Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1873-02-13

nats the Ball Of Adrian Nv. .'from Vat.
ican Manuscript" This is the sisth sr.
gument advanced by Mr. O'Callsghan.
II 10 not my insea,ios to question in aay
way the services rendered BY Cardinal
Bsronius to the cause of our Church His
tory; but at the same time no one will
deny that considerable progress bas been
made in historical research during the past
three hundred and ffty years. and many
documents are now set aside which we're
then accepted a. unques.ioned on the sup
posed reliable aushcrity Of preceding
chroniclers.
In the present instance We are not left
in doubt as to the source whence Baronius
derived his Information regarding Adrian q
supposd Bull. During my stay in Rome
Itook occasion to inquire whether the MSS.
Of the eminen, annali.t, which are happily
preserved. indicated the special ..Vati-
can Manuscript" referred to in his printed
text. and l was informed by the learned
archivist Of the Vatican, Monsignor Thei.
nor. who is at present engaged in giving
new edition. aud continuing the great
work of Baronius. that the Codez Eatica-
nus referred to is a Ms. copy of the His
tory Of Matthew Paris. which is preserved
in the Vatican Library. Thus it is the
testimony of N THEW Paris alone that
here confronts usiu the pages Of Baronius,
and no new argument can be taken from
the words OF the eminent annalist. Re-
lying on the same high authority, am
happy to state that nowtete in the private
archives or among the private papers of
the Vatican. or in the Regesta. which Jaf-
fc's researches have made so famous, or
in various indices Of the Pontiical Letters,
can single trace be found of the supposed
Bulls of Adrian ". aud Alexander III.
The last arg ument advanced by O'Cal-
laghan will not detain US long The in
scr,ion or omission Of such ancient records
in the Bullarium is matter that depends
wholly on the critical skill of the editor.
Curious enough. in one edition Of the Bull
larium. as may be seen in the references
of DR.. Lanigan. Adrian's Bull is inserted,
whilst 20 mention is made of that OF Al
exander: in one edition, however, the
Bull of Alexander is given in full,
whilst the Bull Of Adrian is omitted -
We may well leave our opponents to set.
tie this matter with the conflicting editors
of the Bullarium They. probably like
Barouius. merely copied the Bull of
Adrian from Matthew Paris. and erred in
doing 80. Liable. in bis magnificent edi-
,ia,. ef sLe cnansils. .iso pupiisnes Adrian .
Ball, hut then be expressly tells US that
it is copied from the work Of Matthew Pa
ris.
We have thus. as far as the limits Of
this article viii allow. examined in detail
the various arguments which support the
gcnuiness o: the supposed Bull. and now
it only remains for US to conclude thot
there are no sufficient grounds for accep-
ting that document as the genuine work
Of Pope Adrian.
Indeed the Irish nation at all times, as
it instinctiveiy. shrupk from accepting it
as genuine, and unhcsi,atingly pronounced
it un Anglo Norman forgery. We have
already seen how even Gira!dus Cambren.
sis refers to the doubts which had ariser
the Bull Of Pope Alexand> !.
but we have at hand still more concss'ye
evidence that Adrian's Bull was w yfefsai-
ly rejected by our people. Thes Is; nap
PLY. preserved in tho BarbeTai arcoi'es'
in Rome, a MS. of the 'urteentn Gen.
tury containing a .erie, Of official papers
with the Pontihcate OF John
VIII and anon. st them is n letter from
The Lord .Jud;.nry and the Royal Coun-
ri, Of Irei~,d, forwarded 20 Rome under
the Re, nj Seal. and presented to His Ho-
I;pess by William of Nottingham. Canon
md Precentor15 Of ST. Patrick's Cathc-
lral, Dublin, about the year 1925. In
his important but hitherto unnotiecd doc
imeu., the Irish are accused of very many
crimes, among which is iusidiously intro
luced the rejection Of the supposed Bulls
!. Moreover, they assert that the King Of
under false pretense and By false
Bulls o5taimedthe dominion of Ireland, aad
his opinion is COMMONLY held By them., =
.Asserentes e,iam Dominum Regem An
glae ex falsa suggestions ct ex falsis Bull
lis terrain Hiberniae in dimiuium iripe-
trasse &C cothmuniter hoe tenentes. The
national tradition vas preserved unbrcken
the turmoil of the fifteenth
at;d STA tex nth veatu-;ss, sud che tSsi-
val of our historical literature in the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century. and
was registered in the pages of Lynch.
Stephen White. snd o.het writer's.
i, will be well also. whilst forming our
judg then, regarding this supposed Bull Of
Adtian. to hold in mind the disturbed
state Of society. especially in Italy, q, the
tiA,e to which il refers. At the present
day il would be no easy matter indeed for
such .rrgery TO survive more than few
weeks Bu. at the close Of the twelfth cen-
taty i. was far otherwise Owing to the
constant revolutions end disturbances that
thea prevailed. the Pouuff vas ofteniimes
obliged to 6y from city to city; frequent
b his papcts we're seized aud burned. and
he himself detained as a hos.sge or pris-
oner by his enemies. Hence IL 10 that
Several forged bulls, examples Of which
are given in she Cam5rsnsis Erersss, dat.
ed from these times More than one oI
the grants made to the Norman familie.
are now believed 10 resi- on sseh fofgeries
aud that the Anglo Norman adventnrer,
in Ireland we're not strangers TO suei
deeds Of darkness. appears from the fac
,ha, a mssrix for tcrging the Pafal Sea
Of saeh Bu 10. nos preserved in the r.
Academy. vas found fe< years AZ, !
she ruins of one OF the earliest Arglo- Nor
uan meuas,esies founded BY De Coa,ey
i The Circumstances Of the pahiication Z
the Ball BY Henry was surely not eaaes
lated 70 disarn suspicion. Our oppoaeai