Besides the brief in question, Adrian gave to John of Salisbury, as the latter relates in the last chapter of his Metalogicus, a gold ring set with a fine emerald, for the king his master, in token of investment with the Lordship of Ireland; which important jewel, whose rare virtues, John of Salisbury adds, were he to describe, would require a volume to enumerate, was also deposited in the royal archives. Not only Henry II. of England, but Louis VII. of France, a year or two later, solicited Adrian's approbation of a scheme of foreign conquest, which, in this case was intended to be carried out in Spain, where the French monarch pretended he wanted to serve the Church, by expelling the Saracens. But the pope treated the application of Louis, very differently to that of Henry. For in his brief of reply [5] after awarding all praise to the religious zeal alleged by the French king as his motive, he points out the flagrant wrong which Louis would commit in gratuitously interfering in the affairs of an independent nation like Spain,--the consent of whose princes could alone justify such a step: so that until such consent should be obtained, he, Adrian, could do nothing else than totally condemn and warn, him against his project. Adrian's conduct in this instance, was not less consistent than in the other. For as over Ireland in its character of an island, he believed himself to possess, through the supposed testament of Constantine, certain rights, and thought proper to exercise them; so over Spain, being ignorant of any such rights, he arrogated none, but acted as became him on the general principles of Christian justice. [1] Baronius, Annus, 1154 [2] Baronius, Annus 1159; rectified by Pagi to 1155. [3] Topograp. Hiber. Distinc. tertia cap. 14. [4] De vita Malachiae Episcopi, cap. viii. [5] Bouquet's Receuil, &c. t. 15. P. 690. VII.