Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:46:42.531Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The sacred and the secular: the Augustinian priory of Kells in Ossory, 1193–1541

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

C. A. Empey
C. A. Empey*
Affiliation:
Millicent, Sallins, Co. Kildare
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

At first sight the choice of the Augustinian priory of Kells in Ossory as the subject of a case study may seem a trifle arbitrary. True, its imposing ruins provide a feast for the archaeologist, but the loss of the original register — in place of which we have to settle for a few pages of tantalising excerpts — leaves the historian with a mere snack. Moreover, the priory falls well short of being a member of the big monastic league: at the Dissolution its income was barely quarter that of the great Augustinian abbey of St Thomas, Dublin. How can one justify choosing a subject which is both poorly documented and undistinguished? The short answer is that it is precisely this lack of distinctiveness which makes it representative of a large proportion of Augustinian houses founded in the wake of the Norman conquest.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 94 , November 1984 , pp. 131 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Watt, John, The church in medieval Ireland (Dublin, 1972), p. 48 Google Scholar. For a general discussion of Augustinian foundations in Ireland, particularly before the coming of the Normans, see Dunning, P J., ‘The Arroasian order in medieval Ireland’ in I.H. S., iv, no. 16 (Sept. 1945), pp.297–315 Google Scholar; Gwynn, Aubrey and Hadcock, R. N., Medieval religious houses: Ireland(London, 1972), pp 146-52Google Scholar. For more detailed studies, see Flanagan, Marie Therese, ‘St Mary’s abbey, Louth, and the introduction of the Arrouaisian observance into Ireland’ in Clogher Record, x, no. 2 (1980), pp 223-34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hadcock, R. N., ‘The origin of the Augustinian order in Meath’ in Riocht na Midhe, iii (1963-6), pp 124-31.Google Scholar My observation that little serious attention has been given to Norman foundations is illustrated by the fact that they are summarily dismissed in one paragraph in Gwynn & Hadcock, op. cit., pp 151-2. Hadcock, in his article on the order in Meath, draws no distinction between pre- and post-conquest houses.

2 The absence of such materials effectively rules out this approach in the case of a comparable foundation, the priory of Tristernagh, although it possesses a complete register.

3 Watt, , Church in medieval Ire., p. 27.Google Scholar

4 A convenient summary of the development of the parochial system in England may be found in Pratt, Colin, The parish churches of medieval England (London, 1981), pp 1–12.Google Scholar For the development of the rural parish in France, see Fournier, Gabriel, Le peuplement rural en Basse-Auvergne durant le haut moyen age (Paris, 1962).Google Scholar A scholarly summary of the development in the Iberian Peninsula may be found in Serrao, Joel (ed.), Dicionario de historia de Portugal, iii (Lisbon, 1971), pp 309-10.Google Scholar See also Addleshaw, G. W.. The development of the parochial system from Charlemagne, 768-814, to Urban II, 1088-1099 (St Anthony’s Hall Publications no. 3, London, 1954).Google Scholar

5 Otway-Ruthven, A. J., ‘Parochial development in the rural deanery of Skreen’ in R.S.A.I.Jn., xciv (1964), pp 111-22.Google Scholar While the provision of the council of Cashel relating to the institution of tithes ( G\ra\d\\s Cambrensis, Expugnatio Hibernica, ed. Scott, A. B. and Martin, F. X. (Dublin, 1978), p. 98 Google Scholar) was in general a novelty, it is possible that progress had been made even before the conquest in some areas (see e.g. Simms, Katharine ‘The origins of the diocese of Clogher’ in Clogher Record, x, no. 2 (1980), p. 190 Google Scholar).

6 Empey, C. A., ‘The settlement of the kingdom of Limerick’ in Lydon, James (ed.), England and Ireland in the later middle ages: essays in honour of Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven (Dublin, 1981), pp 7–8.Google Scholar

7 Drom, alias Drumacberan (Extents Ir. mon. possessions, p. 191).

8 Ormond deeds, 1172-1350, no. 34.

9 The obald Walter must have granted the tithes of his manor to his foundation at Abington. The confirmation of the church of Drom by Archbishop Mairin O’Briain of Cashel in the register of Kells is presumably an endorsement of an earlier gift made by Gilbert de Kentewell (Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 304). For the charter of Philip Hacket, lord of Barnane-ely, see ibid., p. 304. Corketeny was granted to St Thomas’ by Thomas de Hereford (Reg. St Thomas, Dub/in, no. ccxxvii).

10 They may be described as archaic in the sense that lacking either a manor or village nucleus they resembled more closely the primitive parochia on the Continent or the minster in Anglo-Saxon England. For an excellent discussion on the Gaelic parochial system, see Nicholls, K. W., ‘Rectory, vicarage and parish in the western Irish dioceses’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., ci (1971), pp 53–84, especially pp 60-63.Google Scholar

11 Nicholls, K. W., ‘Medieval Irish cathedral chapters” in Archiv. Hib., no. 31 (1973), pp 102-11.Google Scholar

12 This point warrants more research. It is reasonable to assume that rural deaneries developed at much the same time as the parochial system. That they often coincided with ancient tribal areas is no proof of their antiquity, for the same boundaries were utilised for the demarcation of manors and cantreds, which were certainly Norman institutions. It is significant that in the episcopate of the Gaelic bishop of Ossory, Felix O’Dubhlaine (c. 1180-1202), the names of the dean of the cathedral, the archdeacon, and the rural dean of Kilree were Norman (see Ir mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 302, 307). Had these offices existed before the conquest one might expect some of them still to be held by Irishmen. The office of rural dean first became the subject of synodical legislation in Ireland at a synod held in Dublin in 1217 (see P Andrieu-Guitrancourt, Essai sur l’évolution du décanat rural en Angleterre d’après les conciles des xiie, xiie et xive siècles ([Paris, 1935]), p. 23 ff). The text may be found^n Gilbert, J. T. (ed.), Crede mihi: the most ancient register book of the archbishops of Dublin before the reformation (Dublin, 1897), pp 119-29Google Scholar; also in J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, xxii (Venice, 1778), pp 926-31.

13 The comparison is almost literally true, for the bailiwick of the serjeant and the rural dean usually coincided in a geographical sense. I have demonstrated the territorial coincidence of manor, cantred, and deanery in several articles, but see chiefly C. A. Empey, The settlement of the kingdom of Limerick’ in Lydon, James (ed.), England and Ireland in the later middle ages (Dublin, 1981), pp 1–25.Google Scholar

14 Hughes, Kathleen, The church in early Irish society (London, 1966), p. 271.Google Scholar The episcopal hierarchy was clearly modelled on the Roman type, but that is not the same thing as saying that the dioceses were organised along Roman lines.

15 Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica in Gir. Camb. op., v, Dist. iii, cap. xxviii: ‘in episcopis vero et praelatis hoc fere solum reprehensione dignum invenio, quod in populi tarn enormiter delinquentis correctione desides nimis sunt et negligentes. Hujus itaque terrae praelati, intra ecclesiarum septa de antiqua consuetudine se continentes, contemplatione solum fere semper indulgent unde accidit ut nee verbum domini populo praedicent, nee scelera eorum eis annuntient, nee in grege commisso vel extirpent vitia, vel inserant virtutes’ Cf. cap. xxix-xxx.

16 Hughes, , Ch. in early Ir. soc, p. 270 Google Scholar; Nicholls, K. W., ‘Medieval Irish cathedral chapters’, p. 102 Google Scholar; see also Dunning, , ‘The Arroasian order in medieval Ireland’ in I.H. S., iv, no. 16 (Sept. 1945), pp 297–315.Google Scholar

17 Dunning, , ‘The Arroasian order’, p. 311.Google Scholar

18 The only Norman regular chapter, Down, was established by a layman, John de Courcy (Nicholls, ‘Medieval Irish cathedral chapters’, p. 103).

19 One wonders why so many Irish monasteries failed to survive in the thirteenth century in areas under Norman control. In Ossory, for example, only one Norman priory — Fertagh — is associated with the site of a round tower, although there are no fewer than five towers in the diocese.

20 Aghmacart (MacGillapatrick?); St John’s, Kilkenny (Marshal); Fertagh (Blanch-field); Inistioge (FitzAnthony), and Kells.

21 See Ward, J. C., ‘Fashions in monastic endowment: the foundations of the Clare family, 1066-1314’ in Jn. Eccles. Hist., xxxii (1981), p. 95.Google Scholar

22 Instituta generalis capituli apud Cistercium, cap. ix, in Manrique, A. (ed.), Annales Cistercienses (Lyons, 1642), i, 273.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., cap. xii.

24 See Knowles, David and Hadcock, R. N. (eds), Medieval religious houses: England and Wales (London 1971), p. 148.Google Scholar There were eleven canons there in 1381 and ten at the Dissolution. It was probably designed for thirteen canons. In England a large proportion of houses of Austin canons had one or two dozen, and many others had less than ten ( Dickinson, J. C., The later middle ages (London, 1979), p. 114.)Google Scholar

25 Extents Jr. mon. possessions, p. 193.

26 The Cistercians were forbidden to do so by cap. i of the instituta (see Manrique, , Annales Cistercienses, i, 272 Google Scholar).

27 Although Geoffrey FitzRobert’s charter confers the freedom of election upon the canons (Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 2), this probably did not exclude his right to licence the election or to confirm the canons’ choice (see Reg. Tristernagh, pp xii-xiii). Patrons presumably held the revenues of their houses during vacancies. The king certainly did in such cases. In 1288, for example, the Augustinian houses of Duleek, Clonard, and Navan were in the hands of the escheator (P.R.I, rep. D.K. 37, p. 34).

28 For a fuller discussion of this issue, see Kemp, B. R., ‘Monastic possession of parish churches in England in the twelfth century’ in Jn. Eccles. Hist., xxxi (1980), pp 133-60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 See the taxation of the diocese of Ossory, c. 1320, in H.M.C. rep. 10, pp 234-41. In addition to the communities listed above in n. 20, I have included the parishes impropriate to the Austin nunnery of Kilculliheen. The taxation is not quite complete, but neither are the parishes listed as impropriate to these houses fully identified. The Cistercian houses are Jerpoint and Duiske.

30 See Kemp, , ‘Monastic possession of parish churches’, pp 146-8.Google Scholar

31 Charter of Kasimir, duke of Pomerania, 1174. ‘Dedimus libertatem vocandi ad se et collocandi, ubicunque voluerint in possessione prefate ecclesie de Dargon, Teutonicos, Danos, Sclavos vel cuiuscunque gentis et parrochias et presbyteros constituendi’ ( Helbig, Herbert and Weinrich, Lorenz (eds), Urkunden und erzdhlende Quellen zur deutschen Ostsiedlung im Mittelalter (Darmstadt, 1975), i, no. 71 Google Scholar).

32 In 1247 Bishop Brendan of Ardagh granted permission to the canons of Tristernagh to provide either a suitable chaplain or one of the canons for the service of their church of Rathaspock (Reg: Tristernagh, pt II, no. xlviii). We must remember, however, that Tristernagh was on the edge of Norman settlement, where special circumstances may have obtained.

33 ‘Gaufrei le filz Robert

Qui bien et lealment me sert’

( Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, ed. Meyer, Paul (Paris, 1891-1901), 11 13505-6.Google Scholar See also 11 14448-59, 14484-6). A number of important enfeoffments were made by Marshal in central Ossory shortly after having gained seisin of Leinster, so Geoffrey almost certainly was granted the lordship of Kells in 1192 or 1193. Since one of his first actions would have been to make provision for his religious foundation, 1193 is clearly the most likely date for the foundation of the priory. Of the remaining two dates suggested in the register of Kells, one is too early (1183), and the other probably too late (1197): see Ir mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 313.

34 The lordship of Kells, except for the episcopal manors of Ennisnag and Stonecarthy, was coextensive with the cantred of Kells (see Empey, C. A., ‘The cantreds of the medieval county of Kilkenny’ in R.S.A. I. Jn., ci (1971), p. 131 Google Scholar). For the lordship of Grean, see Empey, , The settlement of the kingdom of Limerick in Lydon, James (ed.), England and Ireland in the later middle ages (Dublin, 1981), p. 12.Google Scholar

35 See Brooks, Eric St John (ed.), Knights’ fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny (13th-15th century) (I.M.C., Dublin, 1950), p. 247.Google Scholar

36 Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, 11 14448-59, 14484-6. The Histoire says that John did not release him ‘quant il dut estre delivrez (1. 14486). The register of Kells places his death in 1211 (Ir mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 313).

37 Extents Ir mon. possessions, pp 189-90; Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 304. FitzMaurice and O’Daly were still in possession of Tullylease in 1578 (Eiantslre., Eliz. I, no. 3513 in P.R.I. rep.D.K. 13). For the history of the priory of Tullylease, see Gwynn, & Hadcock, , Medieval religious houses: Ireland, p. 197.Google Scholar

38 Extents Ir. mon. possessions, pp 188-9. The lands of the priory within the parish of Kells consisted of Kellsgrange, Killinny, and the lands adjoining the priory on the south side of the river — the ‘tres carrucatas terre inter villam de Kenlis et villam de Kilri’ mentioned in the foundation charter — now represented by the townlands of Rathduff.

39 Pleas held at Castledermot before John Wogan, 8 July 1308 (Cat. justic. rolls. Ire., 1305-7. pp 96-7).

40 See Extents Ir. mon. possessions, pp 188-93.

41 The tithes of his lands consisted of the churches and chapels of Kells, Killinny, Kilmoganny, Dunnamaggan, Kilree, Danganmore, Shortallstown (all in the cantred of Kells), Dysart (Co. Kilkenny), and Grean (Co. Limerick).

42 His tithes consisted of Knocktopher, Derrynahinch, Ballyhale (alias Howellston), Kilcurl, Lismateige, Kilkneddy, Sheepstown (alias Ballygirach), and Kilbeacon (all in the cantred of Knocktopher); Kellistown in Forth, with the chapels of Fynnore, Ballybele, and Mothill (Co. Carlow); Fenoagh (Co. Waterford); Tullylease (Co. Cork); and Clonelryche (Co. Limerick).

43 Baldwin de Hamptonsford seems to have preceded John de Erley as lord of Newtown Erley, caput of the northern half of the cantred of Erley The lordship passed eventually to the SwCetmans (Castle Eve), who held Rathculbin, Caherleske, and Ballaghtobin as tenements of Earlstown (Newtown) in 1605 (N.L.I., D 3376). The churches of these tenements were impropriate to Kells. Baldwin also seems to have had some interest in Modeshil and Kilvemnon (Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 303).

44 Mallardstown (Ormond deeds, 1172-1350, no. 35); Burnchurch alias Kiltrame or Kiltraun (Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp. 306-7).

45 Drom (Cantwell); Barnane-ely (Hacket); Inch (Croc); Fishmoyne, Dovea, Grangibbon (Ir. mon. possessions, pp 191-2; Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 303-4; Rot. pat. Hib., p. 199).

46 Griffin FitzWilliam, father of Mathew FitzGriffin, was probably the first lord of Knocktopher. He was therefore Basilia’s brother-in-law (see Knights’ fees, pp 62-3).

47 See Altschul, Michael, A baronial family in medieval England; the Clares, 1217-1314 (Baltimore, 1965), pp 281-95.Google Scholar

48 See Knights’fees, p. 249; Ormond deeds, 1172-1350, no. 419. That he was dead by 1312 appears from a petition of Ela, wife of Eustace le Poer, against Arnald le Poer, for the recovery of her right to a third of the manor of Kells in that year (Representative Church Body Library, Dublin, G/2, ff 174-5).

49 After the forefeiture of the lands of Sir Eustace le Poer, Arnald’s son (see above footnote 48), Kells was granted in 1346 to Walter de Bermingham (Gormanston reg., pp 125-6). Thereafter it passed to the Prestons (ibid., pp 124, 128-9). It was held by Thomas Butler, prior of Kijmainham, early in the fifteenth century (Ormond deeds, 1413-1509, no. 24). In the sixteenth century it was in the hands of the Viscounts Mountgarret.

50 For the wider issues, see Frame, Robin, Tower and society in the lordship of Ireland, 1272-1377’ in Past and Present, no. 76 (1977), pp 3–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 He held the manor of Stonecarthy of Bishop Felix of Ossory before the latter’s death c. 1202 (Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600 p. 307).

52 See above, n. 43; Knights’ fees, pp 252-3.

53 Ir mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 303. That he was already in possession is suggested by the fact that he was the leading witness. His great-grandson, Adam, formally confirmed the grant in 1271 (ibid., pp 303, 307). The manor of Comsey was held directly of the manor of Kiltinan in 1309 (Ormond deeds, 1172-1350, no. 418). William probably held it immediately of Baldwin, who in turn held it of the chief lords of the fee, the Worcesters.

54 Clynn, John, Annales Hiberniae, ed. Butler, Richard (Dublin, 1849).Google Scholar

55 Petition of Alexander, bishop of Ossory, to the treasurer of Ireland, 8 July 1383 (P.R.O., E 101/246/1).

56 In 1417 the king’s lieutenant, John Talbot, complained to the king that the earl of Ormond’s deputy, Thomas Butler (inter alia lord of Kells), billeted ‘Irish enemies’ and ‘chieftains’ (i.e. captains), numbering fifteen ‘battles’ on the population of Tipperary and Kilkenny (see C. A. Empey and Katharine Simms, ‘The ordinances of the White Earl and the problem of coign in the later middle ages’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxxv. sect. C (1975), pp 162-87).

57 See Empey, C. A., ‘The Butler lordship’ in Jn. Butler Soc, i, no. 3 (1970-71), p. 183.Google Scholar

58 Empey & Simms, ‘Ordinances of the White Earl’, passim.

59 Ibid., pp 165-7

60 See ‘The verdyt of the commyners of the towne of Kylkenny’ in Hore, H. J. and Graves, James (eds), The social state of the southern and eastern counties of Ireland in the sixteenth century (Dublin, 1870), pp 116-21.Google Scholar

61 Ibid., p. 120; cf. p. 121 where the spiritual lords are indicted for charging cuddies and cosheries.

62 Cal. papal letters, 1447-55, pp 497-8.

63 ’The verdyt of the gentlemen of the shyre of Kilkenny’ in Hore & Graves, Southern & eastern counties, pp 88-9

64 The verdyt of the commyners of the countye of Kylkennye’ in ibid., p. 101.

65 Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 311-12.

66 Ibid., p. 2.

67 ‘Qui diversa bona in dicto monasterio perpetravit, nihil in sede episcopali’ (cited in Graves, James and Prim, J. G., The history of the cathedral church of St Canicc, Kilkenny (Dublin, 1857), p. 32, note b.Google Scholar

68 Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 311-12.

69 Ibid.,pp 1-3,312.

70 ‘Circa Dominicam in Ramis Palmarum’ (Annales Hibernie in Chartul. St Marys, Dublin, ii, 353).

71 Clynn, Annales Hiberniae, p. 19.

72 Cal. papal letters, 1417-31, pp 180-81.

73 For a list of the priors, see Jr. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 312. Although this list is neither complete nor accurate, it serves our immediate purpose. (I have provided a revised list which will appear in the forthcoming archaeological report on the priory in R.I.A. Proc.) The local priors include Elias of Shortallstown (parish of Kells); Elias of Thomastown; Richard Cotterell (a numerous family in the cantreds of Kells and Knocktopher); Rowe (Stonecarthy area); Daniell (town of Kells); Erley (Earlstown); Beg or Bek (Kells); Lacy or Lahy (Mallardstown area); White (Callan or Knocktopher).

74 A Robert Lacy had property in Callan in 1350 (Ormonddeeds, 1172-1350, no. 848). Another by the same name appears as a witness to a deed relating to Ballytobin in the reign of Richard II (Representative Church Body Library, Dublin, G/4,ff 295-300). I have also encountered, the name of Lacy in connexion with the adjacent parish of Mallardstown, but I cannot recall the MS reference.

75 For John, see Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 18, 312; for Thomas, see Cal. papal letters, 1484-92, no. 881 Thomas Olayff must be Thomas Lahy See too Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 55. His tomb in the cloister bears the date 27 Feb. 1507. For Nicholas, see ibid., p. 78, and Extents Ir mon. possessions, p. 193. For Thomas, vicar of Kells, see Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 203-4, and Ormond deeds, 1547-84. nos 164, 219, 298.

76 Grant of the parish church of Kells to Nicholas Tobin, late prior of Kells, 28 Apr. 1540 (Fiants Ire., Hen. VIII in P.R.I, rep. D.K. 7. no. 139). Thomas Tobin of Killaghy got the rectories of Modeshil and Kilvemnon (ibid., no. 118); William Tobin, chaplain of Ballytobin, died before 13 Oct. 1541 (ibid., no. 257). Charges of kidnapping merchants were preferred against Nicholas in ‘the presentment of the Cite of Waterford’ on 12 Oct. 1537 (see Hore & Graves, Southern & eastern counties, p. 204).

77 Cal. papal letters, 1458-71, pp 374-5; ibid., pp 682-3.

78 Ibid.,pp 682-3.

79 In 1541 one of these towers was occupied by a Nicholas Johne (Extents Ir. mon. possessions, p. 188).

80 Cal. papal letters, 1458-1471, pp 374-5. Curiously enough, Edmund made no reference to Nicholas Jon.

81 Ir mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 58; Cal. papal letters, 1471-84, pp. 345-6.

82 Cal. papal letters, 1471-84, p. 51.

83 Ibid., p. 651.

84 It is so called in two fifteenth-century deeds. The term ‘Burgess Court’ appears to be a modern invention.

85 Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 43. The italics are mine.

86 Extents Ir. mon. possessions, pp 188-9.

87 Fiants Ire., Eliz. I. no. 3513 in P.R.I, rep. D.K. 13.

88 Extents Ir mon. possessions, p. 271.

89 Ibid., p. 250.

90 Ibid., p. 126. I am grateful to Dr Roger Stalley for drawing my attention to this reference.

91 Significantly no tower house was built to replace the earlier motte-and-bailey castle in Kells.

92 N.L.I.,D 1517. This deed is carelessly calendared in Ormonddeeds, 1350-1413, no. 440. Curtis ‘presumed’ it belonged to ‘the early fifteenth century or the first half at all events’ (ibid., p. 361), but a careful check on the personal names contained in it points to c. 1460-75: John Denne of Thomastown appears in 1462 and 1479 (Ormonddeeds, 1413-1509, no. 212; Ir. mon. deeds, 1200-1600, p. 310); Thomas Sherlok in 1459 and 1462 (Ormond deeds, 1413-1509, nos 205, 216 (p. 194)); Walter FitzGilbert Forster appears as Walter Foster in 1464-72 (ibid., no. 234: here again Curtis’s date is wrong); Richard Leshagh in 1457 (ibid., no. 199); and Richard Houline in c. 1460 (ibid., no. 207).

93 Ir mon. deeds, 1200-1600, pp 58-9. Testimony of Edmund O’Kearnon, aged 80. We need not take the age of the witnesses too literally. The point here is that evidence is sought from the oldest members of the community because this event occurred outside the memory of men of middle years, say about fifty years previously.

94 In a petition dated 23 Jan. 1446 Thomas, prior of Kells, together with other leading men of the county, protested to the king that the earl of Desmond with his Irish allies had ‘brinte, wastede, and destruede syxty and syxtene of townes and brande and brake xvi chyrches and robede hem of har catel and godes that may nought be numbred’ (P.R.O., E 101/248/15). The prior may have been numbered among the petitioners as one who had suffered the consequences of the raid. In any event, the political situation in the Butler lordship was generally unstable in the 1440s, and degenerated into chaos after the death of the White Earl in 1452 (See C. A. Empey and Katharine Simms, ‘The ordinances of the White Earl and the problem of coign in the later middle ages’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxxv. sect. C (1975), pp 162-87).

95 See Bradshaw, Brendan. The dissolution of the religious orders in Ireland under Henry VIII (Cambridge, 1974), pp 21-6.Google Scholar Dr Bradshaw is right to be critical of the evidence given by jurors, who may well have held grudges against the spiritual lords for reasons I have already given, but in overstating his case he is in danger of explaining away the evidence altogether.

96 This article is based on a lecture delivered at University College, Dublin, in December 1982 in honour of the late Aubrey Gwynn.