received from Clement VI. a favourable answer
to his petition that he might be allowed to incorporate with the mensal
funds of his see the income of four churches with care of souls,
provided the ordinaries consented, and that the sum did not exceed the
annual value of one hundred marks. The petition of the Archbishop set
forth that the entire income of his see did not reach four hundred
pounds sterling per annum. On the same day the Pontiff issued letters
requiring the Abbot of St. Mary's in Dynelek (Duleek), the Prior of St.
Leonard's in Dundalk, and the Archdeacon of Armagh, together with the
chapter of the cathedral, to examine how far it would be useful to
exchange certain church lands, rents, and other immovable property, for
others, which the Primate judged more likely to be advantageous to the
see of Armagh.

Two documents preserved by Rymer show how careful Dr. Fitz-Ralph was not
to sanction by any act of his the claims made to the primacy by the
Archbishop of Dublin, to the detriment of Armagh. The first is dated 8th
December, 1350, and is an order from Edward III., that the Archbishop of
Armagh should not have his cross carried before him within the limits of
the province of Dublin. Archbishop Fitz-Ralph was unwilling to cause
disturbance by refusing to obey this order, but on the other hand he
felt that to comply with it fully would be to prejudice the legitimate
claims of his see.

He resolved in consequence simply to absent himself from Dublin. He
procured a royal license which excused him from personal attendance at
the parliaments held at Dublin, on the ground, that within the province
of Dublin he was not permitted to have his cross borne before him. In
1349 he was charged by the same king to plead in the royal name before
the Sovereign Pontiff Clement VI. for the grace of a jubilee on behalf
of the people subject to the English crown. In Oxford there is a MS.
entitled _Propositio ejusden (Ric. Rad. sive Fitz-Ralph Archiepiscopi
Armachani) ex parte Regis Angliae Edwardi III. in consistorio Domini
Papae, Avinione pro gratia jubilaei ejus Domino Regis populo obtinenda,
anno 1349_. A similar heading is prefixed to another _propositio_ of the
same prelate, which, as we shall see, he urged in person at Avignon in
1357. Pope Clement VI. was engaged in anxious efforts to restore the
oriental churches to union with Rome. The Armenians were in an especial
manner the objects of his paternal solicitude. The rema