Confessor. We know too that the English used to sell slaves to Ireland from the market at Bristol. But on the whole there was not much intercourse between the two islands. 13. Now, however, the English and their king began to take a real interest in the affairs of Ireland, and to covet the "emerald isle" for themselves. We have the history of all this written (in Latin) by a very clever man, an archdeacon named Gerald, or Giraldus, who was chosen by Henry II. as tutor to one of his sons, and who was a near relation to some of the knights who fought in Ireland. He also went there himself, and has told us what he saw, and a great deal more that he heard. What he says that he himself knew we may readily believe, but the things which were told him, and which he as readily believed, are truly astonishing and ludicrous. It shows us what the credulity of those times was, when a well-educated man, very proud too of his wisdom and good sense, will, in all good faith, record such tales. For example, he was quite prepared to believe that men and women were sometimes changed into wild beasts. He tells a long story of some benighted travellers who were greatly alarmed by a wolf coming up and speaking to them. The wolf, seeing they were frightened, "added some orthodox words, referring to God." The said wolf, after a great many other strange things, " gave them his company during the whole night at the fire, behaving more like a man than a beast," and telling them that he had been punished for his sins by being turned from a man into a wolf, by a "saint" in the neighbourhood. This last rather confirms what the archdeacon tells us very calmly in another place, that "the saints of this country appear to be of a vindictive temper" even in the life that is after death, and he gives us his way of accounting for it; namely, that there was no other means of keeping the thieves and other impious persons in any sort of order. 14. But though he was thus ready to accept whatever marvels were told him by others, the facts which he relates of his own knowledge seem perfectly accurate, and show him to have been a good observer and reasoner. We will now turn to some of these facts. 15. The Irish people were at this time in a very savage condition. It will be remembered that they were of the Celtic family, nearly allied to the Welsh (or ancient Britons) and the Scotch Highlanders. Though people. they had learnt the Christian religion so many hundred years ago, their Christianity had now fallen so low The Irish that it did not seem to do them much good. They had made hardly any progress in civilization. In some of the more remote parts they had not yet learned Christianity, nor did they even know how to till the ground, to plough, to sow, or to make bread. Like the old Britons, what little clothing they had was made of skins. They lived on flesh, fish, and milk, and had never seen either bread or cheese. Some of these men fell in with a few sailors from England, and when they left them, carried back a loaf and a cheese, that they might astonish their countrymen by the sight of the provisions the strangers ate. They had never been baptized, nor heard of the name of Christ. 16. Even in the more civilized parts they did but little in the way of tillage, though the ground was very fertile; nor would they take much trouble in planting fruit-trees. Work of any sort, indeed, was highly disagreeable to them. This is what Archdeacon Gerald says of their character: "Whatever natural gifts they possess are excellent, but in whatever requires industry they are worthless." The one thing about which they would take pains was music, and in that he says "they were incomparably more skilful than any other nation I have ever seen.’ They played on two instruments, the harp and the tabor, which is a sort of little drum. 17. Though this taste and love for music one might have thought would have tamed and softened their nature, they seem to have been frightfully cruel and ferocious. In the war with the English, which Gerald describes, one of the Irish kings, the very one on whose side the English were fighting, had a heap of his enemies' heads laid before him, 200 in number; and he "turned them over one by one in order to recognize them, thrice lifted his hands to heaven in the excess of his joy, and with a loud voice returned thanks to God most high. Amongst them was the head of one he mortally hated above all the rest, and taking it up by the ears and hair, he tore it with his teeth.” 18. Ireland was at this time divided into five kingdoms, the kings of which were always quarrelling and fighting. At last one of them, Dermot, the King of Leinster, was driven out of his dominions altogether, and thereupon bethought him of getting help from the powerful King of England. He accordingly crossed over to Bristol, but finding that Henry was now in the south of France, he travelled after him there, and, obtaining an audience, he promised that if Henry would take his part and set him back in his kingdom he would own him for his lord, and become his vassal. 19. Henry had no time just then to attend to this business himself, but he gave the Irishman leave to seek help among his subjects, and gave any of his subjects who chose to help him full permission to do so. Dermot accordingly came back to England, and by and bye found helpers, the principal of 1169. whom was the Earl of Pembroke, generally called Earl Richard Strongbow. He and some other English Strongbow. and Welsh noblemen and gentlemen, the cousins of our friend the archdeacon among them, went over to Ireland with their men. Though they were all of Norman descent, on the father's side at least, that name was quite dropped now, and Gerald always calls them the English. He himself is generally called Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald the Welshman. 20. After some hard fighting and much cruelty they conquered their opponents. One instance will show how hardhearted many of the English or Anglo-Normans still were. After taking the town of Waterford, they had in their hands seventy prisoners, the principal men of the town. There was a discussion among the leaders what should be done with these men. One of them, named Raymond, wished to be merciful to them, and allow them to be ransomed; but another, making a fierce speech demanding their death, his comrades approved of it, and the wretched prisoners had their bones broken, and were then thrown into the sea and drowned. What should we say if an English general treated his prisoners in such a way now? 21. After these fights and successes, Richard Strongbow married Dermot's daughter Eva, and when, not long after, Dermot died, Strongbow, in right of his wife, became King of Leinster. But this was rather too much for Henry II., who wished to be king himself, and accordingly Strongbow thought it prudent to give up the kingship to his master; Henry allowing him, in return, to keep very large possessions for himself. 22. Whilst all this was going on, and the English gaining more and more of the mastery, the clergy of Ireland held an assembly, in which they all agreed that their troubles were a punishment sent on the Irish by God for their sins, and, above all, for the wicked trade in slaves which they had so long carried on with the English, and it was therefore decreed that all the English slaves in the country should be set at liberty. This, I believe, is the very last time that we hear of the slave-trade in England. 23. Henry at last found time to come over to Ireland himself, and nearly all the kings and chiefs of the country, especially 1171. Roderic of Connaught, who was the head of all, submitted to him as their over-lord, and did him Submission homage. This was about Christmas time, and many of the Irish princes. of the Irish princes came to Dublin to visit the king, "and were much astonished at the sumptuousness of his entertainments, and the splendour of his household." It is said that a very large hall was built on purpose for the king to hold his court. It reminds us of the ancient Britons (relations of the Irish) to hear that this hall was built, "after the fashion of the country," of white wicker-work, peeled osiers, for we all remember the "palaces" of the Britons, and their first little Christian church at Glastonbury. Wicker-work dwellings seem to have been a specialty of the Celtic races; we shall hear of them again among other branches of that family. The English settlers. 24. King Henry received and feasted the Irish chieftains, and Gerald says that at these feasts they learnt to eat cranes, " which before they loathed." He stayed in Ireland a few months, and, as he had done in England, restored peace and order. With the help of the clergy he also made many laws for improving the habits of the people. But after he went away things soon became as bad as ever, and the English noblemen who remained behind grew almost as savage and wild as the natives. They established themselves chiefly along the eastern and southern coast, and the part where they lived was afterwards called "The Pale;" they and the native Irish hated each other bitterly for a time, though afterwards the English allied themselves to their wild neighbours, and became, as was said, "more Irish than the Irish." We cannot see that any lasting good came of the conquest of Ireland, such as it was, except that Henry added another lordship to his titles. LECTURE XIX.-CHURCH AND STATE. Disputes between Church and State. Investitures. Ecclesiastical courts. Excommunication. Henry does penance. 1. WE must now turn our attention to the great disputes which had been going on so long between the king and the Church. As was noticed above, we never found Disputes. anything of this sort before the Norman Conquest. In those old times the king, the earls, and the thanes agreed perfectly well with the archbishops and bishops. No one had ever thought of any distinction between Church and State. Very little was heard of the Pope, except when an archbishop had to go to Rome for his pall, as a sort of token that he was the head or principal bishop, and that the Church of England owned his supremacy. 2. But things were much changed now, and we have very often to hear of great disputes and fierce quarrels between the king and the Church. We must not imagine that this was because there was any difference in their religious opinions. In the Protestant Reformation, several centuries later, there were such differences; and Protestant countries like ours now refuse to accept many things which the Roman Church teaches: we do not pray to the Virgin Mary and the saints, we have a different belief about the sacrament, and many other things. At the time we are speaking of this was not so. The king, the lords, and all the people believed just the same as the Pope and the clergy, and the disputes were not about doctrines and creeds, but were all about power and mastery. 3. The principal matters of dispute were two. The first really came to the question whether the bishops and archbishops were subjects of the king or of the Pope. This had The king and begun to be a matter of contention even between Henry I. and Anselm, but as they were both moderate and reasonable, they did not come to an open quarrel. The the bishops. |