by John Healy

“ We have so often spoken of the monastic institutions of the Irish Church, that one might readily fall into the mistake of supposing that we have here nothing more than the mere bringing in of a new order of monks, who were to take their place side by side with those already in the country. ”

“ The Cistertians thus imported into the country were zealous propagandists. Like all enthusiasts, they were narrow-minded, and could see no merit in anything beyond their own system. They therefore toiled incessantly, and laboured in season and out of season for what they deemed to be the reformation of the Church.
Agreeably to the Pope's instructions, Malachy assembled a synod for the purpose of sending a formal request to Rome that the pall should be bestowed on the Irish archbishops. ”

“ The Irish Christian 'families,' busied with the cultivation of the ground, with the work of education and the arts of civilization, had nothing in common with the cloisters where men were bound with the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Malachy and Bernard knew well that the two things were quite different, for the one says of his countrymen that they might have heard of the name, but had never actually seen a monk ”