Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/185

 CHAPTER XIX.

decrees of the Synod of Kells were followed up by other measures which had the same end in view: the bringing of the Church of Ireland into conformity with the Church of England and of Rome. At a synod held at Clane, on the Liffey, it was enacted that the teachers in all the ecclesiastical schools should receive their education at Armagh. This, if it could have been carried out, would have been the most efficacious method of all. Then the Cistertians extended themselves, and soon six large establishments were in connection with the order in Ireland. But all this might have had but little effect were it not for an event—the most momentous in Irish history— which happened shortly after, and which completed the work of bringing Ireland under the power of the Pope. I mean the Anglo-Norman conquest.

Early in the reign of Henry II. of England, the king had turned his attention to the conquest of the neighbouring island. A plausible pretext for thus attacking a perfectly independent state presented itself in the slave trade which the Irish had long carried on, buying the children of needy Englishmen, and disposing of them in different parts of Ireland. As further justification there was the religious one, that Ireland alone of Western nations 181