SAINT LORCAN THE PEACEMAKER
by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS
Beati pacifici: quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur - St Matthew, 5:9
A Muire as mor in gním ado ringed in hErend indiu.(Mary, terrible is the deed done in Ireland this day) - A Leinster scribe lamenting the banishment of Diarmait Mac Murchada in 1166)
WE often judge past in the light of subsequent events. For example, there is a tendency to see the First World War through the prism of the Second. Notwithstanding nasty Prussian militarism, the Central Powers were not comparable with the Axis Powers a generation later. The former's defeat was no great triumph for the West - it rather set Europe up for something much worse.
Likewise, we should not look at Brian Boróma through post-Norman invasion spectacles (pardon the anachronism). A disgruntled, dispossessed Gaelic noble gave his version of events in Cogadh Gaedel re Gallda. The central thesis was that the Ua Conchobair dynasty was as incompetent against the Norman as the Uí Néill were against the Viking - but Brian Boróma was the Irish military exemplare and ideal king.
The truth was different. The Vikings were long defeated and baptised prior to Clontarf, in which more of them were allied to Brian's real enemy, Máel Mórda, than to Brian himself. Contemporary Irish aristocrats regarded Brian as a parvenu of inferior ancestry (the monks of Cashel could even point at two pedigrees - one was obviously flawed). And Clontarf was a Phyrric victory - it resulted in several generations of internecine warfare preparing the country for the Norman invasion.
For all that, Brian was ruthless and able, and if he allowed his admiration for Charlemagne carry him away (signing the Book of Armagh as Imperator Scottorum), it was his vision of a centralised Irish kingdom which dominated Irish political thought ever since.
Clontarf devastated Leinster. A ruler with the unlikely moniker of Diarmait mac Máel na mBó attained the kingship of Leinster in 1042 and claimed the high kingship a generation after Brian. His sept, the Uí Cennsalaig, would dominate Leinster politics in the following centuries (though they hadn't provided a king for several centuries previously). Many lines vied for the high kingship and the country was beset by intermittent civil war and anarchy.
The former Viking towns looked to Canterbury for spiritual guidance, and Gaelic churchmen recognised Lanfranc and St Anselm's designs on Ireland. They delivered the reform of the Irish church during the ceasefires.
Blessed Eugenius III approved the Irish Church's reforms by granting the requested pallia to Armagh and Cashel and granting additional pallia to Dublin and Tuam on his own initiative. Thus he guarranteed the independence of the Irish Church in 1152. Eugenius was a Cistercian and saw that the reform was Cistercian-driven. His mentor, St Bernard of Clairvaux, was very close to St Malachy of Armagh. The black monks and white monks were engaged in a power struggle at the time and Eugenius was succeed by an English Benedictine, Adrian IV.
Young Henry II wanted to conquer Ireland and sent John of Salisbury to get Adrian's approbation. In 1155, Adrian saw the Irish Church differently to his predecessor (there were few Benedictines in Ireland), so he commissioned Henry to bring Christianity to Ireland in Laudabiliter. The Empress Mathilda was still alive and had no desire to see her son engage in wasteful adventures. So Henry neglected his charge for another decade and a half.
Twelfth-century Ireland was dominated by the career of Diarmait MacMurchada. He became king of Leinster in 1126. Unable to compete for the high kingship like his great-grandfather, he could and did make it difficult for others. The year he took the throne, Lorcan Ua Tuathail (Laurence O'Toole) was born in Wicklow. Until the advent of Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, the Ua Tuathail were a more prestigious family than MacMurchada. Lorcan's mother was an Ua Brain princess of Uí Faeláin, from North Leinster's second family (Wicklow and Kildare were in north Leinster at the time). In the Gaelic custom, Lorcan was sent to the Ua Conchobair of Uí Fáilge for foseterage, which aligned him to a third powerful house in Leinster, as befitted a young prince. All was well until Leinster nobles intrigued against the king in 1141. Diarmait killed or blinded 17 of the conspirators in anticipatory retaliation. Muirchertach Ua Tuathail became head of the Uí Muireadaig and his only daughter was married to Diarmait. As a safeguard against further plots, Diarmait dragged Lorcan with other Leinster princes to Ferns as hostages.
A clear insult
The old Gaelic order was very strict on the treatment of hostages, but Diarmait did not comply. He sent Lorcan to an inferior household, a clear insult to his wife's family. Muirchertach seized a few of Diarmait's key officers and threatened to kill them if his son was not released. Diarmait placed the boy in the custody of the Abbot of Glendalough until Muirchertach let his men go. Lorcan was tired of politics now and wanted to remain in Glendalough as a monk. An ironic beginning to a vocation that would place him at the epicentre of a political crisis which would have permanent repercussions in Ireland.
There were doubts about Lorcan in Glendalough. His education was martial rather than literary. And there was discontent when his father nominated him as abbot in 1153 (which was in Muirchertach's gift). Lorcan had already been ordained to the priesthood when younger than the canonical age of 30. However, it is a tribute to Lorcan that he was the near unanimous choice as Bishop of Glendalough when Gilla na Náemh died in 1157. He refused on the grounds he was too young.
In 1161, he became Archbishop of Dublin. There had been eight Bishops of Dublin before his immediate predecessor Gréne (Gregory) got the pallium in 1152. These were all Ostmen (as the descendents of the Vikings were called) with no love for the Gaelic Irish and until the Synod of Kells, they looked to Canterbury rather than Armagh. Lorcan's brother-in-law, Diarmait, was overlord of Dublin and he had a hand in the election. The Primate, Gilla mac Liag MacRuaidri, consecrated Lorcan.
The Dublin Ostmen were not enthusiastic about the appointment. Christ Church Cathedral was Lorcan's first priority. He introduced the observantine Arrouasian Congregation of Augustinian Canons into the cathedral and as far as his administrative duties allowed, he took an active part in Christ Church's liturgical life (wearing the Arrouasian habit) and he was known for his prayer, penance and almsdeeds.
The best known Irish twelfth century scandal was Diarmait's abduction of Derbforgall, Tigernan Ua Ruairc's wife in 1152. Commentators suggest Derbforgall had a role in this, but the king of Breffny became Diarmait's sworn enemy for the insult - even after Derbforgall was returned with her fortune. The other party to the insult was Mór, Lorcan's sister, who withdrew to a convent in Dublin. This event would have a disproportionate bearing on subsequent Irish history.
Things came to a head in 1166 when the kings of Ireland combined under Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair to expel Diarmait from Ireland. They accomplished this and Ua Ruairc drew sinful pleasure form plundering Diarmait's castle in Ferns.
It was a short-lived victory. Diarmait spent the next year seeking Norman aid. Though Henry II was too occupied to give him immediate help, he did see the request as a golden opportunity (to rid himself of troublesome vassals). Diarmait still had a problem persuading the Norman Earls on the Welsh Marches to join him, but they did come, to stay. Initially Diarmait recovered his own territory. Then he attempted to take Leinster. The high king successfully thwarted him, but the worst was yet to come.
Strongbow's advance party camped at Baginbun in 1169. They were reinforced by the main force and took Waterford, after which Strongbow married Diarmait's daughter (Lorcan's niece) Aífe. Strongbow turned on Dublin. The Ostman king, Asgall MacTorchaill's fleet controlled the Irish Sea. A formidable Irish hosting protected Dublin, but Diarmait and Strongbow avoided them, and when Dublin sought terms, Ruaidrí withdrew. Lorcan now had to intercede with his in-laws on behalf of his flock as Dublin's finest went with Asgall and the navy (and their valuables) to the Isle of Man. When Asgall returned with reinforcements, Norman luck again prevailed and Asgall, defiant to the end, was beheaded in the hall of his own palace. A Manx naval squadron blockaded Dublin for two months and Strongbow got into deeper trouble as Diarmait died, but now Henry arrived in Ireland.
Parallel with Becket?
Henry was an unlikely crusader. He had been excommunicated for his role in St Thomas Beckett's murder, as England faced an interdict - and he came to Ireland to restore Christianity! His obsequiousness to the Papal Legate, Christian O Conarchy was in marked contrast to his refusal to admit legates to England at the time. Henry's main motivation in Ireland was not its conquest, for religious or secular reasons, but the containment of his own Anglo-Norman subjects. He didn't want an independent Norman kingdom to his west. He attended the Second Synod of Cashel in the winter of 1171-1172 to convince the Pope of his fidelity. The Irish bishops were prepared to accept Henry's lordship if he would bring an end to Ireland's protracted political instability.
Though the Normans were as politically divided as the native Irish, they had a clear military superiority and only mutual rivalry and apathy (the former encouraged by Henry) prevented them from overrunning the whole island. In 1175, Lorcan was the chief negotiator of the Treaty of Windsor between Henry and Ruaidrí. As the treaty was not honoured, we can only deduce that Lorcan was more interested in securing a peaceful political settlement for Ireland than in rival political claims. During the negotiation, an assailant attempted to fell Lorcan with an axe as he said Mass. Noting the similarities between this and Beckett's martyrdom, most contemporaries cast a suspicious eye on Henry.
After Windsor, Lorcan had another test. St Malachy of Armagh had achieved autonomy for the Irish Church a generation earlier. It was now for Lorcan to defend it. Alexander III broadly endorsed the Norman invasion of Ireland, in spite of his distrust of Henry. He now angered Henry by naming Lorcan as Papal Legate in Ireland in 1179. Lorcan had a high standing in the universal church and he participated in the Second Lateran Council that year.
As Papal Legate, Lorcan was concerned that the 12th Century reform should not be undone, as signs indicated it would be. The role of the Norman in this process was interesting. If the Bull Laudabiliter commissioned Henry to reform the Irish Church, Lorcan must have sensed some irony. In slightly more than one year in office, he reported over a hundred Norman clerics holding Irish benefices to Roman ecclesiastic tribunals for sundry offences.
One would suspect that Lorcan would no longer be the best candidate to negotiate with Henry. But this is exactly what Ruaidrí asked him to do in 1180. Lorcan undertook to do so, to find that Henry refused to see him and left England for France. Lorcan followed him to Normandy where he fell ill and died in the Abbey of Eu on the night of November 14. The Augustinian Canons were convinced of his sanctity and investigated his life; one canon wrote his biography. The cause for his canonisation is regarded as the first modern ecclesiastical legal process in history. It received overwhelming support from old adversaries - the Ostmen of Dublin, once opposed to his appointment as archbishop, now wholeheartedly endorsed his sanctity. Even the Normans attested to the prelate's virtue. In 1225, he was canonised by Pope Honorius II and his feast is on November 14. His body lies in Eu, but his heart is in his own cathedral - Christ Church.
The Brandsma Review, Issue 76, January-February 2005
Likewise, we should not look at Brian Boróma through post-Norman invasion spectacles (pardon the anachronism). A disgruntled, dispossessed Gaelic noble gave his version of events in Cogadh Gaedel re Gallda. The central thesis was that the Ua Conchobair dynasty was as incompetent against the Norman as the Uí Néill were against the Viking - but Brian Boróma was the Irish military exemplare and ideal king.
The truth was different. The Vikings were long defeated and baptised prior to Clontarf, in which more of them were allied to Brian's real enemy, Máel Mórda, than to Brian himself. Contemporary Irish aristocrats regarded Brian as a parvenu of inferior ancestry (the monks of Cashel could even point at two pedigrees - one was obviously flawed). And Clontarf was a Phyrric victory - it resulted in several generations of internecine warfare preparing the country for the Norman invasion.
For all that, Brian was ruthless and able, and if he allowed his admiration for Charlemagne carry him away (signing the Book of Armagh as Imperator Scottorum), it was his vision of a centralised Irish kingdom which dominated Irish political thought ever since.
Clontarf devastated Leinster. A ruler with the unlikely moniker of Diarmait mac Máel na mBó attained the kingship of Leinster in 1042 and claimed the high kingship a generation after Brian. His sept, the Uí Cennsalaig, would dominate Leinster politics in the following centuries (though they hadn't provided a king for several centuries previously). Many lines vied for the high kingship and the country was beset by intermittent civil war and anarchy.
The former Viking towns looked to Canterbury for spiritual guidance, and Gaelic churchmen recognised Lanfranc and St Anselm's designs on Ireland. They delivered the reform of the Irish church during the ceasefires.
Blessed Eugenius III approved the Irish Church's reforms by granting the requested pallia to Armagh and Cashel and granting additional pallia to Dublin and Tuam on his own initiative. Thus he guarranteed the independence of the Irish Church in 1152. Eugenius was a Cistercian and saw that the reform was Cistercian-driven. His mentor, St Bernard of Clairvaux, was very close to St Malachy of Armagh. The black monks and white monks were engaged in a power struggle at the time and Eugenius was succeed by an English Benedictine, Adrian IV.
Young Henry II wanted to conquer Ireland and sent John of Salisbury to get Adrian's approbation. In 1155, Adrian saw the Irish Church differently to his predecessor (there were few Benedictines in Ireland), so he commissioned Henry to bring Christianity to Ireland in Laudabiliter. The Empress Mathilda was still alive and had no desire to see her son engage in wasteful adventures. So Henry neglected his charge for another decade and a half.
Twelfth-century Ireland was dominated by the career of Diarmait MacMurchada. He became king of Leinster in 1126. Unable to compete for the high kingship like his great-grandfather, he could and did make it difficult for others. The year he took the throne, Lorcan Ua Tuathail (Laurence O'Toole) was born in Wicklow. Until the advent of Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, the Ua Tuathail were a more prestigious family than MacMurchada. Lorcan's mother was an Ua Brain princess of Uí Faeláin, from North Leinster's second family (Wicklow and Kildare were in north Leinster at the time). In the Gaelic custom, Lorcan was sent to the Ua Conchobair of Uí Fáilge for foseterage, which aligned him to a third powerful house in Leinster, as befitted a young prince. All was well until Leinster nobles intrigued against the king in 1141. Diarmait killed or blinded 17 of the conspirators in anticipatory retaliation. Muirchertach Ua Tuathail became head of the Uí Muireadaig and his only daughter was married to Diarmait. As a safeguard against further plots, Diarmait dragged Lorcan with other Leinster princes to Ferns as hostages.
A clear insult
The old Gaelic order was very strict on the treatment of hostages, but Diarmait did not comply. He sent Lorcan to an inferior household, a clear insult to his wife's family. Muirchertach seized a few of Diarmait's key officers and threatened to kill them if his son was not released. Diarmait placed the boy in the custody of the Abbot of Glendalough until Muirchertach let his men go. Lorcan was tired of politics now and wanted to remain in Glendalough as a monk. An ironic beginning to a vocation that would place him at the epicentre of a political crisis which would have permanent repercussions in Ireland.
There were doubts about Lorcan in Glendalough. His education was martial rather than literary. And there was discontent when his father nominated him as abbot in 1153 (which was in Muirchertach's gift). Lorcan had already been ordained to the priesthood when younger than the canonical age of 30. However, it is a tribute to Lorcan that he was the near unanimous choice as Bishop of Glendalough when Gilla na Náemh died in 1157. He refused on the grounds he was too young.
In 1161, he became Archbishop of Dublin. There had been eight Bishops of Dublin before his immediate predecessor Gréne (Gregory) got the pallium in 1152. These were all Ostmen (as the descendents of the Vikings were called) with no love for the Gaelic Irish and until the Synod of Kells, they looked to Canterbury rather than Armagh. Lorcan's brother-in-law, Diarmait, was overlord of Dublin and he had a hand in the election. The Primate, Gilla mac Liag MacRuaidri, consecrated Lorcan.
The Dublin Ostmen were not enthusiastic about the appointment. Christ Church Cathedral was Lorcan's first priority. He introduced the observantine Arrouasian Congregation of Augustinian Canons into the cathedral and as far as his administrative duties allowed, he took an active part in Christ Church's liturgical life (wearing the Arrouasian habit) and he was known for his prayer, penance and almsdeeds.
The best known Irish twelfth century scandal was Diarmait's abduction of Derbforgall, Tigernan Ua Ruairc's wife in 1152. Commentators suggest Derbforgall had a role in this, but the king of Breffny became Diarmait's sworn enemy for the insult - even after Derbforgall was returned with her fortune. The other party to the insult was Mór, Lorcan's sister, who withdrew to a convent in Dublin. This event would have a disproportionate bearing on subsequent Irish history.
Things came to a head in 1166 when the kings of Ireland combined under Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair to expel Diarmait from Ireland. They accomplished this and Ua Ruairc drew sinful pleasure form plundering Diarmait's castle in Ferns.
It was a short-lived victory. Diarmait spent the next year seeking Norman aid. Though Henry II was too occupied to give him immediate help, he did see the request as a golden opportunity (to rid himself of troublesome vassals). Diarmait still had a problem persuading the Norman Earls on the Welsh Marches to join him, but they did come, to stay. Initially Diarmait recovered his own territory. Then he attempted to take Leinster. The high king successfully thwarted him, but the worst was yet to come.
Strongbow's advance party camped at Baginbun in 1169. They were reinforced by the main force and took Waterford, after which Strongbow married Diarmait's daughter (Lorcan's niece) Aífe. Strongbow turned on Dublin. The Ostman king, Asgall MacTorchaill's fleet controlled the Irish Sea. A formidable Irish hosting protected Dublin, but Diarmait and Strongbow avoided them, and when Dublin sought terms, Ruaidrí withdrew. Lorcan now had to intercede with his in-laws on behalf of his flock as Dublin's finest went with Asgall and the navy (and their valuables) to the Isle of Man. When Asgall returned with reinforcements, Norman luck again prevailed and Asgall, defiant to the end, was beheaded in the hall of his own palace. A Manx naval squadron blockaded Dublin for two months and Strongbow got into deeper trouble as Diarmait died, but now Henry arrived in Ireland.
Parallel with Becket?
Henry was an unlikely crusader. He had been excommunicated for his role in St Thomas Beckett's murder, as England faced an interdict - and he came to Ireland to restore Christianity! His obsequiousness to the Papal Legate, Christian O Conarchy was in marked contrast to his refusal to admit legates to England at the time. Henry's main motivation in Ireland was not its conquest, for religious or secular reasons, but the containment of his own Anglo-Norman subjects. He didn't want an independent Norman kingdom to his west. He attended the Second Synod of Cashel in the winter of 1171-1172 to convince the Pope of his fidelity. The Irish bishops were prepared to accept Henry's lordship if he would bring an end to Ireland's protracted political instability.
Though the Normans were as politically divided as the native Irish, they had a clear military superiority and only mutual rivalry and apathy (the former encouraged by Henry) prevented them from overrunning the whole island. In 1175, Lorcan was the chief negotiator of the Treaty of Windsor between Henry and Ruaidrí. As the treaty was not honoured, we can only deduce that Lorcan was more interested in securing a peaceful political settlement for Ireland than in rival political claims. During the negotiation, an assailant attempted to fell Lorcan with an axe as he said Mass. Noting the similarities between this and Beckett's martyrdom, most contemporaries cast a suspicious eye on Henry.
After Windsor, Lorcan had another test. St Malachy of Armagh had achieved autonomy for the Irish Church a generation earlier. It was now for Lorcan to defend it. Alexander III broadly endorsed the Norman invasion of Ireland, in spite of his distrust of Henry. He now angered Henry by naming Lorcan as Papal Legate in Ireland in 1179. Lorcan had a high standing in the universal church and he participated in the Second Lateran Council that year.
As Papal Legate, Lorcan was concerned that the 12th Century reform should not be undone, as signs indicated it would be. The role of the Norman in this process was interesting. If the Bull Laudabiliter commissioned Henry to reform the Irish Church, Lorcan must have sensed some irony. In slightly more than one year in office, he reported over a hundred Norman clerics holding Irish benefices to Roman ecclesiastic tribunals for sundry offences.
One would suspect that Lorcan would no longer be the best candidate to negotiate with Henry. But this is exactly what Ruaidrí asked him to do in 1180. Lorcan undertook to do so, to find that Henry refused to see him and left England for France. Lorcan followed him to Normandy where he fell ill and died in the Abbey of Eu on the night of November 14. The Augustinian Canons were convinced of his sanctity and investigated his life; one canon wrote his biography. The cause for his canonisation is regarded as the first modern ecclesiastical legal process in history. It received overwhelming support from old adversaries - the Ostmen of Dublin, once opposed to his appointment as archbishop, now wholeheartedly endorsed his sanctity. Even the Normans attested to the prelate's virtue. In 1225, he was canonised by Pope Honorius II and his feast is on November 14. His body lies in Eu, but his heart is in his own cathedral - Christ Church.
The Brandsma Review, Issue 76, January-February 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment