St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Part 15

[466] Jer. xvii. 7, etc.

[467] _Plebes._

[468] That is, the church of Armagh.

[469] Hos. ii. 6.

[470] Rom. xii. 3; xv. 15, etc.

[471] This statement can hardly be regarded as accurate. Flann Ua Sinaich, keeper of the staff of Jesus, having died, Malachy purchased it on July 7, 1135; or, in other words, as we may suppose, bribed the new keeper to hand it over to him (_A.F.M._). Niall himself may have subsequently surrendered the _Book of Armagh_.

[472] 1 Tim. ii. 11.

[473] Rom. xv. 13 (vg.).--The success of Malachy in establishing peace in the latter years of his rule at Armagh may be attributed in part to the influence of a prince who is not mentioned in the text. Donough O'Carroll first appears in the Annals as chieftain of the men of Fearnmaigh (now represented by the barony of Farney, co. Monaghan), whom he led in an expedition against Fingal (the district north of Dublin) in 1133. He seems to have succeeded to the kingdom or lordship of Oriel (which included the present counties of Armagh, Monaghan and Louth) on the death of Conor O'Loughlin (May 1136); for in 1138, "with the Oirgialla," he took part in an invasion of Meath. His career was prosperous till 1152, when he a.s.saulted the coarb of Patrick (Gelasius). In consequence he was attacked by the Cenel Eoghain, and expelled from Oriel. In 1155 he was imprisoned by Tighernan O'Rorke in Lough Sheelan, for six weeks; but he escaped and recovered his kingdom, and was present at the consecration of the Church of Mellifont Abbey in 1157. He was murdered in 1168. For his support of Malachy see Additional Note C, p. 170.

[474] This is obviously not the king mentioned in -- 22, 24, 25. The reference may be to Conor O'Loughlin, who was king of Oriel till he was murdered in May 1136 (p. 40, note 2), or his successor, Donough O'Carroll.

[475] Ecclus. xxi. 7.

[476] Gal. ii. 11.

[477] Exod. xvi. 20 (vg., inexact quotation).

[478] Acts vi. 10 (vg.).

[479] Isa. ii. 22; cf. Job xxvii. 3; Wisd. ii. 2.--The words might be rendered "a spirit (_spiritus_) in her nostrils." The meaning is not clear. In the biblical pa.s.sages in which the phrase occurs it indicates mortality. On the other hand, by the previous sentence St.

Bernard suggests that, in contrast to Malachy, the woman spoke under the influence of an evil spirit.

[480] Mark xiv. 61.

[481] 2 Kings ii. 23.

[482] _Memoria sanctorum._ Probably a reliquary. A reliquary preserved at Clogher in 1300 was known as the _membra_, which, according to one explanation, was the equivalent of _memoriale scrinium_, memorial shrine. See _L.A.J._ iv. 245. Cp. Oengus, p. 345 (_s.v._ Memrae); Lightfoot, _Clement of Rome_, vol. i. p. 91.

[483] Susanna, 56.

[484] Exod. xiv. 25.

[485] Deut. vii. 2 (vg.).

[486] Ps. ix. 6 (vg.).

[487] Ps. lxxiii. 19.

[488] See Additional Note B, p. 166.

[489] John xx. 30.

[490] This date is vague. But the period of three years must be reckoned from the death of Murtough (September 17, 1134), or from the subsequent ejection of Niall. Since stress is laid on the shortness, rather than the length of the period, we may therefore conclude that peace was established not long before October 1137, or, at any rate, after the beginning of that year. And as St. Bernard believed that the inauguration of Gelasius "immediately" followed the resignation of Malachy, we may gather that both these events took place in 1137.

_A.F.M._ date Malachy's resignation in 1136; but the chronology of St.

Bernard is to be preferred. See Additional Note C, pp. 168, 169.

[491] Ps. xciv. 2.

[492] Gelasius--in Irish Gilla meic Liag, the servant of the son of the poet--was born about 1087. His father was apparently the poet of a Tyrone sept, named Dermot (O'Hanlon, _Saints_, iii. 965). About 1121 he was appointed abbot of Derry, and held that office till he became archbishop of Armagh in 1137. He had a long episcopate and seems to have been a vigorous prelate. His age and infirmity (says Giraldus) prevented him from attending the Synod of Cashel in 1172. But he subsequently visited Henry II. in Dublin. Thither he brought the white cow, whose milk was his only food (Giraldus, _Expug._ i. 35). He died March 27, 1174, in his eighty-seventh year. For a Life of Gelasius, see Colgan, _A.S.H._ p. 772.

[493] See - 21.

[494] _I.e._ diocese.

[495] The two episcopal sees are evidently Connor and Down. But in early time there were many more sees than two in that district (see Reeves, p. 138), and there is no evidence that any one of them was the seat of a diocesan bishop. But, even if it were so, St. Bernard's statement that the two supposed dioceses were "welded into one" by some ambitious prelate prior to Malachy is unhistorical. A bishop of Connor and a bishop of Down both died in 1117, just seven years before Malachy became bishop of the diocese which included these two places; and there is no trace of a bishop in either of them in the interval.

The fact seems to be that the diocese of Connor or Down was const.i.tuted for the first time at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1110.

It remained on paper until Malachy was appointed its first bishop. For the probable reason of Malachy's division of the diocese, see p. lvii.

f.

[496] This cannot be the true reason for Malachy's choice of Down rather than Connor. If he had wished to go to Connor on his retirement from Armagh he could have consecrated a bishop for Down. It is more probable that his preference was due to his love for Bangor, where he resided during his first episcopate, and where he probably resided also when he was bishop of Down. But, however that may be, Bangor was necessarily under his jurisdiction as bishop of Down; his connexion with it would have been severed if he had a.s.sumed the oversight of the new diocese of Connor.

[497] Isa. li. 9; Amos ix. 11.

[498] Cp. Cant. i. 15; iv. i.; v. 12.--St. Bernard himself is said to have had "dove-like eyes" (_V.P._ v. 12); and the meaning of the phrase is explained thus: "In his eyes there shone a certain angelic _purity_ and a dove-like _simplicity_ (single-mindedness)" (_ibid._ iii. 1).

[499] Amos i. 13.

[500] Cp. - 44, p. 83.

[501] It has been commonly a.s.sumed that the house of this convent--which obviously consisted of Augustinian canons (the only order of regular clerics recognized at this period by the Roman Church: see Conc. Lat. 1139, can. 9, Mansi xxi. 528)--was in Downpatrick. It has accordingly been identified with a monastery which in the Terrier of 1615 is described as "the monastery of the Irish, hard by the Cathedral," and called "the church of the channons"

(Reeves, 43, 231). But it is not stated in the text to have been in Down. It seems more likely to have been the monastery of Bangor, which was destroyed in 1127 (- 18), and must have been reconst.i.tuted about this time. There is no indication in the _Life_ that Malachy resided in Down, while there are several hints that Bangor was his headquarters and that he was abbot of the community there as long as he lived. (See p. 33, n. 1.) In other words Bangor was, in fact if not in name, the see of the diocese of Ulaid, or Down. For this curious anomaly we have a parallel in the diocese of Tir Eoghain, the see of which for a long period was at Maghera, the bishop, the while, being often styled bishop of Derry (_Irish Church Quarterly_, x. 225 ff.); and for the bishop of a diocese serving as abbot of his cathedral chapter of regular canons we may point to Carlisle (_Trans. of Scottish Ecclesiological Society_, iii. 267 ff.), Louth (_L.A.J._ iv.

143 ff.) and Christ Church, Dublin (_ibid._ 145). That the canons of Bangor were at an early period the bishop's chapter we have independent evidence. For in 1244 the Pope gave judgement in a cause which had been pending for some time between the prior and monks of Down and the abbot and canons of Bangor, each of whom claimed that their church was cathedral (Theiner, p. 42). This claim on behalf of Bangor is easily explained if it was reckoned as the bishop's see in the time of Malachy.

[502] 2 Cor. x. 4.

[503] Luke viii. 5.

[504] Matt. xxi. 23; Mark xi. 28.

[505] Acts viii. 6; John ii. 23.

[506] 2 Cor. iii. 17.

CHAPTER V

_The Roman Pilgrimage: the Miracles which were wrought in it._

[Sidenote: 1139]