Peter Lombard

Peter Lombard

Archbishop of Armagh, b. at Waterford, about 1555; d. at Rome, 1625; belonged to a respectable and wealthy family. More than one of his relatives filled the position of mayor of Waterford, and others gained eminence in literature, among the latter being the famous Franciscan, Luke Wadding. After receiving his early education at Waterford, young Lombard was sent to Westminster School, whence, after some years, he went to Oxford. At Westminster School one of his professors was the historian Camden, and pupil and master seem to have got on well together. Camden's learning was great and Lombard was studious and clever and earned the praises of his master for his gentleness and docility. Camden also takes credit for having made his pupil a good Protestant. But the change. if it occurred at all, did not last, and Lombard, after leaving Oxford, went to Louvain, passed through his philosophic and theological classes with great distinction, graduated as Doctor of Divinity, and was ordained priest. Appointed professor of theology at Louvain University he soon attracted notice by the extent of his learning. In 1594 he was made provost of the cathedral at Cambrai. When he went to Rome, a few years later, Clement VIII thought so highly of his learning and piety that he appointed him, in 1601, Archbishop of Armagh. He also appointed him his domestic prelate, and thus secured him an income, which in the condition of Ireland at the time, there was no hope of getting from Armagh.

Henceforth till his death Lombard lived at Rome. He was for a time president of the "Congregatio de Auxiliis" (q. v.) charged with the duty of pronouncing on Molina's work and settling the controversy on predestination and grace which followed its publication (Schuceman, "Controversiarum de divinæ gratiæ liberique arbitrii concordia initia et progressos", Freiburg, 1881). Lombard was active and zealous in providing for the wants of the exiled Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, and was among those who publicly welcomed them to Rome. He was not however able to go to Ireland, for the penal laws were in force, and to set foot in Ireland would be to invite the martyrdom of O'Devanny and others. This would certainly have been Lombard's fate, for James I personally disliked him and publicly attacked him in the English Parliament. Armagh was thus left without an archbishop for nearly a quarter of a century. There was however an administrator in the person of the well-known David Rothe. He had for a time acted at Borne as Lombard's secretary and the primate appointed him Vicar-General of Armagh. Nor did Rothe cease to act in this capacity even after 1618, when he was made Bishop of Ossory. The Northerns bitterly complained of being left so long without an archbishop. In any case they disliked being ruled by a Munsterman, still more being ruled by one unwilling to face the dangers of his position. At Rome Lombard wrote "De Regno Hiberniæ sanctorum insula commentarius" (Louvain 1632: re-edited, Dublin, 1868 with prefatory memoir, by Bishop, now Cardinal Moran). This work gave such offence to Charles I that he gave special directions to his Irish viceroy, Strafford, to have it suppressed. Lombard also wrote a little work on the administration of the Sacrament of Penance, and in 1604 a yet unedited work, addressed to James I, in favour of religious liberty for the Irish (Bellesheim, "Gesch de Kath. Kirche in Irland", II (Mainz, 1890), 323-25, and passim.

STUART, Historical Memoirs of Armagh, ed. by COLEMAN (Dublin, 1900); MEEHAN, Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell (Dublin. 1886): Spicilegium Ossoriense (Dublin, 1874-84); RENEHAN, Irish Archbishops Dublin, 1861).

E.A. D'ALTON