PLtJSCARDEN
171
PLYMOUTH
years the blessings of comparative peace were restored
to the Church in Ireland.
Writings. — The Martyr's discourse at Tyburn was repeatedly printed and translated into other lan- guages. Dr. Plunket published in 1672 a small octavo of fifty-six pages with the title " Jus Prima- tiale"; or the Ancient Pre-eminence of the See of Armagh above all other archbishoprics in the kingdom of Ireland, asserted by "O. A. T. H. P.", which initials represent "Oliverus Armacanus Totius Hiber- ni;B Primas ", i. e. " Oliver of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland ".
Moras, Memoir of the Ven. Oliver Plunkeit (Dublin. 1861); Idem, Life of Oliver Plunkeit (Dublin. 1895); Idem, Spicileg. Os- soriense (3 vols., Dublin, 1874-8.5) ; Idem, Canonization of the Ven. Oliver Plunkeit in Irish Bed. Record, XII (1902), 385^15; O'Shea, Martyrdom of Primate Plunkeit in American Cath. Quar- terly, XXIX (1904), 377-94: HoBNE, Beatification of the Ven. Oliver Plunkeit in Downside Review. 21 March, 1908, page 15; Camm in Heroes of Faith (New York, 1910); Dorgan, The Last Martyr for the Faith in England in Ave Maria (18 Feb., 1911), 193 sqq.; Tablet (London, 10 Feb., 1883).
Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran.
Pluscarden Priory was founded in 1230 by Alex- ander III, King of Scotland, six miles from Elgin, Morayshire, for monks of the Valliscaulian Order, whose mother-house was that of Val-des-Choux, Bur- gundy. Pluscarden was the first of the three Scottish monasteries of the order whose observance was a com- bination of the Carthusian and Cistercian rule. In 14,54 Nicholas V transferred the two surviving monks of the Benedictine priory of Urquhart to form one community with the six monks of Pluscarden, the latter assuming the Benedictine rule and habit. Plus- carden thus became a dependency of Dunfermline Abbey, whose sacrist, William de Boyis, was appointed prior. Mr. Macphail, a non-Catholic, refutes the calumny that the union was due to the "very licen- tious ' ' lives of the Valliscaulian monks. The last prior, Alexander Dunbar, died in 1560, and Alexander Seton, later Earl of Dunfermline, a secret Catholic, became commendator; in consequence, the monks were never dispersed. They numbered thirteen in 1 524 ; in 1 5S6 one still survived. After various vicissitudes the property was acquired by John, third Marquess of Bute, who partially restored the buildings. The nave of the church was never completed. The aisleless choir (56 feet long), and the transepts (measuring 92 feet), are roofless. In the north wall of the chancel is a "sacra- ment house" — the stone tabernacle occasionally met with in Scottish churches. Stone steps connect the transept with the dormitory. Consecration crosses and the remains of interesting frescoes are still visible. A northern chapel was added by Prior Dunbar; with this exception the architecture is chiefly Early English. East of the cloister garth — 100 feet square — stands the calefactory, its vaulted roof upheld by two pillars; this long served for a Presbyterian kirk. The well- preserved chapter-house has stone benches round the walls, and a central pillar supports the groining. The dormitory above was formerly used as a tenants' ball- room. Tlie liuildings, standing in lovely surround- ings, are full of charm. Some holly trees in the garden are probably relics of monastic days.
Birch, Ordinate Conventus Vallis Caulium (London, 1900); Macphail, History of the Religious House of Pluscardyn (1881); Skene, The Book of Pluscarden in Historians of Scotland eeries (Edinburgh, 1880).
Michael Barrett.
Plymouth, Diocese of (Plymuthensis, Ply- MUTii.K), ((insists of the County of Dorset, which formed a portion of the old Catholic Diocese of Sahs- bury, whose last ruler, Cardinal Peto, died in March, 1.558; also of the Counties of Devon and Cornwall with the Scilly Isles, which formed the ancient Dio- cese of Kxeter, whose last Catholic bishop, James Turberville, died on 1 November, 1570. Since the Ref- ormation these counties have, with more or less of the rest of England, been governed by three arch-
priests and fourteen vicars Apostolic, the last of
whom, called Vicar Apostolic of the Western District
(1848), was Wilham Hendren, Bishop of Uranopolis.
In the Brief "Universahs Ecclesia;" (29 September,
1850), Pius IX separated the three counties from the
Western District and formed them into the new Dio-
cese of Plymouth: the rest of the district to be the new
Diocese of Clifton, to which Bishop Hendren was
forthwith translated, and the Diocese of Plymouth
was placed under his temporary administration.
Reverend George Errington (1S04-.S6) of St. John's Church, Salford, was appointed by the Holy See first Bishop of Plymouth, and on 25 July, 1851, conse- crated there, together with the first Bishop of Salford, by Cardinal Wiseman. On 7 August he was installed at St. Mary's church. East Stonehouse, Devon, which mission included its neighbour, Plymouth, wherein no Catholic place of worship existed. In this Ultima thule and poor district he found 17 secular and 6 regu- lar priests, and 23 missions including three institutes of nuns. No railways had reached the diocese except the Great Western to Plymouth, and a short mining railway established between Truro and Penzance at the extreme of Cornwall. A goodly number of the clergy did not belong to the diocese but were tempo- rarily accepted. On 26 November, 1853, the bishop established his cathedral chapter, consisting of a pro- vost and, by permission from Rome under the above difficulties, seven instead of ten canons for the time. In February, 1854, he held a synod at Ugbrooke Park, the seat of Lord CUfford of Chudleigh, and, amongst his synodal acts, established a clerical conference with its dean for each county. By 30 March, 1855, he had traversed the whole diocese for purpose of visita- tion and conferring confirmation, when bulls from Rome of that date appointed him Archbishop of Tre- bizond and Coadjutor cum jure successionis to Cardi- nal Wiseman of Westminster. William Vaughan (1814-1902), Canon of the Clifton Diocese, was nomi- nated second Bishop of Plymouth, and on 16 Septem- ber, 1855, consecrated by Cardinal Wiseman in Clif- ton pro-cathedral. Encouraged by generous offers of assistance from Edmund Polifex Bastard of Kitley, Yeahnpton, Devon, and from Miss Letitia Trelawiiy of Cornwall, Bishop Vaughan on 28 June, 185(1, hud the foundation stone of the Cathedral of Our Immaculate Lady and St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany (b. at Crediton, Devon), solemnly opened it on 25 March, 1858, and on 22 September, 1880, in the twenty-fifth year of his episcopate, he consecrated the Cathedral. He attended the Vatican Council throughout, in 1869- 70. Between 10-12 March, 1888, the diocese, by a triduum of prayer, celebrated the bishop's Golden Jubilee of fifty years' priesthood. By the end of 1891 the Diocese of Plymouth, through the bishop's ener- getic supervision, became well established. It had 49 secular and 48 regular clergy, 52 public churches, and 15 chapels of communities, as well as ten orders of men and sixteen of nuns. Early in 1891 Bishop Vaughan requested from Rome a coadjutor-bishop. Leo XIII elected, from the Plymouth Chapter's terna, Charles Graham (1834), canon of Plymouth, on 25 September, 1891. On 28 October following he was consecrated titular Bishop of Cisamos, with right of succession, by Bishop Clifford of Chfton, in the Plym- outh cathedral. Bishop Vaughan retired to St. Augustine's Priory, Newton Abbot, Devon, where, on 24 October, 1902, he died in his eighty-ninth year, and was buried in the priory cemetery. In October, 1902, Dr. Graham became third Bishop of Plymouth. Be- tween 19 and 21 December, 1907, the diocese cele- brated with a triduum the fiftieth anniversary of his priesthood: on this occasion he added a fresh member to the cathedral chapter. After a severe illness in 1910, Bi.shop Graham tendered his resignation of the see, which was accepted 9 Feb., 1911.
The recent expulsion of religious from France haa,
