According to tradition, he travelled to Rome and was there ordained priest and bishop. Having met St. Patrick, St. Ciarán received from him a bell with the charge to return to Ireland and there establish a monastery on the spot where the bell should first sound. When the saint had passed beyond Ossory, and was descending the )western slopes of Slieve Bloom, the bell at length sounded; and here St. Ciarán established the monastery of Seir-Kieran (now Saighir, Offaly), the centre from which Ossory was evangelized. Patrick also visited Ossory and preached and founded churches there. There is some difficulty in accepting the story of St. Ciarán having preached before St. Patrick, since the former is said to have flourished in the 6th century. It is, however, certain that St. Ciarán laboured in Ossory. In the centuries following, the kingdom was ruled from Seir-Kieran by the abbots. They had other monasteries subject to them, and probably other bishops, and perhaps were not always bishops themselves, though at Seir-Kieran, as at Iona, there was always a bishop. Their jurisdiction was tribal rather than territorial, and hence the diocese was enlarged or contracted as the fortunes of the Ossory chieftains rose or fell. In the reign of Bishop Hugh de Rous (1202–15) the cathedral of St. Canice was built. Two subsequent bishops, Hugh de Malpilton (1251–60) and Thomas Barry (1427–60), filled the office of treasurer of Ireland, while another, Richard Northalis (1387–95), acted as King Richard II of England's ambassador abroad. At the English reformation, the Earls of Ormond were among the first of the nobility to conform to the state established church. The majority of the population continued to adhere to the old faith. When John Bale was appointed bishop by King Edward VI of England, he endeavoured to "Protestantise" the people. He was roughly handled and driven from Kilkenny, leaving Ossory in peace. The peace ended with the death of Queen Mary I of England. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the see was vacant for seventeen years. From 1602 to 1618 Ossory was again without a bishop. When Dr. David Rothe was appointed (1620) there was not a Catholic bishop in all of Ireland. In the rebellion of 1641 Kilkenny was the centre of national resistance and the headquarters of the Catholic Confederation.