His treatise of the conversion of Philip Curwin. Kilmore again left without a bishop. and under the peculiar circumstances already mentioned. And on the present occasion, by her mandate dated at Westminster, July 12, 1591, the queen gave orders for remitting to this prelate the payment of his first fruits for the archbishoprick, amounting to 1377. 13s. 1d., on account of his great hospitality, as also for his painful and true service to the queen of a long time continued, being her ancientest counsellor in that kingdom". He is not included in the History of the Writers of Ireland; but, on the authority of the Oxford Antiquary", there has been ascribed to him a small treatise, entitled, The Conversion of Philip Curwin, a Franciscan Friar, to the Reformation of the Protestant Religion, A. D. 1589, published by Robert Ware, Dublin, 1681, from two copies of the original, remaining among Primate Ussher's and Sir James Ware's papers". Philip Curwin was a nephew of Hugh Curwin, who succeeded Archbishop Browne in the see of Dublin, on his deprivation by Queen Mary. It should seem that the Lord Deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliams, who had succeeded Sir John Perrot the year before the promotion of the new primate, did not attach the same importance as his predecessor to the occupancy of the bishoprick of Kilmore since, after the promotion of Bishop Garvey, that see continued without a pastor above fourteen years. This defect is said to have been occasioned by the confusion of the times. But, whatever was the cause, it must have been very inadequately supplied by the custodium of the bishoprick, during the vacancy, being granted to the Bishop of Down and Connor, remote as those 30 WOOD's Athen. Oxon., i. 715. 32 WARE, p. 231. 29 Rolls, 31 Eliz. 31 WARE'S Bishops, p. 96. charges are from each other, and separated by three intervening dioceses. Though the plan for forming a college in Dublin, as originally projected, under the government of Sir John Perrot, had failed of success, principally from the opposition of the archbishop, who resisted such an appropriation of the revenues of one of his cathedrals, a similar plan was soon afterwards proposed by the same prelate, and accomplished in the foundation of the college of Dublin, or, to describe it by its more comprehensive and dignified appellation, of the Dublin University. For this purpose, in 1590, "In Easter holydays," as Sir James Ware defines the time, "Adam Loftus, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, with others of the clergy, met the mayor, and aldermen, and commons of the city, at the Tholsel, where he made a speech to them, setting forth how advantageous it would be to have a nursery of learning founded here; and how kindly her majesty would take it, if they would bestow that old decayed monastery of All-Hallows, which her father, King Henry the Eighth, had, at the dissolution of the abbeys, given them, for erecting such a structure;' whereupon the mayor, aldermen, and commons unanimously granted his request"." New plan for a college in Dublin; Proposed and effected by Arch bishop Loftus. 1590. site granted by the mayor and aldermen. Within a week after, Henry Ussher, archdeacon of Dublin, went over into England to the queen, in order to procure a licence for the intended foundation. The queen readily granted the petition; and, by warrant, dated the 29th of December, 1591, Queen's warrant, ordered a licence of mortmain to pass the seals for the grant of the abbey of All-Hallows, which is 33 WARE'S Annals. December, 1591. Letters patent for the erection. Aid sought from the gentry, recited to be of the yearly value of 207.; and for the foundation of such a college by way of corporation, with a power to accept such lands and contributions, for the maintenance thereof, as any of her subjects should be charitably moved to bestow, to the value of 400l. a-year. On the 3rd of March following, letters patent passed in due form, pursuant to the said warrant; by which, first, a college is appointed to be erected, to be the mother of an university, in a certain place, called All-Hallows, near Dublin, for the education, institution, and instruction of youth in arts and faculties, to endure for ever; secondly, that it be called "The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, founded by the most serene Queen Elizabeth;" thirdly, that it consist of one provost and three fellows, in the name of more, and three scholars, in the name of more. These were followed by other ordinances, amounting in the whole to twelve, for the constitution and future government of the new incorporation. To provide a fund for the necessary expenses of this infant society, on the 11th of March, 1592, the Lord Deputy and the Privy Council issued circular letters to some principal gentlemen in each barony of the kingdom, entreating the benevolence of the well-disposed inhabitants. In these they set forth her majesty's tender care for the good and prosperous estate of her realm of Ireland; and her knowledge, by experience of the flourishing estate of England, how beneficial it is to any country to have places of learning erected in the same; and they earnestly requested contributions in putting forward so excellent a purpose, as the new foundation, "for the benefit of the whole country, whereby knowledge, learning, and civility may be increased, to the banish ing of barbarism, tumults, and disorderly living from among them, and whereby their children, and their children's children, especially those that be poor, (as it were in an orphan's hospital freely,) may have their learning and education given them with much more ease, and lesser charges, than in other universities they can obtain it." What this application Without success. produced in general does not appear; but the return made to the warrant by a gentleman in the barony, if that be taken for a criterion, leads to the conclusion that the sum was very small: "He had applied to all the gentlemen of the barony of Louth, whose answer was, that they were poor, and not able to give anything towards the building of the college." In the meanwhile, the queen's licence having been obtained, "The Archbishop of Dublin went a second time to the Tholsel, and returned to the mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city, thanks, not only from the clergy, but from her majesty, whose letter he showed them for their satisfaction. And immediately labourers were set to work, to pull down the old ruinous buildings, which they quite demolished, save only the steeple3. 35 99 Thanks of the Archbishop to the Mayor, &c., of Dublin. College com menced, March, 1592. On the 13th of March, 1591, according to the computation of the Church of England, or 1592, according to the common computation, Thomas Smith, then mayor of Dublin, laid the first stone of Trinity College; and on the 9th of January, 1593, Students the first students were admitted into it. "Sir Wil- admitted, Jan. 1593 liam Cecil, Lord Baron of Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer of England, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, and one of her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council," for he is thus described by Ware in his narrative of the event, "was the History of Dublin, i. 542-544. 85 WARE'S Annals. first Chancellor thereof; Adam Loftus, Archbishop SECTION IV. · Edmund Spenser's Account of the Irish Church. Sir Francis Bacon's Plan for its improvement. Difficulty of the Subject. Henry Ussher. James Ussher. An eminent Controversialist and Preacher. Conduct of the Government towards the Papists. Act of Uniformity not enforced. Forebodings of Ussher. Benefaction to the University. State of the Church at the Queen's Death. Spenser's account THE foundation of Trinity College seems to deter of the Irish Church. mine this to be the proper period for noticing the state of the Irish Church in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as delineated by one who possessed the best means for informing himself on the subject by |