Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/169

 Under the old Irish monastic system, the bishop was merely one of the officers of the community. Nearly every monastery had a bishop—sometimes more than one—amongst its inmates. When that system broke down, the effect of this unusual arrangement remained. In some cases the bishops had for diocese the territory of the tribe to which they belonged—in other cases they seem to have had no jurisdiction. Anselm of Canterbury complains concerning them, 'The episcopal honour suffers no little disparagement when he who is invested with the pontificate knows not when he is ordained where he is to go, or over what certain place he is to preside in his episcopal ministry.' Every bishop felt quite free to consecrate another bishop, if he were a man of learning and eminence, even though he was to have no diocesan authority. The rule of requiring three consecrators was one that had never been followed in the Irish Church. It is manifest that all this would require to be completely changed before the head of Armagh could in any real sense be said to be an archbishop. At first the exaction of tribute was all that was desired; but afterwards foreign travel made the heads of the Church acquainted with the ecclesiastical arrangements of other countries; and nearer home, the three Danish bishops rendering canonical obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury, furnished a pattern which the ambitious prelates of Armagh soon endeavoured to reproduce in Ireland.

The first steps towards thus modifying the constitution of the Church of Ireland were taken by Ceallach, who became Coarb of Patrick by the election of the men of Ireland in A.D. 1105. He was not forgetful of the temporalities of his see. In Ulster he exacted 'a cow from every six persons, or a heifer