The Doubtful Grant of Ireland: By Pope Adrian IV. To King Henry II. Investigated (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Ginnell, Laurence

9780331412062: The Doubtful Grant of Ireland: By Pope Adrian IV. To King Henry II. Investigated (Classic Reprint)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0331412063 ISBN 13: 9780331412062

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Excerpt from The Doubtful Grant of Ireland: By Pope Adrian IV. To King Henry II. Investigated

Light has to be sought from the alleged copies of the alleged instruments, from the bearers of those alleged copies and their contemporaries, from the characters of all the persons concerned, and from the general circum stances of the period. A field of considerable scope is thus Opened up, and the facts and inferences gleaned therefrom vary with the taste and skill of the gleaners. There may be some who form their opinions first, and investigate afterwards. But when the facts are as well known as they can now be, and conscientiously examined, there is enough in them to occasion the greatest uncer tainty; so that one may well be found on either side of this controversy without becoming obnoxious to the charge 'of mere wilful perversity. And although the result of historical research within the present century has somewhat contracted the scope of the controversy by rendering some of the old positions occupied on both sides no longer tenable, the same research seems to have counterbalanced this by furnishing both sides with new and effective arguments. Some of the evidence on both sides will, at first sight, appear frail, feeble, and scarcely relevant. But if it were gross, palpable and conclusive either way there would no longer be room for argument.

On slight evidence and fine distinctions some of the most important political and business transactions in the world are carried on; on these the fate of a nation occasionally depends; even the most sacred truths of religion, with all they have effected in this world, and all that depends on them in the next, hang by a very slender thread, as does human life itself. We must not disdain or break the filmy threads, but carefully endeavour to disentangle them. Nor must we expect Englishmen, however impar tial, to investigate and settle for us this question, affecting as it does the relations between the two countries. We shall notice an occasion on which they evaded that task in circumstances in which they could not have shirked it without risk of reputation had the letters related to England.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.