1472. It was in all probability later than this that he made his first journey to Italy; if, indeed, Leland is right in his statement that Celling became acquainted with Politian, who was born in 1454, and can hardly have established a reputation at Bologna (where Celling met him) before the age of eighteen. While abroad Celling used every effort to collect Latin and, more especially, Greek manuscripts, and when he returned to England brought these treasures with him. Among other works a copy of Cicero's 'Republic,' of St. Cyril's and St. Basil's 'Commentaries on the Prophets,' and the works of Synesius are specially mentioned. For the reception of his manuscripts he restored the library over the prior's chapel. Unfortunately many of his books son were destroyed some quarter of a century later in the fire caused by the carelessness of Henry VIII's' visitors. At home Celling was a careful steward of his convent's wealth. He cleared the priory of all the debts under which it had laboured; he built a stone tower, afterwards known as the prior's study, roofed it with lead, and glazed the windows. He also beautified the cloisters, began to build the 'Bell Harry steeple,' and placed a new ceiling over the before-mentioned prior's library' (Hasted, iv. 555, &c.; Wharton). It would appear to be after his return from Italy that Celling charged himself with the education of Linacre, who is said to have been his pupil at Canterbury, and who certainly accompanied his old master on his second journey to Italy (1480), whither the prior of Christ Church was sent on an embassy to Rome (Leland, and epitaph of Celling, quoted in Hasted, iv. 555, &c.; Wharton, i. 145-6). Passing through Bologna, Celling left his young friend there to enjoy the society of Politian. This embassy must have taken place beween 1485 and 1490. In 1490 and 1491 we find Celling's name constantly associated with that of the bishop of Exeter in the negotiations between England, France, and Brittany (Rymer, xii. 431, &c.) Some three years later he appears to have died on the day of St. Thomas's passion (10 Dec.) having ruled his monastery for nearly twenty-two years and a half (Hasted, iv. 555). He was buried in the martyrium of St. Thomas, in a richly blazoned tomb, on which was inscribed a long epitaph narrating his embassies to France and Rome. A book from Ceiling's library is still preserved at the Bodleian in Oxford (Laud, V 120). The same library has also a letter written to him from Rome, and dated January 1488 (Ash. MS, 1729). Celling was esteemed a great scholar in Greek as well as in Latin, and besides being an ardent collector of manuscripts he was a great patron of promising students.
[Leland's Catalogue, 482; Bale, De Script. Brit. 851-2; Tanner's Bibl. Hib. Brit.; Johnson's life of Linacre {1835); Linacre's Galeni de Tempementis ed. Payne (1881), introduction p. 6-8 and note 1; Hasted's Hist. of Kent, vol.iv &c.; Rymer's Foedera, vol. xii; Campbell's Mat. for Hist. of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i.; Boase's Registrum Univ. Oxon.]
CELSUS or CELLACH, Saint (1079–1129), archbishop of Armagh, and the greatest of St. Patrick's successors till the election of St. Malachy, was the son of Ædh, and grandson of Mælisa, who had held the same office from 1064 to 1091. Hence he belonged to that powerful local family of which St. Bernard says that, though sometimes lacking in clerks, it had never for fifteen generations, or two hundred years, failed to find one of its members ready to accept the bishopric at its disposal (Vita Malachiæ, ch. x.). This statement, though perhaps somewhat exaggerated, is partly corroborated by the Irish annals, where, to confine ourselves to the eleventh century, we find Celsus's grandfather great-uncle, and great-grandfather all preceding him in the see of Armagh (Annals of Four Masters, sub annis 1105, 1064, 1020). On the death of his great-uncle, Domhnall, Celsus was elected his successor, at the illegal age of twenty-four or twenty-five, although, from the words used in recounting the event, it is by no means impossible that he had not yet been ordained priest (A. F. M. and Ann. Ult. sub anno 1105; with which cf. the case of Gregory ap. Eadmer, Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.), p. 298). The predecessors of Celsus seem, for the most part, to have been married men, and to have discharged their ecclesiastical functions by the aid of suffragans; but, despite the attempt that has been made to prove that Celsus too was married, it is more likely that, in the passage on which this theory is based (Vit. Mal. c. 10), the words ‘uxor Celsi’ are to be interpreted of the church of Ireland (Lanigan, iv. 33). Celsus, however, seems to have retained the custom of appointing, or at least continuing, the services of suffragan bishops (Ann. Ult. p. 371; A. F. M. sub anno 1122). The new prelate entered on his office with vigour (23 Sept. 1105). In 1106 he made a visitation of Ulster and Munster, receiving his full tribute of cows, sheep, and silver from every cantred (A. F. M.) Munster was revisited in 1108 and 1120, Connaught in 1108 (Annals of Loch Cé, i. 77) and in 1116, and Meath in 1110 (A. F. M. and Ann. Ult. p. 374). Of
