APPENDIX.

No. I.

BULL OF POPE ADRIAN IV. ADDRESSED TO KING HENRY II. OF ENGLAND, (A.D. 1155,) GRANTING HIM "THE PRIVILEGE OF TAKING POSSESSION OF IRELAND AND THE ISLANDS ADJACENT, SAVING THE RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME and of oTHER CHURCHES."

"ADRIAN, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our well-beloved son in Christ, the illustrious king of the English, health and apostolical benediction.

"Your highness contemplates the laudable and profitable work of gaining a glorious reputation on earth and enhancing the recompense of future bliss in heaven, by turning your thoughts, in the true spirit of a Catholic prince, to widening the bounds of the Church, and explaining the true Christian faith to ignorant and uncivilised tribes, and exterminating the nurseries of vices from the heritage of the Lord: and in order to the better execution of this project, you implore the counsel and countenance of the apostolic see. In which matter the more mature the deliberation and the greater the discretion with which you proceed, so much greater, we trust, will be the success that will, with the Lord's permission, attend your exertions.

"Certainly there is no doubt, but that Ireland, and all the islands upon which Christ the Sun of Righteousness hath shined, and which have received instruction in the Christian faith, do belong of right to St. Peter and the Holy Roman Church, as your grace also admits. Wherefore we are the more ready to introduce into them a faithful plantation, and a stock acceptable to God, in proportion as we are convinced from conscientious motives that this is urgently required of us.

"You have signified to us, son well-beloved in Christ, your desire to enter the island of Ireland, in order to bring that people into subjection

to laws, and to exterminate the nurseries of vices from the country; and that you are willing to pay to St. Peter an annual tribute of one penny for every house, and to preserve uninjured and inviolate the ecclesiastical rights of that land.

"We therefore, treating your pious and laudable desire with the favour which it deserves, and graciously acceding to your petition, express our will and pleasure, that in order to widen the bounds of the Church, to check the spread of vice, to reform morals and inculcate virtues, in order to the advancement of the Christian religion, you should enter that island, and do what shall tend to the honour of God, and the welfare of that land. And let the people of that land receive you in an honourable manner, and respect you as their lord: provided always that ecclesiastical rights be uninjured and inviolate, and the annual payment of one penny for every house be secured to St. Peter and the Holy Roman Church.

"If then you shall think fit to carry out to its execution the plan which you have conceived in your mind, endeavour diligently to improve that nation by inculcating good morals: and exert yourself, both personally and by means of such agents as you employ, whom you shall have found suitable to the work, for their faith, conversation, and life, that the Church may be adorned there, the religion of the Christian faith be planted and grow, and the things pertaining to the honour of God and the salvation of souls be ordered by you in such a way, that you may deserve to obtain from God a higher degree of reward in eternity, and succeed in gaining on earth a name glorious throughout all generations."

BULL OF POPE ALEXANDER III. ADDRESSED TO THE SAME KING HENRY II., CONFIRMING THE PRECEDING BULL OF POPE ADRIAN IV.A.D. 1172.

"Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our wellbeloved son in Christ, the illustrious king of the English, health and apostolical benediction.

"Forasmuch as those grants of our predecessors, which are known to have been made on reasonable grounds, are worthy to be confirmed by a permanent sanction; We therefore, following in the footsteps of the late venerable Pope Adrian, and considering the fruits of our desire, do ratify and confirm the permission of the said Pope, given you, relative to the lordship of the kingdom of Ireland: (reserving to Blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church, as in England, so also in Ireland, the annual payment of one penny for every house :) to the end that the filthy practices of that land may be abolished, and the barbarous nation, which is called by the Christian name, may through your clemency attain to some decency of manners: and that, when the Church of that country, which has been hitherto in a disorderly state, shall have been reduced to order, that people may by your means possess for the future the reality as well as the name of the Christian profession."

These two bulls, with references to the different original authorities for them, are to be seen in Ussher's Sylloge, Nos. 46 and 47.

No. II.

bull of pope gregory xIII., (A.D. 1580,) INCITING THE IRISH TO REBELLION AGAINST QUEEN ELIZABETH.

"Gregory XIII., pope, to all and singular the Archbishops, Bishops, and other Prelates, as also to the Princes, Earls, Barons, Clergy, Nobility, and People, of the kingdom of Ireland, Health and Apostolical Benediction.

"Whereas in recent years we have by our letters exhorted you to assist (in order to the recovery of your liberty and the defence and preservation of it against the heretics) James Geraldine, of worthy memory, (who was endeavouring with most high-minded zeal, to shake off the cruel yoke of slavery imposed on you by the English deserters from the Holy Roman Church,) and to aid him with promptness and energy in his preparations to make war on God's enemies and yours;