Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/157

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INFLUENCE OF THE DANISH INVASIONS.
153

King of Munster and Bishop of Cashel in the early parts of the ninth century. We first find him associated with Airtri, Bishop of Armagh, in bringing the churches of Munster under the 'law of Patrick.' From this we might conclude that he took a great interest in the spiritual welfare of his kingdom; but when we see his subsequent career, and find also that this Airtri was put up as bishop in opposition to the nominee of the northern kings, we cannot help suspecting that this religious zeal covered an ambitious design—possibly the hope that he would become Ardrigh, or chief king, by the help of the northern bishop—a dignity that was actually obtained by one of his successors, the famous Brian Boru. The next thing we read of Felim is his attacking the district near Clonmacnois. Shortly afterwards he burned the churches of the same place, and killed numbers of the 'family.' The same year he was at Durrow in the King's County, where a Columban monastery existed, and he was still at the same work of sacrilege and devastation. He made several plundering expeditions into Connaught. He took the oratory at Kildare in defiance of Forannan, Bishop of Armagh. Several times he made incursions into Meath, plundering and burning wherever he went. Then he led an army towards Wexford, but King Niall went against him, and defeated him. In the account of the battle we learn incidentally that this precious bishop—'the devout Felim,' a bard calls him—had actually taken his crozier with him into the battle. Finally, he went again to Clonmacnois, and plundered the sanctuary once more. This time he met a spiritual foe. An internal disease took him, and the aggrieved ecclesiastics at once asserted that Saint Keiran had appeared to him, and had given him