pay every third year to the monarch of Ireland. It was originally imposed in the first century of our era, as a punishment for the disgraceful conduct of the King of Leinster at that time. But for centuries afterwards it was exacted, and was from time to time the fruitful cause of war and bloodshed. The injustice of continuing the imposition for an offence personal in the first instance, and committed so long in the past, seems never to have been considered, until the matter was taken up in the latter part of the seventh century by Saint Moling, who had founded a monastery in the County Carlow. This Leinster Christian effected what the Leinster armies were unable to accomplish. He brought the monarch to see that the tax was unjust, and ought to be abolished. Accordingly Finachta the Festive, in the year 680, decreed that the tribute would be no longer required, and thus what had been the cause of more civil war than anything else in the whole history of the nation, came to an end. Strange to say, when the king on this occasion consulted his soul friend, he was advised by him to continue the tax; but happily he had enough good sense to disregard the evil advice, and do that which was just and right. This was all the more remarkable, as the ecclesiastic whose guidance he followed belonged to the tribe of his enemies.
A powerful weapon in the hands of the Church, and one not unfrequently employed, was what may be called the 'ecclesiastical curse.' The most remarkable instance in which this was used was the case of the royal palace and city of Tara, and it will illustrate well the great power which it enabled the Church to wield. The king, Dermot—the same monarch who fought with Saint Columba—took prisoner and afterwards condemned to death a
