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elected. The former is styled the Ecclesiastica progenies, the 
latter, the Plebilis progenies, of the founder. This record 
was written about the year 720, and is copied into a manu- 
script which was executed about the year 807. This docu- 
ment, which is of undoubted authenticity, serves as a most 
valuable key to the early system of endowment in the Irish 
Church, and it helps also to account for the rapid growth of 
the Irish monasteries, and the territorial jurisdiction which 
they acquired. It may yet be found that the civil condition 
of this country was, in the fifth and sixth centuries, in a very 
disordered state, and that the immolatio, or mortifying, pos- 
sessions by a chief, under such tenor as “* To Patrick, Loman, 
and Fortchern, his (the grantor’s) son, until the day of judg- 
ment,” introduced an element of fixity in tenure of land, which 
was likely to prove very acceptable in a country where the 
succession to property was so ill-defined, and property itself 
so little available to the uses of life. In such case, the grant 
was made to the great missionary of Ireland as virtual Pri- 
mate, with limitation, pro hac vice, to the minister locally 
employed by him, and remainder to the family of the son in 
whose name, or by whom, the grant was made. Hence we 
find the Plebilis progenies, in whom the tenancy of the lands 
was vested, possessing a regular succession, and furnishing 
from its members certain coarbs, or successors, to the first 
abbot, who formed the Ecclesiastica progenies, and who, being 
unmarried, exhibit no lineal succession. In fact, the rule 
was, on each avoidance of the abbacy, to fill up the situation 
from founder’s kin ; and, failing a qualified person in the direct 
line, to choose a successor from a collateral branch. But in 
process of time, when discipline became lax, and endowments 
more valuable, it would seem that the Ecclesiastica progenies 
merged in the Plebilis progenies, which might easily occur, 
from a disinclination on the part of the latter to allow the 
dignity and emoluments to leave their own hands. In such 
case the tenant in possession probably assumed holy orders 
