Armstrong — Some Matrices of Irish Seals. 465 



panels containing heads in high relief ; or between panels containing half 

 effigies of saints or between full-length canopied figures of saints ; so we come 

 ■ to the type in which the effigy of the bishop has ceased to occupy the most 

 important place, and appears either kneeling or standing at the base of the 

 design, the principal position being occupied by figures of the Virgin and 

 Child, representations of the first founders, groups of saints, or some subject 

 connected with the history of the See. 



The Academy possesses three examples of matrices of seals of this class. 

 The earliest is that of Thomas Barrett, Bishop of Blphin, 1372-1404.' The 

 matrix is bronze, and measures 2|- by 1| inches. It has a pierced handle 

 at. the back, is pointed oval in shape, and very finely cut. The device 

 represents the Virgin enthroned beneath a pinnacled G-othic canopy ; the back- 

 ground is decorated with sprigs of foliage. She wears a crown, and carries a 

 sceptre ending in a trefoil. She is holding the Child standing on her right 

 knee. On the canopy is a shield of arms, three mitres. (Plate XLIX, fig. 3.) 

 This coat is quite different from that at present used by this See, sable two 

 golden crosiers in saltire, in base a silver lamb couchant ; but the latter arms 

 are probably not of very old adoption. I think it probable that the three 

 mitres may have been used by Elphin, allusive to the cap or mitre of 

 St. Patrick, " the chief relic of all Connacht," which is stated to have been 

 preserved at Elphin,- Elphin being one of the Sees which claim to have been 

 founded by St. Patrick. Three silver mitres on a sable field is the present 

 coat-of-arms of the Bishopric of Meath ; but a crosier is stated to have 

 formed part of the arms in addition to the mitres in the early eighteenth 

 century ; and the coat as it stands at present is probably not of very old 

 adoption.^ According to Ware, three mitres were used as the arms of Derry 

 in the seventeenth century.^ This matrix was obtained by the Academy 

 in 1851 in exchange for an English seal." Inscription — 



SiQillvm 5ni tbome 5et gracia elpbtnenfis epi 



The words have sprigs of foliage between them instead of stops. 



The next example is the interesting stone matrix of John Mothell, 

 Bishop of Limerick. The matrix is pointed oval, and measures 2J by 1-| 

 inches. The device represents St. Munchin, founder and first bishop. He 

 is seated, and wears a mitre and chasuble ; his right hand is raised in the act 



'B.M.C., p. 714, and pi. xii, fig. 17, 383. Cotton, !' Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae," 1850, 

 vol. iv, p. 122. 



= "Annals of Loch Ce," vol. ii, p. 119 (a.d. 1406) ; " The Old Irish World," A. S. Green, p. 104. 



3 Crossly, " Peerage of Ireland," 1725, p. 176. 



* Ware, " History of the Bishops of Ireland," p. 286. 



^ Proc, Royal Irish Academy, vol. v, p. 199. 



