Re: Re: Cloyne Cathedral Church of Ireland

I think it should also be noted that many of those who did (or do) the pilgrimage were (or are) the descendents of the pueri homines Sancti Colmani or the heriditary bondsmen of the ecclesiastical lands subject to the monastery (and subsequent diocese) of Cloyne. This class, which remained mostly undisturbed on the ecclesiastical lands of diocese of Cloyne, were still identifiable into the early modern period. Their social function was to work the ecclesiastical lands (or cross-lands) of the monastery and subsequent diocese. They were to be found in all of the five pre-Norman cantreds which make up the present diocese of Cloyne. The social condition of this class is not to be equated with feudal serfs as many of them held land directly from the paruchia, provided candidates for the monastery of Cloyne, and also a number of Abbots and Bishops for that See. It is perhaps not unassociated with this social arrangement that the surname “Coleman” is closely associated with the territory of the early monastery of Cloyne.