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Ruunt agmine facto

In me profana turba Roma Genevaque.

Provost Chappel’s Autobiography.

The first fifty years of this History passed away without much apparent advance. The attempt to supply additional room by providing two residence-halls in the city (Bridge Street and Back Lane) turned out a complete failure.[38] As the College grew richer by King James’ gifts of Ulster lands, the quarrels of the Fellows and Provost were increased by this new interest. They were also still constitution-mongering, and we do not find that the only Dublin man, Robert Ussher, who was Provost during this period, was more successful than the imported Cambridge men. Among the Fellows appointed, if we except the remarkable group of founders, not a single name of note appears save Joshua Hoyle, who came from Oxford, and who was afterwards Professor of Divinity, and Master of University College, Oxford. The rest supplied the Church of Ireland with some respectable dignitaries, but nothing more. We know that these things were weighing on the mind of the great Primate, who could remember the high hopes and the enthusiasm of Dublin when the College was founded. He was convinced that the Fellows wasted their energies in College politics, and that the Provost had insufficient powers to control them. Laud surely speaks the words of Ussher when he says that the College is reported to him as “being as ill-governed as any in Christendom.” Archbishop Ussher must have been determined to take from the Fellows the management of their own affairs, and entrust it to a Provost nominated by the Crown, administering Statutes fixed by the Crown, and only to be altered with its sanction. This great reform he carried out by having his friend Archbishop Laud appointed Chancellor, and so having a new Charter forced, in 1637, upon the College—the Caroline Statutes.[39] It was indeed a strong measure to take from the College its self-government, but it was done after due deliberation by wise men; and the results have certainly answered their expectations. It should, however, be added, in fairness to those who failed during the first 45 years to maintain order, that the Crown, while professing to give absolute liberty by Statute, had constantly interfered in appointments, and violated the privileges granted by Elizabeth. Nor indeed did the Caroline Statutes, which much internal evidence shows to be the work of Ussher as well as Laud, succeed forthwith. The experiment was baulked at the outset by the unfortunate appointment of Chappel as Provost, a famous logician, but a weak and not very honest man,[40] whose conduct was about to be impeached by the Irish Parliament, when the Rebellion of 1641 burst upon the land. Chappel was then Bishop of Cork, but had refused to resign the Provostship. Ten years of misery supervened, when Chappel and the next Provost, Wassington, fled home to England, when Faithful Tate and Dudley Loftus strove as vice-regents to hold together the affairs of the starving College; when the estates were in the rebels’ hands, the valuable plate was pawned or melted, Provost Martin dying of the plague which followed upon massacre and starvation:[41] the intellectual heart of Ireland suffered with its members, and responded to the agonies of the loyal population with sufferings not less poignant.

Nevertheless, the appointment of the Lord Deputy, Ormonde (a great benefactor to the College at the worst moment), as Chancellor is dated the 12th March, 1644. He was chosen to succeed Laud. The actual deed is now at Kilkenny Castle.[42] The appointment of the Chancellor was made by the Provost (Anthony Martin, Bishop of Meath) and a majority of the Senior Fellows. Ormonde came back with the Restoration, and in high favour.

The horror of civil war in England was added to make the cup flow over. Charles, Laud, and Ussher were too engrossed with their own troubles to promote the regeneration of the College which they had commenced, and so we find that this decennium of anarchy was only ended by the strong hand of Cromwell, who undertook to establish order in Ireland. The “crowd of Geneva” were accordingly established in the College; but justice must admit that Henry Cromwell as Chancellor, and Winter as Provost, behaved with good sense and zeal in promoting the interests of learning. They, of course, pressed home their doctrines upon the students; Winter called to the College zealous controversialists of distinguished piety;[43] private Christian meetings among the students were encouraged rather than official Chapels. Such of the former officers as acquiesced in these things—the Vice-Chancellor Henry Jones, who dropped his title of Bishop, and Stearne the physician—were continued for the sake of their learning. The care of outward neatness appears from the entries forbidding linen to be dried in the courts; they had washed it there long enough. The Provost undertook several journeys to the remote parts of Ireland, to recover the abandoned properties and collect the rents of the College. To the Commonwealth, moreover, is due the foundation (1652) of the School of Mathematics, which has since become so famous. This initial step was advanced by the bequest of Lord Donegal (1660), whose Lecturership is still known by his name.

When the Restoration supervened, Winter and his intimates were expelled as intruders, and a new governing body and scholars appointed. But as Cromwell had taken care to keep up the traditions of the College by continuing some of the previous Fellows, so the Government of Charles II. reappointed several men who had stood by the College all through the interregnum, and saved the continuity of its teaching. Above all, the framers of the well-known Act of Settlement took special care of the College, securing to it all the estates to which it had a claim, and even endowing the Provost with charges upon forfeited lands in the Archbishopric of Dublin. Provisions were made for the founding of a second College under the University; presently Dr. Stearne obtained a Charter for the College of Physicians at Trinity Hall, close to the Green, in connection with the College. Ussher’s books, which were still lying in Dublin Castle, though long since purchased by Cromwell’s soldiers for the College, were now formally handed over to it; and in every way its interests were fostered and promoted. The Duke of Ormonde as Lord Deputy, and also as Chancellor of the University, and Bishop Jeremy Taylor as Vice-Chancellor, may be regarded as the main movers in this policy; whether other secret influences were at work I have not been able to ascertain.[44] How firm and wise a friend of the College Ormonde was, appears from the following protest he made to the then Secretary of State. An Englishman had just been nominated to an Irish bishopric. “It is fit that it should be remembered that near this city there is an University of the foundation of Queen Elizabeth, principally intended for the education and advantage of the natives of this kingdom, which hath produced men very eminent for learning and piety, and those of this nation, and such there are in the Church: so that, while there are such, the passing them by is not only, in some measure, a violation of the original intention and institution, but a great discouragement to the natives from making themselves capable and fit for preferment in the Church, whereunto, if they have equal parts, they are better able to do service than strangers; their knowledge of the country and relations in it giving them the advantage. The promotion, too, of the already dignified or beneficed will make room for, and consequently encourage, students in the University, which room will be lost, and the inferior clergy much disheartened, if, upon the vacancy of bishopricks, persons unknown to the kingdom and University shall be sent to fill them, and be less useful there to Church and kingdom than those who are better acquainted with them.”[45] The scandalous policy of setting obscure and careless Englishmen to govern competent Irishmen, which reached its climax under Primate Boulter’s influence, has now veered round so completely that there is an outcry if an incompetent Irishman is not preferred to any Englishman, however competent. Both extremes lead to the same mischief—estrangement in sentiment from England, and in consequence narrow provincialism, which lowers the standard to be expected in important posts, by selecting the best local man, instead of the best man in Great Britain and Ireland, or even (for scientific appointments) in Europe.

But though the College was thus secured in ultimate material prosperity, there was for some years great difficulty in realising property, and we find elections postponed for want of funds in 1664 and 1666. A Fellow, William Leckey, was executed in Dublin for participation in the plot of 1663 against the King. Still worse, we still find in what Jeremy Taylor describes as “the little, but excellent University of Dublin,”[46] great poverty in profound scholarship. Two eminent men had indeed come out of Trinity College in this generation. Dudley Loftus and Henry Dodwell were second to none of their contemporaries in learning. Dodwell was offered a Chair at Oxford solely upon his general reputation. The catalogue of his and Loftus’ extant works is still astonishing. Loftus combined in him the blood of the talented adventurer Adam Loftus with the far sounder blood of the Usshers.[47] But these men would not or could not be Provosts—so that high office fell to such men as Seele, the son of a verger at Christ Church, esteemed highly by his contemporaries,[48] and Ward, who was of the old Loftus type, having come over from England, and obtained five great promotions, ending with the See of Derry, in which he died, at the age of 39! No wonder that clever lads sought their fortune in Ireland. Ward “was esteemed a person of fine conversation and of great sagacity in dextrously managing proper conjunctures, to which qualities his rise to so many preferments in so short a time was ascribed.”[49]

It was a very great improvement, and of great service to the College, when the Duke of Ormonde reverted again to Oxford, and brought over as Provost Narcissus Marsh, whose Library at S. Sepulchre’s still attests the learning and wide interests of the man. Like every Provost in those days, he was promptly advanced to the Episcopal Bench; the College then afforded a stepping-stone to the episcopal as it now does to the judicial Bench; and if its rulers are now usually very old, they were then very young. Marsh was only five years Provost before his promotion, and yet even in that short time he produced a lasting effect upon the College. What would such a man have accomplished in a lifetime of enlightened government! But he was essentially a student, and the duties of the Provost were not then, as they now are, compatible with a learned leisure.

January 167 8 9 .—Finding the place very troublesome, partly by reason of the multitude of business and important visits the Provost is obliged to, and partly by reason of the ill education that the young scholars have before they come to the College, whereby they are both rude and ignorant, I was quickly weary of 340 young men and boys in this lewd, debauched town, and the more so because I had no time to follow my dearly beloved studies.[50]

I have already noted that this enterprising Englishman was bent on promoting the study of the Irish language. Let me quote what Dr. Stubbs says—

“Among the Smith MSS. in the Bodleian Library is preserved a letter[51] from Marsh when Primate, in which he gives some account of the condition of the College during his residence as Provost. He was particularly anxious, as he states, that the thirty Irish-born Scholars, who then enjoyed salaries equal to those of the Junior Fellows, should be thoroughly trained to speak and write the Irish language. He desired that these should be a body from which the parochial clergy of Ireland might be recruited, in order that the people should have the ministrations of religion in their own language. The majority of the Natives knew nothing of the grammar of the language, and could make no attempt to read it, or to write it. In order to counteract this ignorance, Marsh determined that he would not elect to a native’s place any scholar who was not ready to learn the Irish language thoroughly, and that he would not allow them to retain their places unless they made satisfactory progress. To enable them to do this, he employed a converted Roman Catholic priest, Paul Higgins, who was a good Irish scholar, and who had been admitted as a clergyman of the Irish Church, to reside in his house, and to give instruction to the Scholars of the College,[52] at a salary of £16 a-year and his board. He had also the Church Service read in Irish, and an Irish sermon preached by Higgins in the College Chapel on one Sunday afternoon in every month, at 3 P.M. These services seem to have been open to the public; and we learn from Marsh’s letters that the ancient Chapel was crowded by hearers on the occasion of the Irish sermons, the congregation numbering as many as three hundred. We have no record of the continuance of these Irish services after Marsh ceased to be Provost.”

He also promoted the study of mathematics, hitherto of little moment in the College. He founded a Philosophical Society, as a sort of offshoot of the Royal Society of London, to which he contributed a learned paper on Musical Sounds. The curious collection of ancient music still extant in his Library (bequeathed for the use of the City of Dublin, but mainly intended for a Diocesan Library) shows that he had a special interest in this subject. He wrote for the students a sensible text-book of Logic (see fac-simile of title-page, p. 37). He got a new and larger Chapel built, which lasted till 1798. But he was still in the era when the College authorities had no idea of building ornamentally. The houses and halls were merely modest constructions for use, and Dr. Campbell is quoted as describing them:—

The Chapel is as mean a structure as you can conceive; destitute of monumental decoration within; it is no better than a Welsh Church without. The old Hall, where College exercises are performed, is in the same range, and built in the same style.—Op. cit. p. 117.

This is, I think, to be said of all the buildings in Dublin during the seventeenth century. So far as I know, the earliest, and perhaps the best attempt at artistic architecture is the Library, which was not commenced till 1709.[53] All the handsome houses in Dublin date from after the middle of the eighteenth century.

FAC-SIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE, ARCHBISHOP MARSH’S “LOGIC.”

Institutiones LOGICÆ.

IN USUM Juventutis Academicæ DUBLINIENSIS.

DUBLINI, Apud S. HELSHAM ad Insignia Collegii, in vico vulgò dicto Castle-street. 1681.

When Marsh was promoted—he became ultimately Archbishop of Dublin and then Primate—Ormonde, the Chancellor, chose another Orientalist, Huntingdon of Merton College, to succeed him. But he was by no means so able a man; he came over with great reluctance (1686), and immediately decamped upon the outbreak of the second great tumult, which turned out even worse for the College than 1641—the Revolution under James II., and the war which was only concluded by William’s victory at the Boyne. The Revolution was a sore blow for the College, which was now rapidly rising both in wealth and in intellectual position. The Senior Fellows did all they could to conciliate James II., without, however, denying their own Protestant character. The King, a weak man, gave them civil words; but they had to deal with his advisers, who varied widely in their aims and hopes from those of moderate men. The Acts passed by the brief Parliament of James II. have been recently brought into clear light by historians,[54] and the only wonder to be explained is the escape of the College from the secret Bill of Attainder which was to affect the liberties and properties of all Protestants, and from which not even the power of the Crown could grant remission. The anecdote how the members for the University kept out of the way, or sent the College butler out of the way,[55] and managed to have the College names omitted, seems to be a romance invented to explain an accidental omission, and to gain credit for some worthy people who did not fly to England or betray their public trust.

The first acts of aggression were demands to appoint creatures of Tyrconnell’s either to an Irish Lecturership which did not exist, or to Junior Fellowships, which required an oath of allegiance to the Crown and of adherence to the Church of England, as ordered by Charles II. in his Act of Uniformity. The Crown had been in the habit of appointing Fellows by mandamus, so that this proceeding was not so high-handed as it would be now-a-days. But the plain intention of James II.’s advisers, and especially of Tyrconnell, the Lord Deputy, was to force Roman Catholics into power and to dispossess Protestant interests. It is to the credit of the adventurers sent down to the College by Tyrconnell that they objected to take the oath. The Lord Deputy then stopped the Concordatum Fund of £400 a-year. It was a moment when the College so clearly felt its increasing numbers, that there was a proposal to sell some of the fast-accumulating plate to find funds in aid of new buildings. Apart from gifts made by the parents of pupils, there was a charge at matriculation for argent, as there still is in some Colleges at Oxford, and it seems to have been thought a convenient way of laying by money which could be easily realised in times of danger. How fast this plate had accumulated since the disasters of 1641 may be inferred from the fact that the College actually embarked 3,990 ounces of silver to be sent to London (7th February, 1687). On the 12th, Tyrconnell was sworn in Lord Deputy, and had the plate seized. The College reclaimed it, and ultimately recovered it on condition of laying out the money in the purchase of land. It seems to have brought 5s. per ounce, and is said to have been “profitably” invested. If the College now possessed it, the money value would not be less than £5 per ounce; its value in adding dignity to the establishment is not easily estimable. As Dr. Stubbs says, the succeeding events are best told from the College Register, which he quotes:—

January 9, 168 8 9 .—The College stock being very low, and there being little hopes of the coming in of the rents, the following retrenchment of the College expenses was agreed upon by the Vice-Provost and Senior Fellows.

January 24, 168 8 9 .—The Visitors of the College did approve of the said retrenchment, which is as follows:—Ordered by the Vice-Provost and Senior Fellows, because the College is reduced to a low condition by the infelicity of the times (no tenants paying any rents, and at present our stock being almost exhausted), it was ordered that there should be a retrenchment of our expenses according to the model following; the approbation of our Visitors being first obtained:—

Inp.—That there shall be but one meal a-day in the Hall, and that a dinner, because the supper is the more expensive meal by reason of coals, &c. 2. That every Fellow be allowed but three pence in the Kitchen per diem, and one penny in the Buttery. 3. That the Scholars be allowed their full allowance according to the Statutes, but after this manner, viz.:—To each Scholar in the Kitchen two pence per diem, except on Friday, on which but three half pence. To each Scholar in the Buttery his usuall allowance, which was one penny half penny per diem. To each Scholar at night shall be allowed out of the Buttery one half penny in cheese or butter, except on Friday night, and that will compleat the Statute allowance. 4. That whereas the Statute allowance to each Fellow in Buttery and Kitchen is five shillings and three pence per week, and the present allowance comes but to two shillings and four pence, therefore it is ordered that whenever the College is able, the first payments shall be made to the Fellows to compleat their Statute allowance in Commons. All these clauses above mentioned are to be understood in relation to those that are resident. And if it shall happen that the Society shall be forc’t to break up, and quit the place through extreme necessity, or any publick calamity, that then all members of the said Society shall for the interim have full title and claim to all profits and allowances in their severall stations and offices respectively, when it shall please God to bring about a happy restoration. 5. That proportionable deductions be made from what was formerly allow’d to the Cooks for decrements, furzes, &c. 6. That the additional charge of Saturday’s dinners be laid aside. 7. That for the future no Scholar of the House be allow’d Commons that is indebted to his Tutor, and that no Master of Arts, Fellow Commoner, or Pensioner, be kept in Commons that has not deposited sufficient caution money in the Bursar’s hands. 8. That whereas we are resolved to keep up the Society as long as possibly we can, therefore ’tis ordered that as soon as the College money shall fail, all the plate now in our custody be sold or pawned to defray the charges above mentioned. We, the Visitors of the College above mentioned, having considered the expediency of the above retrenchment, do allow and approve thereof.

Francis Dublin.	Dive Downes.
Ant. Meath.	John Barton.
Richard Acton, Vice-Provost.	Ben. Scroggs.
George Brown.

January 24, 168 8 9 .—It was agreed upon by the Vice-Provost and Senior Fellows that the Manuscripts in the Library, the Patents, and other writings belonging to the College, be transported into England. At the same time it was resolved that the remainder of the plate should be immediately sold, excepting the Chappel Plate. The same day the College waited on the Lord Deputy, and desired leave to transport the remainder of their plate into England, because they could not sell it here without great loss.

The Lord Deputy refused leave.

February 19, 168 8 9 .—It was agreed on by the Vice-Provost and Senior Fellows that two hundred pounds of the College money should be sent into England for the support of those Fellows that should be forc’t to fly thither. At the same time the dangers of staying in the College seemed so great that it was judged reasonable that all those that thought fit to withdraw themselves from the College for their better security might have free liberty so to do.

February 25, 168 8 9 .—All the Horse, Foot, and Dragoons, were drawn out and posted at severall places in the town, from whence they sent parties, who searcht the Protestant houses for arms, whilst others were employed in breaking into stables and taking away all their horses. Two Companies of Foot, commanded by Talbot, one of the Captains in the Royal Regiment of Foot Guards, came into the College, searcht all places, and took away those few fusils, swords, and pistols, that they found. At the same time a party of Dragoons broke open the College stables and took away all the horses. The Foot continued in the College all night; the next day they were drawn off. On the same day it was agreed on by the Vice-Provost and Senior Fellows that the Fellows and Scholars should receive out of the College trunk (the two hundred pounds not being sent into England as was design’d) their salaries for their respective Fellowships, Offices, and Scholarships, which will be due at the end of this current quarter, together with their allowance for Commons for the said quarter.

March 1, 168 8 9 .—Dr. Browne, Mr. Downes, Mr. Barton, Mr. Ashe, and Mr. Smyth, embark’t for England; soon after follow’d Mr. Scroggs, Mr. Leader, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Sayers, and Mr. Hasset. Mr. Patrickson soon after died; and (of ye Fellows) only Dr. Acton, Mr. Thewles, Mr. Hall, and Mr. Allen, continued in the College.

March 12, 168 8 9 .—King James landed in Ireland; and upon the 24th of the same month, being Palm Sunday, he came to Dublin. The College, with the Vice-Chancellor, waited upon him, and Mr. Thewles made a speech, which he seemed to receive kindly, and promis’d ’em his favour and pretection;[56] [but upon the 16th of September, 1689, without any offence as much as pretended, the College was seized on for a garrison by the King’s order, the Fellows turned out, and a Regiment of Foot took possession and continued in it.[57]]

June 13, 1689.—Mr. Arthur Greene having petitioned the King for a Senior Fellowship, the case was refer’d to Sir Richard Nagle; upon which he sent an order to the Vice-Provost and Fellows to meet him at his house on Monday, the 17th, to shew reason why the aforesaid petition shud not be granted. The reasons offer’d were many, part of ’em drawn from false allegations in the petition, part from the petitioner’s incapacity in several respects to execute the duty of a Senior Fellow; and the conclusion was in these words: There are much more important reasons drawn, as well from the Statutes relating to religion, as from the obligation of oaths which we have taken, and the interests of our religion, which we will never desert, that render it wholly impossible, without violating our consciences, to have any concurrence, or to be any way concerned, in the admission of him.

July 24.—The Vice-Provost and Fellows, with consent of the Vice-Chancellor, sold a peece of plate weighing about 30 ounces for subsistence of themselves and the Scholars that remained.

September 6.—The College was seized on for a Garrison by the King’s order, and Sir John Fitzgerald took possession of it. Upon Wednesday the 11th, it was made a prison for the Protestants of the City, of whom a great number were confined to the upper part of the Hall. Upon the 16th the Scholars were all turned out by souldiers, and ordered to carry nothing with ’em but their books. But Mr. Thewles and some others were not permitted to take their books with ’em. Lenan, one of the Scholars of the House, was sick of the small-pox, and died, as it was supposed, by removing. At the same time the King sent an order to apprehend six of the Fellows and Masters, and commit ’em to the main guard, and all this without any provocation or crime as much as pretended; but the Bishop of Meath, our Vice-Chancellor, interceded with the King, and procured the last order to be stopt.

September 28.—The Chappel-plate and the Mace were seized on and taken away. The plate was sent to the Custom-house by Colonel Lutterel’s order; but it was preserved by Mr. Collins, one of the Commissioners of the Revenue.

October 21.—Several persons, by order of the Government, seized upon the Chappel and broke open the Library. The Chappel was sprinkled and new consecrated and Mass was said in it; but afterwards being turned into a storehouse for powder, it escaped all further damage. The Library and Gardens and the Provost’s lodgings were committed to the care of one Macarty, a Priest and Chaplain to ye King, who preserved ’em from the violence of the souldiers, but the Chambers and all other things belonging to ye College were miserably defaced and ruined.[58]

We find in the Dublin Magazine for August, 1762, p. 54, the following petition of the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland, which was probably presented to James II. at this time:—

“Humbly Sheweth

“That the Royal College of Dublin is the only University of this Kingdom, and now wholly at your Majesty’s disposal, the teachers and scholars having deserted it.

“That before the Reformation it was common to all the natives of this country, as the other most famous Universities of Europe to theirs, respectively, and the ablest Scholars of this Nation preferred to be professors and teachers therein, without any distinction of orders, congregations, or politic bodies, other than that of true merit, as the competent judges of learning and piety, after a careful and just scrutiny did approve.

“That your petitioners being bred in foreign Colleges and Universities, and acquainted with many of this Nation, who in the said Universities purchased the credit and renown of very able men in learning, do humbly conceive themselves to be qualified for being competent and proper judges of the fittest to be impartially presented to your Majesty, and employed as such directors and teachers (whether secular or regular clergymen) as may best deserve it, which as is the practice of other Catholic Universities, so it will undoubtedly prove a great encouragement to learning, and very advantageous to this Nation, entirely devoted to your Majesty’s interest.

“Your petitioners therefore do most humbly pray that your Majesty may be graciously pleased to let your Irish Catholic subjects make use of the said College for the instruction of their youth, and that it may be a general Seminary for the clergy of this Kingdom, and that either all the bishops, or such of them as your Majesty will think fit (by your Royal authority and commission), present the most deserving persons to be directors and teachers in the said College, and to oversee it, to the end it may be well ruled and truly governed, and pure orthodox doctrine, piety and virtue be taught and practised therein, to the honour and glory of God, propagation of his true religion, and general good of your Majesty’s subjects in this realm, and as in duty bound they will ever pray,” &c.

And the following petition from the heads of the College appears upon the Register:—

“To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

“The Humble Petition of the Vice-provost, Fellows, and Scholars of Trinity College,

Near Dublin,

“Humbly Sheweth

“That your Petitioners have continued in the College under your Majesty’s most gracious protection, acting pursuant to the Statutes and Charters granted by your Majesty’s Royal Father and others your Royal Ancestors, And during your Majesty’s absence upon the 6th day of September last, by orders pretended to be derived from your Majesty, Guards were placed in the said College, That upon ye 16th of ye said month Sir John Fitzgerald came with a great body of armed men, and forceably dispossest your Petitioners, and not only dis-seized them of their tenure and freehold, but also seized on the private goods of many of your Petitioners, to their great damage and the ruin and destruction of that place; that upon the 28th of the said month, under pretence for a search for arms, seizure was made by one Hogan of the Sacred Chalices and other holy vessels belonging to ye Altar of the Chappel, and also of the Mace; that upon the 21st of October several persons pretending orders from the Government broke open the door of the Library, and possest themselves of the Chappel: by all which proceedings your Petitioners conceive themselves totally ejected out of their freehold, and despoiled of their propertyes and goods, contrary to your Majesty’s laws, tho’ your Petitioners have acted nothing against their duty either as subjects or members of ye College. May it therefore please,” &c.

November 20, 1689.—The Vice-Provost and Fellows met together and elected the same officers that were chosen the year before.

Facta est hæc Electio a Vice Præposito et Sociis Junioribus locum Sociorum Seniorum supplentibus, quam Præposito et Sociis Senioribus (cum conveniat) vel confirmandam, vel irritam reddendam reliquimus. R. Acton, G. Thewles, Js. Hall, J. Allen.

December.—About the beginning of this month Dr. Acton died of a fever.

At the Court at Dublin Castle, April 11th, 1690. Present the King’s Most Excellent Majestie in Council.

“Whereas His Majestie has been gratiously pleased to appoint the Right Honorable the L^d High Chancellor of Ireland to visit and view Trinity College, near Dublin, and the Records and Library thereunto belonging, and whereas his Majestie is given to understand this day in Council that Mr. George Thewles and Mr. John Hall have several Keyes belonging to ye said College in their custody, and refuse to deliver the same to his Lordship in order to view the said College records and Library; his Majestie is gratiously pleased to order, and doth hereby order the said Mr. George Thewles and John Hall, or either of them, forthwith to deliver the said Keyes to the L^d High Chancellor, as they shall answer the same at their peril.

“Hugh Reily, Copia Vera.”

Upon receipt of this Mr. Thewles and Mr. Hall consulted the Vice-Chancellor and delivered the Keyes.

April 15, 1690.—Received from Mr. George Thewles and Mr. John Hall, by his Majesties order in Council, ten Keyes belonging to the trunks and presses in the repository of ye College of Dublin by me.

Fytton, C.

June 14, 1690.—King William landed at Carrick Fergus, and the same day Mr. Thewles died of a fever.

July 1, 1690.—The armies of the English and Irish engaged at the Boyne, and the Irish being routed, King James returned that night to Dublin, and commanded his army not to plunder or do any harm to the city, which order was observed by ye Irish.

July 15, 1690.—Mr. Scroggs landed, and immediately after Dr. Browne, and then Mr. Downes, Mr. Reader, the Provost, &c.[59]

The Fellows and Scholars that returned were allowed their Commons, but their salary was reduced by agreement to the old Statute allowance, both for Fellowships and places, till the College revenues shall increase.

Before King William left Ireland he gave order to ye College to seize upon all books that belonged to forfeiting Papists; but the order not being known till about half a-year after, the greatest part of the books were lost, but those which were recovered, and worth anything, were placed in the Countess of Bath’s library.[60]

The interesting features in this crisis were, first, the steadfast and courageous behaviour of Dr. Acton and his three colleagues, two of whom sacrificed their lives for the good of the College; secondly, the excellent conduct of the two Roman Catholic priests, Moore and Macarthy, who not only exerted themselves with great humanity to save the Fellows and scholars and their property from outrage, but showed a real love and respect for learning, and a desire to maintain the College for the real objects of its foundation.[61] Thus, if it had not been for the narrowness of controversialists and the violence of soldiers, the assaults of Rome and Geneva were by no means so disastrous as might have been expected. Nevertheless, the College came out of the crisis of James II. with great loss of books, furniture, plate, rents—in fact, for the moment in great distress—but still the buildings were safe;[62] the character of the College must have been greatly raised by the conduct of its Fellows; there had been no time to occupy the estates with new adventurers; and the policy of the new King, in spite of his well-known Liberal instincts, must necessarily be strongly Protestant after the recent outburst of the opposite party under his opponent, and therefore made him a firm friend of the persecuted College.