RELIGIOUS ORDERS
Clairvaux, then at the height of its influence. Leaving a
number of his entourage to be trained as monks he
procured a site near Drogheda for the first Irish founda-
tion, Mellifont, which was colonized in 1142 by French
and Irish monks. Differences over observance soon led
to the return of the French brethren to Clairvaux. Despite
this, the monastery flourished, eventually numbering
twenty daughter houses in its filiation.
The Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169 had a profound
effect on monastic and ecclesiastical life. Although
initially welcomed by Irish churchmen as promoters
of church reform, racial tension soon emerged and the
issue of the “two nations” in the Irish church became
a dominant and divisive one for the rest of the Middle
Ages. The colonists’ establishment of new Cistercian
houses created rival filiations to Mellifont. These foun-
dations were staffed by English or French personnel
and generally maintained a higher standard of monastic
discipline so that racial animosity became fused with
issues of religious observance. This contributed to a
breakdown in relations between the order’s general
chapter and the Gaelic houses between 1217 and 1230.
Known as the “Mellifont conspiracy” the dispute was
largely resolved by the visitation of Abbot Stephen of
Lexington in 1228. He disbanded the Mellifont filia-
tion, imposed French and English abbots on a number
of houses, dismissed nuns from the vicinity of the
monasteries, and insisted that all monks be able to
confess in either Latin or French. The Mellifont filia-
tion was restored in 1274.
The Anglo-Normans also introduced the Hospitaller
and military orders to Ireland. Of these, the Knights
Templar with their principal preceptory at Clontarf and
the Knights Hospitaller at Kilmainham were the most
important. They were granted extensive lands and
recruited their members almost exclusively from the
ranks of the colonists. A monastery for the Trinitarians,
a group dedicated to the redemption of Christian
slaves, was established at Adare in Limerickin approx-
imately 1226 and the Order of the Holy Cross
(Crutched Friars) had established seventeen priory
hospitals by the early thirteenth century.
The twelfth century also saw the emergence of
anchorites or religious recluses attached to parochial
and monastic churches in many of the towns and cities
of the colony. The 1306 will of John de Wynchedon,
a wealthy Cork merchant, lists four such recluses at
various churches in the city, and there is contemporary
evidence for their presence at sites in Dublin, Water-
ford, Fore, and Cashel.
The small number of early nunneries that survived
into the later Middle Ages generally adopted the
Augustinian rule during the twelfth century. A number
of new houses for Augustinian Canonesses were also
made, of which Clonard in Meath (c.1144) was initially
the most important. In 1195, it was listed as having
thirteen daughter houses. The Ua Conchobair founda-
tion at Kilcreevanty, County Galway, although origi-
nally Benedictine, had become Augustinian by 1223
when it was recognized as the mother house of the
Canonesses in Connacht. Other important Augustinian
nunneries were Killone, County Clare, St. Mary de
Hogges (c.1146), and Grace Dieu (c.1190) in Dublin
city and county, respectively. There are also references
to Cistercian nuns at Derry and Ballymore, County
Westmeath.The Mendicant Friars
The mendicant friars experienced rapid growth in
Ireland in the thirteenth century. The Dominicans
arrived in 1224, and an independent Irish Franciscan
province was erected in 1230. The Carmelites are first
mentioned in 1271, and the Augustinians made their
first foundation in 1282. All these Orders were
founded from England, and the Irish Dominicans,
Carmelites, and Augustinians formed part of the
English provinces for most of the pre-Reformation
period. The friars initially gravitated to the towns and
boroughs of the colony, although a number of important
early Gaelic foundations were also made: Franciscan
and Dominican houses were established at Ennis,
Armagh, and Roscommon while the Dominican foun-
dation at Athenry, through a de Bermingham founda-
tion, enjoyed the patronage of local native Irish lords.
The Irish friars promoted pastoral renewal through
preaching and hearing confessions. Each order devel-
oped a network of studiaor schools in which young
friars were instructed. More promising students were
sent for higher studies to the respective orders’ studia
at Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Strasbourg, Bologna,
Milan, and Padua. The mendicants also provided the
teaching staff for the short-lived University of Dublin
in the 1320s.
The friars’ success brought them into conflict with
the Anglo-Irish secular clergy, and Archbishop Richard
Fitz Ralph of Armagh (d. 1360) proved a formidable
and influential opponent.
Despite their initial fervor the mendicants were also
divided by racial tension. The most frequently cited
example was the death of sixteen friars as a result of
a dispute between Gaelic and Anglo-Irish Franciscans
in Cork in 1291. The campaign of Edward Bruce in
Ireland between 1315 and 1317 further polarized the
friars, and the pope strongly condemned the native
Irish friars for supporting Bruce. Irish grievances
found expression in theapproximately 1317 Remon-
stranceof Domnall Ua Néill to Pope John XXII, who
denounced the Cistercian monks of Granard and other