Garstin—On some Sixteenth Ceutury Inscriptions. 427 
found in the inscription on the Ardagh Chalice (see Transactions, 
R.I. A., xxiy.), and is interesting as supporting the theory that 
the Roman numeral L = 50, was adopted as being the half of the 2: 
(initial of centum) = 100, just as the D =500 is half of the Lombardic 
® (initial of mille) = 1000, and X is the double of V, or conversely. 
Fourthly, in the ‘‘Epus” and ‘‘ propicietur”’ some peculiar letters 
occur, namely, the E, which resembles the Greek € with a closing 
stroke ; the O, which is just like a modern capital D; and the four P’s, 
which are modern in shape. 
There are special reasons why these inscriptions are of consequence 
towards determining the order of succession in the See of Leighlin. 
To render this intelligible it will be necessary to notice shortly the 
history of the bishops in question. 
After the brief and tragically-ended episcopate of Maurice Doran, 
murdered iv 1525, Matthew Sanders, who was born near Drogheda, 
succeeded to the See of Leighlin, which he held for thirty years. 
Dr. Brady (Episcopal Succession, Rome, 1876, 1. 386) cites from the 
Barberini Archives the memorandum of his appointment in consistory 
by Pope Clement VII., on the 10th of April, 1527, with certain dis- 
pensations as to retaining his benefices. There seems to have been 
delay as to his consecration, for two years later he is described (7b¢dem) 
as ‘‘Hlectus Leighlinensis,”’ 27 June, 1529. Ware says he was con- 
secrated in 1527. Whether he favoured the Reformation has been a 
subject of controversy. It is recorded of him that ‘‘ he new built the 
choir of the Cathedral of St. Lazerian, Leighlin, and also made and 
glazed the south window.”—| Ware. | 
Ware is explicit as to the date of Bishop Sanders’ death and his 
place of burial, which he twice records. In the Annals he says, a.p. 
1549 : ‘“‘ The twenty-fourth of December, Matthew Sanders, Bishop of 
Leighlin, died, and was buried in his own church (the choire of which 
he built a little before), and has a monument over him.” In the 
Bishops, he gives the 14th of December as the day of his death, and 
says he is buried ‘‘ under a Marble.” His tombstone is of the black 
stone, so designated in Kilkenny. It will be observed that these dates 
neither agree between themselves nor with the date (December 23rd), 
twice recorded on the tombstone, though the diversity, being a matter 
of days—or a day only—occasions no serious difficulty, and indeed 
rather corroborates the fact of the year they concur in being the cor- 
rect one. 
Now, it is remarkable that, as it is put by the Rev. M. Comerford 
in his ‘‘ Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin” 
(Dublin, 1883), p. 56— 
‘In 1541, it was reported at Rome that Dr. Sanders was dead, whereupon 
Thomas Leyerous was appointed to fill the supposed vacancy.’’ [Here he quotes 
the Papal provision of 14th of November, and adds]: ‘‘It would appear that he 
was even consecrated for this See from his being styled ‘heretofore Bishop of 
Leighlin’—Olim Episcopus Leighlinensis—in the official record of his appointment to 
Kildare in 1655.” 
2X2 
