d to
Derry, it coincided almost exactly with the modern Down, Connor and
Dromore. On the other hand the parish of Armagh seems originally to have
included the modern county of Monaghan: it has shrunk to little more
than half its size. The parish of Clogher, at first very small, has
extended east and west, and is three times as large as it was intended
to be. On the whole the work of the Synod has stood well the test of
many centuries of history.

It is indeed wonderful that it should have done so. For the method of
the Synod--fixing the number of the dioceses before their boundaries
were discussed--was unstatesmanlike. Always, and necessarily,
ecclesiastical divisions have coincided with civil divisions. We may
find the germ of the rule in the Acts of the Apostles.[53] If this was
inevitable in other lands it was even more inevitable in Ireland in
pre-Norman days. The Irish people was a collection of clans, having, it
is true, certain common institutions, but bound together by no sort of
national constitution, and often at war with each other. If
ecclesiastical divisions were to be permanent in Ireland, they must take
account of the tribal divisions of the country. The primary
ecclesiastical unit must be the territory of a tribe, just as it was the
primary civil unit.[54] But to base the limits of dioceses, consistently
and in every case, on tribal boundaries was impossible when the number
of dioceses was arbitrarily fixed beforehand. It could not be that
exactly the same number of dioceses would suit Ulster as suited Leinster
and Connaught. In one province the tribes would be more or less
numerous, and more or less mutually antagonistic, than in another. By
reason of its method, therefore, the Synod was doomed to fall short of
complete success in its work.

We have instances in Ulster of the soundness of the principle that I
have stated. Take the diocese of Raphoe. It was designed to include
Inishowen. But from a tribal point of view Inishowen (Inis Eoghain)
belonged to the next diocese, which included the tribeland of Tir
Eoghain. Its inhabitants were of the same stock as the Cenel Eoghain,
and were known as the Cenel Eoghain of the Island. So the natural result
followed. Inishowen broke off from the diocese of Raphoe and became part
of the diocese of Derry. When this happened the diocese of Raphoe was
stabilized. It consisted of the land of a single tribe, the Cenel
Conaill; and so henceforth its limits were never