Scandinavian Relations with Ireland During the Viking PeriodWalsh, A.
History
Scandinavian Relations with Ireland During the Viking Period
Walsh, A.
Ireland -- History -- To 1603; Northmen; Scandinavia -- History
Some years later we hear of a Bishop of Limerick, Gilla or Gilbert,
who does not seem to have been consecrated in England, but who was in
close touch with the Archbishop of Canterbury.[221] He it was who
convoked the synod at Rathbresail, at which it was decided to divide
Ireland into dioceses: “there,” says Keating, “the sees and dioceses of
the bishops of Ireland were regulated; Dublin was excluded, because it
was not customary for its bishop to receive consecration except from
the Archbishop of Canterbury.”[222] Limerick and Waterford were placed
under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cashel, but this decree seems
to have been ignored by the people of Limerick, for they elected their
next bishop, Patrick, in the ordinary way and sent him to England for
consecration.[223] It is uncertain whether the Waterford people obeyed,
as the records merely mention the names of the succeeding bishops.
A still more important synod was held at Kells in 1132. There the
decision of the previous synod regarding the division of the country
into dioceses was ratified, and archbishoprics were established at
Dublin, Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam. Henceforth the bishops of Dublin,
Limerick, and Waterford were consecrated in Ireland, and this marked
the close of the connection between Canterbury and the Celtic Church.
FOOTNOTES
[149] Only one reference is to be found in the Annals. See _Annals of
the Four Masters_, A.D. 728.
[150] Eoin MacNeill: “The Norse Kingdom of the Hebrides” (_Scottish
Review_, Vol. XXXIX., pp. 254-276).
[151] It is interesting to recall that a new development in
shipbuilding, probably due to the same causes, was taking place in
England about the same time. The _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ first mentions
a naval encounter with Vikings under the year 875, and some twenty
years later describes the long ships, “shaped neither like the Frisian
nor the Danish,” which Alfred had commanded to be built to oppose the
_oescs_, or Danish ships.
[152] _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 912.
[153] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 939.
[154] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 953 (= 955). _Annals of
Ulster_, A.D. 963.
To this entry the annalist adds the following note: “Quod non factum
est ab antiquis temporibus.”
Cf. _Three Fragments of Annals_ (A.D. 873): “Bairith (O.N. Barthr),
drew many ships from the sea westwards to Lough Ree…”
[155] Ancient Norway was divided by Haakon into districts
(_Skipreithur_) each of which had in wartime to equip and man
a warship: the number of these districts was fixed by law.
_Gulathingslög_, 10. Cf. _The Victorious Career of Cellachan
of Cashel_, p. 151, n; etc. Cf. _The Saga of Haakon the Good_
(_Heimskr._), ch. 21.
[156] _The Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel_, pp. 29, 86.
[157] _Ib._, pp. 89-102.
[158] _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 109.
[159] _Ib._, p. 133.
[160] _Ib._, p. 137.
[161] See A. Bugge: _Norse Loan-words in Irish_ (_Miscellany Presented
to Kuno Meyer_, p. 291 ff.).
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