320 Proceedings of the Uoi/al Irish Academy. 



I mention this because it may help us to answer a question which will 

 naturally be asked, Do we know anything about this Thomas, Bishop of 

 Clogher, for whose episcopate our Charter is at present the only available 

 evidence ? I would suggest that he was no other than the Prior Thomas 

 whose name follows that of Bishop Cristin in the charter of 1188, and that 

 he was elected bishop by his own canons. It is at least a curious coincidence 

 that eighteen or twenty years after the date of our Charter there was another 

 election to the bishopric of Clogher, and that the bishop elected again bore 

 the name of a Prior of St. Mary's. Donat, or Donough, O'Fury became bishop, 

 it seems, in 1 218 ; and the prior whose name stands at the head of our 

 Charter was also called Donat. If we assume that they were the same person, 

 we can give a reasonable explanation of an otherwise puzzling incident in 

 the history of the diocese of Clogher. Not long after the departure of the 

 Bishop of Uriel from Louth to Clogher, 1 the Archbishop of Armagh laid claim 

 to that part of his diocese which now constitutes the county of Louth. 

 Shortly after his appointment as Bishop, Donat entered the lists against the 

 Primate, Luke Xeterville, in defence of his jurisdiction over the disputed area. 2 

 But in 1227 he himself became Archbishop. He at once obtained from the 

 Crown a union of his new with his old diocese, and refused confirmation and 

 consecration to his successor at Clogher. 3 But when the union proved 

 ineffective, he incontinently revised his opinions on the question of jurisdic- 

 tion, and claimed " the Priory of Louth and the other churches situated 

 between Carlingford Lough and the midst of the waters of the Boyne " as 

 belonging to the see of Armagh. Ambition may in part account for this 

 sudden change ; but both it and the ultimate success of Armagh in the 

 contest are more intelligible if Donat was a former Prior of Louth, anxious 

 to maintain his old connexion with the canons, and sure of their support in 

 his designs. The words quoted above from a contemporary document prove 

 that the question really at issue was to which see the Priory of Louth owed 

 allegiance. The Priory was, in fact, the principal religious establishment of 

 the district, and its canons formed the bulk of the parochial clergy. 1 Their 

 wishes as to the bishop under whose jurisdiction they should serve must- 

 have had a considerable influence in determining the result of the contest. 

 This being granted, it is instructive to note the course of the long struggle- 



1 For this note of time I can only claim antecedent probability ; for a document 

 quoted by Father Gogarty to prove that the controversy between Armagh and Clogher 

 began before the end of the twelfth century [Irish Theological Quarterly, iv, 297) does not 

 seem to me relevant to his purpose. 



- Theiner, /.:. 



3 Col. of Patent Molls, 1225, p. 166. 



4 Proceedings, I.e., p. 35f. 



