296 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



sources from which we may infer that the status enjoyed by the 

 Knights Hospitallers in Ireland was not inferior to that universally 

 accorded to their brethren throughout Europe in the hey-day of their 

 prosperity. Thus, from the earliest period for which such records 

 are available, the Prior of Kilmainham or his locum tenens appears to 

 have been summoned among the barons as a spiritual peer of Parlia- 

 ment,^ while the rolls of the great officers of State, and of the heads 

 of the judiciary, show that the Lords Priors of the Hospital were 

 closely associated with the work of government, and were often 

 entrusted with the highest administrative functions. As many as 

 four among them held the great office of Lord Deputy, and at 

 least two of thera appear to have held Parliaments in the great 

 hall of Kilmainham ; while the names of no fewer than seven of 

 the Priors are to be found upon the distinguished roll of the Lords 

 Chancellors of Ireland.^ The Hospitallers also appear to have 

 exercised in early times, in conjunction with the Templars, some of 

 the functions of treasurers or bankers, the Lords Justices in Henry 

 the Third's reign being instructed to lodge at Kilmainham the aid 

 collected for the King, for transmission to England by the Knights.* 

 But great as was the part played by the Priors of Kilmainham 

 in the business of government, and in the administration of the 

 law, it was, as befitted their important position in the great 

 military Order of Knights Hospitallers, less as statesmen or as 

 judges than as soldiers that their most eminent services were ren- 

 dered. Military service to the Crown was manifestly the principal 

 consideration for those extensive grants which were made by the 

 early Plantagenet Sovereigns both to the Templars and to the Hos- 

 pitallers. It is clear that the two Orders performed between them 

 many of the duties of a garrison, and that the Preceptories and Com- 

 manderies, with the fortified castles which everywhere adjoined them 

 (and which in most cases were built on sites strategetically advanta- 

 geous), served as so many citadels of Anglo-Norman authority in the 

 provinces. As the wealth and authority of the Hospital at Kilmainham 

 grew, the military importance of its rulers steadily increased. Those 

 Priors who took an active part in public affairs appear to have joined 



^ See Lynch's Feudal Dignities." 



^ Vide Lascelles' " Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniae." 



^Sweetman's *' Calendar of Documents" (1171-1251), p. 147. It appears from 

 a letter printed in the " Carew Calendar " (1515-1574), p. 42, that the Prior of 

 Kilmainham held the office of Under Treasurer in 1434. 



