Laudabiliter

Laudabiliter, a papal letter issued in 1155 by the English Pope Adrian IV (1154–9) to Henry II, authorizing a conquest of Ireland in the interests of reforming the Irish church. It takes its name from the first word of the document, the authenticity of which has been the subject of much historiographical controversy lasting into the 20th century. Whether or not the text, as now surviving, is wholly authentic, there is independent evidence that proposals for a conquest of Ireland were discussed at an English royal council at Winchester in 1155, following which John of Salisbury, secretary of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, sought papal authorization for Henry's intervention in Ireland, and that a papal document giving consent was issued. The proposal almost certainly originated with the archbishop, reacting to the recent diminution of Canterbury's control over the Irish church. Laudabiliter was subsequently to be used to argue against English intervention on the grounds that the English Kings had not advanced religious reform; most notably it was cited in the Remonstrance of the Irish princes, addressed to Pope John XXII by Domnall Ó Néill c.1317.

Marie Therese Flanagan