BULL OF ADRIAN IV. In 1154, reign of King Henry II., Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspeare), by birth an Englishman, issued a Bull in which he claimed the Sovereignty of Ireland, and bestowed it on Henry II., King of England, on condition that he would pay yearly to St. Peter a penny for each house, "which, for ought that I can learn, writes Ussher, was the first ecclesiastical tribute that ever came into the Pope's coffers from Ireland."-Ussher iv., 365. Attempts have been made to remove the odiums of this Papal act by declaring the Bull a forgery; but the confirmation of it by Pope Alexander III., in 1172, and a recital of it by Pope John, in 1319, place its authority beyond disputation. Adrian's diploma is given from the original by Matthew Paris, Giraldus Cambrensis, Rymers Foedera i., 19. Ussher iv., 546. The second Bull, directed to Henry II., by Alexander III., in 1172, the immediate successor of Adrian, runs thus -"Following the steps of Reverend Pope Adrian, and attend-ing the fruit of your desire, we ratify and confirm his grant concerning the dominion of the Kingdom of Ireland conferred upon you, reserving unto St. Peter and the Holy Church of Rome, as in England so in Ireland, the yearly pension of one penny out of every house." Ussher iv., 366, 549. Furnished and strengthened by these Papal charters the English Monarch proceeded to Ireland in 1172, and for the first time received the allegiance of the Irish people. John Brampton, Abbot of Jerval, in Yorkshire, informs us that King Henry received from every Archbishop and Bishop, at the Synod of Cashel in 1172, charters with their seals pendent, whereby they confirmed the Kingdom of Ireland to him and his heirs. Kings and Lords of Ireland for ever. To which Roger Hoveden adds (Ussher iv., 367) that the King sent a transcript of these charters to Pope Alexander III., who, by his Apostolic authority, confirmed the said kingdom to him and his heirs, according to the letters of the Archbishops and Bishops. "Those Irish," writes O'Connor, "who have ques-tioned its authority, have only betrayed their own anger -their hatred to that donation- their prejudices in supposing the Pope incapable of such injustice, as if he were not a man- and their ignorance of history." "Adrian's Bull," writes Keating, vol. iv. 164," is of so unwarrantable and unjustifiable a nature that some writers could not bring themselves to believe that he issued it, and have endeavoured to prove it a forgery; but their efforts were of no avail, and never did there exist a more real or authoritative document." James Grace, also a Roman Catholic, in his "Annals of Ireland," vol. i. p. 7, says -"Henry II., King of England, by grant from Pope Adrain IV., which was confirmed by Alexander III., subdued Ireland and to this day it is held by his descendants. Thus then, a slight alteration in the lines of Moore would aptly describe the occasion. Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur- "Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere the …… betrayed her." -1163. At the Council of Clane, the College or School of Armagh was virtually raised to the rank of a University, as it was decreed that no one should be admitted a Reader in Divinity or Theological Professor unless he had been educated at Armagh. -11i66. Ardmacha was burned in two streets, from the cross of Columcille to the cross of Bishop Eoghan, and from the cross of Bishop Eoghan in the second street to the cross at the door of the fort, and all the fort, with its churches, except the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, and a few of the houses, with a street to the west of the fort from the cross of Seachnal to the cross of Brigit, except a little. -1167. Ardmach was wasted by an immense conflagration, and, in the year following, Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, was driven from the country for his immorality, and took refuge in England under the protection of Henry II. -1169. Roderick O'Connor, the last of the Irish Kings, a great patron of learning, granted ten cows every year, from himself and from every King that should succeed him, for ever, to the Lector of Ardmach, or superior of the College, in honour of St. Patrick, to instruct the youths of Ireland and Scotland in literature. This was the last grant made by the native sovereigns of Ireland to this celebrated academy. -1172. Giraldus Cambrensis furnishes some interesting particulars of a Synod held at Armagh at this time. It appears from it that there prevailed in England a barbarous custom of selling children as slaves, and that the Irish were the principal purchasers in that abominable market. There are other authorities also to show that this nefarious practice was prevalent in England, the xxviii. canon of the Council of London, held in 1102, having been enacted for its prohibition. The custom of buying English slaves was held by the Irish clergy to be so wicked, that, after deliberating on the subject, the Synod of Armagh pronounced the Invasion of Ireland by Englishmen to be a just judgement upon the country on account of it, and decreed that any of the English who were held as slaves in Ireland should be immediately set free. In this year Henry II. landed near Waterford and received the submission of the Princes of the country, settled the government, and made his son John, Dominus Hiberniae, Lord of Ireland. In the year following a Synod of the Clergy met at Cashel, under the presidency of Christian, Bishop of Lismore, who was the Papal legate, at which sealed charters were executed by the Archbishops and Bishops, in which they took upon them to confer Ireland on Henry II. and his heirs for ever; and Pope Alexander III. ratified these charters. At this Synod it was decreed "that the divine service in the Church of Ireland shall, for the future, be in all things conformable to the Church of England." For several centuries, writes Primate M. G. Beresford, the Church of Ireland had been attached to the primitive faith delivered by St Patrick, but now departed from its first love and submitted to the Roman obedience. For four centuries this connection continued, and the Church of Ireland, in conjunction with the Church of England, remained under the jurisdiction of Rome, until the light of the Refor-mation dawned upon these countries. It was the National Church of a pastoral people, holding the Apostolic doctrine in its creed, and maintaining the Apostolic fellowship in its Bishops, Priests, and Deacons two centuries before Augustine laid the foundation of his Church at Canterbury. The Church, in those remote days, was the special glory of Ireland. It was strictly National and adhered to the primitive system of doctrines taught by St. Patrick. Amongst those who paid homage to Henry at Dublin, was Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. About this time a great plunder was made by Hugh Magennis and the Clann Aedha. They plundered the large third of Ardmagh. This man was killed three months after. In the twelfth century Ireland was divided into five king-doms, viz. :-Leinster, Connaught, and two parts of Munster, besides a number of petty principalities, whose sovereigns continually warred with each other. The Chief of these five Kings, called the Monarch, kept the County of Meath for him-self. Thus we find that in the year 1174, Ireland was portioned out among the English, and it was then decreed that "any Irishman wearing his kilt and not the English apparel and knee breeches, it was lawful to take and kill those and cut off their heads." What a legacy from Adrian ! The song of O'Ruark, (Prince of Breffnie)-" The valley lay smiling before me," was written by Tom Moore on this portion of Irish history. -1175. The Cathedral was once more burnt down, together with a great part of the city. Colgan informs us that in the year 1178, the city and its churches, &c., were burnt, except the sanctuary of St. Bridget and the "Tempul na Ferta." The dimensions of the building erected by St. Patrick in the Fertae, on the authority of the tripartite life of the Saint, said to have been originally written by St. Evin in the 6th century, are as follows "The way in which Patrick made the Fertae was this -seven score feet in the lees or Fort, and seven and twenty feet in the Tigh Mor or Great Church, and seventeen feet in the cuile or kitchen, and seven feet in the Aregal or Oratory," and it was thus that the houses of the Congbail (the churches) were built always. Dean Reeves fixes the site of this eccle-siastical establishment, the first founded by St. Patrick, at Armagh, near the Bank of Ireland, Scotch Street. See Ussher, vi., pp. 418, 570.