but further on he proposes the reading, pro omnibus regibus Mac Eria." Brian fell at Clontarf in 1014; but the royal sanction which he gave to the claims of Armagh, no doubt, conferred additional importance on this See, and greatly enhanced the value and reverence of the book which was the depository of its record. 3 In 1134 Niall, son of Aedh, the hereditary coarb of St. Patrick, was compelled by Malachi O'Morgair to retire from Armagh; and the flight is thus described by St. Bernard in his eloge of Malachi : "Porro Nigellus 2 videns sibi imminere fugam, tulit secum insignia quædam Sedis illius, textum scilicet Evangeliorum, qui fuit beati Patricii, baculumque auro tectum, et gemmis pretiosissimis adornatum, quem nominant baculum Jesu, eo quod ipse Dominus (ut fert opinio) eum suis manibus tenuerit, atque formaverit. Et hæc summæ dignitatis et venerationis in gente illa. Nempe notissima sunt celeberrimaque in populis, atque in ea reverentia apud omnes, ut qui illa habere visus fuerit, ipsum habeat episcopum populus stultus et insipiens." In virtue of these two objects, which were practically regarded as the title-deeds of the Primacy, coupled with his ecclesiastical descent, Niall (or Nigellus) was enabled, after two years exclusion, to return to Armagh, and resume his official position. It was customary, also, as has been the case with other reliquaries down to much later times, to administer oaths on very solemn occasions upon this book, and the person thus sworn was regarded as taking an obligation of an awfully binding nature. He who under the circumstances forswore himself, or afterwards broke a promise ratified upon it, was said "to violate the Canon of Patrick." Of this we have an instance in the Annals, at 1179, where the Four Masters relate that "O'Rogan, Lord of Iveagh, died of three nights' 1 Irish Antiquarian Researches, Appendix., p. xxxviii., where he adds the note: "This passage is in a more modern character than the text of the MS. The last two words I thought at first were forma Ceria; but, by means of a magnifying glass, I now have no doubt but that the above is correct." 2 This is St. Bernard's Latin equivalent for Niall, in regard to sound rather than sense. He even plays upon the name-"Nigellus quidam, immo vero nigerrimus," tom. i., col. 674. 3 The bacal leru had a long history. Its keeper was, in 1135, Flann Ua Sinai, a descendant of Sinach, father of Dubhdalethi, the first of the limited Coarbs (778-793), a quo the primatial family of Ui Sionaiz. See Colgan, Tr. Thaum., p. 263 a, and Todd, Introd. Obits of Christ Church, pp. viii.-xx. + S. Bernardi, Abbatis Liber de vita et rebus gestis S. Malachiæ, Hiberniæ Episcopi.-Opp. ed. J. Mabillon, tom. i., col. 675 (Paris, 1719). sickness, shortly after he had been expelled for violating the CanoinPhatruig." In fact the secular arm was authorized to inflict immediate punishment by exile, which the invisible executive followed up by death. To obtain forcible possession of this book, or to do it material injury, was a venial offence in a stranger, for which reparation could easily be made. In 1177, when John de Courcy took Downpatrick, the Primate fell into his hands, and, with him, this and other sacred reliquaries of his See. The Earl of Ulster, however, soon after, returned St. Patrick's Book to Armagh, where it resumed its customary place of deposit. At the close of the century, we find it again employed to add solemnity to an oath; for, in 1196, Murtough, the son of Murtough O'Loughlin, Lord of Kinel-Owen, was killed by Donough, son of Blosky O'Kane, at the instigation of the KinelOwen, who had pledged their loyalty to him before the Three Shrines and the Cancin-Phatruig." 4 5 The special custody of the reliquary had probably, before this time, been committed to a responsible officer, in the same manner that the Bell of the Will was consigned to the care of a member of the family of O'Mulchallan, and the Caah of St. Columbkille to the safe keeping of a Mac Robhartaigh. In the matter of the CanonPhadraig the official was probably a member of the primatial family, or one of its collaterals, as the Maor, or keeper of the Bachall Isa undoubtedly was, that is, of the Clann Sinaigh. The office was, as regards the Book of Armagh, both honourable and lucrative, so that the term Maor, that is, the keeper or steward, eventually became a surname, like Stuart in Scotland, where the Mor-Maor Leamhna," "High Steward of Lennox," gave name to a family which attained 6 1 Thus in the original:-Ua puadaċán Ticcherna ua nEachdać do écc do falor tri noidċi iar na ionnarbað tré sárucċað canóine patraicc dó zar roime.-An. Chr. 1179 (vol. iii., p. 48, ed. O'Don.). 2 Annals of Inisfallen (Dublin compilation), cited by O'Donov. on F. Mast., 1177 (vol. iii., p. 31). 3 The F. Mast. say:-Muirċertach mac Muircertaiż ui laċlainn tizearna ċenél eófain . . . do marbað lá Donnchað mac blosgaid Ui Catáin tré comairle denel neofain iar ttabairt na tteora scrine, acus cánóine Patraig dóib im dılsı 86. (Vol. iii., p. 102, ed. O'Donov.) 4 The Bell of St. Patrick, in Trans. R. I. A., vol. 5 Now Magrorty. See Reeves' Adamnan, p. 319-321. The F. Mast., at 1135, record:-Fland Ua Sionaiz, maor baċla Iosa, décc iar naitrize tocċaide—"Flann Ua Sinaigh, keeper of the Bachall-Isa, died after good penance" (vol. ii., p. 1048, ed. O'Don.). to royalty. Our keeper, in consideration of the importance of his trust, enjoyed a substantial endowment long before 1375, for in Primate Sweetman's rental of that year,' the sum of five shillings appears as the head-rent "out of the land of the Baiulator Canonis." Of this holding I shall presently speak, but in reference to the office of Bearer, I may here observe that the leather satchel of the MS. had straps attached to the upper corners, so that it could be slung from the shoulders, and, with safety and convenience, be carried in processions and journeys, or even on military occasions, as the Cathach3 of St. Columbkille certainly was, with the same intent as the Ark of the Hebrews was borne against the Philistines. Of the family name Mac Moyre-Mac Maep-"Son of Keeper," the earliest instance which I have met with is in the same Primate's Register, at May 26th, 1367, where Thomas Mac Moer is stated to owe him the sum of four shillings, probably a year's rent of his holding under the See of Armagh. In the following century the tenant was reduced to great straits by the usurpations of the O'Neill family in the territory of the Fews, where the Keeper's lands were situate. On the 21st of August, 1427, Primate Swayne granted an indulgence of 40 days to all and singular who should contribute out of their substance to the relief of Moyre-Nakanany, that is Maor-na-Canoine, "Steward of the Canon," of the diocese of Armagh, who had been impoverished by depredations that had been made at royal instigation. But Primate May was obliged, not long after, to check the presumption of this official, or his successor, when, in 1455, he, in conjunction with the keeper of St. Patrick's Bell, laid claim to the firstlings of sheep throughout the diocese, and drew down a strict prohibition against paying the exaction to any unauthorized persons, and especially the Bajulator Canonis and the Custos Campana.® 1 Regist. Sweteman, fol. 31 a. = 2 The dictionaries give Bajulator with the u short; but the Greek word Batovλos, Bajulus, makes it long. See Vet. Schol. on Sophocles, Ajax, 549 (vol. iii., p. 41, ed. Brunck, Lond. 1819). This is the origin of the form Ballivus, our "Bailiff." 3 The word Catach is rendered præliator, or, if the term be admissible, præliosus, with special reference to its military purposes. The Primate also had his Bajulator Crucis, and the controversy between the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin was de bajulatione Crucis. Reg. Sweteman, fol. 1 a and b. 4 Regist. Sweteman, fol. 45 b. 5 The entry is headed Ballivus Canonis S. Patricii, Reg. Swayne, Lib. iii., schedule between fols. 80 and 81, dors. 6 Reg. Mey, Lib. iv., fol. 45 b. Whether there was a temporary withdrawal of the Canon from Mac Moyre, or that O'Mulmoid was the hereditary, as Mac Moyre was the official, name of the family, cannot now be decided; but certain it is that, on the 16th of July, 1484, Mauricius O'Mulmoid, Bajulator Canonis, and Petrus O'Mulmoid,' Prior Colideorum, were witnesses to the oath of fealty which was taken by the Primate's suffragan Meanma, or Menelaus, Mac Carmacain, Bishop of Raphoe. The next notice of the family that I meet with is the Armagh Inquisition of August 12th, 1609, in which it was found that "the sept of Clann McMoyre and their auncestors, tyme out of mynde, were, and yet are, possessed of the eight townes of land followinge : viz. Carrilake, Lakanelurganagh, Mullaghin, Drinoolagh, Antaly, Cavannykillye, Lissnamackave, and Aghencorke, with the appurtenances, in the barony of the Fuighes, and held the same of the lord archbusshopp of Ardmagh, by the yerely rent of a marke, Irishe, out of everie of the said townes, amounting in the whole to foure pounds, per an.; but the said jurors do not finde that the said eight townes were att any tyme heretofore in the possession of the lord archbusshopp of Armagh or any of his predecessors." There was also a house in Armagh, which was held under the Abbot of St. Peter's and St. Paul's, called "the serjeant of Ballymoyrie's tenement," which passed, together with the other possessions of the abbey, to Lord Caulfeild, whose tenant in the premises in the year 1663 was one Art Mac Moyer. The same jury also found "that the sept of the 4 1 The family of O'Maelmhuaidh, now O'Molloy, were the chiefs of Feara Ceall, the territory in King's County now represented by the baronies of Ballycowan, Ballyboy, and Eglish. 2 This is a rare name, and there is but one instance of it in the F. Mast., namely, at 1014 (vol. ii., p. 782, ed. O'Don.). Like most other Latinized Irish names, sound, not sense, is the rule of adaptation. Regist. Octaviani, fol. 268 a. 3 Inquis. Ulton., Append. i. (p. 5b). This term, "serjeant," for Maer, is occasionally employed in records of the 16th and 17th centuries. Thus, at 1587:-"There is a great deal of land pertaining to Armagh, M'Kevan's Land [elsewhere called Bally M'Coan]; the Sargeon's Land; and the mountain between the Fews and the Sargeon's town." Cal. St. Papers (Ireland), vol. ii., p. 337. Again, Aug. 3, 1605 :-"The Sergeantes towne, being 8 townes."-Act of Division of Co. Armagh into Baronies, MS. Armagh. In 1610, Sergeants-towne.-Speed's Map of Ulster. So, also, in Jannson, Nouvel Atlas, tom. iv. (Amst., 1647), map of Ireland (between pp. 29 and 30); map of Ultonia (between pp. 41 and 42). Blaeu, Atlas, pt. v., map of Ireland (between pp. 1 and 2); map of Ultonia (between pp. 31 and 32), (Amst., 1654). $ Inquis. Ulton., Armagh, No. 4, Jac. i. Moyeres,' and their auncestors, tyme out of mynde, have been seised of and in Tirahoohill, Feran O'Cagane, Agholiosheane, Liosconalia, Feran Icayneghan, Tolliasna, Ferran M'anabbeletta, Aneighriawry, Aghonaclia, Ade-Iloy, and Moylemolgadden, conteyninge one towne, paying thereout yerely to the lord archbushopp of Armagh, for the tyme being, fifteene shillings and nyne pence.' The eight towns of Ballymyre, in the Barony of Upper Fews," now known as Aghincurk, Ballintate, Ballintemple, Cavanakill, Corlat, Knockavannon, Lurgana, and Outleckan, containing 7381 acres, estimated in the Poor Law Valuation at £3490 a-year, constitute a parish in the county and union of Armagh. In the reign of James I., before 1622, through Primate Hampton's surrender and release, the tenantry, under the See, of these lands had passed out of the Mac Moyer family, and George Fayrefax, Esq., became, at a reserved rent of £114 68. 8d., tenant of them and of Bally M'Coan, sixteen townlands in all." 4 We now leave the keeper for a little, and return to the Book. The famous Doctor James Ussher was raised to the Primacy in 1625, and in 1639 published his celebrated Primordia. In the interval, and even previously to 1613, while his uncle Henry was Archbishop of Armagh, he had ample opportunities of becoming acquainted with this ancient monument of the Irish Church, the sole survivor of a once numerous family of native copies of the Canon of the New Testament; not that he was ever possessed of it, or could do more than take extracts from it, because it then had become, like the Bell, the private property of the Keeper's family, who seem to have clung to it with religious tenacity, even in the days of decadence and predial dispossession; or surely it would, like many other literary treasures, have found its way into the Primate's noble and absorbing library. But he had free access to it, and this indulgence argued a liberal and forgiving temper in the proprietor, who had been turned out of his lands, and was now reduced in condition and estate. The Archbishop refers to it in his Religion of the Ancient Irish, published in 1631, under the title of "Ancient MS. of the Church of Armagh ;" and in 1 These Moyers may represent the family of some other Maer, such as the Maer na bachla, or one of the Maers who were managers for the Abbey or See in their dependencies. 2 · Inquis. Ulton., Append. i. (p. 4a). 3 Ordnance Survey, Armagh, sheets 21 and 25. He seems to have been brought from Devonshire by Sir Thomas Ridgeway. 5 Primate Hampton's Returns, in the Regal Visitation Book of Ulster, 1622. |