king of Oriel, he was undisputed coarb of Patrick and
archbishop of Armagh. The victory was won, and an immense stride had
been made in the Reformation movement.

But Malachy had no mind to spend the rest of his life at Armagh. Five
years before, as the condition of his entry into the fray, he had
stipulated that as soon as he had been accepted as archbishop he should
resign the see and return to his beloved Bangor. So in 1137 he nominated
and consecrated Gelasius as his successor in the primacy, and "returned
to his former parish, but not to Connor." Let me explain this
enigmatical statement. Malachy had had some years' experience of the
people of the diocese of Connor, whom St. Bernard gently describes as
"not men but beasts." He had doubtless discovered that the district
which it included could not be ruled by a single bishop. In fact it
consisted of two tribal territories, Dal Araide in the north, and Ulaid
in the south; and the two tribes which inhabited them were usually
engaged in mutual war. He decided that it should be divided into two
dioceses. He consecrated a bishop for Dal Araide, with his see at
Connor, and himself resumed the oversight of Ulaid, with his see at
Bangor.[82] Thus originated the present dioceses of Down and Connor. In
Malachy's time the boundary between them seems to have run west from
Larne. In the course of centuries it has shifted further south.

This division was a direct violation of the letter of the ordinance of
Rathbreasail; but it did not contravene its spirit. In the letter, which
ignored the civil divisions of the country, the ordinance could not be
obeyed. Malachy adopted a scheme which secured the permanent rule of
diocesan bishops in the district.

Malachy was now, and continued to be till his death, bishop of Down, or
more strictly of Bangor; in the current Irish phrase bishop of Ulaid.
But his activities already extended beyond his diocese. Within the next
two years he succeeded in establishing in actual fact another diocese
which till now had existed only on paper. It was that which the Synod of
Rathbreasail had called the diocese of Clogher, and which we know by the
same name; but which for sixty years or more bore the name of the
diocese of Oriel.

That we may understand his action let us return for a moment to the five
Ulster dioceses as planned at Rathbreasail. In four of them regard was
paid to tribal boundaries. The diocese of Raphoe corresponded to Tir
Conaill, D