Physician, who is One with the Father and the Holy Amen. Pope Gregory VII. to Turlogh King of Ire land. A.D. 1084. The king doms and powers of the world to be subject to the authority of the successors of St. Peter. No. VIII. LETTER OF POPE GREGORY VII. TO TURLOGH O'BRIAN KING OF IRE- 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. Through the entire globe the doctrine of the Lord 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 authority 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 de- where they lay, 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 No. IX. OF THE pal sees, 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) Preland. 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. The num ber of bi From all the documents relating to our ancient 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. consecrated firmed by With regard to the 365 bishops whose ordi- Bishop nation is ascribed to St. Patrick, the learned bi- tion of the Lloyd's noshop 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 ob- Keating, serves 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. The multiplicity of bi land conti matter of still more recent growth in this country; the office of rural dean having been altogether unknown in Ireland, according to the best authors, until the year 1152. Even at so late a period as in A.D. 1111, we shops in Ire- find the synod of Fiadh-Mac-Aongusa attended, as its records inform us, by 50 bishops, and 300 priests, all apparently belonging to the southern half of Ireland.* nued so far as to the 12th century. Its tendency to prove the early conversion of the Irish to Christianity. These early bishops "It was," as Bingham observes, "the distinguishing feature between countries early converted and those at a later period, that the dioceses of the former were much more numerous and circumscribed. Thus in Asia Minor which extended 630 miles in length, and 210 in breadth, there were 400 dioceses, while in Germany, which was of greater extent, there were but 40 bishoprics, because Christianized at a much later period. In Poland there were only 30, and in Russia 21;" and so of other countries. circumstance therefore plainly indicates the early conversion of the Irish to the Christian faith. This But however numerous these our early bishops had no accu- may have been, they had not, it seems, any accu See the "Annals of the Four Masters, at the year of our Lord 1111; or the Annals of Ulster, in O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Scrip. vol. iv. p. 375, and p. 451 sup. ↑ Bingham, Antiq. Book ix. ch. 6. p. 126. Reeves, Antiq. of Down, &c. |