“In certain Annals ascribed to Dudley Firbisse, there is a mention made under the year 1453, that an Archbishop of Dublin was taken prisoner at sea. I must leave the passage to the credit of the Annalist, not having met any hint of it elsewhere. There is extant in the Black Book of the Archbishop of Dublin (p. 82), a copy of a Bull of Pope Pius the Second, dated the 23d of November 1462, and directed to the Bishop and Archdeaconry of Ossory, commanding them to pronounce excommunicated, Geofrey Harold, Thomas and Edmund his sons, Patrick Birne, Thady Sheriff, Thomas Becagh, Robert Burnell, and other laymen of the city and diocese of Dublin, for laying violent hands on this Prelate, and committing him to prison; and that they should keep them under excommunication until they went to Rome for absolution, with the testimonials of the Bishop and Archdeacon. The reason of this insult is no where mentioned, that I can find. He repaired the manor house of Tawlaght, and died there in a very advanced age, on the 21st of December 1471; having governed this See about twenty-two years. His remains were conveyed to Dublin, attended by the clergy and citizens, and buried in St. Patrick’s Church, near St. Stephen’s altar [as he had directed by his will], where heretofore might have been seen a specious monument, adorned with his statue, of elegant workmanship, on which are inscribed the following verses, penned without the aid of the Muses:
‘Præsul Metropolis Michael hic Dubliniensis Marmore tumbatus, pro me Christum flagitetis.’
“This monument was found under the rubbish in St Stephen’s Chapel; the cover of it was preserved by the care of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, and the Chapter, who in the year 1730 fixed it up in the wall, on the left hand, as you enter the west gate, between the said gate and the place where heretofore the Consistory Court was held; and they have placed this inscription over it: ‘Vetus hoc Monumentum, è ruderibus Capellæ Divi Stephani nuper instauratæ erutum, Decanus et Capitulum hùc transferri curaverunt, A.D. 1730.’
“The will of this Prelate, dated the 10th of December 1471, is extant among the manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (B. 52), whereby he deviseth his two silver gilded saltsellers (salsaria) with their covers, to make cups for St. Patrick’s, to serve in divine offices. He also bequeathed his pair of organs to the said Church, to be used at the celebration of divine service in St. Mary’s Chapel. ‘I devise also (says he) that William Wyse, whose industry for this purpose I choose, shall in my stead visit with a decent oblation St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, which by vow I am bound to perform either by myself or proxy;’ and also orders him to give some largesses towards building the neighbouring churches near where his friends dwell.