RECORDS, ECCLESIASTICALThe major sets of annals, monastic in origin and
compiled and r-combined from various sources, were
continued through the Anglo-Norman period and
written for the most part in Irish. Other Anglo-Irish
annals, written in Latin, were compiled in the new
monastic centers established by the continental
Orders, the Cistercians, Franciscans, and so forth, for
example, the so-called Annals of St Mary’s, Dublin
and the Annals of Multyfarnham, compiled by
Stephen Dexter, O.F.M., the so-called Kilkenny
Chronicle, and the annals of Friar John Clyn, which
ceased in the Great Plague of 1348−1349. They cer-
tainly continued to be written by men in clerical
orders, and as such, although strictly a secular source,
they are a valuable complement to the often scanty
material from ecclesiastical sources.
From the eleventh century onward, new impetus was
given to the composition of hagiographical material in
both Irish and Latin, and an Irish homiliariumwas com-
posed. The manuscripts of the saints’ lives survive in
three large medieval collections put together in the four-
teenth century. They include lives of Irish saints as well
as imported lives of continental saints, all of them
redacted in the period following the diocesan reorganiza-
tion of the Irish Church at the synod of Kells-Mellifont
(1152) from sources now lost. These lives were intended
for an ecclesiastical audience, but the great vernacular
religious compilations such as Leabhar Breac and the
Book of Lismorewere written for educated lay patrons
but by clerical scholars.
The earlier martyrologies were adumbrated and new
ones composed. They took external sources like the
ninth-century martyrology of Bishop Ado of Vienne and
merged it with native material, especially the commen-
tary on the Martyrology of Óengus compiled between
1170 and 1174 at Armagh. At least four new martyrol-
ogiesthose of Drummond, Turin, Cashel, and
Yorkwere compiled in the immediate post-conquest
period, perhaps in response to Anglo-Norman accusa-
tions of cultural backwardness.
Documents detailing transfer of ecclesiastical prop-
erty or rights existed in the pre-Norman Church, and
indeed in the early Christian period. However, they are
not, strictly speaking, charters, since Ireland had no
central administration and no chancery. What might
be described as primitive charters defining ecclesias-
tical property rights and prerogatives can be found in
the eighth-century Book of Armagh, but they are best
defined as notitiae(records of legal transactions or
proceedings). They are only records of transactions
between donor and recipient and lack the disposition
and witness list found in later charters. The Irish char-
ters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries differ in
character and in form but derive their authenticity and
sanction from transcription in Gospel books, a tradition
found all over Europe. They are bilingual, written partly
in Irish and partly in Latin. They were not produced by
royal scribes, writing in a distinctive notarial hand, and
carry no royal seal, as do later charters; they were
produced for new church foundations, particularly of
continental origin, by their own scribes. Diplomas,
writs, and deeds are a product of the Anglo-Norman
administration. A probable link has been suggested
between the reform of the Irish church in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries and the introduction of “full”
charters (Flanagan 1998).
The native Irish church in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries continued to hold synods and issue decrees,
quite separate for the most part from those that came
from Anglo-Norman centers like Dublin. The Synods
of Cashel (1101) issued canons against simony, clerical
marriage, the exemption of the Church from rent and
exaction, incestuous marriage, and the joint adminis-
tration of contiguous monastic dioceses. The synods
of Ráith Bressail (1111) and Kells-Mellifont (1152)
reorganized the native diocesan system and issued sim-
ilar canons against the recurring issues of simony and
concubinage as well as inheritance of benefices, taxa-
tion of churches, and abuse of sanctuary. Like all syn-
odalia of the medieval period, however, they are badly
preserved and scattered among sources and manu-
scripts of later date. We know little of the provincial
constitutions or councils held within the Gaelic dio-
ceses. The earliest record of a synod held within the
Pale is that convened in 1186 by Archbishop Cumin of
Dublin, preserved in a confirmation of Pope Urban III.
From the later thirteenth century, it can be seen that
English synodal statutes were commandeered into ser-
vice in modified form in many Irish foundations and
that, consequently, little original formulation or legis-
lation was undertaken in Ireland. The undated group of
canons in the Crede Mihi, the register of the see of
Dublin, probably belong to the episcopate of Arch-
bishop Fulk de Sanford (1256−1271) and, perhaps,
specifically to his visitation of his diocese in 1256−- They relate chiefly to the education of diocesan
clergy. They derive ultimately from statutes promul-
gated at York between 1241 and 1255 and were
adapted, without acknowledgment of source, for use
in Dublin by Fulk or his predecessor Luke. Similarly,
the surviving statutes of the diocese of Ferns derive
from English legislation. Cross-miscegenation and
repromulgation to suit local circumstances are univer-
sal in early canon law.
The Vatican archives are an invaluable source of
information on the affairs of the medieval Irish Church,
but many are as yet unpublished. The Calendar of
Papal Letters contains breviates of letters from the
papacy in response to individual queries relating to a
great range of issues: dispensations from impediments