The Baptist Pillar © Brandon Bible Baptist Church 1992-Present www.baptistpillar.com
"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15
How a Pope Gave Ireland to England
Voice In the Wilderness
Generations of Roman Catholic Irish have proclaimed loudly that the source of Ireland’s woes is the presence of the English. The Emerald Isle, once famed as a "land of Saints and Scholars," has been drenched in blood, as inhuman fiends, posing as patriots, murder, maim, massacre, rebel and wage civil war, often with the blessing of the Roman Catholic clergy, in the supposed cause of Irish "freedom."
However, the suppressed facts of history are that when King Henry II of England landed with an army of 4,000 at Waterford in October 1171, he came at the Pope’s behest, carrying as his authority the Papal Bull Laudabiliter, by which the Roman Pontiff claimed the right to bestow Ireland as a gift to the English King, on condition that he suppress the ancient Bible-believing Celtic or Culdee Church, and bring the island and its people into submission to Rome. We reproduce herewith, the Bull Laudabiliter by which Pope Adrian IV gave Ireland to England:
"Adrian, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our well beloved son in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, greeting and Apostolic Benediction. Laudably and profitably does your Majesty contemplate spreading the glory of your name on earth and laying up for yourself the reward of eternal happiness in heaven, in that as becomes a Catholic Prince, you propose to enlarge the boundaries of the Church, to proclaim the truths of the Christian religion to a rude and ignorant people (the Irish), to root out the growth of vice from the field of the Lord; and the better to accomplish this purpose, you seek the counsel and goodwill of the Apostolic See.
“In pursuing your object, the loftier your aim and the greater your discretion, the more prosperous we are assured with God’s assistance will be the progress you will make: for undertakings commenced in the zeal of faith and the love of religion are ever wont to attain to a good end and issue. Verily, as your excellency doth acknowledge, there is no doubt that Ireland, and all the islands on which Christ the sun of righteousness has shone, and which have accepted the doctrines of the Christian faith, belong to the blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church, wherefore the more pleased are we to plant in them the seed of faith acceptable to God, inasmuch as our conscience warns us that in their case a stricter account will hereafter be required of us.
"Whereas, then well beloved son in Christ, you have expressed to us your desire to enter the island of Ireland in order to subject its people to law (Papal Cannon Law) and to root out from them the weeds of vice (the ancient Bible-believing Culdee faith) and your willingness to pay an annual tribute to the blessed Peter (the Pope) of one penny from every house, and to maintain the rights of the Churches of that land whole and inviolate.
“We therefore, meeting your pious and laudable desire with due favour; and according a gracious assent to your petition, do hereby declare our will and pleasure, that with a view to enlarging the boundaries of the Church, restraining the downward course of vice, correcting evil customs and planting virtue and for the increase of the Christian religion (Roman Catholicism) you shall enter that island and execute whatsoever may tend to the honor of God, and the welfare of the land; and also that the people shall receive you with honor and revere you as their Lord, provided always that the rights of the Church remain whole and inviolate and saving to the blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church the annual tribute of one penny for every house.
“If then you should carry your project into effect, let it be to your care to instruct that people in good ways of life...that the Church there may be adorned, that the Christian religion (Roman Catholicism) may take root and grow...that you may deserve at God’s hands the fullness of an everlasting reward and may obtain on earth a name renowned throughout the ages."
After King Henry’s victorious conquest of Ireland, and reception of congratulatory mail from Pope Adrian’s successor, Alexander III, one of his first acts was to call the Council of Cashel in 1172 at which the ancient Celtic Church of Ireland was brought under the yoke of Roman bondage.
As for the Papal insults that the Irish, after the preaching of Patrick up to the 12th Century, were a rude, ignorant, uncivilized people–had not the missionaries of Patrick’s Celtic Church brought the uncorrupted Gospel to many parts of the British Isles and the Continent of Europe during this time? Could a savage people produce the Book of Kells, and preserve the Christian faith in their communities even under Viking attack, while Papal Rome was sunk in the depths of vice and superstition?
It was only after the Reformation, when Great Britain became a Protestant country that the Papacy changed its policy and began to pose as the champion of so-called Irish "freedom"! Today, the Irish Roman Catholic terrorists loudly demand that the British Protestants of Ulster, "Break the British connection" and boldly declare that: "Ireland unfree will never be at peace."
The real truth is that Ireland will only enjoy peace and liberty when the chains of Roman Catholicism are broken by the pure gospel of Christ, and the blight of priestcraft and Popery are banished from the Island forever!