newman's university, por f. mcgrath

NEWMAN'S UNIVERSITY: IDEA AND REALITY

NEWMAN'S UNIVERSITY IDEA AND REALITY

ly ~ERGAL McGRATH, S.J.

D.Phil. (Oxon)

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First published 1951

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To THE MEMORY oF

MY FATHER

Mathematical Tutor, Universiry College, Dublin, 1882-1892 Secretary, Royal University of Ireland, 1892-1908

Registrar and member of Senate, National Uni~ersity of Ireland, 1908-1923

De Licentia Superiorum Ordinis

Nihil ohstat: EnuARDUS MAHONEY, S.T.D., Censor deputatus

Imprimatur: E. MoRROGH BERNARD, Vie. Gen.

Westmonasterii, die 16a }unii, 1950

FOREWORD

THE story of Newman's connection with the Catholic University of Ireland is known to the large majority of readers solely from the three chapters devoted to it in Wilfrid Ward's biography, on which most other writers depend. As there narrated, its substance is that Newman was brought over to Dublin to be Rector of the University, that his ideas clashed with those of the Irish Catholic bishops, who were largely in control, and that, after seven years of nominal, and four of actual office he abandoned his task as hopeless. The whole episode appears as one of the most disappointing and even disastrous in his career, being redeemed only by the fact that it was the occasion for the writing of his Idea of a University and other essays on academic subjects.

To those who know only this presentation of the facts there would seem to be little reason for a lengthy history of an event which would be better buried in oblivion. It must, therefore, be stated at the out-set that Ward's account is one of the least satisfactory portions of his great biography, erring both by omission and by false emphasis. It omits entirely the historical background which explains so many of the difficulties that dogged Newman's path, and it dwells at length on the issues in which his plans were frustrated, without a balancing emphasis on the great body of constructive work which he was able to carry through. Recent writers in Ireland and elsewhere1 have been better informed, but their writings, though able and suggestive, have been, from the circumstances of their publication, necessarily com-pressed. Moreover, they have relied almost entirely on already pub-

1 Notably L. McKenna, S.J., "The Catholic University of Ireland" (a series of articles in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, March-May 1928); W. F. Stockley, Newman, Education and Ireland, undated; F. de Hovre, Le Catholicisme, ses Pedagogues, sa Pedagogie, Ill, "Cardinal J. H. Newman," 1930; Fernande Tardive!,]. H. Newman Educateur, .,1937; R. J. McHugh, Newman on University Education, 1944; "The Years in Ireland" (an essay in A Tribute to Newman, 1945); M. Tierney, "Catholic University" (an essay in the same volume).

vii

viii FOREWORD

lished sources, whereas there is available a wealt~ of unpublished matter dealing with the period.

Apart from the desirability of correcting Ward's account, there are many reasons why a detailed study should be attempted of this little-known episode in Newman's career. It forms an essential part of the history of Irish university education, and illustrates many educational principles of intrinsic interest and lasting value. Its pivotal point is the set of lectures which Newman composed as a send-off to the University, now universally known under the title The Idea of a University. This work, considered by many to be Newman's greatest, is almost universally acknowledged as an English classic, and it is remarkable that it is the only standard treatise on university education in that tongue. The ideas which it formulates had been germinating in Newman's mind during his thirty years at Oxford, but their final form was determined by events connected with the foundation of the Dublin University, and the history of Newman's Rectorship provides an essential gloss for the understanding of them. The impression is widespread that the Idea contains all that Newman had to say about university education. It is, indeed, surprising to find many writers on education who seem to have little or no acquaintance with the almost equally valuable sets of essays contained in what is now known as the Second Part of The Idea of a University, and the Historical Sketchc!s, Part Ill, Rise and Progress of Universities, both of which were the fruits of Newman's Dublin years, the former being addresses to the various faculties or societies of the University, the latter contributions to the University Gar.ette. But these works, like the Idea, are confined to establishing the widest principles. During the five years of his government of the University Newman is seen at grips with the prob-lems of higher education in the concrete, and the manner in which he applied or adapted those principles to actual circumstances gives an understanding of them which would otherwise be impossible. The reading of his University essays leaves many with the impression that they emanated from a mind keen and balanced when dealing with abstract principles, but somewhat unaware of the needs and demands of the changing world in which he lived. The history of his actual government of the University shows that there was hardly an admini-strative problem of living interest to-day which he did not resolutely face, and for which his solution has not been vindicated by the experience of a century.

In this work no attempt has been made to trace in detail the genesis

FOREWORD ix

of Newman's views during his Oxford years. This has already been accomplished, at least partially, by the biographers who deal with his early life. It is hoped that it has been sufficiently touched upon, but the main task has been to chronicle the immediate events which helped Newman to crystallise his ideas into such memorable literary form, and the subsequent events which illustrate those ideas in their practical working.

A few words must be said concerning the main sources from which this work has been compiled. My attention was. first drawn to the existence of hitherto unused material by the accidental discovery, some seven or eight years ago, of the entire files of correspondence of Dr. Woodlock, Newman's successor as Rector, covering the.years 1861 to 1879. This correspondence, which had been lost for some sixty years, was found during the renovation of No. 86 St. Stephen's Green, the University House of the Catholic University, now the headquarters of the Students' Association of University College, Dublin, and was placed at my disposal by Dr. Arthur Conway, then President of the College. It provides ample material for the later history of the Catholic University, but much of its contents consists of correspondence between Newman and his successor, and helps to throw light on the earlier period. The question then naturally arose where the correspondence ofNewman's period was to be found, and it was traced to the archives of the Birmingham Oratory. By the courtesy of the Oratorian Fathers, I was given full access to these archives, and they have provided the greater part of the matter for this book. Their contents, in so far as they concern Newman's Irish ven-ture, fall into three categories:

(a) A manuscript memorandum of 172 quarto pages, entitled by Newman My Connection with. th.e Catholic University, and a series of transcripts made by Newman of the letters or passages from letters which he considered to be of most importance for the history of the University, amounting to 654 quarto pages. On the first page of the memo'randum is the date November 25th, I87o. On the side of the same page is a note: "N.B. All these Papers are put together in a deal box on which 'Papers' is written. May 3 I, I 873." There is no indica-tion whether the first date marks the beginning or completion of the memorandum and tran~cripts, or whether the work was completed between the two dates. This memorandum and the transcripts were used by Wilfrid Ward, but as his treatment of the whole subject was confineq to three chapters, he omitted much that is of interest.

X FOREWORD

(h) Newman's diaries. These run from 1824 to 1871. There are complete diaries for the University years, z8p to 1859, butthe entries are very brief. There is also an abstract of the more important dates in his life, which begins with his birth-the events previous to I 824 being filled in from memory-and ends with December 1873. Ward seems to have used this abstract only, and it is sometimes necessary to correct it by reference to the original diaries.1

(c) Letters and transcripts of letters. There are two separate col-lections of these. The first is contained in the room known as the archivium, and consists of over three hundred files. Some contain originals only, some the originals of one correspondent and transcripts of the other, some transcripts only. About eighty of these files, con-taining some four thousand letters, deal directly or indirectly with the University. According to the Oratorian Fathers, the transcripts were made shortly after the Cardinal's death in 1890, under the direction of Father William Neville, who also edited the volume My Campaign in Ireland, to be referred to later. It is evident that various collections of letters were borrowed from different sources in order that the tran-scripts might be made. At a later date, some of these collections were purchased by the Oratory, so that both transcripts and originals are available. I have not endeavoured to trace the originals of all the transcripts. It would have been, after the lapse of fifty years, a tedious task, and would have added little or nothing to the accuracy of my work. Wherever the originals were available I have found the tran-scripts to be completely accurate. It may also be noted that at least half of this collection consists of originals.

The second collection of letters is contained in the Cardinal's study and consists entirely of originals. Fil_ial piety has left this room exactly as it was at the Cardinal's death, and the letters are stored in presses tied up in bundles, usually with an index sheet in his handwriting. One entire press, containing over a thousand letters, is devoted to the University. The transcripts made by Newman in 1870-73 are almost entirely from this second collection. Wilfrid Ward relied on the tran-scripts, and no biographer so far has had access to the original corres-pondence contained in either of the two Oratory collections. In deal-ing with this large body of manuscript material I have had the in-

1 There is reference in the Memorandum and in Newman's correspondence to "my University Journal." Ward (Vol. I, eh. xi, p. J2I) states that he was unable to find this, and a thorough search on my part failed to unearth what would doubtless have been a valuable document.

FOREWORD xi

valuable help of Father Henry Tristram of the Oratory, who has been long in charge of the archives, and without whose guidance this work would undoubtedly have taken double the time. Father Tristram very generously placed at my disposal the materials for a book on the same subject, on which he had done considerable work, but which he was unable to complete, owing to pressure of other tasks.

In making the transcripts Newman submitted his own letters to a certain amount of editing. This is confined entirely to small points of style, and in no case affects the sense. However, I have thought it more in consonance with historical method to give the original versions, which are available for almost the whole of this collection.

In addition to the W oodlock and Oratory correspondence I have had access to other valuable unpublished sources. The Archbishop of Dublin placed at my disposal a large body of correspondence between Dr. Cullen and Newrnan and other persons, contained in the Dublin diocesan archives. The diocesan archives of Tuam have yielded some valuable documents dealing with the university question in general, though neither in these archives nor those of Kerry (the diocese of Dr. Moriarty) has there been found any trace of correspondence with Newman. Other sources drawn upon have been the papers of Dr. Russell, President ofMaynooth College, collected some fifty years ago by his nephew, Father Matthew Russell, S.J., and now in the library of the Jesuit Fathers, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, and a small col-lection of letters from Newman to Thomas Scratton, Secretary of the Catholic University, given by his daughter to the same library. By permission of the Irish Government, I have been able to consult the State Papers in the Record Tower, Dublin Castle, and by that of the Minister for Education, theminutes of the National Education Board in the library of the Department of Education, Dublin.

I have not thought it necessary to encumber my text with references to the several collections in the Birmingham Oratory from which letters are quoted. As a rule, their sources are obvious. However, for the benefit of any scholar who may wish to consult the originals, I have deposited in the Oratory archives a schedule by means of which they may be located. Nor have I, as a rule, indicated the very few letters which have been used by previous authors. The abbreviations W.L., R.L., D.A., indicate respectively the Woodlock and Russell letters, and the Dublin diocesan archives. It may be taken that other letters are from the Birmingham Oratory archives, unless otherwise indicated.

xii FOREWORD

Amongst accessory unprinted sources I may mention a manuscript account of education in Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century by Father Lambert McKenna, S.J., who was Chairman of the Com-mittee set up by the Irish Government in 1922 for the reorganisation of primary education. To Rev. Dr. Fair, Lecturer in Education, Univer-sity College, Galway, I am indebted for numerous manuscript notes on secondary education in Ireland at the same period. Among the papers of Sir Thomas Larcom, the first permanent Under-Secretary for Ireland (1853-68), now in the National Library, Dublin, are three volumes of letters, documents and newspaper cuttings concerning the Catholic University. These commence at 1858, and hence do not deal specifi-cally with Newman's period of office, but they are a valuable source for the subsequent history of the University. A recent acquisition of the National Library is the correspondence of Lord Emly (William Monsell), which includes a certain number of letters dealing with the University question after 186o. Newman's own correspondence with Monsell, however, was acquired some years ago by the Birmingham Oratory.

Amongst printed sources, the most important is the volume entitled My Campaign in Ireland, published in 1896 by Father William Neville, of the Oratory, containing Newman's annual rectorial reports, papal documents, rules and regulations of the University, etc. I have also utilised a collection of syllabuses, regulations, reports and addresses of the University Committee, contemporary pamphlets, etc., contained in the library of the Jesuit Fathers, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin. The files of Newman's University Garette and of the Atlantis, the learned periodical which first appeared, under his inspiration, in 1858, have been of use. Other printed contemporary sources are indicated in the bibliography.1

It will be remarked that the larger part of the sources drawn on consists of letters or documents written by Newman himself or by his intimates. Though care has been taken to bring to light every avail-able outside testimony as to the merits or demerits of his work, such testimony is comparatively slight. Thus, to take an example, though the Dublin diocesan archives yielded much valuable matter, including over a hundred of Newman's letters to Dr. Cullen, they were found to contain little which would throw light on Dr. Cullen's private

1 I am particularly indebted to the Provost and Fellows of Oriel College for permission to consult the unique collection of Orielensia contained in the College library.

FOREWORD xiii

estimate of Newman, or to offer justification of Dr. Cullen's own views on the University.

This somewhat one-sided character of the sources has, however, its merits. It ensures that, at any rate, Newman's views are set out in full, and for most readers they are of paramount interest. There is, furthermore, the consideration that such a complex character as that of Newman is better judged from his own words and actions than from the views of others upon them. The elaborate care with which he prepared, in his old age, the memorandum and transcripts of letters goes to show that such a presentation of his views is in accordance with his own wishes, and this belief is confirmed by the tradition in the Oratory that he always hoped that he should be known to posterity through his own words.1

Lastly, some apology must be made for the great length of this book. For one thing, the subject has appeared to the writer to be of sufficient significance, both in Newman's life and in the history of education, to demand comprehensive treatment. For another, it would have seemed regrettable not to publish considerable extracts from the large body of matter available, since so much of it is from the pen of one of the greatest religious thinkers of all time, who is also one of the acknowledged masters of English prose.

I have already expressed my indebtedness to those who placed unpublished material at my disposal. It would be impossible to men-tion here all who helped me in other ways. One name, however, I cannot omit, that of Sir Maurice Powicke, Regius Professor of Modern History (now Emeritus) in the University of Oxford, who acted as my supervisor during the writing of this book and its presentation for the degree of D.Phil. It was a rare privilege to have the guidance of so distinguished a scholar and the encouragement of so sincere a friend.

1 Cf. Anne Mozley, Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman During His Life in the English Church, Introduction. Newman to his sister, Mrs. John Mozley, May 18th, 1863. "It has ever been a hobby of mine, though perhaps it is a truism, not a hobby, that the true life of a man is in his letters. Not only for the interest of a biography, but for arriving at the inside of things, the publication of letters is the true method. Biographers varnish, they assign motives, they conjecture feelings, they interpret Lord Burleigh's nods, but contemporary letters are facts."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For permission to use copyright material we are indebted to Messrs. Faber & Faber Ltd. for passages from Redbrick University by Bruce Truscot, and to Mr. John Murray for passages from}ohn Hungerford Pollen by Ann Pollen.

CONTENTS

Chapter Page I. THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

(1) The University Question (2) The National Schools 16

II. "THE GoDLESS CoLLEGES" 43

Ill. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND 84 IV. FIRST PLANS 103

V. THE DuBLIN DiscouRSES 125

VI. THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY 153

VII. DIVIDED CouNSELS 178

VIII. HESITATIONS 212

IX. THE BISHOPRIC MYSTERY 238

X. THE DISTRESSFUL CouNTRY 251

XI. THE SouL oF EDUCATION 273

XII. HoRIZONS 2 93

XIII. NEWMAN IN THE SADDLE 316

XIV. THE FIRST YEAR: INFLUENCE 336

XV. THE SECOND YEAR: DISCIPLINE 368

XVI. THE UNIVERSITY CHURCH 402

XVII. CoNFLICTING CLAIMS 419

XVIII. THE MIDDLE PLAN 449

XIX. RESIGNATION 469

XX. NEWMAN's AcHIEVEMENT 490

WoRKS CoNSULTED 512

INDEX 523 XV

CHAPTER I

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

(r) The University Question THE history of university education in Ireland up to the middle of the nineteenth century has the merit of simplicity. There was but one university, the University of Dublin, which contained but one college, that of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.1 It was, however, somewhat of a paradox that within such an uncomplicated system there should have existed, from the start, a remarkable obscurity as to the relation between its two constituent members. "Generally speaking," wrote Newman, " [a University] has grown up out of schools, or colleges or seminaries, or monastic bodies, which had already lasted for cen-turies; and, different as it is from them all, has been little else than their natural result and completion." 2 In the Charter of Incorporation of May 3rd, I592, Trinity College is twice designated as Mater Universi-tatis, 3 a title which, at first sight, would seem to suggest that it was intended by its royal foundress, Elizabeth, to be, in accordance with the usual course of history, the first stage in the formation of a univer-sity. 4 The same Charter, however, granted immediately to the College

1 On the medieval University of St. Patrick's, Dublin, see Note A at end of this section, pp. 13-14 infra.

2 Catholic University Ga1_ette, No. r, p. 3 Sedes Sapientiae. On the ohject of the Essays which are to follow. Afterwards reprinted in The Office and Work of Universities (r8;6), and in Vol. I of Historical Sketches: Rise and Progress of Universities ( r 872 ), Introduction.

a "Unum Collegium, matrem Universitatis, juxta civitatem Dublinensem ... erigere." "Quod de cetera sit, et erit, unum Collegium, mater Universi-tatis ... juxta Dublin." (Charta Eliza. 34 Eliz. Chartae et Statuta Collegii Sacrosanctae et lndividuae Trinitatis Reginae Eli1_ahethae juxta Dublin (I 844), PP r, 2.)

4 It should be noted that there is here no contradiction of the generally accepted fact that, historically, universities preceded their colleges, properly so called (cf. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Vol. eh. I, iv, pp. 197-98; eh. v, p. ;oo; A. Flexner, Universities, American, English,

B I


the power of admitting to degrees,! a power always considered to be the exclusive privilege of a university. This provision gave rise to the still unsolved problem of whether the University of Dublin and Trinity College should be regarded as two separate bodies, or as one body fulfilling two different functions, a problem whose interest lay not merely in its theoretical solution, but in its practical bearing on later proposals to set up further colleges within the University.

At successive stages in the history of the University the distinction between it and the College became more strongly emphasised, but never sufficiently to clear up the legal position. Already in the original Charter power was given to the Provost and Fellows of the College to elect the "Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Proctor and other University officers," whilst among the seven Visitors was nominated "the Chancellor of the University or his Vice-Chancellor." 2 These officers were duly elected, the first Chancellor being Burghley, but they had no juridical status beyond that conferred on them by the College. The Charter of James I, dated May 12th, I6IJ, emphasised the distinction by granting to the "aforesaid college and university" the right to send two representatives to parliament, and raised for the first time the practical issue involved, by giving as one of the grounds for this privi-lege the reason that measures might be proposed affecting the property not only of Trinity College, but" of other colleges or halls which may be in future erected and founded in the aforesaid university." Yet the same document continued to confuse the issue by stating that "the aforesaid college is, and is deemed to be a university, and possesses, enjoys and makes use of, all and singular the liberties, privileges and

German, Vol. II, p. 267). All that is implied in the passage from Newman is the existence of antecedent institutions of some sort, leading to the estab-lishment of a university. The case of Trinity College is an exceptional one, as, if the intention of Elizabeth were as indicated in the text, Trinity would be both an antecedent institution and a college proper of a university to be founded later. (On this theory see Note B at end of this section, especially the Opinion of Sir Joseph Napier.)

1 " ordinamus per presentes ut studiosi in hoc Collegio ... libertatem et facultatem habeant gradus turn Baccalaureatus, Magisterii, et Doctoratus juxta tempus idoneum, in omnibus artibus et facultatibus obtinendi." Chartae et Statuta, p. 7; Dublin Uniyersity Commission 1853: Report, p. 2; W. B. S. Taylor, History of the University of Dublin (1845), eh. i, pp. 7-9; J. W. Stubbs, History of the University of Dublin (1889), eh. i, pp. 7-8, eh. iv, pp. 96--98.

2 Chartae et Statuta, p. 8.

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 3 immunities pertaining to a university."1 With a view to clearing up the relation between the two bodies, Sir William Temple, the fourth Provost, drew up special statutes for the University and appealed to James I for separate charters, but nothing came of the project. 2 In the Act of Settlement of I 66o the distinction was again implied and the possibility of further development insisted on, by the power given to the Lord Lieutenant" to erect another College, to be of the University of Dublin, to be called by the name of the King's College."3 This projected college was never regarded as more than a possibility, and so, for two centuries and a half, Trinity College remained the only institution for higher education in Ireland. 4

In its Charter, Trinity College was declared to be an institution not only for the promotion of learning, but also for ''the cultivation of virtue and religion." 5 That the religion envisaged by Elizabeth was that of the Established Church may be concluded not only on general grounds, 6 but also from the words of the Queen to Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam and his Council, giving as one of the reasons for the founding of the College that it would dissuade her Irish subjects from travelling to "forreigne universities" where they became "infected with poperie and other ill qualities." 7 There was, however, no legal limitation of the students to any denomination. Many Catholics were members of the College in its early years, the Catholic Anglo-Irish gentry subscribed large sums for its support, and the land on which

1 Charta XI, Jac. I, Chartae et Statuta, Vol. I, p. 309; Dublin University Commission, 18 53: Report, p. 3, Evidence, p. 5; Royal Commission on University Education in Ireland, 1903: Final Report, p. 32; Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin, 1907: Final Report, Documents, p. 71; J. P. Mahaffy, An Epoch in Irish History, eh. iv, p. 162.

2 Stubbs, op. cit., eh. iv, pp. 29, 34, 36-38; Mahaffy, op. cit., pp. I67-69. 3 I4, I 5 Car. II, c. 2, sec. ccxix, Irish Statutes, Vol. II, p. 3 I 5; Dublin Uni-

versity Commission, 18 53: Evidence, p. 5; Taylor, op. cit., eh. i, p. 44 4 See Note B at end of this section, pp. 14-16 infra. 5 "Ut eo melius ad bonas artes percipiendas colendamque virtutem et

religionem adjuventur." Chartae et Statuta, p. 2. 6 Dublin University Commission, 18 53: Report, p. 2: "As this foundation

was made by Queen Elizabeth on the application of some of the heads of the Established Church in Ireland, the Institution was, at its commence-ment, and has ever continued in most of its essential characteristics, a Protestant Institution." Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin, 1907, Final Report, p. 44: "No doubt one of the objects of the Charter was the advancement of the Protestant religion."

7 December 29th, I592; Stubbs, op. cit., Appendix, p. 354 Original in Bodleian Library. MS. Smith, Vol. 8, p. 1.

4 NEWMAN'S UNIVERSITY: IDEA AND REALITY

the original buildings were erected was granted by the Corporation of Dublin, many-if not most-of whose members were Catholics.1 It was not until the time of the Statutes of Charles I (r637) that Catholics were in practice excluded from membership of the College by the obligation laid on "all students" of attending divine service and receiving the Holy Communion according to the Anglican rite, and by the oath against Popery (Pontificia Religio) to be taken by the Fellows. 2 Probably about the same date there was added an oath, on taking a degree, against transubstantiation,'' invocation and adoration" of the Blessed Virgin, and the sacrifice of the Mass. 3

The Catholic Relief Act of 1793 sought to remedy this condition of things by providing that it should be "lawful for Papists ... to hold or take Degrees, or any Professorship in, or be Masters or Fellows of any College to be hereafter founded in this Kingdom, provided that such College shall be a member of the University of Dublin .... " 4 Once again this proposed development of the Univer-sity remained in the region of possibilities, but a Royal Letter of 1794 made it possible, by a partial abolition of religion tests, for Catholics to proceed to degrees in Trinity College, though they were still debarred from scholarships and Fellowships.5 So matters remained

1 D. C. Heron, Constitutional History of the University of Dublin, eh. i, pp. 26-29; J. P. Mahaffy, eh. i of The Book of Trinity College, Dublin, p. r6; Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin, Final Report, p. 44

2 Charta sive Literae Patentes etc. etc. Caroli I, 13 Car. I, caput ix. De Cultu Divino. (Chartae et Statuta, p. 44 sqq.); Dublin University Commis-sion, 1853, Report, p. 44; Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin, 1907, Final Report, p. 44; Heron, op. cit., eh. ii, PP 45-49

3 Chartae et Statuta, p. 162. Consuetudines seu Regulae Universitatis Dublinensis pro Solenniori Graduum Collatione. These ''Consuetudines" were first published in 1778, but were of much greater antiquity. (Preface to Chartae et Statuta by the editor, Hercules H. G. McDonnell, p. viii.) In the first number of the University Calendar (1833, Introduction, p. 57), the editor, Dr. J. H. Todd, puts them as far back as 1627, and attributes them to Temple and Bishop Bedell, but there appears to be considerable doubt as to their date and origin.

4 33 Geo. Ill, c. 21, sec. 7; Dublin University Commission, 1853, Evidence, p. 5; Heron, op. cit., eh. iii, p. 90; Stubbs in eh. v of The Book of Trinity College, p. 91.

5 34 Geo. Ill. Chartae et Statuta, pp. 206-7. This concession was tacitly extended to Dissenters. (Heron, op. cit., eh. ii, p. 49; Dublin University Commission, 18 53: Repor_t, p. 4.)

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 5 for another half-century. A mere handful of the vast Catholic majority in the country availed themselves of the partial concession.1 There was no official declaration on the subject by the Catholic bishops, nor is there any definite intimation of their private views. They cannot, however, have looked with any favour on an institution where their subjects were tolerated on such unequal terms, and where they were exposed to constant temptation to sacrifice their faith. That there were not infrequent defections seems certain. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, voicing the opinion of the Young Irelanders, several of whom were themselves graduates of Dublin University, says: "They knew that Catholic students in the only University in the island were lured to apostasy and hypocrisy by the exclusive system on which it was founded." 2 Denis Caulfield Heron, whose attempt to challenge the religious bar will be mentioned later, states that "the apostasy for Scholarships in Trinity College, even now [ 1847] excites but little surprise," and adds that there was a common nickname, the "quin-quennes," applied to those who conformed outwardly to the Estab-lished Religion for the period of their scholarship. 3 Significant also is the evidence of John Stevelly, Professor of Natural Philosophy in Belfast Academical Institution, before the Commission of Irish Educa-tion Inquiry in r827: "In Trinity College, in Dublin, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics are admitted without signature; and they after-wards find that the opinions of the Church of England men are not so very discordant with their own views as they were led to suppose; they find that there are very profitable employments which they can get into, and they begin to question whether they might not attend to those without hurting their consciences." 4

The growth in wealth and influence of the Catholic population that cam~ with the relaxation of the Penal Laws and their final abolition by

1 Heron (op. cit., eh. iii, pp. 93-94) gives I 5 per annum (out of a Catholic population of seven millions) as a likely figure between 1794 and 1829. The Board refused to give him the exact statistics for these years. He quotes from a Return ordered by the House of Lords in 1845 to show that from 1829 to 1836 the average figure was about 30 per annum as against 350 Protes-tants. His figure of I 5 for the earlier period is based on the statement of an anonymous pamphlet of 1782 that the average total entrances per annum at that time were 144 and the whole number of undergraduates 565, of whom two-thirds were designed for the Church.

2 Young Ireland, eh. viii, p. 691. 3 Constitutional History of the University of Dublin, eh. vi, p. 192. 4 Fourth Report, p. 99

6 NEWMAN's UNIVERSITY: IDEA AND REALITY

the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 brought into stronger relief the contrast between their position and that of their Protestant fellow-countrymen in the matter of higher education. In 1834 a Bill was introduced into Parliament by Richard Lalor Sheil, one of O'Connell's ablest lieutenants in the Emancipation campaign, and himself a graduate of Dublin University, "for the admission of Roman Catholics and other Dissenters to Scholarships and certain Professorships" in Trinity College.1 The proposal was a modest one, for Sheil expressly excluded such professorships as had connection with religious instruction, and also Fellowships, which might entitle Catholics to a share in the government of the College. Nevertheless his Bill failed to secure even a first reading, and was denounced by T. L. Lefroy, 2 one of the members for Dublin University, as "the first step in the subversion of the Irish University, and through the subversion of that nursery of the Irish Church, to the total extinction of the Protestant religion in Ireland:" 3

Meanwhile the subject of university reform was being urged upon the Government by the counsels of another Catholic graduate of Dublin University, Thomas Wyse, a wealthy Waterford landowner and kinsman of Sheil. Wyse is better known to the general public through his later diplomatic career and stormy matrimonial affairs, but during his earlier life he devoted himself to educational matters, on which he was a prolific and able writer.~ His influence with the

1 Hansard, 3rd series, Vol. 23, p. 762; R. Barry O'Brien, Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland, 1831-1881, Vol. II, bk. xr, p. 335

2 Afterwards Baron of the Court of Exchequer. He was one of the judges in the trial ofJohn Mitchel in 1848.

3 Hansard, lac. cit., p. 766. ~His most important work was his Education Reform, or the Necessity of

a National System, (1836) a work dealing with almost every impqrtant aspect of education. The unpopularity which Wyse incurred with many of his fellow-countrymen by his support of undenominational education and his opposition to O'Connell on the Repeal issue has tended to obscure the sincerity of his efforts for educational reform and the frequent correctness of his views. In his Irish Education: A Historical Survey (eh. iv, "Sir Thomas Wyse and Irish National Education"), as also in his biography (Sir Tlzomas Wyse, 1791-1862), Mr. J. Johnston Auchmuty has recently paid a tribute to Wyse's influence on educational legislation both in Ireland and England, which is, on the whole, deserved, though, in the case of Ireland, his enthusiasm for his subject has led him to minimise other in-fluences, such as the work of the 1825-29 Education Inquiry Commission, and the writings and practical achievements of Dr. Doyle Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 7

Government was largely effective in bringing about the establishment of the National Board for Primary Education in 1831, but he was equally urgent, though less successful, in his proposals for secondary and university education. In parliamentary debates, in private corres-pondence with the Irish Secretary, Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby),and in the Report of the Select Committee on Foundation Schools and Edu-cation in Ireland (1835-37), of which he was Chairman, he vigorously urged the claim of his Catholic and Presbyterian fellow-countrymen. The solution for the university question proposed by him in the Report (1838) of the Committee on Education was the establishment of provincial academies, which might or might not be subordinate to a university, a proposal which was afterwards carried into effect, both in the constitution of the Queen's University and Queen's Colleges, and in that of the National University of Ireland, with its constituent colleges in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Though nothing came imme-diately of Wyse's suggestions, they undoubtedly played a pa!"t in making known in Government circles the existence of a demand which was steadily growing more insistent. In 1836, a committee was established in Cork to secure a university for that city, and at a large public meeting held on November 4th, 1838, Wyse was the principal speaker.

But another nine years were to pass before any action was taken by the Government. An incident occurred in 1843, unimportant enough in itself, yet significant as a practical demonstration of the inequality of the situation.1 A Catholic undergraduate of Trinity College, Denis Caulfield Heron, afterwards a prominent member of the Irish Bar and Member of Parliament for the County of Tipperary, was a successful candidate for a scholarship. He was one of a brilliant group from the town of Newry in Co. Down, of which another was John Kells lngram, author of the famous ballad "Who Fears to Speak of Ninety-eight?" Heron, with true Northern doggedness, determined to contest his right to the award. On the two succeeding Sundays, he failed to comply with the customary regulation of presenting himself for Communion in the College Chapel, 2 and ~as duly deprived of his

1 H. H. G. McDonnell and W. N. Hancock, Report of the Case of Denis Caulfield Heron against the Provost and Senior Fellows of the Visitorial Court of Appeal, Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin, 1846); 9th Irish Law Reports, p. 67.

2 ''After the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1793 and the subsequent

granting of the Royal Letter, admitting Roman Catholics to the University,


scholarship. He appealed to the College Visitors, who decided against him. The publicity given to this incident undoubtedly helped to move the Government to action, but there were far deeper and more powerful influences at work.

On June 9th, I844, Wyse once more brought the university ques-tion before the House of Commons. His immediate purpose was to improve the status ofMaynooth College, where the majority of candi-dates for the Catholic priesthood were educated, but he took the opportunity to press for a solutiol) of the whole problem of higher education in Ireland. It is interesting to note that on this occasion he adumbrated the three main solutions which, with slight variations, continued to be proposed up to the establishment of the National University of Ireland in I9o8, namely the founding of a Catholic University in Dublin, the opening of Trinity College to Catholics on completely equal terms, or the creation of further colleges within the University of Dublin, for the specific education of members of religious bodies other than the Established Church. Peel paid a tribute to Wyse's able exposition of the problem, and intimated that a solution would shortly be forthcoming.l On November I 3th, another large meeting was held in Cork to further the claims of that city to be the seat of one of the provincial colleges proposed by Wyse as a possible solution. Wyse was again the chief speaker, and his address, which lasted for several hours and covered the whole field of higher educa-tion, was afterwards reprinted as a pamphlet. 2

During that autumn, rumours had begun to circulate that the Government was about to introduce three measures for the redress of Irish grievances. The situation, indeed, called urgently for action. Under the leadership of O'Connell, the agitation for the Repeal of the Union had attained gigantic proportions. He had founded the Repeal Association in I 840, and, thanks to his own still immense prestige and the influential, if uneasy, adherence of the Young Ireland Party, the movement swept the country. In the pages of the Nation,

a bye-law was passed by the Board, that all candidates should, on Trinity Sunday, take the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the rites of the Established Church. It is to be remarked that no sacramental restriction is contained in the original charter (of Charles I)." Heron, op. cit., Appendix, p. 23)

1 Hansard, Vol. 142, pp. 1122-3). 2 Speech on the Extension and Improvement of Education in Ireland (Cork,

1845).

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 9 the organ of the Young Irelanders, edited by Charles Gavan Duffy, an ardent national spirit was manifested, which was made all the more telling by the excellence of its literary form. Monster meetings, attended by hundreds of thousands, were held all over the country, and though 0' Connell persistently proclaimed their pacific intention, the tone of the Nation gradually took on a more menacing note. The climax came on October 8th, 1843, when the last monster meeting for the year was to be held at Clontarf, on the outskirts of Dublin. The Government proclaimed the meeting, troops and artillery were held in readiness, O'Connell capitulated and, at the last moment, called the meeting off. He was prosecuted for conspiracy and sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of 2,ooo, but the judgment was reversed by the House of Lords. Once more he placed himself at the head of the movement for repeal, but with diminished prestige, and with a loss of physical energy which foretold the end of his career, and offered an opportunity for the emergence of men wedded to more violent measures than he had sanctioned.

The critical nature of the situation was aggravated by a political issue outside Ireland. The boundary line between Canada and the United States in the Oregon region had never been defined, and more than once the dispute about it had led Great Britain and the United States to the verge of war. In 1844 the Democratic National Conven-tion asserted the right of the United States to the entire territory of Oregon, and a militant section of the party, in which the numerous Irish exiles were prominent, called for drastic action. In the event of war, an armed revolt in Ireland would have been a serious menace to the British Government, and Peel resolved on a policy of conciliation.

Of the three measures which he proposed, one was a Land Bill based on the report of the Devon Commission of 1843, and intended to secure to evicted tenants compensation for improvements effected by them on their holdings. Modest and even meagre in its scope though it was, and totally inadequate to remedy the evils to which the Com-mission had given publicity, it failed to pass the House of Lords.l The second was a proposal to raise the annual grant to Maynooth College from 9;ooo to 26,ooo.2 It met with violent opposition from th~ extreme Protestant Party in Parliament, whose leader, Sir Robert Inglis, had, largely through the support of Newman and

1 Hansard, 3rd series, Vol. 8r, June 9th, 24th, 26th, 1845. 2 /bid., Vol. 79, April 3rd, rrth-r8th, 21st, 23rd-25th, 28th; Vol. So,

May 3rd, 5th, 19th-2rst; Vol. 8r, June 4th, roth, r6th, 23rd. B*

IO NEWMAN'S UNIVERSITY: IDEA AND REALITY

his friends, defeated Peel on the Catholic Emancipation issue at the famous Oxford election of 1829. Gladstone, though he approved of the measure, resigned from the Presidency of the Board of Trade on the ground that to give it official support would be inconsistent with the principles enunciated by him in his book, The State in its Relation with the Church. 1 The Bill, however, passed both Houses, and was welcomed by both 0' Connell and the Young Irelanders. The third measure was intended to solve the problem of higher educa-tion in Ireland. It aroused intense opposition in England, hastened the inevitable cleavage between O'Connell and the Young Irelanders, and was the first link in the chain of events which led up to what Newman was to designate "My Campaign in Ireland."

In broad outline, the scheme provided for three colleges of university standing in Belfast, Cork and either Limerick or Galway, which were to be constituent colleges of a new university, and were to be non-sectarian in the sense of being open to students of any or no religious belief. Appointment to all offices and professorships was to rest with the Government. The student oflrish history of the last century must be struck by the curious fact that in both the early measures for educa-tion, the establishment of the National Board for Primary Education in 1831 and that of the Queen's Colleges, the Government adopted a policy which was completely contrary to the traditions of their own country, and was, in fact, being obstinately opposed there by the large majority both of legislators and educationists. The English schools, both primary and secondary, and the two older English universities were autonomous arid denominational. Government assistance, when required, was given to them in the form of grants-in-aid, and even when, as in the case of London University, some control was assumed by the State, it was of a very limited nature, and confined to the central examining body, leaving their independence to the teaching institu-tions.2 In J:>oth the Irish schemes, the undenominational principle was rigorously applied and an almost complete system of Government control instituted.

1 John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. I, eh. ix, pp. 27o-79 A wit compared Gladstone's action to that of a lady's. footman who had recently jumped from an express train to retrieve his hat.

2 Graham Balfour, Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. xiv, 4--'7, 9-10; Frank Smiili, A History of English Elementary Educa-tion, eh. v-ix; J. W. Adamson, A Short History of Education, eh. xv-xvi; H. Hale Bellot, University College, London, 1826-1926, eh. vii (especially PP 247-48).


Confining the issue, for the moment, to higher education, it may be asked what were the motives which induced Peel to foster on one side of the Irish Sea a system which was so generally rejected on the other. There was, first of all, the practical problem of getting some-thing done. Wyse had already publicly expounded three possible solutions, and indeed they were obvious to anyone acquainted with the facts. But to an English Conservative Prime Minister all of them presented insuperable difficulties. The throwing open to Catholics of Trinity College would have met with vigorous opposition from its authorities, as the reception of Sheil's Bill had clearly shown. More-over, it would most probably have met with disfavour f~om the Irish Catholic hierarchy, as admitting unconditionally the principle of undenominational education. The establishment of a Catholic college within Dublin University would, at the time, have satisfied the Catholic body, but had as little chance of acceptance as the first plan by either Irish or English Protestants. The uproar caused by the increased grant to Maynooth precluded all idea of subsidising a purely Catholic uni-versity. Faced with these difficulties, Peel tried to steer a middle course which he believed would at least silence the Irish demands without exposing him to what Macaulay had christened "the bray of Exeter Hall."1

But apart from these practical considerations, there can be little doubt that deeper influences were at work in the minds of Peel and of the other English statesmen who turned their minds to Irish educa-tional problems in the early nineteenth century. On the Continent of Europe, notably in F ranee and Germany, the system of State-controlled, non-denominational education had been making steady progress ever since the revolutionary era. Its supporters could be divided roughly into two classes. There were, on the one hand, those who were influenced in varying degrees by a belief in State Aqsolutism which led them to claim education as the prerogative of the Government, and those whose religious liberalism or even positive materialism determined them to remove education from the control of private individuals or societies professing positive religious beliefs. More commonly these two views were found united in the same individual. On the other hand, there were those who had no such philosophic approach to the problem, but who saw that the voluntary system was

1 Maynooth College Bill, 2nd Reading, April 14th, 1845. Hansard, Jrd series, Vol. 79, p. 657.


growing incapable of dealing with the increased demand for education brought about by the changing social order, and looked to the State as the only body capable of remedying the situation. The majority of this school were not anti-religious, and their invocation of the non-denominational principle came from a conviction that, to do justice to all parties, the State must provide an education which all could accept. 1

In England it was this latter school of thought which prevailed, and it is obvious that it was less likely than the former to give rise to radical change. In point of fact, the battle between voluntary and more or less State-controlled education was undecided in England up to 1870. Even then it resulted in a dual system, with a considerable degree of local autonomy for even the State-supported schools. The new universities which were to spring up in the second half of the century were also to maintain the tradition of independence, though they accepted the undenominational principle. There can, however, be little doubt that, by 1845, even a Conservative Prime Minister must have foreseen the inevitable growth of State intervention, and been, to some extent, influenced by the arguments of its supporters. In his own country, however, any such leanings had to be carefully con-trolled. The Englishman's home was still his castle, and the power of the Established Church and the Nonconformist bodies-united, in the main, on this issue-was a formidable force with which to reckon. In Ireland, love of liberty and attachment t~ traditional religious beliefs were, it is true, at least as strong. But the position there was otherwise

1 In later chapters of this book the subject of undenominational education will be discussed at length. It may, however, be well to note briefly at this point that its protagonists have, in the main, never excluded religion com-pletely from the schools. The system commonly proposed is one in which "general principles of religion" are to be taught as part of the common curri-culum, whilst the particular tenets of the various denominations are to be re-served for the home or for special school hours. This system is usually traced back to La Chalotais, Essai d' Education Nationale (1763), and Basedow, V.orstellung an Menschenfreunde (1768), Das Elementarwerk (1774). It was popularised in England through the writings of Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), and perpetuated in English educational legislation by the Cowper-Temple clause in the Education Act of 1870. (See the excellent historical survey given by Professor Adamson, op. cit., eh. xii.)

The supporters of denominational education claim that such ''general principles of religion" are incapable of clear definition, and are inoperative without the authority of a definite religious belief. They hold, therefore, that, in practice, there is little difference between the system described and one in which religion is totally excluded from the common curriculum.

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 13 far different. The English people were in possession of an age-long heritage of p.olitical and cultural institutions. The main body of the Irish were struggling to regain that heritage. Thus, in this specific case of the university question, they had no long-founded establish-ments jealous of their rights, no vested interests to be disturbed, nor was there among them any social class which looked upon higher education as its prerogative. Hence it may well have appeared to Peel that they could be more easily induced to abandon their objection to State-controlled, undenominational education, in view of the imme-diate benefits which it would bestow.

No~E A. THE MEDIEVAL UNivERSITY oF ST. PATRICK's, DuBLIN It is generally conceded that the earlier foundation, that of St.

Patrick's, Dublin, never attained to the full status of a university. A Bull for the establishment of a Studium Generale in connection with St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, was issued by Clement V in 1312, on the petition of John Lech, Archbishop of Dublin. Statutes were drawn up in 1320 by Lech's successor, Alexander de Bicknor, and allusions found up to 1496 show that the institution functioned to a limited extent. An account of it was given by Monck Mason in his History and Antiquities of the Collegiate and Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, near Dublin (Dublin, 1819), pp. 10o-4. Newman's sketch of "The Ancient University of Dublin," first published in the Catholic University Gazette for 1854, and later included in his Office and Work oj Universities (Historical Sketches (London 1872), Vol. Ill, pp. 203-12), is merely a popularising ofMonck Mason's conclusions. Brief accounts are also given by Taylor, History of the University of Dublin, eh. i, pp. 2-3, and Stubbs, History of the University of Dublin from 1591 to 1800, eh. i, pp. 1-3. In 1920 new information was brought to light by E. B. Fitzmaurice and A. G. Little: Materials for the History of the Franciscan Province of Ireland, A.D. 1230-1450 (British Society of Franciscan Studies, IX; Manchester University Press, 1920, pp. 107-9). These and other authorities are cited in the short notice given in the revised edition of Rashdall's Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (1936), Vol. II, Appendices, pp. 325-27. The latest and most author-itative account is to be found in two articles," The Medieval University of St. Patrick's, Dublin," by Father A. Gwynn, S.J., published in Studies (Dublin), June and September 1938, which contain much previously unpublished matter.


Attempts made by Sidney in 1568 to revive this University, and by Sir John Perrott in 1585 to appropriate the buildings and endowments of St. Patrick's for new foundations at Armagh and Limerick, came to nothing, though supported by Elizabeth (Taylor, op. cit., pp. 3-5; Stubbs, op. cit., pp. 3-4; Heron, Constitutional History of the University of Dublin, eh. i, pp. ro-12). The former project was the occasion of Campion's coming to Ireland, and of the writing of his De Homine Academico (Simpson, Edmund Campion, 1896 ed., eh. ii, pp. 24-42). It is held by Dr. Mahaffy (An Epoch in Irish History, eh. i, pp. 29-30) that these schemes exercised a decisive influence oq Irish history by delaying the foundation of Trinity College for twenty-five years, thus enabling Catholic opposition to the Reformed Church to gat. under way.

NoTE B. DuBLIN UNIVERSITY AND TRINITY CoLLEGE For a fuller account of the relation between the College and the

University see Final Report of Royal Commission on University Educa-tion in Ireland, 1903, pp. 31-32; Trinity College and the University of Dublin, by Mosl Rev. Dr. W. J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin (a pamphlet published in 1902 and reprinted in Appendix of above Report, pp. 28-54); Royal Commission on Trinity College and the University of Dublin, 1907: Final Report, pp. ro, 38, 42, Notes pp. 6r-71.

The chief authorities cited for the view that the College and the University are separate bodies are: (r) The Visitors of the College in the case of Denis Caulfield Heron (see p. 7 supra; 9th Irish Law Reports, p. 56). (2) Opinion of Baron Fitzgerald, 1858 (Catalogue of Graduates of the University of Dublin, r 869, pp. x.xiii, xxv). (3) Opinion of Lord Chancellor Blackburne, 1858 (Catalogue of Graduates, 1896, Introduction, p. xi). (4) Rev. J. H. Todd, D.D. (Catalogue of Graduates, r869). Dr. Todd in the Dublin University Calendar, 1833, had previously held the contrary opinion. ( 5) Pamphlet of Sir J oseph Napier, formerly Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1871 (reprinted, Catalogue of Graduates, 1896). (6) Pamphlet of Archbishop Walsh, 1902 (vid. sup.). (7) Note by Chief Baron Palles (Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin, 1907: Final Report, Notes, PP' 61-71).

The view that the University and College constitute one body is supported by: (r) Rev. George Miller, D.D., An Examination of the Charte'rs and Statutes of Trinity College, Dublin, in regard to the sup-


posed distinction between the College and the University, I804. (2) Dublin University Commission, 1853; Evidence, p. ;, Answers of the Provost and Senior Fellows, sec. 3, Sec. 7 (3) Petition of I868 from graduates to Parliament for the maintenance of" the Protestant Constitution of the University of Dublin" (Royal Commission on University Ed~.:cation in Ireland, 1903; Final Report, Evidence, p. 33).

The issue is left undecided in the Final Report of Royal Commission on University Education in Ireland, 1903, pp. 3I-33, and the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Trinity College and the University of Dublin, 1907, p. IO. A decision of the Master of the Rolls, Sir Andrew Porter, in the matter of a bequest to "the Corporation of the Univer-sity of Dublin" (1888) is commonly cited as implying the identity of the two bodies, but this implication is denied by Chief Baron Palles (loc. cit., p. 68). Dr. Mahaffy (An Epoch in Irish History, eh. ii. pp. 63-65) confines himself to stating that "die College ... exercises all the functions of an University," a view which he holds to super-sede "the exclusive character of the rival arguments."

Arising out of this discussion, the following interpretations have been given to the title Mater Universitatis (references as above unless otherwise given): (I) The College was the Governing Body of the original University and hence ''paramount to all other colleges which might afterwards be erected" (Miller). (2) The College was the first in a series of colleges (D. C. Heron, Constitutional History o; the University of Dublin, eh. i, p. I 5 ). (Mentioned but rejected, Dublin University Commission, 1853.) (3) "That Trinity College shall be in itself a University." (Mentioned, with apparent approval, Dublin University Commission, 1853.) (4) "Because by the first foundation her children, and her children only, constituted the University" (Baron Fitzgerald). ( 5) ''Although by legal intendment it was founded by the Charter, it had afterwards to be brought forth, by the College as its 'mater'." The "period of gestation" was the seven years until the first Commencements (Conferring of Degrees), when "the University was brought to the birth" (Napier). (6) In practice, the University is "distinct from though dependent on its Mater, the College" (Royal Commission on Trinity College and the University of Dublin, 1907). (7) "By reason of it [the Charter] every student of the College became a student of the University" (Chief Baron Palles).

The present position is thus briefly summed up by one of the most recent historians of the University: "Dublin University as such never received formal incorporation. , The Board [of the College]


presents to the Senate or public congregation of the University consisting of the Chancellor, doctors in the several faculties, and masters of arts the 'graces' for degrees which are publicly conferred at a meeting of the University called 'Commencements' which is summoned for the purpose. The functions of the Senate incorporated in 1857 were subsequently enlarged. In 1874 the University Council was established by letters patent to co-operate with the Board in the regulation of studies, lectures and examinations and in the appoint-ment and regulation of the tenure of office ,'lnd duties of professors" (Constantia Maxwell, A History of Trinity College, Dublin, 1946, eh. i, pp. 6--]). A full account of the functions and relations of these various bodies will be found in The Consolidated Statutes of Trinity College, Dublin, and of the University of Dublin (ed. W. E. Thrift, 1926), especially eh. x-xiii.

(2) The National Schools h is at least probable that Peel was also encouraged by the partial success of the System of National Education introduced in 1831.1 He was, however, mistaken if he believed that the Irish Catholics had acquiesced in the principle of mixed education on which that system was founded. The truth was that they had accepted it as an uneasy compromise. It is, indeed, of the utmost importance for the under-standing of subsequent events to set out clearly at this stage the mental attitude of the Catholic clergy and people of Ireland towards a system of which they had now had experience for thirteen years, and for this purpose, even at the risk of tediousness, a glance must be thrown at the history of pril!lary education in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Up to 1811 such a phenomenon as mixed education was unknown in Ireland. 2 The various schools of the Established Church were

1 In the discussions in the House on the Colleges Bill his only reference to the subject was in the adjourned debate on the 2nd Reading, June 2nd, 1845, when he argued that young people who had been educated together in the National Schools should remain united at the higher stage. (Hansard, 3rd series, Vol. So, p. 1282.) Stanley, however, on the introduction of the Bill, May 9th, referred to the "remarkable success of that the [National Education] system." (Ibid., p. 350).

2 i.e. undenominational education as a deliberate policy. Circumstances sometimes accidentally led to the common education of Catholic and Protestant children, but the schools were always regarded as belonging to one or other denomination.

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND I7

avowedly foundations for the instruction of children in the tenets of that Church. The few which provided secondary education, the Diocesan Free Schools of Elizabeth, the Royal Free Schools of James I, the Erasmus Smith Grammar Schools, and a few privately endowed institutions, contained mainly the children of Protestant parents.1 The vast majority, which provided for primary education only, were either founded specifically for the education as Protestants of the children of Catholics, or at least had this end as one of their chief objects. The most notable of these were the schools of the Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland, commonly known as the Charter Schools (1773), the schools of the Association for Discountenancing Vice and Promoting the Knowledge and Practice of the Christian Religion (1792), those of the London Hibernian Society (18o6), the Baptist Society (1814), and the Irish Society for Promoting the Education of the Native Irish through the medium of their own language (1818).2

A few of these bodies, as, for instance, the Association for Dis-countenancing Vice, modified their constitution from time to time so as to permit Catholic children in their schools to practise their religion. The provisions made were, however, very imperfect. Sum-ming up the educational activities of the period, one of the most recent writers on the subject, Mr. J. Johnston Auchmuty, formerly Lecturer in Education, Trinity College, Dublin, states: "From the time of the Reformation ... the main aim of the entire legislation on the subject was to proselytise the Irish to the Anglican faith and to make English

1 Reports from the Commissioners of the Board of Education in Ireland, 1809-12: First Report, pp. 1-9; Second Report, p. u; Fourth Report, pp. 113-I7; Fifth Report, pp. 119-37; Ninth Report, pp .. 217-45; Twelfth Report, p. 279; First Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 18 2 s, pp. 3-5; Report from the Select Committee on Foundation Schools and Education in Ireland (hereafter referred to as Wyse Report), pp. 43-62; Report of Endowed Schools Commission, 18 58 (hereafter referred to as Kildare Report), pp. 1-31,47,64, 107, 137; Graham Balfour, The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 193-95.

2 Reports from the Commissioners of the Board of Education in Ireland, 1809-12: Third Report, p. 15, Appendix, pp. 324-25; First Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1825, pp. 5-37, 65-70, 82-84; Balfour, op. cit., p. 91. On the Charter Schools see also Report of Royal Commission of Inquiry into Primary Education (Ireland) 1870 (hereafter, referred to as Powis Report),Vol.VIII, pp. 103 seq.; J. A. Froude, The English in Ireland in the 18th Century, bk. IV, eh. i, pp. 573-81, bk. vn, eh. ii, pp. 491-93; Lecky, History of Ireland in the 18th Century, Vol. I, pp. 233-38.


the lingua franca of the country." Of the Charter Schools he says: "The Charter Schools did not adopt an avowedly proselytising atti-tude until 1775. None but Roman Catholic students were admitted between that year and 1803, and horrible tales are told of the methods employed to fill these establishments with would-be converts." And of the Association for the Suppression of Vice and the London Hibernian Society: "Both of these societies quite obviously were .intended to act as proselytising agencies, and as such were suspect to all Roman Catholics. They made capital only out of the misery of the people amongst whom they lived."1

On the Catholic side, the schools were as uncompromisingly denominational. Anything like well-organised secondary or higher education had been rendered impossible by the Penal Code, 2 and was sought on the Continent by many of the Catholic laity and by all Church students until towards the close of the eighteenth century. At home, the sole source of education for the Catholic population was provided by the so-called "hedge-schools," which maintained a pre-carious existence in obscure surroundings, and these were regarded both by their supporters and the Government which proscribed and spasmodically suppressed them as outposts of the Catholic faith. 3 After the Relief Acts of 1782 and 1793, more organised schools, mainly

1 Irish Education: A Historical Survey, eh. iii, pp. 59, 6o, 68. 2 The, chief provisions which affected education were contained in the

Act of Uniformity, 1665. Irish Statutes 17 and 18, Car. II, c'. 6, the Act to Restrain Foreign Education, 1695, 7 William III, c. 4, and Irish Statutes, 2 Anne, c. 6, 1703, 8 Anne, c. 3, Sect. 16, 1709, and 8 Anne, c. 3, 1709. Their main prescriptions, which aimed at the total suppression of Catholic schools, are succinctly set out by T. Corcoran, State Policy in Irish Educa-tion, 1586-1816, pp. 84, 91, 94, 95

3 Recent research has thrown much light on the activities of these schools, which provided, under extraordinary difficulties, not only a sound elemen-tary training, but also a considerable degree of higher instruction in the classics, Irish and English literature, and mathematics. With the relaxation of the penal laws in the second half of the century the hedge-schools could function more openly, and they are then commonly designated "pay-schools." In this latter period there sprang up in the towns more formally established pay-schools, styled "classical academies," which provided both primary and secondary education. See T. Corcoran, S.J., State Policy in Irish Education; Education Systems in Ireland from the Close of the Middle Ages; Some Lists of Catholic Lay Teachers and their Illegal Schools in the later Penal Times; P. J. Dowling, The Hedge Schools of Ireland; M. Brenan, Schools of Kildare and Leighlin; P. O'Connell, The Schools and Scholars of Breijfne, eh. v-ix.


primary, began to appear, and these again were all under the direction of the Catholic clergy or the members of various religious congrega-tions of men and women.1

The first ap'pearance of "mixed education" was in r8n, with the foundation of the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland, afterwards known from the site of its headquarters in Dublin as the Kildare Street Society, or the Kildare Place Society. It received large Government subsidies, which were to be devoted in the main to the assistance of existing schools by grants and by the training of teachers. It was the first official educational institution to show signs of enlightenment. Advice was taken from the best-known sources as to the methods to be employed, and Joseph Lancaster, the leading figure in English educational circles at the time, was present at the inaugural meeting. The Society was declared to be completely unsectarian, and in the schools receiving its support no books were to be used which inculcated the teachings of any particular religious denomination, but the Bible was to be read without note or comment. 2 In view of the guarantees given that there would be no interference with religious beliefs, the Society received considerable support from the Catholic body, though many distrusted it from the start. It soon became apparent that it was far from holding the balance even between the various religious denominations. Out of a managing board of thirty-two, only two were Catholics-one being Daniel O'Connell-and the distribution of assistance showed the same bias. In r82o the Society abandoned its professedly undenominational principles, and began to subsidise the Hibernian Society, the Baptist Society and the Association for Discountenancing Vice. O'Connell resigned from the board and its schools were denounced by the Catholic clergy. The Government, however, continued its grants up to the establish-ment of the Natio~al Board in r8Jr.3

1 Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry: First Report, 1825, pp. 86-89; Second Report, r 826, pp. I 7-I 8, 86-I 3 5; Thomas Newenham, A View of the Natural, Political and Commercial Circumstances of Ireland (r8o9), Preface, pp. xiii, xix, Appendix XXVI, p. 36; W. J. Fitzpatrick, The Life, Times and Correspondence of Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Vol. I, pp. uS, 217, 412, 489, 5 ro; Vol. II, IIJ, 254-5 5; Lecky, History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, eh. v, p. 425; T. Corcoran, Education Systems in Ireland from the Close of the Middle Ages, PP I 55-56.

2 On this provision, see infra, p. 30, note 3 3 Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry: First ReP.ort, 1825, pp. 37-58;

Kildare Report, I858, Vol. I, p. 126; Report from the Select Committee of the


In 1782 and 1787-88 John Howard, the philanthropist, visited Ireland and inspected the Charter Schools. The revelations which he made1 of the cruelty and neglect to which their pupils were subjected led to a Parliamentary Commission, 1788-91, which was followed by another Commission in r8o6-r2. The specific purpose of these two Commissions was to inquire into the condition of Endowed Schools, but their investigations produced much general information about all types of school, and thus paved the way for the Commission of Irish Education Inquiry of 1824-27, whose Report, in nine volumes, is one of the chief sources for Irish educational history.

It may be remarked in passing that Howard's revelations concerning the Charter Schools bore incredibly little fruit. The Commission of 1788-91 confirmed all his findings. It drew up two Reports, neither of which was published at the time. The first has been lost, but the final Report of 1791 was published by the Endowed Schools Corn- mission of 1854-58.2 It described the children of the Charter Schools as "half-starved, half-naked, and covered with cutaneous disorders, the effects of filth and negligence." 3 The 1806--12 Commission declared that "from the period of Mr. Howard's Report ... no con-siderable Reformation had taken place in the State of the Schools." 4 Some half-hearted attempts at reform were made at this time, but the investigations of the Commission of 1824-27, made forty years after

House of Lords appointed to Inquire into the Practical Working of the System of National Education in Ireland, 1854 (hereafter referred to as Lords' Committee, 1854). Much information in Evidence. References to be found in Index. R. Barry O'Brien, Fifty Years of Concessions to Ireland, 1831-1881, eh. vi; T. Corcoran, State Policy in Irish Education,- pp. 141, 203 sqq.

H. Kingsmill Moore, An Unwritten Chapter in the History of Education, gives the case for the Kildare Place Society.

1 The State of the Prisons of England and Wales, with preliminary Observa-tions and an account of some foreign Prisons and Hospitals ( 1784) (this was the third edition, the first having appeared in 1777 before his visits to Ireland). pp. 208-9; An Account of the Principal Latarettos in Europe with various papers relating to the Plague together with further Observations on some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals and additional Remarks on the present state of those in Gt. Britain & Ireland (London, 1789), sec. vii, pp. 101-24; Anon., The Life of John Howard, Esq., The Philanthropist (Edinburgh, 1825), pp. IJ8, 151, 176-78; Edgar C. S. Gibson, John Howard (London, 1901), eh. iv, p. 49, eh. vii, p. 123, eh. viii, pp. r6o, 163.

2 Report, Vol. II, pp. 341-'79 3 Ibid., p. 3)7. 4 Third Report, 1809, p. 23.


Howard's visits, produced a sorry tale of dishonesty and ill-treatment.1 The Charter Schools were, indeed, only a section of the schools under Protestant qJ.anagement and receiving State aid, yet their history cannot be left out of count in estimating the mental attitude of Irish Catholics at this time towards educational projects for their children which were not under their own entire control. James Godkin, a Nonconformist clergyman who afterwards turned to journalism and was the author of numerous works, chiefly on religious history, writes thus of the Charter Schools, of which he had first-hand knowledge:

"The impression produced on the Catholic mind by such an institution as this, and the connexion of the Bible, as a school-book, with a system of such dishonesty, cruelty, rapa~ity, and impiety, was surely calculated to bring 'Scriptural education,' so called, into very bad odour. Could the body who had maintained and fostered this system for so long a time, warring against honesty and humanity in the name of a purer Christianity-building religion on the ruins of natural affection and of a good conscience-could such a body be rationally trusted again with the education, at the public expense, not only the 'the children of the church,' but of millions beyond her pale? " 2

The immediate occasion of the Commission of 1824-27 was a petition presented by the Catholic bishops to Parliament in 1824, demanding a more equitable form of assistance for education than had been provided by the Kildare Place Society. According to Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, the leader of the Catholic party in the educational struggle, the bishops had hoped for a Parliamentary

1 First Report, pp. 5-30. Appendix, Evidence, pp. 2D-JJ8. The children were described as "ill-fed and badly clothed, and affected with diseases which, by ordinary care and attention, might have been easily cured." They were ''sullen and dogged," and in some cases appeared ''to have been treated with great severity" (Report, p. q). One boy had received in a day "100 Lashes in all for a sum in Long Division" (p. 16). Eight others, for ''look-ing at two Policemen playing ball in cthe Boys' Ball Alley," had been "so severely punished that their persons were found by one of the Commis-sioners in a shocking state of Laceration and Contusion" (pp. 16-17). At Clonmel, the Usher "used on all occasions a common Horsewhip," and it was stated that "he often gave four dozen lashes with his utmost strength, and that the Boys have been beaten until the Blood ran down upon the Flags" (p. 20 ). Yet in the year of that Report, Parliament voted 21 ,ooo for the support of these institutions (Hansard, 3rd series, Vol. So, p. 350).

2 Education in Ireland, eh. iii, pp. 38-39

22 NEWMAN'S UNIVERSiTY: IDEA AND REALITY

Commission, but the efforts of the Protestant eaucation SOCletleS succeeded in having a Royal Commission substituted, whose members were favourable to them. "Thus," said Dr. Doyle, "all our hopes were blasted, and from that hour to this, we looked with doubt and apprehension to whatsoever ~e have witnessed on the part of this Commission, and to all that has been emanated from it." With this conviction he set about organising an independent system of schools for his own diocese.1

That the bishops, at this stage, anticipated a further application of the principle of mixed education introduced by the Kildare Place Society is evident from the following passage in their petition of 1~24:2

"That in the Roman Catholic Church the literary and religious instruction of youth are universally combined, and that no system of education which separates them can be acceptable to the members of her communion. . . . That schools whereof the master professes a religion different fro.m that of his pupils, or from which such religious instruction as the Catholic Church prescribes for youth is excluded ... cannot be resorted to by the children of Roman Catholics.".

The traditional Catholic philosophy of education which is briefly enunciated in this declaration has so much bearing on the contro-versies which ensued, and has so often been the subject of misunder-standing, that a somewhat fuller exposition of it may be justified at this point. 3 In common with all educationists, Catholics hold that education is a training of the whole man, intellectual and moral. In common with all who accept religious beliefs, they hold that it must in-clude training in these beliefs since they form part, and the highest part, of man's intellectual heritage, and on them morality is founded. But further-and here they part company with the vast majority of even other Christian educationists-they hold that religion is so essentially re-

1 Pastoral Letter, September 4th, 1826. W. J. Fitzpatrick, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 486-89.

2 The full text is given in First Report of the Commissioners of lrifh Educa-tion Inquiry, 1825, pp. 1-2.

3 The official legislation of the Catholic Church on education is contained in the Codex Juris Canonici, Titulus XII, De scholis, Canons 1372-1383. The most recent authoritative statement of the philosophical and theo-logical principles underlying this legislation is to be found in the Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, Divini filius 4/agistri (1929), in which reference is made to early documents, especially the pronouncements of Pius XI and Leo XIII.

THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 23 lated to all othet human knowledge that it is impossible to convey that knowledge faithfully to the learner's mind without a constant reference to religion. That reference will be more or less explicit in various departments of knowledge, but, if it be excluded, both secular know-ledge and religion will be presented to the mind in a more or less false light, and this false presentation of the relation of human events to the Creator will have a weakening effect on religious belief, which is all the more dangerous because it is subtle and gradual.

In the light of this conviction the objection of Catholics to mixed schools becomes clear. When persons of different religious beliefs are educated together this can only be done either by excluding from secular teaching all reference to religious considerations-in the popular phrase, teaching religion and other subjects in watertight com-partments-or else by diluting the religion taught to a lowest common factor of the beliefs of the persons concerned-the idea inspiring the modern plan of an "agreed syllabus." The Catholic Church holds that either of these courses involves a false presentation of the whole scheme of being. In other words, it is not the mere "mixing" of the pupils that is objected to, but the consequent inevitable "mixing" of what is taught. In this connection it may be noted that the term "neutral education," which is used in the Code of Canon Law as a!). alternative for "mixed education," is more expressive and less liable to misinterpretation.

There is the further difficulty that the uniting of pupils of various denominations renders impossible that constant, outward and cor-porate worship which Catholics believe to be necessary for a full religious life. In the normal Catholic school religious emblems are displayed, the religious motive is constantly appealed to as an incentive to industry and order, familiar devotional practices occur at frequent intervals, and teachers and pupils regularly unite for more solemn functions. These manifestatiohs are regarded not as mere adorn-ments, but as necessary expressions of inward belief, and their absence and their relegation to stated times or places is held to be a further falsifying of the relations between man and his Creator.

Such are the objections offered by Catholics to mixed education as a system, even when its terms are faithfully carried out. It is, however, also believed by them that, in practice, mixed education is hardly ever truly' neutral, from the fact that every teacher is, both by his example and the views which he at least unconsciously expresses, a propa-gandist for religious or anti-religious views of some sort.

NEWMAN's UNIVERSITY: IDEA AND REALITY

And here again it will not be superfluous to define accurately what was meant by the word "proselytism," which occurs so constantly-often in a vituperative sense--both in Catholic writings and Govern-ment documents1 of the period. It must first be noted that the word proselytism is used in two different senses. There is first the original sense, the attempt to convert others by conviction. Such an action is, of course, believed by Catholics to be as laudable on the part of others as themselves. On the other hand, in common with all who do not profess indifferentist principles, they believe it to be a duty to resist it. Furthermore, even such proselytism may at times become repre-hensible, on account of some explicit or implied contract not to practise it, as, for instance, in the care of children. In the second sense, the word proselytism is applied to the attempt to secure, for material considerations, outward conformity to a creed which the proselyte does not inwardly embrace, or the surrender of children to be brought up in such a creed. This form of proselytism is held by Catholics, as presumably by all enlightened men, to be immoral under all circum-stances, since it involves co-operation in the bad faith of others. 2

It has already been seen that proselytism of Catholics, in both senses of the word, had been openly practised during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and that the first experiment in mixed education had ended in the alliance of the Kildare Place Society with

1 Cf., for instance, Stanley's letter to the Duke ofLeinster, p. 29 infra. 2 That this exposition of the Catholic attitude towards proselytism is not

superfluous may be gathered from a passage in Dr. Mahaffy's An Epoch in Irish History, written as late as 1903 (eh. v, pp. 208-9). In 1629 three students of Trinity College, Dublin, being "troubled in conscience about their religion," secretly consulted two friars, who endeavoured to convert them to Catholicism. Dr. Mahaffy adds this comment:

''In these latter days when we read the Roman Catholic Bishops' fulminations against proselytism, it will be for the historian to remind his readers that so long as men believe that their own creed is the only way of salvation, they will move heaven and earth to make one proselyte. Nor will they admit that the means they employ can be reprehensible, provided the grand object of saving souls is attained. There follows even naturally the absurd consequence, that what each side does zealously as a religious duty is imputed to its opponents as a crime."

It will be obvious, from what has been said above, in what sense Catholics regard proselytism "as a crime," and in what sense as "a religious duty," that they do hold certain means to be reprehensible, even for "the grand object of savil}g souls," and that they make no difference in this matter between meir opponents and themselves.


the proselytising bodies. It was, therefore, not unnatural that the Catholic bishops should contemplate a further and more extensive experiment on those lines with double apprehension, as being at variance in itself with Catholic educational principles, and as offering obvious facilities, if abused, for the bringing to bear on the children of the poorer members of their flock both intellectual and material influences dangerous to their faith.

As the work of the Royal Commission went on, it became apparent that its recommendations would, indeed, be in favour of some form of mixed education, but with safeguards for religious beliefs.1 In 1824 and 1825 tentative proposals were made on these lines by the Com-missioners to the Catholic bishops,2 who on January 26th, 1826, expressed in a series of resolutions their willingness to accept a certain degree of compromise. The first resolution ran as follows:

" 1. Having considered attentively a plan of national education which has been submitted to us-Resolved, that the admission of Protestants and Roman Catholics into the same schools, for the pur-pose of literary instruction, may, under existing circumstances, be allowed, provided sufficient care be taken to protect the religion of the Roman Catholic children and to furnish them with adequate means of religious instruction."

'f.hat this resolution was very far from being an acceptance of the principle of mixed education is clear, not only from its wording, but from the nature of the conditions which were then set out. In all schools where the majority of the children were Catholics, the master or mistress was to be a Catholic, and where there was a Catholic minority, a Catholic assistant was to be employed, both to be appointed by the bishop. The training of all teachers should be in the hands of

1 First Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, 1825, p. 89: "In a country in which such marked divisions exist between different classes of the People ... it appears to us that Schools should be established for the Purpose of giving to Children of all religious Persuasions such useful In-struction as they may severally be capable and desirous of receiving, without having any Grounds to apprehend an Interference with theit respective religious Principles." Ibid., p. 92: "We are of opinion that it is desirable to unite Children of the different religious Persuasions in Ireland, for the Purpose of instructing them in the general Objects of literary knowledge, and to provide facilities for their Instruction separately where the Difference of religious Belief renders it impossible for them any lon~er to learn together."

2 Ibid., pp. 95-96.


persons of their own religious denomination. Books f