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parliament of Q. Elizabeth, held at Dublin, A.D. 1560, is taken from a record preserved in the rolls office there, furnished by the intelligent officer of inrolments in that department, Geo. Hatchell, Esq. It is inserted here for preservation, as it has not been hitherto printed, and as the original document is in a state of decay, being in some parts quite illegible."

The roll says that the parliament was held "die Veneris proxime ante festum Sti. Hilarii, viz. 11 die Jan. anno regni Reginæ E. secundo."

66 DOMINI SPIRITUALES.

1 Hugo Dublin, Archieps. Hiberniæque primas, dominus canc. Hiberniæ.

2 Rollandus Cassil. Arps. 3 Christophorus Tuam. Arps. 4 Willielmus Midensis, Eps. 5 Patricius Wat. & Lismor. Eps. 6 Rogerus Cork & Clon. Eps. 7 Alexander Fern. Eps. 8 Thomas Darensis, Eps. 9 Thomas Leghlin. Eps. 10 Johannes Ossorien. Eps. 11 Imolacensis, Eps.

12 Hugo Lymericen. Eps.

13 Rollandus Clonfert & Elph.
Eps.

14 Eugenius Dunen. Eps.
15 Eps. Rossensis.
16 Eps. Laonensis.
17 Eps. Coranensis.
18 Eps. Aladensis,

19 Eps. Ardfertensis.
20 Eps. Ardacadensis."

[Sequuntur domini temporales
23, i. e. comites, vicecomites, ba-
rones, domini.]

No. XXV.

STATE OF THE EPISCOPACY OF IRELAND IN A.D. 1560.

sion of the

That the prelates of the Reformed Irish The succesChurch have received their episcopal succession Irish Church in a regular and unbroken line from the bishops the Reforof the ancient Irish Church, and that no other mation.

unbroken at

The question con

cerns only the reign of

Q. Eliza beth, and the time after.

line of prelates can trace their origin to the same source, is a plain, simple, historical truth, to which different persons, according to their several private opinions, will attach very different degrees of importance, but which no person of moderate information and candour will attempt to gainsay or deny. As however ignorance and perverseness have combined to keep afloat a notion that the lawful prelates were ejected from their sees at the time of the Reformation, and that a succession may have been carried on somehow or other from them to the Hiberno-Roman prelates of a later age; it may be useful for the sake of dissipating such speculations, to set before the reader a concise notice of the order of succession in each of the sees of Ireland at the time in question, from which it will appear plainly, that excepting the two intruding prelates appointed to Meath and Kildare by Queen Mary, as mentioned in the text of this work, no others were deprived at the time when the statutes enacting the Reformation in Ireland were introduced.

It is of course unnecessary to pursue this inquiry any further back than to the commencement of Queen Elizabeth's reign; as all are agreed that the persons who occupied the different Irish sees at the close of Queen Mary's reign, were the lawful prelates of the Irish

Church, appointed in the regular course of the old succession, and in most instances with such attention to canonical order as was then usual. With the cases of those bishops, therefore, who renounced or supported the papal supremacy in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. we have nothing to do in this place. The question to be considered is simply this.-Who were the persons in possession in the year 1560, and how came they, in each case respectively, to leave their places vacant, whether by death, translation, or deprivation? To commence with the primatial see of

Armagh.

This see having been vacant at the accession of Queen Elizabeth, continued so until

ADAM LOFTUS was consecrated abp. by Hugh Curwin, Abp. of Dublin, and other bps. in March, at the close of 1562 (H. 94)

THOMAS LANCASTER, his successor, was consecrated by Adam, Abp. Dublin, Hugh bp. Meath, and Robt. bp. Kildare, 1568.

Mrath.

On the deprivation of bp. Walsh, HUGH BRADY was appointed to this see by Queen Elizabeth in A.D, 1563. He is commended as an honest, learned, and zealous prelate, "a godly minister of the gospel," and attentive to his episcopal duties. (H. 156, p. 783 sup., Mant, i. 276, 298.)

Clonmarnoise.

PETER WALL, 1556-1568; was a Dominican friar

(H. 174)

In the Loftus MS. Annals we read, at A.D. 1568, "This year by ye authority of Parlt. was ye Bprick. of Clonmacnoise united to ye Bprick. of Meath."

Clogher.

HUGH O'CERVALLAN, promoted by Pope Paul III. in 1542, was alive in 1557; how long after is not known.

MILER MAGRAGH, Franciscan Friar, succeeded in 1570. He was advanced by Pope Pius V. to the bpk. of Down; but afterwards becoming a convert to Protestantism, was appointed to Clogher, and to Cashel in 1570. He made scandalous wastes and alienations of the revenues which were the property of the latter see. (Mant, i. 280, H. 188.)

Down and Connor.

EUGENE MAGENIS, advanced by provision from Pope Paul III.; succ. 1541, sed. 1560. He was present in the parliament of Dublin which abolished the supremacy of the pope (H. 205) [These sees were granted to JAMES MAC CAGHWELL, by Queen's Letter in A.D. 1564. MS. notes in Dr. Todd's H. Ware. See Cashel below.]

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JOHN MERIMAN, the next bishop, was consecrated by Thomas Lancaster, Abp. of Armagh, assisted by the bps. of Meath, Kildare, and Ossory, in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, A.D. 1568-9 (ib.)

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Kilmore.

DERMOD, bp. of this see, dying in 1529, EDMUND NUGENT is the next successor on record; sed. 1541. The see lying in an unsettled and tumultuous country, was much neglected by the English crown; so that even after the Reformation, the bishops succeeded by usurpation or papal authority.

RICHARD BRADY was bp. of Kilmore, under the pope's title, before 1567; but in the year 1585, the Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrot, writing to the council of England, set forth that he had dispossessed him of the place, and recommended JOHN GARVEY, dean of Christ Church, to supplant him; who was accordingly by letters patent, dated the following 27th of January, 1586, promoted to the government of this see (H. 230)

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Ardagh.

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PATRICK MAC MAHON, 1553-1572, was before a suffragan to Dowdall, abp. of Armagh. He injured the property of his see by leases made out for his own advantage (H. 255)

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* He, with Eugene Magenis of Down, and others, having sworn fealty to Henry VIII., "received," according to Mr. Brennan, "the wages of their sinful servility." -Ec. Hist. ii. 92.

Dromore.

ARTHUR MAGENIS, sed. 1550, by pope's bull, confirmed by Edward VI. Nothing more is known of the succession in this see to A.D. 1606

Raphor.

(H.264)

(H. 274)

CORNS. O'CAHAN, sed. 1550; how much longer, unknown DONALD MAGONELL, sed. 1563, as titular bp. appointed by the pope. He assisted at the Council of Trent in 1563, and died at Killybeg in 1589, [at which year his death is noted in the Four Masters] (H. 275) NIAL O'BOYLE is noticed as bp. in 1597 by the Four Masters, who also mention his death at 1611.

Derry.

RODK. O'DONNELL died 1551. Eugene Magenis succeeded; but no date connected with his occupancy is known.

REDMOND O'GALLAGHER, a papal bishop of this see, was killed, according to the Four Masters, on the 15th of March, 1601, in the course of the war then raging in Ulster. His name occurs also in the same authority at 1597. GEO. MONTGMOMERY succeeded by appointment of King James in 1605. (H. 291)

In the Manuscript Library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is preserved (in the MS. E. 3, 8,) a copy of a letter addressed by Cardinal Alan to the Redmond O'Gallagher here named, and to two other bishops appointed by papal authority in Ireland, giving them very extensive powers for the performance of ecclesiastical functions in all England and Ireland. Of this letter (written between the years 1591 and 1601) the following extract, containing somewhat less than half of the entire, but comprising all that is of much interest in the whole, appears worthy of insertion for the reader's perusal in this place.

"We, William, Cardinal of the Church of Rome, commonly enti- Letter of tled Cardinal Alan, in pursuance of the letters apostolic addressed to Cardinal us in this behalf by the most holy pontiff, Gregory the XIV. of wor- Alan to thy memory, on the 18th day of September, 1591, to the most reverend Redmond lords, Redmond Derry, Richard Kilmore, Cornelius Down, bishops. O'GalHaving been sufficiently informed of your piety, learning, and zeal for lagher, &c.

i.e. it seems, Richd. Brady, above mentioned, under Kilmore. For "Cornelius" of Down, see Art. LXVIII. inf.

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