Fothad na Canóine (d. 819), bishop of Othain (Fahan Mura, Co. Donegal), was author of a metrical rule of Christian life. The rule, which is divided into nine sections, regulates life for all believers, including bishops, priests, kings and laity. It also regulates monastic life. Fothad (‘of the canon’) is reputed to have obtained in 804 a total exemption for clergy and monastic tenants from military hostings or any form of participation in military activity – clergy had already been exempt from actual military service since the adoption of the so-called Law of Adomnán (qv) at the synod of Birr in 697.
The Martyrology of Óengus (qv) (fl. c.830) purports to give an account of the moves that led to the exemption. It also mentions that Óengus first showed Fothad his completed metrical martyrology and that they made an óentu, or spiritual pact:
Now unto Fothad of the Canon Óengus first showed the martyrology, when Áed had gone on the hosting of Dún Cuair in the border of Meath and Leinster, and when the clerics of Ireland had gone with him, including Conmach [Condmach], successor of St Patrick [qv]. And ’tis on that hosting that the clerics of Ireland were freed from expedition and hosting, for ’tis Fothad of the Canon that delivered the judgement by which Ireland's churches were freed, as he said: ‘The church of living God, leave to her what is hers, let her right be apart as best it (ever) has been.’
The origins of the exemption may lie in the attempt in 799 by Áed Oirnide (qv) son of Niall Frossach (qv) to compel the abbot-bishop of Armagh and his clergy to accompany him on military expeditions. Their objection to such service – quite common in barbarian societies in the middle ages – was put before Fothad for arbitration. The result was what the annals called congressio senad(t)orum nepotum Neill (a meeting of the synods of the Uí Néill; AU 804) at Dún Cuair on the Leinster border, at which Áed was ‘ordained’ (ecclesiastically installed) by Condmach, abbot of Armagh, and at which, according to some sources, the high-king freed the monasteries of Ireland from the obligation of providing troops for military service. Nothing more is known of the enigmatic figure Fothad except that his death is recorded in the Annals of Ulster at 819.