ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRALcrimes such as intentional wounding or arson. In cases
of very serious criminality, (such as killing one’s own
kinsman or covert homicide), their entire honor price
was lost.
NEIL MCLEOD
References and Further Reading
Binchy, Daniel. editor. Críth Gablach. Dublin: Dublin Institute
for Advanced Studies, 1941.
Breatnach, Liam. Uraicecht na Ríar: The Poetic Grades in Early
Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies,
1987.
Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988.
MacNeill, Eoin. “Ancient Irish Law: The Law of Status or
Franchise.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 36 C
(1923): 265–316.
McLeod, Neil. “Interpreting Early Irish Law: Status and Cur-
rency.” (Part 1) Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 41 (1986):
46–65; (Part 2) ibid. 42 (1987): 41–115.
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ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL
The earliest known reference to a St. Patrick’s church
in Dublin occurs circa 1121. Often described as “in
insula,” between two branches of the Poddle river, it
was one of several churches south of the Liffey with
Irish dedications. Six cross-slabs in the cathedral,
including the “St. Patrick’s well” slab, date to the
Hiberno-Norse tenth and eleventh centuries, demon-
strating that, from the twelfth century onwards, the cult
of St. Patrick was intricately bound up with competi-
tion between Dublin and Armagh. “Edanus, priest of
St. Patrick’s” is the earliest known individual, listed in
a grant by Archbishop Lorcán Ua Tuathail to his canons
of Holy Trinity (Christ Church) cathedral in 1178.
By 1191, the first Anglo-Norman archbishop of
Dublin, John Cumin, established St. Patrick’s
beyond the city walls as a collegiate church, dedi-
cated on St. Patrick’s Day to “God, our Blessed Lady
Mary and St. Patrick.” His successor, Henry of London,
unhappy with Holy Trinity as a priory of Augustinian
canons regular (subject to monastic rule), began to
elevate St. Patrick’s to cathedral status. In 1214, he
instituted the secular offices of precentor, chancellor,
and treasurer, followed by the adoption of the Sarum
rite, and by 1221, St. Patrick’s had a charter which,
completing the 4-square secular organization,
included the office of dean.
The late foundation of St. Patrick’s explains the
paucity of its landed property around Dublin, some
1,800 acres, mainly consisting of Clondalkin, Saggart,
and Shanganagh. Thirteen prebendaries were estab-
lished from archiepiscopal lands, the richest being the
“Golden prebend” of Swords. Liberties of St. Patrick’s
and of St. Sepulchre’s respectively surrounded the
cathedral and the nearby archbishop’s palace.
In 1225, Henry III granted protection to preachers
begging for alms for the fabric, suggesting a new
cathedral was underway, probably modeled on Old
Sarum. By 1235, a chapel was dedicated to St. Mary,
for which Archbishop Luke provided lights and vicars
attending the mass. By 1254, the cathedral was con-
secrated and a lady chapel was added in the 1260s,
attributed to Fulk de Sandford, first archbishop of
Dublin to be buried in the cathedral. Meanwhile, the
emergence of two diocesan chapters of Holy Trinity
and St. Patrick’s caused serious difficulties in the
appointment of an archbishop. Matters came to a head
in 1300 when the two institutions agreed to sign a pact
known as the composicio pacis, which recognized both
of them as diocesan cathedrals, but the seniority of Holy
Trinity. Unsuccessful attempts at establishing a univer-
sity at St. Patrick’s were made in 1311 by Archbishop
John Lech and again in 1318 by his successor, Alexander
Bicknor.
In 1316, St. Patrick’s suffered a storm which
destroyed the spire; a fire set by the citizens to thwart
the progress of Edward Bruce; and the resultant loss
of many treasures. Bicknor, appointed a year later,
perhaps then allowed the north transept to be used for
the parish of St. Nicholas without the walls. An acci-
dental fire caused by John the sexton in 1362 led to
the destruction of the tower and bells, as recorded the
following year in a petition to the pope by Archbishop
Minot. The Minot tower, completed circa 1370, suf-
fered further in late fourteenth century. The ensuing
building campaigns shed much light on late gothic
architecture in the Pale.
Services at St. Patrick’s were probably daily, often
choral, and occurred in the aisle chapels of St. Paul,
St. Michael, St. Peter or St. Stephen, as well as the nave,
which probably filled for such prestigious occasions
as episcopal consecrations or governmental ceremo-
nies such as the creation of knights or barons. Unlike the
strong civic links of Holy Trinity, St. Patrick’s links were
often to the state. A number of deans were chancellors
of Ireland, masters of the rolls, and Dean John Colton
was lord deputy of Ireland.
St. Patrick’s and Holy Trinity were destinations in
1434 for the mayor and citizens’ barefoot penitential
walk through Dublin for taking the earl of Ormond
prisoner and other offenses. The earls of Ormond and
Kildare were also reconciled there in 1492 following
a feud concluded by Fitzgerald, who thrust his hand
through a hole in the chapter house door (exhibited in