166 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



to whom they are due ; and it is approved that all such, both among Irish and 

 English, should be paid according to the ancient annals (?) (amnios) and rolls 

 framed therefor in the several dioceses. 

 Printed in Wilkins iii. 660. 



14. Constitutions of the Diocese of Ossory. f. 6. 



6 October, 1317. The constitutions were made by Bishop Eichard de Ledred 

 at a Synod held in St. Canice's Cathedral Church, Kilkenny, and contain the 

 following : — (1) A profession of faith in the Trinity, followed by a command 

 that if anyone in the diocese is aware that any person is preaching heresy 

 therein, he is to give information thereof within a month after it has come to 

 his knowledge. (2) All undedicated churches, cemeteries, and chapels having 

 rectors are to be dedicated, and all dedicated churches which have been 

 violated to be reconciled, within six months from last Michaelmas, under a 

 penalty of 40s. to the alms of the bishop, and payment of procurations due for 

 such consecration or reconciliation. In every dedicated church the date of 

 the dedication, with the names of the [saint] ^ to whom it was dedicated and 

 the person by whom it was dedicated, and the number of days' indulgence 

 granted at the consecration, is to be inscribed near the great altar, and the 

 anniversary of the dedication is to be observed. (3) Persons having cure of 

 souls and not being priests are, in accordance with the ordinance of Pope 

 Boniface VIII, to obtain, within a year, promotion to all holy orders necessary 

 for their cures, and are to reside in their benefices unless lawfully dispensed. 

 (4) None hereafter shall be admitted to a perpetual vicarage with cure of 

 souls unless he be a priest, or at least a deacon or subdeacon, to be ordained 

 to the priesthood at the next ensuing Embertide, and, renouncing all other 

 benefices which he may hold, shall take an oath to reside constantly in the 

 same. (5) Everyone obtaining a benefice with cure, who has been dispensed 

 from residence, shall by letters patent appoint a proctor in such benefice, and, 

 if there be not a perpetual vicar in the benefice, shall, on the day on which 

 licence of absence is granted, present a priest to the bishop, who shall have a 

 share of the fruits assigned to him, at the bishop's direction, for his support 

 and for sustaining the burdens of the church towards the ordinaries. (6) Since 

 neither evangelical authority nor canonical severity has availed to restrain 

 clerks and priests from openly keeping concubines, it is commanded that every 

 clerk in holy orders in the diocese of Ossory who openly keeps a concubine in 

 his own or another's house shall put her away within a month from the 

 publication of this constitution. If not, he shall be suspended from his office, 

 and further he shall lose a third part of the fruits of his benefice, to be 



^ Blank space in ms. 



