DIOCESE OF DERRY

The DIOCESE of DERRY originated in a monastery founded by St. Columb, about 545, of which some of the abbots at a very early period were styled bishops, but the title of bishop of Derry was not established until 1158, or even a century later, as the bishops, whose see was at Derry, were sometimes called Bishops of Tyrone. The see first existed at Ardsrath, where St. Eugene, the first bishop, died about the end of the sixth century; it was subsequently removed to Maghera, whence it was transferred to Derry. It is called Darrich in the old Roman provincial, and Doire Choluim chille or "Columbkill's Oak Grove," by ancient writers. The town is now called Londonderry, from a colony of settlers from London, in the reign of James I., by whom the present cathedral was built, but the bishoprick retains its ancient name of Derry.

The see was constituted at Derry in 1158, by a decree of the Synod of Brigth Thaigh, at which assisted Christian, Bishop of Lismore, the pope's legate, and twenty-five bishops; and Flathbert O'Brolcan, abbot of Derry, was promoted to the episcopal throne. In 1164, with the assistance of Mac Loughlin, King of Ireland, he built the cathedral; the altar of which was robbed in 1196 by McCrenaght, of 314 cups, which were esteemed the best in Ireland, but they were recovered the third day after, and the robber executed. German, or Gervase, O'Cherballen, who succeeded to the bishoprick in 1230, took the church of Ardsrath and many others in Tyrone from the Bishop of Clogher, and forcibly annexed part of the bishoprick of Raphoe to his diocese. In 1310, Edward II. directed the bishop of Connor to enquire whether the king or any other person would be prejudiced by allowing Richard de Burgo to retain in fee the city of Derry, which the bishop, with the consent of the chapter, had conveyed to him.

Prior to 1608, the bishop had one-third of the tithes of each parish; a lay person, called an Erenach, who was the bishop's farmer, had another third; and the remaining third was allowed for the incumbent: but Bishop Montgomery gave the bishop's share to the incumbents of parishes, on the grant by James I. of the termon or Erenach lands, amounting to 6534 acres, to the see in exchange. By an inquisition in 1622, the bishop was found to be entitled to fish for salmon on the Monday after the 4th of June, within the great net fishery belonging to the London Society; also to half the tithe of salmon, &c., caught in the Bann and Lough Foyle. Bishop Hopkins, who died in 1690, was at great expense in beautifying the cathedral, and furnishing it with organs and massive plate, and is said to have expended £1000 in buildings and other improvements in this bishoprick and that of Raphoe. Derry continued to be a separate bishoprick until the death of Dr. Bissett, Bishop of Raphoe, in 1836, when that see, under the provisions of the Church Temporalities act of the 3rd and 4th of William IV., was annexed to the see of Derry, and its temporalities became vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

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