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Title: Mellifont Abbey, Co. Louth
Its Ruins and Associations, a Guide and Popular History
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: February 27, 2012 [eBook #38999]
Language: English
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[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW. _From Photo by W. Lawrence, Dublin._]
MELLIFONT ABBEY, CO. LOUTH:
Its Ruins and Associations.
A Guide and Popular History.
"A house of prayer, once consecrate
To God's high service--desolate!
A ruin where once stood a shrine!
Bright with the Presence all divine!"
(_W. Chatterton Dix._)
Permissu Superiorum.
Published by
James Duffy & Co., Ltd., Dublin,
for the Cistercians,
Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea.
1897.
Printed by
Edmund Burke & Co.,
61 & 62 Great Strand Street, Dublin.
INTRODUCTION.
In the following pages an attempt is made to describe the ruins of
Mellifont as they now appear, and to explain the uses, or probable uses,
that the buildings yet remaining must have served when the monks dwelt
there. Obviously, some important structural alterations were made when
changing the venerable Abbey into a fortified residence; nevertheless the
ruins exhibit, on the whole, the characteristics of the primitive plan and
style in which Mellifont, as well as all the Cistercian monasteries both
in this country and on the Continent, were built. The explanation is
founded on reliable authority, being gleaned from most authentic sources,
such as, _Les Monuments Primitifs de La Règle Cistercienne_, which is a
copy of the Rule drawn up by the Founders of the Order; the _Monasticon
Cisterciense_; _Violet Le Duc_; _Jubainville, Etudes sur l'Etat intérieur
des Abbayes Cisterciennes au XII. et au XIII. siècle_; _Meglinger, Iter
Cisterciense_; _La Vie de Saint Bernard_, by Vacandard, etc.
As no Records, or Chronicles of Mellifont now exist, the historical part
of the compilation has been derived from different sources, chiefly from
our old Annals--_The Annals of the Four Masters_; those of _Boyle_, of
_St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin_; _Clyn and Dowling's_; and of _Clonmacnois_;
Ware's _Bishops_, etc.; _the Miscellany of the Archæological Society_;
Ussher's _Sylloge_; Morrin's _Calendars of Patent Rolls_, etc. The part
relating to disciplinary subjects was drawn principally from Martène's
_Thesaurus Anecdotorum_, Vol. IV., which contains the Decrees of the
General Chapter of the Cistercian Order, also, from the _Constitutiones et
Privilegia, Menologium_, and the _Fasiculus Sanctorum Ordinis
Cisterciensis_, by Henriquez; _Originum Cisterciensium_, tom. I,
Janauschek; _l'Histoire de La Trappe_, Gaillardin, etc. The vindication of
monks in general, from the aspersions cast on them by their enemies, and
the facts appertaining to the Rebellion of 1641, are borrowed exclusively
from Protestant sources,--Dugdale's _Monasticon Anglicanum_, Tanner's
_Notitia Monastica_, Maitland's _Dark Ages_, Leland's _History of
Ireland_, Temple's _History of the Insurrection_, 1641, Tichborne's
_History of the Siege of Drogheda_, Carte's _Ormond_, etc.
These by no means exhaust the list of authors consulted and utilised, but
they show how far apart the pieces lay which have been stitched together
to form a consecutive narrative. The compiler has endeavoured to compress
the matter into the smallest possible space in order to make the little
book accessible to all at a moderate price; and he has preferred to allow
others to speak rather than to thrust his own opinions on the reader.
Finally, he has borne in mind throughout, the trite saying, _Magna est
Veritas et prævalebit_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE RUINS 1
CHAPTER II.
ST. MALACHY FOUNDS MELLIFONT 33
CHAPTER III.
AN EPITOME OF THE RULE OBSERVED AT MELLIFONT AT ITS
FOUNDATION, AND FOR ABOUT A CENTURY AND A HALF
AFTERWARDS 41
CHAPTER IV.
MELLIFONT TAKES ROOT AND FOUNDS NEW HOUSES OF THE
ORDER 50
CHAPTER V.
MELLIFONT CONTINUES TO FLOURISH UNDER SUCCESSIVE
EMINENT SUPERIORS 58
CHAPTER VI.
MELLIFONT IN TROUBLOUS TIMES 67
CHAPTER VII.
THE SUPPRESSION OF MELLIFONT 85
CHAPTER VIII.
MELLIFONT BECOMES THE HOME OF A NOBLE FAMILY--IS
SOLD, AND IS DELIVERED UP TO RUIN AND DECAY 101
APPENDIX.
I.--LIST OF ABBOTS OF MELLIFONT 128
II.--CHARTER OF NEWRY 129
III.--INVENTORY OF ESTATES OF MELLIFONT 131
List of Illustrations.
GENERAL VIEW OF MELLIFONT _Frontispiece_
PLAN OF CLAIRVAUX _At_ p. 4
PLAN OF MELLIFONT ABBEY 5
GATEWAY (PORTER'S LODGE) 15
NORTH WINDOW OF CHAPTER-HOUSE 19
DOORWAY OF CHAPTER-HOUSE 23
INTERIOR OF CHAPTER-HOUSE 35
INTERIOR OF LAVABO (OCTAGON) 43
ARCH OF LAVABO (OCTAGON) 47
SOUTH WALL OF LECTORIUM 63
MELLIFONT ABBEY, CO. LOUTH:
Its Ruins and Associations.
CHAPTER I.
THE RUINS.
"Look, stranger; where these stones in ruin lie.
Here in the old, grey times a holy thing
Rose up--a cloistered pile; but time swept by
And smote the sanctuary with his reckless wing."
(_From the Swedish, by J. E. D. Bethune._)
Of the many historic ruins which dot our country and attest its former
greatness, few attract so much attention, and invite so close a study as
our monastic remains, pre-eminent amongst which are those of the ancient
historic Abbey of Mellifont. In countless pages of our Annals the name
appears. In the records of sieges, battles and insurrections, from the day
on which a colony of St. Bernard's monks from world-famed Clairvaux, came
and settled in its tranquil valley, till having passed through many
vicissitudes, as an abode of piety and wide-spread beneficence, it became
a baronial residence, and finally lost its prestige as the site of a mill,
whose remains contrast incongruously with those of such a precious
memorial.
And what was Mellifont? It was the first house of the Cistercian Order in
Ireland; founded, endowed and enriched by native princes and saintly
prelates; the mother of saints and scholars; and at one time, the
admiration of our land, as a gem of rare architectural beauty.
Before going back to the shadowy past, let us endeavour to trace amongst
its ruins the outlines of the ancient buildings, and to explain the
special use and meaning of each in the monastic economy, when white-robed
monks trod its cloisters, and knelt and prayed before the altars in its
church. Each of the Cistercian churches and monasteries was built upon a
uniform plan, with some slight modifications, arising perhaps in all
instances from peculiarities of site and local difficulties. Around the
whole pile of monastic buildings, and girdling an area of some thirty
acres or more, comprising gardens, orchards, meadows, ran a high wall,
called the "Enclosure Wall," which served to isolate the denizens of the
cloister, and prevent as far as possible all ingress of the world.
Entrance within the precincts of the monastery was obtained through a
spacious and lofty gate-house occupied by a trusty Lay-Brother, whose duty
it was to receive visitors, and dispense hospitality to the poor and the
way-farer; thus he formed a connecting link between his brethren within
and the world without, from which they were cut off. Extending on either
side of this gate-house, or "Porter's Lodge," as it was known in monastic
language, was a range of buildings for the exclusive use of strangers of
every grade. There were the Hospice proper, an infirmary for the sick
poor, with stabling also, in the immediate vicinity, for the horses of
travellers:--
"Whoever passed, be it baron or squire,
Was free to call at the abbey and stay;
No guerdon or gift for his lodging pay,
Though he tarried a week with its holy choir."
The old tower which is passed as one approaches the ruins of Mellifont,
was the "Porter's Lodge," and right under it ran the avenue which led to
the abbey, but which was converted into a mill-race when Mellifont had
reached its last stage of degradation. The present road-way was
constructed in order to give access to the mill. The remains of old walls
can still be traced stretching on both sides of the tower, and prove its
ancient purpose in connection with Cistercian usage, as described above.
Some gate-houses of Continental monasteries, which have till now subsisted
intact from the eleventh or twelfth century, bear a striking resemblance
to this one at Mellifont. That of Aiguebelle, in particular, near Grignan,
in the Department of Drôme, France, most closely resembles it.
There can be no doubt that a pile of buildings once occupied and enclosed
the whole space from the old gateway to the church, forming a rectangle,
of which the church was the fourth side. The precise purposes these
buildings served at Mellifont can now be only conjectured; for, in
different monasteries, local wants determined in a great measure the
allocation of this site to uses which varied with the circumstances of
each community. That is not, however, to be understood of what are called
the "Regular Places;" for these were held to be indispensable, and
occupied almost the same position in every monastery. The intervening
space here between the gate-house and the church is now covered over with
the debris of ancient buildings, which local tradition says once occupied
the side of the hill on which, and about where, a few modern cottages now
stand.
Approaching nearer to the ruins, a modern mill obtrudes itself upon the
scene, and one cannot help wishing it transported beyond the plane of his
observation.[1]
[Illustration: PLAN OF CLAIRVAUX BY DOMMILLEY 1708
1. Entrance.
2. Abbot's House.
3. Guest House.
4. Stables.
5. Church.
6. Sacristy.
7. Cell for Books (Common Box).
8. Stairs leading to Dormitory.
9. The Chapter-House.
10. Parlour.
11. Former Novitiate.
12. Cloisters.
13. Stairs to Dormitory.
14. Calefactory.
15. Refectory.
16. Kitchen.
17. Lavabo (Octagon).
18. Cemetery.
19. St. Bernard's Cell.
20. The Prior's Chambers.
21. Chapel of the Counts of Flanders.
22. Scriptoria.
23. Lesser Cloister.
24. Hall for Theses.
25. Theological School.
26. Infirmary.
27. Common Room of the Infirm.
28. Novitiate.
29. Abbots' Council Chamber.
30. Garden.]
[Illustration: MELLIFONT ABBEY GROUND PLAN]
Arrived at what is now the entrance gate, the visitor beholds in front of
him the four remaining sides of what was once an octagonal building, and
somewhat nearer on his left, a small roofless edifice. These are commonly,
but erroneously, called the "Baptistery" and "St. Bernard's Chapel." Their
true purposes shall be explained further on. Immediately at his feet now,
extend the sites of the church, and of the once magnificent cloisters. Of
these latter not a trace remains, except a mere outline on the green
sward, and a few squares of concrete to indicate the position once
occupied by them. The plan of the church extends to right and left: the
western portion of the nave running towards the river (see Plan), and the
entire length is dotted at intervals with blocks which mark the sites of
the piers. These concrete blocks were laid by order of Sir Thomas Deane,
under whose direction the excavations were made here some few years ago.
The length of the nave cannot now be ascertained with certainty, but
judging from the position occupied by some very old walls at the
south-western side, it may be roughly stated to have been 120 feet; while
54 feet 6 inches was the width of the whole church, including the aisles.
These latter were each 10 feet wide. The nave had seven bays, and like all
Cistercian churches, it was divided into two parts by the Rood-loft and
Choir-screen, which stood about midway. This Rood-loft served a twofold
purpose; on it was a lectern, where the Lessons of the night-offices were
read by the monks in rotation, and thereon the Abbot announced the Gospel
proper to each festival, chanting or reading it, according as the office
was sung or merely recited, after which, with crosier in hand, he gave his
solemn benediction. It answered, too, as a partition between the choir of
the monks and the stalls of the Lay Brethren; the former on the
eastern, the latter on the western side of it. This Choir-screen formed a
sort of reredos to the two altars, which were invariably found in this
position in the churches of the Order. On these altars were offered up
daily Masses for living and deceased benefactors--a practice which
continues in the Order and which dates back to the foundation of the
Cistercian Institute. Further west was a tribune or gallery, where guests
and the dependants of the monastery assisted at Divine Service, Office and
Mass. Inside the Rood-loft, was the Choir proper, which extended thence to
the Chancel, or "Presbytery Step," as it is called in monastic parlance. A
small space was provided between the Choir and the Chancel, in order to
allow a passage to those who proceeded from the Sacristy to the High Altar
within the Chancel. Two rows of stalls ran down on each side the length of
the nave. These stalls were generally of carved oak, and were artistically
finished. The outer rows were for the novices, and the backs of their
stalls formed the desks used by the professed monks, whereon they rested
the ponderous tomes containing the sacred psalmody. During the High Mass
the stalls next the Chancel were used, and the place of honour, that is,
the first stall on the Epistle, or south side, was given to the Abbot. The
Prior, as second superior, occupied the first on the opposite, or Gospel
side. The other monks according to seniority occupied the stalls on either
side. On the other hand, at Matins and at all the offices, except that in
connection with High Mass, the Abbot's and Prior's stalls were farthest
from the Chancel, and next the Rood-loft, and the order of the monks was
reversed. In token of his jurisdiction the Abbot's crosier was fixed at
his stall. The Cistercian monks call this Rood-loft the "_Jubé_," from the
first word spoken by the reader when he asks the blessing before
commencing the Lessons. The whole nave here at Mellifont seems to have
been paved with beautiful tiles; a few of which may yet be seen in their
position near the great pier on the north side. At the intersection of the
transept with the nave, is the space called the "Crossing," or "Lantern."
Over this rose the bell-tower, which was supported on solid piers, from
two of which sprang the Chancel arch, and from the two others, that of the
nave. These piers were formed of clustered columns, but their remains
(about five feet high), vary both in dimensions and in style, manifesting,
thereby, the partial renovation that took place from time to time. The
material of which the whole building was constructed is a buff-coloured
sandstone not found in the vicinity of Mellifont, but brought, it is said,
from Kells, some twenty miles away; a thing not very difficult, seeing
that the river is so convenient. Some, again, are of opinion that the
stone was brought from Normandy; which seems to be improbable.
The total length of the transepts is 116 feet; the width 54 feet. The
northern one is some four feet longer than the southern. They seem to have
had aisles, an unusual arrangement in churches of the Order. In the
northern transept were six chapels, the piscinas of which are still to be
seen in the piers adjoining. The number of these piscinas cannot fail to
strike one as something very singular. Their presence is accounted for in
this way. At the date of the foundation of Mellifont and for centuries
later, it was the custom for priests of the Order to wash their hands at
the foot of the altar before commencing Mass, the server pouring water on
his hands, which he dried with a towel that had been previously laid on
the altar. The water used was then cast into the piscina. It was also the
custom with them, at that time, to descend from the altar when they had
consumed the Sacred Species out of the chalice and to wash their fingers
over the piscina.
This northern transept seems to have been a favourite spot for interments;
for during the excavations numerous skulls were found there. At Clairvaux,
the corresponding site was strewn with the graves of bishops, who selected
it as the place wherein to rest after life's weary struggle. No record or
memorial of these survives, or of any of the dead interred at Mellifont,
to point out the occupant of a single grave. In the northern wall of this
transept is a beautiful door-way with jambs of clustered columns. Hard by,
the wall was pierced to make a loop-hole when Mellifont was transformed
into a fortress. On one side of the door-way are the remains of what must
once have been a superb chapel; on the opposite side are a few steps of a
spiral stair-case, formed in the thickness of the wall, which led up to
the tower, as is to be seen at Graignamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, and other
houses of the order in Ireland. The level of the floor here is some five
or six feet lower than the adjacent road-way which was raised by the
accumulated rubbish of former buildings that extended along the hill-side
where the cottages now stand.
The southern transept may have had its six altars also. The aisle seems to
have been built up, and when the alterations which took place in the whole
fabric in the fifteenth century were made, a large portion of this
transept would appear to have been allocated to the uses of a sacristy. No
trace of a sacristy remains elsewhere, and this would be a very convenient
place to utilise as one. The remains of some walls lead us to suppose such
an arrangement probable. In Cistercian monasteries, a stair-case in this
transept near the cloister led thence to the dormitory, but no remains of
such a stairs have been discovered at Mellifont. When Sir Thomas Deane
had the earth and rubbish, or, as he calls it, the "grassy mound,"
removed, he discovered the foundations of two semi-circular chapels in
each transept, in a line with the site occupied by the High, or principal
Altar. (See the dotted lines in the Ground Plan). Describing them, Sir
Thomas writes: "Within the circuit of the external walls are the
foundations of an earlier church which indicate four semicircular chapels,
and two square ones between. Of this church we have no distinct record,
but the bases of semi-detached pillars would indicate the date given for
the erection of Mellifont." These four semi-circular chapels in line with
the High Altar, formed an exact counterpart of the church of Clairvaux
which was erected in 1135, and which by St. Bernard's express wish, served
St. Malachy as the model for Mellifont.
The chancel terminated in a square end, and was 42 feet deep by 26 feet
wide. It was raised about six inches over the floor of the nave, and a
slab of limestone extended the entire width with which the tiled pavement
was flush. Almost in the centre of the chancel, that is to say, nearly
midway between the two piers, are two sockets sunk in sandstone blocks.
What uses they served cannot be affirmed with certainty. However, it may
be conjectured that they served to receive the supports on which a violet
curtain was suspended during Lent, screening the "Sanctuary." This curtain
spanned the space from pier to pier. The custom is still preserved in the
Order. Here on this central spot, a lectern was placed, at which the
sub-deacon at Solemn Masses sang the Epistle. Here, too, the celebrant of
the Community Mass on Sundays blessed the water with which he sprinkled
the brethren, who presented themselves two by two before him. It was here,
also, that the Abbot blessed the candles, ashes, and palms, on
Candlemas-day, Ash Wednesday, and Palm Sunday respectively. This was
called the "Presbytery Step," and the whole space within the chancel, the
"Sanctuary."
The basis on which the High Altar was built still remains. It is distant
some few feet from the eastern wall, in order to allow a passage for the
monks, who on Sundays and Festivals received Holy Communion at this altar,
after which they walked around it in single file, and passing on by the
Gospel, or northern corner, returned to their stalls in the nave. The
basis is ten feet long by three and one half feet wide. On the Epistle, or
southern side, are the piscina surrounded with a dog-tooth moulding, and
the remains of the sedilia or stalls, which were occupied by the
celebrant, deacon, and sub-deacon at High Mass. Under these sedilia a tomb
was discovered during the excavations. A skull and some bones, together
with a gold ring, were raised from their resting-place; the bones were
replaced and covered with the slab of concrete now seen at this spot, but
the ring was sold by a workman and could never be recovered. No
inscription or tradition identifies the occupant of the hallowed grave.
Could it have been that of the famous Dervorgilla? She was certainly
buried at Mellifont, but unfortunately, we do not know the spot where her
remains were laid when "life's fitful fever" was over; or it may have been
the resting-place of Thomas O'Connor, or of Luke Netterville, both,
successively, Archbishops of Armagh; for they, also, were buried at
Mellifont.
On the opposite, or Gospel side, is an arched recess having an ornamental
moulding around it. This would seem to have been the Founder's tomb, or
rather, the remains of it. In the Cistercian Constitutions no special
place was allotted for the tombs of Founders, and only the indefinite
permission was given, that they, kings and queens, bishops and such like
exalted dignitaries, might be buried within the churches of the Order. A
general custom, however, prevailed in Ireland of appropriating to the
Founder's tomb a space in the northern wall of the chancel, and directly
at right angles with the High Altar. Others, besides Founders, were buried
on the north side in the chancel. Thus, in the Annals of St. Mary's Abbey,
Dublin, we are told that Felix O'Ruadan, who had been a great benefactor
to that house, was buried in the chancel of the abbey church, on the north
side. And Felix O'Dullany, the first Abbot of Jerpoint, and afterwards
Bishop of Ossory, was interred on the north side of the High Altar, at
Jerpoint.
The door on this side of the chancel is a puzzle, as in no other church of
the Order is one found in this position. There is no evidence of a
building having adjoined with which this door communicated, so that its
use is unknown. Quite close to this door there is a shallow recess in the
wall, which may have been a provision for the Abbot's throne, when he
officiated pontifically, as that is the site usually occupied by it. Some
five or six feet high of the chancel walls is all that is left standing;
and, though not up to the window level, what remains of the cut stone and
water-tabling gives an idea of the beauty of the whole, and what a loss we
have sustained by its destruction.
In the original church, that is, the one erected in St. Malachy's time,
there were ten altars we are told, but on the ground plan seven only are
shown. Two more at least were in front of the Rood-loft or _Jubé_, and the
remaining one very probably was in one of the aisles. The church of
Mellifont was remarkable, not so much for its vast dimensions, as for its
architectural beauty; yet, in this it was surpassed by St. Mary's Abbey,
Dublin. Sir Thomas Deane writes: "From the fragments of the church which
remain, it is easy to trace the vicissitudes the building underwent. I
have great doubt that any portions of the structure above ground are those
of the earliest church erected on the site, or date as far back as 1157,
which is given as the year of its consecration.... The details of the
piers (the older ones) are in my opinion a century or more later in date.
They still indicate a foreign type, and the arrangements and obvious plan
show that the transepts as well as the nave had aisles.... Portions of the
piers discovered are of the fifteenth century, other parts of the church
of the fourteenth.... A second portion dates probably from 1260, another
from 1370, and another from 1460. I am not prepared to follow from the
history of the Abbey the causes of such restorations; but it is certain
that rebuildings of portions of the church occurred from time to time, and
that violence or decay was the cause." Neither to violence nor to decay
can the alterations be attributed, which the church underwent at the three
periods mentioned by Sir Thomas, but rather to the practice then common to
the whole Order, chiefly in the monasteries of Great Britain and Ireland,
of adopting the advancing changes in the Gothic style, and to the laudable
efforts of the monks to make the House of God worthy of Him as far as art
and skill could be made subservient to that purpose. Thus in the Annals of
Fountains and Furness, there are abundant proofs of this constant change
going on in those monasteries even down to the date of their suppression.
One Abbot considered the eastern window too low and narrow, and had it
enlarged; another thought the tower rested on too slender a basis, and he
built substantial piers and flanked them on the outside with buttresses,
and so with others.
To better understand the surroundings, it will be necessary to bear in
mind the general plan on which all Cistercian monasteries were built. On
this subject there is a good deal of misapprehension, even on the part of
those who seem to have given close attention to the matter. The church and
buildings necessary for large communities were so arranged as to form a
square, thereby combining simplicity with economy. It is said that the
monks borrowed this idea from the form of a Roman villa. The church formed
the first or northern side (for in temperate and cold climates the other
buildings, as they lay to the south, were sheltered by the church.) The
sacristy, chapter-house, and other halls were on the east; the
calefactory, refectory, and kitchen on the south; and the _Domus
Conversorum_ completed the square on the west. Within this square were the
cloisters, always contiguous to the main buildings, and forming a
communication with all the parts of the monastery. They were a sort of
covered ambulatory, whose roof rested on the one side against the main
buildings, and on the other was supported by open ornamental arcades,
which, however, in these climates were glazed. The cloisters were often
vaulted in richly moulded stonework, and were fitted up with benches for
reading, chiefly on the side adjoining the church. The space or
quadrilateral area enclosed by them was called the Cloister-Garth, in the
centre of which a statue or handsome fountain stood.
The cloisters were generally entered from the church by the south aisle,
at the point where it adjoins the transept; but here, at Mellifont, the
entrance was direct from the south transept itself. This a glance at the
ground-plan will show; though it may have been otherwise in the primitive
church; for, when it underwent alterations, the transepts were widened by
the addition of an aisle to each; and, the cloister being thus encroached
on, a change was necessary in it also.
Adjoining the transept, and at right angles with the cloister, on the
left, was a narrow hall or cell which contained books, chiefly the Sacred
Scriptures, and the writings of the Fathers. This cell, which had no
window, was called the "Armarium Commune," or "Common Box;" for its
contents were common to all the monks. Its situation was convenient to the
reading-cloister, which lay along the south wall of the church. In this
cell the monks were provided with an abundant supply of good books, but
treatises on the Canon and Civil Laws were forbidden to be kept in it: the
Prior was charged with the custody of these. Behind this cell, and
communicating only with the church, the Sacristy was placed; but, as
before observed, there is no trace of one here. Some writers on monastic
ruins, confidently assure their readers that this cell was a prison, and
that it was called the "Lantern;" casting upon the monks all
responsibility for the name, and supposing them to have formed it on the
_lucus a non lucendo_ principle, seeing the cell was dark. The error was
all their own; for the Lantern, as has been already shown, was in the
tower over the crossing of the church; and the true use of this cell has
just been stated above.
Here (at Mellifont), in close proximity to the transept, is the ruined
two-storied building we saw as we approached, and which, from its present
striking appearance, must have been one of the most beautiful within the
ancient abbey's precincts. This is commonly, but erroneously, known as
"St. Bernard's Chapel." Why it was reputed to have been a chapel, must be
from the close resemblance it bears to one. It was, in reality, the
Chapter-house. That it was, is quite evident to anyone who has studied the
plans of Cistercian monasteries: (_a_), from the position it occupies, and
(_b_), from the internal arrangement and decorations such as are found in
other like edifices of the Order in Ireland. A stone bench ran around the
inside of the building, and which, when covered with a rush mat, served as
a seat for the monks. In Graignamanagh Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, the ancient
Chapter-house still remains, closely resembling this one at Mellifont,
both in style and ornamentation, as well as in dimensions. The historic
Chapter-house of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, which was unearthed a few years
ago, exhibited in every detail a striking resemblance to this also. That
at Graignamanagh was remarkable for its beauty. At the entrance to it from
the cloister, was a magnificent arched door-way, containing within it
three smaller arches of blue marble, beautifully carved. A grand central
column, called by the inhabitants of the district, the "Marble Tree,"
supported the roof. It stood eight feet high from base to capital, whence
the branches spread to meet the corresponding ribs on the groined roof.
[Illustration: GATEWAY (PORTER'S LODGE.) See page 2. _From Photo by W.
Lawrence, Dublin._]
Sir William Wilde describes the Chapter-house at Mellifont, as he saw it
in 1850. He says: "It must have been one of the most elegant and highly
embellished structures of the Norman or Early English pointed style in
Ireland." He calls it a Crypt; for it was overlaid, and surrounded up to a
high level by heaps of rubbish. He goes on to say: "It has a groined roof
underneath another building evidently used for domestic purposes, and was
probably part of the Abbot's apartments. The upper room, which contains a
chimney, must have been a pleasant, cheerful abode, and its windows
commanded a charming prospect down the valley, with a view of the distant
hills peeping up from the south-west. The building is 30 feet long, by 19
feet wide. There are no remains of mullions or tracery of the east window.
At present, there are two lights on each side; but upon a careful
examination of the masonry both within and without the building, it is, we
think, apparent that in the original plan, the upper window on each side
alone existed, the others being evidently subsequent innovations. The
original windows[2] are still beautiful, deeply set, and, though their
stone mullions are rather massive, each forms, with the tracery at the
top, a very elegant figure. The internal pilasters, which form an
architrave for the northern window, spring from grotesque heads,
elaborately carved, and which appear as if pressed down by the
superincumbent weight. A fillet of dog's-tooth moulding surrounds the
internal sash. A projecting moulding courses round the wall, about two
feet from the ground, which, while it dips down to admit the splayed sill
of the upper or original windows, continues unbroken by the lower ones, an
additional proof that the latter did not exist in the original plan of the
building. Three sets of short clustered columns, four feet high, one in
the centre, and one in each angle, spring from this course, and terminate
in elaborately carved floral capitals, which differ slightly one from the
other. The centre rod of this cluster descends as far as the floor. From
these spring the ribs, which form the groining of the roof.... The grand
architectural feature, and most elaborate piece of carving, was the
door-way, formed of a cluster of columns, very deeply revealed on the
inside, but apparently plain on the outside.... Nearly the whole of the
western end has fallen, so that nothing but the foundations of this very
splendid door-way now remain. A figure of it has, however, been preserved
in Wright's _Louthiana_ (reproduced here),[3] published in 1755, where we
read that it was 'all of blue marble, richly ornamented and gilt,' but
'which,' the author adds, 'I was informed was sold and going to be taken
to pieces when I was there.' All the pillars and carved stone work of this
building were at one time painted in the most brilliant colours, the
capitals light blue, the pillars themselves red; portions of this paint
still remain in the curves and amongst the foliage."
The Chapter-house[4] is little changed since Sir William Wilde penned the
foregoing, and time seems to have dealt leniently with this magnificent
ruin. One of the windows has had its mullions restored under the Board of
Works; a number of curious objects--capitals, corbels, and portions of
arches and cut stone, flooring tiles, etc., has been collected there, and
a gate to guard them has been erected by Mr. Balfour, the owner of the
ruins and surrounding property. It is very dubious that the upper story
ever served as a part of the Abbot's lodgings, as these are generally
found further east. This room may have been the muniment room. It has two
port-holes remaining, relics of the days when Mellifont was turned into a
fortified castle, and the cry of fierce, contending men was heard on this
hallowed spot, over the graves of the sainted dead. In the first volume of
_The Dublin Penny Journal_, there are very interesting articles from the
pen of a Mr. Armstrong, a native of the locality. He tells us that this
Chapter-house was converted into a banqueting-hall by the Moore family,
and that in his time (1832), it was used as a pig-sty.
[Illustration: NORTH WINDOW OF CHAPTER-HOUSE. See p. 17. _From Photo by W.
Lawrence, Dublin._]
Another account of the fate of the beautiful arched door-way of blue
marble is, that it was lost at a game of piquet, and the lucky winner,
whose name, unfortunately, has not been handed down to us, had it removed
to his mansion, and set up as a chimney-piece. The floor of the
Chapter-house is now laid with some of the tiles which were found in the
church during the excavations, in order to preserve them from destruction
or appropriation by "relic-hunters." Abbots, generally, chose the
Chapter-house of their abbeys for their burial place; but, as no grave was
found here, when the rubbish was removed, during the excavations, we may
conclude that the Abbots of Mellifont were buried either in the church, or
in the cemetery with their monks.
The glazed tiles and their manufacture were a specialty with the old
Cistercians, in these countries. Similar tiles are seldom met with amongst
the ruins of other churches. Here at Mellifont, those found are red and
blue, and the vast majority have the legend _Ave Maria_ inscribed on them;
others are impressed with a Fleur de lis, a cock, or some typical device.
It is well known, that specimens of tiles found at Fountains, in
Yorkshire, bear a close resemblance to these. There, the motto of that
monastery was impressed on the tiles discovered--"_Benedicite fontes
Domino_,"--"Ye fountains bless the Lord." No doubt, here, too, some bore
the motto of Mellifont, if only they could be found.
A very pertinent question arises now: how could this small building give
sitting accommodation, not only to one hundred and fifty monks, which this
monastery is said to have had, but even to a third of that number? It
seems impossible. It may be that, on becoming numerous, they used as
Chapter-house some other building no longer standing. At Graignamanagh,
the monks, finding their Chapter-house too small, converted the eastern
window of it into a door, and built a large and spacious hall, as a new
Chapter-house, the old one serving as an ante-chamber to it. No such
addition had been made here; for the window remains intact.
What a change has come over this grand old Chapter-house since it saw its
Abbot, who ranked as a peer of the realm, walk up its centre with solemn
and stately tread, and mount the steps which led to his seat, on the east;
and the grave assemblage of white-robed monks enter in silence, and take
their places on either side, while one of them sang at the Lectern, the
Martyrology, and a chapter of St. Benedict's Rule! From this custom of
having a _chapter_ of the Rule sung there every morning, this apartment
derives its name. In the interval, between the singing of the Martyrology
and the chapter of St. Benedict's Rule, one of the priests gave out
certain prayers, to which all responded. These prayers were chiefly
petitions to the Lord, that He would deign to bless and guard them during
the coming day; for the hour of chapter, or of the assembling of the
Brethren, was generally about 6 A.M.. The Abbot then explained the chapter
which had been sung, dwelt on the obligations incumbent on his hearers, by
their profession, to observe the teaching which St. Benedict inculcated by
his Rule; then called for the public self-accusations of breaches of
monastic discipline (external faults only), and imposed penances
commensurate with each transgression. The Chapter-house was the hall
wherein were held the deliberations or councils relative to the
administration of temporalities, and here novices were elected or rejected
by secret ballot.
On leaving the Chapter-house one finds himself again on the site of the
eastern walk or alley of the Cloister, as it is called, and proceeding
along it southward, one sees a wall some seven or eight feet high without
door or window of any sort. It is doubtful that this was portion of the
ancient building; for then Mellifont would not have followed the general
plan of all the houses of the Order. That it was not one of the original
buildings is probable, both because the masonry is more modern, and the
remains of an old building running at right angles with it were found when
the excavations were made a few years ago in the potato garden, at the
rere of this wall. That old structure measured about fourteen feet wide.
It is shown on the ground plan. In the plan of Clairvaux, of which
Mellifont is said to have been a counterpart, a long narrow hall ran off
the Cloister here, parallel with the Chapter-house. It was called the
"Auditorium" or "Parlour." It was there that each choir monk's share in
the manual labour was assigned him every day by the Prior. There, too,
confessions were heard, and the monks might speak to the Prior or Abbot on
necessary matters; for the adjoining Cloister was a place of strict
silence. As at Clairvaux, the novitiate was placed further south where the
novices were trained in their duties by a learned and experienced monk,
who, according to St. Benedict, "would know how to gain souls to God."
Over the buildings on the ground story, that is, over the Sacristy,
Chapter-house, Parlour, and Novitiate, was the Dormitory, which was
entered by a stair-case, in the south-eastern angle of the transept, on
one side, and by another stairs at the junction of the east and south
walks of the Cloister. When the monastery at Mellifont was changed and
remodelled after Clairvaux (for this latter underwent a substantial change
in 1175), the monks may have used the old Parlour as a passage leading to
other buildings which covered that plot of ground beyond the
Chapter-house, now a potato garden. In the plan of Clairvaux, all the
space in that direction is covered with buildings. (See plan of
Clairvaux.) In the general view of Mellifont, given in frontispiece, the
plot whereon these buildings stood is that where the man is seen tilling
the garden. But if one ascend the hill, keeping close to the ruins, it
will be evident how suitable a place it was for building on, and the
remains of walls peep up here and there over the surface. The level at
that spot is, indeed, much higher than in the Cloister, or Chapter-house,
but that is partially caused by the debris of ruined buildings which has
accumulated there.
[Illustration: DOORWAY OF CHAPTER-HOUSE. See p. 18. _A. Scott & Son,
Architects, Drogheda._]
At the extreme end of this eastern walk of the Cloister and at right
angles with it, are the remains of what was once a spacious building. It
had a fire-place at the eastern end, and a door which led out into another
building that formerly adjoined it. It is 96 feet long by 36 feet wide. No
idea can be formed now as to its original use. In some monasteries of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, chiefly the more considerable ones,
there was a spacious room or hall located as this was, and furnished with
benches and writing-desks, where the monks studied and wrote. It was
called the "Lectorium" or Reading room. It must not, however, be
confounded with the Scriptorium, which was the official quarters of the
copyist. It is well to remark here that the plot of ground lying north of
this building was not dug up during the excavations, but only skimmed over
in order to trace the course of some walls which at intervals appeared
above the surface; but, even this slight investigation was sufficient to
reveal the outlines of numerous buildings that once extended in that
direction and covered that whole area. Again comparing the site with
Clairvaux, we find that the Infirmary and its surroundings would lie in
that direction.
At the extreme end of the eastern walk of the Cloister where it joins the
southern one, are the remains of a stairs, which formerly led up to the
Dormitory from this part of the monastery, as at Clairvaux. Near it is
what is commonly called a vault, an arched chamber measuring sixteen feet
by fourteen. It has a chimney, and it would seem to have had a narrow
window also on the outer or southern end. Here is where the Calefactory
stood in almost all the old Cistercian monasteries. This Calefactory was
heated by a stove, at which the monks warmed themselves after their long
vigils in winter; but their stay there was restricted to one quarter of an
hour. Pope Eugenius III., when a monk at Clairvaux, under St. Bernard, had
charge of the stove there, as was commemorated by an inscription over the
door of the Calefactory. A son of the King of France discharged the same
lowly office afterwards at Clairvaux, as the Annals of the Order testify.
Adjoining this vault is a covered passage, having an entrance into the
next building, which runs parallel with it. Its purpose cannot now be
known. It may be that the vault or Calefactory had been converted in later
times into a store-room for necessaries which were brought thence by this
covered way into the Refectory, which is the next building. The Refectory
measures 48 feet by 24. A few coarse flags remain in their original
position, from which it may be inferred that the whole floor was once
formed of them. In its western wall was the turnstile, through which the
food was served from the kitchen that adjoined the Refectory on that side.
Now, we come to the great puzzle, the remains of the octagon building,
which was commonly called the Baptistery. Sir William Wilde, who saw it as
it was in 1848, calls it the oldest and by far the most interesting
architectural remains in the whole place; and he goes on to describe
it:[5] "This octagonal structure, of which only four sides remain,
consists of a colonnade or series of circular-headed arches, of the Roman
or Saxon character, enclosing a space of 29 feet in the clear, and
supporting a wall which must have been, when perfect, about 30 feet high.
Each external face measures 12 feet in length, and was plastered or
covered with composition to the height of 10 feet, where a projecting band
separates it from the less elaborate masonry above. The arches[6] are
carved in sandstone, and spring from foliage-ornamented capitals, to the
short supporting pillars, the shaft of each of which measures 3 feet 5
inches. The chord of each arch above the capitals is 4 feet 3 inches. Some
slight difference is observable in the shape and arrangement of the
foliage of the capitals, and upon one of the remaining half arches were
beautifully carved two birds; but some Goth has lately succeeded in
hammering away as much of the relieved part of each, as it was possible.
The arches were evidently open, and some slight variety exists in their
mouldings. Internally a stone finger-course encircled the wall, at about
six inches higher than that on the outside. In the angles between the
arches there are remains of fluted pilasters at the height of the
string-course, from which spring groins of apparently the same curve as
the external arches, and which, meeting in the centre, must have formed
more or less of a pendant, which, no doubt, heightened the beauty and
architectural effect. Like the pillars and stone carvings in the
Chapter-house, this building was also painted red and blue, and the track
of the paint is still visible in several places. The upper story, which
was lighted by a window on each side of the octagon, bears no
architectural embellishment which is now visible." He then adds, how
Archdall, in his _Monasticon_, asserted that a cistern was placed on the
upper story, whence water was conveyed by pipes to the different parts of
the monastery; but shows how such an arrangement would have been
impossible, on account of the weakness of the walls, and the position of
the windows.
This building was known, in monastic terminology, as the "Lavabo." A
fountain of water issued in jets from a central column, and fell into a
basin, in which the monks washed their hands, before entering the
Refectory for their meals. It is quite easy, from the construction of the
roof, to imagine a number of branches springing from the capital of the
column, and meeting the ribs of the groined roof, in the same manner, as
the "Marble Tree," in the Chapter-house of Graignamanagh. Drains in
connection with this building were discovered when the excavations were
made, and Sir Thomas Deane is of opinion, that it was surrounded on the
outside by a wooden verandah, or shed. Certainly, in the plan of
Clairvaux, a low building is shown, adjoining the Lavabo, at its east and
west ends; but no use is assigned it. Very probably it was the Lavatory.
Petrie thinks the Lavabo may have been built as far back as 1165, but that
can hardly be held; for Clairvaux had not been remodelled till 1175, and
it had no such ornamental structure in the time of St. Bernard. He
remarks, too, that fragments of bricks were discovered in the building,
and says they were never employed earlier in any other building in
Ireland. It is now certain, that it was the monks of Mellifont who first
manufactured bricks in this country. This Lavabo was not isolated or
detached from the Cloister, but, as at Clairvaux, a door led from one into
the other, opposite the entrance into the Refectory; and, since the
excavations, portions of the door-way are visible. Some small shafts and
their bases remain. Even at the present day, in one of the most recently
constructed monasteries of the Order (near Tilburg, Holland), what might
be termed a semi-octagonal Lavabo, having its fountain and basin, has been
built. It answers the same purpose as those in ancient times.
By keeping the Lavabo before one's mind, one can form an idea of the
Cloister itself; which, consisting of arcades, closely resembled this in
every detail, except that these were glazed, and in all probability its
walks had a lean-to roof. The site of the east walk of the Cloister is
easily traced, and the places occupied by the piers being now concreted,
mark their positions. This eastern walk was 21 feet 6 inches wide. The
opposite, or western one, was some 19 feet 6 inches; that on the south, 14
feet; and the north one, adjoining the church, and which was usually the
Reading-Cloister, may also have been 14 feet. Thus, we would have an
enclosed space or Garth, 100 feet square.
Beside the Refectory lay the Kitchen, which was a small building, and
around it are the ruins of smaller structures, which may have been
store-rooms in connection with it. Under the Kitchen ran a copious stream
of water which carried off all the refuse. It is remarkable that at
Clairvaux similar remains are found in exactly the same position
relatively to the Kitchen there. With the Cistercians, the Kitchen was
always square; with the Benedictines, it was round. To the rere of the
Kitchen, and almost directly opposite the covered passage, is the old well
which was covered over for a long time, but was discovered, and re-opened
in 1832. Near it a portion of the old wall fell in, but the masonry, owing
to the singularly cohesive character of the mortar, holds together despite
the action of the elements.
Of the western walk of the Cloister no trace remains, and only a tottering
wall of the _Domus Conversorum_, which once adjoined it, is standing.
There is no trace either of the northern walk, though this was the most
important of all. There the monks read and copied, in cells called
"carrols," which were placed near the windows. When not employed in
chanting the Masses and Offices in the church, or busied with domestic
concerns, or working in the fields, the monks passed all their intervals
here occupied with study. The Abbot had a chair here also; and, from a
raised pulpit opposite it, one of the monks read aloud every evening, the
lecture before Compline, at which the whole community assisted.
Turning westward and approaching the River Mattock, we enter, at the left,
an enclosed space, bounded by the river on one side, and by the remains of
the outer wall of the _Domus Conversorum_ on the other, we find ourselves
in a potato garden, which, on close observation, appears strewn with
pieces of bones. This was "God's Acre" at Mellifont, the cemetery of the
monks. Some forty or fifty years ago, a Scotchman, who then rented the
mill and a farm adjoining it, perceiving that the clay of this old
cemetery was particularly rich and loamy, dug a spit off it a foot deep or
more, and carted it out on his fields for top-dressing. Amongst the stuff
so carted were human bones of all kinds, skulls, etc.!!! This was done in
a Christian land, and no protesting voice was raised against the horrid
profanation!! The cemetery is shown in the general view at the extreme
left, where the plot of ground appears laid out in ridges and surrounded
by a wall.
The River Mattock flows peacefully still by the old abbey as it did over
seven centuries ago, when its course being first arrested, it was
harnessed and compelled to take its share in many useful and profitable
industries. One old solitary yew tree casts its shadow on its water and
bears it company amid the surrounding ruin and desolation--sad and
sympathising witnesses of Mellifont's fallen greatness. No bridge now
spans the river here, though formerly it was probably arched over, and the
slopes upon the Meath side were laid out in terraces and gardens. The
present mill was built over one hundred years ago, together with some
out-offices; the latter, being situated almost midway in the nave of the
church, were removed when the excavations were made. The mill has not been
worked during the last thirty years. When Mr. Armstrong wrote his
interesting papers on Mellifont, in the _Dublin Penny Journal_, 1832-33, a
few cabins nestled under the shadow of the old ruins.
The last building that deserves notice is the small ruined edifice on the
hill, which, after the suppression of the monastery, was used as a
Protestant place of worship. Sir William Wilde was of opinion that it
dates from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The western gable which
rises in the centre into a double belfry contains a pointed door-way, and
above, but not immediately over this, is a double round-arched window. One
small narrow light occupies the eastern gable. At a few paces in front of
this building there stood, at the time Sir William examined it, two very
plain and very ancient crosses, one having a heart engraven on it
encircled by a crown of thorns, and the other having a fleur de lis on the
arm. The latter cross has disappeared, but the former can still be seen
prostrate on the ground, in that half of the old cemetery beyond the
road-way, that is, on the side to the south. After the suppression, this
was used as a Protestant burial-ground, though the presence of Catholic
emblems would go to prove that it was once Catholic. Of late years the
interments here have been but few. We are nowhere told, nor does any
tradition still linger to indicate the former use of this ancient
building, but it is most probable, that it was the church in which the
tenants and dependants of the Abbey assisted at Mass and other religious
functions--in a word, that it was the parish church of Mellifont, which
was _served by the monks_. This seems to be the most likely explanation;
for the law of "Enclosure," that law of the Church which debarred females
from entering within the monastic enclosure, ("_Septa monasterii_" as it
is called), was in full force at the Dissolution of monasteries, as
appears from the Decrees of the General Chapters of the Order about that
time, and also from the Episcopal Registers of some of the English
dioceses which have lately been published. In these latter are found
reports of the bishops, who, either officially or by delegation, visited
some monasteries and adverted to the law of enclosure as an important
point of monastic discipline. This old structure, then, would have been
constructed purposely outside the wall for the use of the tenants. Such a
chapel is still to be seen outside the enclosure at Bordesley Abbey, an
old Cistercian monastery in Worcestershire, of which we are expressly
told, that it was the place in which the monks, tenants, domestics, etc.,
attended Mass. Another purpose may be assigned to this old chapel at
Mellifont, as that attached to the College, or Seminary, which once
flourished there. The surrounding hill is locally and traditionally known
as College-Hill, and the old road which passes over it and leads to
Townley Hall, is called the College Road.
Little more remains to be said of the ruins or of the site itself.
Standing on this hill and looking into the valley beneath, we are struck
by its singular natural features. It would seem as if the waters of the
Mattock had been suddenly dammed up, and that the pent-up waters,
bursting their barriers, hollowed out this sheltered little valley, after
the angry element had cleared away the rocks and other obstructions; and
having swept it clear of the rubbish, made it a fit and proper place
whereon to rear a temple to the true God, in which praise and sacrifice
might for ever be offered to Him. No buildings seem to have been
constructed on the Meath side, as no traces of them remain. In this,
Mellifont differed from Clairvaux, whose buildings filled the valley and
spread out wings high up the hills on either side of the River Aube.
Just due south from where we have been standing, on the hill, and distant
about a few hundred yards, the Guide will show a singular earth-work,
shaped like a moat, and having an elevated mound in the centre. From the
presence here of old conduits built with masonry, there can be no doubt
that this was a reservoir to contain a copious supply of water which
flowed from wells on the hill. Lower down than this moat, that is, at the
rere of the Chapter-house, lies buried beneath some feet of soil the
Abbot's house, where Mellifont's puissant rulers received their guests,
and whose hospitable board was honoured by the presence of kings and
bishops, as well as chiefs and warriors bold in all their pomp and
panoply. It is doubtful that any vestige of the enclosure wall remains,
nor can it be conjectured even, what, or how much, space it embraced. As
we ponder over the scene, Keats' words find an echo in our hearts:--
"How changed, alas! from that revered abode
Graced by proud majesty in ancient days,
Where monks recluse those sacred pavements trod,
And taught the unlettered world its Maker's praise."
CHAPTER II.
ST. MALACHY FOUNDS MELLIFONT.
"Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day,
For what are men better than sheep and goats,
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
(_Lord Tennyson._)
At the time that Saints Robert, Alberic, and Stephen Harding were laying
the foundation of the Cistercian Order, in the dense forest of Cistercium,
or Citeaux, whence the Order derives its name, or to be more precise, in
1098, a lovely little boy eight years old, with golden hair and dove-like
eyes, and with nobility of birth stamped in every lineament of his
features, was playing in his father's chateau at Fontaines, near Dijon, in
France. This child of predilection was the great St. Bernard, who is
justly styled the Propagator of that Order which was then in a struggling
condition. It has become a proverb, "that the child is father of the man,"
and a very clever writer exclaims--"Blessed is the man whose infancy has
been watched over, kindled, and penetrated by the eyes of a tender and
holy mother." It was St. Bernard's singular privilege to have such a
mother, one who sedulously watched over his youthful days, and inspired
him with a love of all virtues. Hence we are told, that even in early
childhood, he evinced a love of piety that was remarkable, and that he
constituted his mother the grand model which he was bound to copy. He
considered it the summit of his ambition to do all things like his
mother--to pray like her, to give alms and visit the sick poor like her;
for this noble lady was wont to go along the roads unattended, carrying
medicine and nourishment to the indigent. He distinguished himself at the
public school where he received his education, and returned to the
paternal mansion where he soon after experienced his first great sorrow in
the death of his loving mother. He was now approaching manhood, and he
must needs select a state of life befitting his high birth. At that time,
only two professions were worthy of the consideration of young
noblemen--the Church or the Army. With Bernard's distinguished talents, a
bright and rosy future presented itself before his youthful imagination,
and then the eloquent persuasions of his relatives, who promised him their
powerful patronage, were not wanting to arouse his ambition; but, the
image of his saintly mother dispelled all dreams of promotion, and her
pious instructions, which sank deep into his young heart, acted as potent
antidotes against the allurements of worldly pomp and short-lived honours.
After much reflection he made up his mind to renounce all honours, and to
become a monk. By his irresistible pleadings he gained over his four
brothers, with other relatives and friends, to the number of thirty, and
at their head, presented himself at the gate of the Abbey of Citeaux,
where St. Stephen Harding joyfully admitted them. Two years later we find
him leaving that monastery as the Abbot of a new colony, on his way to
found Clairvaux, being then in his twenty-fifth year. Here, his light
could no longer remain hidden, but burst forth into a luminous flame
whose splendour aroused and powerfully influenced the whole Christian
world. The Bishop of Chalons, in whose diocese Clairvaux was situated, was
the first to discover the transcendent abilities and eloquence of the
youthful Abbot. At his request, St. Bernard consented to deliver a course
of sermons in the churches of his diocese, which were productive of
incalculable good, and spread the fame of the zealous preacher. Priests as
well as laymen, attached themselves to him and accompanied him to
Clairvaux on his return from those missions. One of the Saint's
biographers cries out--"How many learned men, how many nobles and great
ones of this earth, how many philosophers have passed from the schools or
academies of the world to Clairvaux to give themselves up to the
meditation of heavenly things and the practice of a divine morality." His
fame reached even to Ireland, and we are told that in this country the
little children were wont to ask for the badge of the Crusaders which the
Saint distributed. In a word, his voice was the most authoritative in
Europe. Kings and princes dreaded him, and accepted him as arbitrator in
their quarrels. Even Popes themselves sought his counsel. In his lifetime,
his own disciple, Bernard of Pisa, occupied the Chair of Peter, as
Eugenius III. It may be truthfully said, that St. Bernard reformed Europe
and infused a new spirit into the monastic orders. Even Luther does not
hesitate to place him in the forefront of all monks who lived in his time;
of him he writes: "Melius nec vixit nec scripsit quis in universo coetu
monachorum."
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF CHAPTER-HOUSE. See p. 18. _From Photo by W.
Lawrence, Dublin._]
Whilst the Church in France was reaping the benefit of the holy Abbot's
preaching and example, a zealous Irish prelate was actively and
successfully engaged in eradicating vice which sprang up in this country,
as a consequence of the long-protracted wars with the Danes, and the
demoralising effects of intercourse with that people. Nevertheless,
Ireland had then its saints and scholars, and the ancient seats of
learning, such as Armagh, Bangor, Lismore, Clonard, and Clonmacnoise were
once more inhabited by numerous communities. This saintly prelate was St.
Malachy, who, being on his way to Rome, heard of the sanctity of the great
St. Bernard, and would fain pay him a visit. This visit would St. Malachy
have gladly prolonged; for then and there sprang up a mutual affection,
which, writes our own Tom Moore, "reflects credit on both." St. Malachy
was so enamoured with what he witnessed at Clairvaux, and particularly
with the wise discourses of the learned Abbot, that he determined to
become one of his disciples. Innocent II., who then ruled the flock of
Christ, on the Saint seeking his permission to retire to Clairvaux, would
not hearken to his request, but giving him many marks of his esteem,
appointed him his Legate in Ireland, and commanded him to return thither.
If St. Malachy might not live at Clairvaux in the midst of the fervent men
whom he there beheld earnestly intent in the great work of mortification
and expiation, he resolved, at least, to have a colony of them near him in
his own country, that by their prayers and example, they might promote
God's glory, and in a measure, repeat the glorious traditions of the
ancient monastic ages in Ireland. In furtherance of this happy project, he
singled out four of his travelling companions, whom he gave in charge to
St. Bernard, with these words: "I most earnestly conjure you to retain
these disciples, and instruct them in all the duties and observances of
the religious profession, that, hereafter they may be able to teach us."
On receiving an assurance of a hearty compliance from St. Bernard, he
took cordial leave of his friend and returned to Ireland. Not long after
he sent more of his disciples to join those whom he had already left at
Clairvaux, and on their arrival, St. Bernard wrote as follows: "The
Brothers who have come from a distant land, your letter and the staff you
sent me, have afforded me much consolation in the midst of the many
anxieties and cares that harass me.... Meanwhile, according to the wisdom
bestowed on you by the Almighty, select and prepare a place for their
reception, which shall be secluded from the tumults of the world, and
after the model of those localities which you have seen amongst us." The
place selected by St. Malachy as the site of the future monastery, was the
sequestered valley watered by the River Mattock, situated about three and
one half miles from Drogheda, Co. Louth, and much resembling Clairvaux,
which, too, was located in a valley, shut in by little hills on all sides.
Donogh O'Carroll, Prince of Oriel, the lord of the territory, freely
granted the site to God and SS. Peter and Paul, munificently endowed the
monastery with many broad acres, and supplied wood and stone for the
erection of the buildings. This grant was made in either 1140 or 1141. The
charter of endowment by O'Carroll has not been found.
It would appear from another letter of St. Bernard to St. Malachy, that he
had sent some monks from Clairvaux to make preparations for those who were
to immediately follow, and that already their number was augmented at
Mellifont by the accession of new members from the surrounding district,
who had joined them on their appearance in that locality. In this same
letter St. Bernard writes: "We send back to you your dearly-beloved son
and ours, Christian, as fully instructed as was possible in those rules
which regard our Order, hoping, moreover, that he will henceforth prove
solicitous for their observance." This Christian is commonly supposed to
have been archdeacon of the diocese of Down. He was certainly first Abbot
of Mellifont, and his name shall turn up in connection with important
national events later on. With Christian came a certain Brother Robert, a
Frenchman, a skilful architect, who constructed the monastery after the
model of Clairvaux.
That these were the pioneers of the Cistercian Order in Ireland cannot for
one moment be doubted, both from the very important fact, that the Abbot
of Mellifont took precedence of all the Abbots of his Order in this
country, and also, because it is an historical fact, that St. Mary's
Abbey, Dublin, the other claimant for priority, did not exchange the
Benedictine for the Cistercian Rule till, at earliest, 1148, when the
Abbot of Savigni in France, with the thirty houses of his Order
(Benedictine) subject to his jurisdiction, were admitted into the
Cistercian family by Pope Eugenius III., who presided at the General
Chapter of the Cistercians that year. St. Mary's was founded from
Buildewas, in Shropshire, and this latter was subject to Savigni.
Various reasons are assigned for the adoption by these ancient monks of
the name Mellifont, which signifies "The Honey Fountain." Some are of
opinion it had a spiritual signification, and had reference to the
abundance of blessings which would flow, and be diffused over the whole
country from this centre, through the unceasing and fervent intercessory
prayer of its holy inmates; for next to their own sanctification, their
neighbour's wants claimed and received their practical sympathy. Like
divine charity it gushed forth from hearts totally devoted to God's
service and interests, and this zeal would be halting and incomplete did
it not embrace the spiritual and temporal concerns of their fellow
mortals. Others derive the name from a limpid spring which supplied the
monks with a copious, unfailing stream of sweet water, which had its
source in Mellifont Park about one quarter of a mile distant, and which
was conducted by pipes through the various parts of the monastery. This
seems a very plausible account, and as the spring rose at a high level, it
had sufficient pressure to obviate the necessity of a cistern as was
erroneously supposed in connection with the Lavabo.
It was customary with the old Irish Cistercians to give their monasteries
symbolical names at their foundation, and these names often denoted some
local feature or peculiarity. Thus, Newry was called of the "Green Wood,"
from the abundance of yew trees around the monastery there; Corcomroe, Co.
Clare, was known under the title of the "Fertile Rock;" Baltinglas, Co.
Wicklow, as the "Valley of Salvation," etc.
It is said that the "Honey Fountain" had its source in Mellifont Park, but
it seems that few of the present generation living in the vicinity of
Mellifont know or appreciate its virtues. In the Ordnance Survey, it is
stated that it rose in Mellifont Park, which was formerly a wood, and that
to the north of the well, a few trees still remained at the time of the
Survey, when the farm belonged to a Mr. James Curran.
CHAPTER III.
AN EPITOME OF THE RULE OBSERVED AT MELLIFONT AT ITS FOUNDATION AND FOR
ABOUT A CENTURY AND A HALF AFTERWARDS.
"Here man more purely lives; less oft doth fall;
More promptly rises; walks with stricter heed;
More safely rests; dies happier; is freed
Earlier from cleansing fires; and gains withal
A brighter crown."
(_Saint Bernard._)
In the foregoing verses St. Bernard summarises the manifold advantages
accruing from the profession and practice of the rule which he and his
fellow abbots drew up for their followers. In that age of chivalry and
wide extremes, men's minds were profoundly moved by the world-wide
reputation and discourses of an outspoken, fearless monk, who confirmed
his words by incontestable and stupendous miracles. Then, it was nothing
unusual to see the impious sinner of yesterday become a meek repentant
suppliant for admission into some monastery to-day, where he could expiate
and atone for his former grievous excesses. The innocent, also, sought the
shelter of the cloister from the contaminating influences of a corrupt and
corrupting world; and in the spirit of sacrifice presented themselves as
victims to God's outraged justice. At that same period, that is, about the
middle of the twelfth century, there was witnessed an unwonted movement
towards monasticism in its regenerated condition, as the Church Annals
abundantly testify. This happy tendency was mainly due to St. Bernard's
influence and popularity, and was well illustrated by the saying of the
historian: "The whole world became Cistercian."
In essaying to reform St. Benedict's Rule, the first Fathers of the
Cistercian Order sought only to restore its primitive simplicity and
austerity, but they, nevertheless, added some wise provisions which
established their reform on a firm basis, and which the experience of ages
proved to be indispensable. First of all, it was ordained, that all houses
of the Order should be united under one central controlling power, and
that all the Superiors should meet annually for deliberation on matters
appertaining to the maintenance of discipline and the correction of
abuses. This assembly was called the General Chapter, over which the Abbot
of Citeaux presided as recognised head of the Order. Till then, no such
institution existed, and an Abbot General, as we may call him, had it in
his power, from incapacity or any other cause, to disorganise a whole
Order. Under the General Chapter such a catastrophe was impossible.
Besides this wise enactment, St. Stephen drew up what he called the "Chart
of Charity," by which it was ordained that the abbot of a monastery who
had filiations (that is, offshoots or houses founded directly from that
monastery) subject to him, should visit them annually either in person or
by proxy, and minutely inquire into their spiritual, disciplinary, and
financial condition. The abbots of those filiations were bound to return
the visit during the year; but they did so in quality of guest and not as
"Visitor," the official title of the Abbot of the Parent House; or,
"Immediate Father," as he is called. Thus the bands of discipline were
kept tightly drawn, and harmony, with uniformity of observance, was
maintained throughout the entire Order.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF LAVABO (OCTAGON.) See p. 26. _From Photo by W.
Lawrence, Dublin._]
The denizens of the Cloister at that time consisted of two great classes,
who, indeed, enjoyed alike all the advantages of the state, but differed
in their functions and employments. One was busied with the cares of
Martha, the other was admitted to the privilege of Mary. The former were
employed chiefly in domestic duties, and various trades, and were
entrusted with the charge of the granges or outlying farms. These were the
Lay Brothers. Frequently their ranks were augmented by the noble and the
learned, who, unnoticed and unknown till their holy death, guided the
plough, delved the soil, or tended the sheep and oxen in the glades of the
forest. The other class resided in the monastery and devoted their time to
the chanting of the Divine Office, alternating with study in the Cloister
and manual labour in the fields and gardens. These were the choir monks.
Their dress was white. By vigorous toil and strict economy, these good old
monks wrested a competency from their farms, and freely shared their
substance with the needy and the stranger. They exhibited to an astonished
world a practical refutation of its corrupt maxims and habits. Thus by
their very lives, they preached most efficaciously; for by their contempt
of worldly honours and pleasures they gave proof abundant of the faith
that enlightened them to recognise the sublimity of the Gospel truths; of
the hope that sustained them to courageously endure temporal privations
for the sake of future rewards; and of the charity that prompted them to
liken themselves to Jesus Christ, their Master, who, being rich, became
poor for their sakes. Some may be inclined to consider all this as the
effect of monkish extravagance, weak-mindedness, and folly; but modern
investigation, instituted and carried to a successful issue by honest
Protestant writers, has brushed aside such calumnies as hackneyed
catch-words, and has proved that beneath the monk's cowl, there were found
hearts as warm and minds as broad as in any state or grade of society. It
must also be remembered, that for centuries the monks were the teachers
who moulded and fashioned the youth of the upper and middle classes.
Two o'clock A.M. was the usual hour for rising, when the monks, obedient
to the Sacristan's signal, rising from their straw pallets and slipping on
their sandals (for they slept fully dressed, as the poorer classes of the
time are said to have done,) they left the Dormitory by the stairs that
led down to the southern transept, and proceeding noiselessly, they
reached the Choir where they immediately renewed the oblation of
themselves to God. Then the Office of Matins was commenced, and it with
Lauds occupied about one hour. On solemn festivals the monks rose at
midnight, and the Office lasted over three hours; for then the whole of it
was sung. Matins and Lauds over, they proceeded to the Reading-cloister to
study the Psalms, or Sacred Scripture, or the Fathers: some prolonged
their devotions in the church, where with clean, uplifted hands, they
became powerful mediators between God and His creatures; too many of whom,
alas, ignore their personal obligations. At that time, too, the priests
might celebrate their Masses, as the ancient Rule gave them liberty to
select that hour if they felt so inclined. We do not know how many priests
were amongst the Religious at Mellifont soon after its establishment, but
they must have numbered about twenty, since there were ten altars in the
church. And judging by the number of priests in other monasteries of the
Order at that period, this figure is not too high. We know that in 1147,
there were fifty priests at least at Pontigny, one of the four first
houses of the Order. About five o'clock the monks assembled in Choir for
Prime, after which they went to Chapter, where the Martyrology and portion
of the Rule were sung, as has been already explained. Chapter over, they
entered the Auditorium, where they took off and hung up their cowls, and
each went thence to the manual labour assigned him by the Prior. In
winter, nearly all went out to work in the fields, grubbing up brushwood
and burning it, and so preparing the ground for cultivation. After some
hours spent in labour, they returned to the monastery where they had time
for reading; they then went to Choir for Tierce and High Mass. During
winter the Mass was sung before going out to work. In summer they dined at
11.30, after which an hour was allowed for repose, and None being sung
they resumed their labour in the fields. In winter, dinner was at
half-past two; the evening was spent in study and in chanting the Offices
of Vespers and Compline, and at seven they retired to rest. In summer the
hour for repose was eight o'clock. The Office of Completorium or Compline
always closed the exercises of the day, and all passed before the Abbot,
from whom they received holy water as they left the church. Each went
straight to his simple couch where sweet repose awaited him after his day
of toil and penitential works. His frugal vegetable fare, without
seasoning or condiment, barely sufficed for the wants of nature, and even
this was sparingly doled out to him; for during the winter exercises, that
is, from the 14th of September to Easter, he got only one refection daily
except on Sundays, when he always got two. Wine, though allowed in small
quantities at meals in countries where it was the common drink, was not
permitted here, but in its stead, the monks used beer of their own
brewing. Their raiment consisted of a white woollen tunic of coarse
material and a strip of black cloth over the shoulders, and reaching to
below the knees, gathered in at the waist with a leathern girdle. Over
these, when not employed in manual labour, was worn the long white garment
with wide sleeves, called the cowl. The tunic was the ordinary dress of
peasantry in the twelfth century, and was retained by the reformers of St.
Benedict's Rule, partly because it was the prescribed dress of the monks,
and partly as an incentive to humility; a mark of the perfect equality
which reigned in monasteries, and which removed all distinction of class.
[Illustration: ARCH OF LAVABO (OCTAGON.) See p. 26. _From Photo by W.
Lawrence, Dublin._]
Such was the ordinary routine of life led at Mellifont, but then certain
officials filled important offices which necessarily brought them in
constant contact with the outer world. Such, for instance, was the
Cellarer, who had charge under the Abbot of the temporalities of the
monastery, and catered for all the wants of the community. Some were
deputed to wait on the guests and strangers, while others cared the sick
poor in the hospice with all charity and tenderness. For the maintenance
of the sick poor large tracts of land or revenues arising from
house-property were very often bequeathed by pious people, and the monks
were then their almoners; but, with or without such a provision from
outside, the monks did maintain these establishments from their own
resources.
The Abbot entertained the guests of the monastery at his own table,
dispensing to them such frugal fare as was in keeping with the Rule; for
meat was not allowed to be served, except to the sick. He had his kitchen
and dining-hall apart, but in every other respect, he shared in all the
exercises with his brethren. Though he occupied the place of honour and of
pre-eminence in the monastery, yet he was constantly reminded in the
Rule, that he must not lord it over his monks, but must cherish them as a
tender parent. His object in all his ordinances should be to promote the
welfare of the flock entrusted to him, for which he should render an
account on the last day.
From this relation of the manner of life at Mellifont, we see that it was
in strict conformity with St. Bernard's definition of the Cistercian
Institute, when he writes: "Our Order is humility, peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost. Our Order is silence, fasting, prayer, and labour, and above
all, to hold the more excellent way, which is charity."
CHAPTER IV.
MELLIFONT TAKES ROOT AND FOUNDS NEW HOUSES OF THE ORDER.
"Even thus of old
Our ancestors, within the still domain
Of vast Cathedral or Conventual church,
Their vigils kept; where tapers day and night
On the dim altars burned continually,
In token that the House was evermore
Watching to God. Religious men were they:
Nor would their reason tutored to aspire
Above this transitory world, allow
That there should pass a moment of the year
When in their land the Almighty's service ceased."
(_Wordsworth._)
The history of Mellifont may be justly said to reflect the concurrent
history of Ireland. It is so intimately connected and interwoven with that
of our country, that they touch at many points, and we can collect matter
for both as we travel back along the stream of time and observe the
footprints on the sands, where saint, and king, chieftain, bishop, and
holy monk, have left their impress and disappeared, to be succeeded later
on by the baron and his armed retainers. How different the Ireland of
to-day from the Ireland that Christian, the first Abbot of Mellifont,
beheld when he and his companions settled down in the little valley, in
the land of the O'Carroll! How many changes have passed over it since,
leaving it the poorest country in Europe, though one of the richest in
natural resources! But these considerations appertain to the politician;
they do not lie within the scope of the present writer. Next to building
their church and monastery, the first care of the monks on their immediate
arrival at Mellifont, was to prepare the soil for tillage; for, judging
from the nature of the surroundings, it must have been overrun with dense
brushwood, unbroken, save at distant intervals, by patches of green sward.
Most houses of the Order in Ireland had to contend with similar conditions
at their foundation; of Dunbrody, Co. Wexford, we are expressly told, that
the monk sent by the Abbot of Buildewas to examine the site of the future
monastery, found on it only _a solitary oak surrounded by a swamp_. But
these old monks were adepts in the reclamation of waste lands, and soon
the hills rang with the instruments of husbandry. Pleasant gardens and
fertile meadows rewarded their toil, and their example gave a stimulus to
agriculture, which, till then, was neglected by a pastoral people. At the
same time, they manufactured bricks in the locality, and employed them in
their buildings. Then rumour on her many wings flew far and near, and
spread the fame of the new-comers to that remote valley, and soon the
monastery was crowded with visitors intent on seeing the strangers and
observing closely their manner of life. The sight pleased them. The ways
of these monks accorded with the traditions handed down of the inhabitants
of the ancient monasteries, before the depredations of the Danes, and the
hearts of a highly imaginative race, with quick spiritual instincts, were
attracted towards St. Bernard's children. Immediately began an influx of
postulants for the Cistercian habit, and every day brought more, till the
stalls in the Choir were filled, and Abbot Christian's heart overflowed
with gladness. In consultation with St. Malachy, Abbot Christian decided
on founding another monastery, as his own could no longer contain the now
greatly-increased community. A new colony was sent forth from it, and thus
in two years from the foundation of Mellifont, was established "Bective on
the Boyne." Some say that Newry, which was endowed by Maurice M'Loughlin,
King of Ireland, at St. Malachy's earnest entreaty, was the first
filiation of Mellifont. The charter of its (Newry) foundation happily has
come down to us, but it bears no date. However, O'Donovan, who translated
it into English from the Latin original in MS. in the British Museum, says
it was written in 1160. As it is the only extant charter granted to a
monastery by a native king before the Invasion, a copy of the translation
is given in the Appendix.
Under the patronage, then, of St. Malachy and the native princes, and by
the skill, industry, and piety of its inmates, Mellifont rose and
prospered, and merited an exalted place in popular esteem. The monastery
was in course of construction, and their new church nearing completion,
when a heavy trial befell the monks in the death of their unfailing
friend, wise counsellor, and loved father, St. Malachy, which took place
at Clairvaux, in the arms of St. Bernard, A.D. 1148. St. Bernard delivered
a most pathetic discourse over the remains of his friend, and wrote a
consoling letter to the Irish Cistercians, condoling with them on the loss
they and the whole Irish Church had sustained on the death of St. Malachy.
He, later on, wrote his life, and willed, that as they tenderly loved each
other in life, so in death they should not be separated. Their tombs were
side by side in the church of Clairvaux, till their relics, enshrined in
magnificent altars, with many costly lamps burning before them, were
scattered at the French Revolution, and the rich shrines were smashed and
plundered. Portions of their bodies were, however, preserved by the good,
pious people of the locality, and their heads are now preserved with
honour in the cathedral of Troyes, France. The writers of the Cistercian
Order claim St. Malachy as having belonged to them; for, they say that
being previously a Benedictine, he received the Cistercian habit from St.
Bernard during one of his visits to Clairvaux. They add that St. Bernard
exchanged cowls with him, and that he wore St. Malachy's ever after on
solemn festivals. The Saint's life is so well known that it needs no
further notice here. Before his death, he saw three houses founded from
Mellifont, namely, Bective, Newry, and Boyle.
Two years after St. Malachy's death, that is, in 1150, the monks of
Mellifont experienced another serious loss when their venerated Abbot,
Christian, was appointed Bishop of Lismore, and Legate of the Holy See in
Ireland, by Pope Eugenius III., who had been his fellow-novice in
Clairvaux. Christian's brother, Malchus, was elected to the abbatial
office in his stead. Malchus proved himself a very worthy superior, and
Mellifont continued on her prosperous course, so much so, that in 1151, or
nine years from its own establishment, it could reckon as many as six
important filiations, namely, Bective, Newry, Boyle, Athlone, Baltinglas,
and Manister, or Manisternenay, Co. Limerick.
In 1152, St. Bernard passed to his reward, after having founded 160 houses
of his Order, having edified Christendom by the splendour of his virtues,
and astonished it by his rare natural gifts, which elevated him far above
all his contemporaries. From the moment that he accepted the pastoral
staff as Abbot of Clairvaux, till his death, that is, during the space of
forty years, he was the figurehead of his Order in whom its whole history
was merged during that long period. In fact, he became so identified with
the Order to which he belonged, that it was often called from him,
Bernardine; or, of Claraval, from his famous monastery; and it was in a
great measure owing to his influence, and in grateful acknowledgment of
the splendid services which he rendered the Church in critical times, that
Sovereign Pontiffs heaped so many favours on it. He was the fearless and
successful champion of the oppressed in all grades of society, and all
looked up to him as their guide and instructor. And yet this paragon of
wisdom, this stern judge of the evil-doer, was remarkable for his
naturalness and affectionate disposition. On the occasion of his brother
Gerard's death, he attempted to preach a continuation of his discourses on
the Canticle of Canticles, but his affection for his brother overcame him,
and after giving vent to his grief, he delivered a most touching panegyric
on his beloved Gerard. To the last moment of his life he entertained a
most vivid recollection of his mother, and cherished the tenderest
affection towards her memory. It may be doubted, that any child of the
Church ever defended her cause with such loyalty and success. One stands
amazed on reading what the Rev. Mr. King writes in his _Church History of
Ireland_, where he taxes St. Bernard with superstition, because the Saint
relates in his Life of St. Malachy, how that holy man wrought certain
miracles. So evident were St. Bernard's own miracles, that Luden, a German
Protestant historian, calls them "incontestable." 'Twere supreme folly to
accuse a man of St. Bernard's endowments and culture, of the weakness that
admits or harbours superstition, which generally flows from ignorance, or
incapacity to sift matters, and to test them in their general or
particular bearings. On the whole, Protestant writers speak and write
approvingly of him.
In that year (1152), a Synod was held at Mell, which, according to Ussher,
is identical with Mellifont, though now a suburb of Drogheda is known by
that name. Other Irish writers say that this Synod was held at Kells. At
it Christian, then Bishop of Lismore and Legate of the Holy See, presided.
In the _Annals of the Four Masters_ it is related, that a "Synod was
convened at Drogheda, by the bishops of Ireland, with the successor of
Patrick, and the Cardinal, John Paparo," etc. O'Donovan, quoting Colgan,
tells us that Mellifont was known as the "Monastery at Drogheda."
In this same year occurred the elopement of Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan
O'Rourke, Prince of Brefny, with Dermod M'Murchad, King of Leinster. She
is styled the Helen of Erin, as it is commonly supposed that her flight
with Dermod occasioned the English Invasion. When O'Rourke heard of her
departure, he was "marvellously troubled and in great choler, but more
grieved for the shame of the fact than for sorrow or hurt, and, therefore,
was fully determined to be avenged." It is mentioned in the _Annals of
Clonmacnois_ that O'Rourke had treated her harshly some time previous, and
that her brother M'Laughlin connived at her conduct. Dervorgilla (which
means in Irish, The True Pledge), was forty-four years of age at the time,
whilst O'Rourke (who was blind of one eye) and M'Murchad, were each of
them sixty-two years old. O'Rourke was the most strenuous opponent of the
English at the Invasion, and was treacherously slain by a nephew of
Maurice Fitzgerald at the Hill of Ward, near Athboy, in 1172. He was
decapitated, and his head hung over the gates of Dublin for some time. It
was afterwards sent to King Henry, in England.
From 1152 to 1157 the monks attracted no attention worth chronicling; for
during these five years they passed by unnoticed in our Annals. It is,
however, certain that they were busily engaged in the completion of their
church and in making preparations for its solemn consecration. And what a
day of rejoicing that memorable day of the consecration was, when
Mellifont beheld the highest and holiest in Church and State assembled to
do her honour! This ceremony far eclipsed any that had been witnessed
before that in Ireland. What commotion and bustle filled the abbey, the
valley, and the surrounding hills! A constantly increasing crowd came
thronging to behold a sight which gladdened their hearts and aroused their
piety and admiration. For, there stood the Ard Righ (High King) of Erin,
surrounded by his princes and nobles in all the pride and pageantry of
state, the Primate Gelasius, and Christian, the Papal Legate, with
seventeen other bishops, and almost all the abbots and priests in Ireland.
Then the solemn rite was performed, and many precious offerings were made
to the monks and to their church--gold and lands, cattle, and sacred
vessels, and ornaments for the altars, were bestowed with a generosity
worthy of the princely donors. O'Melaghlin gave seven-score cows and
three-score ounces of gold to God and the clergy, for the good of his
soul. He granted them, also, a townland, called Finnabhair-na-ninghean, a
piece of land, according to O'Donovan, which lies on the south side of the
Boyne, opposite the mouth of the Mattock, in the parish of Donore, Co.
Meath. O'Carroll gave sixty ounces of gold, and the faithless but now
repentant Dervorgilla presented a gold chalice for the High Altar, and
cloths for the other nine altars of the church.
Mellifont looked charming on that propitious occasion, and presented a
truly delightful picture, with its beautiful church and abbey buildings
glistening in the sun in all the purity and freshness of the white, or
nearly white, sandstone of which they were composed. Yet, beautiful as
were the material buildings, far more so were those stones of the
spiritual edifice, the meek and prayerful cenobites, who were gathered
there to adore and serve their God in spirit and in truth. From that
valley there arose a pleasing incense to the Lord--the prayers, and hymns,
and canticles, which unceasingly resounded in that church from hearts
truly devoted to God's worship, and dead to the world and themselves.
CHAPTER V.
MELLIFONT CONTINUES TO FLOURISH UNDER SUCCESSIVE EMINENT SUPERIORS.
"This is no common spot of earth,
No place for idle words or mirth;
Here streamed the taper's mystic light;
Here flashed the waving censers bright;
Awhile the Church's ancient song
Lingered the stately aisles along,
And high mysterious words were said
Which brought to men the living Bread."
(_W. Chatterton Dix._)
After the consecration of their church the monks settled down to their
ordinary quiet way. The erection of the monastic buildings had hitherto
kept them occupied; now that these were completed, they devoted their
attention to the improvement of their farms, which they tilled with their
own hands, and to the embellishment of their immediate surroundings. Even
at this early period of her history, Mellifont was a hive of industry
where all the trades flourished and many important arts were encouraged.
At that time hired labour was sparingly employed by the monks; for they
themselves bore a share in the work of the artisans as well as in the
ordinary drudgery of tillage. Labour placed all on a footing of equality
whilst it gave vigour to the body by healthy exercise in the open air.
Perhaps, this healthy exercise was one of the secrets of the longevity for
which the monks were remarkable. Regularity of life continued for years
contributes to a state of health which dispenses with physicians. Wherever
monks settled down they immediately erected mills for grinding corn, for
preparing and finishing the fabrics of which their garments were made,
etc. St. Benedict enjoined on his monks the necessity of practising all
the trades and arts within the walls of the monastery, so that they need
never leave their enclosure for the purpose, or under the pretext, of
having their work done by externs.
Eleven years passed without Mellifont receiving any notice from our native
chroniclers, and then at the year 1168, it is recorded, that Prince Donogh
O'Carroll, the Founder, died and was buried in the church there. Ware
tells us that his tomb and those of other remarkable personages had been
in the church. As it was an almost general custom in Ireland, that the
Founders of religious houses were interred on the north, or Gospel side of
the High Altar, so it may be justly inferred that he was buried within the
chancel, and that the recess on the north side is where his monument was
erected. Thus, King Charles O'Connor's tomb occupies the same place in
Knockmoy Abbey, Co. Galway, of which he was Founder. So, too, in Corcomroe
Abbey, Co. Clare, the tomb of Conor O'Brien, King of Thomond, grandson of
the Founder of that abbey, is still to be seen in a niche in the wall on
the north side of the High Altar. No doubt they were buried under the
pavement. The ancient Statutes of the Order permitted kings and bishops to
be buried in the churches, but assigned no particular part as proper to
them.
In 1170, a monk named Auliv, who had been expelled[7] from Mellifont,
instigated Manus, the King of Ulster, to commit an "unknown and attrocious
crime," as the _Annals of the Four Masters_ call it; that is, to banish
the monks whom St. Malachy brought to Saul, Co. Down, and to deprive them
of everything they were possessed of. Instances of wicked men deceitfully
entering monasteries, at that time and at other periods of monastic
history, are given, but invariably the guilty party is severely censured,
and it is related that his fellow-monks rid themselves of him. St. Bernard
himself was deceived by his secretary, Nicholas, who afterwards left the
Order. "He went out from us," said the Saint, "but he did not belong to
us."
The Order was spreading rapidly in Ireland, and the filiations from
Mellifont in their turn sent out new filiations, till most of the
picturesque valleys in this country sheltered and nurtured thriving
establishments; so much so, that O'Daly tells us "there were twenty-five
grand Cistercian abbeys in Ireland at the Invasion." But then a new era
dawned on this unhappy nation, and might usurped the place of right, cruel
unending strife and fierce jealousies were imported into the country, and
it became one vast battle-field. Ireland would have assimilated the two
contending races, but their amalgamation would have been detrimental to
English interests in this kingdom, and hence by statute, by bribe, by all
means available, the representatives of that Crown only too successfully
kept the feuds alive. Fain would they have made the Church an instrument
for the furtherance of these ulterior purposes, but, whilst she stood firm
as an integral part of Peter's Rock, neither English bribes nor English
wiles could subjugate her. True, Englishmen were appointed to the richest
benefices within the Pale to which the English kings had the right of
presentation, and these strove, with as much zeal as the knight or baron,
to extend the boundaries of the shire-lands. But the Irish prelates, by
their disinterestedness, and their personal and episcopal virtues, saved
the Church from the degradation that imperilled her. We shall see the
result of this policy as we proceed.
Judging, by analogy, from the progress of society in other countries, and
from the relative number of monasteries founded in them and in Ireland
before the Invasion, it may be conjectured that the monastic system in all
its branches would have produced in this country the same fruits in
agriculture, in learning, and in the arts, as are attributed to it in the
history of other nations; and, in a special manner, it would have helped,
by the unity of government enforced in Religious Orders, to bind together
the discordant elements of society. Quite different, however, was it in
Ireland; for the sphere of action of each monastery was cramped, and
confined within a certain radius, beyond which its influences were not
felt, nor regarded otherwise than in a hostile spirit, or at best as an
object of suspicion.
In 1172, the Abbot of Mellifont was sent to Rome on an embassy by King
Roderic O'Connor. We are not told its nature.
In 1177, Charles O'Buacalla, then Abbot of this monastery, was elected
Bishop of Emly, where he died within a month after his consecration. In
1182, King Henry II. granted to the Abbot and community of Mellifont a
confirmation of their possessions, and three years later, King John, at
that time styled Lord of Ireland, renewed the confirmation while he was
residing at Castleknock, during his brief visit to this country, in 1185,
the thirty-second year of his father's reign. A copy of the Charter may be
seen in the Miscellany of the Archæological Society, Vol. I., page 158.
The original, which is one of the earliest of the Anglo-Irish documents
that have come down to us, is preserved in Trinity College, Dublin. By
this Charter King John confirmed to the monks of Mellifont the "donation
and concession" which his father made to them. By it he confirmed to the
monks "the site and ambit of the abbey, with all its appurtenances,
namely, the grange of Kulibudi (not on the Ordnance map), and Munigatinn
(Monkenewtown), with its appurtenances, the granges of Mell and Drogheda
(in Irish Droichet-atha, that is, bridge of the ford) and their
appurtenances, and Rathmolan (Rathmullen) and Finnaur (Femor), with their
appurtenances, the grange of Teachlenni (Stalleen), and the grange of
Rossnarrigh (Rossnaree), with their appurtenances, the townland of Culen
(Cullen) and its appurtenances, the grange of Cnogva (Knowth), the grange
of Kelkalma (not known now), with their appurtenances, Tuelacnacornari
(not known), and Callan (Collon), with their appurtenances, and the grange
of Finna (____) with its appurtenances." He also confirms the grants of
two carucates of land made to the monks by Hugh de Lacy, viz., of Croghan
and Ballybregan (?), and also one carucate of land given by Robert of
Flanders, called Crevoda, now Creewood, two miles west of Mellifont.
[Illustration: SOUTH WALL OF LECTORIUM. _From Photo by W. Lawrence,
Dublin._]
In 1186, St. Christian O'Connarchy, or Connery, who had been the first
Abbot of Mellifont and afterwards Bishop of Lismore and Legate of the
Holy See, died, and was buried at O'Dorney, Co. Kerry, a monastery of his
Order, which was founded in 1154, from Manister-Nenay. He had resigned all
his dignities six years before, in order the better to prepare himself for
a happy death. He was enrolled in the Calendar of the Saints of the
Cistercian Order, and his festival was kept in England in pre-Reformation
times, on the 18th March. In the eulogy of him in the Cistercian Menology
it is said, "that he was remarkable for his sanctity and wonderful
miracles, and that next to St. Malachy, he was regarded by the Irish
nation as one of its principal patrons," even down to the time that that
was written, A.D. 1630. An Irish gentleman who visited Italy in 1858,
wrote from Venice to a friend, that he had seen amongst the fresco
paintings which covered the wall of the beautiful church of Chiaravalla,
the first Cistercian monastery founded in Italy, a painting of St.
Malachy; also one entitled, "_S. Christianus Archieps. in Hibernia
Cisterciensis_"--"St. Christian, a Cistercian monk, and Archbishop in
Ireland." The error in ranking him as Archbishop probably arose from his
having succeeded St. Malachy as Legate. It was in his Legatine capacity
that he presided at several Synods, chiefly the memorable one convened by
King Henry at Cashel, in 1172.
About the same time, there died at Mellifont, a holy monk named Malchus,
who is said to have been St. Christian's brother and successor in the
abbatial office, as has been related above. Ussher, quoting St. Bernard,
positively asserts that he was St. Christian's brother. And Sequin, who,
in 1580, compiled a Catalogue of the Saints of the Cistercian Order,
mentions Malchus in that honoured roll, and styles him "a true contemner
of the world, a great lover of God, and a pattern and model of all
virtues to the whole Order." He says, "he was one of St. Malachy's
disciples in whose footsteps he faithfully followed, and that he was
renowned for his sanctity and learning, as well as for the many miracles
he wrought." His feast was kept on the 28th of June.
In 1189, Rudolph, or Ralph Feltham, Abbot of Furness, died and was buried
here. And in the same year, died Murrogh O'Carroll, cousin of the Founder,
near whom he was interred.
In 1190, Pope Clement III. issued a Bull addressed to the General Chapter
of the Cistercian Order, dated July 6th of that year, enrolling St.
Malachy in the Calendar of Saints, and appointing the 3rd of November for
his festival.
At that same General Chapter, it was decreed that the Irish Abbots be
dispensed from attending the General Chapter annually, and it was decided
that they should be present every third year; and a few years later, the
Abbot of Mellifont was charged to select three of their number who should
repair thither every year.
In 1193, Dervorgilla died at the monastery of Mellifont. The _Annals of
the Four Masters_ and other Annals simply relate the fact of her having
died there in the 85th year of her age, without alluding to the place of
her sepulture.
In that year, also, portions of the Relics of St. Malachy were brought to
Mellifont and were distributed to the other houses of the Order in
Ireland. Several of our Annals say that the Saint's body was brought over
from Clairvaux, but that is obviously a mistake; for until the French
Revolution, the bodies of St. Malachy and St. Bernard occupied two
magnificent altar-tombs of red marble within the chancel, at Clairvaux. A
charter, dated 1273, is still extant, whereby Robert Bruce, the rival of
John Baliol for the Scottish Crown, conveys his land of Osticroft to the
Abbot of Clairvaux for the maintenance of a lamp before St. Malachy's tomb
in that church. And the General Chapter of the Order held in 1323, when
raising the Saint's festival to a higher rank, expressly mentioned that
his body "rested" at Clairvaux. Meglinger, a German Cistercian monk, who
visited Clairvaux in 1667, and wrote a description of that famous abbey as
he beheld it, says that he was shown the heads of Saints Malachy and
Bernard, which were preserved in silver cases. He also mentions the superb
altar-tombs of the two Saints. Later on, the two celebrated Benedictine
monks, Dom Martène and Dom Durand, when in quest of MSS., called at
Clairvaux, and were shown the tombs and heads of the Saints. It is
scarcely necessary to remark that this respect and veneration were
entertained for the tombs only because they contained the bodies of the
holy men.
In 1194, Abbot Moelisa, who then governed Mellifont, was made Bishop of
Clogher.
CHAPTER VI.
MELLIFONT IN TROUBLOUS TIMES.
"But I must needs confess
That 'tis a thing impossible to frame
Conceptions equal to the soul's desires;
And the most difficult of tasks to keep
Heights which the soul is competent to gain."
(_Wordsworth._)
Sixty years of uninterrupted prosperity have passed over Mellifont, during
which period it has been honoured by princes and people alike, and even
the English Kings have marked their esteem for it by heaping fresh favours
on it. It was still flourishing in 1201, when Thomas O'Connor, Archbishop
of Armagh, whom the Annals of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, style "a noble and
worthy man," chose it as his burial-place, and was buried there with great
honour. He was brother to Roderick O'Connor, King of Connaught. It was at
his instance that Joceline wrote his Life of St. Patrick.
In 1203, King John "of his own fee" granted a new charter confirming that
given by his father some years before, and also giving the monks free
customs, together with the fishery on both sides of the Boyne.
In 1206, Benedict and Gerald, monks of Mellifont, were deputed by Eugene,
Archbishop of Armagh, to wait on the King and to tender him, on the
Archbishop's behalf, three hundred marks of silver and three of gold for
restitution of the lands and liberties belonging to that See. It was the
King's custom to appropriate the revenues of the vacant bishoprics, and on
the confirmation by the Pope of the bishop-elect, he issued a writ of
restitution of the temporalities, or episcopal possessions and rights. The
King, in order to keep the temporalities the longer, often refused his
"_congé d'elire_," without which an election was invalid by the civil law.
Soon after the Invasion, King Henry II. held in his possession, pending
the appointment of new prelates, one archbishopric, five bishoprics, and
three abbeys, here in Ireland.
In 1211, Thomas was Abbot, and seven years later, Carus, or Cormac
O'Tarpa, Abbot, and presumably immediate successor to Thomas, was made
Bishop of Achonry, which See he resigned in 1226, and returned to
Mellifont, where he died that same year, and was buried there. Some
two-and-one-half miles north of Mellifont, and one-half mile east of
Collon, between that village and Tinure, there is a crossing of the roads
still popularly known as "Tarpa's Cross." Local tradition has it that this
Cormac O'Tarpa, when Abbot, was wont to walk daily from the monastery to
this spot.
About that time, or in 1221, Mellifont, from some unrecorded cause, fell
from its first fervour, but only for a very brief period; for the remedy
applied effected a thorough reform. In the Statutes of the Order for that
year, the General Chapter authorised the Abbot of Clairvaux to set things
right by bringing in monks from other monasteries, and so, as it were,
infuse new and healthier blood into the monastic life there. As no further
mention is made of the matter, the trouble, whatever its nature was, must
have been permanently removed.
In 1227, Luke Netterville, Archbishop of Armagh, was buried here. It was
he who, three years previous, founded the Dominican monastery in Drogheda,
of which, now, only the Magdalen Tower remains. And in that year (1227),
Gerald, a monk of Mellifont, was elected Bishop of Dromore.
In 1229, the King granted to the Abbot and Community of Mellifont a
Tuesday market in their town of Collon.
In 1233, the General Chapter authorised all the Abbots of the Order to
have the Word of God preached on Sundays and festivals, to their servants
and retainers, in some suitable place. And in 1238, the King gave a new
confirmation to the monks of Mellifont.
In 1248, the General Chapter granted permission to the English and Irish
Abbots of the Order, to hold deliberations on important local matters in
their respective countries. The Abbots of Mellifont, of St. Mary's Abbey,
Dublin, and of Duiske, Co. Kilkenny, were empowered to convoke all the
other Irish Abbots of the Order for consultation; the assembly thus
somewhat partaking of the nature of a Provincial Chapter.
In 1250, no Englishman would be admitted to profession at Mellifont. In
1269, David O'Brogan, who had been a monk of this house, and afterwards
Bishop of Clogher, was buried here. In 1272, Hore Abbey, near Cashel, was
founded from Mellifont. In 1275, the General Chapter decreed that in the
admission of novices into the Order there should be no question of
nationality.
Hitherto, the Cistercians confined themselves, in discharging the offices
of their sacred ministry, to their guests, servants, and the sick poor in
the hospitals at their gates; but now, the altered circumstances of the
times demand a change in their usages and impose fresh burdens on them,
for which they get no credit. The new Orders of St. Francis and St.
Dominic had settled down in this country, and were attracting a large
percentage of the young men, who, till then, entered the ranks of the Lay
Brethren, and managed the granges, or outlying farms, under the Cellarer.
In consequence, therefore, of the insufficiency of their numbers to work
the farms profitably, it was found necessary to lease these granges to
tenants, and hence the origin of many villages and towns that, in several
instances, arose on the site of the granges. The chapel attached to the
grange (for every grange had its chapel for the use of the Brothers in
charge) was converted into a parish church for the new population that
clustered around it. Of this church the monks became the pastors, except
when it lay at too great distance to be served from the monastery; in
which case, the monks employed secular priests. They built schools also,
where the children of the tenants and dependants received _gratuitously_
from the monks themselves, an education similar to that at present
imparted in our primary schools.
Though the study of Sacred Scripture, Theology, and Canon Law was
encouraged in the Order from its foundation; yet it was not until 1245
that studies were fully organised by drawing up a curriculum that should
be obligatory. In that year it was ordained by the General Chapter that in
every Province there should be a central monastery to which the monks
should repair to read the prescribed course of studies under members of
the Order, who had graduated at some university. We are not told which of
the Irish monasteries was selected as the House of Studies; but, in 1281,
the General Chapter decided and decreed that in all the larger abbeys such
Houses of Studies should be established.
There is an entry in the Annals of St. Mary's Abbey, at the year 1281,
giving the price of cattle at that time. As it is interesting it is given
here: viz., twenty shillings each for a horse, a cow, or a bullock.
In 1306, Mellifont first experienced the baleful effects of racial
jealousies and bickerings; for the monks could not, or would not, agree to
elect an Abbot; and during their dissensions, the King seized the
possessions of the monastery. We are not informed how matters terminated
on that occasion.
In 1316, the General Chapter ordered that the English, Welsh, and Irish
Abbots should send some of their monks, in proportion to the number in
their respective monasteries, to the University of Oxford, to be educated
there. A few years previous, the Earl of Cornwall endowed at Oxford the
College of St. Bernard (now St. John's), for the Cistercians. How far the
Irish monks availed of this college cannot be known; probably those within
the Pale did largely benefit by it. One who obtained an unenviable
notoriety by his intemperate invectives against the Mendicant Orders, was
educated there--Henry Crump, an Englishman, and monk of the Abbey of
Baltinglas. But it is very dubious that the "_mere_ Irish" ventured to
cross its threshold. They would abstain from doing so from prudential
motives.
The fourteenth century was ushered in by the repetition of feuds between
the Anglo-Irish and the Irish; and, as it grew older, the former fought
amongst themselves, with Irish auxiliaries on both sides. It may be here
remarked, as a curious historical fact, that it was the Irish who fought
the battles for the English Crown in Ireland; it was they, too, who
retained their country subject to that dominion, according to Sir John
Davis (_Discoverie_, p. 639); for no army ever came out of England from
the time of King John, except the expeditionary army of Richard II. The
few forces subsequently sent over, until the twenty-ninth year of Queen
Elizabeth, were to quell the rebellions of the English settlers.
The most disastrous calamity in Ireland in this century, next to the great
plague of 1348, or the "Black Death," as it was called, was Bruce's
invasion in 1315. Friar Clyn tells us in his Annals, that Bruce and his
followers "went through all the country, burning, slaying, depredating,
spoiling towns and castles, and even churches, as they went and as they
returned." As a result the country was visited by a dreadful famine, and,
moreover, the Pope, writing to the Archbishops of Dublin and Cashel in
1317, alludes to scandals, murders, conflagrations, sacrileges, and
rapine, as following from that invasion. Though Bruce failed in his object
to overthrow the English power in Ireland, yet he so far succeeded, that
he weakened it considerably.
In the year 1316 (according to Ussher), O'Neill addressed his famous
Remonstrance to Pope John XXII., in which, amongst other complaints, he
remarked, that the religious communities were prohibited by the law from
admitting anyone not an Englishman into monasteries within the Pale. In
response to this, the Pope sent two Cardinals to investigate the matter,
and also wrote a letter to King Edward II., exhorting him to adopt
merciful measures towards the Irish. The letter had not much effect, and
the cruelties and injustice continued; but, about twenty years later,
there was exhibited an unprecedented tendency on the part of the
Anglo-Irish and the Irish towards incorporation. The Irish people clung to
the great Geraldine family with a romantic affection which that chivalrous
race fully reciprocated. So, too, did they lean towards the rivals of the
Geraldines, the Ormondes, and to other Anglo-Irish barons, who, likewise,
had adopted Irish customs and sirnames. English power in this country had
grown to be regarded as merely nominal, and the administration of the law
and the office of Lord Deputy could no longer be committed to one or other
of the two principal families (the Geraldine or Ormonde), to whom the
Deputyship had been usually entrusted. To preclude the danger of these
haughty noblemen attempting to arrogate the state of the independent
native chieftains, and to firmly establish the English power, a
Parliament, which assembled at Nottingham, in the seventeenth of Edward
III. (1343), enacted laws for the reformation of the Irish Government. A
few months previous to the sitting of this Parliament, Sir Ralph Ufford
had been sent over as Lord Deputy, to stamp out this incipient spirit of
independence, and to impede the fusion of the two races. This nobleman, by
rigid and cruel measures, executed the nefarious intentions of the English
Parliament. He appropriated the goods of others, plundered, without
discrimination, the clergy, the laity, the rich and the poor; assigning
the public welfare as a pretext. He broke down the pride of the Earl of
Desmond, and for a while seized his estates; but, on Ufford's recall to
England and the appointment of Sir Walter Bermingham as his successor,
Desmond was restored to royal favour. Gradually the old animus was
revived, and old dormant jealousies between the two races were awakened,
until, in the year 1376, the "Statute of Kilkenny" threw the whole nation
into a state of commotion and chaos, and aroused a fierce hatred between
the Anglo-Irish and the later arrivals from England, who were styled by
that Act, "the English born in England." The latter despised the former
and called them "Irish Dogg;" the Anglo-Irish retorted, giving them the
name of "English Hobbe," or churl. These bickerings were reprobated by
the said Statute, which, at the same time, banned the whole race of the
native Irish. Sir John Davis writes of it: "It was manifest from these
laws that those who had the government of Ireland under the Crown of
England intended to make a perpetual separation between the English
settled in Ireland and the native Irish, in the expectation that the
English should in the end root out the Irish." And another Englishman
writes of this Statute: "Imagination can scarcely devise an extremity of
antipathy, hatred, and revenge, to which this code of aggravation was not
calculated to provoke both nations" (Plowden, _Historical Review of the
State of Ireland_.) The foregoing summary of the condition of affairs in
Ireland in the fourteenth century has been given, in order to illustrate
and explain the bald historical facts handed down to us having reference
to Mellifont during the same period.
It will be remembered that in the year 1316, O'Neil complained to the Pope
that Irishmen were by law excluded from entering monasteries within the
Pale; accordingly, we read that in 1322, the monks of Mellifont, amongst
whom the English element then prevailed, would admit no man to profession
there who had not previously sworn that he was not an Irishman. Cox, who
derives his information from some old document in the Tower of London,
tells us that in 1323, the General Chapter of the Order strongly denounced
this pernicious practice, but there is no such decree, nor is there any
allusion to it in Martène at that date. That spirit seems to have been
gratifying to King Edward II.; for, in 1324, he complained to the Pope of
the violation of the law of exclusion, and Nicholas of Lusk, who was then
Abbot, was superseded; very likely, was summarily deposed, for the
infraction of it.
At that very time, some of the other Cistercian monasteries under the
protection of the native chieftains, and totally composed of Irishmen,
were in a most prosperous condition, and merited the genuine esteem of
princes and people. Thus, the Abbey of Assaroe, or Ballyshannon, under the
fostering care of the Princes of Tyrconel, attained celebrity by the
regularity of its monks and the learning and sanctity of its Abbots, three
of whom were made Bishops at no distant intervals. Of Boyle Abbey, Co.
Roscommon, the same can also be said; for it throve and flourished without
royal favour or charter. On the other hand, Mellifont had a plethora of
charters, for which the monks there must have paid dearly. But, surrounded
as it was by covetous and not over-scrupulous neighbours in lawless times,
such safeguards were decidedly necessary. So, in 1329, Edward III. granted
them a confirmation of all former privileges, together with the right of
free warren in all their manors; and again in 1348, he gave them a fresh
confirmation, with the right to erect a prison in any of their lands in
the Co. Meath, and also the power to erect a pillory and gallows in their
town of Collon. The Abbot then, as a temporal lord over his own manors,
had power of life and death over his vassals therein; but he never
exercised the authority so vested in him by condemning anyone to death,
nay, even, he refrained from adjudicating on civil matters, as is seen by
dispensations granted by Popes to Irish Cistercian Abbots freeing them
from the obligation of acting as Justices.
It is recorded that in 1329, in the battle in which the Louth men killed
their new Earl, John Birmingham, "there fell Caech O'Carroll, that famous
tympanist and harper, so pre-eminent that he was a phoenix in his art, and
with him fell about twenty tympanists who were his scholars. He was
called Caech O'Carroll because his eyes were not straight, but squinted;
and if he was not the first inventor of chord music, yet of all his
predecessors and contemporaries, he was the corrector, the teacher, and
director."
How it fared with Mellifont during the fearful pestilence that ravaged all
Europe in 1348, is not related. Friar Clyn, the Franciscan Annalist, wrote
of it:--"That pestilence deprived of human inhabitants, villages and
cities, and castles and towns, so that there was scarcely found a man to
dwell therein." The mortality in the religious houses was very great, and
in some instances, only a few monks were left out of large and numerous
communities. It is said that in these countries the religious Orders never
recovered from the loss of the best and most learned of their members who
were then swept away.
In 1351, Abbot Reginald was charged, as if it were a crime, and found
guilty, of having within two years collected of his own money, and from
the Abbots of Boyle, Knockmoy, Bective, and Cashel, and of having remitted
the sum of 664 florins to the Abbot of Clairvaux, while war was being
waged between England and France. But there was no treason or treasonable
intent in that; for the money was to defray the current expenses of the
Order, and was levied off every monastery in proportion to the resources
of each. Richard, Coeur de Lion, Alexander II. of Scotland, and Bela IV.
of Hungary had, in their day, contributed largely to this fund.
In 1358, the Abbot of Mellifont made good his claim to three weirs upon
the Boyne, at Rosnaree, Knowth, and Staleen; but, in 1366, he was indicted
at Trim, for erecting an unlawful weir at Oldbridge, when the Jury found
against him, and he was ordered to reduce the weir to a certain breadth
and space, and he, himself, was sentenced to a term of imprisonment; but,
on his paying a fine of £10 to Roland de Shalesford, the sheriff of the
Co. Meath, this sentence was commuted. Ten years later, John Terrour,
successor to this Abbot, was sued for obstructing the King's passage of
the Boyne.
In the years 1373 and 1377, the Abbot was summoned to attend Parliaments
held at Dublin and Castledermot respectively. In the former Parliament,
one hundred shillings were ordered to be levied from him, as his portion
of the subsidy granted to the Lord Justice, William de Windesore, by the
same Parliament. In 1380, the King gave a special mandate that no _mere_
Irishman should be admitted to profession in this abbey. In 1381 and 1382,
the Abbot attended Parliaments held in Dublin, and in 1400, the King
granted a royal confirmation of all the land, manors, and liberties,
bestowed on the abbey by former charters; and in 1402, he pardoned the
Abbot and monks for their having admitted Irishmen to profession. However,
they were mulcted in the sum of £50. In 1415, Leynagh Bermingham, William
Davison, and John D'Alton were committed to the custody of the Abbot to be
kept by him as hostages for the allegiance of their respective fathers. In
1424, the Abbot, with the Archbishop of Armagh and Nicholas Taaffe, was
appointed Justice and Conservator of the Peace for the Co. Louth.
The allusions to Mellifont during the remainder of this century are very
few and uninteresting. Whether, or not, it shared the fate of many other
Irish monasteries at that time and had no regular Abbot, but one who was
called Abbot _in commendam_, is not known; but the presumption is that it
had not a regular Abbot. These Abbots _in commendam_ were not monks, or
members of any Religious Order; but secular clerics, not necessarily in
Holy Orders. Sometimes, especially when the abuse had reached its greatest
height in the fifteenth century, they were even laymen; nevertheless, they
enjoyed the revenues of the abbeys committed to them, with the style and
title of Abbots, but exercised no spiritual jurisdiction in their abbeys.
This latter was confided to regular Priors who were selected by their own
Religious superiors. When laymen held the abbeys _in commendam_ they
commonly resided in them with their wives, families, retinues, servants,
etc., to the distraction and interference with the monks in their regular
observances, and finally, to the complete subversion of discipline. At
that very time this pernicious practice had brought the whole Order to the
brink of ruin; for we find the General Chapter on several occasions
deploring the injuries inflicted on religion, and lamenting the havoc
wrought by it, and they decided to send three of their number to Rome to
implore the Pope's protection against the growing evil. Still, it
survived, more or less, in these countries till the Reformation. Scotland
suffered more from it, apparently, than Ireland did, as can be seen from
the lists furnished by Brady in his _Episcopal Succession_.
In 1476, the Abbot of Mellifont complained, that "owing to oppressions and
extortions within the County of Louth and Uriell, his monastery was
greatly indebted and impoverished." Certain it is, that for some time
previous, it had fallen from its former regularity and fervour; but,
through the zeal and tact of Abbot Roger who then governed it, it regained
its wonted prominence amongst the most observant monasteries. In 1479,
this same Roger having set forth to the King that he had "Jurisdiction
Ecclesiastical of all persons within his lands, as well secular as
ecclesiastical, the King, out of his love to the Cistercian Order,
granted to the Abbot and his successors, the _Jus de excommunicatis
capiendis_, and episcopal jurisdiction," (Stat. Roll. 19 Ed. IV., c. 5.)
The former privilege refers to the concession made to the Church by the
first clause of the Statute of Kilkenny, and which had been confirmed by
subsequent Parliaments for centuries after its first enactment. Under the
heading--"The Church to be free--Writ _De Excommunicato capiendo_," the
clause proceeds to ordain, "that Holy Church shall have all her franchises
without injury, ... and if any (which God forbid) do to the contrary, and
be excommunicated by the Ordinary of the place for that cause, so that
satisfaction be not made to God and Holy Church by the party so
excommunicated within a month after such excommunication, that then, after
certificate thereupon being made by the said Ordinary into the Chancery, a
writ shall be directed to the Sheriff, Mayor, Seneschal of the franchise,
or other officers of the King, to take his body, and to keep him in prison
without bail, until due satisfaction be made to God and Holy Church, etc."
By episcopal jurisdiction is here meant the civil rights and privileges
appertaining to the episcopal office, and enjoyed at that time by bishops
over their subjects, lay and clerical. And as to the spiritual,
quasi-episcopal jurisdiction--the Abbots of the Order had that as well as
exemption in relation to their own monks from the very foundation of the
Order; but by a Decree dated 28th September 1487, Pope Innocent VIII.
granted to all Cistercian Abbots quasi-episcopal jurisdiction over their
tenants, vassals, subjects, and servants. By this Decree, the Pope "took
all the Abbots, Abbesses, Monks and Nuns of the Order under his special
protection, together with all their goods, vassals, subjects, and
servants, and exempted and freed the same from _all jurisdiction,
superiority, correction, visitation_, subjection and power of Archbishops,
Bishops and their Vicars, etc., ... and subjected them immediately to
himself and the Holy See." This Decree is given in full in the _Privilegia
Ordinis Cisterciensis_, p. 179.
That the Abbots of the Order exercised that privilege in this country
cannot be doubted. We read an instance of it in the _Triumphalia_, so ably
edited by the late Father Denis Murphy, S.J., where, even after the
Council of Trent and so recently as 1621, a certain secular priest, who
had been appointed by the Abbot of Holy Cross to the pastoral charge of
the parish attached to that abbey and of one or more outlying parishes
subject to the same Abbot, denied after some time, that he had his
faculties from the said Abbot, but rather from the Archbishop, or his
Vicar. The controversy lasted long, but finally, it was decided in the
Abbot's favour, and Dr. Kearney, then Archbishop of Cashel, acknowledged
the Abbot's title. And again, in the _Spicelegium Ossoriense_ there is a
letter from Dr. O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, written to the Propaganda
in 1633, in which he complained that the Cistercians claimed the privilege
of "_Visitation, Correction, Summoning to Synods, Approbation to hear
confessions, together with entire and absolute episcopal jurisdiction_."
And a further proof in favour of the practice is found in the fact that
laymen who acquired the suppressed monasteries of the Order claimed and
exercised that same privilege. Thus, in 1622, Archbishop Ussher in a
Report of Bective parish said it belonged to Bartholomew Dillon, Esq. of
Riverstown, his Majesty's farmer of the impropriate property. "This church
belongeth to the Abbey of Bectiffe, in the possession of the said Mr.
Dillon, who pretendeth to have an exemption from the Lord Bishop's
jurisdiction, and doth prove wills and grant administrations." And in
1744, Harris writes of Newry, where once was a Cistercian Abbey also: "A
mitred Abbot formerly possessed the lordships of Newry and Mourne, and
exercised therein Episcopal Jurisdiction, which after the dissolution of
the Abbey was done by the temporal proprietor, and at the present Robert
Needham, Esq., to whom the town and manor belong, enjoys an exempt
Jurisdiction within the said manors, and the seal of his court is a Mitred
Abbot in his Albe sitting in a chair, and supported by two yew trees with
this inscription: '_Sigillum exemptæ Jurisdictionis de Viride Ligno alias
Newry et Mourne_.'" Which in English means, the seal of the Exempt
Jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne. Verily! this savours of Popery; for, it
was from the Pope the monks received their exemption. A modern example of
this Papal concession, exercised in the Anglican Church, is to be found in
the case of the Dean of Westminster who is immediately under the
jurisdiction of her Gracious Majesty the Queen, and consequently exempt
from that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is as successor to the Abbot
of Westminster that he claims and is allowed that privilege of exemption;
for the Abbot was immediately subject to the Pope in pre-Reformation
times.
The Abbot of Mellifont was implicated in the rebellion of Lambert Simnel;
for in 1488, he received pardon from the King for his offences in that
connection. The close of the fifteenth century found Mellifont recovering
and maintaining its old prestige amongst the Religious Orders of this
country, and with the dawning of a new century, it had regained its former
level, from which a host of circumstances had conspired to drag it down
and to degrade it. These circumstances have been already detailed and need
not be here repeated.
In civil matters, Ireland in the first quarter of the sixteenth century,
presented the same, or nearly the same, condition as she did more than
three centuries before, when the English first landed on her shores. The
Pale was literally bounded by the Liffey and the Boyne, and the old feuds,
the long-protracted wars between the Anglo-Irish and the natives still
subsisted. The regular administration of the law was limited to the four
counties adjoining the capital, called the "Four Obedient Counties." It
seems incontestable that religion was in a flourishing condition in this
country during the period; for an unwonted activity and fervour animated
both clergy and people, as can be inferred from the number of religious
houses established; the frequency of Synods held denoting zeal and
regularity on the part of the prelates convening them; and the common
practice, so much then in vogue, of visiting, through a spirit of penance
and devotion, the Holy Places at home and in far-off countries. Our Annals
prove this to demonstration. But, it must be borne in mind that the spirit
of exclusion was still in full force amongst the Anglo-Irish clergy, and
no Irishman was eligible for benefices within the Pale. Learning, which is
ever the handmaid of true piety, found its home as in ancient times
amongst the two classes of the clergy, the secular and regular. The number
of learned works published at that time clearly proves it. Amongst the
many eminent men who then adorned the Church in Ireland, Maurice O'Fihely,
Archbishop of Tuam, ranks foremost. His biographers, for he had many,
inform us, that he "was eminent for his extraordinary knowledge in
Divinity, Logic, Philosophy, and Metaphysics," that he published a
Dictionary of the Holy Scriptures, and was styled by his contemporaries at
home and abroad, "The Flower of the World." He had been a Franciscan
Friar before his promotion to the See of Tuam, but did not long survive
his appointment.
Now, capital has been made by some writers out of a description of the
Church in Ireland taken from the State Papers, Part III., Vol. II., pp.
15, 16. If it reflected a true picture, a Reformation would indeed have
been needed, but not the kind introduced by Henry VIII., nurtured by
Edward VI., and propagated with fire and sword by Elizabeth. The Report
states: "Some sayeth, that the prelates of the Church and the clergy is
much the cause of all the mysse order of the land, for there is no
archbyshop, ne bysshop, abbot, ne prior, parson ne vicar, ne any other
person of the church, high or lowe, greate or smalle, Englysh or Irishe,
that usythe to preach the worde of Godde, saveing the poor fryers
beggars."... "Some sayeth"--Who were these "Some," or what was their
assertion worth? Were they parties who benefited by the disturbance of the
old order of things at the Suppression, and so suspected of having been
partial, and eager to seek any and every palliation for the State Church
as by law established. Now every student of Irish history, as contained in
our Annals, knows that that anonymous statement is unwarranted by fact. It
will suffice to take two instances, as we find them recorded in Dowling's
_Annals_ about this time, to show the fallacy of the accusation of
wholesale neglect of preaching the Word of God. Of Nicholas Maguire,
Bishop of Leighlin, 1490-1512, Dowling (Protestant Chancellor of Leighlin)
writes: "When he was Prebendary of Ullard, he preached and delivered great
learning with no less reverence, being in favour with the King and
nobility of Leinster, who, together with the Dean and Chapter, elected him
Bishop of Leighlin." And of Maurice Deoran, or Doran, who a few years
later succeeded him in Leighlin, Dowling again writes: "He was a most
eloquent preacher." It cannot be denied that at that time some Church
dignitaries affected the airs and magnificence of worldly magnates, nor
that they gave scandal to their flocks by their absenteeism. Other abuses,
no doubt, existed, but the watchful providence of God had made provision
for their removal through His authorised ministers. But, alas! a new
condition of affairs shall soon arise. The most powerful political engine
ever fabricated for the extension of the English power in Ireland shall be
introduced, one which shall eventually break up the tribe lands,
annihilate the sway of the ancient chieftains, and reduce their
impoverished descendants to the condition of serfs and menials. And this
shall be called reforming the Church! Even in this revolution, Mellifont
shall play her part, and become revolutionized and misappropriated.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SUPPRESSION OF MELLIFONT.
"No more shall Charity with sparkling eyes,
And smiles of welcome, wide unfold the door,
Where pity listening still to nature's cries,
Befriends the wretched and relieves the poor."
(_Keats._)
The Religious Orders, which succeed each other in the Catholic Church, are
subject to laws similar to those that govern the productions of nature.
They grow from feeble and imperceptible seeds, increase, flourish, and
bear fruit; then decrease, fade, and fall to the ground. But they have
produced a fruit, which contains within it the germs of a new seed-time,
and which bursts forth vigorously from the decaying sheath to reproduce
its never-failing kind. This work of reproduction and subsequent expansion
is aided, directed, and encouraged by him, to whom is divinely committed
the government of the Church; and when pseudo, self-styled reformers essay
the difficult task, their true character is unmasked in the inevitable
ruin and desolation which follow, instead of the order and rehabilitation
which were promised. Bluff King Hal, or the Merrie Monarch, as Henry VIII.
was familiarly and affectionately called by his loving subjects in the
beginning of his reign, was in need of money to squander on his passions
and pleasures. In his newly assumed character, therefore, of Head of the
Church in his dominions (which, by Act of Parliament, he made it high
treason to deny), he suppressed the lesser monasteries whose annual income
did not exceed £200. This was done, forsooth, in the interests of
religion!!! The proceeds of the confiscation were soon dissipated, and the
wily Cromwell, whom the King had appointed his _Vicar General_, suggested
the suppression and appropriation to the King's uses, of all the
monasteries within the realm. Again it is his zeal for the promotion of
God's glory that is pleaded as his motive for the nefarious deed. Three
years before, when addressing the Houses of Parliament in behalf of the
measure for the suppression of the lesser monasteries, he publicly gave
thanks to God, that in the large communities "religion is right well kept
and observed." And yet, what a metamorphosis in such a short space! All
had now fallen away, and had inexplicably sunk into all manner of
iniquity! Spelman, in his _History of Sacrilege_, tells the mode adopted
by this model Reformer to carry his motion for investing in the Crown the
property of all the Religious Orders. "The King sent for the Commons," he
tells us, "and informed them he would have the Bill pass, or take off some
of their heads." This they knew to be no empty threat; and pass the Bill
they did on that memorable day of May 13, 1539. The Lords, as a body,
voted for it; partly through a feeling of jealousy towards the Churchmen,
who enjoyed no inconsiderable share of the monarch's confidence and
favour, and so they rejoiced at whatever promised to destroy this good
understanding between them; and partly through cupidity, for they hoped
for a share in the booty. The Bishops at that juncture are blamed for
their weakness in complying with so unjust a proceeding; but they were
divided in their councils; some considering it the less of two evils to
sacrifice the Religious houses, in the hope that the misunderstanding
between the King and the Pope would be soon adjusted and the monks
restored, yielded to the King; others, unworthy of their office, as it
must be admitted, worldly men, courtly prelates, who dreaded the King's
displeasure, obsequiously obeyed his mandate.
Besides his greed for gold, the King had another potent motive for
suppressing the monasteries, one that gave a zest to this disgraceful act:
he wanted the further to spite the Pope by inflicting such an unheard-of
injury on religion. Other motives, too, were not wanting, such as state
policy, so the King alleged, and the want of constant affection towards
his person on the part of the Religious, particularly in his new capacity.
This, Lord Herbert (who was no friend of the monks) admits in his Life of
the King. His Lordship writes: "The monks were looked upon as a body of
reserve for the Pope, and always ready to appear in his quarrels."
Perhaps, their opposition to the King's assumption of spiritual power
precipitated matters. At all events, one of them, zealous for God's law,
had the courage to reproach him to his face in a sermon preached at
Greenwich before the King's marriage with Anne Boleyn. This fearless
champion of justice, this intrepid son of St. Francis, thus addressed the
dissolute monarch:--"I am that Micheas, O King, whom you will hate because
I must tell you truly that this marriage is unlawful; and I know that I
shall eat the bread of affliction and drink the water of sorrow; yet,
because our Lord has put it in my mouth, I must speak it." And when he and
another faithful brother friar were brought before the King's council, who
rebuked them, and declared them deserving of being shut up in a sack, and
thrown into the Thames, for the boldness of their language in the matter
of the King's marriage, his companion smiling said: "Threaten these things
to the rich and dainty persons, who are clothed in purple, and fare
deliciously, and have their chiefest hope in this world; for we esteem
them not, but are joyful, that, for the discharge of our duty we are
driven hence; and, with thanks to God, we know the way to heaven to be as
ready by water as by land." (Stowe, _Church Chronicle_.)
It was not, then, for dissoluteness of morals, nor for illiteracy, nor for
backwardness in preaching the Word of God, nor yet for being drones in
society, that the monks were turned from their peaceful homes. The true
cause was, that the King knew, and his criminal advisers also knew, that
the monasteries were as impregnable fortresses, which in defence of truth
and justice, would hold out firm against seductive bribes, and the most
appalling threats; hence they must be swept away under plea of general
corruption of morals, etc., and their properties held up as a bait to draw
over proselytes to the new order of things. The historian, Lingard,
writing of the attitude of the monks towards the King's supremacy in
spiritual matters, says: "Secluded from the world, the Religious felt
fewer temptations to sacrifice their consciences to the commands of their
Sovereign, and seemed more eager to court the crown than to flee the pains
of martyrdom."
Here, in Ireland, one of the King's advisers counselled him to suppress
some of the monasteries, and to convert them into residences for young
noblemen, who would promote and defend the King's interests. Patrick
Finglas, created by Henry VIII. Chief Baron of the King's Exchequer, and
afterwards Lord Chief Justice, wrote a book entitled: "A Breviate of the
getting of Ireland and of the decay of the same," in which he recommends
the suppression of the monasteries bordering on the Pale, "because they
were giving more aid and supportacion to the Irish than to the King." "Let
the Abbeys," he goes on to say, "be given to young lords, knights, and
gentlemen out of England, which shall dwell upon the same." This advice
seemed good to the King, and it was literally carried out, but to far
greater extent than this astute lawyer had anticipated.
Mellifont, in common with the other Religious establishments in Ireland
within grasp of the King (for in Ulster, they were free from molestation
under O'Neil and O'Donnell), must have heard with dismay the rumours
afloat about a general suppression, and grief and consternation must have
filled the hearts of the monks. Was it possible, they asked, that the
King, whose person they respected, whose laws they obeyed, would drive
them forth, wanderers over the world, which many of them had renounced in
early youth; and now, without adequate provision, were they, in their
declining years, to perish by the roadside? Were their beautiful church,
their loved cloister, their shady groves, no more to shelter them, and
were they to sever connection with a spot endeared to them by so many holy
associations? Yes, it is true, alas! for the Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin,
being nearer authentic sources of information, has heard it and has sent
word, that sentence is passed on all, and their doom has sounded; for the
following Royal Commission was forwarded to the Deputy, with peremptory
orders to have it executed forthwith:--
Royal Commission directed to John Allen, Chancellor; George, Archbishop of
Dublin; William Brabazon, Vice-Treasurer; Robert Cowley, Master of the
Rolls; and Thomas Cusacke, Esq.; reciting, "That from the information of
trustworthy persons, it being manifestly apparent that the monasteries,
abbeys, priories, and other places of Religious or Regulars, in Ireland,
are at present in such a state, that in them, the praise of God and the
welfare of man are next to nothing regarded; the Regulars and nuns
dwelling there being so addicted, partly to their own superstitious
ceremonies, partly to the pernicious worship of idols, and to the
pestiferous doctrines of the Roman Pontiff, that unless an effectual
remedy be promptly provided, not only the weak, low order, but the whole
Irish people, may be speedily infected to their total destruction. To
prevent, therefore, the longer continuance of such Religious men and nuns
in so damnable a state, the King (having resolved to resume into his hands
all the monasteries and Religious houses, for their better reformation, to
remove from them the Religious men and women, and to cause them to return
to some honest mode of living and to true religion,) directs the
Commissioners to signify this his intention to the heads of Religious
houses; to receive their resignations and surrenders willingly tendered;
to grant to those tendering it liberty of exchanging their habit and of
accepting benefices under the King's authority; to apprehend and punish
such as adhere to the Roman Pontiff and contumaciously refuse to surrender
their houses; to take charge for the King's use of the possession of those
houses, and assign competent pensions to those who willingly surrender."
(_Patent and Close Rolls, Chancery, Ireland_, Morrin, 1539-40, April 30,
Henry VIII., 30o, p. 55.)
Most marvellous, indeed, and sudden, and quite unprecedented in history,
was this utter decadence from godliness to "idolatry and the pestiferous
doctrine of the Roman Pontiff" on the part of 100,000 persons within the
space of three short years! But, behold! the godly monarch will reform
them (supposing they needed reform) in the fashion recorded in the old
English proverb: "The devil amended his dame's leg; when he should have
set it right, he brake it quite in pieces." That the Deputy, Lord Gray,
did not consider the monks and nuns an effete body, addicted to evil
practices, will appear evident from the letter he addressed to Cromwell,
and which was signed by his Council. It bears date 21st May 1539:--
"May it please your honourable Lordship to be advertised, that by the
report of Thomas Cusacke and others repaired lately out of the realm of
England into this land, it hath been openly bruited the King's grace's
pleasure to be, that all the monasteries within this land should be
suppressed, none to stand. Amongst which, for the common weal of this
land, if it might stand with King's most gracious pleasure by your good
Lordship's advertisement, in our opinion it were right expedient that six
houses should stand and continue, changing their habit and rule into such
sort as the King's grace shall will them: which are namely, St. Mary's
Abbey, adjoining Dublin, a house of white monks (Cistercians); Christ
Church, a house of canons situated in the middle of the City of Dublin;
Grace Dieu Nunnery, in the County Dublin; Connell, in the County Kildare;
Kenlys or Kells, and Jerpoint (this latter Cistercian also), in the County
Kilkenny. _For in these commonly, and in others such like_, in default of
common inns, which are not in this island the King's Deputy and all others
his Grace's Council and Officers, also Irishmen and others resorting to
the King's Deputy in these quarters is and hath been most commonly lodged
at the cost of the said houses. _Also, in them, young men and children,
both gentlemen's children and others, both of man kind and woman kind be
brought up in virtue and in the Englishe tongue and behaviour to the great
charge of the said houses_; that is to say, the woman kind of the whole
Englishie of this land, for the most part, in the said nunnery, and the
man kind in the other houses."
And the Abbot of St. Mary's, petitioning soon after for exemption from the
general suppression, pleads in a letter to the same Cromwell: "Verily we
be but stewards and purveyors to other men's uses for the King's honour,
keeping hospitality, and many poor men, scholars and orphans."
All petitions are unavailing; the King is inexorable; and St. Mary's and
Mellifont, and the others included in the original list must go down
before the despot's unholy will, untried, unheard, but with the nation's
regret, those alone excepted, who thirsted for and shared the sacrilegious
booty. Before the lamp of piety and learning be extinguished for ever in
Mellifont, let us take a parting glance at it, so that the contrast may be
the more marked as we note its vicissitudes later on.
In that bright July morning (1539), when the bell summoned the monks of
Mellifont to matins for the last time, the sun rose over as fair a picture
as could well be conceived, when its brilliant rays shot floods of light
through the woods and valley, and gilt the quivering tree-tops with
lustrous gold. And the enormous piles of white masonry looked whiter for
the glinting of the sun-beams, and many a fantastic shadow was cast on the
tesselated pavement in the church by the "dim religious light" of the
gorgeous stained glass windows. The statues of the Twelve Apostles looked
down patronisingly from lofty pedestals, and bore the minds of the
beholders aloft, to where the guerdon awaits the faithful soldier of
Christ when his term of service here below shall have expired. Loud rose
the rhythmic measure of the majestic Gregorian Chant rendered by over one
hundred full-voiced singers on that beautiful morning, ere yet the skylark
shook the dew-drops from his wings, or intoned his early carol o'er the
meadows by the Boyne. The pealing of the organ sounded loud and louder as
they chanted their solemn Mass, but to many who then took part in that
sacred function, its plaintive notes presaged the speedy end of their
time-honoured establishment, which at any moment may receive the fatal
visit of the Commissioners. In its internal economy it was wisely and
worthily governed, its community numbered 150 Choir monks, besides Lay
Brothers and familiars, its schools were prosperous, and from their
widespread reputation, merited the title of "famous" which was accorded
them. The children of the monks' tenants received a free education here;
moreover, the monks conducted a school, which we would now call a
seminary, where gentlemen's children and others were taught the higher
branches suited to prepare them for their career in after-life. Their
peaceful valley was screened on every side from wintry blasts by tasteful
plantations, useful and ornamental; for a thickly planted orchard, chiefly
of apple and pear trees, which covered both sides of the River Mattock
from the mill to where the bridge now spans the river, survived till
within the memory of many still living who describe it as having been so
dense that one could cross the valley on the tops of them. The grounds
surrounding the monastery were laid out with commendable taste; the lands
yielded plentiful crops, and supported numerous herds of cattle. The hill
south-east of the abbey was covered over with oak of gigantic size--the
growth of centuries--and on the Meath side were screens of valuable
timber. Their tenants were contented and prosperous; for the monks were
indulgent landlords. Their rents were paid in kind, and for the rest, they
found a ready market always at the abbey, where a huge supply of
provisions was constantly needed for the strangers and the poor who sought
and found a ready welcome there.
The spiritual wants of the tenants and dependants were attended to by one
of the monks, John Byrrel, whose name occurs first in the list of those
belonging to Mellifont to whom pensions were granted. He is styled Parson
of Mellifont. It is probable, too, that others of the abbey priests
ministered to Tullyallen parish (though it is scarcely probable that the
present parish is conterminous with the old one), to Monknewtown and
Donore; for in the English Episcopal Registers, twelve volumes of which
have been recently published, it is noted that their brethren in England
served the parishes in the immediate vicinity of the monasteries; and,
moreover, we find in the list of pensioners of other Cistercian houses in
Ireland, the names of three or more, in the same monastery, who are called
parsons. Medical advice and medicine were dispensed gratis at the Abbey.
The sick poor were visited and cared for in their homes by physicians
employed by the monks; they were also admitted into the hospital at the
gate. On fixed days weekly, the poor of the locality came for and received
loaves of bread which were specially baked for them, and meat in
abundance, with beer, was distributed to them. In those days there were no
poor laws; for the monks provided for all the wants of the indigent. The
monks were in constant touch with all classes of society, at least the
principal officers were, and they were the advisers, as well as the
instructors, of all. The History of the English Abbeys of the Order, or
the fragments that have survived the vandalism of the Dissolution, and
which have been published by impartial Protestants, clearly prove that
this picture of far-reaching and ungrudging beneficence is by no means
fanciful. (_See Ruined Abbeys of Britain, by Frederick Ross._) The Abbot
of Mellifont took a prominent place in the councils of the nation. He
ranked as a Peer, and had a seat in the House of Lords before all the
other Religious superiors, twenty-three more of whom were privileged to
sit there. He was bound to supply a certain number of horsemen for the
King's musters, and to maintain them at his own charge. Tradition has it
that he could ride on his own territory from the sea at Drogheda to the
Shannon at Athlone, but this requires confirmation. He owned some 4,000
acres at the suppression, extending on the south side of the Boyne from
Drogheda to Rossnaree, and on the north, to Slane, including the fisheries
and five salmon weirs on the river. He rented the fishing of sixteen
corraghs at Oldbridge, for which he got £13 13s. 4d. annually. The _town_
of Tullyallen belonged to him. It was then in a flourishing condition, but
has fallen since from its rank as a town to that of a mere village,
composed of a few scattered cottages. The district was then populous; for
another village grew up near the Abbey occupied by tradesmen and
dependants who were constantly employed by the monks. It was called Doagh.
It is now level with the field. It stood a quarter of a mile north-west of
Mellifont, beyond the Mattock. Its site is an elevated plateau, locally
known as the Doagh Meadows. The entire annual revenue of the Abbey was
estimated at £316, which, allowing for the difference in value of money
since, would be equivalent to an income of close on £4,000 at the present
day. On that the monks maintained themselves and a large staff of
servants, "kept hospitality, and many poor men, scholars, and orphans."
The Abbot entertained his guests daily at his own table in a spacious
building apart from the monks' quarters, and was a man of light and
leading, unlike the helpless imbecile portrayed by Scott in his novels.
The Abbot was chosen, often from some distant monastery, for his aptitude
"in governing souls," which was the paramount consideration with St.
Benedict in the selection of a superior. He should be learned, and sound
both in doctrine and morals, to be entrusted with such a charge. It is
only too true that unworthy persons, contrary to the Canons, were
sometimes intruded into the position by powerful relatives, and they,
alas! generally brought disgrace on religion.
As to the spiritual condition of Mellifont at the time of its suppression,
it was certainly on a high level. No charge was brought against that
community, on that score, even by its worst enemies; none but the general
ones mentioned in the Commission. In truth and in fact, the observances
then in force at Mellifont were identical with those introduced by Abbot
Christian and practised at Clairvaux by St. Bernard and his saintly
companions. If they were "idolatrous," and "superstitious," and savouring
of the "pestiferous doctrines of the Roman Pontiff," so must have been the
ancient practices of the Cistercians; and wonderful indeed was it, that
till King Henry and his advisers discovered it, our ancestors, for four
hundred years at least, approved of and took part in these same practices
without a suspicion of the "pernicious" errors they were now found to
contain! In the matter of discipline alone was there any decadence, and
then the altered conditions of the times demanded some modifications. The
use of flesh meat three days in the week was introduced, and instead of
manual labour, other duties were substituted, such as teaching, copying,
study, etc. In their daily lives, we are told by Rev. Dr. Gasquet, O.S.B.,
perhaps the greatest living authority in such matters, that the
Cistercians at that time differed little from the Benedictines.
Such was the condition of Mellifont on that fatal day, the 23rd July
1539, when the Commissioners, with an armed band, demanded admission and
surrender, in the King's name. Remonstrance with them was vain, and the
usual formality was gone through. They seized on the charters, registers,
ledgers, etc., together with the keys of the treasury and store-rooms;
took an inventory of all the possessions of the monastery, and sealed the
Library and strong room. They, then, summoned the Abbot and all the monks
to the Chapter-house, to sign the Act of Surrender. In the Calendar of
Patent and Close Rolls, Chancery, Ireland, Henry VIII. (edited by James
Morrin), the synopsis of it is given as follows at p. 135:--"Surrender of
the Abbey or House of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Mellyfount, in the County
of Louth, by Richard Contoure, Abbot, with the consent of the Convent; and
of the church, belfry, cemetery, manors, lands, and all its possessions in
the counties of Dublin, Kildare, and Carlow, with all charters, evidences,
muniments, goods, utensils, ornaments and jewels."--July 23, 31o. (1539).
"Endorsed on the preceding surrender is a memorandum that the Abbot and
Convent, assembled in the Chapter-house, voluntarily acknowledged the
preceding surrender, delivered it into the hands of the Lord Chancellor,
and prayed it might be enrolled in Chancery, _in perpetuam rei memoriam_.
Witness, George, Archbishop of Dublin; Wm. Brabazon, Vice-Treasurer;
Robert Cowley, Master of the Rolls." July 23, 31o.
How often have these "voluntary" surrenders been flaunted by writers
hostile to the monks, as if the farce of signing the document which made
them beggars were a free act! They were anxious, forsooth, to shake off
the burden of their religious obligations, through the facile dispensation
so liberally accorded by the new Head of the Church, in the flush of his
accession to ecclesiastical supremacy! The late scholarly and
liberal-minded Dean Butler, Protestant Rector of Trim, wrote thus on the
subject:--"The form of surrender then executed omitted no property which
could belong to the house.... There were added their charters, evidences,
writings and manuscripts, their goods, chattels, utensils, ornaments,
jewels, and debts, all these were granted to the King, to be disposed of
at his good pleasure, without appeal or complaint, and the unhappy men
_were forced to declare_, that they thus deprived themselves of house and
home _of their own free will_, and that they put an end to a venerable
institution, to which they were bound by so many solemn obligations,
certain just and reasonable causes thereto moving their minds and their
consciences." (_Register of the Priory of All Hallows._ Preface, p. xxix.)
The next step was, there and then, to auction off all the moveables of the
monastery, except the jewels of the rich reliquaries, chalices, and other
sacred vessels, with the plate and bells, which formed the King's special
perquisite. The whole artistic woodwork of the church (choir and
wainscotting) was smashed in pieces, and even the very tombs of the
founders and others interred there, were sold and carted off. For a
description of the work of destruction, as related by an eye-witness of
such vandalism at the suppression of an English Cistercian monastery, see
_The Irish Cistercians_, p. 45. The sale realised £141 7s. 3d., but no
detailed account is given of the sum that each article fetched. According
to another Commission addressed to John Allen, Chancellor; William
Brabazon, Vice-Treasurer; and Robert Cowley, Master of the Rolls; dated
May 20, 1539, the proceeds of such sales were ordered to be allocated "to
pay the officers and servants of the Crown." When the church and monastery
were dismantled, and every article of value, no matter how trifling, had
been removed, the order to clear out the monks was promptly given and
executed; and the gates were shut behind them. Whither they went nobody
cared, and whither to go was a problem to themselves difficult to be
solved; for without money or provision, they were in a worse condition
than the most destitute of beggars. The hoary old walls caught up their
groans and lamentations on that day, as with breaking hearts they looked
upon each familiar spot for the last time. This is one of the secrets the
old stones of the few remaining buildings yet withhold from us. Mellifont
beheld many moving spectacles during the four centuries of her existence,
but none, perhaps, so deeply affecting as when her 150 children, amongst
whom were the aged, tottering on the brink of the grave and leaning for
support on some younger brethren, turned their back upon their happy home
where they enjoyed an anticipated paradise. As the sad procession slowly
gained the top of the hill, many a time they turned to take a last
farewell look at their beloved monastery, till it faded from their view
for ever. A few shillings each were allowed them for their immediate
wants, but of that multitude only thirteen and the Abbot received
pensions. This grant was fixed for them three days after their expulsion,
after which they all disappear from the scene as effectually as if the
Boyne had engulphed them.
The following entries are found in the Patent and Close Rolls Calendar,
Henry VIII., pp. 59, 60: "Pension of £40 Ir. to Richard Contour, late
Abbot of Mellyfount, payable out of the parishes of Knockmohan, Donowre,
and Monkenewton, with clause of distress."--Sept. 10, 1539. And at p. 60,
_ibid._, "Pension to John Byrrell, late parson of Mellifount, £3 6s. 8d.;
to Thomas Bagot, £4; to Peter Rewe, 40/-; to Thomas Alen, 53/4; to
William Norreis, 40/-; to Robert Nangle, 40/-; to Patrick Contour, 53/4;
to William Veldon, £3 6s. 8d.; to Patrick Lawles, 40/-; to John Ball,
40/-; to Clement Bartholomewe, 20/-; to Phelim O'Neil, 20/-; payable out
of the rents and lands of the parishes of Knockamowan, Donower, and
Montnewton" (Monknewtown), 26 July, 1539.
Thus, then, were these fourteen provided for, but, of the others, not one
received a single shilling, except, as has been said, a mere pittance that
sufficed to procure them a few nights' shelter. This is no picture drawn
from fancy; it is a well-authenticated fact, that where a peaceful
surrender was not given or signed, no provision whatsoever was made for
those who so refused. They were given a trifle at their expulsion, and
turned adrift to swell the army of beggars, or to perish, as they did in
hundreds, of hardships to which they were unaccustomed. The imagination
cannot now well conceive the heartless, wanton cruelty then practised on
the expelled Religious; who, if they had betrayed their consciences and
taken the oath of Supremacy, might have staved off, at least for a time,
the calamities that befell them. But only for a time; for in some
instances where the monks, through mistaken notions, obeyed the Royal
mandate, they shared the fate of their more steadfast brethren, owing to
the insatiable rapacity of the King and his advisers. To those of the
expelled who were priests, the hope was held out to them, in case of "free
surrender," that they should be promoted to the first vacant benefices. As
not one of the Religious expelled from Mellifont is enrolled on the list
of those promoted to vacancies during that or the subsequent reigns, it is
obvious that they held fast to their principles, and denied the King's
Supremacy, an acknowledgment of which was indispensable before
promotion. All honour to them for their generous sacrifices, which made
them worthy to be the last who saw the venerable institution reel and fall
beneath the despot's blows. Their noble attitude was befitting the close
of a work which was inaugurated with such splendour amid a nation's
rejoicing. Like the setting sun, Mellifont disappeared in a halo of glory.
CHAPTER VIII.
MELLIFONT BECOMES THE HOME OF A NOBLE FAMILY--IS SOLD, AND IS DELIVERED UP
TO RUIN AND DECAY.
"Mute is the matin bell, whose early call
Warn'd the grey fathers from their humble beds;
No midnight taper gleams along the wall,
Or, round the sculptur'd saint its radiance sheds."
(_Keats._)
The long line of distinguished men being thus rudely and abruptly
terminated at Mellifont, with the suppression of the monastery, all
memorials of their history were lost, and no trace of them has been left.
Not a book, nor cross, nor chalice, register, nor chartulary remains. It
appears that Mellifont had its Annalist and its Annals like _all_ the
other monasteries of the Order in Ireland; for Bishop Nicolson, who wrote
his "Irish National Library" in 1724, says: "The Annals of Ireland from
the foundation of this Abbey in 1142 to the year 1500, are, or were
lately, in the hands of some of the learned men of this kingdom." He does
not tell us the name of the compiler, but only the fact that they had
been written at Mellifont. These are not cited by later writers, so they,
also, must have perished long since. At the suppression of monasteries,
the archives, chronicles, and registers were carefully sought by the
Commissioners, because they contained correct information on the value and
extent of the possessions of each house respectively; and the more
extensive these were, the more sedulously were the records sought for.
Hence it is that because the Cistercian Order had large possessions, the
manuscripts were all seized and handed over with the monasteries to the
grantees. The monks could not possibly take one away with them. So their
history is now derivable from other sources, which, at best, are very
meagre. Mellifont, which occupied so prominent and respected a position
during its career, would not be found inferior to other houses of the
Order in the number of its learned and remarkable men, were its ancient
documents now available; and, judging from the long roll of distinguished
men, who in every department of knowledge rendered the Order illustrious
in other countries, we may safely allot a respectable quota of the same to
Mellifont. De Visch compiled his _Writers of the Cistercian Order_ in
1656, and Sartorius published a large tome in 1700, each containing
notices of the illustrious men of the Order. No less than sixty-three
large folio pages of this latter work are occupied with the names of the
learned men, and the dates at which they flourished. He places all in
distinct categories, and so we have St. Bernard heading the list, after
whom come the Grammarians, next follow the Poets, Orators, Historians,
Philosophers, Mathematicians, Astronomers, Musicians, then Doctors of
Canon and Civil Law, and Doctors of Theology; finally, Professors in
universities, and others, whose general attainments precluded
classification. As these works were written after the suppression of the
monasteries in these countries, the materials relating to the Irish and
English monasteries having passed into hostile hands or been destroyed,
were no longer accessible. Ireland was ever remarkable for the thirst for
learning displayed by her children, and for the singular proficiency
attained by them, when the opportunity for it was afforded; we may, then,
justly conclude that learning and the polite arts found a home at
Mellifont. For this latter branch, the beautiful buildings would, of
themselves, suffice as an argument in favour of an advanced state of
culture and refinement.
It is worthy of note, that neither the Irish people, nor the
representatives of the Government in this country, brought, much less
substantiated, any direct charges against the Irish monks, prior to the
suppression. Hence it is, that their maligners had to import, for use
against them, the staple arguments commonly used in England, and there
only by venal scribblers, and those who profited by the downfall of the
monks. To such the learned and impartial Protestant historian, the Rev.
Doctor Maitland, adverts, when after giving credit to the monks for their
having been benefactors to mankind, he writes in his preface to the _Dark
Ages_:--"In the meantime, let me thankfully believe that thousands of the
persons at whom Robertson, and Jortin, and other such very miserable
second-hand writers, have sneered, were men of enlarged minds, purified
affections, and holy lives, that they were justly reverenced by men, and,
above all, favourably accepted by God, and distinguished by the
highest honours which He vouchsafes to those whom He has called into
existence, that of being the channels of His love and mercy to their
fellow-creatures." And in our own time, the _Guardian_, an English
Protestant newspaper, when reviewing the Rev. Doctor Gasquet's, O.S.B.,
learned work, _Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries_, approvingly
cites, amongst others, the following paragraph:--"The voices raised
against the monks were those of Cromwell's agents, of the cliques of the
new men and of his hireling scribes, who formed a crew of as truculent and
as filthy libellers as ever disgraced a revolutionary cause. The later
centuries have taken their tale in good faith, but time is showing that
the monasteries, up to the day of their fall, had not forfeited the
goodwill, the veneration, the affection of the English people." Mr. Lecky,
too, with his usual candour and liberality, writes:--"Monastic
institutions were the only refuges of a pacific civilisation; the only
libraries, the only schools, the only centres of art, the only refuges for
gentle and intellectual natures; the chief barriers against violence and
rapine; the chief promoters of agriculture and of industry." (_The
Political Value of History_, p. 14. London, 1892.)
The monks being now expelled, Mellifont was delivered up to desecration
and ruin; the silence of the tomb reigned supreme, and the voice of prayer
was heard no more; no longer did the bells from the tower send forth their
cheering notes over the surrounding district to raise the hearts of the
toiler to Heaven. These sweet toned bells, the gift of some princely
benefactor, had been, with all the other moveable property, carried off by
the spoiler. The Abbey, with all its spiritual and temporal possessions,
was given, in 1541, to Laurence Townley, for 21 years. They passed by
reversionary lease to ---- Brabazon, in 1546. In 1551, they were leased to
the same for 21 years more, and in 1566, they came by reversionary lease
to Edward Moore, the founder of the Drogheda family, who, at that time,
came into Ireland, as a soldier of fortune. (_Appendix to the Report of
the Deputy-Keeper of the Rolls and Grants of Elizabeth._)
This Edward Moore, who was accompanied by his brother John, the founder of
the Charleville family (now extinct), was descended from an ancient
Kentish House. He fixed his residence at Mellifont, changing the church
into a dwelling, which he strongly fortified against the attacks of the
Ulster Irish. The statues of the Twelve Apostles, which once occupied
places in the church, he caused to be removed to the hall, clad in red
uniforms, with muskets on their shoulders, as a protest, no doubt, against
"Popish idolatry." It is even said that he suffered the Founder's tomb,
and those of others, or such portions of them as still were left, to
remain as part of his domestic arrangements, without his being disturbed
by such solemn surroundings. He was knighted by the Deputy, Sir Wm. Drury,
and dying soon after, was succeeded by his son, Sir Garret, to whom
Mellifont, with six other dissolved monasteries, and all their
spiritualities (that is, the revenues of them, right of patronage, etc.)
and temporalities, were granted in fee. By these means, was adhesion to
the Crown purchased and services to it rewarded--services, which bore no
equivocal meaning ever since the Invasion, as the Irish knew by long and
bitter experience.
At this time, the Church, as by Law Established, became part and parcel of
the State, and its most obsequious servant. Its ministers looked to the
civil power for patronage, and even hoped for promotion through the
officials of the Court; but only in a few instances were the livings worth
the asking, as the greater part of their temporalities were bestowed on
laymen, favourites of the Queen. We have a picture of the state of that
Church in Ireland, soon after the suppression of monasteries, drawn by the
Lord Deputy himself, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth. They who would fain
believe in the blessed advantages which flowed from the Dissolution of
Monasteries, and the introduction of the new religion, may take to heart
the lesson it teaches. Sir Henry Sydney wrote to the Queen in April, 1576,
on the condition of the diocese of Meath:--"There are within this
diocese," he writes, "224 parish churches, of which number, 105 are
impropriated to sundry possessions; no parson or vicar resident on any of
them, and a very simple or sorry curate for the most part appointed to
serve them; among which number of curates, only eighteen were found to be
able to speak English, the rest being Irish ministers, or rather, Irish
rogues, having very little Latin and less learning and civility.... In
many places the very walls of the churches are thrown down, very few
chancels covered; windows and doors ruined and spoiled. There are 52
parish churches in the same diocese which have vicars endowed upon them,
better served and maintained than the others, yet badly. There are 52
parish churches here, residue of the first number of 224, which pertain to
divers particular lords; and these, though in better state than the others
commonly, are yet far from well." He concludes by saying:--"But yet your
Majesty may believe it, that upon the face of the earth where Christ is
professed, there is not a church in so miserable a case." Lord Grenville,
in his _Past and Present Policy of England towards Ireland_, when
commenting on Sydney's letters, from one of which the above is an extract,
writes:--"Such was the condition of a church which was half a century
before rich and flourishing, an object of reverence and a source of
consolation to the people. It was now despoiled of its revenues; the
sacred edifices were in ruins, the clergy were either ignorant of the
language of their flocks, or illiterate and uncivilised intruders; and the
only ritual permitted by the laws was one of which the people neither
comprehended the language nor believed the doctrines; and this is called
establishing a reformation." That this condition of affairs was not
confined to any particular diocese, but rather was the state in all, is
evident from the sketch given by Spenser in his _View of the State of
Ireland_. "They" (the ministers), he says, "neither read the Scriptures
nor preach to the people, nor administer the Communion ... only they take
the tithes and offerings, and gather what fruit else they may of their
livings.... It is a great wonder to see the zeal between the Popish
priests and the ministers of the Gospel; for they spare not to come out of
Spain, from Rome, and from Rheims, by long toil and dangerous travelling
thither, where they know peril of death awaiteth them, and no reward or
riches are to be found, only to draw people to the Church of Rome." Such
were the immediate fruits of the Reformation as admitted and described by
Protestant contemporaries.
One of the first proprietary acts of Sir Edward Moore, on his acquiring
Mellifont, seems to have been to cut down and sell some of the magnificent
timber planted by the monks. The old wooden house, so long an object of
curiosity in Drogheda, and which was taken down in 1824, was chiefly
composed of oak obtained from Mellifont Park. It was situated at the angle
formed by the junction of Laurence Street and Shop Street, and was erected
by Nicholas Bathe, as an inscription in raised characters, each six inches
in length, testified. This inscription was on the Laurence Street side.
"Made. Bi. Nicholas. Bathe. in. the. ieare. of. our. Lord. God. 1570. Bi.
Hiu. Mor. Carpenter."
In 1592, Red Hugh O'Donnell, fleeing from Dublin Castle, where he had been
detained a close prisoner, was received and kindly treated by Sir Edward
Moore, at Mellifont. His reception is thus related in the Life of Red
Hugh, edited with notes by the late Father Denis Murphy, S.J.:--"After
crossing the Boyne near Drogheda, Red Hugh and his companion mounted their
horses, and proceeded about two miles from the river, where they saw a
dense bushy grove in front of them on the road they came, and a large
rampart all around it, as if it was a kitchen-garden. There was a fine
mansion (called the great monastery), belonging to an illustrious youth of
the English, by the side of the wood. He was much attached to O'Neil....
He (O'Donnell) went into the house and was entertained; for he was well
known there especially more than in other places."
In 1599, according to the family pedigree, Sir Garret Moore and Sir
Francis Stafford were the only English house-keepers in the County Louth;
all the lands being wasted by the Ulster rebels. The next important event
at Mellifont was the great O'Neil's surrender there to the Deputy, Lord
Mountjoy, on the 24th March, 1602. The Lord Deputy sent Sir Garret Moore,
as an old acquaintance of O'Neil's, with Sir Wm. Godolphin to parley with
him, and O'Neil returned with them to Mellifont, where (on his knees, it
is said by English writers,) he made his submission to the Deputy. Here,
again, we have further proof of what has been stated before, that it was
Irishmen who retained this country for the English Crown; for when Sir
George Carew sat down before Kinsale, where O'Neil was defeated, his army
consisted of three thousand men, of whom two thousand were Irish.[8]
Five years later, that is, in 1607, O'Neil was again at the "fair mansion
of Mellifont to bid good-bye for ever to his good friend, Sir Garret, the
fosterer of his son John." He tarried two days with him, and then said
farewell. Having given his blessing, "according to the Irish fashion," to
every member of his friend's household, he and his suite took horse, and
rode rapidly by Dundalk on his way to Lough Swilly, where a ship awaited
him to bear him from his native land for ever.
By an Inquisition taken on the 14th June, 1612, the possessions of this
Abbey were found as follow:--"The site, a water-mill, a garden, an
orchard, a park called Legan Park, the old orchard containing two acres;
the silver meadow, nine acres; the wood meadow, ten acres; and the doves'
park; 80 acres of underwood; Killingwood, being great timber, containing
twelve acres; Ardagh, twenty acres, being the demesne lands; and the
grange and town of Tullyallen," etc.
In 1615, July 20th, Sir Garret was created Baron Moore of Mellifont, by
King James I. In 1619, Baron Moore obtained a royal grant of St. Mary's
Abbey, Dublin, from the same King; and in 1621, he was created a Viscount,
with the title of Viscount Moore of Drogheda. St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin,
passed from the family some fifty years later.
As has been said, no trace of the expelled religious remains after the
suppression of Mellifont. It, however, may be assumed, that some few of
them lingered around the hallowed spot to which their affections clung,
and that they shared the labours and dangers incident to the Catholic
missionaries of the period, as is well known their brethren in other parts
of Ireland did after their expulsion. It cannot now be ascertained
whether, or not, an unbroken line of titular Abbots of Mellifont was
maintained after the dissolution of the Abbey; but, in 1623, an oratory
in Drogheda, belonging to the Cistercians, was served by five or six
Fathers of the Order under Patrick Barnewall, who had been appointed Abbot
of Mellifont by the Pope; and in 1625, he received the abbatial
benediction in the church of St. John, in Waterford, at the hands of the
Most Rev. Thomas Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin. This Patrick Barnewall
belonged to the Bremore branch (Co. Dublin) of the ancient and illustrious
family of that name. After having studied the Humanities, Philosophy,
Theology, and Canon Law in the Universities of Douay and Paris, he was
ordained priest, and discharged missionary duties in Drogheda. In a sketch
of his life given by a fellow-labourer, it is related, that one night as
he lay awake, St. Bernard appeared to him and told him he would be a monk
of his Order. Though he relished the idea, yet he did not immediately
correspond with his inclinations till he was grievously afflicted with a
severe sickness, when he remembered the vision, and being urged by his two
sisters, who had consecrated themselves to God, he entered the Novitiate
of the Order in Kilkenny, and was at once restored to health. Soon after
his profession he was appointed Abbot of Mellifont by Apostolic authority;
and he admitted novices into the Order at his "hiding-place" at Drogheda,
whom he sent to be educated at the Cistercian College, Louvain, and to
other Continental Colleges. He was a very learned man, particularly in
Canon Law, and was consulted as an authority on this subject. During the
siege of Drogheda, in 1641, his goods were seized and himself cast into
prison, but through the influence of some powerful relatives he was
liberated. He died in his father's house in September, 1644, and was
buried in the church of Donore, which formerly belonged to Mellifont. John
Devereux, a native of the Co. Wexford, who had been educated at Louvain,
was appointed by the Pope, Abbot of Mellifont, in 1648. He, with Father
Luke Bergin and Father Patrick Grace, both natives of Co. Kilkenny, Father
Malachy O'Hartry, a native of Waterford, Father John Bryan, a native of
Drogheda, and Father Plunket, constituted the new community of Cistercian
monks under Abbot Patrick Barnewall, when he opened the oratory in
Drogheda, in 1623. Whether all or any of them perished in the general
massacre of Drogheda, under Cromwell, we cannot tell, but they disappeared
thenceforth, and John Devereux seems to have been the last titular Abbot
of Mellifont.
In the Rebellion of 1641, Mellifont and its owner, Lord Charles Moore, son
of Garret, the first Viscount, became involved. On the 21st November, just
a short time after the outbreak, the rebels under Sir Phelim O'Neil, when
on their way to besiege Drogheda, made a halt at Tullyallen, and "sent a
party of 1,300 foot down to Mellifont, the Lord Moore's house, which their
design was suddenly to surprise; but, contrary to their expectation, they
found there twenty-four musketeers and fifteen horsemen, who very stoutly
defended the house as long as their powder lasted. The horsemen, when they
saw themselves beset so as they could no longer be serviceable to the
place, opened the gates, issued out and made their passage through the
midst of the rebels, and so, notwithstanding the opposition they made,
escaped safe to Drogheda. The foot having refused to accept of the quarter
at the first offered, resolved to make good the place to the last man;
they endured several assaults, slew one hundred-and-forty of the rebels,
before their powder failed them; and at last they gave up the place upon
promise of quarter, which was not kept, for some of them were killed in
cold blood, all were stripped, and two old decrepid men slain, the house
ransacked and all the goods carried away."
The above is from Sir John Temple's _History of the Irish Rebellion_, and
it has been quoted by Catholics and Protestants alike when alluding to
Mellifont; they each add, however, a little spice to suit the palates of
their respective readers. Of this attack on Mellifont we have no less than
four versions, two of which deserve but little credence, viz., that
already given, and that of Dean Bernard. The account given by the latter
is fuller, and enters more minutely into detail, so that some particulars
tax the capacity of the most credulous; as, for instance, when he tells us
that twenty-four musketeers killed one hundred-and-forty rebels though
they had only "six shots" of powder, "some only four," and that they
rammed in six bullets together, and how each shot killed several. Verily,
every bullet had its billet there! That be sharp practice without doubt!
He also tells, how the loss on the part of the garrison was thirteen
killed, "whom a _Friar was so forward for deed of charity as to procure
them burial in the church adjoining_." Thank goodness, he has the grace to
credit even a Friar with some remnant of humanity! He does not say that
the rebels stripped all. They could not have done so; for eleven escaped
to Drogheda. These godless Papists capped their iniquity in this holy
man's estimation when they "threw a fair church Bible into the mill-pond."
The last charge on the sheet is--"Their best language to them all was
'English dogs,' 'rogues,' etc."
Before producing the other two versions, let us examine the characters of
both these witnesses as drawn by Protestant writers. Sir John Temple wrote
his History in 1656, from the "Depositions" preserved then in Dublin
Castle, but which are now in Trinity College. These "Depositions"
comprise the list of murders, burnings, etc., said to have been
perpetrated by the Irish on the English Protestants during the war, and
fill thirty-two volumes. He was some time Privy Councillor, but was
removed by Ormonde, and Carte tells how "two traitorous and scandalous
letters against his Majesty written by Temple were read in Committee." And
Dr. Nalson, another Protestant writer, accuses him of having been in
league with the Parliamentarians, whom Ormonde describes as those who
became the "murderers of his (the King's) royal person, the usurpers of
his rights, and destroyers of the Irish nation; by whom the nobility and
gentry of it were massacred at home, and led into slavery, or driven into
beggary abroad." In 1674, Temple protested that the work was published
without his knowledge, as appears from _State Papers_, Dublin edition, p.
2.
Dean Bernard was Primate Ussher's chaplain, and like his master, was a
Puritan. During the siege of Drogheda he watched over the Primate's
library lest the rebels should attack the magnificent palace which _had
been built with the fines from the recusants_. He was afterwards
Cromwell's chaplain and almoner, in either of which capacities, it would
be quite unreasonable to expect justice to the Irish from him.
As to the "Depositions" themselves, they are summarily dealt with by the
Rev. Dr. Warner, another English Protestant historian of that Rebellion.
"There is no credit to be given to anything that was said by these
Deponents which had not others' evidence to confirm it." And again, the
same Dr. Warner, who went through the drudgery of perusing and examining
these "Depositions," says: "As a great stress has been laid upon this
collection in print and conversation, and as the whole evidence of the
massacres turns upon it, I spent a great deal of my time examining the
books; and I am sorry to say, that they have been made the foundation of
much more clamour and resentment than can be warranted by truth and
reason." It was in them that Temple found the story of the ghosts of the
murdered Protestants, in the River Bann, at the Bridge of Portadown,
shrieking for revenge, and one in particular, who was seen there from the
29th December to the end of the following Lent!!! He sets down the number
of English and Protestants who were "murdered in cold blood, destroyed
some other way, or expelled out of their habitations in two years by the
Irish, as exceeding 300,000," though, according to Petty, there were not
at the outbreak of the Rebellion 20,000 English Protestants in Ulster,
where nearly all the murders were said to have been committed. Dr. Warner
also tells how he saw in the Council books at Dublin, the letter which the
Commissioners of the Irish Parliament wrote to the English Parliament,
urging them to show no mercy to the Irish, but rather, to revenge the
murders and massacres committed by them. They tell them, "that besides
eight hundred-and-forty-eight families, there were killed, hanged, burned,
and drowned, six thousand and sixty-two." Dr. Warner considers 2,000 about
the correct number. A prodigious number to be sure, but how far less than
Temple's 300,000. Warner says, finally, at p. 296 of his work so often
cited: "It is easy enough to demonstrate the falsehood of every Protestant
historian of this Rebellion."
The Rev. Mr. Carte, an English Protestant clergyman, who wrote the
celebrated Life of the Duke of Ormonde, tears all Temple's assertions in
pieces, and demonstrates from indubitable authority the falsehoods of his
statements. Writing of these "Depositions" he says, at Vol. II., p. 263:
"Anyone who has ever read the examinations and depositions which were
generally given on hearsay, and contradicting one another, must think it
very hard upon the Irish, to have all those without distinction to be
admitted as evidence." And in the Preface to the collection of Letters
affixed to the Life he alludes to the "uncertain, false, mistaken, and
contradictory accounts, which have been given of the Irish Rebellion, by
parties influenced by selfish views and party animosities, or unfurnished
with proper and authentic materials and memoirs."
It is obvious from the first pages of Temple's History what the scope of
the work is. It is a gross libel on the whole Irish nation from the
earliest times. In one page, he twice applies to them the epithet of a
beastly race, and, no doubt, worthy to be rooted out, to make room for
Royalists of his type, who worshipped the rising sun.
Carte, in his Life of Ormond, Vol. II., p. 135, gives an account of the
attack on Mellifont as follows:--"This detached body of the northern
rebels appeared on November 21st in sight of the town of Drogheda, within
four miles of it, presuming (as was imagined) upon some party within the
place. Sir H. Tichburne, Governor of Drogheda, had the week before sent a
party of fifteen horse and twenty-two foot to Mellifont (formerly an Abbey
of Bernardine monks, founded by Donagh O'Carroll, prince of Ergall, about
A.D. 1142, but then an house of the Lord Viscount Moore's, three miles
from town), as well as to secure that place from the incursions of roving
parties, as to keep abroad continual sentinels and scouts, that might
inform him of the rebels' motions. His orders were not well observed, nor
his party so vigilant as they ought to have been; for on the 21st, the
rebels on a sudden encompassed the house, and (after the soldiers' powder
was spent) took it with a loss of some one hundred and twenty of their
own number (among which were Owen M'Mahon and another captain), and eleven
of the soldiers, with most of the arms. As the Irish were breaking into
the house on all sides, the troopers causing the great gate to be opened,
sallied out, and opening themselves a way through the body of the rebels,
got safe with the rest of the foot soldiers sore wounded to Drogheda."
This may be accepted as a true, unvarnished account of this much magnified
attack; especially as Tichburne himself, who cannot be accused of
partiality towards the Irish, and who was Governor of Drogheda at the time
of its occurrence, seems to have been Carte's authority for it, as appears
from a reference to a letter written by Tichburne to Ormond, but not given
in the collection of Letters mentioned above. There is no question here of
quarter given, or of faith broken; no cold-blooded murders, no gruesome
picture of gory corpses unburied, nor of fiendish glee on the part of
rebels dancing round their watch-fires in presence of their stark and
naked victims strewn around!!! Pity such absurdity should be believed or
repeated in our time, when it should have been relegated to the same
lumber-heap as the story of the ghosts of the Bann!
We have yet another account from a paper or Report published in London by
two parties who only give their initials, T. A. and P. G. It was "printed
by Edward Blackmore, at the Angel, in Paul's Churchyard, in 1642," and is
now to be found in the _Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland_, so
ably edited by Sir John Gilbert, at Vol. I., Part II., p. 420. There is a
discrepancy in the dates, but that is immaterial, as only one attack is
said to have been made. It tells us, "That on the same day (April 30),
three or four hundred rebels came before Mellifont, three or four miles
from Drogheda, where Lord Moore had left on Tuesday before a garrison of
four-score foot and about thirty horse; the rebels plaid hotly upon them
until the horse were ready within; but as soon as the horse were ready,
they, with the foot, sallied out, and killed about thirty of the rebels."
This cannot be far from the truth, as it seems to be free from the
exaggerations in which Tichburne dealt, when recounting the numerical
strength of his and the enemy's forces, ascribing to the latter
poltroonery and cowardice in action, and crediting them with excessively
heavy losses.
The predisposing cause, why the Ulster Irish were ready for rebellion was
the misery the native inhabitants endured since the Plantation of the six
forfeited counties, some thirty odd years before. Even the remnants of the
estates allowed them by the Crown were filched from them by the greed and
cunning of unscrupulous Commissioners, who enriched themselves on the ruin
of the Irish. Prendergast (_Cromwellian Settlement_, pp. 49-50,) thus
describes the condition of the old Irish nobility and gentry
then:--"Little they (the Planters, who got the forfeited estates) thought
or cared how the ancient owner, dispossessed of his lands, must grieve as
he turned from the sight of the prosperous stranger to his pining family;
daughters, without prospect of preferment in marriage; sons, without fit
companions, walking up and down the country with their horses and
greyhounds, coshering on the Irish, drinking and gaming and ready for any
rebellion; most of his high-born friends wandering in poverty in France
and Spain, or enlisted in their armies." The immediate cause of the
Rebellion is thus stated:--"A letter was intercepted coming from Scotland
to one Freeman of Antrim giving an account that a Covenanting army was
ready to come to Ireland under General Lesly, to extirpate the Roman
Catholics of Ulster, and leave the Scots in possession of that province;
that resolutions to that effect had been taken at their private meetings,
as well as to levy heavy fines on such as would not appear at their kirk
for the first and second Sunday, and on failure the third, to hang at
their own doors without mercy, such as remained obstinate" (Carte's
_Ormond_, Vol. I., p. 160). This notion prevailed universally amongst the
rebels, and was chiefly insisted on by them as one of the principal
reasons of their taking up arms.
The Rebellion broke out, then, on the 23rd October, 1641, and the actors
in it were a "tumultuous rabble" as Ormond called them, intent chiefly on
plundering and driving off the English settlers, yet before the end of the
month the principal towns of the North were in their hands. Leland, a
Protestant historian, writes:--"That in the beginning of the insurrection,
it was determined by them that the enterprise should be conducted in every
quarter, with as little bloodshed as possible" (_History of Ireland_, Vol.
III., p. 101). At p. 131, the same historian writes:--"The Lords Justices
might have stamped out the insurrection at once had Ormond's advice to
levy a large number of troops been attended to; for the Irish were then
formidable only in numbers, and not six hundred of them had proper arms.
But their purpose was rather to fan it, in order to gratify their personal
greed by extensive forfeitures." Warner, who has been so often quoted
before, writes at p. 176 of his History:--"It is evident from the Lords
Justices' letter to the Lord Lieutenant that they hoped for an
extermination, not of the mere Irish only, but of all the old English
families who were Roman Catholics." They issued a most truculent order to
Ormond "to burn, kill, spoil, waste, destroy, the rebels, their relatives,
houses and property." One of these Lords Justices is thus referred to by
Carte: "He was a man of mean extract, scarcely able to read and write ...
plodding, assiduous, and indefatigable, greedy of gain, and eager to raise
a fortune; which it is not difficult for a man of indifferent parts to do,
when he is not hampered with scruples about the ways of getting it"
(_Ormond_, Vol. I., p. 190). This same Lord Justice, with three members of
the Privy Council, was put under arrest for disobedience to his Majesty,
King Charles, and for complicity with his enemies, the Parliamentarians of
England. The Lord Justice was deposed and imprisoned, but he retained his
ill-gotten property.
As has been said, the rebels became masters of the principal towns in the
North without meeting any check, when they attacked Mellifont. Lord Moore
was then in Drogheda with Sir Henry Tichburne, the Governor, with whose
policy and methods he, both before and afterwards, identified himself;
and, as an active agent of the Lords Justices, he was specially odious to
the Irish. During the siege of Drogheda, he more than once, by his
alertness and personal bravery, saved the town from falling into the hands
of the besiegers. With the exception of Lord Moore and a few of the older
families, both the Lords Justices themselves (who governed the country in
the absence of the Lord Lieutenant), and their ruthless instruments were
men of no fortune; or, were such as became enriched by the plunder of the
Irish. Tichburne, in a letter to his lady, alludes to one of the
commissions entrusted to him for execution, in which fiendish work Lord
Moore was associated with him. After his return from the burning of
Dundalk,[9] which he left a smouldering heap of ruins, he describes the
results:--"There was neither man nor beast to be found in sixteen miles,
between the two towns of Drogheda and Dundalk; nor on the other side of
Dundalk, in the County of Monaghan, nearer than Carrickmacross, a strong
pile twelve miles distant" (Tichburne's _Siege of Drogheda_, p. 320). And
in the same page he says, all this magnificent ruin and desolation were
inflicted on the peasantry "without one penny of charge to the State, and
that for the space of seven months, all under his command subsisted on the
spoils" taken from the unfortunate people in that district. "The country
and fields about Dundalk," he says, "were abounding in corn, which I
allocated to the several companies, etc." The ghosts of the Bann must have
been glutted with vengeance!!!
And now Lord Moore's career is drawing to a close. After having been
engaged in many successful skirmishes, raids, and minor actions, he burned
with a desire for the honour of measuring swords with the great Owen Roe,
who had defeated all the forces hitherto sent against him, and, according
to O'Neil's Diary, he affected to despise O'Neil. He was therefore
dispatched with a body of troops to dislodge that consummate strategist
from a position occupied by him at Portlester Mill, within five miles of
Trim. Borlase tells us that Lord Moore was killed in that engagement,
August 7th, 1643, "through the grazing of a cannon bullet which he
foresaw, yet took not warning enough to evade." The Author of the
_Aphorismical Discovery_, who is commonly supposed to have been O'Neil's
secretary, gives another account of his death. It is right to mention that
this author was by no means a monk, nor was he a clergyman at all, as is
evident from his apology in the Introduction, where he tells the reader
that he was by profession a "sworde carrier," and that it was "alienat" to
that profession to aspire to literary avocations. "The General" (O'Neil),
he writes, "not well pleased with his gunner, for he perceaved he shooted
too high, and did little hurte, the peace was charged, the Generall tooke
a perspective glasse, and saw wheare my Lord Moore stoode. It being
charged, the Generall did levell the same against Moore, gave fire, his
aime was soe neare home, that he hitted him a little above his corpise,
wherupon all dismembred, presently fell dead, the trunke of his bodie
fallinge downe, and some of his members whisling in the aire to take
possession by flight in some other field, or make such speede to accompany
his soul to hell to be assured for winter quarter next springe."
Lord Moore was succeeded by his son Henry, who, when Governor of Dundalk,
in 1645, was more than suspected of plotting with the Parliamentarians to
deliver up that town to Monroe. He was relieved of his charge by Ormond,
who was then Lord Lieutenant, and being a minor, was sent by him to
England (out of harm's way), to the Court, where he was kindly received by
the King, who ordered livery to be granted him of his father's lands
(_Carte_, Vol. IV., p. 154.) Lady Alice, his mother, was, it appears,
inveigled into a plot at the same time to deliver up Drogheda to the
Scots; for a wax impression of the keys of the gates having been given
her, she caused the gunsmith of the troop, which Lord Henry commanded, to
make false keys; but, being discovered, her ladyship, with others, was
sent to Dublin. There, on examination before the Council, they confessed
all. (_Ibid._) Her Ladyship's end was a tragic one, as we read in Lodge's
_Peerage_. "Lady Alice, younger daughter of Sir Adam Loftus, Viscount
Elye, who broke her leg near the fort (Drogheda) by a fall from her horse
(occasioned by a sudden grief arising from the first sight of St. Peter's
Church, Drogheda, where her dear lord lay buried), on Wednesday, 10th
June, 1649, and dying the 13th of a gangrene, was that night buried by him
in the family tomb."
There is another entry at the same place in Lodge. "Lieutenant-Colonel
Francis Moore, sixth son of the first Viscount Mellifont, and brother to
Lord Charles who was killed at Portlester Mill, who was an officer in the
army for the reduction of Ireland, and in 1654, had a pension from the
then Government of 10/- a week, and five of his brother Charles' children
had £3 17s. a week in 1665, out of the district of Trim" (Lodge's _Peerage
of Ireland_, Vol. II., pp. 99-100). This Francis Moore had been an officer
in the King's army, but soon after the arrival in Ireland of Jones, the
Parliamentarian General, he went over to him and took the Dundalk troops
with him. It was from Cromwell's government he had his pension, but the
pensions granted to Lord Charles' children were continued to them after
the Restoration, and Lord Henry mentioned above, was created Earl of
Drogheda, in 1661,--thus confirming the historic truism, that the
ungrateful Stuarts heaped favours on their enemies and treated their best
and most devoted adherents with cold indifference. As an illustration of
this we have the instance of one of the chief actors in those troublesome
times, Sir John Clotworthy, changing sides three times:--first, fighting
in the King's name and commission against the Ulster Irish; next, siding
with the Parliamentarians, his Majesty's deadliest enemies, and going over
to England as the spokesman of a deputation sent to the Parliament of
England to protest against the return of King Charles II., on rumour of
peace and terms being negotiated between them; again, on King Charles'
arrival in England, hieing over to tender his homages and
congratulations--and lo! the reward of his fidelity and loyalty (?)--he
was created Viscount Massereene. It is only one instance of several
hundreds that may be cited. The unfortunate rebels whose banner bore the
legend, "_Vivat Carolus Rex_"--"Long live King Charles," and who remained
faithful to him to the last, were, by an irony of fate, robbed and
banished by the Cromwellians, who were put in possession of their estates
and confirmed in them by Charles II.!!!
In the foregoing pages, the authorities quoted are Protestants, and all,
without exception, hostile to the Irish. Their testimony, nevertheless, is
favourable to the rebels, save where the question of religion crops up,
then their prejudice blinds their judgment, and hurries them into most
glaring absurdities. One more fact about that saddest page of our history.
Before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1641, there were 1,200,000 Irish
Catholics in the country; at its close in 1652, the number had fallen to
700,000, and these were ordered under pain of death to transplant to
Connaught--the remnant of a broken and plundered race!!!
Henry, the first Earl of Drogheda, did not long enjoy his honours; nor did
his son and successor, Charles, who was succeeded by his brother Henry,
the third Earl, who, on the eve of the ever-memorable Battle of the Boyne,
entertained a party, amongst whom was one of King William's highest
officers. On the morrow, July the 1st, the booming of King William's fifty
pieces of "dread artillery" echoed along the hills and the valley of the
Boyne, and shook the old abbey walls to their very foundations; and on
that night, the oaken rafters of Mellifont rang to the cheers and toasts
of the "glorious, pious, and immortal memory" of the Prince of Orange, on
whose side Earl Henry commanded that day a regiment of foot. It may be
interesting to mention here, that on the morning of the battle, the Irish
Catholic soldiers wore scraps of white paper on their caps--emblematic of
the livery of France; the followers of the Prince of Orange wore green
boughs torn off the trees.
Charles, Lord Moore, son of Henry, the third Earl, married Jane, heiress
of Arthur, Viscount Ely, who received as her portion the suppressed Abbey
of Monasterevan, a Cistercian monastery founded by O'Dempsey, in the 12th
century. It was called Rosglas by the Irish, and the Valley of Roses, in
the list of monasteries of the Order in Ireland. When it came into Earl
Charles' possession, he changed the name to Moore Abbey, and made it his
residence. The sons of this Lord Charles, Henry and Edward, became earls
successively, and Edward, the fifth earl, having settled down permanently
at Monasterevan, sold Mellifont and some of the property in its immediate
vicinity to Mr. Balfour of Townley Hall, in 1727.
The condition of Ireland at that time was truly deplorable. The Penal Laws
were in full force against the unfortunate Catholics, who were reduced to
a state little better than slavery. Dr. Johnson wrote of them some fifty
years later:--"The Irish are in a most unnatural state; for we see there
the minority prevailing over the majority. There is no such instance, even
in the ten persecutions, as that which the Protestants of Ireland have
exercised against the Catholics. Did we tell them we conquered, it would
be above board; to punish them by confiscations and other penalties was
monstrous injustice" (Boswell, at 1773).
With the Moore family departed also the very shadow of Mellifont's
diminished greatness, and "time's effacing finger" almost completely
obliterated what was once a gorgeous national monument, which stood out
clearly as a finger-post on the ways of time. Gradually the fabric fell
into decay, the owl hooted on the landing of the grand stair-case, and the
daw and martin flitted unmolested through the deserted halls. The gardens
and walks and bowers disappeared beneath a crop of tangled brushwood, the
product of neglect. Soon the roof fell in, the walls became seamed with
many rents and toppled over with a crash; then Mellifont, the "Honey
Fountain," the Monasthir Mor, or Great Abbey, as it was called, the
foundation of saints and kings, the abode of the pious and the learned,
the house pre-eminently of prayer, the asylum of the poor and friendless,
became a shapeless accumulation of rubbish. True, a mill was erected about
100 years ago close to the site of the church, and, no doubt, it was told
to strangers who then visited the ruins by people who professed to know
all about monks, that it had more activity and exhibited more of the
bustle of life than when the silent, slumbering monks dwelt there. But a
mill in that hallowed spot was a huge incongruity and a wanton disregard
for all its honoured associations. In 1884, the few remaining ruins became
vested in the Board of Works, and the excavations which revealed the plan
of the church, as described in Chapter I., were carried out. It only
remains to be said that in Mr. Balfour of Townley Hall, the estimable
gentleman who now owns Mellifont and some of the property formerly
belonging to it, his tenants have found a liberal and generous benefactor,
who enjoys the merited esteem and respect of all who know him.
As one ascends the hill over Mellifont, and, pausing on its summit, gazes
on the lovely scenery around him, particularly along the valley of the
Boyne, which Young called one of the completest pictures he had ever seen,
then glances at the quiet valley beneath him, and remembers what prominent
parts those who once trod that favoured spot played in our country's
chequered history, his soul is filled with solemn thoughts too big for
utterance. There, came the firm and gentle, yet dauntless, Malachy side
by side with Oriel's proud Chief, and hand in hand, they knelt and prayed
and consecrated it to the living God for ever. Thereon, rose up the
magnificent temple on which neither cost nor labour was spared, that it
might be worthy of Him Who deigns to dwell in tabernacles made by man; and
generation succeeded generation of monks, who calmly dwelt in that
peaceful valley, which, by their skill and enterprise, they converted into
a garden of delights and a terrestrial paradise. The bishop and the king
found there a resting-place when life's weary struggle was over, and their
end was sweetened by the cheering hopes of a glorious immortality. The
poor man and the homeless found there a welcome and a shelter, their wants
being liberally attended to; and the blessings of a free education and of
spiritual consolations were diffused on every side from that centre of
learning and piety. The knight and baron came, the belted man of war made
his home there, enjoyed his ephemeral honours, but he, too, is gone,
severing all connection with it both by name and title, leaving no trace
behind. The king and the knight have been brushed aside; and the old
chess-board, Mellifont, alone remains. Impressed with these reflections,
we take a glance beyond the grave, and there, we behold these actors pass
before the great, most just, and supreme Judge, to receive the requital of
their deeds, and to each is meted out reward or punishment according to
his deserts. We, too, the spectators, are hastening towards that same
goal; our future is indubitably in our own hands, according as we do or do
not now live up to our convictions, and the dictates of our consciences.
And, now, we cannot help asking ourselves, what shall Mellifont's future
be? At present it is a blank; but, shall the lamp of piety and learning be
rekindled, and the light burst forth anew there as in the days of its
splendour? We know not; but we do know that, although God's ways are
inscrutable, His wisdom and power are infinite. To Him be all glory for
ever and ever. Amen.
APPENDIX I.
LIST OF ABBOTS OF MELLIFONT.
Saint Christian O'Connarchy, Founder and first Abbot, Bishop of Lismore
and Legate of the Holy See, 1150.
Blessed Malchus, brother of preceding.
Charles O'Buacalla, 1177, made Bishop of Emly.
Patrick, term of office not known.
Maelisa, appointed Bishop of Clogher in 1194.
Thomas, 1211.
Carus, or Cormac O'Tarpa, elected Bishop of Achonry in 1219, resigned that
See in 1226, returned to Mellifont where he died.
Mathew, 1289.
Michael, 1293.
William M'Buain.
Hugh O'Hessain, resigned 1300.
Thomas O'Henghan.
Radulph, or Ralph O'Hedian.
Nicholas of Lusk, 1325.
Michael, 1333.
Roger, 1346.
Reginald, 1349.
Hugh, 1357.
Reginald Leynagh, died 15th August, 1368.
John Terrour, 1370.
[There is no record of the names of Abbots in this interval.]
Roger, 1472.
John Logan.
Henry.
John Warren.
Roger Boly.
John Troy, 1486-1500.
Thomas Harvey, died 20th March, 1525.
Richard Conter, the last regular Abbot, pensioned in 1540.
As will be observed, the line of succession is incomplete between the
years 1370 and 1472; and it is impossible now to fill in the gaps. The
List is taken from Ware's _Coenobia Cisterciensia in Hibernia_, and
Dalton's _History of Drogheda_.
APPENDIX II.
THE CHARTER OF NEWRY.
Copied and translated from the Original in the British Museum, from a copy
given by John O'Donovan in _Dublin Penny Journal_, 1832-33, p. 102.
Maurice M'Laughlin, King of all Ireland, to all his Kings, Princes,
Nobles, Leaders, Clergy and Laity, and to all and each the Irish present
and to come, GREETING.
Know ye that I, by the unanimous will and common consent of the Nobles of
Ultonia, Ergallia (Oriel), and O'Neach (Iveagh), to wit of Donchad
O'Carroll, King of all Ergallia, and of Murchad his son, King of O'Meith,
and of the territory of Erthur, of Conla, King of Ultonia, of Donald
O'Heda, King of O'Neach (Iveagh), HAVE GRANTED AND CONFIRMED, in honour of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Patrick, and St. Benedict, the Father and
Founder of the Cistercian Order, to the monks serving God in
Nyvorcintracta (Newry) as a perpetual and pure donation, the land of
O'Cormac, whereon was founded the monastery of Athcrathin, with its lands,
woods, and waters, Enancratha, with its lands, woods, and waters,
Crumglean, with its lands, woods, and waters, Caselanagan, with its lands,
woods, and waters, Lisinelle, with its lands, woods, and waters, Croa
Druimfornac, with its lands, woods, and waters, Letri, Corcrach,
Fidglassayn, Tirmorgannean, Connocol, etc. THESE LANDS with their MILLS, I
have confirmed to the aforesaid monks of my own proper gift, for the
health of my soul, that I may be partaker of all the benefits of masses,
_hours_ (_i.e._ vespers and matins), and prayers that shall be offered in
the Monastery itself, and to the end of time.
And because I have founded the Monastery of Ybar cintracta (Newry), of my
own free will, I have taken the monks so much under my protection, as sons
and domestics of the faith, that they may be safe from the molestations
and incursions of all men.
I will also that, as the Kings and Nobles of O'Neach (Iveagh), or of
Ergallia (Uriel), may wish to confer certain lands on this Monastery, for
the health of their souls, they may do so in my lifetime, while they have
my free will and licence, that I may know what and how much of my Earthly
Kingdom, the King of Heaven may possess for the use of His poor Monks.
_The Witnesses and Sureties are_:--
Giolla MacLiag, Archbishop of Armagh, _holding the Staff of Jesus in his
hand_.
Hugh O'Killedy, Bishop of Uriel (Clogher.)
Muriac O'Coffay, Bishop of Tirone (Derry.)
Melissa Mac in Clerig-cuir, Bishop of Ultonia (Down.)
Gilla Comida O'Caran, Bishop of Tirconnell (Raphoe.)
Eachmarcach O'Kane, King of Fearnacrinn and Kennacta (now Barony of
Keenaght, Co. Londonderry.)
O'Carriedh, the Great; Chief of Clan Aengusa, and Clan Neil.
Cumaige O'Flain, King of O'Turtray (Antrim.)
Gilla Christ O'Dubhdara, King of Fermanagh.
Eachmarcach O'Ffoifylain.
Maelmocta MacO'Nelba.
Aedh (Hugh) the Great Magennis, Chief of Clan-Aeda, in O'Neach Uladh
(Iveagh.)
Dermot MacCartan, Chief of Kenelfagartay (Kinelearty.)
Acholy MacConlacha, Gill-na-naemh O'Lowry, Chief of Kinel Temnean.
Gilla Odar Ocasey, Abbot of Dundalethglass (Downpatrick.)
Hugh Maglanha, Abbot of Inniscumscray (Iniscourcy.)
Angen, Abbot of Dromoge, and many other Clerics and Laics.
APPENDIX III.
INVENTORY OF ESTATES OF MELLIFONT.
Richard Conter, the last Abbot of Mellifont, was, on the 23rd July, 1539,
seized of two messuages, 167 acres of arable land, 10 of pasture, 5 of
meadow, and 5 of pasture in Clut------, with a salmon weir; £13 13s. 4d.
annual rent, arising from 16 fishing corraghs at Oldbridge, together with
the tithe-corn of the same, all of the annual value, besides reprises, of
£27 18s. 8d.; also a messuage in Shephouse, with the tithe-corn thereof,
of the annual value, besides all reprises, of £4 17s. 8d.; three
messuages, 120 acres of arable land, 20 of meadow,--a fishery, and a boat
for salmon-fishing in Komalane, together with the tithe-corn thereof, of
the annual value, besides all reprises, of £15 3s.; 3 messuages, 2
cottages, a water-mill,--a fishing-weir, 120 acres of arable land, 3
closes, containing 6 acres of mountain in Schahinge, together with the
tithe-corn, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of £12 6s. 8d.; 2
messuages,--20 acres of meadow and pasture in Donnore, together with the
tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of 115/4; 2
messuages, 8 cottages, 46 acres of arable land, and 2 of meadow in
Doo----, together with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value,
besides all reprises, of £5; 4 messuages, 18 cottages, 39 acres of arable
land, and 3 of meadow in Glassehalyine, together with the tithe-corn
thereof, of the annual value, besides all the reprises, of £5 18s. 8d.;
---- 124 acres of arable land, and 10 of meadow in Graungethe, together
with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of
£14 19s. 4d.; a messuage and cottage, 45 acres of arable land, and 15 of
meadow and pasture, in ----, together with the tithe-corn thereof, of the
annual value, besides all reprises, of £3 8s. 4d.; 4 messuages, 9
cottages, 64 acres of arable land, and 4 in meadow in Balranny, together
with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value of ----, ---- messuages,
with 19 acres of arable land in Kordoraghe, together with the tithe-corn
thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of 16/-; 7 messuages,
10 cottages, 186 acres of arable land, 8 of meadow, and 40 of pasture and
brushwood in ----, with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value,
besides all reprises, of £12 3s.; a messuage, two cottages, 120 acres of
arable land, a fishing-weir, called Bromey's weir, and the fishery there,
a water-mill in ----, with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value,
besides all reprises, of £16 5s.; 7 messuages, one cottage, 227 acres of
arable land, and 10 of meadow in Ballyfadocke, together with the
tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of ----; 4
messuages, 20 acres of arable land, and 4 of meadow in Kinoyshe, together
with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of
£10 3s. 8d.; 4 messuages, 46 acres of arable land, and 4 of meadow in
Kellystone, with the tithe-corn thereof, besides all reprises, of the
annual value of £4 5s. 4d.; 2 messuages, 3 cottages, 60 acres of arable
land, 6 of pasture, and 4 of meadow in Oracamathane, together with the
tithe-crown thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of ----; 4
messuages, 8 cottages, 124 acres of arable land, a salmon-weir, called
Monktone, a water-mill in the town-land of Rosmore, together with the
tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of ----; 3
messuages, 6 cottages, 126 acres of arable land, 6 of meadow, and 6 of
meadow in Gyltone, together with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual
value, besides all reprises, of £6 4s. 8d; 5 messuages, 8 cottages, 141
acres of arable land, the fourth part of an acre of meadow, and 6 of
common pasture in Dromenhatt, otherwise, Newton of Knockamothane, together
with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of
£8 9s.; 6 messuages, 140 acres of arable land, 4-1/2 of meadow ---- in
Radrenage, together with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value,
besides all reprises, of £7 12s.; 3 messuages, 8 cottages, 120 acres of
arable land, 6 of meadow, 6 of pasture in Calm, together with the
tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides all reprises, of £6
17s.; 3 messuages, 60 acres of arable land, 60 of pasture, and 4 of meadow
in Starenaghe, with the tithe-corn thereof, of the annual value, besides
all reprises, of £5 5s. 8d.; the tithe-corn of the townland of
----inserathe and Balregane, near Donnore and below the parish of
Mellifont, of the annual value of £2; the tithe-corn of the town of
Monamore, of the annual value of £2 13s. 4d.; the rectory of Balrestore,
of the annual value of ----; and the chapels of Grangegeythe and
Knockamothane, parcel of the rectory of Mellifont, of the annual value of
---- all the said rectories being appropriated to the Abbot and his
successors, and, together with the said lands, etc., are lying and
situated in the Co. of Meath. The Abbot was also seized of a small house
in the town of Drogheda, in the tenure of Thomas Tanner, annual value
13/4, and also of another house in the tenure of Roger Samon, of the
annual value of 8/-, with 2/- rent from the Mayor and commonalty of
Drogheda.
The above is from the _Monasticon Hibernicum_. It by no means contains a
full inventory of the possessions of Mellifont at the time of its
suppression, only the property belonging to it in the County Meath. In the
same _Monasticon_ we read, "By an inquisition taken 14th June, 1612, the
possessions of this Abbey were found as follow:--The site, a water-mill, a
garden, an orchard, a park called Legan Park, the old orchard containing
two acres, the silver meadow 9 acres, the wood meadow 10 acres, and the
doves' park; 80 acres of underwood; Killingwood, being great timber,
containing 12 acres; Ardagh, 20 acres, being the demesne lands, and the
grange and town of Tullyallen, containing 27 messuages and 260 acres;
Derveragh, 5 messuages and 213 acres; Mell, 2 messuages and 60 acres;
Ballymear, alias Ballyremerry, 2 messuages and 60 acres; Sheepgrange, no
tithe, 8 messuages and 245 acres; Little Grange, 4 messuages and 62 acres;
Beckrath, 2 messuages and 63 acres; Cubbage, 4 messuages and 103 acres;
Ballygatheran, no tithe, 6 messuages and 132 acres; Salthouse, 7 messuages
and 238 acres; Staleban, 11 messuages and 160 acres; Vinspocke, 6
messuages and 90 acres; Morragh, no tithes, 11 messuages and 120 acres;
Ballypatrick, 8 messuages and 120 acres; in Collon, a water-mill and 23
acres, £6 13s. 4d. annual rent out of the said town, and the tithes
thereof; Ballymacskanlan, a castle, no tithe, and 120 acres; Cruerath,
Ballyraganly and Donnore, in the parish of Mellifont, with the tithes and
altarages, all in this county" (Louth). Here follow the possessions
belonging to the Abbey in the County Meath, and which have been given.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The "Tourist Company" have recently fitted up a compartment of the old
mill, where a cheap and substantial lunch can be had by visitors who may
desire it.
[2] See Illustration, p. 19.
[3] See Illustration, p. 23.
[4] See Illustration, p. 35.
[5] See Illustration, p. 43.
[6] See Illustration, p. 47.
[7] The _Annals of Ulster_ simply state "for the monks of Ireland did
banish him (Auliv) out of their abbacy, through lawful causes." _The Four
Masters_ tell us it was the monks of Drogheda who had expelled him from
the abbacy for his own crime. A writer in the _Dublin Penny Journal_,
1835-36, says this Auliv was Abbot of the monastery of St. Mary de Urso,
near the West Gate, Drogheda. He quotes some old Annals without
particularising them. And Dalton, in his History of Drogheda, tells us
that Auliv had been Abbot of that same Abbey of St. Mary's, Drogheda, and
was expelled. Dalton evidently confounds this monastery with Mellifont. No
Cistercian Community had power to depose their abbot, such power being
vested in the General Chapter of the Order.
[8] It is not generally known that it was an Irishman who, on the fatal
day of Aughrim, as St. Ruth rode to victory waving his cap, pointed him
out to the gunner whose faithful shot deprived St. Ruth of his head and
the Irish Army of a valiant General.
[9] The Puritans admitted that Sir Phelim O'Neil did not commence his
alleged massacres until after the sacking and burning of Dundalk.
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