Mor, whose reign continued to A.D. 1194.* The Irish, it appears, were to be scourged by the Anglo-Normans, for their audacity in attempting to plunder the legate of his plunder, while the best that could was to be made of the pope's badly paid rent in Ireland, by selling to the English what would give them, as it was hoped, an interest in its collection. Some other anecdotes of early le land. Vivian's ra While on this topic, it may not be amiss to adduce here one or two other illustrations of the proceedings of the early papal legates in Ireland. gates in IreCardinal Vivian's operations in 1177 have been already touched upon at pp. 602, 603, of this work. "He filled his bagges," says Hanmer (in Cardinal his Chronicle, pp. 295, 296, Ed. 1809) "with the pacity nosinnes of the people; the English captains understanding of it, gave him in charge, either to depart the land, or to go to the warres, and serve for pay with them, and no longer to receive money for nought."† The latter method was however more to the Cardinal's mind, he Another case in which the same Domhnall or Donald appears to be put for the same Turlogh, in a transaction recorded in another Irish Chronicle, (written however in Latin,) may be seen in Lanigan's Ec. Hist. IV. 156. + See Professor O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters; a work which since the publication of his edition might well be styled henceforth the Annals of the Five Masters, the last hand having done fully as much for the subject as any of the original quartette. See also the learned review of the same work, in the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal, Nos. 94-97, (May-August,) 1848; and in particular, No. 97, p. 125, coll. 2, 3. ticed. being, according to the respectable testimony of the Annals of Melrose,* * 66 one that was for trampling and smashing all before him; a smart hand at gathering what he could by fair means, and no way backward at having a little more by foul;" "one whose legateship," adds Cardinal Baronius, "could not possibly have come to any good end, scandalized as it was by his infamous He superin- greed of gold."+ Vivian however was barefaced "translation enough, notwithstanding his repulse from Ireof SS. Pa- land on this occasion, to revisit the country again afterwards; and we find him coming over once more as legate in 1186, at the instance of John de Courcy, to assist in celebrating at Down patrick the mock translation of the remains of SS. Patrick, Brigid, and Columbkille.‡ tends the trick," &c. An English bishop made legate in 1190. In A.D. 1190 we find Pope Clement III. appointing an English prelate to the office of lefor Ireland gate for Ireland, at least for those parts of Ireland where the joint authority of England and Rome had become predominant. For the other parts of the island perhaps the services of such an officer were not felt to be much in request. The pope's letter to the bishop of Ely on this occasion runs thus: P.Clement's "Clement, bishop, &c. In accordance with the laudletter to able desire expressed by our son right well beloved in him. Ad an. 1176. Annales, ad an. 1183. 8. the Lord, Richard, the illustrious king of the English, we have judged it meet to entrust to thee, brother, by virtue of our apostolic authority, the office of Legate in all England and Wales, both in the province of Canterbury and in that of York, and in those parts of Ireland in which the noble John, Earl of Moreton, has dominion and authority. "Dated this 7th of July, in the 3rd year of our Pontificate." John of Sa In 1201 John of Salernum, who had suc- Legation of ceeded, as Cardinal, to Vivian, in 1192, was lernum, despatched into Ireland in the same capacity as (A.D. 1201.) his predecessor; whereupon, as the Four Masters inform us, "he convoked a great Synod of the bishops, abbots, and every other order in the Church at Dublin, at which also many of the nobles of Ireland were present. By this Synod many proper ordinances for the regulation of the Church and the State were enacted."† ceives or A similar meeting for Connaught was held in Athlone a fortnight afterwards, by the same legate. He received, we are told also, while on who rehis legation in Ireland, many letters from Pope ders to proInnocent III. instructing him, amongst other hibit nepothings, to abolish in that country the abusive land. practice of sons and grandsons being appointed Mat. Par. Hist. Ang. p. 151. Tiguri, 1589. † O'Donovan's Four Masters, in an. tism in Ire The mission of J. Penciail, A.D. 1220. His pillage of Ireland, and simony. to succeed their fathers and grandfathers in ecclesiastical benefices.* In A.D. 1220 Ireland was again favored with a visit from another papal emissary, by name Jacob Penciail, of whose mission the following account (with which accords that of the Four Masters) is furnished by the ancient Annals of Clonmacnoise, as translated by Mac Geoghegan. A.D. 1220. Jacob the pope's Legate, came to Ireland this year, went about all the Kingdome for the Reformation of the Inhabitants, and constituted many wholesome rules for their salvation." But another ancient authority, the Annals of Kilronan, give under the year 1221 an account, not quite so flattering, of this Jacob; represent This O Ciaconius de Vitis Pontificum, col. 624. Romæ, 1630. would seem to indicate that marriage was usual among the Irish clergy of that age, as otherwise, if the sons and grandsons referred to were not born in wedlock, it is reasonable to suppose that the pope would, even for appearance sake, have directed his agent to commence the reform nearer to the root of the mischief, by attacking in the first instance a greater evil than that of nepotism; unless the children in question were born of dispensations to the unmarried. As to the biographer of Laurence O'Toole informing us of that prelate having sent to Rome for absolution 140 Irish clergymen "convicted of the crime of incontinence," (See Lan. iv. 242.) I cannot suppose that the individuals in question were otherwise than married, publicly or privately; as it is hard to conceive that men professing to be teachers of Christianity in any form, would, when tempted to break through the unnatural restrictions of Rome, have selected for adoption by such general consent, the least honest kind of life which was open to them. But the language of Romish writers on such matters is, at least by those familiar with their peculiar style, easily interpreted. ing him in fact as less of a plain man, and more of an Esau in his proceedings. Their statement, literally translated from the Irish original, is as follows: "A.D. 1221. Jacob Penciail came to Ireland as a legate from Rome, to settle what related to the Ecclesiastical state. And he collected horseloads of gold and silver from the clergy of Ireland by simony; and left Ireland the same year." Thus far of these "apostolic" legates for the present. No. XII. BULL OF POPE ALEXANDER III. TO THE SAME HENRY II. CONFIR- "Alexander bishop, servant of the servants of God, The opening to our well-beloved son in Christ the illustrious king of salutation. the English, health and apostolical benediction. bull to be "Forasmuch as those grants of our predecessors which Adrian's are known to have been made on reasonable grounds, enforced are worthy to be confirmed by a permanent sanction; and carried We therefore following in the footsteps of the late vene- into effect, rable pope Adrian, and in expectation also of seeing the fruits of our own earnest wishes on this head, ratify and confirm the permission of the said pope, granted you in reference to the dominion of the kingdom of Ireland; (reserving to Blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church, |