the priests; and not only these old ones are renewed, but new ones also are invented; and every appointment of his, like some decree of heaven, is adopted, enforced, and committed to writing for the use of posterity."*

Several years passed away after St. Malachy's visit to Rome, and no further efforts were used for obtaining the palls. At length, in A.D. 1145, Pope Eugenius III. commenced his reign; and as he had been a monk of Clairval, Malachy confidently hoped that he should be able to obtain from him the desired privilege without any difficulty: two years more were allowed to elapse without any further steps being taken; but at the close of that time a favorable opportunity of bringing matters to maturity seemed to present itself.

In A. D. 1148, Eugenius visited France; and Malachy, hearing that he was staying for a while at Clairval, hoped that he might be able to visit him there before his departure, and obtain there most easily what he desired. He therefore summoned a national synod at Holmpatrick, where after three days spent in the consideration of other *Vit. Mal. cap. xviii.

matters, the business of the palls was introduced on the fourth day; and Malachy, though not without some opposition, induced the assembly to agree that he himself should go as their agent to Pope Eugenius, to request him to grant the long-wishedfor favour.

Malachy after setting out on this journey was delayed in his progress through England, so that when he arrived in Clairval, Pope Eugenius had left it he would have followed the pontiff to Italy, but was seized, before he could do so, with a violent fever, which ended his earthly existence in a few days. It had been his wish to live and die at Clairval; the former part of this wish was denied him, but he obtained the latter part, and peacefully breathed his last in the presence of his beloved St. Bernard, and the other brethren of the community at Clairval.

It is unnecessary for us to dwell on St. Malachy's character in this place; our only object in making such copious extracts from his life, being to inform the reader of those transactions in it, which were so intimately connected with the general history of the Church of Ireland in his time. But as we have

already remarked that he was by no means free from the superstitions that abounded in those days, (a remark which applies to his biographer, St. Bernard, equally with himself,) we may add in reference to this one particular, that it appears sufficiently from various circumstances recorded of him, in the work which has been so largely quoted in this and the preceding section. Those circumstances are not worth being detailed at length here; but the bare mention of two out of many will give a sufficient idea of their nature. St. Bernard tells us that a careless and ungodly sister of Malachy's having died in her sins, was refused admittance into heaven, until Malachy had procured an entrance for her by repeated performances of the sacrifice of the mass and in another part of the same work we read of his restoring to life a lady who had died without the benefit of extreme unction; at St. Malachy's intercession she is said to have revived, until the omitted ceremony was performed, after which, we are told, she again relapsed into the slumber of death.

§ 22.-PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYNOD OF CASHEL.

The proceedings which took place at the synod of Cashel are described with more or less particularity, by the different authors who wrote the annals of the time in which it was held. The celebrated historian Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived at that time, gives the most detailed account of the acts passed in it, "in the very words," he says, "in which they were originally published." They are prefaced by him with the following observations:

"The king, influenced by a strong desire to promote the honour of God, and the worship of Christ, in those parts, summoned a council of the entire clergy of Ireland to meet at Cashel. And there, the enormities and filthy practices of the people of that land having been inquired into and enumerated publicly and also carefully committed to writing, under the seal of the bishop of Lismore, the legate, who then ranked in dignity above the rest there present, he issued several sacred enactments, which are still upon record, concerning the contract of marriage, the payment of tithes, the honouring of churches with due devoutness, and attending at hem with frequency; these things he did endea

vouring withal by every possible means to reduce the state of that Church to the model of the Church of England."*

The legate here spoken of was Christian bishop of Lismore, who presided as the pope's agent in this council. The enactments after having been subscribed to, were confirmed by the king's authority. According to Giraldus, they were as follows:

I. That all the faithful in Ireland, desisting from connexions within the prohibited degrees of kindred and affinity, shall henceforth confine themselves to legitimate marriages.

II. That children shall be catechized, [i.e. their godfathers should be interrogated †] at the church door, and baptized in the holy font at churches where baptisms are allowed to take place.

III. That all the faithful of Christ shall pay tithes of their cattle, corn, and other produce, to the church of the parish to which they belong.

IV. That all Church lands, and property on them, shall be entirely free from all exactions of laymen. And in particular that no petty princes,

* Girald. Camb. Hib. Expug. Pars. I. cap. xxxiii.

t Collier Ec. Hist. Book V.

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