326 



A. D. 1 154. 



his accefllon to the crown of England, the merchants of all the Prench 

 ports on the Ocean, except Boulogne and Calais, were fellow-fubjeds 

 with thofe of England; a circumftance, which mufl: certainly have been 

 very favourable to the commercial interefts of both countries. 



But Henrv, far from being fatisfied with the pofTeffion of England 

 and about a third part of France, very foon caft his eyes upon Ireland 

 as a convenient addition to his dominions. He had no pretext of a quar- 

 rel with the Irifli : but he propoled to reform their religion and their 

 morals ; and for fuch a pious undertaking it was thought proper to fo- 

 licit the approbation of the infallible head of the church. His ambaf- 

 fador was inftruded to reprefent to the pope his zeal for enlarging the 

 bounds of the church, inftrudting the ignorant, and extirpating vice, 

 by bringing Ireland under his own dominion : and, as all iflands belong 

 to the holy fee, he defired to be advifed and authorized by the pope ; 

 and he took care to promife an annual payment to St. Peter of one penny 

 out of every houfe in Ireland, and engaged to fupport the rights of the 

 church in that ifland. 



The chair of St. Peter was at this time filled by Adrian IV, the only 

 Englifliman who ever attained that fummit of ecclefiaftical ambition. 

 But the partiality of the pope, if he had any, for the fovereign of his 

 native country, could be but one of his motives for promoting Henry's 

 ambitious views. The king had acknowleged his right to the fovereign- 

 ty of all the iflands of the fea, (is Great Britain not an ifland ?) and 

 he had promifed a large increafe of the papal revenues. Moreover, the 

 Irifh were very undutiful fons of the church : for, though it is well 

 known, that, when the Englifli (or Saxons) were funk in the groffeft: ig- 

 norance, the Irifti poiTefled fo great a fliare of what were efteemed re- 

 ligion and fcience in thofe days, that their coimtry was called the ifland 

 of faints, and many parts of Britain were indebted to them for the firfl: 

 rudiments of religion and literature, they were afterwards far behind 

 the refl: of Europe in conforming to the innovations, and fubmitting to 

 the encroachments of the fee of Rome. They were accufed of marry- 

 ing within the degrees of confanguinity, forbidden by the church of 

 Rome, without purchafing ecclefiafl:ical difpenfations ; their clergymen, 

 and even billiops, were married ; they fcarcely ever admitted palls from 

 Rome ; they neglected the payment of tithes and firft-fruits ; and in 

 fome parts of the country they ate flefli in lent. Thefe were crimes 

 futficient to draw upon them the difpleafure of the pope, who fent 

 the king a bull encouraging him to proceed in the conqueft: and con- 

 verfion of Ireland *, together with a gold ring, by which he appeared 

 to afTume the right of befl;owing the inveftiture of the ifland as a vaflal 



* The pope's bull, or comminion, may be fccn raldi Camlrcns. Hlb. expiignala, which alfo con- 

 in Rjmer's Ftcdera Angl'id, V. I, p. 15, and in l.iins the origin and progvi-fs of the conqutfl of 

 molt of the Engiiih hillorians, particularly in Ci- Ireland. 



