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the cathedral, and supplied it with secular canons, to whom he gave prebendaries, and ordained laws for their government.* He was learned, liberal, prudent, and zealously loyal, and indefatigable in his efforts to uphold the doubtful honour and interests of king John, who was justly attached to him, and alluded to his many services in his charter. He died in 1207.

Albinus O'Mulloy.

Died A. d. 1222.

UPON the death of Joseph O'Hethe, Albinus, abbot of Baltinglass, was appointed to the see of Fernes, which he held for thirty-six years. It had first been offered by prince John to Girald Barry, commonly called Cambrensis, who refused it, and who afterwards had a sharp dispute with Albino, at a synod he held in Dublin, about mid-Lent, in 1185. William Marescal, earl of Pembroke, who possessed a large portion of land in Ireland, in right of his grandmother Eva, princess of Leinster, seized on two manors belonging to this bishopric, which gave rise to a long contest, which was at length decided in favour of the earl. Albinus lived to a very advanced age, and died 1222.

Malachy.

DIED A. D. 1201.

MALACHY, the third bishop of that name in Down, was in 1177 taken prisoner by de Courcy, in the same battle in which he overcame Roderick O'Conor, prince of Ulster, but at the intercession of cardinal Vivian, he was set at liberty. He made several ecclesiastical regulations and changes, under the dictation of de Courcy, one of which was his dedicating to St Patrick that cathedral which had before been consecrated to the Holy Trinity; and Pembridge attributes de Courcy's subsequent misfortunes to this sacrilegious act. Malachy died about the year 1201.

Gregory, First Archbishop of Dublin.

CONSECRATED BISHOP A. D. 1121.-DIED A. D. 1161.

THIS ecclesiastic, with those immediately preceding, may be considered as a link between the former period and that with which we are at present occupied: as in point of time he may be considered as belonging to the one while his station implies a change by which he is connected with the succeeding order.

Gregory succeeded Samuel O'Haingly in the see of Dublin, and

* Ware.

MS. Life of Girald in Cotton's Library.

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Pues O'Moters was appointed archbishop of Tuam in 1152, and the following suffragans were placed under him: Mayo, Killala, Roscommon, Clonfert, Achonry, Cluan, and Killmacduach. Mayo and Kamghdum were afterwards added to the cathedral of Tuam. Edan is often mentioned by the historians of his time, and was remarkable for his piety, learning, and liberality. In 1158, he held a synod at Hoaromimon, at which he made many "good decrees." Roscommon was subsequently translated to Elphin, and Clean, or Clonmacnoise, to Armaghi. He died in 1161, and was buried in his cathedral under a stone inscribed with an Irish epitaph, in which he is called Comorburn, or aneoussor of Yarlath. It was in this year that stone buildings were first introduced into Ireland, and Roderick O'Conor, king of Commught, built a castle of stone at Tuam, which from its great lty was called by the Irish the wonderful castle.*

* Ware.

Catholic O'Dubhai.

DIED A. D. 1201.

CATHOLIC, or CADLA O'DUBHAI, succeeded to the archbishopric of Tuam on the death of Edan. He was a man of learning and discretion, and it was through his mediation that Roderick O'Conor was received into favour by Henry II. The particulars of the agreement between them are given in Roger Hoveden's history of this period. When Henry was in Waterford, the archbishop and bishops came to him from all quarters, and took the oath of allegiance to him and his heirs. After his return to Dublin, he commanded them to hold a synod at Cashel, at which were present Christianus, bishop of Lismore, the pope's legate, Donagh, archbishop of Cashel, Lawrence, archbishop of Dublin, and Catholicus, archbishop of Tuam, besides many others, when they drew up a set of canons, of which the following is a copy:

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"First. It is decreed, that all good, faithful, and Christian people throughout Ireland, should forbear and shun to marry with their near kinsfolk and cousins, and marry with such as lawfully they should do. Secondly. That children shall be catechised without the church door, and baptized in the font, appointed in the churches for the same. "Thirdly. That every Christian body do faithfully and truly pay yearly the tithes of his cattle, corn, and other his increase and profits, to the church or parish where he is a parishioner.

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Fourthly. That all the church lands and possessions throughout all Ireland, shall be free from all secular exactions and impositions; and especially, that no lords, earls, or noblemen, nor their children, nor family, shall extort or take any coyn and livery, cosheryes, nor cuddyes, nor any other like custom, from thenceforth, in or upon any of the church lands and territories. And likewise, that they nor no other person do henceforth exact out of the said church lands, old, wicked, and detestable customs of coyn and livery, which they were wont to extort upon such towns and villages of the churches, as were near and next bordering upon them.

"Fifthly. That when the earick or composition is made among the lay people for any murther, that no person of the clergy (though he be kin to any of the parties) shall contribute any thing thereunto; but as they be guiltless from the murther, so shall they be free from payment of money, for any such earick or release for the same.

"Sixthly. That all and every good Christian being sick and weak, shall before the priest and his neighbours, make his last will and testament, and his debts and servants' wages being paid, all his moveables to be divided (if he have any children) into three parts; whereof one part to be to the children, another to his wife, and the third part to be for the performance of his will. And if so be he have no children, then the goods to be divided into two parts, whereof the one moiety to his wife, and the other to the performance of his will and testament. And if he have no wife, but only children, then the goods to be likewise divided into two parts, whereof the one to himself and the other to his children.

"Seventhly. That every Christian, being dead, and dying in the Catholick faith, shall be reverendly brought to the church, and to be buried as appertaineth.

"Finally. That all the divine service in the church of Ireland, shall be kept, used, and observed, in the like order and manner, as it is in the church of England; for it is meet and right, that as by God's providence and appointment, Ireland is now become subject, and under the king of England, so the same should take from thence the order, rule and manner how to reform themselves, and to live in better order; for whatsoever good thing is befallen to the church and realm of Ireland, either concerning religion, or peaceable government, they owe the same to the king of England, and are to be thankful unto him for the same; for before his coming into the land of Ireland, many and all sorts of wickedness in times past, flowed and reigned among them, all which now by his authority and goodness are abolished.”*

Catholicus lived to a very advanced age, and died at Cong, in 1201, having governed the see for forty years. The city of Tuam was accidentally burned shortly after his consecration.

Lawrence O'Toole.

DIED A. D. 1180.

We have already related the principal events of the life of this illustrious man, and therefore feel it to be unnecessary to repeat them again in detail. A summary outline, will enable us sufficiently to expand whatever we may deem illustrative of his character.

He was the youngest son of Murtogh O'Toole, chief of Imaile, in the county now called Wicklow, the territory of the celebrated septs of the Tooles and Byrnes, which are with some reason represented as of British origin.† In Lawrence the two coeval and kindred streams were united, as his mother was an O'Byrne.‡

At the early age of ten, it was his fortune to be delivered by his father according to the customs of that barbarous time, as a hostage to the king of Leinster, the notorious Dermod MacMurragh. Of Dermod's savage disposition the reader is aware. Young Lawrence O'Toole was doomed to know it by experience: ever involved in hostility with the surrounding chiefs, and always actuated by the bitterest rancour in his enmities, the brutal prince of Leinster, in some moment of inflamed animosity, resolved to make the innocent boy, who was even then distinguished by early genius, the victim of his father's offence; and with this execrable design caused him to be conveyed to a deserted and barren spot, and left to meet and suffer the horrors of want and exposure, under the care of such wretches as were fit to be the instruments of king Dermod's enmity. In such a condition, the sufferings of the tender child can easily be conceived. But the eye of a guardian providence was awake; his father quickly received intelligence of the deplorable situation of his child: Murtogh

Cambrensis. † See the life of Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne.

+ Dalton.

had the feeling to resent, and the spirit to retaliate the cruel indignity. He seized on twelve of Dermod's most noted followers, and shutting them in prison, he sent word to the tyrant that he would cut off their heads, unless they should be immediately redeemed by his son's release. The menace was effectual: however little regard Dermod might entertain for the lives of his men, yet as he chiefly relied on the favour of the populace, he could not without serious detriment to his nearest interest, hazard his low popularity by abandoning his faithful partizans to the revenge of an enemy. At the same time, as Lawrence was the pledge of a treaty, he would not give him up to his father. The matter was therefore compromised by placing him in the hands of the bishop of Glendalough.

The incident was not unfavourable to the disposition and future fortunes of the youth. The bishop received the child of his noble neighbour with benevolent hospitality, and while he remained in his hands, had him carefully instructed in the principles of the Christian religion by his chaplain; and after twelve days, he was sent back to his father. Soon after he was taken by his father on a visit to the bishop, very probably to return thanks for the kindness he had received, and revisit a spot which must needs have powerfully affected his young imagination. On this occasion it is mentioned, that his father proposed to cast lots which of his sons should adopt the ecclesiastical calling, on which young Lawrence said with a smile, "Father, there is no necessity for casting lots; if you allow me, I will embrace it with pleasure."* The offer gave much satisfaction both to the bishop and the father of Lawrence, who took him by the right hand and dedicated him to God and St Kevin.

The pious youth was then entirely committed to the careful tuition of the bishop and his worthy chaplain; and not often in the uncertain allotments of human character, has it occurred that the profession and the heart were so well harmonized. The temper of the youth was constitutionally pious and contemplative; he was gifted with a sensible, yet bold firm and lofty spirit, and with no small share of that ideality which gives external scenery a powerful influence over the breast: and the scene in which he was now to receive daily lessons in piety and goodness was happily adapted to such a frame of mind. Here with the mingled piety and superstition of his age, he walked the solemn mountain-vale as we explore some ancient cathedral, among the time-worn inscriptions and decaying effigies of old-world piety and virtue: its picturesque gloom was tinged with the coloured radiance of old tradition, which the broad daylight of recent ages had not yet dispelled, or the profane humour of modern showmen turned into caricature. A gleam of tender and sacred recollection invested the footsteps of the good saint who fled hither from the allurements of the world. In such a scene it was, and amid the atmosphere of such impressions and influences, that the youthful Lawrence O'Toole continued to grow in knowledge and piety as he advanced in years, until the fame of his learning and the lustre of his virtues, added grace and

*Lanigan's Eccles. Hist., Vol. iv.

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