[2] “That before the Reformation it [the Royal College of Dublin] was common to all the natives of this country, ... and the ablest scholars of the nation preferred to be professors and teachers therein, without any distinction of orders, congregations, or politic bodies other than that of true merit,” etc. Cf. Dublin Magazine for August, 1762. This golden age of Irish University education may well be relegated to the other golden ages of mythology.
[3] I quote the text (which has lately been printed), of which I owe my knowledge to the kindness of Mrs. Reeves, who lent me the late Bishop of Down’s MS. copy:—“Nolui enim Magnatum placitis me accomodare qui summo conatu, immo cæco impetu et consutis dolis, operam dederunt ut prope Civitatem Lymericensem vel Armachanam fundaretur, quasi piaculum non fuisset periculis belli incendii turbacionis et ruinæ exponere Academiam noviter fundatam, ... nulla alia forsan ratione quam uberioris proprii quæstus gratia. Quem et objeci viro eorundem præcipuo prænobili arteque militari conspicuo fascibusque tunc potito, non obstante quod nimis subitaneæ iræ impetu sæpius se monstraverat pronum ad furorem et verbera; is enim non semel se rapi sinebat æstuantis animi violentia in proclivitatem vim hujuscemodi inferendi aliis; notum enim est ... quam strenuum et fortem virum, sed tunc podagra laborantem pedibusque captum percussit ipse iræ infirmitate perculsus, etc. Non defui igitur mihi vel Academiæ obstando tanto viro,” etc. In other words, he claims to have incurred great danger of being thrashed by Perrott for opposing him! And he retorts the very charge brought against himself, of having pecuniary interests in the background.
[4] I cite from Mr. Wright’s citation of Thomas Smith’s life of James Ussher, Ussher Memorials, p. 44.
[5] Cf. E. P. Shirley’s Original Letters, &c., London, 1851, for these and other details.
[6] Cf. Gilbert, op. cit. vol. ii., for Usshers, pp. 17, 22, 65, etc.; for Challoners, pp. 45, 64, 88, 259, etc.
[7] Op. cit. pp. 64, 88.
[8] He was uncle to the famous James Ussher, now commonly known as Archbishop Ussher. Henry Ussher, however, was also Archbishop of Armagh. He was educated both at Cambridge and at Oxford, as well as abroad.
[9] On application to Cambridge, I am informed, by the kindness of the Registrar and of Mr. W. A. Wright of Trinity College, that Luke Challoner (spelt Chalenor) matriculated as a pensioner October 13, 1582, took B.A. degree in 1585, and M.A. in 1589. He was never a Fellow, or even a Scholar, of Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained his D.D. at one of the earliest Commencements in Dublin, probably in 160 0 1 .
[10] Stubbs’ History of the University of Dublin, Appendix iii., p. 354. None of the histories note that there were foreign Colleges founded by Irish priests for the Irish at this very time in Salamanca (opened 1592), Lisbon (1593), Douai (1594). Thus there was an active policy to be counteracted by Elizabeth, and these proposed foundations were probably set before her by Henry Ussher as a pressing danger. Some account of the Constitution of the Salamanca seminary is given in Hogan’s Hibernia Ignatiana, Appendix, p. 238. The students were to be exclusively of Irish parentage.
[11] Who these well-disposed persons were is beyond doubt. The Queen mentions Ussher in the Warrant; the College mentions Challoner on his tomb—