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Christian religion, gave up themselves and all that they had into the power of the bishop of Rome;" and that until the time of king Henry the second, they did "acknowledge no other supreme prince of Ireland, beside the bishop of Rome alone." For confutation of which dream, we need not have recourse to our own chronicles; the bull of Adrian the fourth, wherein he giveth liberty to king Henry the second to enter upon Ireland, sufficiently discovereth the vanity thereof. For, he there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended unto Ireland, maketh no mention at all of this, which had been the fairest and clearest title that could be alleged, if any such had then been existent in rerum natura, but is fain to fly unto a farfetched interest which he saith the Church of Rome hath unto all Christian islands. Trulyk (saith he to the king) there is no doubt, but that all islands unto which Christ the Son of Righteousness hath shined, and which have received the instructions of the Christian faith, do pertain to the right of St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome, which your nobleness also doth acknowledge."

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If you would further understand the ground of this strange claim, whereby all Christian islands at a clap are challenged to be parcel of St. Peter's patrimony, you shall have it from Johannes Sarisburiensis, who was most inward with pope Adrian, and obtained from him this very grant whereof now we are speaking. "At my request (saith he) he granted Ireland to the illustrious king of England Henry the second, and gave it to be possessed by right of inheritance: as his own letters do testify unto this day. For all islands, of ancient right, are said to belong to the Church of Rome, by the donation of Constantine, who

* Sane omnes insulas, quibus sol justitiæ Christus illuxit, et quæ documenta fidei Christianæ susceperunt, ad jus S. Petri et sacrosanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ (quod tua etiam nobilitas recognoscit) non est dubium pertinere. Bull. Adrian. IV. ad Henr. II. Angl. reg.

Ad preces meas illustri regi Anglorum Henrico secundo concessit et dedit Hiberniam jure hæreditario possidendam: sicut literæ ipsius testantur in hodiernum diem. Nam omnes insulæ, de jure antiquo, ex donatione Constantini, qui eam fundavit et dotavit, dicuntur ad Romanam ecclesiam pertinere. Johan. Sarisburiens. metalogic. lib. 4. cap. 42.

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founded and endowed the same.' But you will see, what a goodly title here is, in the mean time: first, the donation of Constantine hath been long since discovered to be a notorious forgery, and is rejected by all men of judgment as a senseless fiction. Secondly, in the whole context of this forged donation I find mention made of islands in one place only: where no more power is given to the Church of Rome over them, than in general over the whole continent (by east and by west, by north and by south) and in particular over Judea, Græcia, Asia, Thracia, and Africa, which use not to pass in the account of St. Peter's temporal patrimony. Thirdly, it doth not appear that Constantine himself had any interest in the kingdom of Ireland how then could he confer it upon another? Some words there be in an oration of Eumenius" the rhetorician, by which peradventure it may be collected, that his father Constantius bare some stroke here, but that the island was ever possessed by the Romans, or accounted a parcel of the empire, cannot be proved by any sufficient testimony of antiquity. Fourthly, the late writers that are of another mind, as Pomponius Lætus, Cuspinian, and others, do yet affirm withal, that° in the division of the empire after Constantine's death, Ireland was assigned unto Constantinus the eldest son, which will hardly stand with this donation of the islands supposed to be formerly made unto the bishop of Rome and his successors. Pope Adrian therefore, and John of Salisbury his solicitor, had need seek some better warrant for the title of Ireland, than the donation of Constantine.

m Per nostram imperialem jussionem sacram, tam in oriente quam in occidente, vel etiam septentrionali et meridiana plaga, videlicet in Judæa, Græcia, Asia, Thracia, Africa et Italia, vel diversis insulis nostra largitate eis libertatem concessimus ea prorsus ratione, ut per manus beatissimi patris nostri Sylvestri pontificis successorumque ejus omnia disponantur. Edict. Constantin.

" Ultra oceanum vero quid erat præter Britanniam? Quæ a vobis ita recuperata est; ut illæ quoque nationes terminis ejusdem insulæ cohærentes vestris nutibus obsequantur. Eumen. Panegyric. ad Constant.

• Pomp. Læt. in Roman. histor. compend. Jo. Cuspian. in Cæsarib. Seb. Munster. in lib. 2. Cosmograph.

John Harding in his chronicle saith, that the kings of England have right

Top Ireland also, by King Henry (le fitz
Of Maude, daughter of first King Henry)
That conquered it, for their great heresy.

which in another place he expresseth more at large, in this manner:

The King Henry then, conquered all Ireland
By papal doom, there of his royalty
The profits and revenues of the land
The domination, and the sovereignty

For error which again the spirituality

They held full long, and would not been correct
Of heresies, with which they were infect.

Philip O Sullevan, on the other side, doth not only deny that' Ireland was infected with any heresy, but would also have us believe, that the pope never intended to confer the lordship of Ireland upon the kings of England. For where it is said in pope Adrian's bull, "Let the people of that land receive thee, and reverence thee as a lord:" the meaning thereof is, saith this glozer, Let" them reverence thee," as a prince worthy of great honour; not as lord of Ireland, but as a deputy appointed for the collecting of the ecclesiastical tribute." It is true indeed that king Henry the second, to the end he might the more easily obtain the pope's good will for his entering upon Ireland, did voluntarily offer unto him the payment of a yearly pension of one penny out of every house in the country which (for ought that I can learn) was the

P Harding. Chronic. cap. 241.

4 Ibid. cap. 132.

r O Sullevan. histor. Catholic. Iberniæ, tom. 2. lib. 1. cap. 7.

Ibid. cap. 4. 5. 9. et lib. 2. cap. 3.

Illius terræ populus te recipiat, et sicut Dominum veneretur. Bull. Adrian. IV.

"Sicut Dominum veneretur, id est, ut principem dignum magro honore ; non Dominum Iberniæ, sed præfectum causa colligendi tributi ecclesiastici. O Sullevan. hist. Ibern. fol. 59. b. in margine.

VOL. IV.

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first ecclesiastical tribute that ever came unto the pope's coffers out of Ireland. But that king Henry got nothing else by the bargain but the bare office of collecting the pope's smoke-silver (for so we called it here, when we paid it) is so dull a conceit, that I do somewhat wonder how O Sullevan himself could be such a blockhead, as not to discern the senselessness of it.

What the king sought for and obtained, is sufficiently declared by them that writ the history of his reign. In the year of our Lord MCLV. the first bull was sent unto him by pope Adrian: the sum whereof is thus laid down in a second bull, directed unto him by Alexander the third, the immediate successor of the other. "Following the steps of reverend pope Adrian, and attending the fruit of your desire, we ratify and confirm his grant concerning the dominion of the KINGDOM of Ireland conferred upon you: reserving unto St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome, as in England so in Ireland, the yearly pension of one penny out of every house." In this sort did pope Adrian, as much as lay in him, give Ireland unto king Henry, "hæreditario jure possidendam, to be possessed by right of inheritance;" and withal "sent unto him a ring of gold, set with a fair emerald, for his investiture in the right thereof:" as Johannes Sarisburiensis, who was the principal agent betwixt them both in this business, doth expressly testify. After this, in the year MCLXXI.

w Robert. de Monte. Roger. de Wendover. Matth. Paris. et Nicol. Trivett in Chronic. ann. 1155.

* Venerabilis Adriani papæ vestigiis imhærentes, vestrique desiderii fructum attendentes; concessionem ejusdem super Hibernici regni dominio vobis indulto (salva beato Petro et sacrosanctæ Ecclesiæ Romanæ, sicut in Anglia sic in Hibernia, de singulis domibus annua unius denarii pensione) ratam habemus et confirmamus. Bul. Alexandri III. apud Giraldum Cambrens. lib. 2. histor. Hibern. expugnat. cap. 6. in codicibus MS. (in edito enim caput hoc mancum est) et Jo. Rossum Warvicensem, in tract. De terris coronæ Angliæ annexis.

y Annulum quoque per me transmisit aureum, smaragdo optimo decoratum, quo fieret investitura juris in gerenda Hibernia : idemque adhuc annulus in curiali archio publico custodiri jussus est. Jo. Sarisbur. Metalogic. lib. 4. cap. 42. de quo consulendus etiam est Giraldus Cambrens. lib. 2. Hibern. expugnat. cap. 6.

the king himself came hither in person: where the "archbishops and bishops of Ireland received him for their king and lord." The king, saith John Brampton, "received" letters from every archbishop and bishop, with their seals hanging upon them in the manner of an indenture, confirming the kingdom of Ireland unto him and his heirs, and bearing witness that they in Ireland had ordained him and his heirs to be their kings and lords for ever." At Waterford, saith Roger Hoveden, "all the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of Ireland came unto the king of England, and received him for king and lord of Ireland; swearing fealty to him and to his heirs, and power to reign over them for ever; and hereof they gave him. their instruments. The kings also and princes of Ireland, by the example of the clergy, did in like manner receive Henry king of England for lord and king of Ireland, and became his men (or, did him homage) and swore fealty to him and his heirs against all men."

These things were presently after confirmed in the national synod held at Cashel: the acts whereof in Giraldus Cambrensis are thus concluded: "Fore it is fit and most meet, that as Ireland by God's appointment hath gotten a lord and a king from England; so also they

z In regem et Dominum receperunt. Roger. Wendover, et Matth. Paris. in historia majori, ann. 1171. Roger Hoveden, in posteriore parte annalium. Johan. Brampton in historia Joralanensi, et Bartholomæus de Cotton, in histor. Anglor. MS.

a Recepit ab unoquoque archiepiscopo et episcopo literas, cum sigillis suis in modum chartæ pendentibus; regnum Hiberniæ sibi et hæredibus suis confirmantes, et testimonium perhibentes ipsos in Hibernia eum et hæredes suos sibi in reges et dominos in perpetuum constituisse. Jo. Brampton. Ibid.

b Venerunt ibidem ad regem Angliæ omnes archiepiscopi, episcopi, abbates totius Hiberniæ, et receperunt eum in regem et dominum Hiberniæ; jurantes ei et hæredibus suis fidelitatem, et regnandi super eos potestatem in perpetuum: et inde dederunt ei chartas suas. Exemplo autem clericorum, prædicti reges et principes Hiberniæ, receperunt simili modo Henricum regem Angliæ in dominum et regem Hiberniæ; et homines sui devenerunt, et ei et hæredibus suis fidelitatem juraverunt contra omnes homines. Rog. Hoveden. ad ann. 1171. c Dignum etenim et justissimum est, ut sicut dominum et regem ex Anglia sortita est divinitus Hibernia; sic etiam exinde vivendi formam accipiant melioGirald. Cambrens. Hibern. expugnat. lib. 1. cap. 34.

rem.

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