the battle that ensued Dermot was defeated and had to fly for his life. He made his way to England, and thence to France, presented himself before the King of England, and obtained his sanction to raise what forces he could among the king's subjects.
The story of the conquest of Ireland is one that belongs to the secular history, and need not here be repeated. We have only to consider its influence on the religious condition of the country. On the English side the conquest was regarded as a holy war. The Irish were enemies to the Church, and were to be subdued in order to bring them to obedience. The papal blessing was bestowed on the project from the first. Not only did Pope Adrian issue the Bull to which reference has been already made, but his successor, Alexander III., followed it up with a confirmatory Bull, and wrote letters on the subject to nearly all the parties concerned. In a letter of this latter prelate, he accuses the Irish of the crimes of incest and concubinage; but he somewhat weakens the force of his rebuke by coupling with them, as crimes of equal enormity, that they eat meat in Lent, and pay no tithes. In another letter he says, that 'our dearly beloved son in Christ, the illustrious Henry King of England,' undertook the subjugation of Ireland, because 'he was pressed in his conscience by the voice of a Divine inspiration.' The whole expedition, therefore, was undertaken under cover of religion, and had for one of its professed objects the subjugation of the Irish Church.
One of the first acts of Henry in Ireland was to assemble those of the ecclesiastics who were willing to answer his summons. The bishops answered with alacrity. We have already seen that the dominant party amongst them consisted of men who were either
