318 



deed deplorable.* And Adrian's alleged Bull to Henry the Second 

 intimates as much, where he incites the royal missionary to subdue the 

 Irish to the laws, and to extirpate from amongst them the nurseries 

 of vice, ("ad subdendum ilium populum legibus, et vitiorum planta- 

 ria inde extirpanda,") a commission which Matthew Paris characterises 

 as that of another Joshua. -f* But our little history has now reached 

 the Rubicon of political prejudices, and henceforth the field of history 

 is crowded with treacherous insinuations and conflicting assertions, 

 that make truth attainable only by the narrowest and most impartial 

 examination. Saint Bernard was the civil as Henry was the military 

 agent for advancing the jurisdiction and discipline of the Romish 

 Church, and it was obviously the interest of each, and of the histo- 

 rians of their party, to decry the state of Ireland, in such a proportion 

 as might better justify the encroachments they claimed as necessary 

 for the welfare of the faith. :J: At least Laurence and Anselm are 



• " Tunc intellexit homo Dei non ad homines se sed ad bestias destinatum. Nusquam 

 adhuc tales expertus fuerat in quantacunque barbaric; nusquam repererat sic protervos ad mo- 

 res, sic ferales ad ritus, sic ad fidem impios, ad leges barbaros, cervicosos ad disciplinam, 

 spurcosad vitam; Chrisliani nomine, re Pagani, non decimas non primitias dare, non legitima 

 inire conjugia, non facere confessiones ; poenitentias nee qui peteret nee qui daret penitus inve- 

 niri. Ministri altaris pauci admodum erant, sed enim quid quis pluribus, ubi ipsa paucitas 

 inter laicos propemodum otiosa vacaret. Non erat quod de suis fructificarent officiis in populo 

 nequam. Nee enim in ecclesiis aut praidicantis vox aut cantantis audiebatur. Quid faceret 

 athleta Domini." — Vita Malach. c. 6. 



f " Hybemise insulam hostiliter intrare et terrain subjugare, atque homines illas bestiales 

 ad fidem et riam reducere veritatis, extirpatis ibi plantariis vitiorum." 



X Wintown, with a quaint simplicity, furnishes the touchstone by which the Irish character 

 in the time of Henry the Second was appraised : 



„• • « • The pepil of Ireland, 

 . .,,... ,, Unfaithful wes and mystrowand. 



And led them all be Fretis wyle 

 Nowcht be the lauche of the Ewangyle ; 

 Nowther wald thai do na wyrk 

 Be the tecbyng of Haly Kyrk."— B. 7. c. 7. v. 221, &c. 



