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VTir. 



A CALENDAE OF THE EEGISTEE OF AECHBISHOP SWETEMAN". 

 By EEV. H. J. LAWLOE, D.D. 



Read June 26. Published Septkmbeu 18, 1911. 



Introduction. 



In the Public Libi'ary of Armagh is preserved a series of manuscript volunres 

 unique among early Irish records. They are the Eegisters of the medieval 

 Archbishops of Armagh, and, with some gaps, cover a period of two centuries, 

 from about 1350 to 1550 A.D. They are the source of all the information 

 we possess, concerning the ordinary official life of a pre-Eeformation Irish 

 bishop, and they throw much light on the condition of the Church in Ulster 

 in the centuries to which they belong. The volumes are seven in number, and 

 their contents are as follows : — 



Volume I, Eegisters of Milo Sweteman and Nicholas Fleming, together 

 with some leaves of registers of earlier and later 

 Primates. 



A^olume II, Eegister of John Swayne. 



Volume III, Eegister of John Prene. 



Volume IV, Eegister of John Mey. 



Volume V, Eegister of Octavian de Palatio. 



Volume VI, Eegister of George Cromer. 



Volume VII, Eegister of George Dowdall. 



All these are originals, with the exception of the last, which is an early 

 copy of a lost original. 



Of three of these volumes (vols. 11,111, VI) transcripts were made by an 

 excellent scribe in the eighteenth century, and are still preserved in the 

 Armagh Library. The late Dr. Eeeves, while he held the office of librarian, 

 completed the set of transcripts, copying with his own hand vols. I, IV, V, VII. 

 The volumes prepared by Dr. Eeeves are probably superior, both in accuracy 

 and as specimens of calhgraphy, to their fellows in the series of fair copies. 



It is obvious that copies of such beautiful workmanship could not have 

 been made direct from originals which are often difficult to read, and yet 

 oftener sadly mutilated. We may therefore infer that rough copies of the 



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