A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



places of worship, which he proposed to remedy by erecting ' auxiliary 

 chapels similar to those in ancient times called oratories.' 



Van Mildert hailed with satisfaction Archbishop Howley's bill to em- 

 power deans and chapters, impropriators, and parochial incumbents to make 

 voluntary acts of endowment, which eventually took shape in the Ecclesiastical 

 Commission."^ Tradition ascribes to him the representations to the dean and 

 chapter of Durham which induced them, after much deliberation, to con- 

 template the founding of the university of Durham."' Towards this scheme 

 the bishop himself contributed first ^^1,000 and then ^2,000 a year during 

 his life, in addition to the annexation of prebends to certain professors, and 

 the surrender of Durham Castle, which he had used with a hospitality more 

 lavish than that of any prelate since Egerton."* 



The institution of the university opened a new chapter in the history of 

 education in the north of England at a time when, as yet, there was no rail- 

 way communication with the south. It had an immediate effect upon the 

 clergy of the north in general, and of Durham in particular, which has not 

 been properly appreciated. The long distance of Durham from the older 

 universities, and perhaps the wilder, bleaker character of the county, had 

 brought it to pass that even when Van Mildert became bishop, men from 

 Oxford and Cambridge were few, so that the clergy were largely non- 

 graduate, and not merely non-graduate, but 'literate persons,' and without very 

 definite preparation. Ten years before he came to Durham the Theological 

 College at St. Bees in Cumberland had been founded in order to train men 

 for the ministry in the diocese of Carlisle and elsewhere. Van Mildert 

 determined to ordain no more literate persons, but to demand some course of 

 training at St. Bees.'" The early archives of that college are too imperfect 

 to enable us to trace its influence upon the diocese of Durham, which was 

 probably considerable. The new university, whose graduates largely sought 

 ordination, though not necessarily in the diocese of Durham, must before 

 long have contributed a regular supply of duly equipped men for the clerical 

 office. The university from its connexion with bishop, dean, and chapter 

 was largely clerical, and of the four bachelors in arts who graduated in 1839 

 three were at once ordained. In 1846, of 224 M.A.'s on the books, 165 

 were ordained. Of a staff of twenty-four, all but five were in orders."* The 

 full course in arts and theology, which all were desired to take if possible, 

 occupied five years. Provision was made by various scholarships for those who 

 would probably become clergymen. Thus the Barrington trustees for some 

 years gave scholarships to the sons of clergymen, and a theological scholarship 

 was founded as a memorial to Van Mildert. The subjects of examination in 

 arts comprised, as they always have at Durham, a large amount of theology. 



'" Sermons and Charges, 550. 



'" Mr. James Raine, the elder, who was brother-in-law to Dean Peacock of Ely, used to say that the 

 dean took the dean and chapter of Durham to task for being unwilling to make a move, and warned them of 

 the consequence that their recalcitrance would probably bring to all capitular bodies. Evidence of the bishop's 

 part in the matter will be found in the introduction to the early numbers of the Dur. Univ. CaL, also in the 

 speech of the Warden at the first University Convocation in 1839 (^"''- Advertiser, June, 1839). The 

 bishop, of course, made much of the generous action of the chapter, and scarcely mentioned his own part. 



'■* Sermons and Charges, 77. The letters quoted are now in B.M. Add. MSS. 34589, fol. 248-51. 



'" See Van Mildert's charge of 1 827, Sermons and Charges, 520. 



"^ The evidence for the figures given will be found in the Durham University Calendars for the years 

 named. 



72 



