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The Crede Mihi
By Marie Therese Flanagan, Professor Emeritus , School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy & Politics, Queen’s University Belfast.
The earliest extant episcopal register of the diocese of Dublin is known as ‘Crede Mihi’, meaning ‘Believe me’, a title deriving from the vulgate version of the gospel according to John (chapter 4, v.21) where Jesus said to the Samaritan woman ‘Believe me’ etc.). The manuscript is item one in the diocesan collection held in the RCB Library D6/1 and has now been digitised and can be viewed online here
An insertion on the flyleaf of the manuscript in the hand of James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (1624–1656) states that the it was so referred to in the register of John Alen (1530–1534): Pars haec est antiqui Registri archiepiscop(orum) Dublin, circa annum 1275 conscripti, quod appellatur CREDE MIHI ut constat ex novo Registro Johannis Alani, archiepiscopi, fol. 64b. Antiqui vero huius pars tantum posterior extat, viz. a fol. 80 ad 105 et finem. Alen was the first Henrician archbishop of Dublin, and an assiduous investigator of the rights and privileges of his see and annotations in his handwriting are evident in the ‘Crede Mihi’ manuscript. Alen’s own register, known as Liber Niger Alani, has been digitised and can be viewed online here. References to ‘Crede Mihi’ can be found, for example, on folio 36v at the foot of the folio and on 75v at the top of the folio.
The ‘Crede Mihi’ manuscript contains the oldest extant collection of documents connected with the see of Dublin ranging in date from the early 1170s to the latter part of the thirteenth century. Its editor in 1897, the Dublin city archivist, Sir John Gilbert, described it as the most ancient register book of the archbishops of Dublin before the Reformation’. Since the diocese of Glendalough was united with that of Dublin in 1216 it also includes material relating to that diocese.
Physically, ‘Crede Mihi’ consists of 37 parchment leaves in a soft leather binding, the foliation of which begins in the centre of the upper margin of the first leaf with the folio number 80 and runs through to folio 116 in both Roman and Arabic numerals. There is a secondary foliation sequence inserted in the top right–hand corner of each folio beginning with folio 1.
That the manuscript now begins at folio 80 suggests either that the beginning of the manuscript may have been lost or that it was originally bound with other material.
The 37 leaves, each of which is in length nearly 11 inches and in width seven inches, are made up of five gatherings.
The original scribe wrote the first two gatherings and most of the third (folios 80r–103v). A different hand wrote folios 104r–105r while 105v is blank. The first hand recurs at the beginning of the fourth gathering, that is, folios 106r to the upper half of 108r which contains a group of undated and unattributed synodal statutes promulgated for the diocese of Dublin; another hand wrote 108r–108v when the first hand took over again. The synodal legislation is followed by an annotated list of churches and chapels in the city of Dublin and in the deaneries of Taney, Swords, Ballymore, Bray, Wicklow, Arklow, Castledermot, Athy, and Leixlip with valuations and sometimes accompanying notes relating to patronage and incumbency. Notes by Archbishop Alen are evident throughout this section. Part of a homiletic treatise in a different hand occurs on folios 114r–115r which is followed by ten further charters of varying dates in yet another hand.
Ussher dated the compilation of the manuscript to around 1275 without explanation. This was endorsed by Aubrey Gwynn on the basis of his identification of John of Sandford, described in ‘Crede Mihi’ as rector of the churches of Killagheger and Clonmine in the deanery of Bray (folio 111v) and prebendary of the church of Laraghbryan in the deanery of Leixlip (folio 113r), with the future archbishop of Dublin of the same name who secured the archdeaconry of St Patrick’s cathedral in 1275 and was elected archbishop of Dublin in 1284
Gwynn therefore assumed that ‘Crede Mihi’ had to be dated in or around 1275 that is, before John of Sandford became archdeacon of St Patrick’s cathedral. However, overlooked by Gwynn was the fact that there were two near contemporary persons with the name John of Sandford and the individual named in ‘Crede Mihi’ cannot be assumed to have been the future archbishop of Dublin. Setting aside Gwynn’s suggestion, Geoffrey Hand ascribed ‘Crede Mihi’ to the period between 1279 and 1283 with a strong bias towards the earlier years for the following reasons, adduced from other notes relating to a number of churches as follows in chronological order:
Folio 111r, Kilkevin, deanery of Ballymore. The church being sede vacante Louis of Savoy was presented by the king. This indicates a date after Louis’s presentation on 20 September 1277
Folio 110v, Lusk, deanery of Swords. An annotation decani Sar. (misread by Gilbert as decani War(ini)), refers to Walter Scamel, dean of Salisbury, who was presented to Lusk before 17 September 1278 and elected bishop of Salisbury on 26 June 1284.
Fol. 110v, Rathsallagh, deanery of Ballymore. Henry of Rathenny was presented around 5 March 1279.
Folio 110v, Dunlavin, deanery of Ballymore. Two annotations read archiepiscopus patronus and prebenda sancti Patricii ex collatione regis sede vacante. In Hand’s view this meant that the prebend had fallen vacant during a vacancy in the see and had not yet been filled, not necessarily that the see was still vacant. The restoration of the temporalities to Archbishop John de Derlington was ordered on 28 April 1279.
Folio 112r, Arklow, deanery of Arklow. Fromund le Brun is named as rector; he died around 6 June 1283.
The cumulative effect of these annotations to the list of churches suggests a date between the spring of 1279 and the summer of 1283 when the original scribe ceased to work on the manuscript.
The synodal statutes on folios 106–108 have been attributed to various archbishops. Sir John Gilbert suggested Henry, archbishop of Dublin (1213–1228) while Aubrey Gwynn proposed Archbishop Luke (1230–1255), a royal chaplain and dean of St Martin’s, London. The most recent view, however, is that they were synodical canons of Archbishop Fulk of Sandford (1256–1271) promulgated c.1261–1267 because many of the canons were copied from a set which is attested at York and Chichester (between 1241 and 1255) with others coming from a provincial synod of Canterbury held at Lambeth in 1261. Since Fulk was absent from Ireland between 1267 and 1270 and returned for only a short time before his death in 1271 the canons may therefore be assigned to the period 1261–1267.
Under whose auspices was the manuscript commissioned? Gwynn suggested the initiative came from the lawyer and administrator, Master Thomas of Chedworth (d.1311), who had custody of the temporal revenues of the see of Dublin on behalf of the Crown during the long vacancy between 1271 and 1279. This is a plausible suggestion. To have the diocesan records available to him in a register would have been convenient while the annotations to the list of churches with their emphases on evaluations and advowsons would have been especially useful to an administrator whose concern would have been to extract as much value as possible from the vacancy. However, Geoffrey Hand posited that it could also have been commissioned by John of Sandford, who was vicar general of the archbishop of Dublin between 1267 and 1269, treasurer of the chapter of Ferns in 1269, appointed royal escheator of Ireland on 16 September 1271, promoted to dean of St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, in 1274, and from 1275 acted as an occasional itinerant justice and was regularly commissioned to audit the accounts of the justiciars. He was a remarkably efficient administrator whose services were valued and rewarded by the crown. He was unanimously elected archbishop of Dublin by the chapters of St Patrick’s and Christ Church before 20 July 1284. The compilation of ‘Crede Mihi’ equally plausibly could be attributed to him.
The roughly 150 documents that make up ‘Crede Mihi’, most of them undated, contain no rubrics or headings but have been numbered in the margins in a sequence from 1 to 169 with an error occurring after no. 140, which is followed by no. 150; the numerical sequence is thereby missing nos. 141–49. The first section contains 22 papal privileges issued to the archbishops of Dublin and Glendalough between 1179 and 1264 by popes Alexander III, Lucius III, Innocent III, Honorius III, Alexander IV, and Urban IV. Then follow charters granted by kings of England, Henry II, John both as lord of Ireland (1185–89) and as king of England (1199–1216) and Henry III (1216–1272). Thereafter, the categorization breaks down although there is still some thematic grouping of related material.
Among the earliest charters are grants from the first Anglo–Norman incomers such as Earl Richard fitz Gilbert, better known as Strongbow (d.1176), Hugh de Lacy, (d.1186), lord of Meath, and William Marshal (d.1219), lord of Leinster. There are episcopal charters issued by archbishops of Dublin, the earliest of whom is Lorcán Ua Tuathail/Laurence O’Toole (d. 14 Nov. 1180), and by Malchus, bishop of Glendalough (d.1186).
There are a number of other charters issued by Irish grantors, notably one from Aífe, or Eva, daughter of Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster and wife of Strongbow to John Cumin, archbishop of Dublin between 1189 and 1199 confirming all grants made to the church of Dublin ‘by the good men of Leinster’. She styled herself Eva comitissa heres reg(is) Deremicii, ‘Countess Eva, heir of King Deremicius’, which shows that she bought into the argument that Strongbow succeeded to the lordship of Leinster in right of his marriage to her.
A charter from D(omnall) Mac Gilla Mocholmoc and his wife, Derbforgaill, confirmed to the church of St Mochua of Clondalkin land which their ancestors had given ‘before the conquest of Ireland by the English’. A charter of Muirchertach Ó Tuathail confirmed a carucate of land to Archbishop Fulk of Sandford (1256–1271) to hold in fee for an annual payment of one penny to be paid at Michaelmas in the church of St Patrick, Dublin, with Fulk paying sixty marks sterling to Muirchertach for the charter.
Unfortunately, the compiler of the register did not transcribe the names of witnesses to twelfth– and early thirteenth–century charters which would have been such an invaluable aid to assigning proximate dates to undated documents, though from the mid–thirteenth century onwards, documents tend to be dated by day, month, and year.
Among dated documents are two from Cino de Sancino, a merchant banker from Florence, acknowledging receipt of £100 and of 550 marks that Archbishop Fulk had undertaken to deliver which is dated Dublin, 1 November 1266. This may have been related to the collection of papal revenues, possibly aid in support of the Holy Land, in the collection of which Italian merchant bankers were heavily involved.
Stitched into the same binding is another manuscript of a later date in different and somewhat wider vellum of twenty–one folios. It contains a copy of the Constitutiones Clementinae promulgated by Pope Clement V in 1314 with a repromulgation by Pope John XXII in 1317. Also known as the Liber septimus, it consists of a canon law collection of decretals of Popes Boniface VIII (1294–1303), Benedict XI (1303–4), and Pope Clement (1305–1314) himself. These take up nineteen folios pages and are written in a black letter or Gothic book–hand with blue and red initial letters and rubrication of some headings. They are followed in another hand by two letters of Pope John XXII, one dated to the second year of his pontificate (1318), the other to the seventh (1323), by a series of scripture references to the word visitatio in yet another hand, by a list of cardinals with their titular churches, and a form of oath for archbishops and bishops. The final two folios are written in various hands of fourteenth–century date.
An unsatisfactory edition of the text of ‘Crede Mihi’ was published by Sir John Thomas Gilbert, in 1897, only 120 copies of which were printed, the scarcity and limitations of that volume making a digital version of the original manuscript by the RCB Library especially welcome. To view all the medieval manuscripts currently digitised by the RCB, please click here For a full bibliography of this article – please click here