The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
History
The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
The series of Provosts to whom I have referred--Ashe (1692),
G. Browne (1695), Peter Browne (1699), Pratt (1710)--were all
promoted to Bishoprics, except the first Browne, who died of the
blow of a brickbat which struck him in a College row, and Pratt,
who was so insignificant that he could only obtain a Deanery as a
bribe for his resignation. Of these but one man has left a name,
Peter Browne[72] who composed a work on the “Procedure of the
Understanding,” evidently called forth by the recent Essay of
Locke, which had been introduced into the post-graduate course
by Ashe, and was then very popular. More celebrated, and more
interesting in this history, is the well-known Charge to the clergy
of Cork _on drinking healths_, in which the Bishop criticises “the
glorious, pious, and immortal memory” so dear to Irish Protestants,
and all such other toasts, as senseless, heathenish, and offensive.
It was always understood by his contemporaries that this Charge
showed the writer to be a Jacobite, and when we hear of the
long struggle of Provost Baldwin in subduing this spirit in the
College, we may fairly conjecture that during the reign of Browne
(1699-1710) it was allowed to grow without active interference.
It may indeed be thought that the declaration of loyalty to Queen
Anne, drawn up and signed by the Senate in 1708 (Stubbs, Appendix
xxxiv.), where Peter Browne’s name as Provost appears next to
the Vice-Chancellor’s, is evidence against this statement. The
declaration was caused by the speech of one Edward Forbes, who
was deprived of his degrees. I do not, however, think this merely
formal declaration can overcome the indirect, but serious evidence
of the Bishop’s personal Charge. There seem to be very few details
published concerning this remarkable man’s life. But a group of
famous young men were then passing through the College--Swift,
Berkeley, Delany; and King, an old scholar, was Archbishop of
Dublin. Berkeley was a Fellow, but we hear nothing of him in the
College politics of the day.[73]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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