November, 1600.

It was on the 30th March that year, that O'Neill and the other Irish princes addressed a letter in common to the Sovereign Pontiff, unfolding to him the miseries which laid desolate our island, attesting too their resolute desire to combat for the Catholic faith, and to promote the interests of Holy Church, and petitioning in fine, that the vacant sees of the province of Munster might be filled by those who were recommended by the Bishop of Cork and Cloyne: they add that the only bishop then in the southern province was "Reverendissimus Corcagiensis et Cloanensis qui senio et labore jam paene est confectus"; and as a special motive why the Holy See should not delay to make these appointments to the vacant dioceses, they write: "Hoc eo confidentius petimus quia qui electi conservati et ad nos dimissi fuerunt a vestra sacrosancta Sede, ad vacuas his in partibus sedes occupandas, a nobis pro viribus, in iisdem Dei gratiâ defenduntur, ut gregibus sibi commissis tuto invigilare queant".—Original Letter in Hib. Pacat., page 311.

The next notice that we find of our aged Bishop is in the appointment of Luke Archer to administer the see of Leighlin during the absence of its Bishop Ribera, on whose death, in 1604, the same Luke Archer was constituted Vicar-Apostolic of that see. From the words used by Harty when registering this appointment made by our Bishop, we may conclude that Dr. Graith, as his predecessor, had received special faculties from Rome not only for his own diocese, but also for the province of Leinster. "Dermitius Chrah (he writes), Corcagiensis et Clonensis tunc Episcopus apostolica auctoritate qui fulserat".

As regards the precise period of Dr. Graith's death, no record has come down to us. Mooney, the Franciscan annalist, merely attests that "he lived for some time subsequent to 1599". Dr. Matthews, who was consecrated bishop of Clogher in 1609, reckons him amongst the bishops who survived Elizabeth, and lived for some years "aliquibus annis" under James I. This would lead us to conclude that his life was prolonged till the year 1605. O'Sullivan Beare, writing in 1618, leaves us in a like uncertainty, as he refers his death in general terms to the first year of the seventeenth century, after an episcopate of more than twenty years. The eulogy, however, passed upon this bishop by O'Sullivan Beare deserves to be cited in full:—

"Catholicorum infelicitati adscribendum est", he writes, "quod sub id tempus fato functus sit vir integerrimus atque clarissimus Dermysius Mac Carrhus, Corcaghae et Clueniae Episcopus, qui annos viginti et amplius in hac insula in fide retinenda magnopere insudavit, dumque bellum hoc gerebatur, movendis Catholicorum animis, ut Christianam pietatem armis defenderent, multum studii et laboris impendit: cujus interitu Ibernorum concordia non minima parte elanguit. Quae ob merita in Dei ecclesiam et Iberniae regnum collata, cum ejus caput Angli diu frustra impetiverint, tandem illius interfectori vel deprehensori grandem pecuniae summam constituerunt, quin etiam tam inexpiabili odio eum prosequuti sunt ut illius etiam consanguineos labefactare non destiterint. Ex quibus Thomam MacCrachum antistitis nepotem ex fratre Thoma deprehensum ad fidem Catholicam deserendam cogere et praemiis et terrore sunt conati: qua spe dejecti magni et maxime Catholici animi virum securi percusserunt. Sed quoniam in episcopi mentionem incidimus, illud ejus magnum atque rarum mirum nequeo silentio praeterire quod chirographum vix male effingeret, aliam vero ne litteram quidem unam visus sit unquam scribere, cum tamen adeo disertus atque sapiens evaserit ut doctor in utroque jure creatus sacram Theologiam Lovaniae annos aliquot publice sit professus, quippe tanto ingenii acumine tamque felici memoria pollebat ut ne discipulus quidem necesse habuerit lectionem notis excipere, et de doctrina Christiana libellum Ibernice scriptum posteris reliquerit, cujus praeceptis in hunc usque diem juventus in ea insula excolitur" (Hist. Cath., pag. 223).

We may now inquire who were the individuals chosen by Elizabeth to hold the temporalities of Cork and Cloyne during this interval. The first Protestant bishop of these sees was Richard Dixon, a chaplain of the Lord Deputy Sydney. The see in 1568 had received a Catholic appointment, but it was only on the 17th of May, 1570, that Elizabeth wrote to the Lord Deputy: "We are pleased that Richard Dixon, being by you very well commended for his learning and other qualities, shall have the bishoprics of Cork and Cloyne"—(Morrin, i. p. 539). Nevertheless, the prelate thus warmly commended was, on the 7th of March, 1571, sentenced by a royal commission to perform public penance in the Cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin, which penance, adds the government record, he went through in hypocrisy and pretence of amendment; wherefore, on the 7th of November following, the same commission proceeded to depose him from his Protestant episcopal functions, declaring him guilty of public immorality and other crimes.—(See Brady Records, iii. 47). Mathew Sheyn, or Shehan, was the next episcopal incumbent chosen by Elizabeth: only two events are commemorated to mark his episcopate: 1. that in 1575 "he leased away the whole see of Cloyne for ever for five marks per annum"; and 2. that in October, 1578, he made public display of his impiety by consigning to the flames at the high cross of Cork a statue of St. Dominick, long held in veneration by the faithful of that city (Ibid., pag. 49). The next Protestant Bishop, William Lyons, combined in his commission the sees of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. We have already spoken of this dignitary under the head of Ross (Record, vol. i. pag. 110-1): we will now only add that his chief enmity seemed directed against the faithful of Timoleague. Already in 1589 he had destroyed a portion of its venerable monastery to erect a house with the materials. In 1612 he resolved to complete his work of destruction; for intelligence was conveyed to him that a large concourse of Catholics had assembled there to assist at midnight Mass on the great Christmas festival. Though advanced in years, he set out with a troop of soldiers to punish these offenders; however, he had proceeded only a little way from the city when he was seized with such violent pains throughout his whole body that he was obliged to desist from his undertaking. During the five remaining years of his life he displayed less violence against the Catholics, and to his dying day he retained a lively memory of his Christmas excursion to Timoleague—(Mooney's MS. Hist., p. 49).