CHURCH REFORM, TWELFTH CENTURY (Medieval Ireland)

Apart from the Hiberno-Norse towns of Dublin and Waterford, the church in Ireland lacked a permanent diocesan structure in the eleventh century. The reason for this is largely to be found in the fact that Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire and thus lacked the administrative structure upon which the western church elsewhere based its organization. The circumstances surrounding the foundation of the diocese of Dublin early in the century are obscure, but Dublin would later play an important role in the events surrounding the introduction of a new diocesan system for the church throughout the whole country.

Canterbury and the Irish Church

Shortly after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 a controversy arose between Canterbury and York over how the primacy of the Church of England should be interpreted. From documentation associated with this we get our first evidence that the new archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, believed that Ireland as well as York was subject to the primacy of Canterbury. Two years later, in 1074, a vacancy occurred in the see of Dublin and its new bishop, Gilla-Patraic (or Patrick), was consecrated in London by Lanfranc. From evidence associated with this we get an insight into how Lanfranc planned to exercise his claimed primacy over the Irish church: He would do so through the agency of the see of Dublin. It would be the metropolitan see for the whole island of Ireland and owe allegiance directly to Canterbury; its bishops would be consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury and profess obedience to him.


After his consecration, Bishop Patrick passed on letters from Lanfranc to the king of Dublin and to Tairrdelbach Ua Briain, then the most powerful king in Ireland. In these, Lanfranc exhorted the kings to act against certain abuses that he had heard occurred in Ireland. In his letter to Ua Briain, however, he urged him to convene an assembly of religious men to eradicate what he calls "evil customs" from Ireland. And it would appear that Ua Briain responded; a synod, held in Dublin in 1080, was apparently convened by him. Thus began a level of co-operation between Ua Briain, together with certain Irish bishops, and Canterbury—cooperation that continued after his son, Muirchertach Ua Briain, succeeded him in 1086. King and bishops took part in the election of successive bishops of Dublin, and of a bishop for the newly erected see of Waterford in 1096—all of whom openly professed their obedience to the archbishop of Canterbury, to whom the electors sent them for consecration. It is not clear, however, whether they understood the exact nature of Canterbury’s enterprise in Ireland. In any case, their cooperation was about to come to an end, as became apparent when the first synod of Cashel met in 1101.

Muirchertach Ua Briain Exchanges Canterbury for Armagh

Evidence for the change in Ua Briain’s attitude to Canterbury is found in a specific action he took at that synod. He granted Cashel, the seat from ancient times of the kings of Munster, to the church forever—not to some local church, but to the whole of the church in Ireland. The significance of this became clear ten years later, when Cashel was chosen as the metropolitan see of the southern province in a new diocesan structure set out at the synod of Raith Bressail. Already in 1101, therefore, Ua Briain had a vision of this new structure that had an important role for Cashel, but none for Canterbury.

Major problems, however, stood in the way of its realization. The first of these was Armagh, the most prestigious ecclesiastical establishment in Ireland; it would have to be included in whatever new structure was introduced. But the ecclesiastical organization there at this time was traditional; the man with the highest level of authority was the abbot, usually referred to as the comarbae (heir) of Patrick. Although a cleric, he had no ecclesiastical orders and was married. In addition, he belonged to a family that had controlled the office since the middle of the tenth century. This obviously presented a problem for Ua Briain, since Armagh, in the new church structure then being envisaged, would become a metropolitan see ruled ultimately by an archbishop. The change required there was of such major proportions that strong leverage was needed; that leverage was Dublin and the role that was mapped out for it in Ireland by Canterbury. Should this be made a reality, Dublin would usurp a position in the Irish church that Armagh clearly saw as belonging to it. An opportunity to apply this leverage was available to Ua Briain when he visited Armagh in 1103, and it would appear that he was successful, as subsequent events suggest. It is likely that nothing could be done as long as the then-incumbent of the abbacy lived, but the swift action of his successor, Cellach, would indicate that a decision had been made to go along with the plans for reform as envisaged by Ua Briain. Within six weeks of his predecessor’s death in 1105 Cellach assumed ecclesiastical orders, and in the following year, perhaps only a few months later, he was consecrated a bishop, significantly while on a visit to the Ua Briain territory, Munster.

With Armagh won over to reform, Ua Briain was now faced with the problem of finding an ecclesiastic who would carry the project to its next stage. Although there is no direct evidence to link him with the man so chosen (Gille or Gilbert of Limerick), events surrounding the selection clearly point to Ua Briain. The most significant of these is Gille’s appointment to the bishopric of a new Hiberno-Norse diocese in Limerick, the town in which Ua Briain then had his headquarters. Furthermore, his selection followed a pattern with which Ua Briain and his father before him were familiar. Just like bishops of Dublin and Waterford before him, in the selection of whom the Uf Briain kings were directly involved, Gille had been a monk in a Benedictine abbey in England. However, unlike them, he was not sent to the archbishop of Canterbury for consecration, thus reflecting the changed attitude of Ua Briain we have noted as existing since 1101. After his appointment, he set out to prepare the clergy for the upcoming changes. He wrote a short tract, De statu ecclesiae (Concerning the Constitution of the Church), in which he set out the organizational structure of the whole western church, from layman to pope, and a short description of their various functions or duties. This tract and an accompanying letter—in which he expresses the wish that the diverse practices that he says exist in Ireland would yield to a single, uniform one in conformity with Rome—are extant in twelfth-or thirteenth-century copies. Given that the tract is mainly concerned with church structure, we can already see what the main preoccupation of the reformers was at this point. This would become even clearer a few years later when the synod of Raith Bressail met, over which Gille presided as papal legate.

The Introduction of a Diocesan System to the Irish Church

At this synod a scheme was prepared for the introduction of a new hierarchical structure into the church. Following a plan believed to have been set out originally for the English church, whereby there would be two provinces, each with a metropolitan and twelve suffragans, it was decided that Ireland would be divided into two metropolitan provinces, one at Armagh, the other at Cashel—Armagh holding the primacy. The sees and boundaries were set out for all the dioceses; however, while twelve suffragans were assigned to the Armagh province, Cashel only got eleven. Most significantly of all, there was no mention of Dublin, but it seems fairly clear that in assigning only eleven suffragans to Cashel, room was being left for Dublin’s subsequent inclusion. However, considerable effort would be needed to get it to join in, given the nature of its relationship with Canterbury. Evidence that such an effort was being made may be seen in the action of Cellach of Armagh, who took over the Dublin see after the death of its bishop, Samuel, in 1121. There was resistance to this in Dublin, and a subdeacon called Greine was quickly elected and sent to the archbishop of Canterbury for consecration. He failed, however, to gain possession of the see on his return, although he did so some years later. Dublin now stood apart from the newly organized Irish church.

In 1129, Cellach died, and his chosen successor was Malachy (Mael-Maedoic). This represented a further break in tradition at Armagh in that, unlike Cellach, Malachy did not belong to the family that had provided abbots since the middle of the tenth century. There was strong resistance to Malachy’s appointment from this family. However, since it was essential that Armagh, the seat of the primate, be retained within the fold of the reformers, Malachy had to be installed there. This explains why secular forces, particularly those in Mun-ster who favored reform, took such an active part in Malachy’s installation. However, his position there remained difficult, and a man who was acceptable both to the reformers and to local secular rulers—Gilla-Meic-Liac—was chosen in his stead, and Malachy resigned. He now pursued the interests of reform on a larger stage.

Papal Approval for the New Structure

Although the new diocesan system had been set out in 1111, papal approval for the two incumbents of its archbishoprics—by the granting of pallia—had not been sought, as far as is known, before Malachy did so in 1140. Although unsuccessful in this bid to get the pallia, Malachy’s journey to Rome was not in vain. It brought him to Clairvaux (France) and to Arrouaise (Flanders) and resulted in the introduction of the Cistercian order and the rule of the canons of Arrouaise into Ireland. In addition, Pope Innocent II appointed Malachy as his legate in Ireland in place of the ailing Gille and told him to re-apply for the pallia after he had gained the agreement of all in Ireland. The obstacle here was Dublin, and this was Malachy’s main task on his return home. Little in detail is known about how Malachy now pursued this task, but it can be inferred that agreement was reached with Dublin at some point thereafter and was approved at a synod held in 1148 at Inis Padraig. The agreement involved the recognition of Dublin as a metropolitan see gaining suffragans that had previously been part of the province of Cashel, as set out at Raith Bressail. Also approved there was a new province of Connacht (carved out from that of Armagh), with its metropolitan see at Tuam; this reflected the current status of Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair, now king of Ireland as well as king of Connacht.

Immediately after the synod, Malachy went to meet the pope to get his approval for the synod’s decisions, but he died on the way at Clairvaux. The request was transmitted by others, and this time it was successful. Pope Eugenius III sent his legate, Cardinal John Paparo, to Ireland bearing pallia for the four new archbishops. After some difficulties put in his way by King Stephen of England, motivated perhaps by a desire to prevent Canterbury’s interests in Ireland being jeopardized, he eventually arrived in Ireland. He convened a synod in March 1152 that met at two locations, Kells and Mellifont. As well as the enactment of decrees, the consecration of archbishops and bishops, and arrangements regarding what dioceses should belong to the various metropolitans, Cardinal Paparo formally presented pallia on behalf of the pope to the four new archbishops at the synod. With this, Ireland had come into line with the rest of the western church. It now had a hierarchy of bishops within a canonically constituted, territorially defined diocesan system by which the church would henceforward be administered.

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