ABSTRACT
The church was to some extent at the mercy of warring princes. But the establishment of an effective overlordship by Brian and the protection extended to the church had its effects. One tribe might plunder a church in the territory of a rival prince, who replied by sacking a church of his enemy. The eleventh century saw a marked extension of a movement begun earlier, by which churches-were freed from their economic obligations to secular lords. The growth of the church’s power during the eleventh century was occasionally attended by faction fights to secure authority. The chiefs of the great churches frequently acted as peace-makers between warring princes, and the saints’ relics were used to bind agreements of peace on the participating peoples. The prosperity of the eleventh-century church can be seen in the metal-work of the period. Irish smiths had been at work in the tenth century, enshrining relics: in the eleventh century their activity increased.
