pages 555 to 683 (4602 Kb) - Limerick City Council

SS0 ~ISTORY OP LIMERICX.
C .
be king in place of lord of Ireland; but no Christian name is mentioned,
although given as was customary to several other bishops. The list too, as to
numbers, totally disagrees with those mentioned by the Deputy Sentleger;
hence it seems questionable whether he was there, though there is no doubt
he had been summoned. There is little doubt also that Bishop Quin
opposed the progress of the Reformation, as we find in a letter from Sentleger
to Secretary Cecil, dated 19th January, 1550-1,' the following statement:
"And nowe, as tuching religion, altho it be hard to plante in
men's mynds herein, yet I trust I am not slake to do what I can t'advance
the same. I have caused the whole service of tlie commyon to be
drawen into Latten, mhiche shalbe shortly set furthe in print. I have
caused boks to be sent to the citty of Lymik, who most gladly have
condescended to ymbrace the same with all effecte, altho the Busshop
therr, who is both owlde and blind, be moost agensyt it". According
to Ware and Moi.rin's Patent Rolls, Bishop Quin resigned his see the
9th of April, 1551, and there can be little question but that his resignation
was compelled, considering what Sentleger wrote against him,
and that in another letter written by him to the Duke of Somerset,
18th February, 1550-1 (Shirley, p. 49), he mentions that the Lord
Cnancellor, accompanied by the Master of the Rolls, had made a late
journey to Limerick and Galway, and " had established the king's maties.
ordres for religion in such sorte as there is greet assueraunce the same
shalbe duely observed, so as I trust those parties be wthoute suspecte of
adhearing to anny forreigne power". This view is confirmed by the Rev.
James White in his MSS., p. 51, who writes, '' I find by an old MS. in
my possession, that John Coyn was L deposed' by an order of Edward
VI., for being a Catholic bishop, and that William Casey, a conformist,
was put in his place". It was during Quid time that a most cruel persecution
began to rage, and expended no small share of its fury. He was
fated to witness the suppression of the abbeys in 1538, and the arrival
of Edmond Sexten at Limerick, on special employment by hi royal
master, alienating the property of the churches and uprooting the ancient
landmarks. He saw his cathedral church of St. Mary's, which had f ~r
centuries been dedicated to the observances of the old faith, handed
over to William Casey, who, at the instance of James Earl of Desmond,
according to Ware, was advanced to this see by Edward Vf., and W&
made bishop by George Browne, the h t Protestant archbishop of Dublin.'
He lived to see himself restcared to his see by the advent of Queen Mary to
the throne of England, but not to find religion in the flourishing state it
had been in when he h t enjoyed the episcopal dignity, and dun'n,~ several
of those years in which he had filled that exdted oace. He saw Thomaa
Creagh, niayor of Limerick, A.D. 1569, proclaim Connor O'Brien, Earl
of Thomond (who had fled to France, and returned and obtained pardon
h London) a traitor.3 It is strange to observe that on the very eve
of the troubles which brought such deep af3iction on Church and people,
$he citizens of Limerick were extending their venerable cathedral,
making improvements in it, and decorating it with great taste and
even elegance:- Thus we find that during the episcopacy of our prelate
0
Sbirley's Original Ldtm, p. 47.
2 Casefs Life in Ware, p. 610, shows that he was never canonically appointed.
Sezkm's Annab, ia the British Muaem.
IIISTORY OF LIMERICK. 581
John Quin (A.D. 1532-1533), Daniel Fitzgregory Arthur, mayor,
George Creagh and William White, bailiffs; the mayor, from a principle
of piety and for thc sake of his offspring, had the three aisles and the whole
choir of the church of the Blcssed Virgin Mary in Limerick, laid with
square polished marble flags, from whence it is to this day called bccaoaniel,
(Daniel's pavement or flags) ; and the Lord blessed him with a
numerous ~ffspring".~
Among the deans d~uing those years, was Andrew Creagh, who resigned
in 1543, and reaeived the king's pardon for some unknown offence
on the day when his successor was confirmed (Rot. Put., 35th Henry VIII.).
In the cathedral a stone is placed to his memory with the inscription:
i0ecarru$+ I I
This rnsrble slab had lain near the great altar; but in the alterations in
1861 it was removed to the north transept, where there are some other
sncient tombstones of an apparently contemporaneous period, a few of
which we shall notice here :
Lying with the head from the western wall of the north transept, is s
hiely elaborate cut stone, with floriated ornamentation in hi h relief,
divided into four compartments by a cross embraced in the mi dle by a
~ircle. In each of the compartments is tlie figure of alion passant, the arms
of the O'Briens. This ancient relic is sad to have formed the lid of
a stone coffin, and until the alterations in 1861, it lay near the western
entrance, from which it wag removed to its present place.
The monument of Dean Creagh, above referred to, is placed next to the
above tombstone.
The next in position is a floriated cross on a plain black marble sbb
without any inscription.
A tombstone, apparently be1ong;lg to the Roche or %-ice family, is
placed next to the above.
A monumental slab in black letter, somewhat broken and defawd, is
placed next in order. Tiii monument was erected to Thomas Mahon, and
his wife Creagh; - the former died 1st November, 1631, the latter November
2nd, 1637.
On the deprivation of William Casey, who had been advanced, as we
have seen, by Edward VI., from the rectory of Kilcornan, on the recommendation
of James, Earl of Desmond, Hugh Lacy, or Lees, a canon of
Limerick, was appointed by Queen 3Iary.P The following abstract of the
royal letter is in Monin's Calendar of the Patent Idolls: The queen to
Arthur MSS. These, we suppose, were the tiles which were taken up in the repairs of the
cathedral in 1861, and which were similar in many respects to the ancient encaustio tiles found
in Mellifont Abbey, Christ Church, and St. Patrick's. Dublin, and in other abbeys and churches,
ad a dascriptive catalogue of which has been published by Thomas Oldham, Esq, in his work on
ancient Irish pavement iiles. The tiles of St. Mary's were encaustic, with the lily impressed on them
-me were vitr&d, and the lily also impressed on them. [I have a few specimens of them.]
S He was of the ,pat De Lacy family of the County of Limerick.
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