Lawlor — A Charier of Cristin, Bishop of Louth. 29 



simowe capelkmo canonicorwm de 1 Launton Roberto clerico Adam 

 capellawo de hestred martino de [. . . .]uilt 2 Gralfritifo Esturrri. 

 Sirnone Baud e win. de 3 kerme matheo de fulsaue Ricardo 

 hedesore Regmaldo clerico Thonia clerico qui cartam scripsit et 

 sufncientibzks aliis. 



This deed is endorsed : ' Grant (?) of the presentations of Clonken and 

 Drunkar from (?) the Bishoppe (?) of lugd and the prior there[of] (?) [to] 

 piers pippard.' The seal which was once attached to it has disappeared. 



I must now essay the task of dating the Charter ; and I believe that I 

 shall be able to do so within narrow limits. 



Louth 4 was the see of the diocese of Uriel — which was approximately 

 coextensive with what we now know as the diocese of Clogher — for some 

 sixty years. Under the year 1138 the Annals of the Four Masters record the 

 death of Gillacrist, Bishop of Clogher. He was a brother of Malachy 

 O'Morghair, Archbishop of Armagh, and was probably the immediate 

 successor of Cinaeth O'Boyle, Bishop of the same see, who died 1135. 5 But 

 though the Irish annalists call him Bishop of Clogher, in the Annals of 

 St. Mary's Abbey he is styled Bishop of Louth. In them, under the year 

 1139, we find this entry : 



" Eodem anno obiit Christianus, episcopus de Liueth, f rater Sancti Malachie, 

 vir bonus, plenus gracie et virtutis, secundus illi in celebri opinione." 6 



This fact, that G-illacrist or Christianus was known to the Irish annalists 

 as Bishop of Clogher, and to the Anglo-Norman chroniclers as Bishop of 



1 See note 3. 



' The hole mentioned, p. 28, note 1, extends to this word ; of its earlier letters only the 

 lower portions remain. 



3 The symbol which I read as de seems to be a somewhat flattened D of a form found 

 about the date of the Charter. Elsewhere (e.g. Christ Church Deeds, 4, 10) we have <i for 

 de. But whether the symbol is actually the letter d or no, Launton, Kerme, and 

 Fulsaue being all apparently place-names, it can hardly represent any word but de. 

 See below, p. 39. 



4 Here called Lugdunen., Lugdofi. In other documents we find the forms Lubgud, 

 Lug., Lugwden., Liueth, Loued, Loueth, &c. In the chronicles ascribed to Benedict of 

 Peterborough (Rolls ed. i, 26) we find Lughbdunen. (one MS. Lughdunen.), which is very 

 nearly the form of our Charter. Colgan (AA. SS. Sib., i, 736) says thatLugdunen. is the 

 form used in the Papal Registers. The Irish name is UigbA*. 



6 Annals of Tigernagh (cont.). Ware does not mention this bishop ; and Harris dates the 

 beginning of Christian's (i.e., Gillacrist's) episcopate in 1126. (Ware's Works, 1764, 

 vol. i, p. 179.) On what authority, if any, he relies for this date I do not know. Harris 

 often gives purely conjectural (and incorrect) dates to bishops. 



6 Gilbert, Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, 1884 (Rolls Series), vol. ii, p. 258. 



[5*] 



