In virtue of his legatine power, the saint assembled local synods in several places.  He rebuilt and restored many churches; and in 1142 he erected the famous Cistercian Abbey of Mellifont, near Drogheda.  This monastery was liberally endowed by O’Carroll, King of Oriel, and was peopled by Irish monks, whom St. Malachy had sent to Clairvaux, to be trained in the Benedictine rule and observances.  But his great act was the convocation of the Synod of Inis Padraig.  It was held in the year 1148.  St. Malachy presided as Legate of the Holy See; fifteen bishops, two hundred priests, and some religious were present at the deliberations, which lasted for four days.  The members of the synod were unwilling that Malachy should leave Ireland again; but Eugene III., who had been a Cistercian monk, was visiting Clairvaux, and it was hoped he might grant the favour there.  The Pope had left the abbey when the saint arrived, who, in a few days after, was seized with mortal sickness, and died on the 2nd November, 1148.  His remains were interred at Clairvaux.  His feast was changed from the 2nd of November, All Souls, to the 3rd, by “the seniors,” that he might be the more easily revered and honoured.

In 1151 Cardinal Paparo arrived in Ireland with the palliums which had been solicited by St. Malachy.  The insignia of dignity were conferred the following year, at the Council of Kells.  Tithes were then introduced for the first time in Ireland, but they were not enforced until after the English invasion.

It will be remembered that we turned to ecclesiastical history, after mentioning the year’s truce (A.D. 1128) which had been made, through the intervention of St. Celsus, between the men of Munster and Connaught.  In 1129 the great Church of Clonmacnois was robbed[242] of some of its greatest treasures.  Amongst these was a model of Solomon’s Temple, presented by a prince of Meath, and a silver chalice burnished with gold, which had been engraved by a sister of King Turlough O’Connor—­an evidence that the ladies of Ireland were by no means behind the age in taste and refinement.

After the death of Donnell O’Loughlin, Turlough had full scope for the exercise of his ambitious projects; but in 1131 he found serious opposition from Connor O’Brien, who had succeeded his father, Dermod, on the throne of Munster.  Connor now carried off hostages from Leinster and Meath, and defeated the cavalry of Connaught.  The following year he sent a fleet to the western coast of Ireland.  Eventually Turlough O’Connor was glad to make a truce with his opponents.  In 1184 the consecration of a church at Cashel was celebrated.  This is still known as Cormac’s Chapel, and was long supposed to have been erected by the more ancient monarch of that name.  But the good king was soon after treacherously slain in his own house, by Turlough O’Connor and the two sons of the O’Connor of Kerry.  Turlough was unquestionably somewhat Spartan in his severities, if not Draconian in his