Chapter I: Secularization of Trinity College

Trinity College was founded in Dublin by Queen Elizabeth, in 1591, as a Protestant University, and for the purpose of giving to Irish Protestants a University Education, based on the doctrines and discipline of the Reformed Church of England. This infant University was fostered by the guiding hand of the great Lord Burghley, its interests were defended by the ill-fated Essex, and its Statutes were drafted by the highly gifted Bishop Bedell.

Trinity College has been well described by her enemies as a "handful of Protestant Clergymen;" because her Fellows, with the exception of three, were required to take Holy Orders in the English Church; and at the present moment five only of her thirty-two Fellowships are permitted by Statute to be held by laymen.

Trinity College is now nearly three centuries in existence, and may be regarded as the only English institution that ever succeeded in Ireland.

The sons of the Alma Mater founded by Elizabeth may be excused if they point with pride to the names of Ussher, King, and Magee, among her theologians; to Berkeley, Brinkley, and Hamilton, among her thinkers and mathematicians; and to Swift, Goldsmith, Burke, and Plunket, amongst those whom she has given to literature, oratory, and politics, whose names shall live so long as religion, science, and letters attract the respect and claim the study of educated Englishmen.

Trinity College has never been, and never was intended to be, a national institution; her emoluments, her Fellowships and Scholarships, are the property of the Irish members of the English Church; and the proposal to throw them open to the competition of Roman Catholics and Dissenters is a proposal for the confiscation, so far, of the property of Irish Protestants. Trinity College has well and faithfully discharged the part she was required to fill; she has maintained the pure doctrine of the English Church against all opponents; she has reared her Students as faithful children of that Church; she has given them an education that enables them to compete successfully with all rivals in the walks of literature and science; and it cannot be fairly alleged against her as a fault that she has not provided for the educational wants of Irish Catholics; she was never intended to do so.

The lovers of the gorgeous Rose need not blush because she wants the colour and grace of the beautiful Lily; and I may well be pardoned for believing that no brighter or fairer flower blooms in the garden of the West, than the Tudor Rose planted in Dublin by the proud Elizabeth.

In order to estimate rightly the effects of the secularization of Trinity College, both upon the Protestants and the Roman Catholics of Ireland, it will be necessary to give a numerical view of the relative proportions of the different religions and professions among the Students of that College. Taking an average of the past ten years, there are 1200 Students on the books of Trinity College. Of these 1200 Students, 800 are in daily attendance upon lectures, and may be classified as follows:--

1. Divinity Students, 160
2. Medical Students, 240
3. Law Students, 70
4. Engineering Students, 60
5. Civil Service of India, 30
6. Non-professional Students, 240
----
Total, 800

In order to find the proportion of Roman Catholics,[1] I have taken, at random, five years from 1855 to 1859, during which 1378 Students entered Trinity College, of whom 80 were Roman Catholics, and 61 were Protestant Dissenters and Jews. We may, therefore, assume that the 1200 Students are distributed as follows:--

1. English Church, 1077
2. Roman Catholic Church, 70
3. Protestant Dissenters, 53
----
Total, 1200

The preceding figures give an average of six per cent. of Roman Catholic Students in Trinity College, and in no department of the College do they exceed ten per cent. Thus, in the Medical School, in which there is a larger proportion than in other professional schools, during the four years ending 1867, out of 300 Students matriculated in Medicine, exactly thirty were Roman Catholics, and three were Jews.

Let us now examine briefly the effect of secularizing Trinity College upon the Protestant and Roman Catholic Students respectively.

It cannot be believed by any one, that the passing of an Act of Parliament secularizing Trinity College would alter in the slightest degree the sentiments and wishes of the 1100 Students of the English Church, or those of the parents and guardians who placed them in Trinity College, knowing and expecting that they would there receive, not only a liberal education, but instruction and training in the principles of the Church of England. Those 1100 young and intelligent Students would still demand an education based upon religion; a demand which would be promptly answered by the Clerical Fellows of the College; and it cannot be doubted that, if they were well led by earnest and competent teachers, they would found a second Trinity College within the walls, which would perpetuate the principles of the College founded by Elizabeth. Such a movement the Parliament would find itself unable to control; for the portion of the funds of Trinity College that is now expended on the education of the Clergy would be allowed, in common justice, to be allocated in future to the same object; and the Clerical Professors and Fellows would gather round them the germ of the Trinity College of the future, faithful to the traditions of the past, and perchance surpassing the reputation of the old College for learning.

From what I know of the earnest spirit of Irish Protestants, and of their determination to secure for their children an education founded on the pure word of God, I believe that the Clerical Tutors of the College would at once transfer to themselves the great majority of the Protestant Students of Trinity College.

Some 100 or 200 Students might prefer to receive the instruction, and reward the care, of such lay Fellows as might find their way into the secularized Corporation, and thus a permanent domestic schism would become established between the clerical and lay elements of the College, which are now happily at peace. Whatever might be the future of the College, it is certain that, at the outset, the Secular Fellows of the College would have to undergo the rivalry of a trained band of Protestant teachers, supported by sympathizing Students, both smarting under an angry sense of wrong and injustice.

Let us now inquire how the secularization of Trinity College would please the Roman Catholic party in Ireland. The Roman Catholic Clergy warn their flocks against Trinity College as a Protestant Institution, necessarily dangerous to the principles of Catholic Students; and, in thus warning them, they are practically wise, for it is simply impossible for seventy Catholics to associate with 1100 Protestants, as equals and fellow Students, without renouncing, more or less, the narrow views respecting Protestants that prevail among the higher circles of their Hierarchy.

Trinity College, however, although considered dangerous, has never been placed by the Roman Catholic Clergy in the same category as the Queen's Colleges, which are essentially secularized institutions, without a recognized religion, and "godless:" as such they are absolutely condemned by the Hierarchy, and faithful Catholics are prohibited from entering their walls.

The practical effect of secularizing Trinity College, if the experiment were successful, would be to convert it into a fourth Queen's College, and it would thus become one of a class of Educational Institutions which the Church of Rome has always, and consistently, forbidden her children to enter. It is hard to see how such a plan as this can be rationally advocated, on the ground that it would satisfy the just demands of the Catholics of Ireland.

So far, therefore, as Irish Roman Catholics are concerned, the secularization of Trinity College would be to them a loss, and not a gain; for it would transfer education in this College from the list of dangerous to that of prohibited enjoyments.

I need scarcely add how mean and vindictive would be the spirit that would secularize Trinity College, in order to injure the Irish Protestants, without any corresponding benefit to the Irish Catholics.

I believe, therefore, that it would be impolitic for the English Parliament to secularize Trinity College, for the following reasons:--

1. It would irritate the Irish Protestants to deprive them of a College
founded on the principles of their Church, which has done its duty,
and has possessed their confidence for three centuries.

2. It would not satisfy the just demand of the Irish Catholics for
University Education, merely to admit them to the Fellowships and
Scholarships of a secularized College, the principle of which they
must feel bound to condemn.