributing to the subsidy, should be ipso facto deprived of their benefices, and rendered incapable of obtaining any other preferment within that province; that More burning of Heretics, &c. [Book V. 652 A.D. 1346. any of the laity, their tenants, contributing, should be ipso facto excommunicated; and that their children to the third generation should be incapable of being promoted in the province to any ecclesiastical benefice. In order the more solemnly to enforce these decrees, the archbishop and the other bishops came to Clonmel, and in their pontifical robes, in the middle of the street, openly excommunicated all those who granted or advised the said subsidy, and every one concerned in levying the same; and particularly Wm. Epworth, clerk, the king's commissioner in the county Tipperary, for gathering the said subsidy. These violent proceedings the archbishop attempted to justify by alleging that neither he nor his provincial bishops granted any subsidy, and that by Magna Charta the Church was to be free, and all infringing her liberties therein granted to be excommunicated.* More burn tics, and fighting among the prelates. A.D. 1353. In addition to the instances already given of ing of here- the punishment of heretics by corporal tortures, we may here notice another which occurred about A.D. 1353, and was attended with some very scandalous proceedings on the part of the prelates concerned in the case. Two Irishmen, having been convicted of heresy, or according to another account, of contumely offered to the Virgin Mary, before the bishop of Waterford, *Ware's Bishops, p. 478. Phelan's Policy, p. 60. CH. V.] Account of Richard Fitz-Ralph. 653 were burned by his order. But this act of the A.D. 1347. bishop not having the sanction of his metropolitan, the archbishop of Cashel, the latter prelate was filled with indignation, and resolved upon executing vengeance. Accordingly we read that "on Thursday after St. Francis' Day, a little before midnight, the archbishop entered privately into the churchyard of the Blessed Trinity at Waterford, with a numerous guard of armed men, and made an assault on the bishop in his lodgings, and grievously wounded him and many others in his company, and robbed him of his goods."* Richard of Armagh; We are not however to suppose that in these Account of times the Irish Church was left entirely destitute Fitz-Ralph, of respectable and exemplary prelates. A re- archbishop markable instance of the contrary is to be found A.D. 1347. in the life of the famous Richard Fitz-Ralph, (called also from the place of his birth and burial, St. Richard of Dundalk,) who was archbishop of Armagh at the period now under consideration. He was educated at Oxford, and after holding some preferments in England, was by the pope's provision appointed primate of Ireland in A.D. 1347. He is commemorated as a learned divine, and an able and diligent preacher; and he left behind him works illustrative of his literary and theological qualifications; the most distinguished * Ware, p. 533. 654 and of his with the begging friars. A.D. 1357. Of Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, [Book V. of which is a collection of sermons preached by him, partly in London, Lichfield, (of which he was dean,) and other places in England; partly at Drogheda, Dundalk, Trim, and other churches in his province, and partly at Avignon in France.* We have already had occasion to mention the controversy controversy in which this prelate was engaged with the mendicant orders or friars that had lately sprung up in the Church, and who were creating great confusion, under the pope's patronage, by drawing off the people from their parish churches and parochial clergy, to attend their own less orderly ministrations. These friars, "a kind of creatures unknown to the Church for twelve hundred years after Christ," although possessing vast influence, were stoutly opposed by Archbishop Fitz-Ralph; who in a course of sermons preached at St. Paul's Cross in London, in A.D. 1357, maintained, against their errors, amongst others, the following conclusions:-First, "That the Lord Jesus Christ, although in his human conversation he was always poor, yet had no love nor preference for poverty for its own sake." Secondly, that He "never voluntarily begged." Thirdly, that He " never taught men voluntarily to beg." Fourthly, that He "taught that men ought not to beg voluntarily." Fifthly, "That no person *Ware's Bishops, p. 82. Reln. of A. I., ch. vi. CH. V.] and his Dispute with the Begging Friars. 655 can with prudence and piety take upon himself A. D. 1357. a perpetual obligation to voluntary begging. Since from the circumstance that such mendicity or begging has been dissuaded by Christ, by his apostles and disciples, and by the Church and Holy Scriptures, and reproved by them also, it follows that it cannot with prudence and piety be adopted in this way."* before the pope. For his plain statement of these views, the His trial guardian of the Franciscan friars at Armagh, and others both of that order and of the Dominicans, procured that Archbishop Fitz-Ralph should be cited to Avignon; where he appeared and continued for three years, undauntedly maintaining his former statements in the presence of Pope Innocent and his cardinals. To four of the latter the pope committed the examination of his cause. Fitz-Ralph, we are told, was silenced, the pope maintaining the rights of the friars in regard to the controverted points of preaching, confessions, and burials. Before these tempests were appeased however the archbishop died, in A.D. 1360. Some have thought that he translated the Bible into Irish. Be that as it may, it appears to be not unjustly that he has been regarded by many as a forerunner of the Reformation in this country; and it is to be regretted that there has not been more *Defensor. Curat. pp. 104-131. (vid. sup. p. 588.) |