Note 356 — Chapter X · THE CHURCH.

The Cowarb was supposed to be the successor of the earliest abbot, or ecclesiastical founder of the monastery; but in process of time he appears rather to have been the representative of the lay founder, or, in other words, of the prince or chieftain who granted the Termon lands to the monastery. Thus most of the Cowarbs of St. Patrick (or Abbots of Armagh) can be traced to one of the various families of Oirgialla, of which race was Daire, who originally granted to St. Patrick the land for founding the monastery (A.F.M., 457); though in the ninth century the Hy Nial made several attempts to obtain the appointment for their own nominees. The whole monastery gradually became filled with “Founder’s kin,” and each leading family appears to have possessed the patronage of the monastery of the district. Nor was this custom confined to the Gaelic Church, for it existed in Wales, Bretagne, Auvergne (vide Goodall’s Preface to Keith), and in many parts of England, where the sons of priests were accustomed to inherit their father’s churches. Vide Ead. Hist. Nov., l. 3, p. 67. Instances still exist of the union of ecclesiastical and temporal power; for the Vladika of Montenegro is invariably the bishop, as well as the prince, of his wild country.