Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/165

 grandeur and dignity in the world, and that the Universal Church owes to Peter and to his vicars a debt of obedience, as well as of reverence. He then exhorts that this debt of obedience should be discharged by the Irish, and that they should cherish and maintain the Catholic peace of the Church. A few years afterwards Gilbert, Danish Bishop of Limerick, was appointed Papal Legate—the first that Ireland had ever seen. Waterford, too, had its Danish bishop consecrated at Canterbury. Thus the Church of Rome obtained a footing in the country. We shall see that it was not long before the whole Irish Church was brought under its power.