The Commune of London, and other studiesRound, John Horace
History
The Commune of London, and other studies
Round, John Horace
Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; London (England) -- History -- To 1500
In another passage she admits, I understand, that it does not appear
to have been published by Henry until 1175 at the earliest.[385]
Now it is true that this date is so generally accepted that Father
Gasquet in assailing, and Father Malone in defending, the authenticity
of the Bull, are both agreed upon this point. The former, indeed,
boldly writes: “It is a matter beyond dispute that no mention whatever
was made by Henry of this ‘grant’ of Ireland by the Pope till at
earliest A.D. 1175.”[386] Father Morris similarly adopts “1175” as
the date when “Henry is said to have exhibited it at a synod held
at Waterford.”[387] Yet, when we turn to the passage referred to by
Miss Norgate, we find that no year is named by Giraldus himself. Mr.
Dimock appended the marginal date “1174 or 1175,” and this was also the
date he adopted in his Introduction. It was doubtless from him that
Professor Tout adopted this date in his life of William Fitz Audelin:
Fitzaldhelm[388] was also sent in 1174 or 1175 ... to produce
the bull of Pope Adrian.... He soon left Ireland, for (_sic_)
he appears as a witness to the treaty of Falaise in October,
1174.[389]
If William was sent to Ireland, as alleged, in 1175, it is obvious
that he cannot have returned thence by October, 1174. It is clear, in
any case, that, on examination, the date accepted “on all hands,” as a
fixed point, is a guess. Let us then see if, from other sources, light
can be thrown on William’s mission. There is an entry on the Pipe Roll
of 1173, which reads thus:
In Passagio Willelmi filii Aldelini et sociorum suorum et
Hernesiorum suorum in Hyberniam xxvii sol. et vi den. per breve
Ricardi de Luci (p. 145).
Professor Tout oddly assigns it to an alleged despatch of William to
Ireland in 1171; for in that case it would duly have been entered on
the Pipe Roll of that year.[390] It must, in the absence of evidence
to the contrary, be held to refer to a mission of William between
Michaelmas, 1172, and Michaelmas, 1173. Is it then possible that this
was the date of the mission of which we are in search, and not 1175,
or even 1174? The answer, we shall find, involves more than a mere
question of chronology.
“Gerald,” Miss Norgate writes, “is certainly no chronologist.”[391] Mr.
Dimock was even more emphatic: “There can be no worse authority than
Giraldus wherever a date is concerned.”[392] In this case, however, as
I have said, Giraldus does not even commit himself to a date: he merely
uses the vague “interea.” We must therefore deduce the date from the
sequence as he gives it himself. And that sequence is perfectly clear.
He takes us straight back to the Council of Cashel,[393] and tells us
that the document despatched by William and his colleague to Ireland
had been sent by the Pope in reply to the report of the proceedings at
that Council. Here are his own words:
(COUNCIL OF CASHEL.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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