William Chappell (Chappel, Chapple) (10 December 1582 – 14 May 1649) was an English scholar and clergyman. He became
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...
bishop of Cork and Ross
The Bishop of Cork and Ross is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Cork and the town of Rosscarbery in Republic of Ireland. The combined title was first used by the Church of Ireland from 1638 to 1660 and again from 1679 to ...
.
Academic
He was born in
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...
. He was educated at
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...
, where he became Fellow in 1607. His pupils at Christ's included
John Lightfoot
John Lightfoot (29 March 1602 – 6 December 1675) was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
Life
He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of ...
,
Henry More,
John Shawe
John Shawe or Shaw (1608–1672) was an English Puritan minister, an influential preacher in the north of England during the Interregnum.
Life
He was the only child of John Shawe (d. December 1634, aged 63) by his second wife, born at Sykehouse ...
, and
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
.
In Milton's case, friction with Chappell may have caused him to leave the college temporarily (a
rustication) in 1626. Another explanation is that
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
caused an absence, and that Milton's ''Elegy I'' has been over-interpreted. He shared Chappell as tutor with
Edward King – his ''
Lycidas
"Lycidas" () is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'', dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton at Cambridge who drown ...
'' – and it is thought that Damoetas in the poem refers to Chappell (or possibly
Joseph Mede
Joseph Mede (1586 in Berden – 1639) was an English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow from 1613. He is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist ...
).
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
A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...
; this aspect of Milton is discussed in Jameela Lares, ''Milton and the Preaching Arts'' (2001). She suggests
Andreas Hyperius
Andreas Gerhard Hyperius (1511–1564), real name Andreas Gheeraerdts, was a Protestant theologian and Protestant reformer. He was Flemish, born at Ypres, which is signified by the name 'Hyperius'.
Life
He had a humanist education, and studied at ...
, 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
William Ames (; Latin: ''Guilielmus Amesius''; 157614 November 1633) was an English Puritan minister, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Cal ...
, who left Christ's in 1610. Like Ames, he was a
Ramist
Ramism was a collection of theories on rhetoric, logic, and pedagogy based on the teachings of Petrus Ramus, a French academic, philosopher, and Huguenot convert, who was murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in August 1572.
Accor ...
, though he differed from the Calvinist Ames on doctrine. Chappell was an
Arminian
Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...
, with strong anti-predestinarian beliefs. Lares argues for Chappell as the link to the older Christ's preaching tradition, Milton connected back to
William Perkins.
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
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, ...
, an unreliable source, suggested Chappell had beaten Milton. One of Chappell's disputation opponents was supposedly
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, crushed in Oxford; another (
William Roberts in 1615, later
bishop of Bangor) allegedly had fainted. The anonymous ''
The Whole Duty of Man
''The Whole Duty of Man'' is an English high-church 'Protestant' devotional work, first published anonymously in 1658, with an introduction by Henry Hammond (1605-1660). It was both popular and influential for two centuries within the Anglican ...
'' (1658) has been attributed to Chappell, though modern opinion suggests
Richard Allestree
Richard Allestree or Allestry ( ; 1621/22 – 28 January 1681) was an English Royalist churchman and provost of Eton College from 1665.
Life
The son of Robert Allestree, descended from an old Derbyshire family, he was born at Uppington in Shr ...
.
Later life
Later Chappell was in favour with
William Laud
William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...
, and received preferments in Ireland. He was
Dean of Cashel
The Dean of Cashel is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of St John the Baptist and St Patrick's Rock, Cashel, one of the Church of Ireland cathedrals of the united Diocese of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory.
The Deanery is vacant.
I ...
from 1633 to 1638 and was soon asked to reform
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
. He was
Provost there from 1634 to 1640, replacing
Robert Ussher, with
Wentworth Wentworth may refer to:
People
* Wentworth (surname)
* Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), Lady Wentworth, notable Arabian horse breeder
* S. Wentworth Horton (1885–1960), New York state senator
* Wentworth Miller (born 1 ...
's backing; amongst other changes, he put an end to the use of and teaching in the
Irish language
Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
. He was then made
Bishop of Cork
The Bishop of Cork was a separate episcopal title which took its name after the city of Cork in Ireland. The title is now united with other bishoprics. In the Church of Ireland it is held by the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and in the Roman C ...
in 1638.
With Laud's fall, he was denounced
by his own fellows, and he was imprisoned in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, in 1641, and later in
Tenby
Tenby ( cy, Dinbych-y-pysgod, lit=fortlet of the fish) is both a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and a local government community.
Notable features include of sandy beaches and the Pembroke ...
, before being released. He then lived in retirement in
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
. A monument to him was made in a church at
Bilsthorpe
Bilsthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England.OS Explorer Map 270: Sherwood Forest: (1:25 000): According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,076, increasing to 3,375 at the 2 ...
.
Works
*''Methodus Concionandi'' (1648)
*''Use of Scripture'' (1653)
*''The Preacher, or the Art and Method of Preaching'' (1656) translation of ''Methodus Concionandi''
Notes and references
Citations
Sources
*
Further reading
*''
Concise Dictionary of National Biography
''The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: From Earliest Times to 1985'' is a dictionary of biographies of people from the United Kingdom. It was published in three volumes by Oxford University Press in 1992.. The dictionary provides summa ...
''
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chappell, William
1582 births
1649 deaths
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
Arminian ministers
Arminian theologians
Bishops of Cork and Ross (Church of Ireland)
Deans of Cashel
People from Mansfield
Provosts of Trinity College Dublin