THE CHARGE AGAINST CHAPPELL RENEWED. 37

came; it is concerning the being of it. The house taking into consideration the destruction of the college, the house doth therefore desire the house of lords to have patience, until they have repaired unto the college, which will not be any long time, and then this house will give a final answer thereto.

"It is ordered that the persons undernamed are appointed a committee to view and peruse the articles exhibited against William Chappell, now Bishop of Corke and Rosse, late provost of the college of Dublin, and his answer thereunto.

"And that the said committee have full power and authority to send unto the fellows of the college, or any of them, or any other concerned therein, or any other person or persons whatsoever, as they shall think fit; which said committee are to meet in this house at two of the clock on Monday next in the afternoon, and to adjourn themselves from time to time, and to such time and place as they shall think fit, and make report thereof to this house.

"Committee of the college adjourned (17 die Maii, 1647) until the 20th day, at two of the clock in the afternoon.

"It is ordered (20 die Maii, 1647) that this committee doth adjourn themselves until the 24th day, at two of the clock in the afternoon; and that Mr. Hamilton (chairman) write to the fellows and students of the college.

COMMITTEE FOR THE COLLEGE, 24 DIE MAII, 1647. "The provost and fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, are desired to certify this committee by Friday next, at two of the clock in the afternoon, in this house, under their hands, whether they think it inconvenient that the proceedings by the said house against the late provost of the said college, now Bishop of Corke and Rosse, should be deserted.

Adjourned to Friday next.

38

THE ENGLISH LITURGY INTERDICTED.

66

A MESSAGE FROM THE LORDS (2 DIE JUNII, 1647)

BY MR. BARON HILTON.

"The house was pleased to send the messengers, and they gave a general account, but no particular one especially concerning the college.

"IN ANSWER TO THE MESSAGE FROM THE LORDS.

"It is ordered, that Mr. Roger Burton, and Captain Theodore Schoute, and as many as please to accompany them, are forthwith to repair to the house of the lords, and to give an account as well of all other business, as especially the petition of the college.

66

MEMORANDUM, 12 DIE JUNII, 1647.

"The report made by Mr. Archibald Hamilton concerning the college:

"It is ordered, that Mr. Recorder of Dublin, and as many as please to accompany him, are forthwith to repair unto the House of Lords, concerning the business of the college, and to declare unto their Lordships the reasons which do induce this house to continue the prosecution of the cause against the Bishop of Cork and Rosse, late Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in this house." But the Parliament was soon after dissolved.

It was in the latter end of the year 1647, that commissioners appointed by the English parliament landed in Ireland to settle the affairs, religious and political, in conformity with the new state of things in England, then supposed to be essentially revolutionized. The first act of the commissioners was, to interdict the use of the English liturgy; and the clergy in general ceased to officiate; but at this crisis the college gave a remarkable proof of the uncompromising spirit of virtue by which its adversity was dignified.

Anthony Martin, the Provost, who was also Bishop of Meath, persisted in reading it, and actually preached against the innovation of the times, with an apostolic freedom, that nothing but the conscientious sense of what he considered a sacred duty could have inspired. The people, who never feel so deeply the power of re

CROMWELL VISITS IRELAND.

39

ligion as in times of persecution and calamity, resorted thither in great numbers, and delighted to hear his fearless and impressive exhortations. His conduct will appear the more exemplary, when it is known that the plague was then consuming those whom the sword had spared. Nothing, however, could induce him to desist from the public exercise of his functions, and he fell the lamented victim of that dreadful distemper, after having, during the space of three years, contended for what he conceived to be the truth, with a firmness that made his enemies respect the man, whom their power could not overawe, and whom the adversity of his cause could not deter from its perilous vindication. The vacancy occasioned by his death gave the parliament an opportunity of appointing Samuel Winter, chaplain to the commissioners, to the important trust of presiding over the University, which, during his continuance in office, he modelled so as to meet the approbation of his patrons; and it in consequence became a school of polemic controversy, instead of an institution of peaceful religion and the

sciences.

SECTION V.

In the year 1649 Cromwell visited Ireland in person; and so impetuous, sanguinary, and successful were his military enterprises there, that the traditionary character which he bears among the native Irish, even at the present day, partakes less of the splendid fame of the able chieftain, than of the ghastly renown of a destroying spirit; and he is remembered, not as an armed missionary of a civilized cause, but as a being possessing a preternatural love and power of destruction. He certainly spread much misery and desolation throughout the kingdom, from which the frightful traces of the late rebellion had not been yet effaced; and after performing many acts of exemplary vengeance, he left the Irish people more repressed than subdued, and more tranquil than contented. He afterwards summoned a parliament at Westminster;

40

ARCHBISHOP USSHER'S LIBRARY.

upon which occasion, to shew his great contempt for the independence of Ireland, he summoned thirty members from that kingdom as the legislative vassals, who were to perform, on the part of their country, the last ceremonies of its humiliation. The college was exempted from any communion in this melancholy service, as Cromwell did not call upon it to return any representatives.

It was Cromwell's army that purchased for £22,000 the valuable library of Archbishop Ussher, who, at the commencement of the Irish rebellion, had been obliged to fly; and who, after the confiscation of his property, was allotted a residence in London, where he died, A.D. 1655. His library, which had been conveyed, after its purchase, to the castle of Dublin, was subsequently transferred to Trinity College, and added to its own; as appears by the following order, extracted from the Journals of the House of Commons, dated the year after the Restoration.

"Ordered (31 die Maii, 1661) that the Vice-Chancellor, and Provost of the College of Dublin, and Mr. Richard Lingard, together with such others as they shall take to their assistance, be decreed, and are hereby empowered, with all convenient speed, to cause the library, formerly belonging to the late lord primate of Armagh, and purchased by the army, to be brought from the castle of Dublin, where now they are, unto the said college, there to be preserved for public use; and the said persons are likewise to take a catalogue of all the said library, both manuscripts and printed books, and to deliver the same into this house, to be entered in the journal book of the house. And it is further decreed, that the said Vice-Chancellor, Provost, and Mr. Lingard, do wait upon the right honourable the lords justices of this kingdom, and acquaint their lordships with the contents of this order, humbly begging of their lordships leave to have admission into the castle for the use aforesaid, and at what time their lordships shall appoint."

In 1652, The Commissioners of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, for the affairs of Ire

DR. JEREMY TAYLOR MADE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

41

land, founded a public professorship of mathematics in this University, and thus restored to this institution one of the essential parts of human knowledge, which had been suppressed most improperly by Archbishop Laud and Provost Chappell, when they remodelled the college statutes.

At the Restoration, the existing fellows, who had been chosen by the party of Cromwell, on account of their zeal for his cause, were, with a single exception, all removed. It was remarkable at this time, that the cultivation of learning had been so much discouraged by the repeated calamities which had fallen upon the nation, that there were few members of the University qualified to fill the vacant places.

The person appointed to the station of provost, was Dr. Thomas Seele, a native of Dublin, who had been educated in the college, and whose character was estimable in morals and literature. A new set of fellows were also chosen, mostly from Cambridge and Oxford; but as the ordinary mode of election prescribed by the statutes could not, in this instance, be observed, as they required to that and other acts of the board, the concurrence of the provost and four senior fellows, a writ of mandamus was issued to authorize their admission.

At that period the Duke of Ormond was chief governor of Ireland; a nobleman whose views were enlightened, and who took an anxious interest in the welfare of the University. As its affairs had been thrown into great disorder, he selected the most competent person he could find, for the important task of renovating them. Dr. Jeremy Taylor, the pious and celebrated Bishop of Down, a man whose virtues breathed as much of the primitive simplicity of religion as his eloquence partook of its inspiration, was the person fixed upon for that important duty. By his judicious management as vice-chancellor, the character of the college was retrieved, and its disordered

a Dr. John Stearne, M.D. founder of the College of Physicians, and the first president of that distinguished Institution.