solar spectrum at the surface of the atmosphere.1 But supposing these conclusions to be correct, and that we know not only the reversed order of growing intensity from red to violet, from the extremest end of the enormously lengthened invisible spectrum beyond the red, to its rapid bound of intense light and heat in the violet rays, and its rapid 1 It is well known that the spreading out of the white light into a spectrum band of rainbow colors by the prism is caused by the different velocities with which the mixed waves of light move, and that of course depends upon their different wave-lengths. The shortest and swiftest waves which affect the eye, and so become visible, are the violet; the longest and slowest waves are seen as red. Slower waves than these red are not seen, quicker waves than the violet at the other end are likewise invisible, but not "to feeling as to sight." If we draw a horizontal line, and mark on it the velocities of the different waves, and then draw perpendiculars to this line at the different points, we may represent the proportional intensities of heat at these several points by the proportional length of these lines; and if we join the upper extremities of these lines we shall draw a curve, the distance of each point of which from the horizontal line will represent the intensity of heat at the point beneath. This our three curves represent, omitting the vertical lines whose lengths are measured by the curves themselves. The under one gives us the observed comparative intensities of heat in the spectrum at the base of Mount Whitney, the middle one those at the summit of the Mount, while the upper one gives us the calculated spectrum at the top of the atmosphere. The numbers represent the length of the waves, taking as unity the two and a half millioneth part of an inch. From 40 (violet) to 80 (red) is the visible spectrum, from 30 to 40 is the invisible spectrum at the violet end, and from 80 to 280 the invisible spectrum beyond the red. decrease and extinction in the invisible blue; allowing all this, how do we thence derive an answer to the question, what is the color of the sun? A very little consideration will show. The white light which comes to us here below from the sun, and is scattered by the prism into the rainbow colors of the solar spectrum, can be easily collected together again and combined into the white solar light which their union originally constituted. In a similar manner the colors in the spectrum thus calculated for the outer surface of the atmosphere, their relative intensities being known, can be combined into one which will be the color of the sun, and which, were this veil of atmosphere removed, we should see, could our eyes endure the brightness of that appearing, as, broadly speaking, blue. But this result of Mr. Langley's investigations though perhaps the most curious, is of course not the most important. We find the absorbing power of the atmosphere to be far greater than was hitherto supposed, seeing how intense is the heat which it intercepts and retains; so great indeed, is what Mr. Langley quaintly calls its blanketing action, that, as he has found by experiments, if the earth were allowed to radiate freely into space without any protecting veil, its sun-lit surface would probably fall, even in tropics below the temperature of freezing mercury; while on the other hand the heat poured down by the sun upon the unprotected earth would be capable of melting a shell of ice sixty yards thick annually over the whole earth. A variation of temperature which would necessitate, to say the least, a considerable change in the constitution of man. Many other results obviously follow from these curious. and valuable investigations which we leave the thoughtful reader to work out for himself. Anyhow it is something if such revelations as these teach us to look with gratitude upon this air-sea in which we live, and to be thankful for its protection, both against the fierce sun-rays which would otherwise scorch the earth into an arid desert and us into ashes, as also against that terrible radiation of heat away from us, which would clothe the world in one vast glacier. and freeze within us warmth and life. Summer heat and winter cold are tempered to our wants and capacities by this wonderful atmosphere in which we live, and without which we should die. HENRY BEDFORD. IT ADRIAN IV. AND HENRY PLANTAGENET. "I can judge but poorly of anything, whilst I measure it by no other standard than itself." T is still a debated question whether Adrian IV. was in any way concerned with the Norman incursion into Ireland in the twelfth century. The present contribution to the controversy is an attempt to approach the subject. in a somewhat different manner from that usually adopted. No one pretends that the positive evidence for the authenticity of the "Bull of Adrian IV." is conclusive. The popular credence which it has obtained is mainly owing to an impression that the Church in Ireland in the twelfth century was corrupt and disorganized; and that an English Pope was likely to favour the designs of a Norman king. These prepossessions have long held their ground owing to the fact that the vast majority of modern writers on this question have drawn their information from writers of the period who have been either foreign or hostile. By this I do not mean that these middle-age writers, and their modern commentators, have all been intentionally antagonistic. Some were far removed from every suspicion, save that which attaches to our common fallible humanity; and like many good men now-a-days, they would have been just to Ireland if they only knew how. The following is a brief inquiry into the characters of those concerned in the supposed transaction, followed by an attempt to find out what were the opinions of Irishmen in the twelfth century regarding a matter about which it is impossible to suppose that they could be indifferent. Many are the perplexing and apparently hopeless controversies which long since would have been brought to a satisfactory termination if, as Edmund Burke advises, we tried to look at the inside of things by the help of light borrowed from without. Indeed, certain questions are so obscured by time, or distorted by sectarian or political fanaticism, that it is not too much to say, that without collateral illustration they cannot be measured at all. All these elements of obscurity are found in the controversy which rages round the document by which Pope Adrian IV. is supposed to have made over Ireland to Henry Plantagenet. The historical period into which it. leads us was one in which great political contests aroused the fiercest passions, and coloured the records of the age, and it is the strange fate of Ireland that the struggles which began in the twelfth century are still drawn out. This is principally owing to the fact, that with the advent of Protestantism a new race of rulers stepped into the shoes of the old. Throughout the long struggle which has supervened, we must confess that the balance of prudence and sagacity has been on the side of the stranger. No seemingly weak point in the Catholic fortress has escaped observation. Amongst others, the supposed donation of Pope Adrian, which in Catholic times was well nigh unnoticed and disregarded, has now become one of the favourite themes of the orators and historians of Bible Societies, Orange Lodges, and all such kindred associations, whether open or secret, whose aim is to foster division, and foment disloyalty in the Church. There is another characteristic of this period which deserves consideration. It was a time when the lawless ambition of kings found itself face to face with a spiritual power against which force was vain. Hence, there never was a period when fraud was more active and wide-spread in the dealings of sovereigns with the Holy See, or more likely to be successful, owing to the disturbed state of Italy, and the consequent difficulties of communication: it was an age of forgeries, and, therefore, the Papal documents of that period must be scrutinized with care as great as that which St. Jerome or St. Leo expended on fabricated Gosples and Epistles. In the present instance a great part of this work has been already done by Archbishop Moran, and by a learned writer in the Analecta juris Pontificii, but it has occured to the present writer that some further light may be thrown upon this most interesting subject, by expanding arguments drawn from the history of the period, and examining the characters of the chief actors in this mysterious drama. The story of the transaction is briefly as follows:In the year 1155, immediately on his accession to the Pontificate, Adrian IV. is supposed to have written a private letter to the young king of England, then in his 1 IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD, Nov., 1872. Analecta, May, 1882. The writer in the Analecta has rather weakened his argument by laying too much stress on one favourite theory, thus exposing his flank which has been assailed more furiously than successfully by the Rev. Sylvester Malone. (See Dublin Review, April, 1884.) twenty-second year. In this letter, which will be given later on, there is not one word which suggests the idea of temporal domination, as the word dominus, which occurs once in the text, is common to ecclesiastical and secular documents. The letter is entirely devoted to ecclesiastical business, which is one of the most cogent arguments against its authenticity. Although in the course of this discussion we shall have to consider the comparative state of religion in England and Ireland in the year 1155, we may here draw attention to the following fact: "Pope Eugenius III. sent John Paparo, a Priest and Cardinal, with the title of 'St. Laurence in Damasus,' to Ireland in 1152, as Legate, with four palliums for the four Archbishops of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Tuam. The Legate assembled a Council at which he presided with Christian O'Conarchy, Bishop of Lismore, and Apostolic Legate after the death of St. Malachy" Now Adrian IV. had been the disciple and one of the favourite ministers of Eugenius III.; he could not be ignorant of, and was not likely to be indifferent to the honours paid by his predecessor to the Irish hierarchy. Three years later, however, we are told that he sent a commission to a young layman, the king of a nation, which was itself apparently on the verge of schism, by which the said king was authorised to reform the Irish Church. Moreover the spiritual powers with which this king was invested were practically unlimited and probably more absolute than had ever been entrusted to any Papal Legate; for all preexisting ecclesiastical authority was so completely ignored that no notice of the mission of the lay plenipotentiary was given to the Papal Legate and Bishops of Ireland. In the "Bull" the Pope. is supposed to congratulate the king on his wish to extend the boundaries of the Church; to announce the truths of the Christian Faith," and finally "Be zealous in moulding that nation according to the principles of good morality, and take measures as well on your own part as well as by those whom you may employ, and who by their faith, doctrine, and life shall recommend themselves to your judgment, so that the Church in those parts may be adorned and the religion of the Christian Faith planted and developed." Here, then, I repeat we find the Vicar of Christ ignoring not only the presence of his own Legate, but the very 1 M'Geoghegan Hist. of Ireland, p. 235. |