[288] _Peacocks_.--To serve a peacock with its feathers was one of the grandest exploits of mediæval cookery. It was sown up in its skin after it had been roasted, when it was allowed to cool a little. The bird then appeared at the last course as if alive. Cream of almonds was also a favourite dainty. Indeed, almonds were used in the composition of many dishes; to use as many and as various ingredients as possible seeming to be the acme of gastronomy. St. Bernard had already loudly condemned the _bon vivants_ of the age. His indignation appears to have been especially excited by the various methods in which eggs were cooked. But even seculars condemned the excesses of Norman luxuries, and declared that the knights were loaded with wine instead of steel, and spits instead of lances. [289] _Henri-curt-mantel_.--A soubriquet derived from the short mantle he constantly wore. [290] _Good_.--Even the infidel Voltaire admitted that the Popes restrained princes, and protected the people. The Bull _In Coena Domini_ contained an excommunication against those who should levy new taxes upon their estates, or should increase those already existing beyond the bounds of right. For further information on this subject, see Balmez, _European Civilization, passim._ M. Guizot says: "She [the Church] alone resisted the system of castes; she alone maintained the principle of equality of competition; she alone called all legitimate superiors to the possession of power."--_Hist. Gen. de la Civilization en Europe_, Lect. 5. [291] _Grounds_.--De Maistre and Fénélon both agree in grounding this power on constitutional right; but the former also admitted a divine right.--De Maistre, _Du Pape_, lib. ii. p. 387. [292] _Grant_.--See M. Gosselin's _Power of the Popes during the Middle Ages_, for further information on this subject. [293] _Writer_.--_Ireland, Historical and Statistical_. [294] _Bull_.--There can be no reasonable doubt of the authenticity of this document. Baronius published it from the _Codex Vaticanus_; John XXII. has annexed it to his brief addresed to Edward II.; and John of Salisbury states distinctly, in his _Metalogicus_, that he obtained this Bull from Adrian. He grounds the right of donation on the supposed gift of the island by Constantine. As the question is one of interest and importance, we subjoin the original: "Ad preces meas illustri Regi Anglorum Henrico II. concessit (Adrianus) et dedit Hiberniam jure hæreditario possidendam, sicut literae ipsius testantur in hodiernum diem. Nam omnes insulæ de jure antiquo ex donatione Constantini, qui eam fundavit et dotavit, dicuntur ad Romanam Ecclesiam pertinere."--_Metalogicus_, i. 4. [295] _Friends.--Hib. Expug_. lib. ii. c. 38. [296] _Hugh de Lacy_.--In a charter executed at Waterford, Henry had styled this nobleman "Bailli," a Norman term for a representative of royalty. The territory bestowed on him covered 800,000 acres. This was something like wholesale plunder.