Bull, in favour of his friend Henry II; and he quotes the grant of Constantine; and says that the ring of investiture, was handed to Henry by himself, as in his Polycraticum, l. 4, c. ult.* So that Keating's account is confirmed by every fragment of coeval history that remains.. 3. Let us now return to Donald O'Brian.Keating's chronology is undoubtedly erroneous; for how could Donald, whose father Brian Boiromh, was killed at the battle of Cloontarf, in 1014, go on a pilgrimage to Rome, in the Pontificate of Urban the IId,› who reigned from 1088 to 1099? But, shall we argue, that because Keating's chronology is erroneous, the main facts are not true? As well might we say, that the whole of Mr. Plowden's history is a fable, because we find here and there chronological errors, misrepresentations of names, of places, and of facts!† See also Veter. Epist. Syllog. p. 152. + Foreigners appear to me totally unqualified to write Irish History, from their utter ignorance, not only of our language,' but of the names, and times, and professions even of our mo◄ dern writers, to whose works they refer, exactly as the Bishop of Castabala does to the Koran.-Mr. Plowden says, that Keating's Chronolgy is rectified by a collation of the Annals of Tigernach, and Inisfallen, with those of Ulster, and the Four Masters; from which it appears, that Donald O'Brian, expelled from the throne of Munster, which he had polluted by his crimes, fled to Rome in 1047; "the book called Cambrensis Eversus, was written by a very "learned person, Mr. Josiah Lynch, Titular Archbishop of "Tuam." Hist. t. 1, p, 6.—Now there never was a Mr. Josiah Lynch, titular Archbishop, or Bishop, of any Diocese in Ireland!-Doctor Milner says in his Tour," that Daniel Roth, "Bishop of Ossory, published a most interesting account "of Catholic affairs, two centuries ago, intitled Analecta de "Rebus Catholicis in Anglia." Tour, 2d ed. p. 14. Now there never was such a man as Daniel Roth, Bishop of Ossory, nor such a book as Analecta de Rebus Catholicis in Anglia ! So also Doctor Milner says, that Pope Gregory the Great addressed a Letter to the Bishops of Ireland, to guard them against errors respecting the intricate question of the three chapters. Ibid. p. 223. Now Pope Gregory never wrote any such letter to the Irish, but to the Bishops of Iberia, as is clear from the Vatican MS. and well known to all the learned. Epistolæ binæ quæ ad Hibernos ab ipso datæ fuisse di"cuntur, non ad Hibernos, sed ad Hiberos missæ sunt. Pos"terior enim Epistola, calamo exarata, in Bibl. Vaticana "Iberiam habet non Hiberniam." Cambr. Evers. p. 229. One of these Letters mentions Jerusalem in the way from Rome to the place of its destination. But we look in vain for accurate criticism in the hasty effusions of a Doctor exclusive Castabalensis. took the Monastic habit there; lived to a very advanced age; and died in the Monastery of S.. Stephen, in 1064.-This account is consistent; it is taken from coeval authority, it is as true as any other fact in the Annals of mankind, and so far, Keating turns out to be correct.* 4. Keating's confusion of dates arose from the. tradition of his time, which seems to have been floating uppermost on his mind, that in the Pontificate of Urban II, crouds of Irish, attracted by the Council of Clermont and the Crusades, travelled to Rome, joined the Crusading army, and marched to Palestine, where their strength of body, and activity, merited the attention of Italy. 5. One of the great objects, though not " * "Donnch. mc Briain Airdri Mumhain do athriogh 7 a “dhul do Roimh iarsin con erbailt fo bhuaidh aithricche i Mai"nister Stephain Mairtir." Donnchad the son of Brian, chief King of Munster was expelled, and went to Rome, and died "there in the grief of repentance, in the Monastery of S. "Stephen Martyr."-The Annals of Inisfallen are the best authority for the affairs of Munster, Tigernach however has the advantage of being coeval, and very diligent in his chronology. He died at an advanced age in 1088. Ꮐ the only object of Urban II, and of the succeeding Pontiffs, in proclaiming the Crusades, was to defend Rome and Italy against the menaced invasion of the Saracens;* and such an able bodied active people, as the Irish were then known to be, could hardly fail of inviting their zeal, and contributing, in their opinion, to the security of their State.-Irish Pilgrims had frequently passed through Rome on their way to Palestine, before the days of Urban;t to defend themselves against the insolence of the followers of * Fleury Motifs des croisades, No. 1. + Our countryman Adamnan, wrote a Treatise on the Holy Land, intitled De Locis Sanctis.-The avidity with which that book was read, is evident not only from Bede's extract from it, but also from several MS. Copies on Vellum, of the 9th and 10th centuries, which yet remain. See an account of Irish MSS. in my Epistle Dedicatory, prefixed to the Irish Annals; also Fleury's Hist. Eccl. 1. 41, No. 10, Acta SS. Benedict. t. 4. p. 502. Compare the Iter Hierosolym, published by Wesseling. The Annals of Inisfallen, ad ann. 1043, say "Domhnall Dessech, Cenn crabaid '7 deirce na n Gaoedhel "7 ishe ro imthig don eoch im deochaid Cr. i talmain, qu. in "Dno."-i. e. Donald the fierce (or the handsome) chief of the devout, and of the Alms-givers of Ireland, he who travelled to the Sepulchre of Christ, rested this year (1043) in the Lord, &c. Mahomet, the Western Pilgrims travelled armed, and in large bodies; frequently they had to contend with armies of Arabs, during a whole century before the first Crusade;* and it appears, not only from traditions preserved by Tasso, but from much more ancient written documents, that the Irish of those ages, who * We have an illustrious example of seven thousand sturdy German Pilgrims who marched in a compact and well armed body to Jerusalem, and defeated the Arabs in several encounters, in 1064. + Sono gl' Inglesi Sagittari, ed hanno. Gente con lor che piu vicina al Polo, ↑ Guibert p. 471. Gibbon Decl. and Fall 4to. vol. 6, p. 40, n. 78, Malmesb. 1. 4. Gesta Reg. Angl. p. 133, and 1.5. Henry VIII of England, knew how to estimate the bodily endowments of the Irish Soldiery.-In Hollinshed's Chronicles of Ireland, ann. 1544, I find that" in the siege of Boul"loyne, the Irish stood the armie in verie good sted, for they were not onely contented to burn and spoile all the villiages "thereto adjoining, but also they would range twenty or thirty miles into the main land, and furnish the campe with "beefe. The French with their strange kind of warfaring "astonished, sent an Ambassador to King Henrie, to learne "whether he brought Men with him or Divels, that could nei"ter be wonne with rewards, nor pacified by pitie; which the " 16 King turned to a jeast. After that Boulloyne was sur |