Byrne, Edmund, Dd

Byrne, Edmund, D.D.

an Irish prelate, having received orders at Seville, was appointed archbishop of Dublin in 1707, being then in the fifty-first year of his age. Soon after his promotion to the see of Dublin, it was proposed that a public convention of Protestant and Catholic prelates and doctors should be held for two months to propound and debate on the disputed articles of faith; on which occasion this prelate alone of all the Catholics attended the conferences; and with much zeal and wisdom propounded the principles of his religion in the public college of Dublin. In 1712, some nuns obtained permission from Dr. Byrne to be received into his diocese, but they had scarcely arrived when they were apprehended by the lords-justices; and a proclamation was issued Sept. 20 of same year, to apprehend Dr. Byrne and others as popish priests attempting to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction contrary to the laws of the kingdom. In March, 1717, when the Dominican nuns were driven from Galway, Hugh O'Callanan, then provincial of the Order of the Dominicans, -obtained a similar permission from archbishop Byrne for their admission into his diocese, where, in September of the same year, they founded the Convent of -Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, of Dublin. Just at this time Dr. Byrne was involved in a controversy with his brother-prelate of Armagh, Dr. M'Mahon, on the ancient primatial rights. The matter was referred to the College of the Propaganda, whose decision, after a litigation of some years, restored the appellant. This subject. was, however, again more fully and solemnly laid before the pope in council, when the claim of archbishop Byrne was supported in argument by the Rev. Johni, Clynch, one of the clergymen of his grace's diocese. The final decision of the Roman college has not been ascertained. Dr. Byrne died a few years afterwards. See D'Alton, Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin, p. 459.