Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 1.djvu/34

 xxviii INTRODUCTION. as the model to be observed on all other similar occasions ; from which we are perhaps to infer that these ceremonies had never before been so exactly observed.* From this passage, however, it is certain that the Statutes extant in Temple's handwriting were drawn up after the year 1614, although the substance of them had probably been in use before that date. For many years there was no fixed day for the annual Commencements'* or Comitia ; the first on record was on Shrove Tuesday, 160^; and we do not find any mention of another until August or Sep- tember, 1608. Doubtless, however, there were others held in the interval, and occasional Degrees were conferred on other days, not regular Commencements, before 1600; but they are not recorded even in the College accounts.*^ Shrove Tuesday, on which " The words are " Cum in publica et solenni graduatoriim inauguratione quae Aug. 17 et 18, 16 14, in aede Sancti Patricii celebrata est, et ea exercitia prtestita sint, quae tantae solemnitati maxime convenire vide- bantur, et eo etiam ordine quo decuit : placet ut ad prasdictae inaugurationis legem, quod ad substantialia pertinet, consequentium inaugurationum cele- bratio instituatur." A contemporary account of the ceremonies observed at these Commencements, which should be dated 1614 (i.e., i6i|, not 1612), has been published by Dr. Elrington in his Life of Archbishop Ussher, from the Chronicle of Lord Chichester's government of Ireland. (See the De- siderata Curiosa Hibern., p. 136.) Ussher's Works^YoX. i., Append. 11., p. xvii. •> " Docuit multorum annorum usus minus commode interdum huic Aca- demiae in gradibus conferendis succes- sisse, eo quod publicae et solenni gra- . duatorum inaugurationi nullum adhuc certum tempus praescriberetur." — Temple's Stat., CSL]^. X. It was there- fore about i6i6or 1617 that the Com- mencements began to be held on a fixed day annually. From that time to about the end of Temple's Provost- ship we find them very regularly ce- lebrated on the Monday or Tuesday following the 8th of July. ■= The accounts of these first Com- mencements were kept by Dr. Chal- loner, probably because he was then Bursar, or Proctor ; he is then for the first time styled " Mr. Doctor Challoner,'' and therefore probably took his degree of D. D. on this oc- casion. His account of the expenses incurred by the College is asfollows: — " To Mr. Ware, for the College din- ner, £18. 6. 8. For six gowns for six Masters, £17. 10. o., and for three gowns for Sophisters, £3. 6. o." Hence it appears that the custom of a College dinner at Commencements was as old as 1 600. The dinner is en- joined in Taylor's Statutes, cap. xi.