Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/116

Greisley died on 8 June 1678, at the age of sixty-three. A memorial of him and of his wife Eleanor, daughter of Gervase Buck of Worcestershire, who died 17 Jan. 1703, aged 64, is in Stoke-Severn Church. Greisley translated from the French of Balzac ‘The Prince … [by H. G.],’ 12mo, London, 1648; and from the French of Senault ‘The Christian Man; or the Reparation of Nature by Grace’ [anon.], 4to, London, 1650. ‘Besides which translations,’ says Wood, ‘he hath certain specimens of poetry extant, which have obtained him a place among those of that faculty.’ He contributed a copy of English verses to the Christ Church collection entitled ‘Death repeal'd’ on the death of Paul, viscount Bayning of Sedbury, in June 1638 (pp. 14-15); another in Latin is in the ‘Horti Carolini Rosa Altera,’ after the queen had given birth to a son, Henry, in 1640.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1167-8, 1244; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 468, 500, ii.3; Welch's Alumni Westmon. (1852), pp. 105, 107; Nash's Worcestershire, ii. 345, 347; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy (1714), pt. ii. p. 108.]  GREISLEY, ROGER, bart. (1801–1837), author. [See Gresley, Roger (DNB00).]  GRELLAN, (fl. 500), of Craebh-Grellain, in the south-east of the barony of Boyle, co. Roscommon, was the son of Cuillin, son of Cairbre Red-ear, king of Leinster. In the time of Lughaidh, son of Leogaire (483-508), great peals of thunder were heard, which St. Patrick interpreted as announcing Grellan's birth and future eminence as a saint. When of age to travel he abandoned his right of succession to the throne, and accompanied St. Patrick to Ath Cliath Duibhlinne (now Dublin). On this occasion Patrick is said to have composed a poem upon Grellan's future fame (given in Grellan's ‘Life’). They went from Dublin to Duach Galach, king of Connaught, whose wife was delivered of a dead child in the night. It was miraculously restored to life by the saints. As a reward for this Duach granted a tribute to be paid thenceforward by the descendants of the infant to Grellan, and bestowed on him the plain where the miracle was performed, then called Achadh Finnabrach, but afterwards Craebh-Grellain (the Branch of Grellan), from the branch given to him in token of possession by Duach and Patrick.

Grellan, travelling further, settled at Magh Senchineoil (the Plain of the Old Tribe), then the dwelling-place of Cian, king of the Fer Bolgs, who were the inhabitants of that territory. Cian waited on Grellan at Cill Cluana, now Kilclooney, north-west of Ballinasloe, in the barony of Clonmacnowen, co. Galway, where Grellan afterwards erected a church. The Fer Bolgs were attacked by a tribe from Clogher under Maine the Great, but Grellan intervened and made peace on condition that Maine should deliver ‘thrice nine’ nobles as hostages to Cian. Cian meditated a treacherous slaughter of the hostages, when, at Grellan's prayers, a quagmire opened and swallowed up him and his forces. Grellan then handed over the territory to Maine, and in return received the following tribute. He was to have a screpall (3d.) out of every townland, the first-born of every family was to be dedicated to him; he was also to have the firstlings of pig, sheep, and horse, and the race of Maine were never to be subdued as long as they held his crozier. This crozier was preserved for ages in the family of O'Cronelly, who were the ancient comharbas, or successors of the saint. It was in existence as late as 1836, when it was in the possession of John Cronelly, the senior representative of the saint's successors, but it is not known what has since become of it.

Grellan's day is 10 Nov., but the year of his death is not mentioned. Colgan says he was a disciple of St. Finnian of Clonard, and flourished in 590, but this is not consistent with the facts mentioned in the Irish life, for St. Patrick, with whom he is associated, died, according to the usual opinion, in 493, or, according to Mr. Whitley Stokes, in 463.

[Betha Grellain MS 23-0.41, Royal Irish Academy; Martyrology of Donegal, p. 303; O'Donovan's Tribes and Customs of Hy-many; Colgan's Acta Sanct. p. 337.]  GRENE, CHRISTOPHER (1629–1697), Jesuit, son of George Grene, by his wife Jane Tempest, and brother of Father Martin Grene [q. v.], was born in 1629 in the diocese of Kilkenny, Ireland, whither his parents, who were natives of England, and belonged to the middle class, had retired on account of the persecution. He made his early studies in Ireland; entered in 1642 the college of the English Jesuits at Liege, where he lived for five years; was admitted into the English College at Rome for his higher course in 1647; was ordained priest in 1653; and sent to England in 1654. He entered the Society of Jesus 7 Sept. 1658, and was professed of the four vows 2 Feb. 1668-9. He became English penitentiary first at Loreto, and afterwards at St. Peter's, Rome. In 1692 he was appointed spiritual director at the English College, Rome, and he died there on 11 Nov. 1697.

He rendered great service to historical