36 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 



stand why the reservation of the third part of the greater tithes was made 

 in the grant of Cristin to Peter Pipard, and also why he was hound to pay 

 it to the canons rather than to the Bishop. When the churches made over 

 to him passed from the jurisdiction of the Bishops of Uriel to that of the 

 Archbishop of Armagh, the reservation, as we shall see, was continued. 1 The 

 third part was not, however, as we might have expected, made a portion of 

 the revenue of the Archbishop, but remained in the hands of the canons of 

 Louth. The reason, no doubt, was that the Archbishops of Armagh were 

 never entitled to demand quarters episcopal from the churches of their 

 diocese. 2 But this is to anticipate. 3 



I must own that it has been a surprise to me to find that the convent of 

 St. Mary's was the Chapter of the Bishops of Louth. Aedh (Edan) TJa 

 Caellaidhe, the successor of Gillacrist I, was the organizer of the newly 

 formed diocese of Uriel ; and during his episcopate the Abbey of St. Peter 

 and St. Paul, Knock, near Louth, was founded and endowed. Its consecra- 

 tion by Malachy of Armagh is recorded by the Four Masters under the year 

 1148.' And in a eulogy of Donnehadh Ua Cearbhaill, leader of the men of 

 Uriel at that period, which has been printed by Dr. "Whitley Stokes, 5 while 

 much is said of his benefactions to Knock, and mention is made of some of 



i See below, p. 38. 



2 Reeves, Cotton's Visitation, p. 115. 



3 Valuable confirmation of the conclusion which I hare reached as to the constitution 

 of the bishopric comes from the Fiants of Elizabeth. In these there are three different 

 lists of possessions of the Priory of Louth (nos. 1312, 5416, 587"). We cannot affirm that 

 they are exhaustive ; but they contain no less than sixty denominations. Over thirty 

 of these are in the first list, which is headed, ' Rectories and Spiritualities of Lovid.' 

 The other lists enumerate places of which the tithes belonged to the monastery. There 

 is no mention whatever of property in laud. That is to say, so far as we can judge from 

 these lists, the endowments of St. Mary's were wholly ' of a spiritual nature' : just as, 

 according to Dr. Wilson, were the early endowments of the Augustinian Chapter at 

 Carlisle. Further, with two exceptions, all the places mentioned seem to have been in 

 the County of Louth. The canons of St. Mary's must have held far the greater number 

 of the churches of that district. The exceptions are worth naming. They are Magheross 



. rickmacross) and Ferney, both in the County Monaghan, and thus in the diocese of 

 Uriel. The Louth canons had no possessions, it would appear, outside the diocese of 

 which, as I hold, they were once the Cathedral Chapter. And finally from another fiant 

 (no. 6034) we learn that they received a third part of the tithes of Dromin. This church 

 is not included in the lists of their possessions ; and accordingly, from it, as from 

 Clonkeen and Drumcar before 1244, they received simply the ' tertia pars ' or quarter 

 episcopal. 



* Archdall (p. 471) puts in this year the founding, or re-founding, of St. Mary's. But 

 this is certainly incorrect. The Annals report that 'the church of Cnoc na Sengan was 

 finished by the Bishop Ua Caellaidhe and Donnehadh Ua Cearbhaill ' in that year, and 

 say nothing about St. Mary's. 



Martyrology of Gorman, p. xx, from the Antiphonary of Armagh Cathedral (T.C.D. 

 MS. B. 1.1). 



