The Irish ecclesiastical record, Volume 1, September 1865
Religion
The Irish ecclesiastical record, Volume 1, September 1865
Catholic Church -- Ireland -- Periodicals; Catholic Church -- Periodicals
ERRATUM.――We beg to call attention to an error which occurs in the
last article on Colenso, page 517. The passage to which we refer is
printed thus:――“According to the Mosaic, etc.… 99,989 families”. Our
readers will observe that the number of families in the case supposed
would be 200,000 instead of 100,000. By this alteration the character
of the argument remains unchanged, but its force is considerably
increased.
THE BISHOPS OF OSSORY.
When illustrating the lives of the Irish Bishops, Ware and Harris, as
well as our modern annalists, seem to have devoted special care to the
See of Ossory, and hence its series of bishops is one of the most
complete and unbroken that we find in the history of our Church. It is
in the latter half of the fourteenth century that the first great
difficulty occurs. In 1367 a parliament was held in Kilkenny, and the
famous Act was passed commonly styled, _The Statute of Kilkenny_,
which, amongst other signatures, presents that of “William, Bishop of
Ossory”.[8] Its accuracy in all the other signatures, and in several
minor details, leaves no doubt as to the genuineness of the prelate’s
name, who at that time ruled the See of St. Canice. Nevertheless, such
a Bishop finds no room in the series of episcopal names given by Ware
and succeeding writers. John of Tatenal, they say, was appointed to
the see in 1360; and his death did not take place till 1370: thus the
above William is altogether excluded from the episcopal succession.
The chroniclers of the Augustinian order, however, enable us to solve
this difficulty. _John de Tatenal_, or as he is sometimes called _de
Tayenal_, was a member of that distinguished religious body, and was
appointed to the See of Ossory in 1370, the same year which saw him
carried to the tomb.
There was, indeed, another Bishop _John_ appointed in 1361. On the
20th of November that year, he promised to pay to the “Camera
Apostolica” the diocesan tax of 200 florins, equal to £40; and it is
remarked that this is a proof of the decay of the revenues of Ossory,
since only forty years before, on the appointment of Bishop Richard,
the tax amounted to 700 florins. On the 9th of January 1361/2
permission was granted to this bishop to return to his see, and from
the brief published in _Monumenta Vaticana_, pag. 319, we learn that
he had been consecrated some time before, by Raymond, Bishop of
Praeneste, then resident with the Papal court in Avignon. In 1364
Urban V. (xii. Kal. Aprilis, an. 2ᵒ) granted to him special faculties
and privileges, but no mention is made of him in the following years.
Thus we have full room for Bishop William, appointed before 1367, and
deceased about 1369.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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