It is clear from the present passage that Conor O'Brien followed in the footsteps of his predecessors in the same family as a supporter of the new movement in the Irish Church. Cormac, as we know, was the friend and disciple of Malachy: his devotion to the Church is witnessed to by the beautiful edifice built by him at Cashel, still known as "Cormac's Chapel," which was consecrated in 1134; and by his title of "Bishop-King," which has been the subject of so much discussion. See Petrie, pp. 283-307; and for the crozier found in Cormac's supposed tomb, G. Coffey, Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian Period in the National Museum, Dublin, p. 64. But it must be added that the contemporary Vision of Tundale, which apparently emanated from Cormac's kingdom of Desmond, while bearing emphatic testimony to his generosity to "Christ's poor and pilgrims," charges him with heinous crimes strangely inconsistent with St. Bernard's sketch of his character (Tundale, p. 44 f.).
[370] It seems that the successor (coarb) of the founder of a church was supposed to speak with his authority. Cp. the Epistle of Cummian in Ussher, p. 442.
[371] Cp. § 65. It is generally believed that St. Patrick was buried at Downpatrick (see Reeves, p. 223 ff.); but Olden contended (not convincingly) that the statement made here by St. Bernard is correct (R.I.A. xviii, 655 ff.), while Bury (Life of St. Patrick, p. 211) has "little hesitation in deciding that the obscure grave was at Saul."
[372] This word cannot have been in St. Bernard's document, for it is unknown in early Irish ecclesiastical terminology, and in Irish hierarchical arrangements it would have no meaning. The context proves that the persons to whom it is here applied are the abbots of Armagh, of whom Cellach was one. It probably represents a Latin rendering of "coarb (successor) of Patrick," a title commonly given to the abbots of this period. The document portrayed the coarbs as rulers of the church of Armagh. St. Bernard would naturally infer that they were bishops. When he found that their authority extended beyond Armagh he would no less naturally style them archbishops or metropolitans. Cp. Serm. i, § 6, where the story of §§ 19-31 is briefly summarized.
[373] Armagh.
[374] Quasi generationibus quindecim. The "quasi-generations" are apparently the periods of office of successive coarbs. St. Bernard seems to have written "fifteen" in mistake for "twelve." See Additional Note B, p. 165.
[375] Adulterous, because it took possession of the church, which should have been married to true bishops. Cp. § 20, "the adultery of the church," Malachy "being joined to another spouse;" § 21, Malachy's "former spouse," and the vision of Cellach's wife.
[376] Matt. xii. 39; xvi. 4.
[377] On the statements in these sentences, see Additional Note B.
[378] That bishops were numerous in Ireland at this period is indubitable. Fifty attended the Synod of Fiadh meic Oengusa (A.U. 1111), and probably all of them came from the provinces of Ulster and Munster (above, p. xxxviii). But this cannot have been due to the irregularities at Armagh of which St. Bernard complains. There were many bishops in Ireland in its earliest Christian period. See Reeves, 123-136; Todd, 27 ff.