This is, perhaps, the most fitting place to give an account of the life and writings of the celebrated Cormac Mac Cullinan, the Bishop-king of Cashel. It is as a Gaedhlic scholar he is best known to posterity, although his high position, his valour, his piety, as well as his tragical end, have all combined to render his career singularly interesting to his fellow countrymen.
Cormac was born so early as the year A.D. 835, at the very time when almost all Ireland was writhing under the oppression of the Danes. He was sprung from the chief royal family of Desmond, that is, the Eoghanachts of Cashel. It is well known that the entire province of Munster was divided between two sons of Ollioll Olum—Eoghan, the elder taking Desmond, and Cormac Cas the younger getting Thomond for his principality, with alternate right for both brothers to the sovereignty of the entire province. The Eugenian line, however, contrived to keep the sovereignty of the province for the most part in their family; and, as these kings lived generally at Cashel, the royal family of South Munster came to be called the Eoghanachts of Cashel.
No mention of Cormac is made in our Annals until he was called to the throne of Cashel by his fellow tribesmen, A.D. 900, when he had attained the mature age of sixty-five. The Four Masters, however, tell us that Sneidgius, the wise man of Disert-Diarmada, was his tutor; the latter died A.D. 885 (recte 888), as we find it in the more accurate Chronicon Scotorum. Disert-Diarmada, now called Castle-Dermott, is a place of ancient fame in the south of the County Kildare. It took its old name from a hermitage founded there by St. Diarmaid, otherwise called Ainle, because he was a ‘fresh-complexioned youngling,’ as the Gloss on Ængus tells us, when he retired to the hermitage that has borne his name ever since. The ancient round tower still standing, as well as the old stone cross, and the broken shaft of a second cross, show that the old abbey, on whose site the Protestant Church now stands, was a place of great ecclesiastical importance. The Crouched Friars were established there by Walter de Riddlesford, and Thomas, Lord of Offaley, founded a convent for Franciscans in the same place. It was called Castle-Dermott from the castle erected by de Riddlesford in the reign of King John. It was a place of much strength, surrounded by walls, and defended by this strong castle; and hence we find that two Parliaments of the Pale were held here—one in the reign of Edward IV., and the other in A.D. 1499. Its chief glory, however, will always be that it was there Cormac Mac Cullinan was educated, and there he was buried. It gave him knowledge, and when his brief and stormy reign was over, it gave him the rest of the grave.
It seems that during the ninth century at least, the abbots of Disert-Diarmada enjoyed quasi-episcopal jurisdiction. Some of them were certainly bishops; and, no doubt, had a territory which owned their spiritual sway. In A.D. 842, we are told that “Cumsudh, son of Derero and Maenach, son of Sadchadach, who were both bishops and anchorites, died in one night at Disert-Diarmada.” A.D. 895 died Muirghaes, Bishop and Abbot of Disert-Diarmada; and again in A.D. 1038, we hear of the death of a ‘distinguished bishop’ of Disert-Diarmada.
The learning of Cormac Mac Cullinan was, no doubt, acquired within the walls of this ancient monastic school. Sneidgius, the sage (egnai) of Disert-Diarmada, was his tutor, and from the acquirements of the pupil, it is not difficult to infer the learning of the master. We have now no means, however, of knowing how long Cormac remained at Disert-Diarmada.
He was certainly a bishop before he became King of Cashel, but it is difficult to say what See he was placed over, or whether he ever had charge of any See at all. We do not read in any of our Annalists that he was Bishop of Cashel before he became King of Munster; indeed it is very doubtful if he were ever Bishop of Cashel at all. There is no reference made to a Bishop of Cashel before this period, so far as we know, in any of our ancient authorities. It was the seat of the temporal royalty, but it had not yet become the seat of spiritual authority. The Four Masters say that Cormac was King and Bishop, but they do not say he was Bishop of Cashel. The Annals of Ulster call him King of Cashel, but do not call him ‘bishop’ at all. The Chronicon Scotorum describes him as “King of Cashel, a most excellent scribe, a bishop, and an anchorite;” but makes no reference to his See. Keating is, so far as we know, the first who calls Cormac, not Bishop, but Archbishop of Cashel. In fact down to the year A.D. 1101, Cashel was simply a royal dun, which gave its name to the kingdom of South Munster. There was up to that time no church or monastery at Cashel, of which we have any information. But in that year a remarkable event took place, thus recorded by the Four Masters: “A meeting of Leath Mogha was held at Caiseal by Muircheartach O’Briain with the chiefs of the laity, and O’Dunan, noble bishop and chief senior with the chiefs of the clergy; and on this occasion Muircheartach O’Briain made a grant, such as no king had ever made before, namely, he granted Caiseal of the kings to the religious, without any claim of laymen or clergymen upon it, but the religious of Ireland in general.” Here we find at the beginning of the twelfth century, that for the first time in its history, Cashel was given up for religious purposes, and ceased to be the royal residence of the southern kings. We find down to that time frequent mention in our Annals of the kings and royal heirs of Cashel, but of no Bishop of Cashel. Thenceforward, however, we hear of the Archbishops, but not of the kings or tanists of Cashel. The thing appears to have been brought about in the following way.
In consequence of the temporal sovereignty of Cashel, the prelates of Emly, in whose diocese it was situated, began to claim metropolitan jurisdiction over all Munster, especially when the O’Brian family began to claim the sovereignty of Ireland during the eleventh century. Hence we find that Domhnall Ua Heni is called in the Chronicon Scotorum ‘Archbishop of the men of Munster’ (Anno 1094). Celsus, the Primate, was anxious to oblige the King of Munster, and, moreover, O’Dunan, successor of O’Heni (from A.D. 1094-1118), was the personal friend and admirer of Celsus. Hence St. Bernard tells us that Celsus consented to establish de novo a second metropolitan See in Ireland, subject, however, to the primatial See of Armagh. O’Dunan was the first who de jure, if it can be so called, enjoyed the metropolitan dignity in the South of Ireland; and we know that St. Malachy was anxious to obtain the pall for the new See of Cashel, as well as for his own primatial See of Armagh. And it was doubtless to provide a sufficient endowment and a becoming See for the new metropolitan that the king made over his own royal fortress, and a part of his mensal estates for that purpose.
King Murtogh O’Brian was succeeded in the year A.D. 1119 by Cormac Mac Carthy, a pious and munificent prince. He did not reside at Cashel, for it was now church property; and it is highly probable the ‘noble senior and chief bishop of Munster’ had already established his episcopal palace on the famous Rock. He was not yet, however, formally recognised as archbishop, for he was present at the Synod of Fiadh Mic Ænghusa, which, according to the Four Masters, was held in A.D. 1111, and he is there simply described as ‘noble senior of Erin,’ and as Bishop of Munster, or as others have it, Bishop of Cashel. He was the first prelate who bore that title de jure, and he was a man who in every respect seems to have been worthy of the eminent dignity to which he was now elevated. He died at Clonard in the year A.D. 1117, according to the Four Masters, who describe him as “the head of the clergy in Ireland (in merit) and lord of the alms deeds of the West of Europe.”
If, as the Four Masters say, his death took place in A.D. 1117, it was just two years before the death of his friend Murtogh O’Brian, “King of Munster and of Ireland,” the munificent prince who gave over Cashel for religious purposes. Cormac, his successor, was not to be outdone in generosity, so we find that in A.D. 1127 he began to build the beautiful church on the Rock of Cashel, which has ever since been known as Cormac’s Chapel. It is sometimes ascribed to Cormac Mac Cullinan, but Petrie conclusively shows that it was begun about A.D. 1127 by Cormac Mac Carthy, and consecrated seven years later in A.D. 1134, as all our annalists declare.
It is a singular fact, too, that Cormac Mac Carthy, shortly after the chapel on the Rock was begun, was driven from his throne by Turlough O’Conor, and was compelled to take refuge at Lismore, and there also “took the staff-bachall”—or crozier[447]—and was honoured with the counsels and friendship of St. Malachy. Hence he is called a bishop-king by a contemporary writer, Maelbrighte, in his copy of the Gospel now preserved in the British Museum. The Four Masters also referring to his murder in A.D. 1138, describe him as Lord of Desmond, and Bishop-king of Ireland; and add, that he was treacherously slain by Turlough, son of Diarmaid O’Brian, a grandson of the previous king. Our own opinion therefore is, that O’Dunan, the noble senior, was the first Bishop of Cashel, that it was Murtough O’Brian gave him his See-lands, and that it was Cormac Mac Carthy, himself a King-bishop, who built the beautiful chapel on the Rock, rather, however, as an episcopal oratory, than as a cathedral properly so called.