Temple Chevallier

Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Temple Chevallier’

Temple Chevallier (1794-1873) studied at Pembroke College in the University of Cambridge, and became a fellow and tutor at Catherine Hall. In 1826 and 1827 he delivered the prestigious Hulsean Lectures at the University, first ‘On the Historical Types Contained in the Old Testament’, and then on ‘The Proofs of Divine Power and Wisdom from Astronomy’. In 1835, Chevallier was engaged as Registrar and a tutor at Durham University, contributing courses on Divinity, Hebrew, Mathematics and Civil Engineering, and held the University’s first Chair in Astronomy from 1841. He helped found the Observatory there in 1839, where he made a particular study of sunspots and Jupiter’s moons, and was its Director for thirty years. From 1835 until his death, Chevallier was perpetual Parish Priest at the village of Esh, where he restored the church and established a school.

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Sanctuary! by Temple Chevallier

As late as the fifteenth century, criminals on the run could find refuge in the precincts of England’s great churches.

From at least the time of King Ine of Wessex in 693, criminal first offenders fleeing to the protection of the Church could expect at least safe conduct out of the kingdom, and even a pardon. The custom persisted at Durham long into the fifteenth century, but was increasingly abused and records ended abruptly in 1503, during Henry VII’s reign.

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Poisoned Chalice by Temple Chevallier

Scientist and clergyman Temple Chevallier believed that the fast pace of recent discoveries in astronomy risked substituting a new superstition for an old one.

In the Hulsean Lectures for 1827, astronomer and clergyman Temple Chevallier explored the opening words of Psalm 19: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work’. He spoke of the wonder of the heavens, of the spell it has exercised upon the mind of man, and of two superstitions into which it has drawn him: blind faith in the stars, and blind faith in scientists.

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