Note 302 — Chapter II

This remark is interesting as showing that the title "abbot of Bangor" was in use in the twelfth century. The last person to whom it is given in the A.U. is Indrechtach, who died in 906. From that time onwards "coarb of Comgall" (or in one instance, "coarb of Bangor") is substituted for it. St. Bernard is supported by the Annals when he asserts that so-called abbots were elected down to Malachy's time. A.U. preserve the names of twenty abbots or coarbs between 824 and 1123. But St. Bernard leaves the impression that the religious community of Bangor ceased to exist on its destruction by the Norse pirates, and that subsequently the "abbots" merely held the lands that had belonged to it, and exercised no spiritual discipline. There are good reasons, however, for the contrary opinion. Thus Abbot Moengal, who died in 871, was a "pilgrim." Abbot Moenach (died 921) was "the head of the learning of the island of Ireland." Ceile, coarb of Comgall, went on pilgrimage to Rome in 928, and died there in 929: he was a scribe and anchoret, apostolic doctor of all Ireland, and (if C.S. can be trusted) a bishop. Dubhinnsi, bishop of Bangor, died in 953. Finally, Diarmait Ua Maeltelcha, coarb of Comgall, whom C.S. calls a bishop, died in 1016. It was probably not till after that date, as Reeves (p. 154) assures us, that the monastery began to decline.