altered.

We can easily understand, therefore, that the disregard of tribal
boundaries, forced on it in many cases by its method, was an element of
weakness in the Rathbreasail scheme. And yet it was natural that special
stress should be laid on the arbitrary limitation of sees which was its
main cause. Ireland was overrun with bishops. It is said that over fifty
of them attended the Synod of Rathbreasail; and they represented only
part of the country. But Gilbert had laid down the rule that an
archbishop could not have more than twenty suffragans. On this
principle, if all the existing bishops had been provided with dioceses,
or all the larger tribes had been given bishops, Ireland would have had
not two, but six or seven archbishops: and this would have been a
travesty of Catholic Church order, as it was then understood. It was
essential that the number should be ruthlessly cut down.

But the legislators of Rathbreasail did not entirely ignore tribal
boundaries. On the contrary, so far as the numerical basis of their
scheme permitted, they took them into account. And here we find that the
Synod was confronted with another difficulty. The territories of tribes
were fluctuating quantities. Hence, even if a diocese was the district
of a single tribe, with very definite boundaries, no one could be sure
that in the course of years its limits would not change. Again I take an
example from Ulster. The Synod selected the Carntougher Mountains as the
boundary between the dioceses of Derry and Connor. And wisely. For
between those mountains and the Bann there dwelt a sept--the Fir
Li--whose affinities were altogether with the people to the east of the
river. But only a few years after the Synod that territory was overrun
by the O'Kanes of the Roe Valley, and the Fir Li retreated across the
Bann, never to return. The result followed which might have been
expected. Their territory was transferred from Connor to Derry, and the
Bann to this day is the boundary of the two dioceses.[55]

It may be well, before I pass to another subject, to call attention to
some special features of the Rathbreasail canons.

First, let us note the prominence which is given to Limerick, the
diocese of Gilbert, the president of the Synod. Usually a diocese is
somewhat vaguely defined by four places on its borders. But here no less
than thirteen are named. So full are the indications that a fairly exact
map of the diocese could be drawn. Further, in t