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 454 REVIEWS OF BOOKS July government (iii. 75-6) Mr. Orpen fails to appreciate the fact that in feudal law the maintenance of the unity of the barony had been deliberately achieved : the division among coheiresses was an equitable necessity in a society which regarded primogeniture as a novelty, but that the barony should normally be undivided was regarded as essential. 1 It is not easy to see why, in the face of the* evidence, Mr. Orpen insists that Edward Bruce's retirement to the border of Inishowen in 1316 was a strategic- retreat (iv. 168). Even Barbour admits that Bruce was in a very tight place — In gret distress thair war thai stad, For gret defalt of mete thai had ; For thai betuix thai riveris tway War set. 2 Mr. Orpen's description of the invasion of Edward Bruce is very full and careful, but he unaccountably omits any discussion of the contemporary correspondence of Edward II and the Irish leaders. The petition of the Irish to Pope John XXII, printed by Hearne in his edition of Fordun, and the letter of Edward II, dated 20 August 1316, printed by Rymer, urging the election of Geoffrey of Aylsham as archbishop of Cashel, throw light on the relations between Irish and English and the support given by the former to the Scots. These documents are reprinted, in whole or in part, by Mr. Little in the Materials for the History of the Franciscan Province of Ireland? This collection of materials edited by Mr. Little mainly from the papers of the late Father Fitzmaurice brings us into quite a different atmosphere. We desert the tradition of Ware and Davies and enter into the tradition of Mooney and Wadding. The history of the Franciscans in Ireland was of course seriously affected by racial antipathies. Before and after the statute of 1310 which forbade the reception of Irishmen by religious houses in English territory, many attempts, more or less successful, were made to isolate the two peoples. At one time the general chapter appears to have adopted the policy of separation as a means to the preservation of peace. In 1325 ' it would appear that the intention was to concentrate the Irish friars in the custody of Nenagh ' (p. xxv). But on the whole feelings of unity seem to have prevailed. Irish and English friars had to combine against the opposition of secular clergy ; Irish friars shared with their English brethren a moral outlook which differed from that of Irish bards or castle officials. The many-sided activities of the Franciscans, recorded in this delightful book, suffered no very violent shocks between 1230 and 1450. The history is continuous, showing a gradual settlement of the centre of gravity in the west. There is no evidence to justify any marked 1 See ante, xxxv. 39 ff., 168. 8 The Bruce, xiv. 367-70. These lines clearly must be read together, even though the Odymsey episode, which they connect with the story of the passage of the Bann, is told by Barbour out of its true place. 3 pp. 95-8. The date 1315-16 ascribed to the Irish petition should be corrected : Jacques Duese did not become Pope John XXII until 7 August 1316. Mr. Little, moreover, does not seem to be aware that the iniquum statutum of 1310, referred to by the petitioners, is to be found in the Red Book of the Irish exchequer (Berry, Early Statutes, p. 272).