We have led our readers a long and weary journey. We have conducted them through a bewildering labyrinth of names and numbers, of intricate genealogies and complicated calculations. Our way indeed lay through the midst of a beautiful country; and as we passed along, we now and then caught a glimpse, as it were, from a distance, of some sublime or touching scene which has many a time inspired the genius of the poet, the painter, or the sculptor. But we had an end in view which forbade us to turn aside from our rugged and toilsome path, even though it were to enjoy the varied charms of the most ancient, the most simple, the most sacred of histories. Like the soldiers of Saul, we might not even put forth our hand to taste of the honey that was dropping from the trees around us. If, however, like them, we have gained the victory and driven the enemy from his stronghold, our labours have been richly rewarded, and our readers have not toiled after us in vain.
Erratum.—We beg to call attention to an error which occurs in the last article on Colenso, page 517. The passage to which we refer is printed thus:—“According to the Mosaic, etc.… 99,989 families”. Our readers will observe that the number of families in the case supposed would be 200,000 instead of 100,000. By this alteration the character of the argument remains unchanged, but its force is considerably increased.
THE BISHOPS OF OSSORY.
When illustrating the lives of the Irish Bishops, Ware and Harris, as well as our modern annalists, seem to have devoted special care to the See of Ossory, and hence its series of bishops is one of the most complete and unbroken that we find in the history of our Church. It is in the latter half of the fourteenth century that the first great difficulty occurs. In 1367 a parliament was held in Kilkenny, and the famous Act was passed commonly styled, The Statute of Kilkenny, which, amongst other signatures, presents that of “William, Bishop of Ossory”.[8] Its accuracy in all the other signatures, and in several minor details, leaves no doubt as to the genuineness of the prelate’s name, who at that time ruled the See of St. Canice. Nevertheless, such a
Bishop finds no room in the series of episcopal names given by Ware and succeeding writers. John of Tatenal, they say, was appointed to the see in 1360; and his death did not take place till 1370: thus the above William is altogether excluded from the episcopal succession.
The chroniclers of the Augustinian order, however, enable us to solve this difficulty. John de Tatenal, or as he is sometimes called de Tayenal, was a member of that distinguished religious body, and was appointed to the See of Ossory in 1370, the same year which saw him carried to the tomb.
There was, indeed, another Bishop John appointed in 1361. On the 20th of November that year, he promised to pay to the “Camera Apostolica” the diocesan tax of 200 florins, equal to £40; and it is remarked that this is a proof of the decay of the revenues of Ossory, since only forty years before, on the appointment of Bishop Richard, the tax amounted to 700 florins. On the 9th of January 1361/2 permission was granted to this bishop to return to his see, and from the brief published in Monumenta Vaticana, pag. 319, we learn that he had been consecrated some time before, by Raymond, Bishop of Praeneste, then resident with the Papal court in Avignon. In 1364 Urban V. (xii. Kal. Aprilis, an. 2ᵒ) granted to him special faculties and privileges, but no mention is made of him in the following years. Thus we have full room for Bishop William, appointed before 1367, and deceased about 1369.
Dr. John Tatenal, as we have seen, was appointed in 1370, and died before Christmas the same year. Alexander Petit alias de Balscot, canon of the Cathedral of Kilkenny, a man of great learning and wisdom (as Ware writes), was elected by the chapter to fill the vacant see; and though this election was irregular and invalid, Gregory XI. confirmed him as Bishop of Ossory by Brief of 10th February, 1371. He subsequently was appointed by the crown to some of the highest offices of the kingdom, and having held the see for fifteen years, was translated to Meath in 1386.
Richard Northalis, a Carmelite, was next appointed to the See. His promise to pay the usual tax of 200 florins to the “Camera Apostolica” is dated 17th Feb. 1386/7. He was translated to Dublin in 1395, not in 1396, as Ware supposed. His successor Thomas, a Carmelite, surnamed Peverell,[9] signed the usual obligation a few days after his appointment on the 3rd of November, 1395, and after an episcopate of three years, was translated to Leighlin, on 23rd January, 1398/9, whence on the 2nd July following he was again translated to Llandaff, in Wales (Biblioth. Carmelit.). He was succeeded in Ossory by John