Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes movedto the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.
THE SEE OF DROMORE.
DR. COLENSO AND THE OLD TESTAMENT.
RICHARD FITZ-RALPH, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH.
MR. BUTT AND NATIONAL EDUCATION.
LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.
CORRESPONDENCE.
DOCUMENTS.
NOTICES OF BOOKS.
The see of Dromore, though founded by St. Colman, seems for severalcenturies to have comprised little more than the abbey of that greatsaint and its immediate territory. In the synod of Rathbreasil (a. d.1118), in which the boundaries of the various dioceses were defined, nomention is made of Dromore, and the territory subsequently belonging toit was all comprised within the limits of the see of Connor. The acts ofthe synod of Kells held about fifty years later, are also silent as to abishop of Dromore; and Cencius Camerarius, compiling his list of sees in1192, again omits all mention of this see. Nevertheless, the abbot ofthe monastery, "de viridi ligno", which gave name to the town of Newry,ruled this diocese with episcopal authority during the later half of thetwelfth century, and a bishop of this see named Uroneca (alias O'Rony)is mentioned in a charter of donations to the abbey of Neddrum, aboutthe year 1190 (see Reeves' Ecclesiastical Antiquities, pag. 192).
The last episcopal abbot of this great monastery was Gerard, aCistercian monk of Mellifont, who, in 1227, was chosen bishop, and diedin 1243. A controversy then arose between the chapter of Dromore and themonastery of Newry. Each claimed the right of electing the successor tothe deceased bishop; and the Archbishop of Armagh gave judgment infavour of the former. The matter being referred to Rome, all controversywas set at rest by Pope Innocent VI., who by letter of 5th March, 1244,addressed "to the dean and chapter of Dromore", confirmed the decisionof the Archbishop of Armagh, and sanctioned the right of the canons ofDromore to elect the bishops of the see (Mon. Vatic., pag. 42).Andrew, archdeacon of Dromore, was accordingly elected bishop, and[Pg 506]consecrated in 1245, and the episcopal succession continueduninterrupted till the latter half of the fifteenth century.
Ware, in his Bishops of this see, and Dr. Reeves, in hisEcclesiastical Antiquities of Down and Connor (pag. 308), tell us thaton the death of the Carmelite bishop, David of Chirbury, in 1427, thesee was held by Thomas Scrope, who resigned before 1440; that hissuccessor, Thomas Radcliffe, also resigned before 1461; that the nextbishop was George Brann, appointed about 1487; and that the see was heldin 1500 by another bishop named William Egremond.
The actual succession of bishops, however, was far different. On thedeath of David of Chirbury, Dr. Thomas Radcliffe was chosen hissuccessor in 1429, as the historians