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love the

that there in company with Thy thirsty ones, I too may grace from drink of the living stream of the living Fountain of living on high to water! that so, charmed with its exceeding sweetness, Fountain of I may abide by it for ever, exclaiming, 'O how sweet is Life; the Fountain of living water, whose water never ceases springing up unto everlasting life!' Thou, O, Lord art that true Fountain, for ever and ever to be desired, though [at the same time] ever enjoyed and ever drunk of. Give to us evermore, O Lord Christ, this water, that it may be in us also, a well of water living and springing up unto life everlasting. Great indeed is the boon I seek for, who can doubt it? But Thou, the King of Glory, art wont to give great favours, and hast promised to give them. Nothing can be greater than Thyself, and Thou hast given Thyself to us; Thou hast given Thyself for us. Grant us therefore we beseech Thee, that we may know the object of our love, forasmuch as it is nought else beside Thyself that we are seeking to have bestowed upon us. For Thou art our All, our Life, our Light, our Salvation, our Food, our Drink, our God. Breathe into our hearts I pray Thee, O our [beloved] Jesus, that inspiration of Thy Spirit, and wound our souls with Thy love, that every heart among us may be able to exclaim with truth, Shew me Him that my soul Song of Sol. loveth, for I am wounded with love.'

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v. 8.

still thirst

"Grant O Lord, that these wounds may be in me. and to drink [For] happy is the soul that is so wounded with love. of its waSuch an one seeks the Fountain; such an one drinks of ters, and it; yet while drinking, continues ever thirsty; and [at for fresh the same time] by its longing desires keeps quaffing on; supplies of it drinks unceasingly by continuing its thirst. Thus in them everits love it is ever seeking after Him; and its cure is found in submitting to fresh wounds. And O that these health-giving wounds may penetrate to the inmost recesses of our souls, through the gracious operation of Jesus Christ our God and Lord, the merciful and wise

more.

Physician, who is One with the Father and the Holy
Ghost, for ever and ever.

Amen."

Pope Gre gory VII. to Turlogh

King of Ireland.

A.D. 1084.

doms and powers of

the world to

be subject

to the authority of the succesBors of St. Peter.

No. VIII.

LETTER OF pope gregorY VII. TO TURLOGH O'BRIAN KING OF IRE-
LAND, AND HIS SUBJECTS, CONTAINING THE FIRST EXPRESS PAPAL
CLAIM EVER MADE, TO SUPREMACY, WHETHER SPIRITUAL OR TEM-
PORAL, OVER IRELAND.-(Ex Codice Cotton Sæculi XIII. and
XIV. Claudius A. 1. membr. 4to. no. 6, as quoted in O'Conor's Co-
lumbanus ad Hibernos, No. 2. Seely, Buckingham, 1810, p. 73.

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Gregory bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Turlogh the illustrious king of Ireland, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Nobles, and all Christians inhabiting Ireland, health and Apostolical Benediction.

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Through the entire globe the doctrine of the Lord The king- Jesus hath shed forth its light. For He who hath gone forth as a bridegroom out of His chamber, hath placed His tabernacle in the Sun, and there is none that can be hidden from the glowing heat of His beams. His autho. rity hath laid the foundations of Holy Church in the solid rock, and hath committed to blessed Peter (who derives his venerable name from the rock) the charge of superintending her government; placing her also above all the kingdoms of the earth, and putting into subjection unto her, principalities, and powers, and all that seems possessed of dignity or grandeur in the world; in fulfilment of that prophecy of Isaiah, 'They that spake against Thee shall come to Thee, and bow themselves down to the soles of Thy feet.'

"To blessed Peter therefore, and to his vicars (in the list of whom by the ordinance of Divine Providence, our lot also hath been cast,) the universal Church owes a

readiness to

debt of obedience as well as reverence, which debt, be careful that ye discharge, in a devout spirit of affection to [this] Holy Church of Rome. [And] we furthermore exhort you as our well-beloved children, to practice righteousness, to cherish and maintain the catholic peace Gregory exof the Church, and to draw her closely to yourselves presses his with affectionate esteem, in the arms of your charity. assist the And if there shall occur among you any matters of Irish in any business, in which it may seem worth while to have our matters of aid, give diligence to report them to us without any delay, and your just demands shall with God's assistance might call be conceded to you. Dated Sutrium, 6 Kal. Mar. (24th upon him. Feb.)"

business

where they

No. IX.

OF THE ANCIENT EPISCOPAL SEES OF IRELAND, &c.

pal sees,

of Ireland.

The nature and limits of the present compila- of the antion rendered it necessary that the notices of cient episcoour ancient episcopal sees, Church discipline, Church dis&c. given in the text (pp. 446, seqq., 616-618) cipline, &c., should be of a very brief and cursory character. It may be proper however to introduce here a few more particular matters of detail in illustration of this subject, with copies of some of the most ancient lists of those old sees which are on record, since the date of their settlement in the twelfth century and subsequently.

ber of bi

From all the documents relating to our an- The numcient ecclesiastical affairs which have come down shops in

as indicated

&c.

Ireland very to us, it appears very certain that the number of large in the early ages, bishops who laboured in Ireland in the earliest by Nennius, ages very far exceeded that which was allowed to remain after the settlement referred to. Thus we have seen Nennius (pp. 37, 38) attributing to St. Patrick the ordination of 365 bishops and 3000 presbyters, a number which has been further enlarged by later tradition. Again in the lists of the three orders of the old Irish saints (given at pp. 60, seqq.) we find the first order in St. Patrick's time including 350 bishops; a number which was however soon reduced, as we find the third order in the 7th century comprehending only 100 bishops. A tradition preserved in Keating's History of Ireland states that Aongus king of Munster in St. Patrick's time had two bishops, and ten priests in his household. And St. Columbkille is represented in a composition of great antiquity, ascribed to his cotemporary Dallan Forgaill, as coming to the great convention of Drumcheatt, attended by a company of 20 bishops, 40 priests, 50 deacons, and 30 students.† There may be, no doubt, much exaggeration in all this; but making due allowance for such a consideration, these

The " Tripartite" Life of St. Patrick mentions 370 bishops, and of priests 5000. Colgan, Trias Th. p. 167.

See Keating's Hist. cited in the learned " Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore," by the Rev. Wm. Reeves, Appx. p. 132.

accounts must still go far to prove the fact, that in the age when they first became current, people entertained a prevalent impression that bishops were very numerous in Ireland during the lifetime of her apostle, and that the numerical proportion which they bore to the presbyters was much greater than in after times.

Lloyd's no

consecrated

firmed by

Keating,

With regard to the 365 bishops whose ordi- Bishop nation is ascribed to St. Patrick, the learned bi- tion of the shop Lloyd suggests that "perhaps the meaning 365 bishops might be, that beside those 30 bishops which by St. Pa Patrick ordained for the bishops' sees, he also trick, ordained as many suffragans as there were rural deanries, in each of which there were eight or nine parish priests, taking one deanry with another;"* an opinion which is confirmed by Keat- though coning in a passage of his History where he observes that "the number of bishops that we have noticed above is the less to be wondered at, since we read in ancient books that there was a bishop in Ireland for every deanry" at present.† But appears litthis appears to be only a private and unfounded ant with conceit of these two writers; such a thing as a dis- sound reatribution of the island into 30 bishoprics in the time of St. Patrick or for many centuries afterwards, being no where noticed in our records; and the very notion of rural deanries being a

Hist. Acc. of Church Gov. &c. p. 92. Reeves, ut sup. p. 126. ↑ ib.

tle accord

son.

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