pretending the house of God, we give you our faculty, and grant our license, for to endow the hearing of confessions, and absolving of penitents from all their them with sins, however enormous, and in all cases whatsoever, including those sundry spi- which are mentioned in the Bulla Cone Domini, and even from ritual pow- heresy and schism, and any censures which may have been incurred in ers, &c. consequence of them; and this in in foro conscientiæ merely [as they speak.] We do likewise give you our faculty for preaching, adminis tering the sacraments of the Church, and performing universally, even in profane places, all functions which may be profitable for the welfare of souls, and which are usually exercised by persons of the epis copal order, or by license from them; and in particular, we authorize you to celebrate mass, in fit and convenient places, even before daylight, on portable altars; and for blessing sacerdotal vestments and other matters of the kind; provided only that regard be had to decency in all respects, and to such a degree of propriety as circumstances will in those places admit of, &c." [Then follow privileges connected with marriage, &c.]

Kildare.

THOMAS LEVEROUS having been deprived in 1560, ALEXANDER CRAYKE succeeded by letters patent, and was consecrated by Hugh Curwen, Abp. of Dublin, 1560-1564. He reduced the see of Kildare to very great poverty, and did very much mischief thereto (H. 391)

Ossary.

JOHN BALE having been driven away in 1553, JOHN THONORY was advanced to this see by Queen Mary, and was occupant thereof, 1553-1565. He scraped wealth iniquitously together by impoverishing the see, but afterwards lost his gains by the hands of plunderers (H. 418)

Ferns.

ALEXANDER DEVEREUX, 1539–1566; had been the last abbot of Dunbrody. He was consecrated bishop by George Browne, archbishop of Dublin, and other bishops (H. 445)

JOHN DEVEREUX, 1566-1578; was consecrated by Hugh Curwen (H. 446) Alexander Devereux is charged by Ware with having made several leases in favour of his relatives and others, to the great detriment of his see. In fact, both he and John Devereux are accused of such sacrilegious waste, for the benefit of "their kindred and bastards," by their successor Thomas Ram, bishop in 1612. (H. 445, Mant, i. 375, pp. 872, 873 sup.)

Leighlin.

THOMAS FIELD or O'Fihel, 1555-1567; a Franciscan friar of Cork, was appointed by papal provision in the room of Bp. Travers.

Cashel.

ROLAND BARON, 1553, ob. 1561. Appointed by Q. Mary. His writ of consecration (Nov. 26) was directed to George [i. e. Dowdall] Abp. of Armagh [1543— 1558]; Geo. [Browne] Abp. of Dublin (1535- 1554]; Edwd. [Staples, 15301534] Bp. of Meath; Robt. [Travers, 1550-1555] Bp. of Leighlin; Dominic, [Tirrey, 1536-1556] Bp. of Cork; John [-1551-?] Bp. of Ross; Alexander [Devereux, 1539-1556] Bp. of Ferns; Patk. [Walsh, 1551-1578] Bp. of Lismore and Waterford; and John [?] Bp. of Enaghdun.

After Baron's death, the see remained vacant for seven years.

Then JAMES MAC CAGHWELL, 1567-1570, was appointed by Q. Elizabeth. He was not long after wounded with a skeine, or Irish knife, by Maurice Gibbon, (alias M. Reagh,) whom the pope had just before made his titular archbishop of Cashel, because he would not give up to him the administration of the diocese. Maurice thereupon found it expedient to flee into Spain, where he died in (H. 483, and Loftus MS., A.D. 1567)

1578

Emly.

ENEAS O'HIFFERNAN, 1543-1553, having died, Reymund de Burgh, an Observantin Franciscan friar, succeeded; he died in 1562, and was buried in a Franciscan monastery at Adare. The see was united to Cashel in 1568 (H. 499)

Limerick.

Was

WILLIAM CASEY, succ. 1551, depr. 1556. Succ. iter 1571, ob. 1591. advanced by Edward VI. (his predecessor, John Coyn, having resigned, as being "blind and disabled by infirmities,") and consecrated by Browne Abp. of Dublin, and the Bps. of Kildare, Ferns, and Leighlin, [i. e. Lancaster, 1550-1554. Alexander Devereux, 1539-1566; and R. Travers, 1550-1555 ]

DENIS CAMPBELL was appointed coadjutor by Q. Elizabeth in 1558, Bp. Casey being then very feeble and unequal to the discharge of his episcopal duties. (H. 510)

HUGH LACY was appointed bp. in 1557 by Pope Paul IV. signed in 1571, and was succeeded by Casey

Arüfert.

He however re(H. 511)

JAMES FITZ MAURICE, sed. 1551-1576; seems to have been called also Fitz Richard, and was (it appears) attainted of high treason in or before the 30th of Elizabeth. (Vid. Art. XLVIII. inf., Rot. Canc. 39 Eliz. MS. notes in H. 523) 2 A

VOL. III.

The following entry is found in the Annals of the Four Masters, at the year 1582:

"A gentleman of the Clann Sheehy, i. e. Murtough the son of Edmond, son of Manus, son of Edmond Mac Sheehy, who was along with the sons of Mac Maurice at this time [in their attack upon Ardfert] was slain in the doorway of the monastery of Odorney [Abbey-Odorney, barony of Clanmaurice, Co. Kerry] by the sons of the bishop of Kerry, who were aiding the Queen's people on that occasion." O'Don. p. 1781, who notes rightly that this was James Fitzmaurice, bp. of Ardfert. And a little farther on, in the annals of the same year, again :

"James and Gerald the sons of the bishop of Kerry [James Fitz Maurice, bp. of Ardfert]. were slain by the sons of Edmond Mac Sheehy, in revenge for their brother Murtough, whom the sons of the bishop had slain some time before."O'D. p. 1787.

Again, at A.D. 1583 we read in the same Annals:

"The bishop of Kerry died, namely, James the son of Richard, son of John. This bishop was a vessel full of wisdom. He was of the stock, &c." ... [of some of the first invaders of Ireland, Maurice Fitzgerald, &c,]-O'Donovan, p. 1801.

In connection with such passages as the above, it may be no harm to draw the attention of the unlearned reader to the circumstance, that the Four Masters, zealous as they were for the Church of Rome, had no notion of any other persons, as the "bishop of Kerry," "the archbishop of Tuam," &c., except the lawful prelates who had adopted the reformed religion, and their lawful successors.

Waterford and Lismore.

PATRICK WALSH, 1551–1578; appointed by King Edward VI. (H. 537)

Cork and Cloyne.

DOMINIC TIRREY, 1536-1556, appointed by Henry VIII., was consecrated in 1536 by Edmund Butler, Abp. of Cashel, and the Bps. [-] of Ross, [John Coyn, 1522-1551] of Limerick, and [Thomas Hurley-1542] of Emly.

The pope during his time nominated Lewis Mac Nemarra, a Franciscan friar, in 1540, and (he dying in a few days) afterwards John Hoyeden, canon of Elphin. But Tirrey held the profits and sat about 20 years. He was reckoned a favourer of the changes in religion then in agitation (H. 564)

ROGER SKIDDY, 1557-1566, appointed by Queen Mary, having been previously made Dean of Limerick by Edward VI. in the 6th year of his reign. Mary's appointment, which was made in 1557, was confirmed by Elizabeth in 1562. He resigned in 1566, after which the see was vacant for almost four years (H. 564) RICHD. DIXON, suced. in 1570; and was deprived in 1571 for some cause which is not recorded. (Vid. Loftus MS. in A.D. 1571.)

MATTHEW SHEYN, succ. 1572. He was a great enemy to the superstitious veneration paid by the people to images; and as an instance of his zeal against

them, publicly burned at the high cross of Cork the image of St. Dominic, to the great grief of the superstitious people of that place. He died in 1582 or, 3. (H. 564)

Ross.

DERMOT MAC DOMNUIL was bp. of Ross in 1544, and died in 1552. One John is found named as bishop of the see in 1551.

THOMAS O'HERLIHY, called bp. of Ross by a papal title in 1563, resigned in 1570. This bishop assisted at the Council of Trent in 1563, together with the bishops Donatus, styled of Raphoe, and Eugene, styled of Achonry.

In fact it seems manifest that these prelates received their appointment at Rome chiefly with a view, in the first instance, to their assisting the pope, and strengthening his cause in the council in question. In the records of that council we find it noted that the promotion of all three took place in the same month, of May, 1562. That of Eugene O'Hairt, and Thomas Oyerlaitte, (as he is there called,) being dated on the 25th of the said month; and that of "Donatus Magongiall" on the 15th of the same, which may be a misprint for the 25th; if one may guess it to be probable that they were all promoted on the same day. (Vid. Labbe & Coss. Concil. T. XIV. col. 931, et marg. ibid. De Burgo Hib. Dom. p. 104, and H. 588) But it is certain from inspection of the list of prelates given in the preceding article, that the lawful bishop of Ross, in the year 1560, was one of those who were present in the parliament holden in Dublin that year, and who gave their sanction to the legal establishment of the reformed religion in this country.

Killaloe.

CORNELIUS O'DEA, 1546-1555 was appointed by Henry VIII. TERENCE O'BRIEN succeeded in the reign of Q. Mary, and governed the see until the end of 1566. How long after is unknown.

MAURICE O'BRIEN (or Moriertach, or Morgan O'Brien Arra) was appointed by Q. Elizabeth in 1572. After receiving the profits of his see for six years without consecration, he was at last consecrated, and sat about 36 years after. He died in 1613, having voluntarily resigned his bishopric about a year before (H. 595)

"See a letter written by him before his consecration (the 24th of Oct. 1572) to the Lord Treasurer Burghley, concerning Malachy O'Molana, who was labouring to obtain the same bishopric, and for that purpose had recanted the errors of Popery, and submitted to the Queen, 28th of February, 1572. This Malachy styles himself, quondam Ardachaden. Episcopus Hibernus, and the object of O'Brien's letter is to shew that his recantation and submission were insincere. Strype's Life of Abp. Parker, App. B. 4, Nos. LXXXVII. and LXXXIII." (MS. n. ib.) The name of O'Molana does not however occur among those of the bishops of Ardagh mentioned by Ware; in whose list the order of succession of the bps. pre

ceding P. Mac Mahon above-named is as follows:-Owen, Domn. friar, by provn. of Pope Jul. II., succ. 1508, sed 1530; how much longer is unknown. Rd. Ferral, succ. 1541, ob. 1553; consecd. by commission from Geo. Cromer (then infirm.) Patk. Mac Mahon then succeeded, ut sup. (See Ardagh).. (H. 255)

It appears that "in 1518, Sir Rory O'Moloyne, a priest of ye diocese of Clonmacnoise, a pretended bp. elect of Ardagh, was cited to shew cause, why he took upon him to exercise ye authority of bishop of ye said see, and for non-appearance before ye metropolitical court of Armagh, was decreed contumacious, suspended, and upon previous admonition to be excommunicated. He was afterwards reconciled, and received the subcustodium of this bishopric [of Ardagh] from the vicargeneral of Armagh, and agreed with him for ye fees of ye court." (MS. n. in H. 255)

Tnam.

CHRISTOPHER BODEKEN (als. Bodkyn) was consecrated Bp. of Kilmacduagh at Marseilles in France, and translated by favour of Henry VIII. to the abpk. of Tuam in 1536. He died at Tuam full of days in 1572 .. (H. 615) The Four Masters thus notice his death, A.D. 1572, The Archbishop of Tuam, Christopher Bokdin, died, and was interred at Galway."

Bilfenura.

MAURICE O'BRIEN succeeded by papal provision in 1491. A MAURICE was also bp. in 1523; whether the same Maurice, is not certain. JOHN O'HINALAN was bp. in 1552. One JOHN was also bp. in 1570. One "DANIEL" in 1585 (H. 624) The Four Masters, at A.D. 1572, have this notice. "The bishop of Kilfenora, (John Oge, the son of John, son of Auliffe O'Niallain [Neylan,]) teacher of the Word of God, died, and was interred in Kilfenora itself."-O'Donovan's Four Masters, p. 1657.

Elphin.

CONAT O'SIAGAL, chaplain to Manus O'Donel, was advanced by Henry VIII. in 1544. BERNARD O'HIGGIN, a Dominican friar, succeeded by pope's provision, and was alive in 1552.. (H. 633) ROLAND DE BURGO, bp. of Clonfert, took the administration by grant of Edward VI. in 1552, and died very old in 1580 (H. 634)

Clonfert.

RICHARD NANGLE, 1536, was promoted by Henry VIII., having been Provincial of the Augustin Hermits in Ireland. He was a great sufferer by Roland