" Sec. 21,
Malachy's "former spouse," and the vision of Cellach's wife.

[376] Matt. xii. 39; xvi. 4.

[377] On the statements in these sentences, see Additional Note B.

[378] That bishops were numerous in Ireland at this period is
indubitable. Fifty attended the Synod of Fiadh meic Oengusa (_A.U._
1111), and probably all of them came from the provinces of Ulster and
Munster (above, p. xxxviii). But this cannot have been due to the
irregularities at Armagh of which St. Bernard complains. There were
many bishops in Ireland in its earliest Christian period. See Reeves,
123-136; Todd, 27 ff.

[379] Malachy was not of the Clann Sinaich, to which at this period
the coarbs of Patrick belonged. See p. 6, n. 5, and Additional Note B,
p. 165.

[380] 1 Sam. iii. 19, etc.

[381] Cellach died on April 1, 1129, and was buried at Lismore on
April 4. On April 5, the day after his funeral, Murtough was appointed
coarb (_A.U._).

[382] He was probably supported by Conor O'Loughlin, who was king of
Oriel, the district in which Armagh was situated (_A.F.M._ 1136). On
him see p. 40, n. 2. The "five years" are the period from Murtough's
election to his death, September 17, 1134 (_A.F.M._)--nearly five
years and a half.

[383] Geoffrey, St. Bernard's secretary, recalls a saying of his about
"one of the saints," which actually appears in the first antiphon at
Mattins in the office of St. Malachy, and which Geoffrey applies to
St. Bernard himself: "Blessed is he who loved the law, but did not
desire the chair [of dignity]." (_V.P._ iii. 8).

[384] On Malchus see p. 18, n. 6. He was now about eighty-five years
of age.

[385] Gillebertus (as St. Bernard writes the name) is a latinized form
of the Irish _Gilla espuig_ (servant of the bishop), which is
anglicized Gillespie. With that Irish name he subscribed the Acts of
the Synod of Rathbreasail (Keating, iii. 306); and we may therefore
affirm with confidence that he was an Irishman. Gilbert was a friend
of the famous thinker and ecclesiastical statesman, Anselm, who was
archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. The two men met each other
for the first time at Rouen, probably in 1087, when Anselm was called
thither to the deathbed of William the Conqueror. Twenty years later,
Gilbert, then bishop of Limerick, wrote a letter of congratulation to
Anselm on his victory over Henry I. in the controversy concerning
investiture (August 1107). In his reply Anselm intimates that the long