4 Proceedings oj the Royal Irish Academy. 



from St. Bernard to St. Malachy on the subject are numbered 315, 316, 317 

 in the Ujjistolae of the former.' As a consequence of this movement, the 

 Abbey of Mellifont, near Drogheda, was founded about the year 1142. 

 Mellifont had many " daughters," among them Bective in Meath, and Baltin- 

 • glass in co. "Wicklow, which in its turn was the "mother" of Jerpoint in eo. 

 Kilkenny ; and the Cistercian houses grew and multiplied in Ireland during 

 the latter half of the twelfth century, some twenty-live convents of the order 

 being in existence by the year 1200. St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, had been 

 affiliated to the Cistercian house of Savigny in Normandy as far back as 1139, 

 a date prior to the foundation of Mellifont. Most of the Irish Cistercian 

 houses, however, were founded by the Anglo-Norman adventurers wlio came 

 over to Ireland in the train of Strongbow and his successors after 1 ] 72 ; the 

 lavisli grants of lands made to them by their founders being acts of piety or 

 of reparation, after tlie manner of the age. Thus Duiibrody' in co. Wexford 

 was founded from T.uildwas in Sliropshire by Ilervey de Montmorency; nnd 

 Tinteru founded by William Earl Marshal in the same county derived its 

 name from tlie more famous Tint«rn in Monmouthshire. We are here con- 

 cerned more particularly witli the Abbey of Duiske, now Graigucnamanagh, 

 in CO. Kilkenny, whicli wa.s founded from the Abbey of Stanley in Wilushire 

 by William Earl Marshal about 1204. 



IV. — The Chahtkks op Killenny. 



To exhibit the histoiy of Duiske Abbey, we must begin with some 

 documents which concern Jerpoint and Killenny, two Cistercian houses in 

 CO. Kilkenny, whose relations with Duiske form the subject of many subse- 

 quent chartei-8. 



The abbey of Jerpoint, whose splendid ruins testify to its former greatness, 

 was founded from the abbey of Mellifont in the latter half of the twelfth 

 century. The date of its foundation, as we shall see, must have been some 

 years prior to 1165, although it haa been put as late as 1180.' It was a 

 flourishing convent, and Dermot O'Kyan, Chief of Idrone, granted to it 

 certain lands for the purpose of establishing and endowing a daughter house 

 at Killenny, which was in his territory. His Charter is not extant, although 

 we have presen-ed a pidcis of an Inspeximus and Confii-mation of it by one of 



' They are reprinted in Ussher's "Sylloge " (IVorks iv. 535 ff.). 



2 Dunbrody was subaequently affiliated to St. Marj-'s, Dublin, and the Charters of both 

 houses have been published in Sir J. T. Gilbert's ChartuUiriea uf Si. Mary's Abbey (1884) 



' By Sir Jamea Ware in hts Caetiobia CUUtcensia Uibtrnica (cf. CMA ii, 217, 218). 

 The date of its foundation is discussed by Carrigan, iv, 281 ff. 



