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The oldet of or round towen we 10 e bably earlier than cemury, ant ve nay fuppofe that none were buir afer the twelft would naturally go to digue a in a fer began to build their other rehgow ford r ftone and lime. In the preceding period a counts, which affected no other buidar fit ade matter, whether in cake or boxe, fur ar monaftery, must have been definute sé fone-maño: confequently these round towers wat have been built, either by Danith mechanics, or by mous brought from beyond fea Nor let my COILET. men be fcandalized at this imputation, when ther reflect that Solomon was obliged to apply to Hiram, for Tyrian artificers to build the temple of Je

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In this general ftate of rudenels was Ireland, in the year 1152, when pope Eugenius fent cardinal Papiron his legate a Latere there to confult meafures, as he gave out, for the better propagation of the chriftian faith, but in reality to affert and extend his influence in this kingdom, by conferring

palls

palls on two more archbishops. For this purpofe the legate fummoned a council at Kells, in the county of Meath, at which he prefided.

Keating gives the most full and circumftantial account of this tranfaction, from an old book, as he calls it, of the Clergy of Ciuain Aidnach. But he places it five years later.

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"MCLVII anno ab incarnatione Domini noftri Jefu Chrifti biffextilis nobile Concilium in vernali tempore apud CEANANUS celebratum fuit; in quo præfidens Dominus Johannes Cardinalis, "prefbyter beati Laurentii, inter viginti duos epifcopos & quinque electos, & inter tot abbates & priores ex parte beatorum apoftolorum Petri & "Pauli & domini apoftolici Eugenii, fimoniam & "ufuras omnibus modis extirpavit & damnavit, & "decimas dandas apoftolica authoritate præcepit. "Quatuor pallia quatuor epifcopis Hiberniæ Dub"linienfi, Tuaimenfi, Caifelenfi & Ardmachano

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tradidit. Infuper Ardmachanum epifcopum in prin atem fuper alios, prout decuit, ordinavit." In the fpring of the year 1157, being biffextile, a great council was held in Kells, confifting of twenty-two bishops and five elect, together with an equal number of abbots and priors, belonging to the apoftles Peter and Paul, and pope Eugenius; over whom was prefident, the lord cardinal John, prieft of St. Laurence. This council condemned fimony and ufury, and ordained, that tithes fhould be paid by the authority of the pope.

From

whom the cardinal delivered four palls to the archbishops of Dublin, Tuam, Cafhel and Armagh. Moreover he established the ancient right of the bishop of Armagh to the primacy of all 'Ireland.'

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Whilft the fplendor of this ceremony dazzled eyes of the vulgar, it entailed a spiritual tyranny upon Ireland, which has maintained its ground longer here than in almoft any other country of Europe; and which has confpired, with other caufes, to ex

clude

clude the majority of its people from the full benefits both of religious and political liberty, even to this day. Yet Keating remarks that the making two new archbishops, was, 66 very ungrateful to the "Irish," "for they would have been better fatis"fied with the old form, without the addition of

any more." He obferves too, that it was particularly distasteful to the clergy of Armagh, that even Cafhel, though from the first an archbishopric, fhould obtain the pall.

Whence we may infer, that Malachy had only fought a pall for himself as primate. For originally the pall was given by the popes, in imitation of the emperors, merely as a token of honour and refpect. But now the ambitious policy of the fee of Rome, had converted it into an engine of ftate; which invested a bishop with metropolitical jurifdiction. It was therefore a wife measure to refufe Malachy one, at his own mere motion, and to grant it in this folemn manner; but it was ftill wifer to give four, at the fame time; for by this boon the pope widened the basis of that fovereignty in Ireland, which his court had fo long affected.

And thus, for the first time, was the Pope's authority folemnly recognized in Ireland. Yet this recognition made no very visible alteration in the ftate of the church. It was ftill deftitute of uniformity in its modes of public worship; each diocese, nay fometimes particular churches, had their particular rituals, and the priests were still averfe to renouncing the matrimonial connection.

Vignier gives a curious account of this laft cir-cumftance: "Les Irlandois, ne voulant endurer "leur preftres fans avoir leur femmes aux eux, "furent, cefte annee, declarez rebelles & heretiques, par le pape Adrian; qui aufli donnoit charge au "Roi d'Angleterre de les guerrouer a toute outLC renae; en vertu de quoy, il mena un arme contre eux, que les fubjuga, & contrainift de fe fouf

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"meftre a fa volonte." • The Irish could not en dure it, that their priests should live without wives: in confequence of which they were denounced rebels and heretics, by pope Adrian. Who also gave it in charge to the king of England, to make war upon them; in obedience to which he raised an army, with which he fubjugated them, and constrained them to fubmit to the pope's ' authority.'

According to this Catholic hiftorian, it should feem, as if Henry II.'s only motive for reducing Ireland, was to abolish matrimony, and to become collector of the Pope's peter-pence; which, we have already seen, is more than once recommended in Adrian's bull, fent to him several years before he fet foot in this country when he formally beftowed on him and his heirs, the kingdom of Ireland; together with a gold ring, as the fignificative token of his inveftiture therewith.

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AVING only touched, incidentally, on the invafion from England, it behoveth to inlarge more upon it, now that we are come to the century in which it took place; for this event brought about a revolution, the most important to Ireland, both in church and ftate. But as the motives and conduct of Henry II. and the other great agents in this tranfaction, belong chiefly to civil history, our ftrictures fhall be confined to the circumstances most closely connected with its ecclefiastical affairs.

In the year 1170, fo foon as the Irish received certain intelligence of the invafion of the English, a council, of almost all the principal clergy of the kingdom, was convened at Armagh; to enquire into the causes which now invited thofe foreigners to come over, in that hoftile manner, which they threatened.

After long deliberation upon this momentous question, the council finally fettled in this opinion, that it was for the crying fins of the people that the chastisement of God was thus hanging over them; and that they were to be brought into fervitude, particularly by the English, as a juft retaliation for their having made flaves of fo many of the English nation, whom they had bought from merchantmen, robbers and pirates. Not confidering, what Cambrenfis upon this place admits, that it was

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