It is chiefly, I think, because his evidence is fatal to the idle dream of an Irish golden age that the evidence of Giraldus on the state of the country has been so bitterly assailed. For my part, I believe his statement as to the corruption in church matters to be entirely honest, and deem them in accordance with what we know from other sources. In his curious sketch of the lay ‘ecclesiastics,’ with their long flowing hair, and with nothing clerical about them but the absence of weapons, he touches one of the worst abuses from which the church suffered in Ireland. The very see of Armagh itself had been held for at least two centuries in hereditary succession by lay chieftains, and the practice had spread widely to the degradation of the church. For half a century, indeed, before the coming of the invaders, efforts had been made at church reform; but the initiative had come from England and from Rome, and little encouragement was given by the native rulers themselves. Nor will those who are acquainted with Irish society in the past reject as improbable the statement of Giraldus that the clergy, though greatly distinguished by their chastity and fervent devotion to divine service, were apt to spend their evenings in drinking somewhat deeply. But even to this he is careful to add, there were found honourable exceptions. The important fact to be remembered is that, if Ireland had once been a centre of Christianity, a bright star in a heathen age, its church had deteriorated, not advanced, amidst the ceaseless and murderous strife of native rule.