Part 1

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THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

JUNE, 1865.

BLESSED THADDEUS, BISHOP OF CORK AND CLOYNE.

A.D. 1492.

The interesting and very learned article which appeared in the last number of the _Record_[1] has contributed much to illustrate the life of the Blessed Thaddeus, and to make known to the Irish Church a distinguished prelate whose virtues and sanctity adorned our island towards the close of the fifteenth century, which is precisely one of the darkest eras of our history. As, however, some of the writer's conclusions can scarcely be reconciled with the statement which we made in a preceding article on the Bishops of Cork and Cloyne (_Record_, p. 312), viz., that this holy Bishop's name was '_Thaddeus Machar or Maher_', we take the liberty of laying before the reader the reasons on which our opinion was based, and which compel us, however unwilling, to exclude from the princely family of the M'Carthys the saintly prelate whose relics now enrich the cathedral of Ivrea.

1. The town of Ivrea, to use the learned writer's words, is the capital of the Piedmontese province of the same name, and we may add that it is most picturesquely situated at the foot of the Alps, and is one of the first Italian towns which the traveller meets when, having crossed Mount St. Bernard, he wends his way towards Vercelli or Novara. In medieval documents Ivrea receives the Latin names of _Eporedia_, _Iporegia_, and _Hipporegia_, as may be seen in Ughelli's _Italia Sacra_, or in the later work of Cappalletti, '_Le Chiese d'Italia_' (Venice, 1858, vol. xiv., pag. 177), and at the time of which we speak, the see was held by Nicholas Garigliati, who was appointed its bishop in 1483, and died in 1499.

2. That the Blessed Thaddeus, who by his sanctity and miracles merited to be numbered amongst the patrons of Ivrea, was Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, is beyond all controversy. To the arguments advanced by the writer in the last _Record_ we may add an extract from the _Todd MSS._ given by Brady in his _Records of Cork_ (vol. iii. pag. 44), in which Bishop Thaddeus, who was appointed to the see of Cork in 1490, is said to have "died at the town of _Eporedia_ in Piedmont in 1492". The date 4th October, is indeed added, but this is probably a mere misprint for the 24th October, the true date of the demise of our holy bishop.

3. Ware informs us that this Thaddeus was _by some called Mechar_ (pag. 563), and the documents of Ivrea place beyond doubt that such was his true name. Thus the Bishop of Ivrea writes, "_Thaddaeum Machar_,[2] Episcopum Hib. illum esse innotuit ex chartis quas deferebat", and the old parchment record to which the same bishop refers, apparently quoting from the inscription on his tomb, describes our Blessed Thaddeus as,

"Regia progenies alto de sanguine Machar".

Now the learned editors of the Martyrology of Donegal inform us that the name _Mechar_ is the same as the _O'Meachair_ which appears so often in the ancient monuments of our history (see _Martyr. of Donegal_, published by I. A. S. 1864, pag. 517), and which at the present day has assumed the Anglicized forms of _Meagher_ and _Maher_.

4. The ancient Latin verses published in the _Record_,[3] present two important data for determining the family to which this bishop belonged. One is his native district, which is called _Solum Cariense_: the other is the royal ancestry to which his family had a just and ancient claim: "_Regia progenies alto de sanguine Machar_". Now are these data verified in the family of the O'Meachair? if not, it must be admitted that it can have no claim to our holy bishop; but if, on the other hand, those data accurately agree with what the ancient monuments of our island attest regarding the sept of the O'Meachairs, we must conclude that no link is wanting in the chain of evidence, and that the Blessed Thaddeus has justly been referred to that distinguished family.

5. Nothing now remains but to cite some few passages from our early writers which serve to illustrate these points in the history of the O'Meachairs.

In the first place, the topographical poem of O'Huidhrin (who died in 1420) has one important passage which not only throws some light on the family name, but moreover points to the territory of _Ui-Cairin_ as the chief abode of the O'Mahers, precisely as the name _Carinum_ in the Latin poem cited above marks the native district of our holy Bishop Thaddeus. The translation of this poem of O'Huidhrin was the last work achieved by our illustrious O'Donovan, and was published by the I. A. S. in 1862. At page 133 we find the following verse:--

"Mightily have they filled the land The O'Meachairs--the territory of Ui-Cairin A tribe at the foot of Bearnan Eile; It is no shame to celebrate their triumph".

To which lines O'Donovan adds the following notes:

"_The O'Meachairs._ The name of this family is now Anglicized O'Meagher, but more generally Meagher or Maher, without the prefix O'. Their territory of Ui-Cairin is now called Ikerrin, and is a barony in the present county of Tipperary.

"_Bearnan Eile_, i.e. the gapped mountain of Ely, now called in English the Devil's-Bit Mountain"--(Notes, page lxxxv., n. 71 and 72.)

6. In the _Leabhar na-Ceart_, edited by the same distinguished Irish antiquary, for the Celtic Society, in 1847, we find some additional evidence not only for the connexion of the _O'Meachars_ with the territory of _Ui-Cairin_, but also for the royal descent to which they laid claim. It is thus that _Leabhar-na-Ceart_ commemorates the tributes which were due to the king of Eile:--

"Eight steeds to the king of Eile, of the gold Eight shields, eight swords are due, Eight drinking-horns to be used at the feast, Eight coats of mail in the day of bravery"--(pag. 79.)

To which verse O'Donovan adds the following note:--

"_Eile._ This was the name of a tribe and an extensive territory, all in the ancient Mumha or Munster. They derived the name from Eile, the seventh in descent from Cian, the son of Oilioll-Ollum ... The ancient _Eile_ comprised the whole of Eile Ui-Chearbhail, which is now included in the King's County ... and also the baronies of _Ikerrin_ and Elyogarty in the county of Tipperary.... Ikerrin and Elyogarty were detached from O'Chearbhail shortly after the English invasion, and added to Ormond, but _the native chieftains O'Meachair_, i.e. _O'Meagher_, and O'Fogartaigh, i.e. O'Fogarty, were left in possession".

7. We will not fatigue the reader by citing a long series of authorities in which similar statements recur. Two will suffice for all, and we shall take them from the works of the late lamented professor of our Catholic University, Eugene O'Curry. One is a genealogical extract, in which Michael O'Clery, the chief of the 'Four Masters', commemorates some of the most illustrious families of the Milesian race. From Heber, he says, the Son of Milesius, were descended thirty of the kings of Ireland, and sixty-one saints. Amongst these royal chieftains must be reckoned _Teadgh_ (_i.e._ Thaddeus), grandson of Oiliol Ollum, and he adds:

"The descendants of this _Teadgh_ branched out and inhabited various parts throughout Ireland, namely, the race of _Cormac Gaileng_, in Luighne Connacht, the two Ui-Eaghra in Connacht, the O'Eaghra of the Ruta, O'Chearbhaill of Eile.--_O'Meachara in Ui-Cairin_, and O'Conor, etc". (_Curry's Lectures_, etc., pag. 147).

The other extract to which we wish to refer is published in the Appendix to the 'Battle of Magh Rath', which was translated and edited for the Celtic Society by the same great Irish scholar in 1855. The eighth genealogical Table (pag. 175) in this work, extracted "from O'Clery's _Pedigrees_, and Mac Firbis", tells us that "_Mechair_, from whom O'Meachair or Meagher", was fourteenth in descent from Oiliol Ollum, and the following note of O'Clery is added to his name:--

"There is a steed and a suit of clothes from each new chief of them to the Comharba of St. Cronan of Roscrea, together with Innisnambeo; and he (the Comharba) is to go around the chief to proclaim him chief; and the Comharba is entitled to sit at his shoulder, and the chief should stand up at his approach: and this _Meachair was King of Eile_".

From all this we are surely justified in concluding that the historic date of _solum Cariense_ and _regia progenies_ are precisely those which we should expect to find in a commemoration of an illustrious member of the family of the O'Mahers.[4]

8. Our holy bishop, though thus descended from the first monarch of our island, wished, when journeying from Rome, to enter as a pilgrim the public hospital of St. Anthony in Ivrea, and there, in the true evangelical spirit, rejoiced in being reckoned the poorest of the poor. Heaven, however, has decreed that the humble shall be exalted; and no sooner had the unknown traveller closed his eyes to this world, than a divine light filled the room in which he lay; several prodigies awakened the devotion of the faithful, and proclaimed his sanctity; and the clergy and laity in solemn procession bore his hallowed remains to the cathedral church, and numbered him amongst the patrons of that ancient see. Thus, again, was Dr. Thaddeus true to the traditions of his family; for, besides his royal descent, he could boast of the higher and nobler lineage of sanctity. In the Martyrology of Donegal we find the names of two members of the family whose festivals were celebrated on January 16th and September 6th. Colgan, too, speaks of a _Saint Mecharius_, whose life he had prepared for publication, and whose feast was marked for the 13th of November (_AA. SS._, pag. 756).

Dr. Reeves also informs us that a St. _Machar_, better known by the Irish appellation of Mochonna, was sent by St. Columba with twelve companions to preach the Gospel to the Picts, and subsequently became the patron saint of Aberdeen (_Adamman's Columba_, pag. 246, 289, 299, etc.). On a fly-leaf of the original MS. of the Martyrology of Donegal, in the handwriting of O'Clery or Colgan, a Saint _Murro_ is commemorated, with the addition, "_id est, Machare, seu Meacharius_", and the interesting fact is further commemorated: "quod feras bestias subjugavit et triduo defunctum ad vitam revocavit" (_Martyr. Doneg._, I. A. S., xlvi.).

We do not wish, however, to leave unanswered the difficulty which the words of Ware present against our interpretation of this holy bishop's name. He expressly styles this bishop "_Thady M'Carthy_, by some called _Mechar_". Here then we must remark that Ware does not identify these names; and the name _Mechar_, which, as Ware acknowledges, was by some authorities given to this bishop, is proved by the monuments of Ivrea to have been his _true name_. What then was the origin of Ware's mistake? We learn from the _Monumenta Vaticana_ (pag. 503), that there was about this time a Thaddeus Mac Carryg "_iniquitatis filius_", who endeavoured to intrude himself into the see of Ross, and who is erroneously ranked by Ware amongst the bishops of that see (see _Record_, No. iii., December, 1864). As that name resembles _Mac Carrha_ or _Mac Carthaigh_, the Irish forms of _Mac Carthy_, it seems not improbable that Ware, by one of his so-frequent errors, confounded our holy Bishop Thaddeus with that iniquitous usurper (see _Dublin Review_, April, 1865, p. 384).

10. Perhaps we have here again a clue to the difficulties which compelled Bishop Thaddeus to abandon his see for a while, and seek a refuge in Rome. When appointed in 1490, several retainers of the Desmond family refused to admit him to the possession of the temporalities of his see (see _Record_, pag. 312). Now it was precisely in 1488 or 1489 that Thady M'Carthy had been compelled by the repeated censures of Rome to surrender the temporalities of Ross to the canonically appointed Bishop Odo; and what more natural than that the same genius of evil should, on the vacancy of the adjoining diocese in the following year, stir up again the embers of discord, and endeavour through his kinsmen to obtain possession of this see at least? And as the Protestant historian reckoned the usurper of the temporalities of Ross amongst the canonical successors of St. Fachinan, so, by a somewhat similar mistake, he may have easily confounded the same Thaddeus M'Carryg with the holy bishop who canonically ruled the united sees of Cloyne and Cork.

11. It now remains to make a few other remarks on the interesting paper published in the last _Record_.

In the first place, there are some incidental errors which seem to be inadvertently introduced. At pag. 379, Richard Wolsey is commemorated as successor of Thady, Bishop of Down, who died in 1486, which opinion has long since been set aside by De Burgo and Dr. Reeves (_Eccles. Antiquities_, Dublin, 1847, pag. 257). Thady, Bishop of Ross, is also said to have died soon after his appointment in 1488, and to have had for his successor Bishop Odo in 1489. All this has been sufficiently refuted in a former number of the _Record_ (pag. 106) and in the _Dublin Review_ for April, pag. 384.

At pag. 380-1, our Blessed Thaddeus is identified with a distinguished member of the Augustinian order, named _Thaddeus de Hipporegia_, who is eulogized as "a man distinguished for learning, religious observance, preaching, holiness of life, and experience, a man of great zeal, and a sedulous promoter of the interests of his order". We should be glad, indeed, to be able to number amongst our countrymen this great ornament of the Augustinian body. Unfortunately, however, the historians of that order represent this Thaddeus, not as an _Irishman_, but as an _Italian_, whose surname points to the town or province of Ivrea (see above No. 1) as the place of his nativity. The article in the _Record_ adds: "True, Elsius gives 1502 for the date of the friar's demise; but Elsius is never to be trusted in dates, and the printer may easily take MCCCCXCII. (the true date) for MCCCCCII". This is very plausible; but unfortunately here again there is no foundation for such reasoning, and hence the whole fabric falls to the ground. Elsius does not assign 1502, as the date of the friar's death; he merely writes "_floruit usque ad annum 1502_" (_Encom. Augustin._, Brussels, 1654, pag. 645). He, however, refers to Herrera for further information; turning to whose work we find thus explained the last formula of Elsius: "Durat ejus memoria usque ad an. 1502 in quo, habita Ferrariae synodo, Vicarius Congregationis acclamatus est. Nulla ultra illius in actis consistorialibus mentio", (_Alphab. Augustin._, vol. ii. pag. 450): and in a later Spanish compendium of this work, made by Herrera himself, it is said that this Thaddeus _probably died in 1503_, no mention being made of him in the acts of the order subsequent to the synod of Ferrara, held in the preceding year. There is also another circumstance equally fatal to the above theory. The illustrious Augustinian held many high offices in his order, and the historians Elsius and Herrera give the minutest details concerning them: "He was seven times definitor, (they write), thirteen times visitator, four times president of their congregations, nine times vicarius-generalis", etc, but both are careful to _exclude him_ from the list of bishops of the order. There is, therefore, no one point of contact between the distinguished Augustinian friar Thaddeus, and our holy Bishop of Cloyne.

12. To prove that the _Solum Cariense_ might justly be referred to in the eulogy or epitaph of a Bishop M'Carthy, it is interpreted as referring to _Kerry, the burial place of that family_. However, neither the Irish form of the name of that territory, i.e. _Chiarr_ (as we learn from the _Record_, page 380) nor the only Latin name by which we have seen it designated in mediaeval records, i.e. _Cherrium_, can be said to have much affinity with the _Cariense_ of the ancient document of Ivrea. We may also add that, were reference made to the burial place of the princely family of the M'Carthys, we should rather expect to find commemorated Muckross or Innisfallen, than the generic name of the vast territory of Kerry.

13. As regards the name _Machara_ or _Mechar_, it is said that the Irish name MacCarthy, is pronounced _Maccaura_, with the last syllable short, as in Ardmagha, and numberless like words. Hence, Wadding, in speaking of the foundation of Muckross Abbey, Killarney, by Domnall M'Carthy, Prince of Desmond, quotes to this effect a bull of Paul II. in 1468, in which Domnall's name is spelled "_Machar_" (p. 379). This example from the bull of Pope Paul II. is evidently a mere typographical error. In the edition of Wadding's Annals to which the writer refers (Roman edit., tom. xiii., p. 558, _seq._), that error stands side by side with _Desimonia_ and _Aertferten_, and what is still worse, Wadding in his text, citing this passage, is made to say: "Refert in hoc diplomate pontifex, inchoatum fuisse a _Donaldo Mac-Lare_" (p. 432). The origin of these errors is, that the transcripts of the Pontifical letters were made by strangers to our language, and the Roman edition of Wadding did not appear until sixty years after his death. In the original edition of the work, however, which was printed under the revision of Bonaventure Baron and other Irish Franciscans, Wadding's text gives us the true Latin form of the name: "Refert in hoc diplomate pontifex inchoatum fuisse a _Donaldo Mac-Care_" (1st edit. Lugduni, 1648, tom. vi. p. 693), and elsewhere speaking of the same convent of Muckross, he says its founder was "_Magnus Carthagus_", Prince of Desmond. Indeed, the Latin form of the name M'Carthy is not one about which we should have much dispute; it occurs a thousand times in the works of O'Sullivan Beare, Dr. Roothe, and other Irish writers, and yet nowhere is it found expressed under that form which the name of the Blessed Thaddeus presents to us.

Whilst, however, we thus dissent from some of the conclusions of the learned writer in the _Record_ for May, we wish to convey to him our sincere acknowledgments for having so prominently brought before the Irish public the name, too long forgotten, of one of our sainted Bishops, under whose protection we may hope that our holy faith will ever prosper, not only in our own island, but also in that now suffering province where his relics are enshrined.

THE HISTORY OF A CONVERSION.

The department of religious literature, which is made up of histories of individual conversions to the faith, has received of late years many remarkable additions. This class of literature is regulated in its growth by very peculiar conditions, and must be judged according to exceptional laws. Its subject--the mysterious workings of grace in the soul--is such as rather to impose a reverent silence than to invite fulness of description; and so well do elevated souls appreciate the sacredness of such silence, that, except for interests of religion or justice, they are unwilling to bring before men those inner secrets of their hearts. But when the interests of religion or justice have convinced them that silence is no longer a duty, the history they consent to unfold can rarely be other than attractive and profitable, seeing that it describes a human soul's toilsome journey from error to truth. The very minuteness of personal detail, which in any other composition would be a blot, in this becomes a merit and a charm. Among the religious motives that not unfrequently dictate such a history, a spirit of thankfulness for the blessing of faith has its fitting place. The favoured soul looks out from the shelter of its Father's house upon the perilous path it has just traversed, and gratefully traces the Providence by which its wayward feet were guided where so many strayed to their ruin; just as the rescued mariner hangs up _ex voto_ a sketch of his frail bark in the moment of her peril, when, but for heaven's help, she would have foundered in the raging waves. Fruit of this pious gratitude is the narrative[5] we are now engaged upon; a narrative which will interest every Catholic, not only because it is the history of a remarkable conversion, but because of the light it incidentally throws on the present condition and future prospects of German Protestantism. But before we set ourselves to trace the steps of the process which led Dr. Laemmer from a many-faced Protestantism to the Catholic Church, it will be useful to make a few preliminary remarks.

In Dr. Laemmer we have a witness who has had rare opportunities of becoming acquainted with the very highest and best forms which Protestantism has been enabled to assume in the country of its birth. He is, above all things, the child of the German Protestant universities. Of the twenty-six universities of which the learned nation is so proud, six or eight are Catholic,[6] four are mixed,[7] and the remaining fourteen are exclusively Protestant.[8]

Now, Dr. Laemmer was student successively at Koenigsberg, Leipsic, and Berlin universities, that is to say, at the very universities which at the present time are the chief seats of Protestant thought, both in philosophy and in theology. The leading Protestant schools in Germany are at present three in number, called respectively the neo-Lutheran, the Mediation, and the Tuebingen, or historico-critical school; of these[9] the neo-Lutheran, or Lutheran reaction school, has specially existed in Berlin and Leipsic; the so called Mediation theology at Berlin; and the Tuebingen school (now almost extinct in its native home, and renewed by Hilgenfeld at Jena) has made its influence felt throughout. Besides, at Koenigsberg, he came, as we shall see, under the influence of one of the ablest defenders of Hegelianism. We should exceed our limits, were we to enter upon a statement of the principles of these schools. Be it enough to say, that the first-named school, by defending the authority and credibility of the Scriptures, aims at re-constructing the historical basis of Christianity, and insists on a return to the Lutheran Confessions of the sixteenth century. Since the political troubles of 1848, an ultra-conservative party, called the Hyper-Lutheran, has arisen within this school, which goes back beyond the Reformation, and insists on the principle of a visible authoritative church, a rigid sacramental theory, and the doctrine of consubstantiation. Stahl, and Leo of Halle, to whom Dr. Laemmer makes an important allusion, to be hereafter quoted, belong to the most advanced of this party. Among the representatives of this school with whom Dr. Laemmer was brought into direct contact, were Hengstenberg and Kahnis.[10]