IRELAND has been the despair of British statesmen. It has wrecked the careers of the most astute British politicians, and been the burial place of their reputations. But while Celt and Saxon have carried on the war through centuries, it is often overlooked by the Roman Catholic Irish that it was a Pope of their own Church, Adrian IV., that handed over Ireland to the English King, Henry II. Ever since the Norman Conquest the English kings had been casting a covetous eye on Ireland, but it was not until Henry II.’s time that any active steps were taken. Soon after his accession Henry despatched his chaplain, John of Salisbury, to Rome to obtain the sanction of the Pope to a scheme that had in view Ireland’s subjugation. The time was specially favourable. Nicholas Breakspear had been promoted to the pontificate under the title of Adrian IV. He was an Englishman, the only English Pope, in fact, that has been, and was very desirous of gratifying the wishes of the young king. The chief difficulty was to get some plausible reason for the invasion, as England and Ireland in those far-away times were on the best of terms. The Pope was in a position to have first-hand information about Ireland, and it is this that makes his action so extraordinary in its base scheming. The Bull by which authority was given to Henry to invade Ireland, and the ostensible reasons assigned for such a step, have rightly been described by an Irish historian as among the curiosities of history.
Here are the words of the Papal Bull:—”Adrian, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his dearest son in Christ, the illustrious King of England, greeting, and apostolic benediction.
“Full laudably and profitably has your Magnificence conceived the design of propagating your glorious renown on earth, and of completing your reward of eternal happiness in heaven, whilst, as a Catholic Prince, you are intent on enlarging the borders of the Church, teaching the truth of the Christian faith to the ignorant and rude, extirpating the nurseries of iniquity from the field of the Lord, and for the more convenient execution of this purpose, requiring the counsel and favour of the Apostolic See. In which the maturer your deliberation and the greater the discretion of your procedure by so much the happier, we trust, will be your progress, with the assistance of the Lord; because whatever has its origin in ardent faith and in love of religion always has a prosperous end and issue.
“There is indeed no doubt but that Ireland and all the islands on which Christ the Sun of Righteousness has shone, and which have received the doctrines of the Christian faith, belong to the jurisdiction of St. Peter, and of the holy Roman Church, as your Excellency also acknowledges. And therefore we are the more solicitous to propagate a faithful plantation among them, and a seed pleasing to the Lord, as we have the secret conviction of conscience that a very rigorous account must be rendered of them.
“You, then, most dear son in Christ, have signified to us your
desire to enter into the island of Ireland that you may reduce the people to obedience to laws, and extirpate the nurseries of vice; and that you are willing to pay from each house a yearly pension of one penny to St. Peter, and that you will preserve the rights of the churches of this island whole and inviolate. We, therefore, with that grace and acceptance suited to your pious and laudable design and favourably assenting to your petition, hold it good and acceptable that, for extending the borders of the Church, restraining the progress of vice, for the correction of manners, the planting of virtue, and the increase of the Christian religion, you enter that island, and execute therein whatever shall pertain to the honour of God and welfare of the land; and that the people of that land receive you honourably, and reverence you as their lord,—the rights of their churches still remaining sacred and inviolate, and saving to St. Peter the annual pension of one penny from every house.
“If then you are resolved to carry the design you have conceived into effectual execution, study to form that nation to virtuous manners; and labour by yourself and others whom you shall judge meet for this work in faith, word, and life, that the Church may be there adorned, that the religion of the Christian faith may be planted and grow up, and that all things pertaining to the honour of God and the salvation of souls be so ordered, that you may be entitled to the fulness of eternal reward in God, and obtain a glorious renown on earth throughout all ages.”
Some Roman Catholic writers, feeling ashamed of this extraordinary document, have laboured hard to prove that it is not genuine. One of these writers says:—“The concoctor of this Bull, therefore, merits the most hearty execration for representing the character of the Pope in so odious a light. He represents him, in the first place, as having no title to be called an honest man; next, as a man who was swayed by his own interests, not by justice; then, as condemning the innocent without a hearing; again, as subverting the kingdom of Ireland, which had never before owned any foreign power, moreover, as the credulous dupe of whispering slanderers, the violator of the rights of immemorial possession; the enemy of all laws; the most profligate scoffer at all religion; finally, the firebrand of execrable war, and the most odious propagator of burning hatred.” This is strong language, and truthfully describes the character of the author of this famous letter to Henry, but it so happens that the scathing terms used by the Roman Catholic writer quoted above do not fall on the head of the supposed fabricator of this Bull, but on Pope Adrian, who was the real author. Adrian well deserves what is said of the supposed fabricator, for as the late Dr. Killen has well said, “In all the records of human degeneracy we could not readily point to many other documents so replete with hypocrisy and villany. Henry was a licentious prince; his character was notorious, and to give such a man a commission to take possession of Ireland, under the pretext that he would improve the morals of the people, was as wicked as it was preposterous” (Eccles. History of Ireland, I., 213). All attempts to prove the
spuriousness of this Bull have failed, and the evidence adduced by the Roman Catholic historian, Dr. Lanigan, and his summing up cannot be set aside. “Adrian’s Bull,” he says, “is of so unwarrantable and unjustifiable a nature that some writers could not bring themselves to believe that he issued it, and have endeavoured to prove it a forgery, but their efforts were of no avail, and never did there exist a more real or authentic document.“
The Bull was drawn up in 1155, but the state of public affairs prevented Henry for a long time from taking advantage of its provisions. It was not until 1171 that Henry landed at Waterford and proceeded to take possession of the island. He had a strong force, and met with scarcely any resistance. This was the beginning of Ireland’s sorrows, and the chain that bound her was forged by the hands of a Pope; but, bitter though Ireland’s sorrows may have been from English domination, she has other chains that bind her, and as yet no patriot voice has warned her people nor patriot arm struck a blow to deliver her people from this bondage. The glad tidings of salvation proclaimed and received is what Ireland stands most in need of.