nded.
But we cannot be sure that St. Bernard is correct when he says that
the clergy and people met to elect a bishop, in view of his inability
elsewhere (Sec. 19) to distinguish bishops from abbots. It is at least
possible that there was strife between different septs concerning the
appointment of a coarb of Barre, founder of the church of Cork.
Malachy may have taken advantage of the strife to nominate a ruler who
belonged to no sept in the district and who would allow himself to be
consecrated bishop. The vacancy may have been made by the death of
Donnell Shalvey, erenach of Cork, in 1140 (_A.F.M._). The word
_erenach_ is sometimes used at this period where we might have
expected to find _abbot_ (cp. _A.F.M._ 1137, quoted in Additional Note
C, p. 167).

[664] 2 Cor. xi. 28.

[665] Evidently Malachy was now papal legate. The date of the incident
is therefore not earlier than 1140.

[666] It would seem that it was taken for granted that one of the
leading men of a sept would be appointed, according to prevalent
custom, exemplified in the case of Armagh. This suggests that the
vacant office was that of abbot. There would be nothing surprising in
the selection of a "poor man," who was not a local magnate, as
diocesan bishop.

[667] Luke xvii. 16, 18.--This was probably Gilla Aedha Ua Muidhin,
who attended the Synod of Kells in 1152 as bishop of Cork (Keating,
iii. 317), and died in 1172 (_A.U._). Since he attained "a good old
age" there is no reason why he should not have been consecrated as
early as 1140 or 1141. He had been a monk of Errew in Lough Con, co.
Mayo (_A.T._ 1172), and was therefore "a stranger," _i.e._ not a
native of Munster. He is called a "poor man," no doubt, for the same
reason as Malachy himself (Sec. 24), because he had embraced the life of
voluntary poverty. He had a reputation for piety and learning, for the
Annals describe him as "full of the grace of God" (_A.U._), and "the
tower of devotion and wisdom and virginity of Ireland" (_A.T._). And
if the tradition is trustworthy that he was abbot of St. John the
Evangelist at Cork, founded by Cormac Mac Carthy "for pilgrims from
Connaught" (see the charter of Dermot Mac Carthy printed in Gibson's
_History of Cork_, ii. 348), and that it received its later name of
Gill Abbey from him, we can explain how he came to be near at hand
when the election was taking place.

[668] Matt. ix. 20.--In this and the next two sections we have three
miracles w