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The Letters of Innocent III to Ireland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2017
Extract
It would be impossible to give the exact number of letters sent by Innocent III to Ireland. All that can be done is to study the ways in which these letters could have survived, and in so doing to establish a calendar of the extant letters. These letters could have been transmitted in two main ways: through originals, or through copies. Copies of the letters, however, could have survived in a variety of ways, through monastic or episcopal cartularies, through the rolls of the royal chancery, through the collections of canon law, but mainly through the official papal register.
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1 The following abbreviations will be used: Cal. Alen's Reg. = Calendar o] Archbishop Alen's Register, ed. Charles McNeill (Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1950; cf. n. 9 intra). Charl. priuil, immun. = Chartae, Privilegia, el Immunilaies, being Transcriptions 01 Charters and Privileges to Cities, Towns, and Abbeys and Other Bodies Corporate… 1171–1395 (Printed for the Irish Record Commission, Dublin 1829–30, published 1889; cf. n. 9 intra). CPL = Calendar o] Entries in the Papal Registers Relaling to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, vol. I, ed. W. H. Bliss (London 1893): Irish Carl. Llanthony = The Irish Cartularies o] Llanthony Prima and Secunda, ed. Eric St. John Brooks (Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1953; cf. n. 16 intra). Reg. St. Thomas Dublin = Register o] the Abbey ot St. Thomas the Martyr, Dublin, ed. J. T. Gilbert (London 1899). Reg. Vat. = Vatican register. SLI = Selected L e.tters o] Pope Innocent I I I Concerning England (1198–1216), ed. C. R. Cheney and W. H. Semple (London 1953). VMHS = Theiner, Vetera monumenia Hibernorum et Scotorum historiam illustranlia (Rome 1864). VMSM = Theiner, Vetera monumenta Slavorum meridionalium historiam illustranlia (Rome 1863).Google Scholar
2 Introduction to SLI, p. xxiv n. 3.Google Scholar
3 Ibid. xxiv.Google Scholar
4 Ibid. xxv.Google Scholar
5 The first of these documents is preserved at Eton College, the second is in the British Museum; I am indebted to Professor C. R. Cheney for this information.Google Scholar
6 Nos. 56, 57; Brit. Mus. Cotton MS Cleop. E. i. fol. 149; Cotton charter viii.24; both references from SLI p. 177.Google Scholar
7 P.R.O. Papal bulls 19 (18): SLI p. 157.Google Scholar
8 In 1769, Jean Baptiste Queinsert, a Benedictine scholar of the Congregation of St. Maur, made an inventory of the archives of Artois, Flanders, Hainaut, and Picardie. Queinsert made a copy of this letter of Innocent III; now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Moreau collection 101 fols. 3-4. (I am indebted to Madame J. Vielliard, Director of the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, for this information and for arranging for photostats of the Moreau MS to be sent to me.) Migne took his text of this letter from Queinsert's copy. Α. Gosse also printed the text, but it is not certain whether he took it from the original or from Queinsert's copy: Histoire de l'abbaye d'Arroaaise (cf. Calendar No. 19 infra) 430.Google Scholar
9 The document known both as ‘Liber Niger Alani’ and as ‘Archbishop Alen's Register’ is a sixteenth-century manuscript (preserved in the Registry of the Church of Ireland United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendaloch and Kildare), containing transcripts of original documents dealing with the general ecclesiastical history of Ireland and in particular with ecclesiastical administration in Dublin. Early in the nineteenth century the Irish Record Commission printed a number of documents from this collection and from other sources for a projected volume on Ireland under English administration. The Commission was withdrawn before the volume could be completed, but the printed pages were later issued for sale with the title: Chartae, Privilégia et Immunitates (Dublin 1899). A Calendar of Archbishop Alen's Register was edited for the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland by Charles McNeill and was published in 1950 as the ‘Extra Volume of 1949.’Google Scholar
10 ‘Dignitas Decani’ is the name given to a sixteenth-century manuscript (preserved in the archives of St. Patrick's Cathedral), containing transcripts of charters and other documents relating to the history of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. It would appear that the ‘Dignitas Decani’ was compiled at the same time as Archbishop Alen's Register. This compilation was edited by Newport B. White, The ‘Dignitas Decani’ of St. Patrick's Cahedral Dublin (Irish Manuscript Commission, 1957).Google Scholar
11 Crede Mihi’ is the name given to the surviving portion of the oldest (thirteenth century) of the registers of the see of Dublin (preserved in the Registry of the Church of Ireland United Dioceses); Archbishop Alen used this manuscript in his compilations. It was edited by J. T. Gilbert, Crede Mihi (Dublin 1897).Google Scholar
12 From Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, we have two compilations (preserved in the archives of Christ Church) known as ‘The Black Book of Christ Church’ and ‘The White Book of Christ Church. ‘ The former (which was brought to Dublin in the fourteenth century) is a literary document rather than a register, to which additions were made in the form of marginal notes and texts copied into blank pages. Professor Aubrey Gwynn printed some of these in ‘Some Unpublished Texts from the Black Book of Christ Church, Dublin,’ Ana- lectu llibernica 16 (1946) 283-337. The White Book is a sixteenth-century manuscript, containing transcripts of charters, leases, rentals, inventories and wills. The late H. J. I.awlor published a ‘Calendar of the Liber Niger and the Liber Albus of Christ Church,’ Proceedings of Ihr Royal Irish Academy 27 (1908) 1-93.Google Scholar
13 For the Victorine house of St. Thomas the Martyr, Dublin, there are two registers extant: the thirteenth-century register preserved in Oxford (Hawlinson MS B.500); and the sixteenth-century register of royal and papal documents now preserved partly in Oxford (Hawlinson MS B. 499) and partly in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (MS 12.D.2). The thirteenth-century register was edited by J. T. Gilbert in the Rolls Series, The Register of the Abbey of SI. Thomas, Dublin (1889). Professor Aubrey Gwynn has described the unedited sixteenth-century manuscript from Oxford in ‘The Early History of St. Thomas Abbey, Dublin,’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 84 (1954) 1-35.Google Scholar
14 A fifteenth-century manuscript, containing transcripts of documents relating to the Arrouaisiun priory of All Hallows, Dublin (preserved in Trinity College, Dublin): Registrum prioratus Omnium Sanctorum juxta Dublin, ed. R. Butler (Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin 1845). Among the papal letters in this compilation is a letter of confirmation of Pope Innocent, ‘datum Anagnie xiii Kal. Septembris, Ppntificatus nostri anno sexto,’ which the editor suggests was probably granted by Pope Innocent III. However, as Innocent Ill's letters of August-September 1203 were issued from Ferentino, we must either suspect the authenticity of this letter or suggest that the scribe made a mistake in copying the date.Google Scholar
15 The Register of Archbishop Fleming (in the Public Library, Armagh) contains a register of documents referring to the Province of Armagh during the years 1404–16, together with some additional later material. The late H. J. Lawlor issued a ‘Calendar of the Register of Archbishop Fleming’ in Proceedings Royal Irish Acad. 30 (1912) 93-190.Google Scholar
16 Several cartularies from the two Augustinian priories of Llanthony are preserved in the Public Records Office, London: G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain (London 1958) Nos. 530-41, pp. 60-61. Llanthony Prima in Monmouthshire was founded by one of Hugh de Lacy's knights c. 1102. Owing to trouble with the Welsh, the monastery got into difficulties, and in 1136 Bishop Robert of Hereford transferred the monastery to a site near Gloucester: Llanthony Secunda. Some of the canons chose to remain in Wales and Llanthony Prima continued in existence. Both houses had vast possessions in Ireland, and a dispute over temporal properties was referred to Innocent III in 1204. - Documents referring to the Irish lands of Llanthony Prima are contained in the fifteenth-century car- tulary (C. 115/A 8); those referring to the Irish lands of Llanthony Secunda are in the fourteenth-century cartulary (C. 115/A 2), as are the documents dealing with the partition of the properties. These Irish documents have been edited by the late E. St. John Brooks, The Irish Cartularies of Llanthony Prima and Secunda (Irish Manuscripts Commission: 1953). These MSS are unfoliated, but Mr. St. John Brooks added folio numbers in the margin. He numbered the documents in the fifteenth-century cartulary (C. 115/A 8), using Roman numerals (i-clxviii). The fourteenth-century cartulary is arranged in twenty eight sections or parts. Mr. St. John Brooks has numbered the Irish documents from Part XXVIII (for Llanthony Secunda), this time using Arabaic numerals (1-98); he has numbered the documents dealing with the partition of the properties from Part XXVII as la-13a.Google Scholar
17 In 1485, Abbot John of St. Emmeram compiled his ‘Transsumptum bullarum monasterii S. Jacobi Scotorum’ (now preserved in the Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich; a copy of the ‘Transsumptum’ is in the Hauptstaatsarchiv, Regensburg). Innocent Ill's letter Cal. No. 60 is on fol. 5V of this manuscript. At some time during the sessions of the Fourth Lateran Council, Innocent III issued the bull No. 61: the original has been lost; but we have a summary of its contents in a mandate of Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, dated 18 February 1226. The text of Archbishop Siegfried's letter is found in two MSS which contain documents dealing with the history of St. James’: ‘Codex privilegiorum ‘ of Balthasar Sonder- mayr (Munich, Hauptstaatsarchiv), and ‘Codex chronologo-diplomaticus monasterii ad S. Jacobum Scotorum Ratisbonae’ of Thomas Ried (Regensburg, Kreisbibliothek): cf. Aubrey Gwynn, ‘Some Notes on the History of the Irish and Scotish Benedictine Monasteries in Germany,’ Innes Review 5 (1954) 1-23.Google Scholar
18 This charter (19614) is one of a group (now Additional Charters 19571-19659) formerly belonging to Reading Abbey and presented to the British Museum by the Marquis of Westminster in 1873. It may be dated 1216–17. It has been printed in the Proceedings of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society 4 No. 45 (1864) 138-9; it is discussed in British Museum Egerton MS 1784, pp. 339-40 (this is a volume of The Whole Works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland: Revised and improved by Walter Harris [Dublin 1739–46], interleaved with manuscript notes by William Monck Mason).Google Scholar
19 MS lat. 11867. From this manuscript K. Hampe published two documents of the Emperor Frederick II and one letter of Innocent III in Historische Vierteljahrschrift (1901) 161-4 (not accessible to me; cf. the short notice given in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtsforschung 27 [1901–2] 301), and twenty-five letters from the years 17-19 of Innocent III (among which our No. 67): ‘Aus verlorenen Registerbänden der Päpste Innocenz III. und Innocenz IV.,’ Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung 23 (1902) 54ff.Google Scholar
20 For all except No. 37 cf. the references in Potthast. Extracts from No. 37 were included in several private compilationes and eventually in the official Decretals of Gregory IX (1234) 2.24.29 (overlooked in Potthast 2556; the source is not identified in Friedberg's edition, Corpus iuris canonici II 372). Google Scholar
21 E d. J. F. O’ Doherty (1944) II 2. Google Scholar
22 Decretals Greg. IX 1.6.28. The extract is shorter than what is printed in Friedberg's edition (II 71-73), since one has to subtract all that is given there in italics from the earlier Compilatio tertia (1209/10) 1.6.13. Innocent Ill's reply to the request that the Archbishop of Cashel be absolved from sentence of suspension is not given.Google Scholar
23 Reg. Vat. 6 is a seperate volume dealing with the affairs of the Empire. The last 16 letters of book XI seems to be ‘a short misplaced decretal-collection’: Cheney, SLI p. xxvii n. 2; F. Kempf, Die Register Innocenz III (Miscellanea historiae pontificiae 9; Rome 1945) 95ff. Also ‘letters near the end of book XV, in Reg. Vat. 8, belong to the beginning of the sixteenth pontifical year’: Cheney ibid.Google Scholar
24 Full accounts of the history of the editions are given by Cheney, SLI pp. xxxi-xxxiii, and by H. Feigl, ‘Die Überlieferung der Register Papst Innocenz’ III. (Handschriften und Druckausgaben),’ Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung 65 (1957) 242-95.Google Scholar
25 Cheney SLI p. xxxiii.Google Scholar
26 Cf. bibliographical note in the ‘Bulletin of the Institute of Research and Study in Medieval Canon Law,’ Traditio 17 (1961) 551Google Scholar
27 In Archivum Hibernicum 12 (1947) 27-44.Google Scholar
28 L. Delisle's ‘Mémoire sur les actes d'Innocent III,’ Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des chartes 19 (1858) 1-73, is still, in the words of Professor Cheney, ‘by far the most readable account of the chancery and its products’ (SLI p. xvi n. 1). Since then, more recent research has added to, and corrected in many points of detail, our knowledge of chancery practice and the registers in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. To cite only a few authoritative works, cf. H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre II (2nd ed. Leipzig 1931); R. L. Poole, Lectures on the History of the Papal Chancery down to the Time of Innocent III (Cambridge 1915); the numerous studies by R. von Heckel, esp. his ‘Untersuchungen zu den Registern Innocenz III,’ Historisches Jahrbuch 40 (1920) 1-43 and his articles ibid. 55 (1935) 277-304; 57 (1937) 86-93; the standard work by F. Kempf cited note 23 supra·, and the valuable surveys by C. R. Cheney, ‘The letters of Pope Innocent III,’ Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 35 (1952) 23-43; SLI introd. pp. xvi-xxiv.Google Scholar
29 The limitations of papal letters as a source are discussed in P. J. Dunning, ‘The Letters of Innocent III as a Source for Irish History,’ Proceedings of the Irish Catholic Historical Committee (1958) 1-10.Google Scholar
30 Cf. Dunning, P. J., ‘Pope Innocent III and the Irish Kings,’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History 8 (1957) 17–32; id. on the bishops of Raphoe (cited Calendar No. 4 infra), on the Ross election controversy (No. 5), on the Waterford-Lismore controversy (No. 27), on the Irish affairs at the Fourth Lateran Council (No. 84).Google Scholar