Decreta of late Eleventh-Century Irish Bishops-Elect

Abstract

The decretum prepared for bishops-elect in the metropolitan province of Canterbury in the late eleventh century derived from the mid tenth-century Romano-Germanic pontifical. However, changes were made. These are analysed to enable an assessment of the evidence for the source of the decreta used by late eleventh-century Irish bishops-elect who were consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury. The conclusion is that the source is most likely to be the Romano-Germanic original rather than the Canterbury adaptation and that such a pontifical may well have come from Cologne to the Dublin church, along with some relics, at the time of its foundation.