The conflict in Ireland had naturally excited much interest at Rome, and Pope Urban VIII had already employed an agent amongst the Catholics. Urban's successor, Innocent X, resolving on a further step, arranged to send a regular accredited nuncio to the Confederates, and he selected for the mission John Baptist Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo. The Nuncio was both a skilled diplomatist and an excellent judge of men and of political situations. On his way to Ireland he stayed a while in Paris ... Read More

Henry VIII Declares Himself "Supreme Head of the Church" . In order to understand the events which followed the recall of Grey, we must retrace our steps and consider, in its earliest stages, the question which has, more than all others, down even to our own day, complicated the relations between Ireland and England—namely, what is known as " the religious difficulty." In 1532 Henry VIII had regularly begun a quarrel with the Pope, by asserting himself to be " Supreme Head ... Read More