against any lay power trying to hinder them in the
exercise of their episcopal duties. Although nothing
more is heard of this movement, it demonstrated
Nicholas’s ability to marshal support from traditional
enemies in defense of basic ecclesiastical rights.
Yet Nicholas was no less diligent in protecting those
same rights against the native Irish rulers of the small
kingdoms that formed much of his province. When
Boniface VIII published
Clericis laicos
, a papal bull
forbidding secular rulers such as the kings of England
and France from levying taxes on the church without
first obtaining Rome’s permission, Nicholas deftly
appropriated it for his own purposes. Armed with the
bull and the relics of Ireland’s three greatest saints,
Patrick, Colum Cille, and Brigit (their location at
Saulpatrick had been revealed to him in 1293) Nicholas
did a circuit of the neighboring Gaelic kingdoms. He
persuaded Domnall Ua Néill of Tír nEógain, Brian
Mac Mathgamna of Airgialla (Oriel), and Donn Mag
Uidhir of Fermanagh to put their names to a document
protecting the church from various secular infringe-
ments. Thus, the deed made provision for fines of cattle
(an Irish custom) for injuries done to ecclesiastical
property and persons (including damage done by hired
mercenaries, the Irish kern and Scots gallowglass);
stipulated penalties for the followers of those lords
who injured clerks going to Rome, and nuns or wid-
ows; and upheld the church’s right to goods arising
from intestacy.
As indicated by these cases, Nicholas does not fit the
stereotypical characterization of the church in Ireland
of the thirteenth century as divided into two perpetually
hostile camps, Irish and Anglo-Norman. Certainly, as a
native Irish archbishop of a predominantly Irish prov-
ince he knew how to use the traditional weapons of his
culture. Witness his exploitation of the relics of Ireland’s
three great saints and his recourse to the customary
fines of cattle as exacted in native Irish law. Yet he
seems to have cultivated good relations with the Anglo-
Norman bishops. In addition to plotting with Stephen of
Fulbourne to have the latter’s brother made bishop of
Meath, he maintained good relations with the Anglo-
Norman archbishop of Dublin, avoiding the potentially
explosive topic of which ecclesiastical province held
primacy of all Ireland. And although he fought with the
crown, he was fully prepared to cooperate with it as
long as ecclesiastical rights were honored.
P
ÁDRAIG
Ó N
ÉILL
References and Further Reading
Gwynn, Aubrey. “Nicholas Mac Maol ́losa, Archbishop of
Armagh, 1272–1303.” In
Féilsgríbhinn Éoin Mhic Néill
,
edited by John Ryan, 394–405. Dublin: The Sign of the
Three Candles, 1940.
Otway-Ruthven, A. J.
A History of Medieval Ireland. New York:
Barnes and Noble, 1993.
Watt, John.
The Church in Medieval Ireland
. Dublin: Gill and
Macmillan, 1972.
Watt, John. “English Law and the Irish Church: The Reign of
Edward I.” In
Medieval Studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn,
S.J.
, edited by J. A. Watt et al., 133–167. Dublin: The Sign
of the Three Candles, 1961.
NUNS
There were nuns in Ireland from the arrival of St.
Patrick in the fifth century until the dissolution of the
monasteries in the 1540s, although they left fewer
traces of their lives and spiritual interests than their
brothers did.Fifth to Twelfth Century
The earliest Christian writings from Ireland, those of
St. Patrick, speak of the large numbers of women who
were living under religious vows. In the earliest days
these women must have lived privately, as it was not
until the sixth century that there is evidence of
women’s communities in the records. After this, reli-
gious women began to live together on land often set
aside for their use by their families. Some of the com-
munities were short-lived, while others flourished and
have been remembered in place names, stories about
saints, and the surviving buildings.
Bridget of Kildare (sixth century) is the best known
of the nuns from early Ireland, although there is little
certainty about the events of her life. Hagiography and
other texts indicate that the nunnery at Kildare was a
large and very important community from at least the
seventh century. Its political importance is underlined
by the fact that all the recorded abbesses of Kildare
were from the families of the kings of Leinster, such
as the Uí Dúnlainge. From the hagiography of prom-
inent women saints such as Bridget of Kildare, Íte of
Cell Íte (Killeedy, Co. Limerick), Mo-Ninne of Cell
Shléibe Cuilinn (Killeevy, Co. Armagh), and Samthann
of Cluain Brónaig (Clonbroney Co. Longford), it is
clear that professed nuns were involved in fostering
and educating children, pastoral care, negotiating for
the release of hostages, and caring for the sick.
Hagiography also records nuns reading and writing,
teaching psalms, and lending manuscripts. These well-
educated and privileged women lived under religious
rules that were probably devised by the founders of
their nunneries. There were other religious women
who lived under less formal vows. Some of these
were widows living either in small groups or around
churches, where they prayed and undertook some
pastoral care.NUNS