time, that he found it necessary, to build his principal argument on that very Papal dominion, which O'Ferral so strenuously assertsHis argument in reply is this- "The Kings of England have a just right to "the Crown of Ireland founded on the sub"missions of the Irish themselves.--But, if these "submissions should be deemed inconclusive, "from their being compulsory, at least it can"not be denied, that the Popes have frequently "conferred the Crown of Ireland upon the 'Kings of England; for, independently of the "Bulls of Adrian IV, and Alexander III, King "Henry II sent an Embassy in 1085 to Pope “Urban III, and obtained of him, that one of "his Sons should be crowned King of Ireland, " and in token of this grant, Pope Urban sent "him a Crown, intwined with Peacock's feathers. (Alithinol. p. 26)—King John also laid the "Crown of Ireland as well as of England at "the feet of the Pope's Legate Pandulf, and "received it from him again, on condition of "Peter pence, and of an annual tribute of 300 "Marks, as noticed by Spondanus, in his con "tinuation of the Annals of Baronius, ann. "1213, n. 7; and he confirmed this submission "the year following, when it was ratified by by the Golden Bull, by which the Sovereignty of Ireland, as well as of England, was "confirmed to the Holy See, as noticed by 'Spondanus ib. n. 18. Ireland was, on this "occasion, confirmed to K. John, to be held "by him and his successors as a Fiefe of the "Church of Rome.-Besides, Paul IV subjected "Ireland to Philip and Mary, by his Bull of the "7th of July 1555, as noticed by Spondan ib. "ann. 1555, n. 10. 3. This is the reply of one of the most learned, one of the most moderate, and one of the most popular of all our writers; from which it is evident, that to render the Sovereignty of England palatable to the Irish, he was compelled to found his principal argument in favour of that Sovereignty, on the vulgar prejudices of the Mass of the Irish people, by acknowledging the Supreme Sovereignty of the Pope, and arguing that the King of England's title was good, in, as much as it was subordinate, and founded on the acknowledged Sovereignty of Rome! Thus has our National hatred to England driven our writers into an odious system of Ultramontanism, unworthy of a generous, warlike, and independent nation! 4. Nor could Lynch, with any degree of prudence, dare to strike too unreservedly at the Pope's Temporal dominion, at a time when the Laws of our Country afforded him no security against the malice of his own brethren. He had seen his friends Walch and Preston hunted by excommunications from post to pillar, and from pillar to post, for no other crime. He had read the Catholic Primate Peter Lombard's History of Ireland, which that Primate presented in Manuscript at Rome to no less a Personage than Pope Clement VIII, and in which he expressly declares," that the Kingdom of Ireland is the "ancient property of the Holy See; that the Irish "feel themselves engaged in allegiance to the "Empire of that See, both in Temporal and Spiri"tual government; and that the Pope's Sove "reign dominion over the Irish nation is de"rived from God!"*. 5. This learned Primate was domestic Prelate and assistant to the Pope, as stated in the Athenæ Oxonienses v. 1, p. 481, and he died in high estimation at Rome 1626. That his work had the honour of being approved of by the Pope, is clear from the Dedication, the Imprimatur, the Summa Privilegii, and the commendations prefixed to it. Now, not content with asserting the Pope's Temporal dominion over Ireland, he further declares, from Polydore Virgil, that the Mass of the Irish People always refused to acknowledge any temporal Sovereignty but that of the holy See; and he glories in this Sover "Hiberniæ Regnum quod Sedis Apostolicæ antiquum feudum reputatur; juxta Isaiam, &c. "Præ cunctis Potestatibus et dignitatibus, Hiberni sunt de"voti et addicti penitus Imperio Sedis Apostolicæ; se ac sua "omnia, non in spiritalibus tantum, sed etiam in temporalibus "subjectos illi agnoscentes." Petri Lombardi De Regno Hiberniæ, Lovanii 1632. again at pag. 114 and seq. Dedication to Clem. VIII; and "cepto dominio a tuæ sanctitatis Prædecessoribus, interea re"bus præsunt." Ib. eignty; and makes a great merit of the re-. proachful language which the Hereticks of England use towards the Irish, for their obstinate adherence to the Temporal Dominion of Rome.* 6. The prevalence of these Ultramontain notions, so hostile to the security of our state, and the countenance they experienced from the Roman Court down to our own times, is manifest from Antonius Brodinus's Descriptio Hiberniæ, published at Rome in 1721, in which the same doctrine is strenuously maintained, in the second chapter, intitled "De translatione Dominii * "Adeo ut Polidorus narret, quod Henrico 2 Regi Angliæ, "Imperium hujus Insulæ sibi ac suis posteris Regibus perpetu"andum petenti, constanter negarint id posse fieri, nisi auctori"tate Romani Pontificis, quod jam inde ab initio, post Christia nam Religionem receptam, sese ac omnia sua in ejus ditionem "dedissent: atque constanter affirmarint, se non alium habere "Dominum præter ipsum Pontificem, id quod, inquit, etiam 66 nunc jactitant. Et hoc quoque tempore ab Hæreticis Anglis sæpe illis improperatur, tam verbis, quam scriptis "etiam libris, quod Imperium Anglicanum excutere continentes, velint esse sub dominio Romani Pontificis!" Ib. p. 114, et 242. 66 |