INTRODUCTION. xxvii University Statutes must have been formally adopted by the Col- lege : probably soon afterthe aythMay, i6i 7, on which day Provost Temple returned from England, having been absent just a year. Again, on Jan. 8, 161 3, it was enacted, in presence of the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Dun) and the Fellows, that there should be but one public Commencements of the University, viz., on the first Monday after the end of Trinity Term (i. e. after 8 July) . This enactment occurs chap. x. of these Statutes, with this alteration, that two days, viz., the Monday and Tuesday after the 8th of July, are specified as days for the more solemn Commence- ments ; and the Vice-Chancellor is empowered to change the days for any others, if the prevalence of pestilence or any other cause should render it impossible to hold the Commencements at the usual time.* In the I ith Chapter of Temple's Statutes'" there is an allusion to the great Commencements held in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Aug. 17 and 18, 16 14, at which the Lord Lieutenant and Officers of State were present, and at which James Ussher, afterwards the celebrated Archbishop, took his Degree of D. D. These Commencements, with the ceremonies then observed at conferring the Degrees, are proposed, in the Chapter referred to, " " Statuimus igitur et ordinaraus, recent form of the University Sta- ut magna ilia et publica Academiae tutes, in the Senior Proctor's book, comitiaadperficiendamGraduatorum appoints but one day of annual inaugurationem inchoentur et cele- Commencements (cap. 11), viz. the brentur die Lunaj et Martis, qui fini- Tuesday next following the 8th of turn in urbe Dubliniensi terminum July. These Statutes are generally Trinitatis primus consequatur. Quo believed to have been drawn up by tempore si Pestis, aut alia gravior Bishop Bedell, and corrected byBishop causa obstiterit, quo minus consueti Jeremy Taylor, for which reason we ritus et celebritates peragi possint, call them Taylor's : but they are placet ut dies altera pro eo vice, ju- founded upon Provost Temple's Sta- dice Vice-Cancellario, constituatur." tutes, and in many places retain a — Temple's Statutes, cap. x. These verbal coincidence, enactments relate to the one solemn This chapter is headed " Be Ex- Commencements held annually, but ercitiis quae in Academiae solennibus do not forbid less formal meetings comitiis prsestandfe sunt ; et quo die for conferring Degrees. The more et ordine."
