The famous cross of Clonmacnoise, to which Ware refers in the above passage, was erected about the year 920; and though two centuries ago its inscription was deemed illegible, the illustrious Petrie has deciphered it in our own times. The first part of the inscription is: "A prayer for Flann, son of Maelsechlainn"; and the second part is: "A prayer for Colman who made this cross over the King Flann". (Petrie, Round Towers, pag. 268.) This ancient cross is, moreover, richly ornamented with relievos and ornamental net-work: "The sculptures on its west side", says Petrie, "relate to the history of the original foundation of Clonmacnoise by St. Kieran; while the sculptures on the other sides represent the principal events in the life of our Saviour, as recorded in the Scripture; and hence the cross was subsequently known by the appellation of Cros na Screaptra, i.e., the Cross of the Scriptures, under which name it is noticed in the Annals of Tighernach at the year 1060". Amongst the sacred subjects thus sculptured on this venerable cross we may mention, the Crucifixion—the Blessed Virgin bearing the Divine Infant in her arms—and the adoration by the Magi.
Dr. O'Hnygyn died in 1538, and had for his successor Richard Hogan, who, after presiding for fourteen years in the See of Killaloe, was translated to Clonmacnoise on the 17th July, 1539: he, however, died the same year, and as Ware informs us, "within a few days after his translation". Another bishop was appointed without delay, and on the 15th December, 1539, Dr. Florence O'Gerawan or Kirwan was proclaimed in consistory as successor to St. Kieran. He held this See about fourteen years, and died soon after the accession of Queen Mary. The death of the good prelate was probably hastened by the sad ruin which fell upon his cathedral before the close of 1552. In the spirit of Vandalism to which the noblest monuments of our ancient faith became a prey at this period, the English garrison of Athlone plundered and pillaged the venerable church of Clonmacnoise—an event, the memory of which is still as vividly preserved in local tradition, as though it were only an occurrence of yesterday. It is thus recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 1552: "Clonmacnoise was plundered and devastated by the English (Galls) of Athlone, and the large bells were carried from the round tower. There was not left, moreover, a bell, small or large, an image or an altar, or a book, or a gem, or even glass in the window, from the walls of the church out, which was not carried off. Lamentable was this deed, the plundering of the city of Kieran, the holy patron".
In the "Patent Rolls", an invaluable work for which we are indebted to the persevering energy of Mr. Morrin, is registered under date of 15th September, 1541, "the confirmation of Florence Gerawan in the Bishoprick of Clonmacnoise, to which he had been promoted by the Pope; and his presentation to the vicarage of Lymanaghan in the same Diocese on his surrender of the Pope's Bull". (vol. I. pag. 82.) The editor, indeed, inadvertently substituted Cloyne for Clonmacnoise in this passage, the Latin name Cluanensis being common to both Sees. Cloyne, however, was at this time united with Cork, and Mr. Morrin may easily be pardoned this error, since it is shared by the learned De Burgo and by Dr. Maziere Brady in the Third volume of his "Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross". (London, 1864, pag. 97.) The surrender of the Pope's Bull was regarded at this period as a merely civil ceremony, required by law as a condition to obtain possession of the temporalities of the See, and we find an instance of it even in Catholic times on the appointment of Dr. Oliver Cantwell to the See of Ossory in the year 1488. At all events, the fact just now recorded, of the plunder of his church sufficiently proves that Dr. O'Kirwan, at the close of his episcopate, did not enjoy the favour and patronage of the courtiers of Edward VI.
Dr. Peter Wall, of the Order of St. Dominick, was the next bishop of this See. He had for a while been led astray by the novelties of the preceding reigns, but, as the Consistorial register records, returned repentant to the bosom of Holy Church, and was now absolved from all the censures which he had incurred. He was appointed Bishop on the 4th of May, 1556, and for twelve years remained in undisturbed possession of his See. He died in 1568; and though the heretical government annexed this diocese to Meath, the Sovereign Pontiff never recognized the union, and Clonmacnoise continued to be governed by Vicars till, after a widowhood of eighty years, it again received a chief pastor, in the person of Anthony M'Geoghegan, who was appointed its bishop on 22nd of January, 1647.
The reader may here expect some remarks on the vicissitudes of this see, and its successive connection with the provinces of Tuam and Armagh. When as yet there were only two archiepiscopal sees in our island, extending to Leath Cuinn and Leath Mogha, all Connacht, and with it Clonmacnoise, was comprised in the northern district. Gradually, however, Tuam grew into the proportions of a distinct province, and in the synod of Rathbreasil, held by St. Celsus of Armagh in 1110, we find the five sees of Tuam, Clonfert, Cong, Killalla, and Ardchame or Ardagh, clustered together, though still subject to the Archbishop of Armagh. When at length, in the synod of Kells, in 1152, Tuam received the archiepiscopal pallium from the hands of Cardinal Paparo, Ardagh was assigned to the primatial see, but Clonmacnoise was referred to the new province of Tuam. This division soon became a subject of controversy. Tuam claimed the diocese of Ardagh for the western province, whilst Armagh declared that the Shannon was its boundary, and hence reckoned Clonmacnoise as a northern see, and at the same time claimed, as subject to its own metropolitical jurisdiction, the churches of Killmedoin, Croagh-patrick, Killtulagh, and some others of the diocese of Tuam. At the Council of Lateran, held in Rome in 1215, Felix O'Ruadhan, Archbishop of Tuam, and Eugene MacGillividen, Archbishop of Armagh, were both present, and laid their dispute before the great Pontiff Innocent III., and a decree soon after emanated, assigning indeed the above named churches to Tuam, but deferring to a future day the decision of the other points of controversy. In the meantime Armagh was in possession of both sees, and for more than a hundred years they continued thus subject to its metropolitical jurisdiction. As to Ardagh, the question was never after mooted; but towards the middle of the fourteenth century, Clonmacnoise seems to have been again numbered amongst the dioceses of the western province. This change probably took place during the episcopate of Bishop Symon, of the Order of St. Dominick, who, though omitted in the lists of Ware and De Burgo, was appointed to this see on the death of Dr. Henry, in 1349. This prelate, in the bull of his appointment, is declared to be "Priorem fratrum ordinis Praedicatorum de Roscommon, Elfinensis diœcesis, in sacerdotio constitutum et cui de religionis zelo, litterarum scientia, vitae ac morum honestate et aliis virtutum meritis laudabilia testimonia perhibentur" (ap. Theiner, pag. 291). At all events, soon after this period we find a list of Irish bishoprics which is now preserved in the Barberini archives at Rome, and in it the see of Clonmacnoise is referred to the province of Tuam. In the consistorial record of the appointment of Dr. O'Higgins, cited above, it is in like manner described as subject to the metropolitical jurisdiction of St. Jarlath's. The episcopate of Dr. O'Hnygyn seems to have been the period when at last all controversy was hushed, and this diocese was finally adjudged to the province of Armagh. This prelate assisted indeed at the Provincial Synod of Tuam, held in 1523, but, in the preamble to the Synod, he is expressly described as "Dominus Kyntius (i.e., Quintinus) Dei gratiâ Episcopus Cluanensis Provinciae Armachanae". (Irish Arch. Soc. Miscellany, vol. I., p. 77.) An official list of all the dioceses was drawn up and published during the pontificate of Pope Paul III., in 1546, and in it Clonmacnoise is marked as belonging to the primatial see. The era of persecution during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. produced no change in this arrangement; and when a momentary peace again smiled on the Irish Church, in 1632, we find the vicar-apostolic of Clonmacnoise, Rev. John Gafney, after administering this see for thirty-five years, taking his place among the assembled fathers in the provincial synod of Armagh.
P. F. M.
CARDINAL CONSALVI AND NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
The concordat signed at Paris on the 15th July, 1801, between Pius VII. and Napoleon, is one of the most important facts of modern history. The magnitude of its results may best be learned from the contrast between the present state of religion in France and that which existed during, and for long after, the Revolution. "There is no negotiation", says M. Thiers, "which is more deserving of serious meditation than that of the Concordat"; but up to the present day the materials for such a study have been wanting. At length the full light of history has been let in upon the secret conferences in which the articles of that treaty were prepared; and the hand which has traced for us their history is the same which signed the Concordat itself. The memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi, who took part in the negotiations as the plenipotentiary of the Roman Pontiff, penned by him during the days of his exile, have at length been given to the world.[1] Since the Cardinal's death in 1824, these memoirs have been religiously left in the obscurity to which their author condemned them, and which he willed should last as long as the life of the principal personages of whom he has made mention in his pages. But when at length, in 1858, there appeared no reason for further silence, they were handed over by Consalvi's executors to M. Crétineau-Joly, who has published, not the original text, but what he assures us is a faithful version of it. We propose to give our readers a sketch of the history of the Concordat as it is recorded in these memoirs, and in doing so, we shall make use as often as we can of the Cardinal's own words.
The victory of Marengo, gained June 14, 1800, made the First Consul master of Italy. Five days after the battle, passing through Vercelli at the head of his army, he charged Cardinal Martiniana, bishop of that city, to communicate to the Pope his desire of negotiating a settlement of the religious affairs of France, and for this purpose he requested that Mgr. Spina, archbishop of Corinth, might be sent to him to Turin. His request was gladly complied with. But scarcely had that prelate entered Turin than he was ordered to set out at once for Paris, where Napoleon awaited his arrival. It needed but a short stay in that capital to convince Mgr. Spina that the projects of concordat proposed by the consul were absolutely inadmissible, as being founded on a basis completely at variance with the laws of the Church. In vain did the Pope, in his anxiety to promote the good of religion, forward to Paris an amended plan of concordat, in which he made every concession permitted by his duty as head of the Church. The only answer he received was an intimation from M. Cacault, the French agent at Rome, that unless within five days the proposals made by Napoleon were accepted without the slightest change, the least restriction or correction, he, Cacault, should declare a rupture between the Holy See and France, and immediately leave Rome to join General Murat at Florence. To all these threats, and to the menace of the loss of his temporal power, the Pope had but one reply, that same reply which we have heard from Pius IX. in our own day—that non possumus against which all the assaults of the masters of legions have ever failed, and evermore shall fail.
M. Cacault, not daring to disobey the orders he had received, prepared at once for his departure, but his excellent heart and his affection for Rome suggested to him a means of preventing the mischief that was sure to follow from the anger of Napoleon, if once kindled against the Holy See. He proposed that Cardinal Consalvi, the Pope's secretary of state, should at once set out for Paris, to lay before the First Consul the imperious reasons by which the Holy Father was forced to refuse the proffered concordat. The French agent felt confident that, whilst it would flatter Napoleon's pride to be able to exhibit to the Parisians a Cardinal prime minister in waiting upon his will, the presence of Consalvi would also be a proof of the Pope's anxious desire to come to a favourable understanding on the affairs of the French Church. After mature deliberation this plan was adopted. The Cardinal took care that to the credentials usually given in cases of treaties, the Pope should add a most precise command that his envoy was to consider the project of concordat which had been corrected at Rome, and hitherto rejected at Paris, not only as the basis of the future treaty, but as the concordat itself. Powers were granted, however, to make such changes as did not alter the substance of the document. "I thought it necessary", says the Cardinal, "to have my hands tied in this way, because I foresaw that, unless I were in a position to show the French government how limited were my powers, they would soon force my entrenchments".