national action and
reduced the power of their chief king to insignificance."

I come now to what has been absurdly called the conquest of Ireland
under Henry II.

That the English king was instigated in his efforts by the Pope is
perfectly clear. The Bull of Pope Adrian, issued in 1155, is still
extant:--

"... There is indeed no doubt but that Ireland, and all the
islands on which Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, hath shone,
and which have received the doctrine of the Christian faith,
do belong to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and the Holy Roman
Church ... therefore we are the more solicitous to propagate
the righteous plantation of faith in this land, and the
branch acceptable to God, as we have the secret conviction of
conscience that this is more especially our bounden duty. You
then, our dear son in Christ, have signified to us your desire
to enter into the island of Ireland, in order to reduce the
people to obedience under the laws, and to extirpate the
plants of vice, and that you are willing to pay from each
house a yearly pension of one penny to St. Peter, and that you
will preserve the rights of the churches whole and inviolate.
We, therefore, do hold it good and acceptable that ... you
enter this island and execute therein whatever shall pertain
to the honour of God and welfare of the land; and that the
people of the land receive you honourably and reverence you as
their lord."

And in 1172 Pope Alexander III ratified the action of his predecessor.

"Forasmuch as these things which have been on good reasons
granted by our predecessors, deserve to be confirmed ...
and considering the grant of the dominion of the land by the
venerable Pope Adrian, we ... do ratify and confirm the same
(reserving to St. Peter and to the Holy Roman Church, as well
in England as in Ireland the yearly pension of one penny from
every house) provided that, the abominations of the land being
removed, the barbarous people, Christians only in name, may
by your means, be reformed, and their lives and conversations
mended, so that their disordered Church being thus reduced
to regular discipline, that nation may, with the name of
Christians, be so in act and deed."

Whether the description here given was literally correct, or whether
the Pope's views were coloured by the fact that the Celtic Church did
no