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Fixing the Eschatological Scales: Judgement of the Soul in Late Medieval and Early Modern Irish Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Salvador Ryan*
Affiliation:
St Patrick’s College, Thurles

Extract

The Annals of Loch Cé, a native Irish chronicle compiled in north Roscommon in the years 1588–9, contains the following entry for the year 1568:

A cold, stormy year of scarcity was this year; and this is little wonder, for it was in it Mac Diarmada died, i.e. Ruaidhrí, the son of Tadhg, the son of Ruaidhrí Óg, i.e. king of Mag-Luirg and Airtech and Tir-Tuathail and chief lord over the whole territory of Clann-Maelruanaidh, and some more of the districts and fair territories of Connacht…

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2009

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References

1 Hennessy, W. M., ed., The Annals of Loch Cé, 2 vols (London, 1871, repr. Dublin, 1939), 2: 396405 Google Scholar: quotations at 397–99, 401, 403.

2 Ibid. 403.

3 Ariès, Philippe, The Hour of our Death, trans. Weaver, Helen (Oxford, 1991), 97.Google Scholar

4 Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580 (New Haven, CT, and London, 1992), 157,309.Google Scholar

5 See especially Ryan, Salvador, ‘A Slighted Source: Rehabilitating Irish Bardic Religious Poetry in Historical Discourse’, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 48 (2004), 75101.Google Scholar

6 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Dán Dé (Dublin, 1922)Google Scholar, poem 3, stanza 18.

7 Ibid., poem 6, stanza 20.

8 Ibid., stanza 19.

9 Ibid., poem 16, stanza 17. See Ryan, Salvador, ‘Reign of Blood: Devotion to the Wounds of Christ in Late Medieval Gaelic Ireland’, in Augusteijn, Joost and Lyons, Mary Ann, eds, Irish History: A Research Yearbook (Dublin, 2002), 13749.Google Scholar

10 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Danta do chum Aonghus Fionn Ó Dálaigh (Dublin, 1919)Google Scholar, poem 5, stanza 8.

11 See Ryan, Salvador, ‘Weapons of Redemption: Piety, Poetry, and the Instruments of the Passion in Late Medieval Ireland’, in Laugerud, Henning and Skinnebach, Laura, eds, Instruments of Devotion: The Practices and Objects of Religious Piety from the Late Middle Ages to the 20th Century (Aarhus, 2007), 11125.Google Scholar

12 McKenna, , ed., Aonghus Fionn Google Scholar, poem 19, stanza 9.

13 Ibid., poem 21, stanza 11.

14 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Aithdioghluim Dana, 2 vols (Dublin, 1939-40), 2 Google Scholar, poem 58, stanza 21.

15 Erbe, Theodore, ed., Mirk’s Festial: A Collection of Homilies by Johannes Mirkus (John Mirk) (London, 1905).Google Scholar

16 Ryan, , ‘Reign of Blood’, 146 n. 66.Google Scholar

17 McKenna, , ed., Dán Dé Google Scholar, poem 30, stanzas 4–5.

18 Williams, N.J., ed., The Poems of Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe (Dublin, 1980)Google Scholar, poem 21, stanza 19. The number eight follows the eight capital sins listed by the desert father, John Cassian (c. 360–435), which greatly influenced the early Irish penitentials.

19 Ibid., stanza 23.

20 McKenna, Lambert, ed., Philip Bocht Óh Uiginn (Dublin, 1931)Google Scholar, poem 6, stanza 12.

21 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé, poem 1, stanza 1.

22 See Roe, Helen M., ‘The Cult of St Michael in Ireland’, in Danachair, Caoimhín Ó, ed., Folk and Farm: Essays in Honour of Lucas, A. T. (Dublin, 1976), 25164.Google Scholar

23 Ibid. 255, 262.

24 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 11, stanza 32.

25 McKenna, ed., Aonghus Fionn, poem 32, stanza 8.

26 McKenna, Lambert, ed. and trans., ‘St Michael’, Irish Monthly (1930), 514 Google Scholar (stanzas 7, 11, 35).

27 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 14, stanzas 34—35.

28 Ibid., poem 18, stanzas 10, 11, 14.

29 Ibid., stanza 15.

30 McKenna, ed., Aithdioghluim, poem 89, stanza 8.

31 Uallacháin, Íde Ní, Exempla Gaeilge: an cnuasach exempla Gaeilge sa Is. 20978–91 Leabharlann Ríoga na Bruiséíle (Maynooth, 2004), 182.Google Scholar

32 McKenna, , ed., Philip Bocht Google Scholar, poem 17, stanza 17. For the wider context see Ryan, ‘Reign of Blood’; idem, ‘Weapons of Redemption’.

33 McKenna, ed., Dán Dé, poem 9, stanza 28.

34 Uallacháin, , Exempla Gaeilge, 182.Google Scholar

35 See, for instance, a fourteenth-century example at Slapton, Northamptonshire, and a fifteenth-century example at South Leigh, Oxfordshire. For further examples, see ‘Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church: A Developing Catalogue’ (last updated May 2006), <http://www.paintedchurch.org">http://www.paintedchurch.org>, accessed 15 March 2008.

36 Uallacháin, , Exempla Gaeilge, 125.Google Scholar

37 McKenna, ed., Dän Dé, poem 3, stanza 19.

38 Ibid., stanza 20.

39 Ibid., poem 28, stanza 31.

40 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 1, stanza 24.

41 Ibid., stanza 5. See Ryan, Salvador, ‘The Persuasive Power of a Mother’s Breast: The Most Desperate Act of the Virgin Mary’s Advocacy’, Studia Hihernica 32 (2002-3), 5974.Google Scholar

42 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 5, stanza 52.

43 See Ryan, , ‘Weapons of Redemption’, 11125.Google Scholar

44 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 7, stanza 4.

45 McKenna, ed., Aithdioghluim, poem 87, stanza 10.

46 Ibid., poem 59, stanza 36.

47 Williams, ed., Giolla Brighde, poem 22, stanza 14.

48 Ibid., stanza 20. The idea of good confession was that the penitent would reveal the earth-side of himself to the confessor rather than the more attractive and grass-covered upper-side. The sins that were not revealed in confession could not be absolved.

49 McKenna, ed., Dän Dé, poem 4, stanza 3.

50 Hennessy, , ed., Annals of Loch Cé, 396405.Google Scholar

51 McKenna, Lambert, ed., ‘The Signs of the Judgement’, Irish Monthly (1927), 26263 Google Scholar (stanzas 26–27).

52 Williams, ed., Giolla Brighde, poem 21, stanza 16.

53 McKenna, ed., Aithdioghluim, poem 62, stanza 4.

54 McKenna, ed., Philip Bocht, poem 11, stanza 31.

55 Ryan, Salvador, ‘Windows on Late Medieval Devotional Practice: Máire Ní Mháille’s “Book of Piety” (1513) and the world behind the texts’, in Moss, Rachel, Clabaigh, Coimán Ó and Ryan, Salvador, eds, Art and Devotion in Late Medieval Ireland (Dublin, 2006), 115 Google Scholar, at 4.