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 CLONMACNOISE

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CLONMACNOISE

work on the subject, known as liis "Paschal Epistle", which fortunately still survives (P. L., LXXXVIII) and furnishes conclusive e\idence of the varied learn- ing cultivated in the school of Clonfert.

Clonfert being on the highway of the Shannon suf- fered greatly from the ravages of the Danes, and also of some Irish chieftains «ho imitated their bad ex- ample; yet the school and monastery lived on through those stormy times, and we have a fuller list of bish- ops and abbots of Clonfert than we have of any other see, at least in the West of Ireland. It was riclily en- dowed with large estates of fertile land, and hence we find that the Bishop of Clonfert, according to a scale fixed in 1392, paid to the papal treasury on his ap- pointment three hundred florins in gold, the Arch- bishop of Tuam being taxed only at two hundred florins. At the general suppression of religious houses by Henrv VIII, the Abbot O'Gormacan. with the help of f lanrickarde, contrived to hold the abbey lands of Clonfert until Iiis death in spite of royal de- crees. Roland de Burgo became bishop in 1.5.34, and being an uncle of the Earlof Clan- rickardew-asable to keep his lands and his see for more than forty years under Henry, Edward \"I, Mary, and Ehzabeth. He was always a Catholic prelate, although it is probable that he took the Oath of Supremacy in order to get the temporalities from Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth wrote to Sir H. Sydney suggesting the founding of a national univer- sity at Clonfert, on account of its central position on the liighway of the lordly river, to be endowed with the abbey lands. But the project was never carried out.

The old cathedral of Clonfert still exists, and is one of the few ancient churches still used for religious worship, for it was seized by the Protestants in the reign of Elizabeth and has continued since in their hands. There is, however, practically no Protestant congregation. The church was small, being only fiftj'-four by tw-enty-seven feet in the clear, but its two characteristic features, the west doorway and east windows, are very beautiful examples of the Irish Romanesque. Brash, an e.xpert authority, has described the doorway with great minuteness, and declares that in point of design and execution it is not excelled by any similar work that he has seen in these islands. Of the ea.st altar-window he says, "the design is exceedingly chaste and beautiful, the mould- ings simple and effective, and the workmanship supe- rior to an\-thing I have seen either of ancient or modern times." He attributes the building of this beautiful Romanesque church to Peter O'Mordha, a Cistercian monk, first Abbot of Boyle and afterw-ards Bishop of Clonfert. He belonged to a family of the highest artistic genius, to whom we also owe the noble arches of the old cathedral of Tuam, and the beauti- ful monastery of Cong.

In 1266, as we learn from the annals of Lough Ce, a certain John was sent over from Rome as Bishop- elect of the See of Clonfert. He must have received IV — o

Ancient Market Cross. Cong

the sanction of the Crown, and could not be inducted to his see without the help of Walter de Burgo, Earl of Ulster. Hence we are told he was consecrated at the EngUsh town of Athenry as Bishop of Clonfert. This was on the Sunday before Christmas, 1266. He was also appointed papal nimcio, and we find (apud Theiner) a letter from Pope John XXI (1276) author- izing lihn to collect the crusaders' tax for the recov- ery of the Holy Land. This John, one of the few Italian prelates ever appointed to an Irish see, was a great benefactor to his cathedral church, and he is believed to have erected the statues and other carv- ings which decorate the western end of his cathedral. This can hardly be true, so far as the Romanesque doorway is concerned, for the Romanesque had then gone out for at least half a century as a feature in Irish architecture, and given place to the pointed style. It is said that he governed Clonfert for no less than 30 years, and was then transferred by the pope to the Archbishopric of Benevento in Italy, about 1296. It is doubtless true that John, with his artistic Italian tastes, finding in his diocese a cathedral of the best type of the Irish Romanesque, probably a hun- dred years old, did much to renovate and decorate with statuary the beautiful building. This no doubt would explain the ancient tradition that connects his name with the glories of the old cathedral. It is in- teresting to note in conclusion that Concors, an Abbot of Clonfert, was one of the three plenipotentiaries who were sent by Roderick O'Conor, the last King of Ireland, to conclude the Treaty of Windsor, in the year 1175, by which Roderick renounced forever the sceptre and Kingdom of Ireland. The city of St. Brendan is now a vast sohtude. The episcopal palace is falling into ruins; the beautifvil church is there, but there is no resident clergyman, and only two houses — that of the sexton and the police barrack.

O'DONOVAN. Four MaMers (Dublin, 1S56\ passim; Healt. Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars (Dublin, 1890); Ware- Harris, Lives of the Bishops of Ireland (Dublin, 1739); Arch- DALL, Monasticon Hibemicum, ed. Moran (Dublin. 1873).

John Healy.

Clonmacnoise, Abbey and School of, situated on the Shannon, about half way between Athlone and Banagher, King's County, Ireland, and the most re- markable of the ancient schools of I>in. Its founder was St. Ciaran, sumamed Mac an Tsair, or " Son of the Carpenter", and thus distinguished from his namesake, the patron saint of Ossory. He chose this rather un- inviting region because he thought it a more suitable dwelling-place for disciples of the Cross than the luxu- riant plains not far away. Ciaran was born at Fuerty, County Roscommon, in 512, and in his early years was committed to the care of a deacon named Justus, who had baptized him, and from whose hands he passed to the school of St. Finnian at Clonard. Here he met all those saintly youths who with himself were after- wards known as the "Twelve Apostles of Erin", and he ipiickly won their esteem. When Finnian had to absent himself from the monastery, it Wiis to the youth- ful Ciaran that he deputed his authority to teach and "give out the prayers"; and when Ciaran announced his intended departure, Finnian would fain resign to him his rathnir, orchair. and keep him in Clonard. But (^iaran felt himself unripe for such responsibility, and he knew, moreover, he had work to do elsewhere.

After leaving Clonard, Ciaran, like most of the con- temporary Iri.sh saints, went to Aran to commune with holy Enda. One night the two saints beheld the same vision, "of a great fruitful tree, beside a stream, in the middle of Ireland, and it protected the island of Ireland, and its fruit went forth over the sea that surrounded the island, and the birds of the world came to carry off somewhat of its fruit". And when Ciaran spoke of the vision to Enda, the latter said to him: "The great tree which thou beholdest is thou thyself, for thou art great in the eyes of God and men,