faith, upon whom the Church is builded as upon Peter, whose apostleship also he hath obtained from God, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against him;" yea Christ is there said to have "chosen him for his vicar upon earth." His see likewise of Armagh, is by one Calvus Perennis in the days of Brian king of Ireland, who was slain, as appeareth by Marianus' in the year MXIV. termed them city apostolick. So Desiderius bishop of Cahors in France, is by our countryman Gallus saluted both Papa" and Apostolicus: and the bishop of Kildare in Ireland, honoured by Cogitosus, with the style of Summus Sacerdos, and Summus Pontifex, the highest priest and the highest bishop; those titles and prerogatives, which the pope now peculiarly challengeth unto himself, as ensigns of his monarchy, being heretofore usually communicated unto other bishops, when the universal church was governed by way of Aristocracy.

* Christus illum sibi elegit in terris vicarium. Hymn. in aud. S. Patricii.

1 Brianus rex Hiberniæ, parasceve paschæ, sexta feria, Ix. calend. Maii, manibus et mente ad Deum intentus necatur. Marian. Scot. See Caradoc of Lhancarran, in the Chronicle of Wales, pag. 80.

m Sanctus Patricius iens ad cœlum, mandavit totum fructum laboris sui (tam baptismi, tam causar um, quam eleemosynarum) deserendum esse apostolicæ urbi, quæ Scotice nominatur Arddmacha. Sic repperi in bibliothecis Scotorum. Ego scripsi, id est, Calvus Perennis, in conspectu Briani imperatoris Scotorum. Ex vet. Cod. Ecclesiæ Armachanæ.

n Domino semper suo, et apostolico patri, Desiderio papæ, Gallus peccator. ⚫ Cogitos. in vit. Brigid. tom. 5. antiqu. lect. Henr. Canisii, pag. 625. lin. ult.

P Ibid. pag. 640. lin. 2.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Pope's spiritual júrisdiction; and how little footing it had gotten at first within these parts.

MASTER Campion telleth us, that "when Ireland first received Christendom, they gave themselves into the jurisdiction both spiritual and temporal of the See of Rome." But herein he speaketh without book, of the spiritual jurisdiction untruly, of the temporal absurdly. For from the first legation of Palladius and Patricius, who were sent to plant the faith in this country, it cannot be shewed out of any monument of antiquity, that the bishop of Rome did ever send any of his legates to exercise spiritual jurisdiction here, much less any of his deputies to exercise jurisdiction temporal, before Gillebertus, "quem aiunt prima functum legatione apostolicæ sedis per universam Hiberniam;" saith one that lived in his own time, even Bernard himself in the life of Malachias. One or two instances peradventure may be alleged out of some obscure authors, whose names, and times, and authority no man can tell us news of: but unless that which is delivered by Bernard, as the tradition that was current in his time, can be controlled by some record that may appear to have been written before his days, we have small reason to detract any thing from the credit of so clear a testimony.

This country was heretofore, for the number of holy men that lived in it, termed the Island of Saints: of that innumerable company of saints, whose memory was reverenced here, what one received any solemn canonization

a Edm. Camp. History of Ireland. lib. 2. cap. 2.

from the pope, before Malachias archbishop of Armagh, and Laurence of Dublin? who lived, as it were, but the other day. We read of sundry archbishops that have been in this land, betwixt the days of St. Patrick and of Malachias, what one of them can be named that ever sought for a pall from Rome? Joceline, indeed, a late monk of the abbey of Furness, writeth of St. Patrick, that the bishop of Rome conferred the pall upon him, together with the execution of legatine power in his room. But he is well known to be a most fabulous author and for this particular, Bernard (who was his ancient) informeth us far otherwise: that "from the very beginning until his time, the metropolitical See of Armagh wanted the use of the pall;" with whom the author of the annals of Mailros doth fully accord; nothing that “ind the year MCLI. pope Eugenius (the same to whom Bernard did write his books De consideratione) did by his legate John Papiron transmit four palls into Ireland, whither a pall before had never been brought." And therefore Giraldus Cambrensis, howsoever he acknowledgeth that St. Patrick did" choose Armagh for his seat, and did appoint it to be as it were a metropolitical See, and the proper place of the primacy of all Ireland;" yet doth he affirm withal, that in very deed "there were no archbishops in Ireland, but that bishops only did consecrate one another, until Johannes Papirio (or Paparo)

b Pallio decoravit, illique vices suas committens atque legatum suum constituens, quæcunque in Hibernia gesserat, constituerat, disposuerat, auctoritatis suæ munimine confirmavit. Jocelin. vit. Patric. cap. 166.

с

c Metropolitica sedi deerat adhuc, et defuerat ab initio pallii usus. Bernard. vit. Malach.

d Anno 1151. papa Eugenius quatuor pallia per legatum suum Johannem Papirum transmisit in Hiberniam, quo nunquam antea pallium delatum fuerat. Annal Cœnobii Melros. MS. in bibliotheca Cottoniana.

e Apud Ardmacham sibi sedem elegit; quam etiam quasi metropolim constituit et proprium totius Hiberniæ primatiæ locum. Girald. Cambr. Topograph. Hibern. distinct. 3. cap. 16.

f Archiepiscopi vero in Hibernia nulli fuerant; sed tantum se episcopi invicem consecrabant: donec Johannes Papyrio Romanæ sedis legatus, non multis retro annis advenit. Hic quatuor pallia in Hiberniam portavit, &c. Ibid. cap. 17.

the pope's legate brought four palls thither:" whereupon some of our chroniclers after him, give this note concerning Gelasius, who was at that time archbishop of Armagh, that "hes is said to have been the first archbishop, because he used the first pall: and that others before him were called archbishops and primates in name only, for the reverence of St. Patrick, as the apostle of that nation."

And indeed it might seem, that the complaint made by Anselm in his letters to Muriardach king of Ireland, that "Bishops here were consecrated by bishops alone," might somewhat justify the truth of Giraldus his relation, if we did not find a further complaint there also, that they were often "ordained by one bishop only." But as this latter argueth not the want of a competent number of bishops in the land (for, as we shall hear presently, they had more than a sufficient number of such) but a neglect of the observance of the canon provided by the Nicene fathers in that behalf: so can it not rightly be inferred out of the former, that we had no archbishops here at that time, but that the bishops rather did fail much in the canonical respect which they ought to shew unto their metropolitan. For that the Irish had their archbishops (beside many other pregnant testimonies that might be produced) pope Hildebrand's own brief doth sufficiently manifest, which is directed "tok Terdeluachus (or Tirlagh) the illustrious king of Ireland, the ARCHBISHOPS, bishops, abbots, nobles, and all Christians inhabiting

Alii vero

Hic primus archiepiscopus dicitur, quia primo pallio usus est. ante ipsum solo nomine archiepiscopi et primates vocabantur; ob reverentiam et honorem Sancti Patricii, tanquam apostoli illius gentis. Pembrigius, author. Annal. Hibern. a Guil. Camdeno edit. Thomas Casæus in Chronic. Hibern. MS. ad ann. 1174.

b Episcopi quoque (qui debent esse forma et exemplum aliis canonicæ religionis) inordinate, sicut audivimus, aut a solis episcopis, aut in locis ubi ordinari non debent, consecrantur. Anselm. lib. 3. epist. 142.

i Dicitur, ab uno episcopo episcopum, sicut quemlibet presbyterum, ordinari. Id. ibid. epist. 147.

k Terdeluacho inclyto regi Hiberniæ, archiepiscopis, episcopis, abbatibus, proceribus, omnibusque Christianis Hiberniam inhabitantibus. Gregor. VII. epist. ad Hibern. MS. in bibliotheca Cotton.

Ireland." And for the archbishops of Armagh in particular, it appeareth most evidently by Bernard, in the life of Malachias, that they were so far from being metropolitans and primates in name only, that they exercised much greater authority before they were put to the charges of fetching palls from Rome, than ever they did afterward; and that they did not only consecrate bishops, but erected also new bishopricks, and archbishopricks too sometimes, according as they thought fitting.

We read in Nennius, that at the beginning St. Patrick founded' here three hundred and sixty-five churches, and ordained three hundred and sixty-five bishops, beside three thousand presbyters. In process of time the number of bishops was daily "multiplied according to the pleasure of the metropolitan," whereof Bernard doth much complain, and that, not only "so far, that every Church almost had a several bishop," but also that in some "towns" or cities there were ordained more than one;" yea and oftentimes "bishops were made without any certain place at all" assigned unto them. And as for the erecting of new archbishopricks, if we believe our legends, "King? Engus and St. Patrick, with all the peo→ ple, did ordain, that in the city and see of Albeus (which is Emly, now annexed to Cashel) should be the archbishoprick of the whole province of Munster." In like

I Ecclesias fundavit CCCLXV. ordinavit episcopos eodem numero CCCLXV. presbyteros autem usque ad tria millia ordinavit. Nenn. histor. Brit. MS.

m Mutabantur et multiplicabantur episcopi pro libitu metropolitani; ita ut unus episcopatus uno non esset contentus, sed singulæ pene Ecclesiæ singulos haberent episcopos. Bernard. vit. Malach.

Quod in villis, vel civitatibus plures ordinantur, Lanfranc. epist. ad Terdeluachum regem Hibern. apud Baron. ann. 1089. num. 16. Lanfranc. op. pag. 320.

• Dicitur, episcopos in terra vestra passim eligi, et sine certo episcopatus loco constitui. Anselm. lib. 3. epist. 147. ad Muriardachum regem Hibern.

P Rex Engus et S. Patricius, cum omni populo, ordinaverunt archiepiscopatum Mumeniæ in civitate et in sede sancti Albei, qui tunc ab eisdem archiepiscopus ordinatus est, per seculum. Ex vita S. Declani. Rex Engus et Patricius ordinaverunt, ut in civitate et cathedra sancti Albei esset archiepiscopatus omnium Memonensium semper. Ex vita S. Albei.