The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-04-28
To the Editor of The Tribune:


for the purpose of calculating socia
and political conditions in the Iuelan'
of today. My object was to enlightel
those who have no time for the pro
found study of the subject. Since thel
! see an appeal from Atlanta to Tbs
Tribune asking for light and informa
tion on Ireland's grievances, and
have read with considerable interes
the contribution of NJ. J. r. on thin
subject in The Tribune of April l.
fully appreciate the tone and temper
of VI. J. r., but must be pardoned fol
thinking that his letter only serves Il
Obscure to mystify and even TO distort
historical facts and social conditions
/ do not for one moment inSinuate thai
such were dlle intentions of the writer;
but such is the result In oTaculal
style he tells US that the Bull of Ad-
rian was no forgery. ana that ! have
slandered John OF Salisbury in accus-
ing $50 good a man. of 80 vile a crime
The genuineneSs of this celebrated
document is Of little moment now, but
I must reiterate my former statement
that John Of Salisbury, and not Pope
Adrian. was the author of the so
called Adrian Bull. The truth is John
Of Salisbury was a liar, a cheat, a sy-
coDhant, a falsifier Of history and a
fOrger, and in contriving the Bull of
Adrian and pawning it off as genuine
upon a credulOus age he was merely
living up to his record. 1t was a clever
forgery and cleverly promulgated. The
world first heard of it as being, pro-
duced in a council of Irish bishops
nearly twenty years after the Pope.
who was said to have given it, had
passed from a busy life TO the silence
Of the tomb. The council of Irish
bishops was the coinage of John of Sal
isbury's brain. 1t never received nor
promulgated the precious document
Had the Bull existed before 117e Henry
would have gladly produced it on eth
er of his visits to Ireland. The Bull
was signed. sealed and delivered at
Rome. according to John Of Salisbury,
but on the very day and date Pope
Adrian was in exile far from Rome.
Again, We're the Bull genuine a copy
would have been religiously preserved
like all similar documents in the rec
ords of the Papacy. No such COPY eX-
lists in the archives of the Vatican, and
there is no evidence that it ever has
existed.
No sane man Who knows the history
of Pope Adrian's time can believe in
the genuineness of the reputed Adrian
Bull Nicholas Brakespeare. a scion
of the hated and fowntrodden Saxon
race had carved his way to the throne
of Supreme Pontiff. His rise from
serfdom. poverty and obscurity is one
of the most dramatic incidents of the
Middle Ages. and in the resplendent
office which he achieved he was the i'm
placable foe of the feudal barons and
kings that then scourged Europe. He
hurled anathemas at the head of every
him back with hate and scorn. Pope
Adrian knew Henry II well. He had
seen a thousand evidences of the un-
bridled passion. lust and hate of Henry
Planta genet before that worthy ac-
quired the throne of England. Adrian
knew that with that same Henry the
Church was fated to a deadly struggle.
He saw him in Normandy apDroDriat-
ing the revenues OF. the Church, and
thrusting his own unworthy minions
and tools into Church dignities. He
disiked and feared the young tyrant,
and as Pope he was preparing for a
fierce struggle with Henry, when he
died John of Salisbury Adrian knew
as he most unScruDulOuS tool of this
tyrant King. and it is preposterous to
imagine that this great democratic
PODe, whose whole career was a. pro-
test and a struggle against the des-
otism OF mediaeval kings. could have
ever given such a document as Henry
II and John Of Salisbury fathered upon
him
POINTS THAT ARE IRRELEVANT. !
Your correspondent also wishes to
know which of the clauses of the
treaty Of Limerick is unfUlfilled. He
might just as unreasonably ask which
parts of the mutilated Venus Of Milo
ire unrestored. Again, he wants to
know whether William of Orange was
IN Engliehmjan, and whether the Jaco-
bites were not really a majority Of the
English people. l cannot see what rel
svance such academic questions have
with the subject under discussion
What matters now whether the blood
If the Stuarts, of the Bourbons or Of
he House Of Orange were 'uppeTmost
n the veins of William. He eXcelled the
Stuarte in falSehood and the BourbOns
n ability. He was the greatest liar and
heat in Europe, but withal an able
nan. He wheedled his English Parlia-
nent for gold to fight the battles of the
Dutch with French. If we can believe
lis confidential communications to the !
Pope, whose ally he was, he strOve to
,urb the Scoundrels to whom he had
given the government of Ireland, hut
le himself was a sharer in the plunder
hey wrung from that unhappy land
Why waste space alluding to the ac-
,ursed race Of Stuart or to the vile
vulgar profigate House Of Hanover
hat England substituted for them? I
hink it is Euipides that make Hecuba
say "Accursed be the whole race of
dngs and princes" I do not go so far,
)ut the fetichism Of loyalty to princes
iOes not commend itself to me.
But after all we are looking for light
IN wider questions, and my object is to
'eproduce an exact picture of the Ire
and of the past that Americans may
dearly understand conditions in the
Ireland of today, and that they may
llsO understand the real inspiration of
he Irish race throughout the world
Life is too short to waste time on quib-
)les, cant and humbug. l believe in
,alling a spade a spade up TO the very
nd Of a spades handle. and the man
yho states in your columns or else
where that IL was an Irish Parliament
md an Irish executive that inflicted
III the evils Ireland suffered during
he seventeenth and eighteenth centur-
es must be a Sophist. q. fool or a hum
rug. He may have read history, but he
s incapable Of sitting fact from fic-
ion, and silence on Irish history were
more becoming to him than speech The
Norman knights and warriors that
vent to ireland in the twelfth, thir-
eenth and fourteenth centuries were
soldiers Of fortune in search of adven-
ure, and having fought with one Ir-
sh chief against the other they usu-
llly ended up by intermaTTiage with !
he faSr daughters of Erin. and settled
town and became Irish in heart and |
sentiment The assimilation of the Nor
mans with the Celte Of Ireland formed |
/ great race. But that race was irish !
n every sense of the word. But when |
Cromwell marched through Ireland /
md parcelled out the lands Of the old 1
'hiefs and leaders among his canting |
ioldiery. he established in Ireland a. |
horde Of pirates who had naught in |
Common with the old race or with the |
Anglo-IriSh families. Forty Years af- /