It ought perhaps also to be mentioned among the causes which led to the advancement of Armagh, that for thirty years of the eighth century the monastery numbered amongst its inmates Flaherty, King of Ireland, who, after a reign of seven years, relinquished his crown and took upon him the habit of a monk. The loyalty of the people would not be denied to the king because he no longer held the reins of government; nor did it follow that he had given up all ambition because he had ceased to be a monarch and had become an ecclesiastic.
But though the eighth century saw the pre-eminence of Armagh fairly established, we are not to suppose that this meant anything like the 'primacy' of modern times. Ireland had many who were called archbishops from the very first, but they were merely men eminent among their own order. 'Arch' was nothing more than a prefix of excellence, and might be applied to any office in the Church, and so we have arch-lector, arch-senior, arch-soul-friend, and the like. That some at this time entertained the idea of establishing a real arch-bishopric at Armagh is more than probable, and no doubt this would have been accompanied by a submission of the Church of Ireland to the see of Rome. Both these projects were postponed for some centuries by the events that were about to happen. It was not until the year 1152 that metropolitans were appointed in Ireland. Four of the Irish bishops were then raised to the rank of archbishop by the Pope, and received the pall at the hands of his legate.
