Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/109

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DoDWELL. 105 and the Peculiar Powers of the Priesthood. In April 1688, he was elected by the university of Oxford, without solicitation on his part, Camden's Professor of History. Here he soon after took his degree of M.A. and enriched the learned world with his “ Dissertations on Irenaeus.” He held his professorship only till November 1691, when he forfeited it by his refusal to take the oaths to the new government. Dr. Tillotson having consented to assume the primacy, vacant by the suspension of Dr. Sancroft, Mr. Dodwell wrote to him to dissuade him from being the aggressor in what he considered a new designed schism, pronouncing the consecration, if it took place under such circumstances, null, void, and schismatical. His pen was now for some time entirely taken up with the defence of the suspended bishops and their adherents, and he was one of the firmest supporters of their cause, which he advocated in various works. Soon after the loss of his professorship, he retired to Maidenhead, where he became acquainted with Mr. Francis Cherry, of Shottesbrooke, a gentleman remarkable for his learning and virtue; and so intimate a friendship ensued between them, as to induce Mr. Dodwell, for the sake of that gentleman's society and conversation, to remove to Shottesbrooke, where he spent the remainder of his life. Having now reached the mature age of fifty-two, he mar ried a lady, in whose father's house at Cookham, he had several times resided, and became the father of ten children. Domestic cares, however, did not put a stop to h i s lite rary pursuits, which were now directed t o a n object for which his course o f studies had peculiarly qualified him, the elucidation o f ancient history. Since his resignation, h e had published his Camdenian Lectures, the subjects o f which were the histories o f the Roman emperors, from Trajan t o Dioclesian. I n 1696, h e drew u p the annals o f Thucydides and Xenophon, t o accompany the edition o f those two authors b y Hudson and Wells. Having like