Chappell provost, 1634.
Chappell’s troubles.
The Primate realised that his cousin Robert, who had succeeded Bedell in 1629, was not an efficient provost. His legal powers were too limited to control the senior fellows, who were always caballing against him, and he was of ‘too soft and gentle a disposition to rule so heady a company.’ He was weary of his work and would readily take an easier place and make room for ‘one of a more rigid temper and stouter disposition.’ Both Laud and Wentworth were of the same opinion, and the provost was glad to accept the archdeaconry of Meath, and later the bishopric of Kildare along with it. William Chappell, Dean of Cashel, was chosen provost in his place, though he had positively refused to be named when Bedell resigned. Perhaps he thought anything better than residence at Cashel. ‘God knows,’ he exclaimed, ‘what I suffered there!’ He wrote his own life, or part of it, in Latin iambics which are not very good for the head of a college; but he is perhaps best known as the fellow and tutor of Christ’s who is supposed to have flogged John Milton. Wentworth went to the college himself and ordered the fellows to elect Chappell, which they readily did; in any case the King had determined that he should be the man. Laud re-edited Bedell’s revised statutes, and reduced the number of visitors from seven, among whom Ussher had a preponderating influence, to three—namely, himself, the Primate, and the Archbishop of Dublin, who was an Englishman and certain not to oppose the Crown. Chappell was found to be a useful instrument, though he did not work at all smoothly, and Wentworth insisted on his accepting the bishopric of Cork and holding it along with the provostship. This he was unwilling to do, having sworn that he would not seek such a plurality of office either directly or indirectly; but he was overruled by Wentworth and Radcliffe. Both Ussher and Bramhall objected, and Laud evidently had misgivings, though he yielded to the Lord Deputy. The distance of Cork from Dublin seemed to him a real obstacle, though he considered that the appointment was not illegal, since the provost had not in any way solicited his bishopric. ‘So here I stick,’ cries Chappell, ‘distracted between remote places, both full of quarrels, which my soul abhors as my body does the journeys.’[236]
The Irish lecture abandoned.
English fellows imported.
Chappell suppressed the Irish lecture, abandoning all idea of reaching the natives through their own language; and this was in accordance with Wentworth’s policy. Above all things, wrote the latter to Laud, ‘I would recommend that we might have half a dozen good scholars to be sent over to us to be made fellows; there will be room for so many once in a year, and this encouragement I will give them, cæteris paribus I will prefer them before any but my own chaplains, which, I assure you, are not many.’ Some were brought over accordingly, and one of them, named Harding, became tutor to Wentworth’s son; but at the age of eleven he could hardly be considered a specimen undergraduate. Falkland had also placed his eldest son in the college, where he took his degree at fifteen. Wentworth’s plan was to put Englishmen into every position of power or influence in Ireland and to depress all of native birth. Even Primate Ussher, though the Lord Deputy respected and admired him, had much less influence than Bramhall. The King was to be absolute in both islands and State being reduced to uniformity. That was Thorough.[237]
FOOTNOTES:
[223] The pardon, November 7, 1625, is in Morrin’s Patent Rolls; Wilmot’s submission, October 3, 1635, in Strafford Letters, i. 477, and his letter to Wentworth, ib. ii. 41; Laud to Wentworth, ib. i. 479; Wilmot to Windebank May 28, 1636, Cal. of State Papers, Ireland.
[224] Strafford Letters, i. 73, 99, 107, 250, 259, 306, 349, 403. Mountnorris held his office during pleasure.