he was enabled from time to time to collect or to transcribe. One may judge of the antiquity of these treatises from the fact, that Cormac composed a glossary to explain such Irish words occurring in them as were becoming obsolete in his day. The glossary is still in existence, but the fate of "the Psalter" is not known.

It is also popularly supposed that Cormac's chapel, on the rock of Cashel, was erected by this prelate; but it seems to be a more probable opinion that the chapel was built in the year 1127; and that it owed its foundation to the piety of Cormac MacCarthy, king of Munster, from whom, and not from the other Cormac, its name is derived.

1 It is at present in the press for the members of the Irish Archæological Society.

CHAPTER X.

USURPATION OF THE SEE OF ARMAGH, AND OF ABBEY-LANDS COMORBANS-ERENACHS EPISTLE OF LANFRANC OF

CANTERBURY.

A CURIOUS abuse originated during the confusion of these times, which, more than any other cause, contributed to weaken ecclesiastical discipline and to accelerate the decline of religion in Ireland. A powerful Irish family seized upon the see of Armagh, and contrived for a long series of years to fill the chair of St. Patrick with members of their own family. The usurpation commenced about the year 926. The first possessors of the see were in holy orders; but after a time this restriction was broken through, and eight married laymen in succession enjoyed the revenues of Armagh, assuming the title and privileges of the archbishop. They retained, however, coadjutor bishops, lawfully consecrated, who performed all their spiritual duties, and were, in fact, the rightful prelates of the Church. Historians are not agreed about the name of the clan who thus intruded into the most exalted dignity in the Irish Church. Some suppose it to have been a branch of the O'Neills, and others of the Maguires of Fermanagh; but the most pro

bable conjecture makes it the posterity of Daire, the chieftain who is said to have given to St. Patrick the ground on which the church and city of Armagh were erected. Whatever was the name of the family, it became extinct in the twelfth century; and this was justly regarded as a judgment from Heaven for the sacrilege and impiety of its members.1

A similar evil affected some of the ancient monastic institutions. The Danes having put to flight great numbers of the Irish monks, it was not easy afterwards to reassemble them, or to rebuild at once all the conventual houses that had been plundered. In the mean while, the lands of some of the ruined monasteries were invaded by another sort of plunderers the powerful neighbouring chieftains, who seized upon them for their own private benefit. To preserve the remainder from a similar fate, and to keep them for the use of the Church in a season of greater prosperity, the clergy thought it would be a good plan to consign them to the custody of laymen, elected by themselves as guardians of the ecclesiastical possessions. These persons sometimes assumed the title of abbots, " preserving the name, although not the reality." But in process of time they proved not less rapacious than those they were appointed to guard against. They appropriated to

1 S. Bernard. Vita S. Malach. cap. vii. See also Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 302, 303.

themselves the property entrusted to their care, and allowed the clergy only the tithes and dues; thus often putting it out of the Church's power to restore a ruined monastery.1

These stewards of the ecclesiastical lands were generally called by the names of Comorban and Erenach. The title "Comorban" was properly applied to the successor of some distinguished abbot. Thus the Abbot of Iona or of Derry was styled the "Comorban or successor of Colum-cille." It is doubtful whether the Irish ever gave this title to the successors of bishops as such. It is true, indeed, that the successors of St. Patrick, and of other distinguished prelates, were generally called the Comorbans; but then (as Colgan observes) these prelates were abbots as well as bishops. However, the name was often applied to persons holding even inferior ecclesiastical dignities; and when laymen came into possession of a portion of the Church-property, being entrusted with the guardianship of it by the clergy, it would appear that they also were allowed to assume the title. Some are of opinion that the appellation was restricted to those laymen who were connected with the original benefactors to the particular churches or monasteries, to whom the lands naturally reverted when the conventual houses were deserted. It is said

1 S. Bernard. Vita S. Malachiæ, cap. v. (Messingham's edition). Giraldus Camb. Itiner. Camb. L. c. 4, quoted by Lanigan, iv. p. 79.

also that these Comorbans acknowledged themselves to be under the authority of the bishop of the diocese, by the payment of a slight annual contribution. But however this be, it eventually became customary for most of the usurpers of ecclesiastical livings and property to be designated Comorbans or Corbes.1

According to the original constitution of the Erenachs, they would appear to have been the managers of the property of the Church. The word is said to signify an archdeacon. The Erenachs were always laymen. Their office was to distribute alms to the poor, to exercise hospitality, and to keep the churches in order. But whatever may have been their primitive duty, they soon became, like the lay Comorbans, usurpers of the Church-lands. In many places they managed to get into their possession all the estates of the bishops, paying them only certain dues or head-rents. These usurpations they transmitted to their posterity, or at least to the sept to which they belonged, according to the Irish laws of succession and inheritance. On the death of an Erenach, the sept used to elect another from among themselves; and in case they did not agree,

1 Colgan derives the Irish word "Comhorba," or "Comorban," from "comh," together with, and "forba," land; and says it is equivalent to the Latin word conterraneus, sharing the same land. The word came to be applied to abbots and prelates, because they succeeded not only to the ecclesiastical dignity, but also to the lands and farms.-Trias Thaum. pp. 630, 631.