General and Dean of Dublin, with whom he had made. some studies in the Irish College at Rome. Francisstreet had been, until a year or two previously, the mensal parish, and here, officiating within a stone's throw of Christ Church Cathedral on the one side, and of St. Patrick's on the other,* our learned Doctor was quite in his element exploring them, in connexion with the favourite object of his thoughts, the "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland." Both then reposed in all the grandeur of their weather-beaten antiquity, and posessed, perhaps, more attraction for archæologists than in their present brilliantly renovated state. We cannot say how far may be generally true the statement of Sir Jonah Barrington, who, in describing the Irish continentally-educated priest of the old school, says that at his college he had been "instructed to worship a throne, and to mingle his devotions to *The date of the erection of Christ Church by King Sitric and Donatus, first Bishop of Dublin, is assigned by Dr. Lanigan to the year 1040, v. iii., p. 434; and St. Patrick's to the year 1190, v. iv., p. 319. heaven and to monarchy;" but it is at least certain that Dr. Lanigan's sympathies on arrival in Ireland were with the people, whom he found bleeding beneath the hoof of a dominant oligarchy. These popular tendencies were fanned by a close friendship which he had formed with a famous democrat, Dr. Dromgoole, whose brother had been already under the espionage of the informer, Dr. Conlan. But of any participation in the revolutionary plans of the day, Dr. Lanigan was innocent. When the rebellion of '98 burst forth, Major Sirrthe Vidocq of Dublin-acting, as it would appear, on erroneous information, visited, with his myrmidons, Dr. Lanigan's rooms, and, in the hope of finding some treasonable documents, ransacked the Doctor's trunks, desks, and papers; but nothing more inflammable came to light than schemes in manuscript to blow up the now exploded authority of those enemies to true ecclesiastical history, Dr. Ledwich and Dr. Campbell, by steadily directed broadsides of early Irish canons and other demolishing documental proofs. CHAPTER XII. DR. LANIGAN'S APPOINTMENT TO, AND SUDDEN RETIRE- "At present, by signing, you pledge yourself merely, THOMAS MOORE (Scene from "Matriculation," a College Play). WE now approach a very important incident in Dr. Lanigan's life-one that materially affected his subsequent destiny and pursuits. The Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth, for the education of the Catholic clergy at home rather than at Continental Universities, was established in 1795. The late Very Rev. Dean Meyler observes, in some memoranda which he was good enough to hand us shortly before his death: "Edmund Burke was a very ardent advocate for the establishment of the College of Maynooth. He took an active part, along with the late Dr. Hussey, Bishop of Waterford, in the selection of its professors from amongst the bright lights of other nations, who at the commencement of the French Revolution had fled to Ireland for safety and protection.* It was Burke himself who examined our incomparable fellowcitizen, J. B. Clinch, Esq., for the rhetoric and classical chair of the College. Like Lanigan, he was educated in the Irish College, Rome." Some of the founders of the new College of Maynooth made overtures to the learned ex-Professor of the University of Pavia to accept the chair of Sacred Scripture and Hebrew, vacant by the premature retirement of Dr. Clancy, appointed the 27th June, 1795, but who left Maynooth the following year.† The salary then attached to the professorship was £112 per annum. Dr. Lanigan having already filled the same chair with éclat at Pavia, he was generally thought peculiarly well suited for the post. Dr. Lanigan's nomination was proposed by the Primate, Dr. O'Reilly, and seconded by Dr. Troy, Archbishop of Dublin. Notwithstanding formidable competition, Dr. Lanigan received his appointment to the chair-as we gather from an article contributed to the Dublin Review in December, 1847, by the late Rev. Dr. Kelly, a Professor at Maynooth. At the last moment some awkwardness occurred. The Bishop of Cork, who, as * An able paper on the organization of Maynooth College, published in the Irish Magazine for March, 1808, and evidently written by one intimately connected with that institution, states, p. 108, that their late President, Dr. Hussey, "attended Mr. Burke spiritually in his last illness." We have never seen this interesting fact mentioned in any of the biographies of Burke. † See Appendix 64 to Eighth Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education, p. 446. we have seen, had been already prepossessed against Dr. Lanigan, suggested that the anti-Jansenistical formula, drawn up and signed by the French clergy, should be submitted to him for his signature. Dr. Lanigan and his friends are described as having felt naturally hurt at the avowal of so foul a suspicion. He declared that he would cheerfully subscribe to the Bull Unigenitus which had emanated from the head of his Church, but he would never so far degrade himself as to sign the dictum or formula of a French Synod-the more especially as he was not made acquainted with a specific statement of the grounds on which the suspicion it was intended to remove rested. This would seem to show that Dr. Lanigan was not even much of a Gallican. Mr. Brennan, in his "Ecclesiastical History," states that the motion of the Right Reverend Prelate was overruled; but Dr. Lanigan, full of indignation, declined to remain another moment in the chair to which he had been raised. On the principle, possibly, that a story never loses in its carriage, it is rather generally supposed that Dr. Lanigan refused, in the first instance, to sign the Bull Unigenitus. An aged ecclesiastic, the Right Rev. Bishop W, addressing us, said: "It was not the Bull Unigenitus which was submitted to Dr. Lanigan for his signature, but a test for the French refugee clergy after the Revolution, much in vogue with Bishop Douglas of London and other Prelates before admitting them to officiate in their respective dioceses. Dr. Lanigan was a man of very high and delicate feeling, and, as I have heard, he considered that the doubt thus implied of his orthodoxy should be acknowledged by an attitude of offended * The Bull, commencing Unigenitus Dei Filius, and dated 8th September, 1713, was issued by Clement XI., in denunciation of a hundred and one propositions advanced in Quesnel's "Moral Reflections on the New Testament"-a work strongly favouring the Jansenian system of divine grace. dignity. He declared that he was no Jansenist, but he disdained to make any such avowal in writing. And certainly," added the good Bishop, "if any such document were presented to me for my signature, I would regard it as an insult, and I should most unquestionably refuse to sign it." One of the Professors at Maynooth, adverting to the same incident, writes: "It is very easy to raise a cry of unsound doctrine, and to exact more faith than the Church herself demands. In dubiis libertas is a fair motto.' Previous, however, to any pointed questions being put to Lanigan, his temper was decidedly ruffled by some remarks which fell from one of the Trustees. This incident predisposed him to that too hastily-formed attitude of offended dignity which he maintained throughout the whole scene. The present Professor of Sacred History at Maynooth, addressing us, writes: "You are aware that Dr. Lanigan was invited by the Trustees of this College to fill the Scripture chair, about the same time that a new chair of Ecclesiastical History was offered to Dr. Lingard (author of the History of England). Both declined, and it was said Dr. Lanigan was offended at some remarks by one of the Trustees reflecting on the character of Tamburini, under whom Dr. Lanigan studied. The master was justly chastised, but the pupil was displeased at the time and manner of rebuke, as it seemed to throw suspicion on himself. I can't vouch for this story. That the chair was offered and declined is certain." Macaulay represents the ecclesiastic Laud as "rash, irritable, and quick to feel for his own dignity;" and the description would, so far as it goes, perhaps fit Dr. Lanigan, unless we can accept as conclusive Dean Meyler's assertion, that in forming his ultimate determination he was acting under the advice of the Primate and Dr. Hamill. Stung, as our correspondent describes * "In necessariis unitas in dubiis libertas in omnibus charitas."St. Paul. |