Lawlor — A Fresh Authority for the Synod of Kelts, 1152. 19 



It will be observed that uo mention is made of the place of origin of the 

 ordinance of Paparo concerning the ecclesiastical provinces and the bishoprics 

 of Ireland ; and, as to its date, we are only told that it was put forth while 

 Eugenius III was Pope. But no one who is familiar with the documents on 

 which our knowledge of the Synod of Kells depends can doubt that the 

 ordinance of Paparo was issued at that assembly. 



How, then, did this list come to rest at Montpellier ? I may venture a 

 guess which seems to me not improbable. 'J'he nucleus of the Montpellier 

 collection is described in the Catalogue as " Ponds de Bouhier," which com- 

 prises a large number of mss. gathered from many quarters. Of the first 

 150 MSS. described in the Catalogue, no less than sixty are referred to it. 

 The majority of the others whose origin is known (about sixty in all) came 

 from Burgundy ; especially from Clairvaux (fifteen) and Troyes, which is 

 about thirty-five miles from it (seventeen). Now the Synod of Kells was the 

 final result of the labours of St. Malachy of Armagh. He was on terms of 

 affectionate intimacy with St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who stood beside him 

 in his last hours, and wrote his life. St. Bernard, and no doubt many of his 

 community, were well aware of his scheme for the organization of the Church 

 of Ireland. Paparo also seems to have been a friend of St. Bernard. At all 

 events, in a short letter written in the year of the Synod of Kells, and 

 intended for the ear of the Pope, he goes out of his way to eulogize him, 

 contrasting his conduct with that of another legate who had been sent to 

 Germany.! y^^ j^j^y infer that he followed Paparo's movements with 

 enthusiasm. Indeed, we can hardly imagine that, in any place outside the 

 British Isles and Eonie, this record would have been of interest, save at 

 Clairvaux. I suggest that it was transcribed there from Paparo's manu- 

 script of the acts of the Synod," and that; it was subsequently transferred, 

 with other Clairvaux mss., to Montpellier. 



The list, as I have hinted, is full of errors in the place-names ; but they 

 are not more numerous than might be expected by a student of the 

 documents of the Papal Chancery. Attention may be called to two which 

 are more serious than the rest. Among the suffragans of Armagh, we have 

 the Bishop of Eath Luraig and the Bishop of Darnth (Derry). These are in 

 fact the same person. At this period the see of the Diocese of Cenel Eoghaiu 



' S. Bernard!, Epist. 290 (Migne, PL. olxxxii. 496). 



^ It is true that on this hypothesis we should not expect to find the words " tempore 

 domini Eugenius papae " in the heading of the list, both in Albinus and in the 

 Montpellier copy. They seem to imply that Eugenius was not the reigning Pope. He 

 died on 8th July, 1553, and St. Bernard on 20th August, 1553, nearly a year and a half 

 after the Synod. But the objection does not seem serious. 



