Stokes — Concermng Marsh's Library. 423 



brought the Bishop of Leighlin there amongst these English and 

 "Welsh bishops, and who was he ? Well, "Ware will tell us that he 

 was Thomas Halsey, Bishop of Leighlin from a.d, 1515 to 1521. 

 He was an Englishman, and never once saw his diocese in the centre 

 of Ireland. He was appointed Bishop of Leighlin by the influence of 

 Archbishop Baimbridge, "Wolsey's predecessor in York, who was just 

 then acting as Ambassador for Henry YIII. in Eome, when the see 

 of Leighlin fell vacant. Halsey was an Englishman in high office at 

 the Vatican, was Prothonotary for Ireland, and Penitentiary for the 

 English nation in Eome. He was a great favourite with Archbishop 

 Baimbridge, and the Archbishop's influence secured his appointment. 

 He never saw or visited his Irish diocese ; but managed it through 

 his deputy and Yicar-General, Charles Cavanagh, Abbot of Duisk, 

 and then dying in London, in the year 1521, was buried in the Savoy. 

 The second point of interest about this Indulgence is its date. If 

 the Bishop of Leighlin is mentioned in it as granting an indulgence, 

 it is clear that it must have been issued before his death, which took 

 place, as I have now said, in 1521. This seems contradicted by two 

 facts : (1) Campeggio is mentioned in it as legate, and he notoriously 

 came to England in 1528 as special Legate of the Pope in the matter 

 of the divorce of Henry VIII. ; (2) The date of the Prayer Book 

 stated in the colophon is 1524. This would seem to prove that this 

 indulgence was issued, in the year of Campeggio's residence, about that 

 question of divorce, which Mr. Brewer's great work, "Letters and 

 Papers of Henry VIII.," states to have been from September, 1528, 

 to about the same date in the next year. But then comes a difficulty. 

 If this indulgence was issued in 1528 or 1529, how do there appear in 

 it the names of several bishops like that of the Bishop of Leighlin, 

 who had been dead several years ? Could dead bishops grant indul- 

 gences to living men ? But the Bishop of Leighlin, too, is not the 

 only difficulty if we date the Indulgence in 1529. EichardFitzjames, 

 Bishop of London, is named in it ; and he died seven years before, in 

 January, 1521. Edmund Audley, Bishop of Salisbury, is mentioned ; 

 and he died in 1524, five years before.^ William Attwater, Bishop of 

 Lincoln, is named; and he died in 1520. These difficulties led me 



1 Audley was succeeded by Campeggio himself as Bishop of Salisbury, and yet 

 he does not give himself that title in the Indulgence. Heniy VIII. took such a 

 fancy to Campeggio on his first visit to England, that he bestowed on him the see 

 of Salisbury when it fell vacant, M'hich brought with it a splendid palace in Eome : 

 cf. "Campeggio's Life," p. 164. Campeggio was made a cardinal in 1517: cf. 

 Godwin's Fraesules. 



E.I. A. PBGC, SEE. m., VOL. IV. 2ft 



