far than those bestowed on the Monastic Orders, or any other religious organisation in the Church.

But to return.

In connexion with the foundation of the Templars at Crook (Co. Waterford), the church of St. Barry was comprised in the grant of Henry II. Likewise, by the same charter the manor and church of Kilclogan (Co. Wexford) were given to the Knights of the militant order. Here,

we may remark, the designation of the latter townland was only a variation in name of 'Kil-Allog,' i.e., the church of St. Allog'-the Celtic patron of the district. His cell and oratory stood on the site now occupied by the Protestant church, which, with its castellated tower, overlooks Templetown Bay. In the dedication of the new parochial church (R.C.) a few years ago, the name of St. Allog was coupled with that of his brother-St. Dubhan-who shared his missionary labours in South Wexford, more than fourteen hundred years ago.

In the same deed of Henry II to the Templars a further grant is recited of mills at Wexford, also the church of Saint Waloch, near Wexford, with the lands belonging thereto.' The whereabouts of the latter church has long been a subject of antiquarian curiosity, and gave rise to very diverse conjectures and strange conclusions, indeed. However, recent researches regarding the historical connexion of Wexford with the Danes (they were the founders of the seaport) help to throw some light on the matter. After the Norsemen accepted Christianity about the middle of the tenth century they became very enthusiastic in promoting the new religion among their mixed race. In many of their maritime settlements, in this country and in England, we have evidences of their zeal in the founding of monastic houses and churches. In Wexford the ancient Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul (now called Selskar) was due to them. Later on, when St. Olave (canonized 1031) became the accepted Patron Saint of Norway, the Danes were wont to dedicate shrines in his honour in several of their towns, where we still find traces of his memory. Curiously enough, the name of this saint takes various forms owing, probably, to the different dialects of the Scandinavian peoples-thus he is styled Olaf, Olaus, Alloch, and Waloch, Dulogue, Tulloch, Tooley, etc. In Dublin and Waterford the Latin formSt. Olave-is perpetuated in the old-time parishes, while

in Wexford tradition preserves the title of St. Dulogue, as also the Danish territory of Fingal (white stranger), where his stone-roofed church may yet be seen, between Howth and Malahide. In London the designation of 'Tooley Street' survives to tell its long-silent tale.

In the Roman calendars St. Olave is commemorated as 'King and Martyr,' on July 29.

From the inferences we have quoted we may safely conclude that Waloch and Dulogue were synonymous, and, consequently, assume that the Preceptory of the Templars, outside the ramparts of Wexford, lay in the old parish of St. Dulogue, which is still well known, adjoining the mill-stream of 'Bishop's Water.'

The charter of Henry Plantagenet,' to which we have so often referred, is the only royal grant to the Templars in Ireland on record, but the Norman nobles and feudal lords followed the royal example in bestowing lands and monetary gifts on the order for their own welfare and that of their kindred. There is evidence, as we shall note later on, that the Knights Templars had two other houses in South Wexford, namely, Ballyhack (recte Bally-canoak 2) and Houseland Castle-both within a few miles of Kilclogan. Local tradition ascribes Kerlogue or Killilogue, a mile south of the town of Wexford, to the order, and the hearsay which filtered down through the centuries would seem to contain a considerable element of historical truth.

Donors of estates and benefactions to the order were accorded special privileges by the Holy See, and, to a certain extent, may be said, shared the immunities which the Templars themselves enjoyed. This fact drew numbers of seculars of the noble and wealthier classes to affiliate themselves with the military Brotherhood throughout Western Europe, and goes far to account for the vast landed possessions the latter acquired in the hey-day of its existence.

While not active members of the order or bound by vows, the associates of the Temple were allowed to assume

1This grant was dated May 22, 1172, at Avranches, in Normandy, whither Henry had proceeded from Wexford, on the previous Easter week, to meet the Papal Legate concerning the murder of Thomas à Becket. On this occasion, to appease the indignation of the Pope, the King made a vow to provide for the support of 200 Templars, and to conduct an army in person to the Holy Land. The latter part of the promise was afterwards commuted on condition that Henry would found three religious houses.

2 So called from St. Cynog or Canoak, who was brother of SS. Allog and Dubhain, the patrons of the adjoining parish of Templetown.

the habit and crimson cross which constituted the distinguishing garb of the military brethren. Likewise, they had the right of sepulture in the churches or in the cemeteries attached to the Preceptories or Priories of the order.

Most of the Anglo-Normans who figured prominently in the first chapter of the Invasion were enrolled in this secular branch of the poor fellow-soldiers of Christ' (pauperes commilitones Christi), as the Knights were originally styled in the days of the Crusades. Amongst these we may mention the first Maurice Fitz-Geraldhalf-brother of Robert FitzStephen-who followed the latter to Ireland with the second contingent of forces in 1169, of whom it is recorded that he died at Wexford in 1176, and was buried in the 'graveyard of the Templars.' In Hooker's day (1586) the chronicler states his monument was then to be seen in the monastery of the Grey Friars. The Franciscans, or Grey Friars, however, were not in Wexford till fifty years after FitzGerald's death, but the entry leads to the conjecture that the Friary cemetery originally belonged to the Templars. Raymond FitzGerald (surnamed Le Gros), nephew of the former, was likewise a member of the military Brotherhood, and was the founder of Houseland Castle, which stood within about a mile of his feudal fortress in the peninsula of Hook. His estates, granted at the time of the Invasion, embraced a considerable portion of this part of the Co. Wexford, and remained in possession of the representatives of his family down to the Rebellion of 1641, when they were confiscated.

Richard de Clare (Strongbow), in his monumental effigy at Tintern Abbey (Monmouthshire), is represented wearing the mantle and tunic of the order. De Marisco, William Marshall (the great Earl of Pembroke) and his sons were all Templars. The recumbent monuments of the latter (the Marshalls) on the floor of the Temple Church, London, are considered to be the finest examples of Crusaders' tombs in existence. In this category we might include the names of other famous military adventurers who participated in furthering the Conquest in Ulster, Meath, and Cork, were it not that the scope of our essay is limited, mainly, to the south-eastern corner of Ireland, where the AngloNormans established their first and firmest foothold.

Although the Templars formed, primarily, a military organization, whose members were soldiers by profession,

we have no record of their taking any part in the national or political struggles that distracted Ireland during the reign of King John, or that of his son, Henry III. This was a period of strife and warfare within and without the English Pale. The Irish chiefs quarrelled and fought among themselves while the Anglo-Norman nobles followed suit. The only instance of interference, on the part of the Templars, was that recorded by the English historian, Matthew Paris, who states they were asked to act as mediators in the feud between Marisco, FitzGerald, and De Lacy, and Earl Richard (son of William Marshall, founder of Tintern Abbey). Their mediation, however, was not of much avail, since, at the scene of the conference, the unfortunate Earl was treacherously attacked by De Lacy, and died of his wounds a few days afterwards. In English history we read that the Knights Templars were frequently assessed to provide men-at-arms for the defence of the kingdom, but always successfully resisted these claims by proving that they were exempted from such service by the royal charter of their order. In fact, their swords were never unsheathed save when called upon to do battle in the cause of the Holy See, and its interests in the wars of the Crusades.

Some ten years after they were founded, the original rules of the Templars were revised by St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, at the request of the Pope. In the remodelled form the adopted constitutions resembled somewhat in spirit those laid down by the same great ecclesiastical reformer for the Cistercians. The Knights took the triple vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, after the manner of the Regular Canons. When living in their Preceptories and lesser houses, the life of the Templars was purely monastic. Their daily routine implied attendance at Holy Mass, the reading of the Scriptures, practices of self-denial and piety, and a special devotion to the Mother of God. To these were added the custom of manual labour and constant industry. This picture, of course, has reference only to their home-life. When summoned to the battlefields of Palestine, the Knights were foremost in the ranks of the Christian soldiers. They were the bravest of the brave; and it was a common saying that 'the heart of a coward could never beat under the white mantle and red cross of a Templar.' In less than two centuries it was

1 At the Curragh of Kildare.

computed that almost 20,000 members of the order perished in the wars of the Crusades.

On their return to Europe from the East, the Crusaders brought many holy traditions from the scenes of man's Redemption, and narratives of saints and martyrs of the early Church, of whose lives comparatively little was known at the time in Western Christendom. Interesting indications of this may still be traced in South Wexford, where, as we have seen, the order first took root and established several houses.

The Priory of Ballyhack, in the barony of Shelburne, which was a dependency of Kilclogan (a few miles distant), introduced the veneration of SS. James of Compostella and Catherine of Alexandria in the district-hence those saints became the adopted patrons of the parish of Ramsgrange, down to the present day.1 In the same locality, at Neuke, a little promontory near the confluence of the Suir and Barrow, are the ruins of the fortified church of St. Catherine. Close by, at Dunbrody Abbey, Marisco's noble pile,' were side chapels in the transepts dedicated, respectively, to SS. James and Catherine. On the seashore adjacent to the castle of Houseland, in the parish of Templetown, about a mile distant from Redmond's Hall (now a Benedictine convent), is a holy well dedicated to St. Helen, where pilgrimages were wont to be held, in former days, on her festival, August 18. This remarkable saint of the early Church, who was mother of the Emperor Constantine, being divinely inspired, set out for Jerusalem in the year 326, and miraculously discovered the True Cross, with the relics of the Crucifixion, on the site of Mount Calvary. As patrons in Baptism, we may perhaps remark, in passing, that the names of those three saints (James, Catherine, and Helen) are as popular in Ireland as those of many of our national patrons—

if not more so.

As we have previously noted, tradition ascribes Kerlogue, near Wexford, to the Knights Templars. In the Ordnance Survey Letters of the late John O'Donovan (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin), the following extract occurs after the description of the old ruined church: Thirty paces south of the old wall there is a well, and twenty-two yards south-east of this another called St. James's well, at which a pattern was annually held on St. James's day-some call this St. Tullog's.'

1 The church of Kilbride, in the parish of Ramsgrange, with seven caracutes of land, belonged to the Preceptory of Ballyhack.