422 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



that there is a porche of the Cathedral Church of Hareforde hinl- 

 ded in honour of our Lord through ohlacion and Alms of Chiisten 

 people that have had confluence unto the most reverent fathers in 

 Ood, Lord Thomas Legate of the Apostolic see of Eome, Arch- 

 bishop of York, and Primate of England, and Laurence Compegus 

 also Legate of the Pope of Piome." 



The document then goes on to state the desire of these two digni- 

 taries for the completion and due furnishing of this chapel, in order that 

 the " Chapell Preste " there singing for the time being, might have 

 €very due convenience for his sacred office, and then grants to every one 

 duly contributing to this object and confessing in the said chapel and 

 performing certain other specified religious duties upon Christmas 

 Day, St. Ethelbert's Day, the feast of St. Thomas of Hereford,^ and 

 certain other suitable feasts, an indulgence of one hundred days ; and 

 further announces that the Archbishop of Canterbuiy, the bishops of 

 London, Salisbuiy, Coventry, and Lichfield, the bishops of Hereford, 

 Rochester, Bangor, Llandaff, St. Asaph, St. David's, and curiously 

 enough, Thomas Bishop of Leighlin, had agreed to add forty days' 

 indulgence to every such person who thus qualified. jS'ow there are 

 special points of interest in this indulgence of which I have merely 

 given an abstract. The first is the local one for ourselves. What 



College more than twenty years ago. It is some ten years or so older than "W"olsej 's 

 *' Indulgence," and is in Latin, not English. It is printed in much the same style. 

 It can be inspected in the glasscases in the Long Room of the CoUeire Library. 



1 The two feasts of St. Ethelbert and St. Thomas of Herefoid were specially 

 observed in the cathedral of Hereford, which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin 

 and to St. Ethelbert. Ethelbert was king of the East Angles, and was murdered 

 by OfEa of Mercia in a.d. 794. He was buiied at Fernlega, afterwards Hereford, 

 where a miraculous image celebrated his fame. (See the Article by Dr. Stubbs on 

 Ethelbert (.3) in the Dictionary of Christian Biography). Ethelbert's feast was cele- 

 brated on May 20th. St. Thomas of Hereford was the special local saint. He had 

 been Thomas Cantelupe, Bishop of Hereford. He died with a great reputation for 

 sanctity in 1282. His fame as a miracle worker was widespread. The possession 

 of his relics was a source of great wealth to the cathedral. See more about him in 

 Bishop Swinfield's " Household Eoll " and its notes, p. clxvxiii, pubKshed by the 

 Camden Society in 1855. His feast was celebrated on Oct. 2nd. He was canonised 

 by Pope John XXII. in 1320, upon the petition of Bishop Swinfield, supported 

 by Edward II. He was, even before his canonisation, a very popular saint in 

 England. Surius tells us, in his Lives of the Saints, that more than sixty persons 

 had been raised from the dead at his tomb. In Swinfield's Boll, p. 1, we learn that 

 Edward I. gave the greatest proof of his belief in Cantelupe's powers ; for M'hen one 

 of his favourite hawks was ill, he sent an offering for him to Cantelupe's shrine. 

 He is one of the saints who have been Lord Chancellors of England. 



