212 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
of his rank in the Church. The artist was sufficiently educated to 
perceive that a projecting head was not suitably placed over a flat 
incised representation of the body, so he got over the difficulty by 
still employing a similar head, simply for ornament, distinct, and 
altogether detached from the ecclesiastical figure ; and underneath this, 
on the front of the crozier, and appropriated to the purpose for which 
it was intended, is a well-designed representation of a mitred Abbot, 
in full costume, and executed in good relief ; thus, in all respects, 
maintaining the principal features of the 
older bishop's crook, and adopting its pecu- 
liar design, with such artistic modifications 
as were requisite for the newer pastoral 
staff. 
The sides and under surface of the 
older crook are enriched with chased pat- 
terns, which are best understood by refe- 
rence to the illustrations. I cannot find 
any sufficient analogy between these pat- 
terns and work of admitted Irish origin 
to connect them in a satisfactory manner; 
they are dissimilar to all such designs so far 
as my observations reach, and I am disposed 
to believe that they were originally pro- 
duced on the Continent. This is, of course, 
mere conjecture, and the solution of this 
problem would require more definite in- 
formation about early European croziers, 
especially those of Southern Gaul and Lom- 
bardy, than I am in possession of. All the 
results which I have arrived at would in- 
duce me to look to these central European 
districts as the source whence it was obtained. The importation of 
croziers for the use of Irish bishops in later times was not uncommon, 
and we possess some in the Museum of the Academy that are decorated 
with Limoges enamelling. 
Clonmacnoise, on the banks of the Shannon, obtained a wide- 
spread reputation alike as a great centre of education and of religious 
training. According to the " Chronicon Scotorum," it was origi- 
nally founded by St. Ciaran, "the Great, the Carpenter's Son," who 
died A.D. 544, at the early age of thirty-three years, soon after he. 
had commenced its erection, in which he was assisted by King 
