No. XLI.

BULL OF POPE INNOCENT VIII. CONFIRMING THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH IN GALWAY.

Some portions of this curious document have been already submitted to the reader's notice at p. 672 of the present work. The larger extracts here subjoined will throw somewhat of additional light on the circumstances connected with it; although indeed with all the information which can be gleaned from existing records in regard to the whole matter, the contents and purport of this bull appear to be involved, after all, in no small obscurity. The passages which follow will be found in De Burgo, Hib. Dom. pp. 440 seqq. notes; where the bull in question is entitled "a Diploma of P. Innocent VIII., for constituting, or rather confirming the constitution of, the District or Wardenship of Galway."

"Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the perpetual memory of the matter herein treated of."

"Now it hath been represented to us in a petition lately set forth on behalf of our beloved children the entire parishioners of the parish church of S. Nicholas of the town of Galway, in the diocese of Enaghdune, that our venerable brother Donogh [O'Murray] Archbishop of Tuam, (who is known to be governor of the church of Enaghdune, united permanently to that of Tuam,) having taken some time since into his attentive consideration,

that the parishioners of the said church of S. Nicholas were modest and civilized men, having their habitation in a walled or fortified town, and that they did not practice the same customs as the wild and mountainous people of those parts were in the habit of using; and that they were so harassed by the outrages of daily occurrence, committed by people of that wild mountain race aforesaid, on the Vicarage of the said church of St. Nicholas, (which used heretofore to be ruled over by vicars,) that they were unable to hear divine service, or to receive the Sacraments of the Church, according to the decency, Rite, and custom of England, which they, the said inhabitants, and their ancestors of old had ever been accustomed to follow; and they were kept in a state of disturbance by these ignorant people, at times plundered of their goods and murdered by them, and compelled to bear with divers other losses and injuries in their persons and properties; and were entertaining well-grounded fears of being exposed to evils more serious still in the time to come, unless means were adopted for providing a speedy remedy;-did, by his ordinary authority, in compliance with the appeal of the said parishioners, erect the church of St. Nicholas aforesaid into a collegiate establishment, and ordain therein a College of one Custos and eight presbyters; and did also for their maintenance apply and appropriate

to the capitular table of the said church of St. Nicholas, the fruits, revenues, and profits of the vicarage aforesaid, &c. &c. .; and did by the same authority ordain, that the said church of St. Nicholas, erected into a College, as is premised, should for the future be ruled and governed, not by a single vicar, but by the aforesaid eight presbyters or vicars, civilized, virtuous, and learned men, and by one Warden, or Custos, all holding the English rite and order in the celebration of divine service.

"In pursuance whereof, an humble supplication has been presented to us on behalf of the said parishioners, requesting that we would vouchsafe to grant the erection, donation, &c. . . . aforesaid, the sanction of our confirmation.

.. to

"We therefore, lending a favourable ear to the application in question . . do confirm and ratify by the tenor of these presents, and by our apostolic authority the erection, donation, &c. . . . above mentioned, and the arrangement that the aforesaid church of St. Nicholas thus erected into a collegiate institution, according to the ordinance aforesaid, of the said archbishop, shall be ruled and governed for ever hereafter by the said eight presbyters, civilized, virtuous, and learned men, accustomed to the use of the Anglican Rite and system in the celebration of divine offices. . . &c., &c."

It is further enacted in this bull that the eight presbyters or vicars should be chosen and presented for institution into permanent office to the Warden, by the Mayor and other municipal authorities; and in like manner the Warden was to be chosen by the same patrons, and presented by them to the eight vicars, to be by them inducted into his office, which was to last but for one year. During such a period was he invested with pastoral sway over the eight vicars, as well as the laity of the said parish.

the church

Enaghdun (now Annadown) is an ecclesiasti- Origin of cal foundation of very considerable antiquity, of Enaghsituated on the east brink of Lough Corrib, (the dun.

ancient Lough Orbsen,) in Galway. The earliest remaining record connected with it informs us, that "Aodha, the son of Eochy Tirmcharna, King of Connaught, bestowed Enachdun on God and Breanuinn,' ""* i. e. S. Brendan of Clonfert, who died in 577. No mention however occurs of the existence of any episcopal see in the place before the latter part of the 12th century. It was not one of the five bishoprics named for Connaught in the Synod of Rathbreasail; but the see of Cong which occurs in the enumeration adopted in that assembly, and which soon after ceased to exist, (at least under that name,) may have had its episcopal chair transferred to Annadown, which was but a few miles distant. Its elevation The first authentic mention of a prelate belonging to the see occurs in the accounts remaining of the coronation of Richard I. in the church of Westminster, on Sep. 3, 1189, when there were present "John Cumin, Abp. of Dublin, Albin O'Mulloy, Bp. of Ferns, and Concors, Bp. of Enaghdune." Eleven years later, we have in The Four Masters, at A.D. 1201, the death of

to the con

dition of an episcopal

see.

Book of Ballymote, p. 54. See the " Chorographical Description of West or h-Iar Connaught, written A.D. 1684, by Roderic O'Flaherty, Esq., author of the Ogygia, edited from a MS. in the Library of T.C.D., with notes and illustrations by James Hardiman, M.R.I.A. Dublin, for the Irish Archæological Society. 1846." pp. 154, 155. See also 2 Cor. viii. 5.

1189.

Lanigan, iv. 318, where the authority cited is Ware, Annals, at

"Conn O'Mellaigh (O'Malley) bishop of Enaghdun, and a bright ornament of the Church;" and again, at A.D. 1241, the death of "Muircheartach O'Flaherty, bishop of Enachdun."

of the dio

cesc.

The episcopal district connected with the Extent, &c. church of Enaghdun appears to have been originally coextensive with the seigniory of the O'Flaherties, whose territory before the year 1235 embraced a large tract of country lying on the east of Lough Corrib, and of the town and river of Galway. But when this part of Ireland was planted with castles by the English at the period referred to, the O'Flaherties were driven to extend their settlements toward the west, where their district of Iar-Connaught was 66 confined to the limits of Moycullin and Ballinahinsy barony's, and of the half baronys of Ross and Aran ;"* while the diocese of Annadown came thenceforth to be regarded as an English interest, and the maintaining of a line of bishops there, independent of the see of Tuam, (as far as any others in the province) a favoured object of the English princes.

Flin obtains

On the death of bishop O'Flaherty above- Flo. Mac mentioned, another named Concors was conse- the annexacrated for his successor in Enaghdun.

But tion of

* See O'Flaherty's h-Iar Connaught, by Hardiman, (ut sup.) pp. 1-6 and 247.