Gilbert, that
a bishop should have not less than ten churches within his jurisdiction.
They had therefore to be grouped under a smaller number of prelates.
What had to be accomplished in this case was not so much the clipping of
the wings of the abbots, as the extirpation of the more recently
appointed diocesan bishops. The Synod determined that the kingdom should
be divided into two dioceses, one in the west, the other in the east.
The western see was to be at Clonard, at the moment, as it seems, the
see of O'Dunan, and famed as the site of the great monastery of St.
Finnian, founded in the sixth century; the eastern see was to be at
Duleek, near Drogheda. Now a few months after the Synod of Rathbreasail
there was held at Usnagh a local synod of the men of Meath, at which the
king and many notable persons were present.[63] This synod ordained that
the parishes of Meath should be equally divided between the bishops of
Clonmacnoise and Clonard. It will be observed that the principle of the
Rathbreasail decree was accepted, that there should be two, and only
two, dioceses in Meath. But the change made in the sees is significant.
The Synod of Rathbreasail intended that Clonard should be the see of the
western diocese, which would include Clonmacnoise. The Synod of Usnagh
demanded that Clonmacnoise, founded by one of the most noted of Irish
saints, St. Ciaran, should be one of the surviving sees, and that
Clonard should be the see, not of the western, but of the eastern half
of the kingdom. Thus the Synod of Rathbreasail was at once met with
strenuous and, as it proved, successful opposition in Meath.

And here I may mention another fact. A few years after the Synod we have
proof of the existence of a diocese in the north of the kingdom, which
has not hitherto been mentioned, and which is not named in the
Rathbreasail canons. We know it as the diocese of Kilmore.[64] It may
have been one of O'Dunan's dioceses, or it may have been founded later.
One thing is certain. The diocese formed the territory of a strong
tribe. Consequently it had in it the element of stability. It was never
suppressed: it exists to this day. So far as it was concerned the canons
of Rathbreasail were a dead letter from the beginning.

But let us return to Clonard. It was the business of its successive
bishops, in accordance with the decrees of Usnagh, to annex the small
neighbouring bishoprics of east Meath. They had considerable success. We
possess