(11) Dispensation Granted by John Copinger, about 1609

Philip Gold or Gould was parish priest, Kelbrittain, from 1579 to 1591, and appears as Archdeacon of Cork from 1582 to 1585, and also from 1591 to 1612; and from 1583 to 1612 as Archdeacon of Cloyne.  In 1587 he was Vicar Choral of Cork, and he held likewise the P. Glanworth Cloyne from 1591 to 1612.  Archdeacon Philip Gold was married to Helena, sister to Patrick Sarsfield, as appears by a curious document now among the Roche MSS. in the British Museum, which purports to be a certificate from John Copinger, S.T.B., formerly of Acquitain, who acts by virtue of a faculty from "Reverendissimo patre Christophero Hollenodio.  Soc. Jes. in Hil." 

Copinger grants a dispensation to Dr. Philip Goulde and Helena Sarsfield, who after many years inter-marriage, find that they were consanguineous in the third and fourth degree.  This dispensation or certificate was granted by Copinger "non plus in favorem Helenæ quæ semper in Catholica fide perseverabit sed et in favorem Philippi qui licet beneficia ecclesiastica ab hereticis obtenta possideat et teneat tamen pro viribus catholicam fidem fovebit et catholicis ubique favebit et favit, qui juxta sacram scripturam boni et honesti viri orum et nomen obtinet, qui potuit facere malum et non fecit," &c.

This is probably the "Jean Copingere" referred to in a letter from James Tobin to Lord Carew in 1624, in which the former informs the latter that he had sent to him a treatise dedicated to O'Soulyvan, now in Spain, the book discovering the number of priests made in the college of Burdions (Bordeaux), with a proclamation translated out of English into French, being printed for no good end.  The book referred to was "Catalogue de quelques clercs ecclesiastiques Hibernois qui ont esté receus, nourris et eslevez aux lettres en la reguliere congregation establie par Monseigneur l'Illustrissime et Reverendissime Cardinal de Sourdis, Archevéque de Bordeaux, Primat d'Aquitaine,&c., en la ville et cité de Bordeaux,depuis seize ans le nombre desquels s'est tellement acreu, qu'ils se sont departis, les uns àTholouse Cahurs, Aux, et Agen, exilez, de leur pays pour la foy Catholique Apostolique et Romaine."^[1]