Nor should we at all suppose that piety in this age was confined to ecclesiastics.  The Earls of Pembroke stand conspicuously amongst their fellows as men of probity, and were none the less brave because they were sincerely religious.  At times, even in the midst of the fiercest raids, men found time to pray, and to do deeds of mercy.  On one Friday, in the year of grace 1235, the English knights, in the very midst of their success at Umallia, and after fearful devastations commanded “that no people shall be slain on that day, in honour of the crucifixion of Christ."[329] It is true they “plundered and devastated both by sea and land the very next day;” but even one such public act of faith was something that we might wish to see in our own times.  After the same raid, too, we find the “English of Ireland” and the Lord Justice sparing and protecting Clarus, the Archdeacon of Elphin, and the Canons of Trinity Island, in honour of the Blessed Trinity—­another act of faith; and the “Lord Justice himself and the chiefs of the English went to see that place, and to kneel and pray there.”  On another occasion the “English chiefs were highly disgusted” when their soldiers broke into the sacristy of Boyle Abbey, and “took away the chalices, vestments, and other valuable things.”  Their leaders “sent back everything they could find, and paid for what they could not find."[330] We must, however, acknowledge regretfully that this species of “disgust” and reparation were equally rare.  To plunder monasteries which they had not erected themselves, seems to have been as ordinary an occupation as to found new ones with a portion of their unjust spoils.

Although this is not an ecclesiastical history, some brief account of the monks, and of the monasteries founded in Ireland about this period, will be necessary.  The earliest foundations were houses of the Cistercian Order and the Augustinians.  The Augustinian Order, as its name implies, was originally founded by St. Augustine, the great Archbishop of Hippo, in Africa.  His rule has been adopted and adapted by the founders of several congregations of men and women.  The great Benedictine Order owes its origin to the Patriarch of the West, so famous for his rejection of the nobility of earth, that he might attain more securely to the ranks of the noble in heaven.  This Order was introduced into England at an early period.  It became still more popular and distinguished when St. Bernard preached under the mantle of Benedict, and showed how austerity towards himself and tenderness towards others could be combined in its highest perfection.

The twin Orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis, founded in the early part of the thirteenth century—­the one by a Spanish nobleman, the other by an Italian merchant—­were established in Ireland in the very lifetime of their founders.  Nothing now remains of the glories of their ancient houses, on which the patrons had expended so much wealth, and the artist so much skill; but their memory still lives in the hearts of the people, and there are few places in the country without traditions which point out the spot where a Franciscan was martyred, or a Dominican taken in the act of administering to the spiritual necessities of the people.