Services of appearing upon summons at a parliament held at Castledermot in that year (H. 497) 15. LIMERICK. Stephen de Valle, 1360-1369; succeeded by a pope's provision. Vid. sup. Meath. (H. 508) 16. ARDFERT. John de Valle, 1348-1372; was promoted by provision of pope Clement V., as also his two successors, viz., Corns. O'Tigernach, 1372-1379; William Bull, 1379-1382. (H. 522) 17. CORK. Gerald de Barry, 1359-1393. [By his petition to the Lord J. and Council, in 1381, he set forth, that he was above 80 years of age, and often visited by sickness, so that he was not able to attend parliaments in person, and on that account desired to be excused personal attendance in all future parliaments, which ye king granted by a patent at Cork, 20th Jan. for the fine of two marks, and sending a sufficient proxy.-Rot. 5, Ric. 2.] His successor, Friar Roger Ellesmere, was appointed by Pope Boni(H. 561) face IX., and filled the see for ten years 1396-1406. .. 18. ROSS. "Dennis," 1336-1377. [Having acquired for his life of the Bp. of one plowland in Commys, and ye Escheator having seized the same, Ross in "re- pretending that he had acquired it in fee, and that he was an Irishforming" man, he was restored thereto upon petition, by ye king, to advance the Irish of ye see and to shew his esteem for ye bishop, who was assiduous in rehis locality. forming the Irish of those parts. April 18, 1358.-Rot. claus. 32 Ed. III. D. R. 2. MS. notes ut sup., and .. His four next successors, to 1426 or later, were appointed by papal (H. 587) provision. 19. KILFENORA. The succession here at this period is very ob(H. íb.) scure. Rd. O'Loghlain. Ob. 1359. O'Cahan. Resig. 1491. Maurice O'Brien then succeeded by papal "Patrick," sed. 1394. Denis provision. (H. 624) (H. 631) 20. ELPHIN. "Gregory" succ. 1356. Resign. 1372. Advanced to the see of Elphin by Pope Innocent VI. 21. CLONFERT. Thomas O'Kelly appears to have been bishop from 1347 to 1377. John O'Lean, bishop of this diocese, A.D. 1322— 1336, succeeded by papal appointment. 22. KILMACDUAGH. of this see in 1418, was appointed by pope Martin III. (H. 659) These records, while exhibiting the wide pre valence of papal influence in the Irish sees, at the period to which they refer, afford at the same time sufficiently plain illustrations of the fact, that the prelates appointed by such influence included in their number some, at least, of those on whose fidelity and energy in keeping down "the native Irish" the English government could place the fullest reliance. No. XXI. ROMAN TAXATIONS OF IRELAND.* the Saladin France and A.D. 1188, One of the first objects pursued in regard to Nature of Ireland by the powers of England and Rome, Tenth, lewhen the island came under their authority, was vied in the raising of taxes out of the country for their England, own purposes; and of these taxes none was more worthy of note than that which was known by the name of the Saladin or papal Tenths. This impost originated in the sensation caused throughout Europe by the intelligence of the For the matter of this article in general, with more on the same subject, see the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, of the Rev. W. Reeves, in which are given also abundant references to original authorities for all the particulars here touched upon. Origin of Taxation, A.D. 1254. capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187; in consequence of which the kings of England and France were led, in the following year, to impose upon their respective subjects a tax of onetenth of their moveables and annual income for the relief of the Holy Land. The assessment however very shortly underwent a limitation, and it became in the following century a charge to which the clergy alone were liable. The first memorable instance of the exaction the Norwich of the tax in England under this modified character was in 1254, when Henry III., agreeably to a grant which Pope Innocent IV. had made him in the preceding year, instituted a general valuation of all ecclesiastical benefices in England, in order to levy with greater precision the Tenths of the clerical incomes during the three years to which his grant extended. The rural dean, assisted by three principal rectors or vicars in his deanery, was required to make a return of all the ecclesiastical revenues within the same, certified, as to its accuracy, upon oath. The whole valuation thus compiled received from the grantor the name of "Pope Innocent's Valor," or, from the agent, Walter de Suthfield, bishop of Norwich, "the Norwich Taxation;" and it continued to form until the close of the century, a standard for the regulating of all clerical subsidies and assessments. Ireland in A D. 1251 1270. In Ireland also a collection was made in vir- Collection of the papal tue of the same grant, but whether a regular Tenths in scrutiny was instituted, or how it was conducted, is not recorded. A little before, in 1251, there and A.D. had also been a levy in this country for the service of the Holy Land; and again in 1270, we find it on record, that the Tenths in Ireland which had been granted to Henry III. for three years, were by him assigned and made over to his Queen Eleanor. of the Tenth Ireland, At the Second Council of Lyons, held in A.D. A twelve 1274, by Pope Gregory X., this pontiff having years' grant obtained (by a resolution entered into at the in England, close of the second session) a general grant of the ecclesiastical Tenths for a term of six years, a levy was in consequence begun in England in IV. to K. the same year, according to the scale of Pope Edward 1.'; Innocent's Valor above-mentioned. The amount was all collected for England in 1282, and was on the point of being remitted to Rome, when Edward I. peremptorily forbade the removal of any portion of it, and soon after took forcible possession of the whole. Subsequently exerting himself by politic negociations with several successive pontiffs to secure the treasure for himself, and especially by promising to undertake an expedition to the Holy Land, he was at * Labbe, Concil. tom. xi. par. i. col. 398. Par. 1671. in connection with which or ders are issued for a astical valuation of Ireland. A. D. 1291. length so successful as to obtain from Pope Nicholas IV. in 1288, a grant not only of the six years' Tenths of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, which were in hand, but also of those which were to accrue in the same countries for the six succeeding years. With a view to increase the value of the grant, a new Taxation was by the king's precept undertaken, and completed for Canterbury new ecclesi in 1291, and for York in 1292. The returns of this taxation became a national record, and served as the standard by which all the clerical taxes paid to the king or pope were regulated, until the ecclesiastical survey made in the 26th of Henry VIII. And as the Tenths of Ireland were included in the grant here mentioned, it seemed expedient that a new valuation should be made for that country also. Accordingly Pope Nicholas IV. addressed a letter, in March, 1291, to Thomas St. Leger, bishop of Meath, and Thomas de Chaddesworth, dean of Dublin, the collectors for Ireland, instructing them how to proceed. This letter will be found in the next article, and will afford the reader a curious view of the method employed in conducting such operations. In the February following the king issued a writ to all his bailiffs and faithful subjects in Ireland, informing them of the agency of the bishops of Meath and Kildare, and requiring |