THE SEE OF ACHONRY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Few dioceses of Ireland present so uninterrupted a succession of bishops as Achonry in the sixteenth century. Thomas Ford, Master of Arts, and an Augustin Canon of the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Petroc, in the diocese of Exeter, was appointed its bishop on the 13th of October, 1492, and after an episcopate of only a few years, had for his successor Thomas O'Congalan, "a man in great reputation, not only for his wisdom, but also for his charity to the poor". He, too, was summoned to his reward in 1508, and a Dominican Father, named Eugene O'Flanagan, was appointed to succeed him on the 22nd December, the same year. The Bull of his appointment to the See of Achonry is given by De Burgo, page 480, and it describes Dr. Eugene as "ordinis fratrum Praedicatorum professorem ac in Theologia Baccalaureum, in sacerdotio et aetate legitima constitutum cui apud Nos de Religionis zelo, literarum scientia, vitae munditiâ, honestate morum, spiritualium providentia, et temporalium circumspectione, ac aliis multiplicium virtutum donis, fide digna testimonia perhibentur". The learned historian of the Dominican order gives two other Briefs of the then reigning Pontiff, Julius the Second, by one of which the newly-appointed bishop was absolved from all irregularities and censures which he might perchance have incurred during his past life, whilst the other authorized him to receive episcopal consecration from any Catholic bishop he might choose, having communion with the Apostolic See. Dr. O'Flanagan was present in Rome at the time of his appointment to the see of Saint Nathy, and before his departure received from the Holy Father commendatory letters to King Henry the Seventh, from which we wish to give one extract, in order to place in clearer light the relations, so often mistaken or misrepresented, which subsisted between the English monarchs and the occupants of our episcopal sees. After stating that by Apostolic authority he had constituted Dr. O'Flanagan bishop of the vacant See of Achonry, Pope Julius thus addresses the English king: "Cum itaque, Fili charissime, sit virtutis opus, Dei ministros benigno favore prosequi, ac eos verbis et operibus pro regis aeterni gloria venerari, serenitatem Vestram Regiam rogamus et hortamur attente quatenus eundem Eugenium electum, et praefatam Ecclesiam suae curae commissam, habens pro Nostra et Apostolicae Sedis reverentia propensius commendatos, in ampliandis et conservandis juribus suis sic eos benigni favoris auxilio prosequaris, ut idem Eugenius electus, tuae celsitudinis fultus praesidio in commisso sibi curae Pastoralis officio, possit, Deo propitio prosperari ac tibi exinde a Deo perennis vitae praemium, et a Nobis condigna proveniat actio gratiarum".