GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (GERALD DE BARRI)Apart from a dubious reference to his being abbot
of the ancient monastery of Bangor, the only thing
known for certain about his life before he became
bishop of Limerick is that he had once associated with
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, while at Rouen in
Normandy. This is known from a later exchange of
letters they wrote sometime after August 1107. The
same letters reveal that Gille was not consecrated by
the archbishop of Canterbury, a fact that fits well with
our understanding of the choice of Gille as bishop of
Limerick. He had been chosen for that position by king
Muirchertach Ua Briain, in order to take charge of
reforming the church within an Irish context and sep-
arate from Canterbury. Some time after his appoint-
ment, he wrote a tract on the constitution of the church,
De statu ecclesiae, and sent it, with an accompanying
letter, to “the bishops and priests of the whole of
Ireland.” In the letter he deplored the diversity of reli-
gious practices that he said existed in Ireland, and he
called for unity of practice in conformity with the rules
of the Roman church. In order to help achieve this, he
said that a church structure was required in which all
members would find their place; he then placed a
sketch of this structure at the start of his tract. He used
it to explain the relationship between the different levels
in the structure; for example, he said that an archbishop
may have between three and twenty bishops within his
province. After that he proceeded to give the duties
and function of the people at each level, from layman
to pope.
In sending this tract to the bishops and priests of
Ireland, Gille was preparing them for the changes that
were being contemplated and which would be revealed
at the synod of Ráith Bressail (1111). Gille presided
over this synod as papal legate; the first, according to
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “to function as legate of the
apostolic see throughout the whole of Ireland.” Unfor-
tunately we know nothing about the circumstances
surrounding his appointment by Pope Paschal II. One
thing is clear however; the pope would not have
appointed him without being assured of his worthiness.
It is, therefore, a tribute to the character of the man
that he would be entrusted with such a signal honor.
Before the synod of Ráith Bressail began, Gille
already had established his new diocese of Limerick
and its cathedral, St Mary’s. This is clear from the
documents associated with that synod. The enactments
of the synod itself were revolutionary; a whole new
church structure, similar but not identical to the one he
had outlined in his tract, was to be introduced into the
Irish church as a replacement for the existing one, with
its ancient traditions. This is a measure of the task
which Gille faced. Thereafter, however, very little is
found about him in the sources. He visited Westminster
in 1115 and took part in a consecration there; he also
performed some episcopal duties at the abbey of
St. Albans in England. But, much more importantly,
he took decisive action at a time that was crucial to the
continued survival of the new reform structure. When
Cellach, the bishop of Armagh, died in 1129, there was
an attempt made by conservative forces there to reverse
the church’s commitment to reform. Gille strongly
urged Malachy, the successor chosen by reformers, to
take on these forces. An assembly of bishops and sec-
ular princes was called to add force to his urgings, and
Armagh was ultimately successfully kept within the
reform camp. Malachy would eventually succeed Gille
as papal legate in 1140, Gille being at that time elderly
and frail. His death in 1145 is the only time that he gets
a mention in the Irish annals and even then, only in one.
MARTIN HOLLANDReferences and Further Reading
Fleming, J. Gille of Limerick (c. 1070–1145): Architect of a
Medieval Church. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001.
Gwynn, A. The Twelfth-century Reform. History of Irish Cathol-
icism 2. Dublin and Sydney: Gill and Son, 1968.
———. The Irish Church in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries.
Edited by Gerard O’Brien. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1992.
Holland, Martin. “Dublin and the Reform of the Irish Church
in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries.” Peritia: Journal of
the Medieval Academy of Ireland 14 (2000): 111–160.
Hughes, K. The Church in Early Irish society. London: Methuen,
1966.
Watt, J. The Church in Medieval Ireland. 2nd edition. Dublin:
University College Dublin Press, 1998.
See also Canon Law; Cashel, Synod of I (1101);
Church Reform, Twelfth Century; Dál Cais;
Ecclesiastical Organization; Limerick; Malachy
(Máel-Máedóic); Muirchertach; Raith Bressail,
Synod of; Ua BriainGIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS
(GERALD DE BARRI)
Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis) was the first
foreigner to write a book about Ireland—indeed, in
the late 1180s he wrote two in swift succession, the
Topographia Hibernie (Topography of Ireland) and the
Expugnatio Hibernica (Invasion of Ireland), both from
the standpoint of a hostile outsider. The brilliance of
these two books (the most popular of all his many
works) elaborated and established an idea that was
already beginning to take root in intellectual circles in
Europe and especially in England, the idea that the Irish
were an inferior and barbarous people. So influential
did Gerald’s expression of this idea become that in the
seventeenth century, John Lynch was moved to write:
The wild dreams of Giraldus have been taken up by
a herd of scribblers... I find the calumnies of which