• JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY I NOTES and QUERIES I No. 1 M1E·DIEVAL BULLA Found in the Parish of Murlog, May, 1948 While digging in a field kinown as "the gorts" and within a f.eiw hundrnd feet of tJhe ruins of the so-c:alled Albhey of Clonleigh, Mr. F·rank Connolliy found a B~lla of Pop~ John XXTil. (14110-:1415) wh1e~ he took to Fa.ther Gil1eispie, C'.C. !rt; lS nc1w in the custody of Moist Reverend Dr. Farren Bishop of Derry. Bef.ore handdng it to his Lordshi;p Fat.h:er GilleEipie got Mr. T. W. Sheffield, . of Market Street, Omagh, to make some exc·ellent photogra1r.::hs: two of which we naw reproduce. The Bulla is made o,f le1ad, measures. 37.5 x 34.5 mm ilil diame:ters, and is 5.5 mm in deipth. . . "A Pa1pal Bull," says The Catholic U1ctionary (Addis and Airnold) :S·O named from the Bulla (or round leadein real, haJV'in:g on one sicie a r·epresentatio1n of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and on the otJher side tfr1e name of the re:gnin1g, Pope which is-atta1ch1ed t.o the document by a srnken cr0rd if it 1be a Bull of Gra:ce, a:nd by one of hEmp if a Bull of Justice) a1nid give aiuthenti<City to it. It is a docume1n t of . a mor>e formal and weighty c'hai:a,cter t!han a B:'ief and many memora1b1e Pa1pal de1ci.s:ions. and condemnations h a v;e 'been given in this form." In vi-E!W of the ma1ny r·2ference:s to "the l\lbib2y ,and C:ollE:;g:e c.f GLon.lei1gh" dur:,ng the re;cent Foyle Fisheries cas1e we sought to id·enti1fy the document to which BuUa was a,t:ta.ched a:nd the folvolume of hi.s Curi.a'.s work is r'2a.Hy remarkable·in view of the s.ta.te of affairs in Europe at that time. We hav·e been UiniaJb.le to trace any mandate to the MurLog-C1onleig·n parish a:nd our s;2arch was made more .awkward and ind1elfini te a.s Clonlei!gh, where the Bulla wa.s found, He1s on tlhe boundaries of two dioceses (iDerry a.nd RaJpthoe), two counties (:Donegal 1and Tyrone) and two ba.ronies (RJaphoe amd Str:aiba:ne). Now of the fourteen parishes in the two ba'lionies no less tham ·eight of them, at le.asit, received riei.scriipts d urin1g the years 1410 to 1415. Tihis means that eig,h1t Bulls were in the disit.riict at that time and, as a rule, there were at least, three mandates sent to S1epar:ate individlual ecclesias·tLcs to ensure that tlhe inSltl"uction.s m the Piaipal Decree were carried out and eaclh. oarried a Bulla. It is unfortuna.te that the addresses of the mandlataries are not given in the R·eg1isters as any of them may hav;e been resid1ent in the neighlboutr:hood of OI1onlei•gh. We mus.t remember, too, that many of these re.scripts were person.al and bec:ame useless with tlhe pia1s.sing of time. 'Dhe Bulla found rec·ently may have even found its way to Clonleigh amongst the pe!l's1onal effects of a deceasied pias·tor of one of the pari~hes mentioned a:bove. We could quote numerous other c;irc.umstance.s which On the albseince of further evidenc·e) make it impossdJble t-o identi.fy the d,J.cument connected w1'th the Bulla found at Clonlei.gh." 1o•wing is a .summa,ry of the investilg'a- INo. 2 Hons -carr:ed c,ut for us by t.he R:::v. E. AN EICHTEENTH CENTURY P. H. McMullin, B.lI>., B.Sc., amongst re- HE DC E SC HOOL e:;·rd~. tn the Lilbirary of St. Patric:k's College, Manooth:- "There is no trace of the .Alb1bey of Clc1nle!1gh in the Re:gis,ters . . . . the re:1g1n of ?op.e John XX!ill., .short as it wns, was re:markiaible in many ways, and not the least for the hi:gh number of dis1pens1ations gr,anted and the legal mand2ite.s, .of one k.ind or another, pre- ( Bal'linaglack Ecclesiasticl, ,College) Parish of Stranorlar Pa:trtc1k Galla1gher was torn in Ballina:gla:cik a/bout the middle of the eighteenth century and at a.n early age he br1gan to study for the priesithood, und,er the guidanie.e •<Y·f a hedlge sphool-- master. !Patricik was a:lmost re1ady for ,Siented to eciclesiasti1cs of all ra,niks. The ordina.tion . 145 when Eve crossed his path;
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