Domnall Ua hÉnna

Domnall Ua hÉnna (* 1021 or 1022 in Ireland ; † November 22, 1098 ) was Bishop of Munster or Killaloe and founder of the reform movement of the Irish Church. He can be seen as the predecessor of the later Archbishops of Cashel .

origin

Domnall belonged to a long-established family in Killaloe who is mentioned several times in the annals of Inisfallen . A son of Énnas, who died as the successor of Flannán in 1030, is named and there is an entry about a choir monk of the Ua hÉnnas who was one of the victims of an epidemic in 1095.

Killaloe and with it the family of the descendants of Enna did not gain their prominent importance until the 11th century through Brian Boru and his successors, who wanted a spiritual center assigned to their rule. For this purpose, Killaloe was chosen as the ancestral seat of the ruling family, although this had no meaning before and was accordingly never mentioned in the annals before the end of the 10th century .

Act as a bishop

It is not known when and by whom Domnall was consecrated bishop. We only know that as bishop he also had the role of supreme spiritual leader and advisor to the kings of Munster. In this capacity he served first to 1086 Toirrdelbach Ua Briain , the grandson of Brian Boru, and then the son Muirchertach who succeeded him as king . A modern diocesan administration with clearly delimited borders was only to follow later in the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111, so that Domnall's sphere of activity corresponded to that of his kings.

Correspondence with the Archbishops of Canterbury

In 1070, Stigand, the last Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, was deposed through the initiative of William the Conqueror . Lanfrank followed , who immediately began to reform the English Church, secure hegemony over York and extend his spiritual hegemony over Ireland.

The letter to Lanfrank written by Pope Gregory VII shortly after his inauguration in July 1073 also contained a request to do so , in particular to take care of the Irish, about whom he had rumored that they would not only leave legitimate wives, but even sell them . The opportunity to comply with this request arose the following year, when the newly ordained bishop of Dublin Gilla Pátraic , who was newly ordained by Lanfrank, was able to take letters with him to Gofraid , the then King of Dublin, and Toirrdelbach on his return journey .

Accordingly, Lanfrank, in his letter to Toirrdelbach, condemns the law of divorce practiced in Ireland and the possibility of remarriage as a law of "fornication". Apparently well-informed, Lanfrank goes into other points in his letter. He criticizes the Irish practice of having bishops ordained by a single bishop, the assignment of many bishops to tiny congregations, the baptism of children without consecrated chrism , and the receipt of money by bishops for spiritual services.

This contact probably gave rise to the letter from Domnall to Lanfrank sent around 1080 with both spiritual and secular questions. This letter has not survived, but the answer addressed to Domnall, who refused to answer worldly questions, but detailed the spiritual questions. One of the questions asked about the need to give sacrament to children in distress in order to save them. This question was vehemently denied by Lanfrank, and Lanfrank emphasized that such views would not apply in either the English or the continental churches.

Around 1095, the contact of Anselm , the successor of Lanfrank appointed in 1093, was continued with a letter addressed to all of Ireland's bishops. Two Irish bishops were prominently named in this letter. With the salutation seniori Domnaldo Domnall became from the point of view of Anselm the leading bishop of Ireland. The then Bishop of Dublin Donngus Ua hAingliu only followed in second place . In this letter, Anselm complained that he had to accept the office of archbishop against his will. Accordingly, he asked that they include him in their prayers. Finally, he urged the Irish bishops to turn to him in case of difficulties.

It was noteworthy that this letter named Domnall, and not the Bishop of Armagh, as the leading Bishop of Ireland. This contradicted the traditional primacy of Armagh . The reason for this was probably the separation of the office of successor Patrick and the episcopate, which was still practiced in Armagh at that time, which gave the lay abbot and successor Patrick Domnall Mac Amalgada more power and respect than the then Bishop of Armagh Mael Pátraic Mac Ermedach . This was not to change until 1106 with Cellach Mac Aodh , who combined both offices in Armagh and joined the reform movement.

Regardless of this, the traditional leadership role of Armagh was still recognized in Munster. Only two years earlier, after Diarmaid gave up the uprising against his brother Muirchertach, the peace was concluded in Cashel and Lismore in the presence of Patrick's successor, Patrick Domnall Mac Amalgada and his most important relic, the Bachall-Isa (stick of Jesus) .

Beginning of the reform movement

With the support of Muirchertach, a reform movement of leading bishops in Ireland emerged. We know about this group thanks to a letter from 1096 to Anselm asking for Mael Iosa Ua hAinmire to be ordained Bishop of Waterford . Mael Iosa was a native Irishman who served as a Benedictine monk in Winchester under Bishop Walchelin . The petition was signed by Muirchertach, his brother Diarmaid, Domnall, Maol Muire Ua Dunáin , Samuel of Dublin and Ferdomnach , the Bishop of Leinster . The other signatures that would complete the list of members of the reform movement have been omitted by Eadmer when copying the letter.

Anselm complied with the request and consecrated Mael Iosa in Canterbury on December 28, 1096 as bishop, which further expanded the group of reformers in Ireland. However, Domnall died almost two years later. At the request of Muirchertach, the leadership of the Irish bishops' college was passed on to Maol Muire, whom Pope Paschal II confirmed shortly afterwards by being appointed legate in this function.

swell

• Annals of Inisfallen with the entries AI1093.11 and AI1098.5.
• Annals of the four masters with the entry M1098.1.
• Annals of Loch Cé with the entry LC1096.9.
• Annals of Ulster with the entry U1098.8.
• Annalen von Tigernach with the entry T1098.2.
• Pope Gregory VII and Lanfrank of Canterbury : Letters 8, 9, 10 and 49 from Lanfrank's correspondence, edited by Helen Clover and Margaret Gibson and translated into English: The Letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury . Oxford Press, 1979, ISBN 0-19-822235-1 . (Letter 8 is the quoted letter from Gregory VII. Letters 9 and 10 are the letters given to Gilla Pátraic and Letter 49 is the answer to Domnall.)
• Anselm of Canterbury : Letters 198 and 201 from Anselm's correspondence edited by Walter Fröhlich and translated into English: The Letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Volume Two . Cistercian Publications, 1993, ISBN 0-87907-897-0 . (198 is the letter addressed to Domnall and the other bishops, 201 is the petition from Ireland for the installation of Mael Iosa Ua hAinmire as Bishop of Waterford.)

Secondary literature

• James F. Kenney : The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical , 1929. Most recently reprinted in 1997 by Four Courts Press, Dublin. ISBN 1-85182-115-5 . (This work elaborates on pages 757–763 the correspondence of the Archbishops of Canterbury with Ireland.)
• Kathleen Hughes : The Church in Early Irish Society . 1966, Methuen, London. (On pages 259 and 298 of this work, Kathleen Hughes discusses the correspondence between the Archbishops of Canterbury, Lanfrank and Anselm, and Ireland.)
• Aubrey Gwynn and R. Neville Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses Ireland . 1970, Longman, London, ISBN 0582-11229-X . (This work goes into the history of Killaloe on pages 86 and 87, including its founding as a spiritual center by Brian Boru, the subsequently brought up Saint Flannán, and Domnall as the first bishop of Killaloe.)
• Aubrey Gwynn: The Irish Church in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries . 1992, ISBN 1-85182-095-7 . (On page 100 of this work, the meaning of the salutation seniori Domnaldo is explained .)
• Marie Therese Flanagan: High-kings with opposition, 1072-1166 . In: Prehistoric and Early Ireland , edited by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, first volume in the A New History of Ireland series , Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-821737-4 . (There is a section on pages 906 and 907 about Domnall's letter to Lanfrank and his answer.)