the monarch Tordelvach himself, the clergy, on a renewal of their solicitations, procured the release of Roderic from his fetters.*

One of the last acts of the life of Tordelvach the Great, as he is flatteringly styled by his historians, was to receive hostages from the King of North Munster, in acknowledgment of his sovereignty; a few months after which act of power he died,† having left all his precious effects, consisting of jewellery and vessels of gold and silver, his horses and flocks, his bow, quiver, every thing, except his sword, shield, and drinkingcup, to be distributed among the different churches, together with sixty-five ounces of gold and sixty marks of silver. It was also ordered, in his will, that his body should be deposited near the altar of St. Kieran, in the great church of Clonmacnoise.

In the year 1152, was held the great Synod, or National Council, of Kells, at which Cardinal Paparo, as the legate of Pope Eugene III., presided, and distributed the A. D. palliums brought by him from Rome to the four several Archbishops, according to 1152. their order of precedency, of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam. To procure this distinction for the metropolitan heads of the Irish church had long been a favourite object with that holy and eminent Irishman, St. Malachy, who, in his great anxiety to accomplish this object, had, himself, about the year 1139, being then Bishop of Down,‡ repaired to Rome, and obtained from Pope Innocent II., by whom he was most distinguishingly received, a conditional promise to that effect.

It was in the course of this journey that the saint, resting on his way, both in going and returning, at the celebrated Abbey of Clairvaux, formed that friendship with the famous St. Bernard, the cordiality of which reflected honour on both, and of which there remains so interesting a monument, in the life of our eminent bishop, written by St. Bernard. Approving of the system followed at Clairvaux, Malachy had left there some of his companions to be instructed in the regulations and practices of the establishment,|| and it was by these Irishmen, on their return to their own country, accompanied by some monks of Clairvaux, that the Cistercian House of Mellifont, in the now county of Louth, the first of that order known in Ireland, was founded. On the accession of Eugene III. to the holy see, Malachy, who had never lost sight of his favourite object of the palliums, conceiving that the new pope, who had been a monk of Clairvaux, and a disciple of St. Bernard, would be inclined to favour his wishes, set out for France, with the hope of finding him at Clairvaux, to which scene of his humble days the pontiff had at this time paid a visit. But being delayed in sailing from England, owing to an order of King Stephen, who, in consequence of a dispute with the pope, would not suffer any bishop to pass over, Malachy arrived at Clairvaux too late for his object; and being, soon after, seized with a severe and fatal illness, breathed his last in that abbey, exhibiting a calm and spiritual cheerfulness in his dying moments, of which his friend St. Bernard has left a minute and touching description. T

Besides the distribution of the palliums, the chief affairs that appear to have occupied

* This record of Roderic's captivity had escaped, it appears, the accurate research of Dr. Lanigan. "I do not well understand (he says) what the Inisfallen annals have about Roderic O'Connor's captivity; but Harris (Bishops, at Tuam, Muredach O'Dubhal) says, from certain anonymous annals, that he had been taken prisoner by Tiernan O'Ruarck." Harris, though right as to the fact of the captivity and the date, is wrong, as we see, in his statement of the circumstances. Mr. Whitty (Hist. of Ireland, chap. iii) has but amplified Harris's error.

The date of the death of this monarch is stated variously by different writers. "Le pere Bruodine," says Mac Geoghegan, “place la mort de Terdelach en 1144, Keating en 1150, Gratianus Lucius et O'Flaherty en 1156, et Wareus en 1157."

t Ledwich represents him, erroneously, as being still Archbishop of Armagh, at the time when he applied for the palls.

"The pope took off his mitre, and put it on the head of Malachy, as a token of the reverence he bore him. He also made him a present of the stole and maniple, which he was wont to use in the celebration of divine offices, and dismissed him with the kiss of peace, and the apostolical benediction."-Harris on Ware's Bishops.

From one of the letters of St. Bernard to Malachy, preserved in Usher's Sylloge, it appears that the Irish bishop had, in sending over some others of his countrymen to Clairvaux, entreated that two of those whom he had left behind might be allowed to return to Ireland. To this request St. Bernard, in his answer, objects, not thinking it advisable to separate them so soon from their companions. "When sufficiently instructed," he adds, "in the school of the Holy Spirit, they shall return to their father, and sing the canticles of the Lord, no longer in a foreign land but in their own."-" Ut cantent canticum Domini, non jam in terrâ aliena, sed in suâ."

THe was undoubtedly," says Dr. Lanigan, "the greatest, the holiest, and the most disinterested, of the bishops of his times. St. Bernard, a truly competent judge, could scarcely find words to express his admiration of him."-Chap. 27. § 12.

The name of this eminent Irish ecclesiastic, St. Malachy, is indebted, chiefly for the fame it still maintains on the continent to a work very generally attributed to him, but of which he was certainly not the author, containing a collection of mystic prophecies respecting the popes. One of the last alleged instances of the accomplishment of any of these prophecies took place on no less recent an occasion than the journey of Pius VI. to Germany, in 1782. The connexion of Malachy's name with this book has given rise to a number of writings relating to him; and, among others, there is one by Jean Germano, mixing up the true man with the counterfeit, entitled, Vita, Gesti e Predizioni del Padre San. Malachia.

the attention of the Synod of Kells were some enactments against simony and usury, as well as against the prevalence of marriage and concubinage among the clergy. There was also promulgated, among the acts at this council, an order from the cardinal, in virtue of his apostolic authority, for the payment of tithes,†—the first introduction, as it appears, of that perennial source of discord into this country.‡

Among the numerous devices resorted to by a certain religious party in Ireland, one of the most favourite has been to misrepresent the history of the Irish church; and as if in contrast to the docile submission which the church of England, from the first, paid to Rome, to hold forth the ecclesiastical system established in Ireland, as having been, till within a short period of the English invasion, entirely independent of the See of Rome. The attempt of the learned and, undoubtedly, conscientious Usher, to prove that the opinions held by the early Irish church, on most of the leading points of religious doctrine and discipline, differed essentially from those maintained at that period by all the other Christian churches of the West,§ formed a part, and, from his name and character, by far the most imposing part, of this bold controversial enterprise.

As a school and depository for these supposed anti-Roman doctrines, Dr. Ledwich, at a later period, devised his scheme of an establishment of Culdees at Iona; and, in order to get rid of connexion with Rome altogether, endeavoured, as far as his meagre grounds would permit him, to inculcate the notion that the Christianity of the Irish was of Asiatic origin,-making efforts almost as fantastic to orientalize their church, as Vallancey was, about the same time, employing to make Asiatics of themselves. A part of the system thus fictitiously supported was to represent the clergy at that time as divided into two distinct parties, the Roman and the Anti-Roman; and so little scrupulous was Ledwich in his mode of farthering this object, that, in speaking of the tract, "De Statu Ecclesiæ," written by Gilibert, Bishop of Limerick,¶ he describes it as addressed "to the dissident bishops and presbyters of Ireland," whereas the tract in question is expressly addressed to" the bishops and presbyters of all Ireland."

To those who have examined, with any degree of fairness, our ecclesiastical annals, it is needless to say that for the notions thus hazarded there exist not any valid grounds. As an instance of early reference to Rome, it has been shown, in a former part of this work, that on a question of discipline arising, so far back as about the beginning of the seventh century, which divided the opinions of the Irish church, reference was made, according to a canon so prescribing, to the authority of Rome, as "the Head of Cities," and a decision, in accordance with that authority, adopted. It is true, from the secluded position of Ireland, and still more from the ruin brought upon all her religious establishments during the long period of the Danish wars, the intercourse with Rome must have been not unfrequently interrupted, and the powers delegated to the prelate of Armagh, as legatus natus, or, by virtue of his office, legate of the holy see, may, in such intervals, have served as a substitute for the direct exercise of the papal authority. But that the Irish church has ever, at any period, been independent of the spiritual power of Rome, is a supposition which the whole course of our ecclesiastical history contradicts. On the contrary, it has been frequently a theme of high eulogium upon this country, as well among foreign as domestic writers, that hers is the only national church in the world which has kept itself pure from the taint of heresy and schism.**

* It was surely unworthy of Dr. Lanigan, besides being short-sighted, as a matter of policy, to suppress all mention, as he has done in his account of this council, of the above enactment against the marriage and concubinage of the clergy. He has himself, in another part of his work (chap. 32. s. 8.,) referred to some canons of the Irish church, relating to the marriage of monks and clerks, which, combined with other proofs, leaves not a doubt that on this point of discipline some of the Irish clergy followed the example set them at that time by their reverend brethren on the continent.

Annals of Cluain aidneach, quoted by Keating." On this point," says Dr. Lanigan, “he was very badly obeyed; for it is certain that tithes were, if at all, very little exacted in Ireland till after the establishment of the English power." Chap. 27. § xv.

Before this time there occurs no mention, I believe, in our annals, of any other sources of ecclesiastical revenue than those Termon, or free lands, set apart for the support of the several churches, the tribute paid to the see of Armagh under the name of Rair Patraice, or the Law of St. Patrick, and a similar tribute to Derry called Rair Coluimh Cille. The word Termon is evidently derived from the Latin Terminus, which was likewise used to signify church lands in the middle ages. Thus, in a decree of Lotharius III., a. D. 1132, cited by Ducange. "Ecclesiam parochialem S. Servatii solam in Trajectensi urbe habere decimas et terminum.” It is amusing to observe, that the only result of Ireland's connexion with Rome which our reverend antiquary, Ledwich, can bring himself to approve, is the introduction from thence of tithes; "than which," he adds, "human wisdom never yet discovered a more equitable and less burdensome provision for the clergy."Antiq. On the State of the Irish Church, &c.

See, for remarks on Usher's Treatise, chap. ii., p. 237.

Ledwich was not original in this fancy; as, long before his time, Thomas Rivius is known to have contended that "ante Henrici II. in Hiberniam adventum Romano more in Hibernia non vivebatur sed Græco." See, for this Treatise, Usher's Sylloge.

** Thus Thomas Bosius, " Nulla gens e Borealibus tamdiu mansit in unanimi religionis huius consensu ut Scotia.... agitur itaque annus 1350 ex quo Scoti Christi cultum sunt amplexati et in eo constantes fuere,

A. D.

On the death of the monarch, Tordelvach, his son, Roderic O'Connor, succeeded him in the throne of Connaught, while the supreme authority passed, without any contest, into the hands of Murtogh O'Lochlin,* King of Ulster, and was by him 1136. wielded with a far more decisive and absolute grasp than by any of the titular monarchs who had preceded him. Though, with the exception of some slight show of rebellion in Ulster, which was without difficulty put down, no resistance was opposed to the new monarch's accession, he wisely anticipated any that might arise by displaying the means he possessed of encountering it; and marching his army through the greater part of Ulster, and likewise of Leinster, received the submission of the different chiefs. By Roderic O'Connor pretensions were, for some time, put forth to, at least, a share in the sovereign power; and, as a leading step towards this object, he demanded hostages from the Kings of Leinster and Munster. But we see here an instance of the constant state of uncertainty in which all the political relations of the country were kept by such endless changing and parcelling out of the supreme power; for it is stated that the King of South Munster, when called upon for hostages by Roderic, declared that he A. D. would only consent to give him these suretics in case O'Lochlin should not prove 1157. strong enough to defend him if he refused them. In the same year, as the annalists tell us, a fleet was collected by the King of Connaught, on the Shannon, "such as, for the number and size of the ships, had never till that day been seen."

After some trials, however, of his strength against the monarch, attended with the usual lavish waste of life, Roderic consented to deliver up hostages, and a peace was concluded between them, in the year 1161, when O'Lochlin conceded to his liegeman, in form, the whole of that fifth part of the kingdom, named Connaught; and, at the same time, on a similar act of submission from Dermot, King of Leinster, the possession of this fifth part of the ancient pentarchy was, in like manner, awarded to that prince. Then was it, say the Four Masters, that Murtogh O'Lochlin was King of Erin, without opposition or reluctance.

1155.

In his transactions with the chieftains of his own province, the monarch was far less successful; and a violent contention between him and Eochad, the King of Ulidia, A. D. though carried with a high hand by O'Lochlin, at the commencement, proved ultimately his ruin. The Ulidian prince having, in revenge for some alleged injuries, overrun and laid waste the royal territory of Dalriada, the monarch, incensed at these proceedings, marched a great army into Ulidia, destroying every thing by fire and sword, except the churches; and having declared Eochad to be dispossessed of his kingdom, carried off the chief nobles of Ulidia to Armagh. Through the mediation, shortly after, of the primate and the Prince of Orgial, Eochad was pardoned and restored to his kingdom; and the Ulidian nobles, on surrendering their children to O'Lochlin, as hostages, were permitted to return home.

To the terms of reconciliation agreed upon between the two kings they had both solemnly pledged themselves, before the altar of Armagh, "on the holy staff of St. Patrick, and the relics of all the saints." Notwithstanding which, in the following year, whether from any capricious return of old hostility, or suspected grounds for new, the monarch caused Eochad to be suddenly seized, and had his eyes put out; while, at the same time, he gave orders that three of the leading chiefs of Dalriada, confidential and devoted friends of the king, should be put to death. Familiarized as was the public mind to acts of outrage and cruelty, the total want of assignable grounds for this burst of barbarism caused its atrocity to be more than usually felt. By the prince of Orgial, in particular, who had been one of the guarantees of the treaty, so savage a violation of its engagements was, with the keenest ire, resented and revenged. Raising an army in his own principality, and being joined by the forces of Hy-Bruin and Conmacne, he attacked the monarch, with superior numbers, at Litterluin, a wild tract in the neigh

at hoc nulli aliæ genti e Borealibus evenit."-De signis Eccles. c. 1. Peter Lombard, in like manner, citing Jonas (in Vit. Sanct. Columb,) says "De hac gente duo ita reliquit annotata: unum quod absque reliquarum gentium legibus vivat,' alterum quod nihilominus in Christiani vigoris dogmate florens, omnium vicinarum gentium fidem præpolleat.'"

* I have followed Lynch (Cambrensis Eversus,) in exempting this monarch from the list of kings who reigned with resistance or reluctance. "Ut saltem ille ex Hiberniæ regibus Malachiam Secundum secutis rex Hiberniæ citra renitentiam appellari possit." The Four Masters, however, withhold this distinction from him till the year 1061, calling him, in the interim, King of Erin "co fresabhra." See their annals, ad an. 1157. Neither Keating nor Ware include him in their list of the kings of Ireland; while Colgan not only admits him to that rank, but passes the following high eulogium upon him:-"Rex Hiberniæ et Hibernorum excellentissimus formæ præstantiâ, generis nobilitate, animi indole et in rebus agendis prosperitate." † IV. Mag. ad an. 1157.

1 IV. Mag. ad an. 1161. "Ri Er. dan cen fresabhra Muircert. ua Lachlamn don cur sin."

§ IV. Mag. ad. an. 1165.

Ibid. 1156.

T Now called the Fews.

bourhood of Lough Neagh, where, after having seen the flower of his nobility fall around him, O'Lochlin was himself slain.

In the course of the reign of this active monarch, who stands distinguished as a munificent friend of the Church, there was held some synods at different places, of A. D. which the transactions and decisions belong fully as much to temporal as to 1156. ecclesiastical history. Thus, at a great synod,* at Mellifont, in the year 1157, convoked for the purpose of consecrating the church of that place, there were present, besides the primate, Gelasiust and a numerous body of the clergy, the monarch himself, and a number of provincial kings. After the consecration of the church, the whole assembly, lay and clerical, proceeded to inquire into some charge brought against Melaghlin, King of Meath; and, on his being found guilty of the alleged offence, he was first excommunicated by the clergy, and then deprived of his principality by the monarch and the other princes.

On this occasion, the king gave, as a pious offering for his soul, to God and the monks of Mellifont, 140 oxen or cows, 60 ounces of gold, and a town-land, near Drogheda, called Finnavair of the Daughters. Sixty ounces of gold were also presented by Carrol, Prince of Oriel, and as many more by Dervorgilla, the celebrated wife of the Prince of Breffny,the fair Helen, to whose beauty and frailty romantic history has attributed the invasion of Ireland by the English. This lady presented, likewise, on that occasion, a golden chalice for the altar of the Virgin, together with sacred vestments and ornaments for each of the nine other altars that stood in the church.

In the year 1158, was held another synod, at a place in Meath, called Brigh-Thaig, at which, after various enactments relating to discipline and morals, it was resolved that Derry should be raised to the rank of a regular episcopal see; and, a few years after, the synod of Clane conferred upon Armagh, more fully than it had ever before been enjoyed by that school, the rank and privilege of a university, by ordering that in future no person should be admitted a Professor of Theology in any church in Ireland, unless he had previously pursued his studies for some time at Armagh.‡

A. D.

1166.

On the death of Murtogh O'Lochlin, the supremacy reverted to the house of O'Connor; and Roderic, the son of the monarch Tordelvach, was in a short time recognised throughout the country as king of all Ireland. One of his first measures on his accession had been to march with a sufficient force to Dublin, and secure the allegiance of the Dano-Irish of that city; over which he then reigned, say the annalists, in more worthy state than ever king of the Irish had reigned there before. From thence, being joined by a considerable number of the inhabitants, he directed his royal progress northward, and received in turn the submission of all the leading chieftains of Leath-Cuinn.

Being now recognised through all the provinces as monarch, Roderic assembled a great convention of the princes and clergy at Athboy, among the number of whom A. D. were the primate Gelasius and the illustrious St. Lawrence O'Toole. This good 1167. and great man, who was destined to act, as we shall find, a distinguished part in the coming crisis of his country's fate, possessed qualities, both of mind and heart, which would have rendered him an ornament to any community, however advanced in civilization and public virtue. Besides these heads of the clergy, there were also at this meeting the Kings of Ulidia and Meath, Tiernan O'Ruarc, Prince of Breffny, Donchad O'Carrol, Prince of Oriel, together with a number of other princes and nobles, attended by their respective forces of horse and foot, to the amount, as stated, of more than 30,000 men.||

By some modern historians, this great convention at Athboy is represented as a grand and national revival of the ancient Feis, or Triennial Meeting of the States;¶ and it has been remarked,-with but too much justice, on such a supposition,-how melancholy was the pride exhibited by this now doomed people, in thus calling up around them the forms and recollections of ancient grandeur, at the very moment when even their existence, as an independent nation, was about to be extinguished for ever. But there is

* IV. Mag. ad an. 1157. Said by the Four Masters to have been held at Drogheda, but meaning, as is sup posed, in the monastery of Mellifont, which is near that town.-See Ware (Bishops) at Gelasius. †The Irish name of this distinguished prelate (for an account of whom see Ware, in loc. citat.) was Gilla Mac Lieg.

IV. Mag. ad an. 1162. "Communibus suffragiis sanciretur ne ullus in posterum per totam Hiberniam in aliqua ecclesia ad sacre pagine professionem sive ad Theologiam publicè docendam admittatur, qui non prius Armachanam Scholam sive academiam frequentaverat."-Colgan, Trias Thaumaturg.

IV. Mag. ad. an. 1166, "Ro righ ann Ruaidhri ua Concob. feb as onor. e ro righ riamh do Gaoindaibh." See, for the distribution of this force under the different princes present at the convention, the Four Mas

ters ad ann. 1167.

ner, Whitty, &c.

no authority in our native records for such a notion; nor with the exception of the unusually large display of troops on the occasion, does this meeting appear to have, in any way, differed from those other conventions, or synods, which were held, as we have seen, so frequently at this period. In the same manner as at all those other meetings, various laws and regulations, relating to the temporal as well as the ecclesiastical affairs of the country, were enacted or renewed; and, so far from the assembly having any claim to the character of a Convention of all the States, it was evidently summoned only for the consideration of the affairs of the northern half of the island; and the only personage from the south, mentioned as having been present at it, was Donchad O'Fealan, Prince of the Desies.

As we have now reached the last of Ireland's monarchs, and are about to enter into the details of that brief struggle which, after so many ages of stormy, but still independent, existence, ended in bringing this ancient kingdom under subjection to the English crown, the reader will be enabled to understand more clearly the narrative of the transactions connected with this memorable event by being made acquainted with the previous lives and characters of a few of the personages who figured most prominently on the scene.

The monarch Roderic, who was, at this time, in his fiftieth year, had not hitherto very much distinguished himself above the rest of his fellow-chieftains, in those qualities common, it must be owned, to them all, of personal courage and activity; while in some of those barbarian features of character, those sallies of fierce, unmitigated cruelty, which were, in like manner, but too common among his brother potentates, he appears to have been rivalled but by few. We have seen that by his father, the monarch Tordelvach, he was kept confined for a whole year in chains; and that he was of a nature requiring some such coercion, would appear from his conduct on taking possession of the throne of Connaught, when, with a barbarity, the only palliation of which is the frequency of the crime in those days, he had the eyes of two of his brothers put out,* in order to incapacitate them from being his rivals in the race of ambition and power. Combining with this ferocity a total want of the chivalrous spirit which alone adds grace to mere valour, it is told of him, that, having got in his power a chieftain of the clan of Suibhne,† he had him loaded with fetters, and, in that helpless state, slew him with his own hand. It is added, as an aggravation of the atrocity, that this chieftain was then under the imme. diate protection of the Vicar of St. Cieran.‡

While such was the character of the monarch upon whom now devolved the responsibility of watching manfully over the independence of his country, in this its last struggle and agony, the qualities of the prince whose ambition and treachery were the immediate cause of bringing the invader to these shores, were, if possible, of a still more odious and revolting nature. Dermot Mac-Murchad, King of Leinster, the memorable author of this treason, had long been distinguished for his fierce activity and courage in those scenes of turbulence which the state of the country had then rendered familiar. He had, even so early as the year 1140, excited a general feeling of horror throughout the kingdom, by treacherously seizing, at once, seventeen of the principal nobles of Leinster, and having some of the number put to death, while of the remainder he ordered the eyes to be plucked out. Between this prince and Tiernan O'Ruarc,-the Lord of Breffny, a territory in the eastern part of Connaught,-a hostile feeling had early arisen, to which the constant collision of their respective clans and interests gave every day increased bitterness; and, at length, an event, in which Dervorgilla, the fair wife of O'Ruarc, was guiltily involved, raised this animosity to a degree of rancour which was only with their respective lives extinguished.

An attachment previously to her marriage with O'Ruarc, is said to have existed between Dervorgilla and the King of Leinster; a supposition which, if it be founded, acquits the lady, at least, of that perverseness of nature, which would seem to be implied by her choosing as paramour, her husband's deadliest foe. But, however this may have been, and there exists but little, if any, authority for much of the romance of their amour-the elopement of the heroine from an island in Meath, to which she had been sent during O'Ruarc's absence on one of his military expeditions, was the plan agreed upon by the two lovers, and which, with the discreditable aid of the lady's brother, Melachlin, they were enabled to accomplish. The wronged husband appealed for redress to the monarch Tordelvach, who, taking up his cause with laudable earnestness, marched an army the following year into Leinster, and having rescued Dervorgilla from

Regnum auspicatus a fratrum excocatione, malo augurio."-Rer. Hib. Script. tom. 3. DCCLXXXIX. ↑ Sweeny. IV. Mag. ad ann. 1161.