RÁITH BRESSAIL, SYNOD OFSee alsoAnglo-Norman Invasion; Bruce, Edward;
Gaelicization; Lordship of Ireland; National
Identity; Viking Incursions
RÁITH BRESSAIL, SYNOD OF
The synod of Ráith Bressail, which met near Borri-
soleigh (County Tipperary) in the year 1111, is, by
far, the most important of all the synods associated
with the twelfth-century Church Reform movement
in Ireland. While the synod of Cashel, which preceded
it by ten years, has been seen as introducing reform,
Ráith Bressail has been perceived to be revolutionary.
It sought nothing less than to bring about a complete
change in the way the church in Ireland was admin-
istered. Up to the time it was convened the church did
not have the administrative structure (a few Hiberno-
Norse cities excepted) that existed in most of the rest
of the Western church—a hierarchical, territorially
based system of dioceses under the control of bishops.
It was precisely that system that the synod would now
set about introducing.
Before this happened, some preparations were made.
A bishop was chosen for a new diocese that was estab-
lished in Limerick, the headquarters of Muirchertach
Ua Briain, then the most powerful king in Ireland. This
bishop, Gille, set about preparing the clergy of Ireland
for the changes that were about to be implemented. He
prepared a tract on the constitution of the church, De
statu ecclesiae; this explained the organization of the
overall church within which the structure, about to be
introduced, fitted. He sent this to the bishops and priests
of the whole country accompanied by a letter that
deplored what he saw as the fault of the contemporary
organization: lack of uniformity of religious practice.
In this he also urged them to be zealous in striving for
unity of practice in conformity with the rules of the
Roman church. At some time prior to the actual meeting
of the synod, Gille was appointed papal legate by Pope
Paschal II and it was in this capacity that he presided
over it.
The Synod Meets
The synod is widely reported in the annals; all report
the presence of the king, Muirchertach Ua Briain; the
coarb of Patrick (i.e., the abbot of Armagh); the impor-
tant Munster cleric, bishop Máel Muire Ua Dúnáin;
and varying numbers of other unnamed clerics and
laymen. None report Gille’s presence despite its impor-
tance. Nor do they report on what it decreed, being
content with only rather formulaic references to it. For
this we have to depend upon a chance survival. As part
of his great work on the history of Ireland, For as Feasa
ar Éirinn, Geoffrey Keating, the seventeenth-century
historian, transcribed some details about the synod
from an old book, now lost, that he found in
Clonenagh. It is here that we also discover the impor-
tant role played by Gille. Keating reports one of the
more important decisions when he summarizes what
he has read in the old book: “It was at this synod that
the churches of Ireland were given up entirely to the
bishops free for ever from the authority and rent of lay
princes.” The property of the existing church was thus
to be handed over to the bishops and they were to hold
it free of any charge that may have been exercised
against it by laymen
a major transfer that must have
been very difficult to implement in practice. Even more
important, however, was its decision to divide Ireland
into dioceses and to nominate their sees.The Diocesan Structure
Based apparently upon what was originally planned
(but never put into practice) for the English church as
described by the Venerable Bede, it was decided that
there would be two ecclesiastical provinces in Ireland,
one for the northern half with its archiepiscopal see in
Armagh and the other for the southern half with its see
in Cashel. This corresponded with the long-established
tradition of two political divisions in Ireland, Leth
Cuinn (the northern half) and Leth Moga (the southern
half). Lesser political divisions had to be taken into
account when decisions were made about individual
dioceses. This was likely to have been difficult, exacer-
bated as it was by the number of existing ecclesiastical
establishments often associated with these political divi-
sions that would have aspired to become diocesan sees.
In this the chosen English model proved to be of con-
siderable help in that it provided what was likely to have
been an acceptable precedent for the number of dio-
ceses to be established: thirteen, including the diocese
of the archbishop, in each ecclesiastic province. Given
that Bede’s work was known and respected in Ireland,
it would have provided a bulwark against pressures to
establish a multiplicity of dioceses, and there is strong
evidence that a major concern was that a cap be placed
on the number of dioceses to be established.
For each province the synod specified not just the
sees but the boundaries of each diocese, except in the
case of Limerick, which, reflecting the role played in
the synod by its bishop, Gille, is described in consid-
erable detail: the diocesan boundaries are delimited by
four named topographical points such as a mountain,
a river, or the sea. The diocesan sees chosen for the
northern province were Armagh (the primatial and
metropolitan see), Clogher, Ardstraw,Derry or Raphoe,
Connor, and Down (all six in Ulster); Duleek and