Crosiers.​—​In like manner to the bells, the pastoral crooks and crosiers which had belonged to the early fathers of the Irish Church, appear to have been regarded as holy. Their possession was also hereditary, and certain privileges, such as grants of land, were given to the custodians. Notwithstanding the frequent pillage of church property by the Danes, and the destruction of ‘superstitious’ relics in a later time, numerous examples, remarkable for the beauty of their decoration and the excellence of their workmanship, have been preserved to our own day. The Irish crosier has simply the curved handle of a staff, which seems originally to have belonged to a saint or founder of a church, on which the metal covering was subsequently laid. It is not the shepherd’s crook, so familiar as the emblem of episcopal office. The crosier usually exhibits a profusion of ornament, consisting of elaborately interwoven bands terminating generally in serpents’ heads, or in some equally singular device. In several specimens occur settings formed of stones or an artificial substance, variously coloured; but this is supposed to indicate a comparatively recent date. The continental type was probably introduced in the twelfth century, under the influences already referred to in the foundation of monastic establishments. A well-known example is the Crosier of Cashel, with enamelled circular head and figure, one similar to which, and ascribed to above period, is in the Cluny Museum, Paris.

An interesting and perhaps the oldest crosier in the Academy collection is that of St. Berach of Termonbarry, which was handed down through its hereditary custodians the O’Hanlys. The date of the Irish crosiers is probably not earlier than the end of the tenth century. From the inscription the crosier of Lismore, it doubtless dates about the beginning of the twelfth century, during the time in which Niall Mac Mic Aeducain, or Mac Gettigan, held the bishopric.

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The Cross of Cong.​—​This Cross is the chief gem of the Academy collection, not only from its historical associations, but also as it affords striking evidence of the advancement which the Irish artificers had made in several of the arts, and in general manufacturing skill, previous to the arrival of the English. It was made in Roscommon by native Irishmen, about the year 1123, by order of King Turlough O’Conor, father of Roderick, the last monarch of Ireland.

This the Annals of Inisfallen state, and the evidence is supported by inscriptions on the edges of the cross; one is in Latin, mentioning that it contained a piece of the ‘true Cross’; the others are in Irish, praying for Archbishop Muiredach O’Duffy of Tuam, who died in 1150; for King O’Conor; for Domnal O’Duffy, Archbishop of Connaught, and for the artificer Maelisa Mac Bratdan O’Echan. The cross seems to have been brought to Cong either by the Archbishop, who died there, or by King Roderick, who founded and endowed the abbey.

The cross is 2½ feet high, the arms 1 foot 6¾ inches in width, and it is 1¾ inches thick. It ends in the grotesque head of an animal, and below this is a large ball, highly decorated, forming the head of the socket for the shaft when the cross was carried in procession. The frame is of oak, and over this are laid plates of copper richly covered with gold tracery. The edges are formed into a raised rim by a covering of silver, and divided into sections, which are marked by eighteen rounded projections set with stones or enamels, thirteen of which remain. A thin silver ribbon is set between the rims, upon which are the inscriptions in punched lettering.

The Cross of Cong.

The ornaments generally consist of tracery and grotesque animals, fancifully combined, and similar in character to the decorations found upon crosses of stone of about the same period. A large crystal is set in the centre at the intersection of the arms and shaft, behind which the relic was set. The cross had been carefully preserved after the suppression of the monasteries, and was found in an oak chest in the village of Cong early in the last century. It was purchased by the late Professor Mac Cullagh for the sum of one hundred guineas, and presented to the Academy in 1839.

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