Thompson Cooper

“ For twenty-eight years Cullen's name was a foremost one in the history of Ireland. Shortly after his death the ‘Times’ insisted on the conscientiousness with which he exercised his great personal influence and absolute power. During his tenure of the see of Dublin the archdiocese was dotted over with new or restored churches, convents, schools, and refuges for reclaimed or repentant evil-doers. He may be regarded as the founder of the Catholic University of Ireland, and the noble hospital of Mater Misericordiæ is a lasting monument to his memory. ”

“ He died at Sydney on 26 Feb. 1884, and was buried in the church of England cemetery in West Street.
Badham's memory was marvellous. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that he knew all Greek poetry by heart. He constantly taught his pupils with no book before him, and if they misread a single word he would correct them. He had an almost equal mastery over Latin, English, French, and Italian literature, and was well read in German; and through his habit of constantly illustrating one author by another and one literature by another, he taught his pupils to look on letters as a whole. ”

“ Besides his grand idea of the establishment of an order of men of science and literature to be in some way connected with the order of the Garter, he proposed that a grand collection should be formed of what history had preserved for England, that a minute history of the city of London should be written, that a map on a very extensive scale of the country around London should be prepared, and that a life of the Duke of Buckingham, commensurate with his great deservings, should be drawn up. ”

“ Bolton was an indefatigable student and amassed large stores of historical and antiquarian learning. Kitson describes him as 'a profound scholar and eminent critic,' while in the judgment of Hunter he claims as an antiquary to stand beside Camden, Selden, and Spelman. Early in life he formed an acquaintance with Camden, and he made extensive travels in England and Ireland in search of antiquities. As his religion stood in the way of his progress on any of the ordinary roads to distinction, he adopted the desperate expedient of trusting to literature as the source of his livelihood. ”

“ In Mary's reign Philip II was king of England, and loyalty to him was then a proper sentiment; but Allen preserved throughout life his allegiance to the monarch to whose liberality he was so largely indebted, and this led him to adopt a course of action which it is difficult to justify. All his political schemes ended in disastrous failure; but, on the other hand, it is certain that by the opportune establishment of Douay College for the education of missioners he prevented the catholic religion from being completely destroyed in England, as was the case in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. ”

“ As a magistrate, Gilbert à Beckett, by his wise, calm, humane administration of the law, gave a daily rebuke to a too ready belief that the faithful exercise of the highest and gravest social duties is incompatible with the sportiveness of literary genius. ”

“ With the monks, John Haile, a secular priest, vicar of Isleworth, Middle- sex, suffered death. Houghton, in a touching and simple address to the people from the scaffold, said: ‘Our holy mother the Church has decreed otherwise than the king and parliament have decreed, and therefore, rather than disobey the Church, we are ready to suffer.’ One of his quarters, with an arm, was hung over the gate of the Charterhouse to awe the remaining monks into submission, but they were firm in their refusal of the oath. ”

“ He became a master of the ‘noble art’ of self-defence, and established an amphitheatre or academy of arms adjoining his house, the sign of the ‘City of Oxford,’ in Oxford Road, Marylebone Fields, London. There he taught the use of the small- and back-sword, cudgelling, and pugilism to a large number of gentlemen, and his fame as a swordsman became so great that he was praised in the ‘Tatler,’ ‘Guardian,’ and ‘Craftsman.’ Figg frequently displayed his own skill, and at other times made matches between the most eminent professors, both male and female, of the art of defence. ”

“ Allen's constant desire was to restore England to the unity of catholic faith. Up to his fiftieth year his life had been entirely devoted to ‘scholastical attempts,' as he expresses it, 'for the conversion of our country and reconcilement of our brethren to the catholic church, which we everlastingly profess, and will endeavour until death.’ At first he hoped to succeed in inducing his countrymen, by the persuasion of his seminary priests, who were sent in large numbers from the colleges of Douay and Rheims, to abjure protestantism and return to the ancient religion. ”

“ Andrews, where, after completing his studies in humanity and philosophy, he applied himself to the oriental languages. He soon joined the communion of the Roman church, went to France and Italy, and subsequently travelled through Turkey and the East. He mastered so many languages that he was credited with being able to speak to the people of every nation in their own tongue. On returning to Europe he entered the order of Minims at Avignon. Afterwards he lived in retirement at Rome for five years in the French monastery of the Holy Trinity, belonging to his order. ”

“ Sir Arthur, in a horse-litter, led the procession, which made for Wallingford, and the next day joined the king at Oxford. Sir Arthur's wound did not long deprive the king of his assistance; for on 27 July following he came post from Bristol—at the taking of which city he was probably present—to the king at Oxford, informing him of the state of things in the west. In the following month, at the particular request of the queen, who resided in the city, and who imagined herself safer under the protection of a catholic, he was appointed governor of Oxford on the death of Sir William Pennyman. ”

“ As late as 1778 Cole was perplexed as to the disposal of his manuscripts. 'To give them to King's College,' he wrote, 'would be to throw them into a horsepond,' the members of that society being 'generally so conceited of their Latin and Greek that all other studies are barbarous.' At one time he thought of Eton College and of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but eventually he resolved to bequeath his collections to the British Museum on condition that they should not be opened until twenty years after his death. ”

“ In 1555, when Philip and Mary had restored the ancient worship in England, they sent an embassy to Rome to give the customary obedience to the pope. The embassy was composed of the Bishop of Ely, Lord Montagu, and Carne. When Montagu and the bishop returned to England, Carne remained as resident ambassador to Pope Paul IV, and continued in this capacity for nearly four years. On Elizabeth's accession to the throne he asked permission of the English government to leave Rome, as well on account of his old age as in order to see his wife and children again. ”

“ He dwelt particularly on the danger which threatened the church in England through the dying out of the ancient priests, and suggested, as a remedy for the evil, the foundation of a college for English students abroad. Writing some years later to Dr. Vendeville, he thus reminded him of what they had agreed upon in the course of this conversation, which resulted in the establishment of the English college at Douay, and, by degrees, of all the other colleges and religious communities on the Continent that subsequently furnished England with missionary priests. ”

“ The desire of gaining over so eminent a man caused the queen to send to him Dr. Feckenham, dean of St. Paul's, a divine of moderate and obliging temper. Cheke had been acquainted with him in the late king's reign, and had tried to convert him to protestantism when he was a prisoner in the Tower. Cheke's courage began to fail at the prospect of the stake, and he was at his own request carried before Cardinal Pole, who gravely advised him to return to the unity of the church. Cheke dared hold out no longer, and Feckenham had the credit of effecting his conversion. ”

“ Shelley, when at Eton, became intimate with Lind, of whom he said, ‘I owe to that man far, ah! far more than I owe to my father; he loved me, and I shall never forget our long talks, where he breathed the spirit of the kindest tolerance, and the purest wisdom.’ On one occasion Lind, according to the doubtful testimony of Hogg, was the means of preventing Shelley from being consigned by his father to a private madhouse. ”

“ In order to give weight to the fathers and to assist them in obtaining academical chairs, the provincial, Father John Keynes, thought it advisable that the general of the society should be petitioned to allow those most fit to take the degree of D.D. Accordingly those who had professed theology at Liège took that degree at Trèves, ‘after due examinations and at much expense,’ among them being Fairfax, under the assumed name of Beckett. It is stated that Fairfax was appointed professor of philosophy in Magdalen College, Oxford, and that he was well versed in the oriental languages. ”

“ When Nicholas de Gouda, the pope's legate, was engaged in a secret embassy to that country in 1561–2, all the ports were watched and guarded, and it was only by the extraordinary courage and ingenuity of John Hay and Crichton that de Gouda escaped unharmed. Crichton accompanied him to Antwerp and became a member of the Society of Jesus. He returned to Scotland in the beginning of Lent 1582, and was received into the house of Lord Seton, the only member of the royal council who remained constant to his religion. ”

“ He was in high favour with Mary Queen of Scots, whom he frequently visited in her confinement. After some years spent upon the English mission he was imprisoned and banished with many others of his religious profession. The Queen of Scots, in return for his services to her, sent him a letter recommending him to her friends in France, and, at her request, he was made canon of St. Quintin in Picardy. The fatigues of the mission and too great application to study having impaired his health, the physicians advised him to take a journey to Spa, where he died of the dropsy about 1590. ”

“ FRENCH, PETER (d. 1693) , missionary, a native of Galway, studied divinity in Ireland and in the south of Spain, and became a friar of the order of St. Dominic. Going to Spanish America, he laboured for thirty years as a missionary among the Indians of Mexico, great numbers of whom he converted from idolatry. He wrote in the Mexican language ‘A Catechism or Exposition of the Christian Faith,’ but whether it was printed does not appear. Returning to his native country, he was employed on the mission until his death, which took place in Galway in 1693. ”

“ Bright's preface implies that he lectured at Cambridge, for he asserts that he had been asked to publish the notes from which he taught. He dedicates both parts to Cecil, as chancellor of the university, and speaks as if he knew him and his family. He praises the learning of Lady Burghley, and says the 'domus Cæciliana' may be compared to a university. 'Cecil himself has paid,' he says, 'so much attention to medicine that in the knowledge of the faculty he may almost be compared to the professors of the art itself.' His 'Treatise of Melancholie' is as much metaphysical as medical. ”