his predecessors are
called metropolitans.

[325] _Tricesimo ferme aetatis suae anno._ _A.F.M._ record under the
year 1124 that "Mael Maedoc Ua Morgair sat in the bishopric of
Connor." This agrees with the date of his consecration as given here.
See p. 128, note 1. He was consecrated bishop by Cellach (Sec. 19).

We have seen (p. 20, note 3) that Malachy probably went to Lismore
late in 1121. He spent several years there, and, according to St.
Bernard, another long period at Armagh and Bangor before his
consecration in 1124. This must be pronounced impossible. The most
probable solution of the chronological difficulty is that through
ignorance of Irish ecclesiastical affairs St. Bernard misunderstood
the information supplied to him, and thus separated Malachy's tenure
of the abbacy of Bangor from his episcopate, though the two were in
reality conterminous. For the significance of Malachy's recall to the
North, see Introduction, p. liii. f.; and for a fuller discussion,
_R.I.A._, xxxv. 250-254.

[326] Cp. Giraldus, _Top._ iii. 19: "It is wonderful that this nation
should remain to this day so ignorant of the rudiments of
Christianity. For it is a most filthy race, a race sunk in vice, a
race more ignorant than all other nations of the rudiments of the
faith."

[327] For the statements in the preceding sentences, see Additional
Note A.

[328] St. Aug., _De Civ. Dei_, xiv. 9. 2. Cp. Ignatius, _Pol._ 2;
_Hero_ 1. It may be noted that most of the MSS. of the Latin version
of the Ignatian Epistles are Burgundian, and that among them is a
Clairvaux MS. of the 12th century. Lightfoot, _Ign. and Pol._, i. 119.

[329] John x. 11-13.

[330] Compare St. Bernard's words to Pope Eugenius III. about his
Roman subjects (_De Cons._, iv. 6): "I know where thou dwellest,
unbelievers and subverters are with thee. They are wolves, not sheep;
of such, however, thou art shepherd. Consideration is good, if by it
thou mayest perhaps discover means, if it can be done, to convert
them, lest they subvert thee. Why do we doubt that they can be turned
again into sheep, who were once sheep and could be turned into
wolves?"

[331] Ps. li. 17.

[332] Cant. iii. 2; cp. Ps. lix. 6, 14; Luke xiv. 21.

[333] Luke vi. 35.

[334] Luke xii. 42.

[335] Acts ix. 16.

[336] Isa. i. 4 (vg.).

[337] Cp. 2 Pet. ii. 7 f.

[338] 2 Cor xi. 27.

[339] Ps. cxx. 6, 7 (vg.).

[340] 2 Tim. iv. 2.

[341] 1 Cor. iv. 13.

[342] Rom. xii. 21.

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