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THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

JUNE, 1865.




BLESSED THADDEUS, BISHOP OF CORK AND CLOYNE.

A.D. 1492.


The interesting and very learned article which appeared in the last number
of the _Record_[1] has contributed much to illustrate the life of the
Blessed Thaddeus, and to make known to the Irish Church a distinguished
prelate whose virtues and sanctity adorned our island towards the close
of the fifteenth century, which is precisely one of the darkest eras of
our history. As, however, some of the writer's conclusions can scarcely
be reconciled with the statement which we made in a preceding article on
the Bishops of Cork and Cloyne (_Record_, p. 312), viz., that this holy
Bishop's name was '_Thaddeus Machar or Maher_', we take the liberty of
laying before the reader the reasons on which our opinion was based,
and which compel us, however unwilling, to exclude from the princely
family of the M'Carthys the saintly prelate whose relics now enrich the
cathedral of Ivrea.

1. The town of Ivrea, to use the learned writer's words, is the capital
of the Piedmontese province of the same name, and we may add that it is
most picturesquely situated at the foot of the Alps, and is one of the
first Italian towns which the traveller meets when, having crossed Mount
St. Bernard, he wends his way towards Vercelli or Novara. In medieval
documents Ivrea receives the Latin names of _Eporedia_, _Iporegia_, and
_Hipporegia_, as may be seen in Ughelli's _Italia Sacra_, or in the later
work