William Chappell (Chappel, Chapple) (10 December 1582 – 14 May 1649) was an English scholar and clergyman. He became Church of Ireland bishop of Cork and Ross.

Academic

He was born in Mansfield.[1] He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became Fellow in 1607.[2] His pupils at Christ's included John Lightfoot, Henry More, John Shawe,[3] and John Milton.

In Milton's case, friction with Chappell may have caused him to leave the college temporarily (a rustication) in 1626.[4] Another explanation is that plague caused an absence, and that Milton's Elegy I has been over-interpreted.[5] He shared Chappell as tutor with Edward King – his Lycidas – and it is thought that Damoetas in the poem refers to Chappell (or possibly Joseph Mede).[6][7]

On his return, Milton was taught by Nathaniel Tovey. Despite the personal problems, Milton may have learned from Chappell, who was a theoretician of preaching; this aspect of Milton is discussed in Jameela Lares, Milton and the Preaching Arts (2001). She suggests Andreas Hyperius, and his De formandis concionibus sacris (1553), as influential on Chappell and other writers on preaching and sermon types. Chappell was himself a pupil of William Ames, who left Christ's in 1610. Like Ames, he was a Ramist,[8] though he differed from the Calvinist Ames on doctrine. Chappell was an Arminian, with strong anti-predestinarian beliefs.[9] Lares argues for Chappell as the link to the older Christ's preaching tradition, Milton connected back to William Perkins.[10]

In any case, Chappell had a reputation then for strictness, and for being a hard man in a Latin disputation. Stories gathered about him: John Aubrey, an unreliable source, suggested Chappell had beaten Milton.[11][12] One of Chappell's disputation opponents was supposedly James I, crushed in Oxford;[13] another (William Roberts in 1615, later bishop of Bangor) allegedly had fainted.[14][15] The anonymous The Whole Duty of Man (1658) has been attributed to Chappell,[16] though modern opinion suggests Richard Allestree.

Later life

Later Chappell was in favour with William Laud, and received preferments in Ireland. He was Dean of Cashel from 1633 to 1638 and was soon asked to reform Trinity College Dublin.[17] He was Provost there from 1634 to 1640,[18] replacing Robert Ussher, with Wentworth's backing; amongst other changes, he put an end to the use of and teaching in the Irish language.[19][20][21] He was then made Bishop of Cork in 1638.

With Laud's fall, he was denounced by his own fellows, and he was imprisoned in Dublin, in 1641, and later in Tenby, before being released. He then lived in retirement in Nottinghamshire.[22] A monument to him was made in a church at Bilsthorpe.[23]

Works

Notes and references

Citations

  1. ^ "Manea - Manthorpe | British History Online".
  2. ^ "Chappell, William (CHPL599W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ s:Shaw, John (1608-1672) (DNB00)
  4. ^ "Milton-L: A Milton Chronology".
  5. ^ Richard Bradford, The Complete Critical Guide to John Milton: A Sourcebook (2001), p. 13.
  6. ^ William Bridges Hunter, A Milton Encyclopedia: A-B V. 1 (1978), p. 45.
  7. ^ Thomas N. Corns, A Companion to Milton (2003), p. 253.
  8. ^ "The Moral Theology of William Ames a look at the structure and thought behind William Ames". Archived from the original on 7 August 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  9. ^ Reynolds 2005, pp. 180–181. [...] some said 'they durst not come to hear Mr Chappell because he preached Arminianisme'. [...] The point here, of course is that Bridge and Stalham sought to define themselves as champions of the orthodox Protestant religion, against Chappell's emphasis on universal grace. [...] Certainly, reports of the elder Chappell's anti-predestinarian beliefs were in circulation in 1619, which seemingly commended him to Laud.
  10. ^ Albert C. Labriola, Milton Studies (2004), p. 102.
  11. ^ "John Milton".
  12. ^ Donald Lemen Clark, John Milton and William Chappell, The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Aug. 1955), pp. 329–350.
  13. ^ Dated 1624; mentioned in James Carter, A Visit to Sherwood Forest (1850); online text
  14. ^ William Riley Parker, Gordon Campbell, Milton: A Biography (1996), p. 52.
  15. ^ Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographiues in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries I, Eliborn Classics reprint, p. 416.
  16. ^ "Nottinghamshire history > H Walkerdine and a S Buxton, Old churches of the Mansfield Deanery (1907)".
  17. ^ Alan Ford, "That bugbear Arminianism", in Ciaran Brady, Jane H. Ohlmeyer (editors), British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland (2005), p. 142.
  18. ^ Alumni Dublinenses : a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593–1860) Burtchaell, G.D./Sadlier, T.U. p147: Dublin, Alex Thom and Co, 1935
  19. ^ "William Chappell - Former Provosts - The Provost's Office : Trinity College Dublin". Archived from the original on 27 November 2008.
  20. ^ "Reform Ireland : Our overall aim is to win this island for Christ". Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  21. ^ Graham E. Seel, David L. Smith, The Early Stuart Kings, 1603–1642 (2001), p. 103.
  22. ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography
  23. ^ "Genuki: Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire".

Sources

Further reading

External links

Academic offices Preceded byRobert Ussher Provost of Trinity College Dublin 1634–1640 Succeeded byRichard Washington Church of Ireland titles Preceded byRichard BoyleBishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross Bishop of Cork and Ross 1638–1649 Succeeded byMichael BoyleBishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross
Deans of Cashel
Provosts of Trinity College Dublin
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