Dear Fr. Ambrose
Apparently a canon similar to the decreee you cite appears in Ludwig Bieler's
The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh. This book is out of print and
impossible to find - at least I have not been able to find it here in New
York or on the internet. My friend and professor Catherine McKenna is making
me a copy from her edition, but so far I only have the introduction and part
of the Muirchu texts. In other words, I do not have the section that
includes that canon, but this is what Bieler has to say about it in the intro:
"The last set of decrees (27-30) establishes the ecclesiaistical court of
Armagh as the highest court of appeal in the country, from which there shall
be further appeal only to the Apostolic See in Rome. The native Irish
law-texts know nothing of such an appeal; the canon in question, like the
remainder of the document, is an Armagh forgery."
In a note, Bieler mentions that he, along with McNeil, originally took
the text as genuine, but has since been convinced that it is a fake.
I hope this is of some help.
Diane Auslander
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