THE UNITED DIOCESES OF CORK AND CLOYNE.
As early as the year 1326, Pope John XXII. gave his sanction to the contemplated union of the Dioceses of Cork and Cloyne. The Pontifical letter conveying this sanction bears date the 2nd of August, tenth year of his pontificate. The motive alleged by King Edward III. when soliciting this union, was the poverty of both sees. Cork is described as having a revenue of only sixty pounds per annum, and it is added that both sees "adeo in facultatibus et redditibus suis tenues et exiles sunt, quod earum praesules singulariter singuli ex eis nequeunt juxta episcopalis status decentiam commode sustentari". Nevertheless, this contemplated union was not carried into effect, and for more than one hundred years we find a distinct and regular succession of bishops in each see. It was only in 1430, when both sees happened to be vacant at the same time, that Jordan, chancellor of Limerick, was appointed by Pope Martin V., first bishop of the united dioceses of Cork and Cloyne.
Thirty years later intelligence was conveyed to Pope Pius II. that this bishop, weighed down by the burden of eighty years, was no longer able to exercise his episcopal functions, the more so as he was subject to frequent infirmities, and suffered from an excessive weakness of sight. Hence, on 27th of May, 1461, we find William Roche (alias De Rupe) appointed auxiliary bishop of Dr. Jordan, with right of succession to the united sees. In the brief of appointment he is styled "Archdeacon of Cloyne, of noble lineage, distinguished by his zeal, prudence, and learning": "aliarumque virtutum donis quibus eum Altissimus insignivit" (Monument. Vatic., pag. 430). This prelate, however, was not pleasing to the aged bishop, whilst he was specially distasteful to the English monarch: and to restore peace to our southern see, Rome found it necessary, in the following year, to relieve Dr. Roche of the duties of auxiliary bishop.
On the 31st of January, 1462-3, Gerald Fitzgerald was appointed by the Sovereign Pontiff bishop of the united sees, vacant by the resignation of the aged Bishop Jordan. Many efforts were subsequently made to set aside this appointment; however, it was irrevocably recognized by Rome. The chief difficulty arose from the former coadjutor, Dr. Roche, who, finding the see now vacant by the resignation of Bishop Jordan, claimed it as belonging to him by that "right of succession" which had originally been accorded to him. It was only in December, 1471, that this controversy was finally closed, when a letter was addressed by Pope Paul II. to the Archbishop of Cashel, commanding him to put Gerald Fitzgerald in full possession of all the temporalities of the united sees. Peace being thus restored, Dr. Fitzgerald remained in undisturbed possession till his death in 1479. William Roche, by his submission to the former decisions of the Holy See, merited to be appointed his successor; thus all rival claims were happily adjusted, and Dr. Roche for eleven years continued to administer this see. When at length he resigned the arduous charge, Thady Mechar or Maher was appointed the next bishop in 1490. Most of the temporalities of the see, however, were seized on by the Fitzmaurices and other southern chieftains; so much so that Pope Innocent VIII. was obliged to issue a brief on the 18th of July, 1492, commanding these parties under the usual penalties to desist from their iniquitous usurpation. The Pontiff's letter thus begins:—
"Dudum Corkagensi et Clonensi Ecclesiis invicem canonice unitis, tunc certis modis vacantibus, nos illis de persona Ven. fratris nostri Thadei Episcopi Corkagensis et Clonensis, nobis et fratribus nostris, ob suorum exigentiam meritorum, acceptâ, de fratrum eorumdem consilio apostolica duximus auctoritate providendum.... Cum autem, sicut non absque gravi animi displicentia accepimus, nonnulli iniquitatis filii videlicet Mauritius comes de Simonie, ac Willelmus Barri, ac Edmundus Mauritii de Gerardinis et communitas civitatis Corkagiae necnon universitas civitatis Yoghilliae Clonensis Dioecesis ipsorumque comitis et Willelmi ac Edmundi fratres eorumque ac civitatis et universitatis praedictorum subditi, necnon Philippus O'Ronayn, clericus Corkagensis Dioecesis, nescitur quo spiritu ducti, ipsum Thadeum Episcopum, quominus possessionem regiminis et administrationis ac bonorum dictarum Ecclesiarum assequi potuerit atque possit, multipliciter molestare et perturbare, Dei timore postposito non cessaverint", etc. (Mon. Vatic., pag. 506).
The temporalities of Cork and Cloyne were in great part gifts and grants from the various branches of the Geraldine family, and hence it was that these southern chieftains were now unwilling to see them pass into the hands of a stranger. The death of Bishop Thady put an end to the controversy. He himself had been in Rome when the decree of Pope Innocent was made: and on his journey homeward he was seized with a mortal distemper, which, in a few days, hurried him to his grave in the month of October, 1492, in the town of Eporedia, now Ivrea, in Piedmont, where his mortal remains were deposited in the chapel of St. Eusebius. As great miracles were performed by his intercession, he is venerated at Ivrea as Blessed.
His successor's name was Gerald, but we only know of him that he was implicated in the rebellion of Perkin Warbeck, for which he received a pardon from the crown in 1496. He resigned his bishopric in 1499, and John FitzEdmund was next appointed to these sees, by brief of 26th June the same year. During twenty-one eventful years he continued to administer the united dioceses, and on his death we find the following letter addressed from Dublin by the Earl of Surrey, lord deputy, to Cardinal Wolsey, who was at this time at the zenith of his power in the court of King Henry:—
"Pleaseth your Grace to understand that the Bishop of Cork is dead; and great suit is made to me to write for men of this country. Some say it is worth two hundred marks per annum, some say more. My poor advice would be that it should be bestowed on some Englishman. The Bishop of Leighlin, your servant, having both, methinks he might do good service here. I beseech your Grace let none of this country have it, nor none other but such as will dwell thereon, and such as are able and willing to speak and ruffle when need shall be". (State Papers, vol. ii. page 43).
This letter is dated Dublin, 27th August, 1520, and whatever may have been the cause, another recommendation was transmitted in the following month by the same lord deputy in favour of Walter Wellesley. Both these recommendations, however, were without success, and we meet with a Bishop Patrick, whose name sufficiently indicates the land of his birth, holding these sees in the year 1521. His episcopate was short: as Cotton remarks, "he probably sat only for a year or two". In the State Papers Cork is again described as vacant on the 25th of April, 1522: and before the close of that year John Bennett was appointed by the Holy See, successor of Saint Finbarr. He chose for his place of residence the collegiate establishment of Youghal, which had originally been founded by his family, and at his death he too endowed it with a great part of his own paternal property. Brady in his Records has registered several interesting memorials connected with this ancient Collegiate Church of Youghal. The catalogue of its books, drawn up in the year 1490, especially deserves attention, as it reveals to us what was the literary store treasured up in an humble religious house in a country town of our island at a supposed period of ignorance and barbarism. Besides several books of devotion and tracts on the decretals and canon law, there were eight Missals, five of which are described as "missalia pulchra pergameni". There was also the Life of Christ, by Ludolf of Saxony, now so rare, the Letters of St. Jerome, the Works of St. Gregory the Great, the Summa of St. Thomas, and a number of treatises by St. Bonaventure, the Master of Sentences, St. Antoninus, and others. The Sacred Scriptures had a specially prominent place; there were five psalters for the use of the choir, and twelve other copies of the Bible. One of these is entitled "Una Biblia Tripartita, et alia parvae quantitatis": another was the Old and New Testament, with the gloss of Nicholas de Lyra, "in five volumes"; and then there are "quatuor Evangelistae, glossati, in quatuor voluminibus", and "unum volumen in quo continentur parabolae Salomonis, libri Sapientiae, Canticorum, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus", etc. Some of the works of this little library, if now preserved, would be invaluable for illustrating the antiquities of our island. There was one "antiquum martirologium"; also a volume called "Petrus de Aurora, artis versificatoriae", is described as "mire exauratum": again, "Apparatus Magistri Johannis de Anthon super constitutiones Ottoboni": whilst another small volume was enriched, amongst other things, "cum quibusdam historiis provinciae Hiberniae". An addition was made to this library in 1523, consisting, probably, of the Books of Dr. Bennett. It will suffice to mention two of these works, viz., "Liber meditationum sancti Bonaventurae cum aliis meditationibus et chronicis Geraldinorum", and "Biblia de impressione, in rotunda forma, in manu Joannis Cornelii" (Records, etc., London, 1864, vol. 3, pag. 319, seqq.).
Dr. Bennett died in the year 1535/6, and at his death enriched the chantry of St. Mary's with some ancestral lands in Youghal and its neighbourhood (Ulster Journal of Arch., April, 1854). Henry VIII. appointed Dominick Tirrey to the vacant see, but the reigning Pontiff refused to recognize this nomination, and chose a Franciscan named Lewis MacNamara as successor to Dr. Bennett. The brief of his appointment to Cork and Cloyne is dated 24th September, 1540. This prelate, however, soon after his consecration was summoned to a better world, and on the 5th of November, the same year, another brief was expedited appointing John Hoyeden, (which name is probably a corruption for O'h-Eidhin, i.e. O'Heyne; see O'Donovan, Book of Rights, pag. 109), a canon of Elphin, bishop of the united dioceses. From the consistorial acts we learn that he was impeded by the crown nominee from taking possession of the temporalities of his see, and hence on the 25th February, 1545, he received the administration of his native diocese. The following is the consistorial record:
Die 20º Feb., 1545. "S. Sanctitas providit Ecclesiae Elphinensi de persona Joannis Episcopi Corcagiensis et Clunensis (sic) qui regiminis et administrationis Corcagensis et Clunensis Ecclesiarum invicem unitarum possessionem eo quod a schismaticis et iis qui a Catholica fide defecerunt occupatae detinentur assequi non potuit, nec de proximo assequi speret: ita quod, propter hoc, eisdem Corcagensi et Clunensi Ecclesiis praesse non desinat sed tam Elphinensi quam Corcagensi et Clunensi Ecclesiis hujusmodi ad sex menses a die habitae per eum pacificae possessionis seu quasi regiminis", etc. (sic).
It was probably impossible for Dr. O'Heyne to obtain possession of the temporalities of his see till the accession of Queen Mary. Even then he must have held them only for a little while, as the royal letter granting these temporalities to Roger Skiddy is dated 18th of September, 1557. A curious record of the period gives us an accurate idea of the possessions of the religious houses in the vicinity of Cork: it is a pardon granted to William Bourman for alienating the property of the house of the Friars Preachers, situated in the suburbs of Cork, and the property thus alienated is described as "the site, circuit, and precinct of the monastery, the church, belfry, closes (perhaps this is for clausura), halls and dormitories, castles, messuages, lands, buildings, gardens, mills, and other hereditaments thereunto belonging, an orchard, three gardens, a water-mill, a parcel of meadows containing half a stang, a fishing pool, a salmon weir, three acres called the half scaghbeg, ten acres in Rathminy, and twenty acres in Galliveyston" (Morrin, i. 374).
The next Bishop appointed to the united sees of Cork and Cloyne was Roger Skiddy, who for some time had held the dignity of Dean of Limerick. Queen Mary's letter ordering the restitution of the temporalities to him, is dated the 18th of September, 1557, and it adds that her Majesty "had addressed letters commendatory to his Holiness the Pope a good while since in his favour, and it was hoped he should shortly receive his Bull and expedition from his Holiness" (Ib., i. 377). Letters patent granting the temporalities to him were issued on 2nd November the same year (Ib., i. 373, and Brady, Records, iii. 46), and it is probable that the Bulls from the Holy See were expedited during the interval; for, in an original memorandum preserved in the State Paper Office, London, the remark is made that "the Queen's letters were sent to the Bishop of Rome, and the Bulls were returned thence for the bishoprick of Cork" (Shirley, pag. 115). Nevertheless, this Bishop was not consecrated, neither did he receive possession of the temporalities during the life-time of Queen Mary, although her death did not take place till the 17th of November, 1558. For some time after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, no mention was made of the See of Cork and Cloyne, till on 31st of July, 1562, her Majesty wrote to the Earl of Sussex and the Lord Chancellor, "directing the admission of Roger Skiddy to the bishopricks of Cork and Cloyne, to which he had been previously elected" (Ibid., 472); accordingly, on the 29th of October, 1562, this dignitary was admitted to possession of the temporalities, and a mandate was issued for his consecration, bearing the same date. In his writ of restitution to the temporalities was inserted a retrospective clause, that he should have possession of them from the time of his first advancement by Queen Mary. Whether Dr. Skiddy was actually consecrated or not, no record has been preserved to us, and his consecration in virtue of such a royal mandate would be wholly uncanonical and schismatical. No doubt, however, seems to be entertained of his orthodoxy and devotedness to the Catholic faith: and in 1567, unwilling to lend his name to the religious novelties which the government of the day wished to propagate in the kingdom, he resigned the bishoprick and retired to Youghal, where for several years he devoted his undivided attention to prepare for a happy eternity.
Nicholas Landes was appointed bishop of this see in consistory of 27th of February, 1568/9. The consistorial entry is curious, as it omits all mention of Dr. Skiddy, and describes the see as vacant by the death of Dr. John O'Heyne.
"Die 27º Februarii, 1568: referente Revmo. Cardinali Alciato S. Sanctitas providit Ecclesiae Corcagiensi et Cloinensi invicem unitis, per obitum bonae memoriae Joannis Jadican, ultimi Episcopi vacanti, de persona Rev. D. Nicolai Landes, Hiberni et litteris Episcoporum Catholicorum ejusdem Provinciae atque etiam testimonio Reverendi Patris Wolf S. I. commendati cum retentione rectoriae cum cura donec possessionem Episcopatus adeptus fuerit".
A suggestion has been made that the name Landes is a corruption for some other original name. Such errors in names are certainly very frequent in the consistorial entries of our Irish Bishops: still, two distinct copies of the consistorial acts (viz., the Corsinian and the Vallicellian) retain the present name without variation; and what is still more important, the Brief appointing his successor, Dr. Tanner, in 1574, describes the see as then vacant per obitum Nicolai Landes. Moreover, the name Landey was no novelty in the ecclesiastical records of Ireland in the sixteenth century, an Abbot Landey having held the monastery of St. Mary's, Dublin, during Henry VIII.'s reign, as we learn from the first volume of Morrin's Records.
Dr. Edmund Tanner was next appointed to Cork and Cloyne by brief of 5th November, 1574. There are some peculiar passages in this brief, which merit our attention. Thus it describes Dr. Tanner as "in Theologia Magistrum, de legitimo matrimonio procreatum, in quinquagesimo aetatis anno et presbyteratus ordine constitutum, que fidem Catholicam juxta articulos dudum a Sede Apostolica emanatos professus fuit, cuique de vitae munditia, honestate morum, spiritualium providentia et temporalium circumspectione, aliisque multiplicum virtutum donis fide digna testimonia perhibentur". Subsequently, addressing the clergy and faithful of the united sees, the brief continues:
"Dilectis filiis capitulis et vassallis dictarum Ecclesiarum et populo Corkagen. et Clonen. civitatum et Diocesium, per Apostolica scripta mandamus, quatenus capitula tibi tamquam patri et pastori animarum suarum humiliter intendentes exhibeant tibi obedientiam et reverentiam debitas et devotas: ac clerus te pro nostra et sedis Apostolicae reverentia benigne recipientes et honorifice pertractantes, tua salubria monita et mandata suscipiant humiliter et efficaciter adimplere procurent: populus vero te tamquam patrem et pastorem animarum suarum devote suscipientes et debita honorificentia prosequentes, tuis monitis et mandatis salubribus humiliter intendant. Itaque tu in eis devotionis filios, et ipsi in te per consequens patrem benevolum invenisse gaudeatis".
Moreover, this is the first occasion on which I have found the following clause inserted in the Bull of appointment to the Irish Sees:
"Volumus autem, ut occasio et materia tibi auferatur vagandi, quad extra Corkagen. et Clonen. civitates illarumque Dioeceses etiam de licentia Episcoporum locorum ordinariorum Pontificalia officia exercere nequeas, decernentes irritum et inane quidquid secus per te actum et gestum fuerit" (Ex Secret. Brevium Romae).
Dr. Tanner was consecrated bishop in Rome, and subsequently tarried during the winter months in the Eternal City, laying up spiritual treasures for his future mission. On the 10th of April, 1575, special faculties were granted to him, and he was, moreover, empowered to exercise them not only in his own united Dioceses of Cork and Cloyne, but also "throughout the whole Province of Dublin, of which he was a native (universae provinciae Dublinensis ex qua exoriundus), as well as throughout the whole province of Munster, so long as the various Archbishops and Bishops were obliged by the fury of the persecution to be absent from their respective sees (Ex. Sec. Brev.). About the middle of May the same year, he set out from the Seven Hills to assume the charge assigned to him, and the great Pontiff Gregory XIII. wished to accompany him with the following commendatory letter, dated 12th of May, 1575:—
"Universis et singulis Episcopis atque aliis Praelatis ad quos hae nostrae litterae pervenerint, salutem et Apostolicam benedictionem.
"Ut Nos commendatissimos habemus viros eos quos pietate atque integritate praestare intelligimus, sic cupimus eos nostris in Christo fratribus ac filiis esse summopere commendatos, huncque animum cum omnibus pietate et virtute praeditis tum vero venerabilibus fratribus Episcopis ut ordine ipso sic charitate Nobis conjunctissimis Nos debere cognoscimus. In his est venerabilis frater Edmundus Episcopus Corcagiensis qui a Nobis discedit ut in patriam revertatur. Erit igitur Nobis gratissimum, si eum in hac peregrinatione quam commendatissimum habebitis, vestroque ubi opus esse intelligetis favore complectemini: Datum Romae apud S. Petrum sub annulo Piscatoris die 12 Maii 1575, Pontif. Nostri an. tertio". (Theiner, Annals, ii. 133).
This worthy bishop, during four years, endured the toils and sufferings of his perilous ministry. The Vatican list of 1579 represents the see "Corchagiensis et Clonensis" as still presided over by a canonically appointed bishop; and another list of the clergy who were then engaged in the exercise of their sacred ministry in Ireland presents first of all the name "Reverendissimus Edmundus Epus. Corchagiensis, pulsus tamen Episcopatu". In this last named list we also find commemorated: "Thomas Moreanus Decanus Corchagiensis": and again, "P. Carolus Lens et P. Robertus Rishfordus, ambo Societatis Jesu, qui in variis locis docent litteras sub cura et mandato Reverendissimi Corchagiensis". Soon after, however, on the 4th of June, 1579, Dr. Tanner was summoned to receive the reward of his zeal and labours.
His successor was Dermitius Graith, who was proposed for the first time in the consistory of 7th October, 1580, and whose election was definitely confirmed on the 11th of the same month. The following is the consistorial entry:
"Die 11º Octobris, 1580, Cardinalis Ursinus praenunciavit Ecclesias Corkagien. et Cloinen. invicem unitas in Provincia cuidam principi Catholico subjecta, pro Hyberno scholari Collegii Germanici".
In the list of the Irish clergy above referred to, under the heading "qui sunt extra Hiberniam", is mentioned Darmisius Craticus, who is described as studying in Rome, and in his thirtieth year. He is subsequently again mentioned among those who might be destined for the Irish mission, and it is there added that he was a native of Munster, and though he was skilled in both the English and Irish languages, he was more conversant with the Irish: "melius loquitur Hibernice". From the consistorial acts we further learn that he applied himself to sacred studies in the illustrious college which had been founded a few years before for the purpose of supplying missioners to Germany and other countries suffering from the oppression of heresy, and among his companions in its hallowed halls was Nicholas Skerrett, who was destined to be sharer of his missionary toils and perils as Archbishop of Tuam.
Dr. Graith was one of the most illustrious missioners who laboured in our Irish Church during the sixteenth century; and, as Peter Lombard informs us, was at one time the only bishop in the province of Munster. Soon after his arrival in our island, the agents of heresy mainly directed their efforts towards his apprehension, and so chagrined were they at his escape that they even accused Sir John Perrot of having secretly favoured him and thus baffled their designs. In a memorial presented to government in 1592, "Doctor Creagh, Bishop of Cloyne and Cork", appears first on the list of those who in Munster were enemies of the Elizabethan rule, having lived "in the country these eleven or twelve years past, without pardon or protection, consecrating churches, making priests", etc.; and it is further added that "he did more evil", that is, he was more zealous in propagating our holy faith, even "than Dr. Sanders in his time" (see Essays, etc., by Rev. Dr. M'Carthy, pag. 424). Another State Paper, being a letter from the Lord Deputy to Lord Burghley, in England, dated 17th May, 1593, gives us the following particulars:—
"We have laboured with all possible endeavours with the Earl of Tirone, as well by private conference as by our sending letters, for the apprehension of the titular bishops remaining in these parts; yet can we by no means prevail, though it is very well known to us that the earl might have done great and acceptable service therein, on account of the friendship between him, O'Donell, and Maguire—Maguire being cousin-germain, and altogether at his service, and, as report goeth, either hath or is to marry the earl's daughter. And as in this I made bold, I humbly pray your lordship's pardon, to state what little success hath followed of the great shams of service made by the Archbishop of Cashel and Richard Power, rather in regard for their own benefit and to serve their own turns, than for any performance of actions at all. Upon the Archbishop's coming over they pretended a plot, both for the getting of great sums of money for her Majesty and for the apprehension of Dr. Creaghe, to the second of which we rather first hearkened, but in the end nothing was done more than to spend so much time, and an open show, as it were, made to the world how that traitor was sought and laid for, whereby the other traitorous titular bishops might take warning to be the more wary upon their keeping" (S. P. O.).
The accusation which is here made against the unfortunate Miler MacGrath, Protestant Archbishop of Cashel, had probably more foundation than the Lord Deputy imagined; and whilst much noise was made for the arrest of our Bishop Dermitius, intelligence of all such schemes was communicated to him by Miler himself. One letter of MacGrath to his "loving wife Any" is preserved in the S. P. O., dated from Greenwich, the 26th of June, 1592, in which he writes: "I have already resolved you in my mind touching my cousin Darby Creagh, and I desire you now to cause his friends to send him out of the whole country if they can, or if not to send (to him) my orders, for that there is such search to be made for him that unless he be wise he shall be taken".
On the 31st of October, 1595, a brief was addressed to "Dermitio Episcopo Corcagiensi", commissioning him to grant some ecclesiastical livings to Owen MacEgan, who a few years later became illustrious in the annals of our church as Vicar Apostolic of Ross.—(See Irish Ecclesiastical Record, vol. i., p. 110). In 1599 Dr. Graith was visited by the Franciscan Father Mooney, who in his History of the Order, commemorating this visit, describes the bishop as "vir valde prudens et in rebus agendis versatus". This must have been a period of harrowing anxiety for the worthy bishop. His diocese was laid waste by fire and sword, the Irish chieftains driven to arms by the iniquitous policy of the agents of Elizabeth, having made the southern districts of Ireland the theatre of their struggle. Dr. Graith shared the perils of their camp, ministering to them the comforts of religion. One of his hair-breadth escapes is thus described in the Hibernia Pacata, pag. 190:
"The Earl of Thomond, Sir George Thornton, and Captain Roger Harvey, with their companies, following the direction of their guide, were conducted to Lisbarry, a parcel of Drumfinnin woods. No sooner were they entered into the fastness, than presently the sentinels who were placed in the outskirts of the wood, raised the cry which it would seem roused the Earl of Desmond and Dermod MacCraghe, the Pope's Bishop of Cork, who were lodged there in a poor ragged cabin. Desmond fled away barefoot, having no leisure to pull on his shoes, and was not discovered; but MacCraghe was met by some of the soldiers clothed in a simple mantle, and with torn trousers like an aged churl, and they neglecting so poor a creature, not able to carry a weapon, suffered him to pass unregarded".
This happened in the month of November, 1600.
It was on the 30th March that year, that O'Neill and the other Irish princes addressed a letter in common to the Sovereign Pontiff, unfolding to him the miseries which laid desolate our island, attesting too their resolute desire to combat for the Catholic faith, and to promote the interests of Holy Church, and petitioning in fine, that the vacant sees of the province of Munster might be filled by those who were recommended by the Bishop of Cork and Cloyne: they add that the only bishop then in the southern province was "Reverendissimus Corcagiensis et Cloanensis qui senio et labore jam paene est confectus"; and as a special motive why the Holy See should not delay to make these appointments to the vacant dioceses, they write: "Hoc eo confidentius petimus quia qui electi conservati et ad nos dimissi fuerunt a vestra sacrosancta Sede, ad vacuas his in partibus sedes occupandas, a nobis pro viribus, in iisdem Dei gratiâ defenduntur, ut gregibus sibi commissis tuto invigilare queant".—Original Letter in Hib. Pacat., page 311.
The next notice that we find of our aged Bishop is in the appointment of Luke Archer to administer the see of Leighlin during the absence of its Bishop Ribera, on whose death, in 1604, the same Luke Archer was constituted Vicar-Apostolic of that see. From the words used by Harty when registering this appointment made by our Bishop, we may conclude that Dr. Graith, as his predecessor, had received special faculties from Rome not only for his own diocese, but also for the province of Leinster. "Dermitius Chrah (he writes), Corcagiensis et Clonensis tunc Episcopus apostolica auctoritate qui fulserat".
As regards the precise period of Dr. Graith's death, no record has come down to us. Mooney, the Franciscan annalist, merely attests that "he lived for some time subsequent to 1599". Dr. Matthews, who was consecrated bishop of Clogher in 1609, reckons him amongst the bishops who survived Elizabeth, and lived for some years "aliquibus annis" under James I. This would lead us to conclude that his life was prolonged till the year 1605. O'Sullivan Beare, writing in 1618, leaves us in a like uncertainty, as he refers his death in general terms to the first year of the seventeenth century, after an episcopate of more than twenty years. The eulogy, however, passed upon this bishop by O'Sullivan Beare deserves to be cited in full:—
"Catholicorum infelicitati adscribendum est", he writes, "quod sub id tempus fato functus sit vir integerrimus atque clarissimus Dermysius Mac Carrhus, Corcaghae et Clueniae Episcopus, qui annos viginti et amplius in hac insula in fide retinenda magnopere insudavit, dumque bellum hoc gerebatur, movendis Catholicorum animis, ut Christianam pietatem armis defenderent, multum studii et laboris impendit: cujus interitu Ibernorum concordia non minima parte elanguit. Quae ob merita in Dei ecclesiam et Iberniae regnum collata, cum ejus caput Angli diu frustra impetiverint, tandem illius interfectori vel deprehensori grandem pecuniae summam constituerunt, quin etiam tam inexpiabili odio eum prosequuti sunt ut illius etiam consanguineos labefactare non destiterint. Ex quibus Thomam MacCrachum antistitis nepotem ex fratre Thoma deprehensum ad fidem Catholicam deserendam cogere et praemiis et terrore sunt conati: qua spe dejecti magni et maxime Catholici animi virum securi percusserunt. Sed quoniam in episcopi mentionem incidimus, illud ejus magnum atque rarum mirum nequeo silentio praeterire quod chirographum vix male effingeret, aliam vero ne litteram quidem unam visus sit unquam scribere, cum tamen adeo disertus atque sapiens evaserit ut doctor in utroque jure creatus sacram Theologiam Lovaniae annos aliquot publice sit professus, quippe tanto ingenii acumine tamque felici memoria pollebat ut ne discipulus quidem necesse habuerit lectionem notis excipere, et de doctrina Christiana libellum Ibernice scriptum posteris reliquerit, cujus praeceptis in hunc usque diem juventus in ea insula excolitur" (Hist. Cath., pag. 223).
We may now inquire who were the individuals chosen by Elizabeth to hold the temporalities of Cork and Cloyne during this interval. The first Protestant bishop of these sees was Richard Dixon, a chaplain of the Lord Deputy Sydney. The see in 1568 had received a Catholic appointment, but it was only on the 17th of May, 1570, that Elizabeth wrote to the Lord Deputy: "We are pleased that Richard Dixon, being by you very well commended for his learning and other qualities, shall have the bishoprics of Cork and Cloyne"—(Morrin, i. p. 539). Nevertheless, the prelate thus warmly commended was, on the 7th of March, 1571, sentenced by a royal commission to perform public penance in the Cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin, which penance, adds the government record, he went through in hypocrisy and pretence of amendment; wherefore, on the 7th of November following, the same commission proceeded to depose him from his Protestant episcopal functions, declaring him guilty of public immorality and other crimes.—(See Brady Records, iii. 47). Mathew Sheyn, or Shehan, was the next episcopal incumbent chosen by Elizabeth: only two events are commemorated to mark his episcopate: 1. that in 1575 "he leased away the whole see of Cloyne for ever for five marks per annum"; and 2. that in October, 1578, he made public display of his impiety by consigning to the flames at the high cross of Cork a statue of St. Dominick, long held in veneration by the faithful of that city (Ibid., pag. 49). The next Protestant Bishop, William Lyons, combined in his commission the sees of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. We have already spoken of this dignitary under the head of Ross (Record, vol. i. pag. 110-1): we will now only add that his chief enmity seemed directed against the faithful of Timoleague. Already in 1589 he had destroyed a portion of its venerable monastery to erect a house with the materials. In 1612 he resolved to complete his work of destruction; for intelligence was conveyed to him that a large concourse of Catholics had assembled there to assist at midnight Mass on the great Christmas festival. Though advanced in years, he set out with a troop of soldiers to punish these offenders; however, he had proceeded only a little way from the city when he was seized with such violent pains throughout his whole body that he was obliged to desist from his undertaking. During the five remaining years of his life he displayed less violence against the Catholics, and to his dying day he retained a lively memory of his Christmas excursion to Timoleague—(Mooney's MS. Hist., p. 49).