John Comyn

Comyn, John, Archbishop of Dublin, an Englishman, appointed to the see in 1181, did not visit Ireland until 1184, when he was commissioned to prepare for the reception of Prince John. In 1190 he commenced and endowed St. Patricks Cathedral, and enlarged and repaired the choir of Christ Church. He died in Dublin, 25th October 1212, and was buried in Christ Church. One of the canons made by him, and confirmed by Urban III., provides that "All archers, and others who carry arms not for the defence of the people, but for plunder and sordid lucre, shall, on every Lord's-day, be excommunicated by bell, book, and candle, and at last be refused Christian burial." In consequence of a dispute with one of the Lords-Justices, he for a time laid an interdict upon his archbishopric. Ware says concerning him: "Dempster would insinuate that he was bishop of Dunblane, in Scotland, and not of Dublin; but that author has up and down stuffed his catalogue of the writers of Scotland with English, Welsh, and Irish, according to his own unguided fancy, and, to confirm his assertions, has often had the impudence to forge the names of authors, works, places, and times."

Sources

339. Ware, Sir James, Works: Walter Harris. 2 vols. Dublin, 1764.