The next Bishop of Down was John Sely, who had hitherto been a Benedictine monk, and prior of the Cathedral of St. Patrick. He governed this diocese from 1413 to 1441, when it was united to the See of Connor. The bishops of both sees had more than once represented to the king and to the Holy See the inadequacy of their respective revenues to support with due decorum the episcopal dignity. On the 29th of July, 1438, a royal decree was published permitting these bishops to sue in Rome for a union of their sees: it states as the motive for granting this permission that both sees, "uti fidedigna relatione suscepimus, adeo tenues sunt et exiles ut ipsarum neutra in suis fructibus et proventibus decentiae sufficiat Episcopali". Pope Eugene IV. lent a willing ear to the petition of the Bishops, and no sooner had the Bishop of Down resigned his see than John, Bishop of Connor, was by a special brief constituted at the same time Bishop of Down, and in the following year a papal constitution was published, instituting a real and perpetual union of both sees. Many controversies subsequently arose, especially in regard to the temporalities of the See of Down; Bishop John, however, continued in undisturbed possession of the united dioceses till his death, in 1450, and his successors have ever since retained the title of Bishops of Down and Connor. The chapter of the united dioceses elected Robert Rochfort to fill the vacant see. He was also strongly recommended to the Holy Father by Primate Mey, who, writing to Pope Nicholas V., on 10th of April, 1451, mentions among his other good qualities that he was "lingua Anglicana et Hibernicâ facundus". Pope Nicholas, however, had already chosen another pastor for that fold, and Richard Wolsey, of the order of St. Dominick, was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor by brief of 21st June, 1451. In this brief the See is described as vacated by the demise of "Thomas, last Bishop of the canonically united Dioceses of Down and Connor". It is added that the new bishop, Dr. Wolsey, was a professed member of the order of St. Dominick, remarkable for his zeal, and prudence, and other virtues--(_De Burgo_, pag. 474). He held the see for more than five years, and had for his successor Thomas, prior of St. Catherine's, Waterford, who was consecrated by Archbishop Mey on the 31st of May, 1456. His Episcopate lasted for thirteen years, and we find a letter of Paul II. addressed to him on the 16th of April, 1469, empowering him to grant to the friars observant of St. Francis some houses which had been abandoned by the conventual branch of the Franciscan order. This beautiful letter thus begins: "Inter caeteros ordines in agro dominico plantatos sacrum ordinem beati Francisci gerentes in visceribus caritatis, ad ea ex pastorali officio nobis Divina dispensatione commisso libenter intendimus, per quae ordo ipse ad laudem Dei et exaltationem fidei Catholicae ubilibet reflorescat"--(_Mon. Vatic._, page 461).