1 ‘ Barraclough, Geoffrey, Papal provisions (Oxford, 1935)Google Scholar; Cameron, Annie I., The Apostolic Camera and Scottish benefices, 1418–1488 (Oxford, 1934)Google Scholar; Harvey, Margaret, England, Rome and the papacy 1417–1464: the study of a relationship (Manchester, 1993)Google Scholar; Barrell, A.D.M., The papacy, Scotland and northern England, 1342–1378 (Cambridge, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Thomson, J.A.F., Popes and princes: politics and polity in the late medieval church (London, 1980)Google Scholar.

3 The absence of a comprehensive study of papal provisions and papal involvement in late medieval Ireland can be partly supplemented by Flanagan, U. G., ‘Papal provisions in Ireland, 1305–78’ in Historical Studies III (Cork, 1961), pp 92–103 Google Scholar; Edwards, R. Dudley, ‘The king of England and papal provision in fifteenth-century Ireland’ in Watt, J. A., Morrall, J.B. and Martin, F. X. (eds), Medieval studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn (Dublin, 1961), pp 265-80Google Scholar; Wilkie, W.E., The Cardinal Protectors of England: Rome and the Tudors before the Reformation (Cambridge, 1974), pp 63–73 Google Scholar; Haren, M. J., ‘Balancing the books: the papal penitentiary, a tender conscience and the rectory of Clonfeacle’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, xiii, 2 (1989), pp 81–90 Google Scholar; Sughi, Mario, ‘The family of Comedinus Offercheran, the authority of the archbishop of Armagh and the dispute over the rectory of Tamlaghtlege’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, xvii, 1 (1996-7), pp 26–43 Google Scholar.

4 Ellis, S.G., Tudor Ireland: crown, community and the conflict of cultures, 1470–1603 (London, 1985), pp 33-5Google Scholar.

5 A detailed account of the consecration of an archbishop of Armagh, Richard FitzRalph, can be found in Hingeston-Randolph, F. C. (ed.), The registers of John de Grandisson, bishop of Exeter (A.D. 1327–69) (3 vols, London, 1894-9), ii, 1022-4Google Scholar. It is not known where or by whom Octavian wasxconsecrated. Even the exact date of the consecration is unknown. The limits usually accepted, 18 January - 12 February 1480, are those established by Aubrey Gwynn from evidence in Octavian’s register (‘Documents relating to the medieval diocese of Armagh’ in Archiv. Hib., xiii (1947), p. 18 (doc. 9))Google Scholar; however, further documentary evidence from the same source suggests a date between 6 and 20 March 1480 (Reg. Octavian, ff 91r, 165r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9)).

6 For the formation and history of the early Irish church until the reform of the eleventh and twelfth centuries see Hughes, Kathleen, The church in early Irish society (London, 1966)Google Scholar. For an introduction to the reform see Gwynn, Aubrey, The Irish church in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, ed. Gerard O’Brien (Dublin, 1992)Google Scholar.

7 On this point see the observations of Pantin, W.A., The English church in the fourteenth century (Cambridge, 1955), p. 66 Google Scholar.

8 For the late medieval Irish church see Watt, J.A., The church and the two nations in medieval Ireland (Cambridge, 1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Simms, Katharine, ‘Frontiers in the Irish church, regional and cultural’ in Barry, T. B., Frame, Robin and Simms, Katharine (eds), Colony and frontier in medieval Ireland: essays presented to J. F. Lydon (London, 1995), pp 177–200 Google Scholar. For a discussion of contemporary Irish society see Nicholls, Kenneth, Gaelic and gaelicised Ireland in the middle ages (Dublin, 1972)Google Scholar; Ellis, Tudor Ireland, pp 33–52.

9 Watt, Church & two nations, pp 161–6. English bishops continued to be provided to the sees of Meath, Dublin and Waterford.

10 Lydon, J.F., The lordship of Ireland in the middle ages (Dublin, 1972), p. 54 Google Scholar.

11 Even to prebends and minor benefices the number of foreigners appointed in Ireland in this period was very small: see Flanagan, ‘Papal provisions’, p. 101; Walsh, Katherine, ‘The clerical estate in later medieval Ireland: alien settlement or element of conciliation?’ in Bradley, John (ed.), Settlement and society in medieval Ireland: studies presented to F. X. Martin (Kilkenny, 1988), p. 363 Google Scholar.

12 As a consequence of the theory of ‘plenitudo potestatis’ on beneficial matters, reaffirmed by Pope Urban V (1362-70), at its highest level: see Iserloh, Erwin, ‘II Grande Scisma fino al Concilio di Pisa’ in Jedin, Hubert (ed.), Storia della chiesa (Freiburg, 1968 ed.), p. 85 Google Scholar; Lunt, W. E., Papal revenues in the middle ages (New York, 1965), p. 152 Google Scholar.

13 Before their appointments for papal provision, bishops were ‘freely’ elected by the diocesan chapters, which then maintained only the right of postulating a new candidate.

14 Flanagan, ‘Papal provisions’, p. 100; Edwards, ‘King of England & papal provision’, pp 265–80; Simms, ‘Frontiers in the Irish church’, p. 194.

15 Pantin, English church, pp 89–93; Flanagan, ‘Papal provisions’, p. 94. Other negotiations that substantially repeated what had already been arranged by previous ones and by the established customs were held in the first half of the fifteenth century: see Gwynn, Aubrey, ‘Ireland and the English nation at the Council of Constance’ in R.I.A. Proc., xlv (1940), sect. C, pp 183–233 Google Scholar. The Fourth Lateran Council had already recognised the rights of the pope to provide bishops to those sees which had lain vacant for more than three months: Alberigo, Giuseppe and Tanner, N. P. (eds), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (London, 1990), p. 246 Google Scholar, decree 23: ‘Quod ecclesia cathedralis vel regularis ultra tre menses non vacet.’

16 A total of 534 papal provisions to minor benefices in the province of Armagh can be counted between the years 1400 and 1535 in the annates book: Costello, M. A. and Coleman, Ambrose (eds), De annatis Hiberniae: a calendar of the first fruits’ fees levied on papal appointments to benefices in Ireland, A.D. 1400–1534, i: Ulster (Maynooth, 1912)Google Scholar.

17 Those restrictions had been determined by the effectiveness, by now also within the Irish lordship, of the Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire, enacted in England in 1351 and 1353: see Edwards, ‘King of England & papal provision’, p. 269.

18 McGukin, J. H., ‘Aodh Mac Doimhin: clerical advancement in 14th-century Armagh’ in SeanchasArd Mhacha, xi, 1 (1983-4), pp 32-17Google Scholar, where the frenetic activity of a proctor of Armagh at the court of Avignon is well illustrated.

19 For the nature of the relationship between the Irish church and Rome in this period see Walsh, ‘Clerical estate’, pp 361–77; Watt, J. A., ‘The papacy and Ireland in the fifteenth century’ in Dobson, R. B. (ed.), The church, politics and patronage in the fifteenth century (Gloucester, 1984), pp 133-45Google Scholar.

20 But arguably even less restrained than their English counterparts.

21 The Irish church had a strong European component since its foundation and probably till the nine and tenth centuries, when it started to incorporate more local customs: see Hughes, Church in early Irish society. The European dimension of the late medieval Irish church is also discussed in Simms, ‘Frontiers in the Irish church’, pp 198–9.

22 In regard to the aspects and origin of the tax of the common services, intimately linked with the release of the papal bulls, see Hoberg, Herman, Taxae pro communibus servitiis (ex libris obligationum ab anno 1295 usque ad annum 1455 confectis) (Vatican City, 1949), pp ix–xxix Google Scholar; Lunt, Papal revenues, pp 81–90; De annatis Hiberniae, pp xxv-xxvi; Claver, Fernando de Lasala, Storia della curia Romana (Rome, 1992), pp 22-3Google Scholar; Monaco, Michele, Il De officio collectoris in regno Anglie, di Pietro Griffi da Pisa (1469-1516) (Rome, 1973), pp 137-41Google Scholar.

23 Decretales Gregorii IX: extra (Friedberg, 1881), lib. i, tit. 33, c. 14; lib. v, tit. 7 c. 9.

24 Reg. Octavian, f. 205r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

25 Ibid., f. 309r-v.

26 According to Walsh, Katherine, A fourteenth-century scholar and primate: Richard FitzRalph in Oxford, Avignon and Armagh (Oxford, 1981), pp 324-5Google Scholar, the fact that the temporalities of Armagh were in the hands of the king was one of the main reasons for the poor state of the finances of the diocese.

27 Reg. Octavian, f. 286v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

28 Lunt, Papal revenues, p. 86.

29 Reg. Octavian, f. 286v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

30 Reeves, William, ‘Octavian del Palazzo, archbishop of Armagh’ in Jn. Royal Hist. & Arch. Soc. of Ire., xiii (4th ser., iii) (1874), p. 343 Google Scholar; Gwynn, Aubrey, The medieval province of Armagh, 1470–1545 (Dundalk, 1946), pp 4–6 Google Scholar.

31 Such omissions were by no means unusual in churches throughout medieval Europe. For instance, on 5 July 1328 it was announced that one patriarch, five archbishops, 30 bishops and 46 abbots had been suspended and excommunicated for not having paid the tax of the services (K. A. Fink, ‘I papi ad Avignone’ in Jedin (ed.), Storia della chiesa, p. 63).

32 The tax, assessed at around a third of the estimated gross annual income of the prelacy, had been initially fixed at 1,000 florins in 1306 (approx. 1 florin = 2.66 Irish marks) and brought to 1,500 florins by 1418, exactly the same sum charged upon the contemporary archdiocese of Florence (Hoberg, Taxaepro communibus servitiis, pp 14, 55).

33 See Walsh, Richard FitzRalph, pp 254–5.

34 Reg. Octavian, f. 308v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

35 De Lasala Claver, Storia della curia Romana, pp 22–3.

36 Cameron, Apostolic Camera & Scottish benefices, pp xxiii-xxiv.

37 For the activities of the papal banks and of their merchants see Lunt, Papal revenues, pp 51–6; Monaco, De officio collectoris, pp 191–200.

38 Cameron, Apostolic Camera & Scottish benefices, pp xxviii-xxxiii; Lunt, Papal revenues, p. 88.

39 Brady, W. M., The episcopal succession in England, Scotland and Ireland, 1400–1875 (3 vols, Rome, 1876-7)Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., i, 250.

41 Ibid., pp 277–8.

42 Ibid., p. 288.

43 Ibid., p.384.

44 Ibid., ii, 34.

45 Ibid., pp 84,108,126.

46 Ibid., p. 130.

47 Clergeac, A., La curie et les bénéficiers consistoriaux: étude sur les communs et menus services (Paris, 1911), p. 222 Google Scholar; Cameron, Apostolic Camera & Scottish benefices, p. lxx.

48 Clergeac, Curie, pp 213–22; Cameron, Apostolic Camera & Scottish benefices, p. xxxii; Lunt, Papal revenues, p. 88.

49 Lunt, Papal revenues, p. 55; Barrell, Papacy, Scotland & northern England, p. 28.

50 According to Andrieux, Lorenzo the Magnificent liquidated the English branch in 1471, just seven years later than the loan on behalf of Bole ( Andrieux, Maurice, I Medici (Florence, 1958), p. 332 Google Scholar). However, according to Monaco, the Medici and other Italian companies left England in 1478 owing to the increasing dominance achieved by the local financial agencies (Monaco, De officio collectoris, p. 200).

51 Bole obtained a loan of £500 sterling from the Medici in 1464 (Stat. Ire., 1–12 Edw. IV, pp 357–61; Lynch, Anthony, ‘The administration of John Bole, archbishop of Armagh, 1457–71’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, xiv,2 (1991), pp 46, 61)Google Scholar.

52 Lynch, ‘Administration of John Bole’, pp 46–7.

53 Reg. Prene, f. 81r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/7); Lynch, Anthony, ‘A calendar of the reassembled register of John Bole, archbishop of Armagh, 1457–71’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, xv, 1 (1992), p. 126 Google Scholar; idem, ‘Administration of John Bole’, p. 61.

54 Reg. Octavian, f. 308v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

55 The Florentine merchants associated with Alessandro Bardi were Benedetto Salutati, Leonardo Vernaci, Giovanni Solomei, Francesco Parvi (de Pazzi) and Lorenzo Mathie (said to be a Roman citizen, ‘civis et mercatoris Romani’). The Bardi’s bank had been active in England and Ireland since at least 29 May 1311, and in Florence since at least 1244: see Westropp, T. J., ‘Early Italian maps of Ireland, 1300–1600’ in R.I.A. Proc., xxx (1912-13), sect. C, pp 361–128 Google Scholar; O’Sullivan, M. D., ‘Medieval merchant bankers and the collection of the customs in Ireland, 1275–1321’ in Watt, , Morrall, & Martin, (eds), Medieval studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn, p. 169 Google Scholar; Monaco, De officio collectoris, p. 198.

56 Archivio Segreto Vaticano (henceforth A.S.V.), Reg. Vaticana 630, f. 88v; Cal. papal letters, xiii, 132–4; Reg. Octavian, f. 301r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

57 Reg. Octavian, ff. 301r, 308r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

58 A.S.V., Reg. Vaticana 568, f. 33v; Cal. papal letters, xiii, 39–0 (27 Apr. 1475).

59 Reg. Octavian, f. 301v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

60 Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Archivio Delle Decime, Catasto 720 (1451), f. 568. See also Sughi, M. A., ‘L’arcidiocesi di Armagh e l’arcivescovo Fiorentino Ottaviano del Palagio (1480-1513), incluso un regesto del suo registro vescovile’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, 1995), pp. 351-3Google Scholar.

61 Brennan, M. J. stated that Octavian was a prelate who enjoyed the special favour of Sixtus IV (An ecclesiastical history of Ireland (Dublin, 1864), pp 374-5)Google Scholar. If this was the case, it is possible that Antonio de Palatio, who was a respected figure at the curia owing to his role as intermediary in its dealings with Baroncelli’s bank, was responsible for Octavian’s favoured position: see Clergeac, Curie, p. 222; Lunt, Papal revenues, p. 327.

62 A.S.V., Obligationes Solutiones, 84a, f. 111v (3 July 1478).

63 Reg. Octavian, ff 304r-310r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

64 According to some modern scholars, the tax of the services was far too high in proportion to the value of the fifteenth-century diocese: see, e.g., Lynch, ‘Administration of John Bole’, p. 47; Johnson, R. L., ‘How Nicholas Fleming became archbishop of Armagh’ in Louth Arch. Soc. Jn., xiii, 1 (1953), p. 286 Google Scholar.

65 Ellis, Tudor Ireland, pp 56–7, 63; Otway-Ruthven, A. J., A history of medieval Ireland (2nd ed., 1980), p. 393 Google Scholar; Lydon, Lordship of Ireland, p. 255.

66 Reg. Octavian, f. 309r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

67 Cal. pat. rolls, 1467–76, pp 335–6; Ellis, S.G., Reform and revival: English government in Ireland, 1470–1534 (Woodbridge, 1986), p. 14 Google Scholar; Edwards, ‘King of England & papal provision’, pp 268–9; Wood, Herbert, ‘The office of chief governor of Ireland, 1172–1509’ in R.I.A. Proc., xxxvi (1923), sect. C, p. 216 Google Scholar.

68 Pantin, English church, p. 30.

69 Secular patrons, or presenters, were excluded from taking part in the first three appointments to Armagh during the fifteenth century. Two of the vacancies were due to resignation (that of Colton on behalf of Fleming, and of Swayne on behalf of Prene), while the third was due to irregularity of electoral procedure (the election of Talbot, who did not confirm by canonical time the acceptance of his election). In these cases, therefore, the see was filled by papal provision alone.

70 Quigley, W.G.H. and Roberts, E. F. D. (eds), The register of John Mey, archbishop of Armagh, 1443–1456 (Belfast, 1972), nos 287-9Google Scholar; Simms, Katharine, ‘“The king’s friend”: O’Neill, the crown, and the earldom of Ulster’ in Lydon, James (ed.), England and Ireland in the later middle ages (Dublin, 1981), pp 214-36Google Scholar; Watt, J. A., ‘Ecclesia inter Anglicos et inter Hibernicos: confrontation and coexistence in the medieval diocese of Armagh’ in Lydon, James (ed.), The English in medieval Ireland (Dublin, 1984), p. 53 Google Scholar.

71 Cal. papal letters, xi, 323; Lynch, ‘Administration of John Bole’, p. 45. To this archbishop, who apparently was too well disposed towards the local aristocracy, were probably directed the following words of the new deputy lieutenant, John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, by his parliament at Drogheda in 1467–8: ‘Whereas the kings of England had been granted Ireland by the Holy See, the prelates should, on a monition of 40 days from the viceroy, fulminate excommunication against all those in that country who opposed the English government’ ( Gilbert, J.T., History of the viceroys of Ireland, with notices of the castle of Dublin and its chief occupants in former times (Dublin, 1865), pp 388-9Google Scholar; Edwards, ‘King of England & papal provision’, p. 277).

72 Gwynn, Medieval province of Armagh, p. 4.

73 Ellis, Tudor Ireland, p. 326.

74 Otway-Ruthven, History of medieval Ireland, p. 397.

75 Reg. Octavian, f. 144r (16 Mar. 1475) (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

76 Connesburgh had gone to Rome in 1473, as ambassador of Edward IV, to pay the traditional homage and obedience to Sixtus IV after his election (Cal. papal letters, xiii, 217).

77 Reg. Octavian, f. 301 v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

78 Hardy, T. D., Syllabus (in English) of the documents relating to England and other kingdoms contained in the collection known as ‘Rymer’s Foedera’, 1066-[1654] (3 vols, London, 1869-85), ii, 709 Google Scholar; Reeves, ‘Octavian del Palazzo’, p. 342.

79 Stat. Ire., 12–22 Edw. IV, p. 495; Reeves, ‘Octavian del Palazzo’, p. 342.

80 Reg. Octavian, f. 309v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

81 It is interesting to note how the chapter of Armagh, predominantly Gaelic Irish in its composition, was capable of maintaining such a resolute attitude even within the Pale.

82 Reg. Octavian, ff 308a-v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9); Reeves, ‘Octavian del Palazzo’, p. 343; Gwynn, Medieval province of Armagh, p. 9.

83 Ibid.

84 For a similar opinion on this point see Flanagan, ‘Papal provisions’, p. 102.

85 Quite often the Gaelic bishops of the province of Armagh were members of the local ruling families or members of clans subject to the O’Neills and O’Donnells. On the other side the bishops of the Pale held prominent positions in the Dublin administration: Lynch, Anthony, ‘Religion in late medieval Ireland’ in Archiv. Hib., xxxvi (1981), pp 4–5 Google Scholar.

86 Foss, D. B., ‘Canterbury and Armagh, 1443–1456’ in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, xiii, 1 (1988), pp 3–4 Google Scholar.

87 The origin of the ascendancy of the church of Armagh over other episcopal churches can be dated back to the eighth century (Hughes, Church in early Irish society, p. 104). Its primacy over the Irish church was officially acknowledged at the national council of Kells in 1152 by the papal legate, Cardinal John Paparo (ibid., p. 269; Gwynn, Irish church, pp 220–21), but dismissed by the see of Dublin, which after 1221 did not allow the archbishop of Armagh to have his primatial cross carried before him in the province of Dublin (Watt, Church & two nations, pp 108–16, 208–9; Foss, ‘Canterbury & Armagh’, p. 3).

88 Simms, Katharine, ‘The concordat between Primate John Mey and Henry O’Neill (1455)’ in Archiv. Hib., xxiv (1977), p. 71 Google Scholar. The early Irish church had also been decentralised (Hughes, Church in early Irish society, p. 230).

89 Walsh, Richard FitzRalph, pp 289–91; see also Pantin, English church, p. 156.

90 The commitment to peace of the archbishops of Armagh in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been emphasised in Johnson, ‘How Nicholas Fleming became archbishop of Armagh’, pp 3, 10, and Watt, J. A., ‘John Colton, justiciar of Ireland (1382) and archbishop of Armagh (1383-1404)’ in Lydon, (ed.), England & Ireland, pp 201-2Google Scholar.

91 ’Further, following Milo, we command and ordain by the authority of this present council, under penalty of excommunication for disobedience, that each of our suffragan bishops should work to the best of his ability to bring about, maintain and conserve the peace between the English and Irish of our province of Armagh and preach peace between them and must compel their subjects by all ecclesiastical censures to keep peace. If any one of these bishops should be a sower of discord between English and Irish, quod absit, not only will he be suspended from his episcopal office, but he shall be excommunicated ipso facto.’ This article, first enacted by Archbishop Milo Sweetman (1361-80), belongs to the constitutions of his immediate successor, John Colton (1381-1404), today part of the register of Archbishop John Swayne (1418-39) (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/6, ff 3–7; Chart, D. A. (ed.), The register of Primate John Swayne, archbishop of Armagh (Belfast, 1935), pp 8–18 Google Scholar). For the traditional rule of peacemaker held by the early Irish church see Hughes, Church in early Irish society, pp 151–2.

92 FitzRalph himself had already attempted to improve the administrative organisation of his ecclesiastical province, especially through the appointment of notaries public: see Walsh, Richard FitzRalph, pp 256–7,296.

93 Watt, ‘Ecclesia inter Anglicos et inter Hibernicos’, pp 56–60.

94 Here we do not take into consideration Armagh’s claims of primatial jurisdiction. This was restricted by the close proximity to the powerful diocese of Dublin: see Foss, ‘Canterbury & Armagh’, pp 3–4.

95 Ellis, Tudor Ireland, p. 65; Cléirigh, Cormac Ó, ‘The O’Connor Faly lordship of Offaly, 1395–1513’ in R.I.A. Proc., xlvi (1996), sect. C, p. 101 Google Scholar.

96 From the second half of 1478 the nomination of bishops and archbishops was always reserved to the king himself, in an attempt to check the power of the earl of Kildare: see Cal. pat. rolls, 1477–85, p. 477; Ellis, Reform & revival, p. 15.

97 Reg. Octavian, f. 286v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

98 De annatis Hiberniae, p. 8.

99 Reg. Octavian, f. 308v (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

100 Ibid., f.310r.

101 Registrum Novum of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, f. 760 (Representative Church Body Library, Dublin, MS 270).

102 Reg. Octavian, f. 401r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9); Reeves, ‘Octavian del Palazzo’, p. 344. The agreement was witnessed by John Hedian, papal collector, Dr Henry Corkeran, canon of Armagh (later archdeacon of Armagh), Dr Thomas Coyn and John Rapnrez.

103 Reg. Octavian, f. 310r (P.R.O.N.I., DIO/4/2/9).

104 A.S.V., , Obligationes Solutiones, 82, f. 111v (3 July 1478)Google Scholar.

105 Ellis, Tudor Ireland, pp 61, 326.

106 Stat. Ire., 12–22 Edw. IV, p 100.

107 For a clear and convincing discussion of this point see Barraclough, Papal provisions, pp 71–81; see also Pantin, English church, pp 49–51.

108 Pantin, English church, p. 92.

109 On the back of the papal rubric recording the provision of Octavian to Armagh can be read: ‘per translationem aut cessionem’ (Cal. papal letters, xiv, 903).

110 For a detailed analysis and discussion on the procedures of those processes see Fokcinski, Hieronim, ‘Conferimento dei benefici ecclesiastici maggiori nella curia Romana fino alla fondazione della Congregazione Concistoriale’ in Rivista di Storia della Chiesa, xxxv (1981), pp 334-54Google Scholar;see also Cameron, Apostolic Camera & Scottish benefices, pp xx-xxii.

111 It should, however, be remembered that ‘theoretically it could have been the wealthiest in Ireland, richer than Dublin and capable of comparison with some English bishoprics’ (Walsh, Richard FitzRalph, p. 297).

112 Gwynn, Medieval province of Armagh, pp 15–16.

113 Ibid., p. 21.

114 I would like to thank Dr Michael Haren, Anthony Lynch, Dr Anne Kavanagh and Dr A. D. M. Barrell for their generous advice in the preparation of this article.