THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.
AUGUST, 1865.
Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.
CONTENTS
[THE SEE OF DROMORE.]
[DR. COLENSO AND THE OLD TESTAMENT.]
[RICHARD FITZ-RALPH, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH.]
[MR. BUTT AND NATIONAL EDUCATION.]
[LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.]
[CORRESPONDENCE.]
[DOCUMENTS.]
[NOTICES OF BOOKS.]
THE SEE OF DROMORE.
The see of Dromore, though founded by St. Colman, seems for several centuries to have comprised little more than the abbey of that great saint and its immediate territory. In the synod of Rathbreasil (a. d. 1118), in which the boundaries of the various dioceses were defined, no mention is made of Dromore, and the territory subsequently belonging to it was all comprised within the limits of the see of Connor. The acts of the synod of Kells held about fifty years later, are also silent as to a bishop of Dromore; and Cencius Camerarius, compiling his list of sees in 1192, again omits all mention of this see. Nevertheless, the abbot of the monastery, "de viridi ligno", which gave name to the town of Newry, ruled this diocese with episcopal authority during the later half of the twelfth century, and a bishop of this see named Uroneca (alias O'Rony) is mentioned in a charter of donations to the abbey of Neddrum, about the year 1190 (see Reeves' Ecclesiastical Antiquities, pag. 192).
The last episcopal abbot of this great monastery was Gerard, a Cistercian monk of Mellifont, who, in 1227, was chosen bishop, and died in 1243. A controversy then arose between the chapter of Dromore and the monastery of Newry. Each claimed the right of electing the successor to the deceased bishop; and the Archbishop of Armagh gave judgment in favour of the former. The matter being referred to Rome, all controversy was set at rest by Pope Innocent VI., who by letter of 5th March, 1244, addressed "to the dean and chapter of Dromore", confirmed the decision of the Archbishop of Armagh, and sanctioned the right of the canons of Dromore to elect the bishops of the see (Mon. Vatic., pag. 42). Andrew, archdeacon of Dromore, was accordingly elected bishop, and consecrated in 1245, and the episcopal succession continued uninterrupted till the latter half of the fifteenth century.