Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/283

 CULLEN,. [See, 1660–1726.]

CULLEN, PAUL (1803–1878), cardinal, archbishop of Dublin, son of Hugh Cullen, farmer, by his wife Judith, sister of James Maher, a well-known parish priest at Craigue, county Carlow, was born at Prospect, near Ballytore, county Kildare, on 27 April 1803. He received his first instruction in the famous school kept by members of the quaker family of Shackleton at Ballytore, where Edmund Burke had formerly been a pupil. He next studied in Carlow College under Dr. Doyle, afterwards bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, and in the Urban College of the Propaganda at Rome, which he entered 29 Nov. 1820. His character is thus described in the archives of that institution: ‘Bell'ingegno, eccessivo nello studio, illibato nei costumi, osservantissimo, divoto, docile, irreprensibile, commendabilissimo in tutto.’ His college course was brilliant, and he distinguished himself in scriptural and oriental literature. When a student in the Propaganda he was selected to hold a public disputation before Leo XII and his court on the occasion of that pontiff's visit to the Collegio Urbano on 11 Sept. 1828. Cullen undertook to defend all theology in 224 theses. At the close of the proceedings the pope with his own hands conferred upon him the doctor's cap. After being ordained priest in 1829 he left the Propaganda College to be vice-rector, and subsequently rector, of the Irish College in Rome; and from May 1848, after the departure of the jesuits, to January 1849 he was rector of the Propaganda College.

In 1848 the revolution broke out in the pontifical states, and Mazzini became master of Rome. An order was issued by the revolutionary triumvirate commanding the students to leave the Propaganda within a few hours. Cullen applied to a son of General Cass, who was then American minister at Rome. Cass promptly went to Mazzini, and in the name of his government demanded protection for the Propaganda on the ground that several students of the college were American citizens. Some American ships of war were then lying in Italian waters, and the revolutionary leaders had asked permission to take refuge in these vessels whenever they should be obliged by the French to fly from Rome. Consequently the American minister's request was at once granted. The triumvirs then issued a new order stating that the Propaganda was a literary institution of great merit, that it was the proud privilege of republicans to foster learning, and that therefore the Roman government forbad any interference with the property of the Propaganda. Thus Cullen in 1848 managed to save the college by placing it under American protection (, Episcopal Succession, i. 347).

While rector of the Irish College Cullen acted as the agent of the Irish bishops in nearly all their transactions with the apostolic see, and during the pontificate of Gregory XVI, who raised him to the rank of monsignor, cubicularius intimus ad honorem, he was regularly consulted by his holiness. His advice, it is said, prevented the pope from issuing a strong mandate for the discouragement of O'Connell's agitation for the repeal of the union. A document of an admonitory character was indeed issued by the authorities at Propaganda, but it was never vigorously enforced, and it encountered not a little opposition.

In holy week 1849 William Crolly, archbishop of Armagh [q. v.], died, and the primacy of Ireland was left vacant. The three ecclesiastics nominated by the chapter of the archdiocese were passed over by the pope, and Cullen was appointed by Propaganda in December 1849 to succeed Dr. Crolly. The nomination was confirmed by Pope Pius IX at Portici on 19 Dec., and Cullen was consecrated on 24 Feb. 1850 in the church of St. Agatha of the Goths, Rome, by Cardinal Castrocane. Soon after his return to Ireland he entered into the discussion on the education question, declaring himself the opponent of the mixed system of education in every form. Having noticed how the persecutions of nearly three centuries had impaired the external pomp and surroundings of the catholic worship, he sent to Rome a report embodying his views on this subject, and was in consequence empowered to summon the first national synod held in Ireland since the convention of Kilkenny under the papal nuncio Rinuccini in 1642. He himself presided over the synod, held in the college at Thurles in August 1850, in the double capacity of primate and delegate apostolic legate. The assembled prelates and clergy condemned the queen's colleges and recommended the establishment of a catholic university. The decrees of the synod of Thurles were confirmed in the following year, and promulgated in all the catholic churches in Ireland on 1 Jan. 1852. In 1851 Cullen presided at an aggregate meeting of the catholics of Ireland, held in the Rotundo at Dublin, to protest against the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.

On the death of Dr. Murray, archbishop of Dublin, Cullen was almost unanimously nominated as dignissimus to succeed him. He was translated from Armagh to Dublin by resolution of Propaganda of 1 May 1852, approved