Produced by Bryan Ness, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.) THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD. AUGUST, 1865. THE SEE OF DROMORE. The see of Dromore, though founded by St. Colman, seems for several centuries to have comprised little more than the abbey of that great saint and its immediate territory. In the synod of Rathbreasil (A. D. 1118), in which the boundaries of the various dioceses were defined, no mention is made of Dromore, and the territory subsequently belonging to it was all comprised within the limits of the see of Connor. The acts of the synod of Kells held about fifty years later, are also silent as to a bishop of Dromore; and Cencius Camerarius, compiling his list of sees in 1192, again omits all mention of this see. Nevertheless, the abbot of the monastery, "de viridi ligno", which gave name to the town of Newry, ruled this diocese with episcopal authority during the later half of the twelfth century, and a bishop of this see named Uroneca (_alias_ O'Rony) is mentioned in a charter of donations to the abbey of Neddrum, about the year 1190 (see Reeves' _Ecclesiastical Antiquities_, pag. 192). The last episcopal abbot of this great monastery was _Gerard_, a Cistercian monk of Mellifont, who, in 1227, was chosen bishop, and died in 1243. A controversy then arose between the chapter of Dromore and the monastery of Newry. Each claimed the right of electing the successor to the deceased bishop; and the Archbishop of Armagh gave judgment in favour of the former. The matter being referred to Rome, all controversy was set at rest by Pope Innocent VI., who by letter of 5th March, 1244, addressed "to the dean and chapter of Dromore", confirmed the decision of the Archbishop of Armagh, and sanctioned the right of the canons of Dromore to elect the bishops of the see (_Mon. Vatic._, pag. 42). Andrew, archdeacon of Dromore, was accordingly elected bishop, and consecrated in 1245, and the episcopal succession continued uninterrupted till the latter half of the fifteenth century. Ware, in his _Bishops_ of this see, and Dr. Reeves, in his _Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down and Connor_ (pag. 308), tell us that on the death of the Carmelite bishop, _David of Chirbury_, in 1427, the see was held by Thomas Scrope, who resigned before 1440; that his successor, Thomas Radcliffe, also resigned before 1461; that the next bishop was George Brann, appointed about 1487; and that the see was held in 1500 by another bishop named William Egremond. The actual succession of bishops, however, was far different. On the death of David of Chirbury, Dr. Thomas Radcliffe was chosen his successor in 1429, as the historians of the Augustinian order expressly attest. Thus, for example, Herrera writes: