322 



No attempt appears to have been made during this interval, to 

 subject Armagh, or indeed any of the native bishopricks, to foreign 

 jurisdiction. About the year 1134, however, Nigel having usurped 

 the see of Armagh, as if it were his by inheritance, the prelates and 

 princes of the country persuaded the celebrated Malachy to accept 

 that see, and the usurper, unable to oppose his power, was obliged to 

 fly, not without his share of ecclesiastical booty.* 



About this time the claim of the Pope's supremacy or spiritual 

 influence in matters of discipline, which seems to have been for pre- 

 vious centuries discontinued and disregarded, was once again brought 

 forward and openly asserted in Ireland. It has been shewn-f- how 

 far that supremacy was exercised in the earlier ages of the Irish 

 church, and also, that some peculiar title, however ill-grounded, was 

 said to have been derived from the submission of Ireland to Urban, 

 by Donough's gift of the regalia, :|. and in Gregory's letter to the king 

 of Ireland in 1084, the right to jurisdiction over Irish affairs is yet 

 more extensively asserted. § Yet never, we apprehend, till this period 

 was any right to supremacy avowed with a view to its immediate 

 exercise and ultimate authority. Gillebert, Bishop of Limerick, the 



lerio semper nostros libenter subdimus, a quo recordamur nostras accepisse dignitatem ecclesias- 

 ticam. Sciatis vos revera quod episcopi Hibernice maximam zelum crga nos habent, et maxime 

 ille episcopus qui habitat Ardinacha, quia nos nolumus obedire eorutn ordivationi, sed semper 

 tub vestro domino esse volumus. Idcirco vestra suflFragia supplices petimus, quatenus Gregorium 

 ad sacrum ordinem episcopatus piomoveatis, si amplius illam parochiam, quam multo tempore 

 vobi$ servavimus, retinere volueritis." — Sylloge, p. 70. 



*"Tulit secum insignia quajdam a-dis illius, textum scilicet evangelium, qui fuit beati 

 Patricii, baculumque auro tectum gemniis pretiosissimis adornatum, quemnominant baculum 

 Jesu."— Vita Malach. c. 5. and see ante, p. 185- 



t Ante, pp. 203-4. I Ante, p. 280. 



§ " Si qua vero negotia penes vos emerserint quae nostro digna videantur auxilio, incunc- 

 tanter ad nos dirigere studete, et quod juste postulaveritis, Deo auxiliante, impetrabitis." — 

 Sylloge. 



