The Irish standard., 1899-07-22


genrother that the bull was procured
under false pretenses. This supposition
one can hardly consider admissible.
We have been looking over some letters
OF St. Anslem and have come across
statements of the highest interest. Writ
ing from Canterbury to Muriardachus,
king Of Ireland, the Archbishop says:
II beg you will with the utmost speed
and care amend those things in your
realm which you may perceive require
amendment according to the religion OF
Christ. 1t is said that one
thing is done among your people which
very greatly needs alteration, for it is
entirely contrary to the Christian re-
ligion. For it is said that men exchange
their wives for the wives of others as
they might exchange one horse for an
other or any other thing for something
else; or they abandon them from mere
fancy, without cause or rule. How
wrong this is anyone understands who
knows the Christian law If, therefore,
your excellence is unable to read for
yourself the sayings of Holy Scripture
which forbid this infamous exchange,
desire the bishops and clerks regular
who are in your kingdom to read them
to you, so that having learned them, you
may perceive with what anxious care
you should investigate and take meas
ures for the correction Of this evil. 1t
is also said that in your realm bishops
are elected at random and are ordained
by single bishop as any priest might
be. Now this is quite contrary to the
Apostolic Canons." "These and other
things which the greatness of your wis
dom shall perceive to need correction
in Ireland l beg, adjurc and advise you
to correct in your kingdom, as one
whom l greatly love-" To these re-
Dukes OF St. Anslem to the Irish mon
arch we might add the testimony of St.
Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, about
the state of religion in his own See, tes-
timony which is to be found in the
above mentioned Annals OF the Order
of St. Benedict. There is unquestion-
able ground for the allegation that in
many parts of Ireland the faith was we'll
nigh exterminated and that murder, de-
bauchery and complete lawlessncss
rcigncd.
There are authors, like Gosse1in, who
hold that Adrian made no prctensons
at all to dispose with absolute control OF
ireland and OF all the islands enlightened
by the light OF the Gospel and that the
only right he attributed to himself over
the country was the right OF spiritual
jurisdiction and the rights thereunto
pertaining. The patrons OF this view
think that the king simply went beyond
the intentions OF the Pope. So that the
sorrows of Ireland are to be attributed
to the duplicity Of the English king
rather than to the complaisant course OF
the English Pope. For ourselves, how
ever, we prefer to adopt the views OF
Gossein's Irish editor and to hold that
the Pope, acting on a principle then be-
lieved to be authentic, did assign tenn
poral power over Ireland to Henry II.
| Adrian did not forescc the abuses dcs-
tined to come from English domination
and therefore cannot be held responsible
| for them.
Admitting, as we do that the Pontiff
acted on principle which is now gen.
orally admitted to be mistaken one,
we need not fear to compromise the doc
trine OF Papal Infallibility The objcc-
ton based on the case is utterly futile.
Our belief in the dogma OF the incrarncy
of the doctrinal definitions OF the Pope
by no means obligcs us to consider
every Papal publication as rule OF faith
and morals The bull in question was
an assertion OF the rights OF the Pope
according to the international law OF
those days; but his right to dispose at
will OF foreign lands, whether Christian
or Inidel, has never been defined as all
article of the Catholic faith.
Very Rev. Thomas N Burke, o. P.,
i'll reply to the English historian Froudc,
says the bull OF Pope Adrian was
spurious, and nothing but humping
English lie" In his lecture on en-
glish Misrule in Ireland" delivered in
the Academy OF Music, New York, Nov.
IL, 1872, FIR. Burke said: els it likely
that the Pope, who knew Henry so we'll,
and suffered SO much from him, sent
him to Ircland;- murderer OF bsll-
ops, the robbcr OF churches, and the de-
stroyer OF ecclesiastical and every other
form OF liberty that came before him?
No, no! Never will l believe that the
Pope OF Rome was SO short-sighted, so
blind, SO unjust, as, by stroke OF his
pen, to abolish and destroy the liberties
of the most faithful people that ever
bowed down in allegiance to him. But
let us suppose even that Pope Adrian
gave the bull. 1t was obtained by falsely
representing to the Pope that the Irish
were in a state OF ignorance and i'm
morality, which did not exist. Sec
ondly, this rcscript from the Pope, if
it was obtained, was obtained under
lie, and was null and void, being OBJ
tanned under false pretenses. But, more