flourished in the vigour of Christian doctrine as Abbot Ionas testifieth that it exceeded the faith of all the neighbour nations and in that respect was generally had in honour by them CHAP. XI Of the temporall power which the Popes followers would directly intitle him unto over the Kingdome of Ireland together with the indirect power which he challengeth in absolving subjects from the obedience which they owe to their temporall Governours IT now remaineth that in the last place wee should consider the Popes power in disposing the temporall state of this Kingdome which eyther directly or indirectly by hooke or by crooke this grand Usurper would draw unto himselfe First therefore Cardinall Allen would have us to know that the Sea Apostolike hath an old claime unto the soveraigntie of the countrey of Ireland and that before the Covenants passed betweene King Iohn and the same Sea Which challenges saith he Princes commonly yeeld not up by what ground soever they come What Princes use to yeeld or not yeeld I leave to the scanning of those unto whom Princes matters doe belong for the Cardinals Prince I dare be bold to say that if it bee not his use to play fast and loose with other Princes the matter is not now to doe whatsoever right he could pretend to the temporall state of Ireland hee hath transferred it more than once unto the Kings of England and when the ground of his claime shall be looked into it will bee found so frivolous and so ridiculous that we need not care three chippes whether he yeeld it up or keep it to himselfe For whatsoever become of his idle challenges the Crowne of England hath otherwise obtained an undoubted right unto the soveraigntie of this countrey partly by Conquest prosecuted at first upon occasion of a Sociall warre partly by the severall submissions of the chiefetaines of the land made afterwards For wheras it is it free for all men although they have been formerly quitt from all subjection to renounce their owne right yet now in these our daies saith Giraldus Cambrensis in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland all the Princes of Ireland did voluntarily submitt and binde themselves with firme bonds of faith and oath unto Henry the second King of England The like might be said of the generall submissions made in the dayes of King Richard the second and King Henry the eighth to speake nothing of the prescription of divers hundreds of yeares possession which was the plea that Iephte used to the Ammonites and is indeed the best evidence that the Bishop of Romes own Proctors do produce for their Masters right to Rome it selfe For the Popes direct dominion over Ireland two titles are brought forth beside those covenants of King Iohn mentioned by Allen which hee that hath any understanding in our state knoweth to be clearly voide and worth nothing The one is taken from a speciall grant supposed to bee made by the inhabitants of the countrey at the time of their first conversion unto Christianitie the other from a right which the Pope challengeth unto himselfe over all Ilands in generall The former of these was devised of late by an Italian in the reigne of King Henry the eighth the later was found out in the daies of King Henry the second before whose time not one footestep doth appeare in all antiquitie of any claime that the Bishop of Rome should make to the dominion of Ireland no not in the Popes owne records which have beene curiously searched by Nicolaus Arragonius and other ministers of his who have purposely written of the particulars of his temporall estate The Italian of whom I spake is Polydore Vergil he that composed the booke De inventoribus rerum of the first Inventers of things among whom hee himselfe may challenge a place for this invention if the Inventers of lyes bee admitted to have any roome in that companie This man being sent over by the Pope into England for the collecting of his Peter-pence undertooke the writing of the historie of that nation wherein he forgat not by the way to doe the best service hee could to his Lord that had imployed him thither There hee telleth an idle tale how the Irish being moved to accept Henry the second for their King did deny that this could be done otherwise than by the Bishop of Romes anthoritie because forsooth that from the very beginning after they had accepted Christian Religion they had yeelded themselves and all that they had into his power and they did constantly affirme saith this fabler that they had no other Lord beside the Pope of which also they yet doe bragge The Italian is followed herein by two Englishmen that wished the Popes advancement as much as hee Edmund Campian and Nicholas Sanders the one whereof writeth that immediately after Christianitie planted here the whole Iland with one consent gave themselves not onely into the spirituall but also into the temporall Iurisdiction of the See of Rome the other in Polydores owne words though hee name him not that the Irish from the beginning presently after they had received Christian Religion gave up themselves and all that they had into the power of the Bishop of Rome and that untill the time of King Henry the second they did acknowledge no other supreme Prince of Ireland beside of the Bishop of Rome alone For confutation of which dreame we need not have recourse to our owne Chronicles the Bull of Adrian the fourth wherein hee giveth libertie of King Henry the second to enter upon Ireland sufficiently discovereth the vanitie thereof For hee there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended unto Ireland maketh no mention at all of this which had beene the fairest and clearest title that could bee alledged if any such had been then existent in rerum naturâ but is faine to flie unto a farre-fetcht interest which hee saith the Church of Rome hath unto all Christian Ilands Truly saith he to the King there is no doubt but that all Ilands unto which Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse hath shined and which have received the instructions of the Christian faith doe pertaine to the right of Saint Peter and the holy Church of Rome which your Noblenesse also doth acknowledge If you would further understand the ground of this strange claime whereby all Christian Ilands at a clap are challenged to bee parcell of St. Peters patrimonie you shall have it from Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was most inward with Pope Adrian and obtained from him this very grant whereof now wee are speaking At my request saith he he granted Ireland to the illustrious King of England Henry the second and gave it to bee possessed by right of inheritance as his owne letters doe testifie unto this day For all Ilands of ancient right are said to belong to the Church of Rome by the donation of Constantine who founded endowed the same But will
you see what a goodly title here is in the meane time First the Donation of Constantine hath been long since discovered to be a notorious forgerie and is rejected by all men of judgement as a senslesse fiction Secondly in the whole context of this forged Donation I find mention made of Ilands in one place only where no more power is given to the Church of Rome over them than in generall over the whole Continent by East and by West by North and by South and in particular over Iudaea Graecia Asia Thracia and Aphrica which use not to passe in the account of St. Peters temporall patrimonie Thirdly it doth not appeare that Constantine himselfe had any interest in the Kingdome of Ireland how then could hee conferre it upon another Some words there be in an oration of Eumenius the Rhetorician by which peradventure it may bee collected that his father Constantius bare some stroke here but that the Iland was ever possessed by the Romanes or accounted a parcell of the Empire cannot be proved by any sufficient testimonie of antiquitie Fourthly the late writers that are of another mind as Pomponius Laetus Cuspinian and others doe yet affirme withall that in the division of the Empire after Constantines death Ireland was assigned unto Constantinus the eldest sonne which will hardly stand with this donation of the Ilands supposed to bee formerly made unto the Bishop of Rome and his successors Pope Adrian therefore and Iohn of Salisbury his sollicitor had need seeke some better warrant for the title of Ireland than the Donation of Constantine Iohn Harding in his Chronicle saith that the Kings of England have right To Ireland also by King Henry le fitz Of Maude daughter of first King Henry That conquered it for their great heresie which in another place he expresseth more at large in this manner The King Henry then conquered all Ireland By Papall dome there of his royaltee The profits and revenues of the land The domination and the soveraigntee For errour which agayn the spiritualtee They held full long and would not been correct Of heresies with which they were infect Philip Osullevan on the other side doth not only deny that Ireland was infected with any heresie but would also have us beleeve that the Pope never intended to conferre the Lordship of Ireland upon the Kings of England For where it is said in Pope Adrians 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 Deputie appointed for the collecting of the Ecclesiasticall tribute It is true indeed that King Henry the second to the end hee might the more easily obtaine the Popes good wil for his entring upon Ireland did voluntarily offer unto him the payment of a yearely pension of one penny out of every house in the countrey which for ought that I can learne was the first Ecclesiasticall tribute that ever came unto the Popes coffers out of Ireland But that King Henry got nothing else by the bargaine but the bare office of collecting the Popes Smoke-silver for so wee called it here when wee payed it is so dull a conceit that I doe somewhat wonder how Osullevan himselfe could be such a blocke-head as not to discerne the senselesnesse of it What the King sought for and obtained is sufficiently declared by them that writ the historie of his reigne In the yeare of our Lord MCLV. the first Bull was sent unto him by Pope Adrian the summe whereof is thus laid down in a second Bull directed unto him by Alexander the third the immediate successor of the other Following the stepps of reverend Pope Adrian and attending the fruit of your desire we ratifie and confirme his grant concerning the dominion of the KINGDOME of Ireland conferred upon you reserving unto St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome as in England so in Ireland the yearely 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 haereditario jure possidendam to bee possessed by right of inheritance withall sent unto him a ring of gold set with a faire Emerauld for his investiture in the right thereof as Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was the principall agent betwixt them both in this businesse doth expresly testifie After this in the year MCLXXI the King himselfe came hither in person where the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland received him for their KING and Lord. The King saith Iohn Brampton received letters from every Archbishop and Bishop with their seales hanging upon them in the manner of an Indenture confirming the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres and bearing witnesse that they in Ireland had ordained him and his heyres to bee 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 heyres and power to reigne over them for ever and hereof they gave him their Instruments The Kings also and Princes of Ireland by the example of the Clergie 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 heyres against all men These things were presently after confirmed in the Nationall Synod held at Casshell the Acts whereof in Giraldus Cambrensis are thus concluded For it is fit and most meet that as Ireland by Gods appointment hath gotten a Lord and a KING from England so also they should from thence receive a better forme of living King Henry also at the same time sent a transcript of the Instruments of all the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland unto Pope Alexander who by his Apostolicall authority for so was it in those dayes of darknesse esteemed to bee did confirme the KINGDOME of Ireland unto him and his heyres according to the forme of the Instruments of the Archbishops Bishops of Ireland and made them KINGS thereof for ever The King also obtained further from Pope Alexander that it might bee lawfull for him to make which of his sonnes hee pleased KING of Ireland and to crowne him accordingly and to subdue the Kings and great ones of that land which would not subject themselves unto him Whereupon in a grand Councell held at Oxford in the yeere of our Lord MCLXXVII before the Bishops and Peeres of the Kingdome hee constituted his sonne Iohn KING of Ireland according to that grant and confirmation of Pope Alexander And to make the matter yet more sure in the yeere MCLXXXVI hee obtained a new licence from Pope Vrban the third that one of
his sonnes whom hee himselfe would should bee crowned for the KINGDOME of Ireland And this the Pope did not onely confirme by his Bull but also the yeere following purposely sent over Cardinall Octavian and Hugo de Nunant or Novant his Legates into Ireland to crowne Iohn the Kings sonne there By all this wee may see how farre King Henry the second proceeded in this businesse which I doe not so much note to convince the stolidity of Osullevan who would faine perswade fooles that he was preferred onely to bee collector of the Popes Peter-pence as to shew that Ireland at that time was esteemed a Kingdome and the Kings of England accounted no lesse than Kings thereof And therefore Paul the fourth needed not make all that noyse and trouble the whole Court of heaven with the matter when in the yeere MDLV he tooke upon him by his Apostolicall authority such I am sure as none of the Apostles of Christ did ever assume unto themselves to erect Ireland unto the title and dignity of a Kingdome Whereas hee might have found even in his owne Romane Provinciall that Ireland was reckoned among the Kingdomes of Christendome before hee was borne Insomuch that in the yeere MCCCCXVII when the Legates of the King of England and the French Kings Ambassadours fell at variance in the Councell of Constance for precedencie the English Orators among other arguments alledged this also for themselves It is well knowne that according to Albertus Magnus and Bartholomaeus in his booke De proprietatibus rerum the whole world being divided into three parts to wit Asia Africk and Europe Europe is divided into foure Kingdomes namely the Romane for the first the Constantinopolitane for the second the third the Kingdome of Ireland which is now translated unto the English and the fourth the Kingdome of Spain Whereby it appeareth that the King of England and his Kingdome are of the more eminent ancient Kings and Kingdomes of all Europe which prerogative the Kingdome of France is not said to obtaine And this have I here inserted the more willingly because it maketh something for the honour of my Country to which I confesse I am very much devoted and in the printed Acts of the Councell it is not commonly to be had But now commeth forth Osullevan againe and like a little furie flyeth upon the English-Irish Priests of his owne religion which in the late rebellion of the Earle of Tirone did not deny that Hellish doctrine fetcht out of Hell for the destruction of Catholickes that it is lawfull for Catholickes to beare armes and fight for Heretickes against Catholickes and their country or rather if you will have it in plainer termes that it is lawfull for them of the Romish Religion to beare armes and fight for their Soveraigne and fellow-subjects that are of another profession against those of their own religion that trayterously rebell against their Prince and Country and to shew how madde and how venemous a doctrine they did bring these bee the caitiffes owne termes that exhorted the laitie to follow the Queens side he setteth downe the censure of the Doctors of the University of Salamanca and Vallodilid published in the yeere MDCIII for the justification of that Rebellion and the declaration of Pope Clement the eights letters touching the same wherein he signifieth that the English ought to be set upon no lesse than the Turkes and imparteth the same favours unto such as set upon them that hee doth unto such as fight against the Turkes Such wholesome directions doth the Bishop of Rome give vnto those that will be ruled by him far different I wisse from that holy doctrine wherewith the Church of Rome was at first seasoned by the Apostles Let every soule bee subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God was the lesson that S. Paul taught to the ancient Romanes Where if it bee demanded whether that power also which persecuteth the servants of God impugneth the faith and subverteth religion be of God our countryman Sedulius will teach us to answer with Origen that even such a power as that is given of God for the revenge of the evill and the praise of the good although he were as wicked as eyther Nero among the Romans or Herod among the Iewes the one whereof most cruelly persecuted the Christians the other Christ himselfe And yet when the one of them swayed the scepter Saint Paul told the Christian Romanes that they must needes be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and of the causelesse feare of the other these Verses of Sedulius are solemnly sung in the Church of Rome even unto this day Herodes hostis impie Christum venire quid times Non eripit mortalia Qui regna dat coelestia Why wicked Herod dost thou feare And at Christs comming frowne The mortall he takes not away That gives the heavenly crowne a better paraphrase whereof you cannot have than this which Claudius hath inserted into his Collections upon St. Matthew That King which is borne doth not come to overcome Kings by fighting but to subdue them after a wonderfull manner by dying neither is he borne to the end that hee may succeed thee but that the world may faithfully beleeve in him For he is come not that hee may fight being alive but that hee may triumph being slaine nor that he may with gold get an armie unto himselfe out of other nations but that hee may shed his precious bloud for the saving of the nations Vainly didst thou by envying feare him to beâ— thy successor whom by beleeving thou oughtest to seeke as thy Saviour because if thou diddest beleeve in him thou shouldest reigne with him and as thou hast received a temporall kingdome from him thou shouldest also receive from him an everlasting For the kingdome of this Childe is not of this world but by him it is that men do reign in this world He is the Wisedome of God which saith in the Proverbs By mee Kings reigne This Childe is the Word of God this Childe is the Power and Wisedome of God If thou canst thinke against the Wisedome of God thou workest thine owne destruction and dost not know it For thou by no meanes shouldest have had thy kingdome unlesse thou hadst received it from that Childe which now is borne As for the Censure of the Doctors of Salamanca and Vallodilid our Nobility and Gentry by the faithfull service which at that time they performed unto the Crowne of England did make a reall confutation of it Of whose fidelity in this kinde I am so well perswaded that I doe assure my selfe that neither the names of Franciscus Zumel and Alphonsus Curiel how great Schoole-men soever they were nor of the Fathers of the Society Iohannes de Ziguenza Emanuel de Roias and Gaspar de Mena nor of the Pope himselfe upon whose sentence they wholly ground