Editing Trinity College, Toronto (section)

===Founding===
[[File:Johnstrachan.JPG|thumb|upright=0.5|left|John Strachan]]
[[John Strachan]] (1778–1867) was an [[Anglican]] priest, [[Archdeacon]] of [[York, Ontario|York]], and staunch supporter of [[Upper Canada]]'s conservative [[Family Compact]]. Strachan was interested in education, and as early as 1818 petitioned the colonial House of Assembly for the formation of a theological university.<ref>{{cite book |last= Sheraton |first= J. P. |editor = W. J. Alexander |title= The University of Toronto and its Colleges, 1827-1906 |publisher= [[University of Toronto Press]] |year= 1906 |page = 185 |url= https://archive.org/details/universityoftor00univuoft}}</ref> In 1826, Lieutenant Governor [[Sir Peregrine Maitland]] commissioned Strachan to visit England and obtain a [[royal charter]] for a provincial university.<ref>{{cite book |last= Burwash |first= N Street |editor = W. J. Alexander |title= The University of Toronto and its Colleges, 1827-1906 |publisher= [[University of Toronto Press]] |year= 1906 |page = 11 |url= https://archive.org/details/universityoftor00univuoft}}</ref> Strachan was successful, and returned in 1827 with a charter from [[George IV of the United Kingdom|King George IV]] to establish King's College in [[Upper Canada]]. King's College was effectively controlled by the [[Church of England]] and members of the elite Family Compact, and at first reflected Strachan's ambition for an institution of conservative, [[High Anglican]] character.<ref name="Reid">{{cite book |editor-last= Reed |editor-first= T. A.|title= A History of the University of Trinity College, Toronto, 1852–1952 |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofunivers00reed |publisher= [[University of Toronto Press]] |year= 1952}}</ref> Strachan objected to proposals for the provincial university to be without a religious affiliation, dubbing such a suggestion "atheistical, and so monstrous in its consequences that, if successfully carried out, it would destroy all that is pure and holy in morals and religion, and would lead to greater corruption than anything adopted during the madness of the French Revolution."<ref>Watson, Andrew. ''Trinity, 1852–1952.'' Trinity University Review, 1952, p. 5.</ref>

[[File:John Strachan Bust.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1|Bust of John Strachan in the Trinity quad, 2020]]In 1849, over strong opposition from Strachan, [[Robert Baldwin]]'s [[Reform movement (pre-Confederation Canada)|Reformist]] government took control of the college and [[secularize]]d it to become the [[University of Toronto]].<ref name="Reid"/> Incensed by this decision, Strachan immediately began raising funds for the creation of a new university. Strachan canvassed Great Britain and Upper Canada for donations, and although he fell short of his goal of £30,000, he received significant commitments from the [[Society for the Propagation of the Gospel]], the [[Duke of Wellington]], [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]], and [[Oxford University]]. Despite Strachan's public anti-Americanism, the project for a new Anglican university attracted substantial donations from a fundraising campaign in the United States by The Reverend William McMurray.<ref>{{cite book |last= Westfall |first= William |title= The Founding Moment: Church, Society, and the Construction of Trinity College |publisher= [[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |year= 2002 |pages = 45–46 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Butler |first= David |title= Bishop Strachan and Heraldry in the University of Trinity College, Toronto |publisher= Stratford Herald Publishing Company |year= 2013 |page = 25 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mcmurray_william_12E.html|title=Biography – McMURRAY, WILLIAM – Volume XII (1891–1900) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography|website=www.biographi.ca}}</ref>

On April 30, 1851, now-[[Anglican Bishop of Toronto|Bishop]] Strachan led a parade of clergy, schoolboys, and prospective faculty from the Church of [[St George the Martyr]] to the site of the new Trinity College. There, Strachan delivered a speech repeating his condemnation of the "destruction of King's College as a Christian institution," and promised that Trinity would fulfil the role of a church university.<ref>Westfall, William. ''The Founding Moment.'' McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002, pp. 3–6.</ref> The Provincial Parliament incorporated Trinity College as an independent university on August 2, 1851.<ref>[http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/PageView/9_05217/0002?id=a12dcc25b94c4de9 An Act to incorporate Trinity College], [[Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada]], No. 220. 3d Session, 3d Parliament, 13 & 14 Victoria, 1850,</ref> The following year, Strachan, now in his 70s, obtained a Royal Charter for Trinity from [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]].<ref name="Pound 2005">{{cite book |title=Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates |last=Pound |first=Richard W. |publisher=Fitzhenry and Whiteside |year=2005}}</ref> The college opened to students on January 15, 1852.<ref name="Reid"/> Most of the first class of students and faculty came from the [[Diocesan Theological Institute]], an Anglican seminary in [[Cobourg, ON|Cobourg]] also founded by Strachan in 1842, which dissolved itself in favour of Trinity.<ref>Westfall, William. ''The Founding Moment.'' McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002, pp. 5–6.</ref> [[File:TrinBellwood.jpg|thumb|left|The original Gothic Revival Trinity College, circa 1852 by architect [[Kivas Tully]]]]

Unlike the University of Toronto, all of Trinity's students and faculty were required to be members of the Anglican Church.<ref>Westfall, William. ''The Founding Moment.'' McGill–Queen's University Press, 2002, p. 13.</ref> This was actually a stronger condition than the original King's College, which only held a religious test for faculty members and students of divinity.<ref>{{cite book |last= Burwash |first= N Street |editor = W. J. Alexander |title= The University of Toronto and its Colleges, 1827–1906 |publisher= [[University of Toronto Press]] |year= 1906 |page = 12 |url= https://archive.org/details/universityoftor00univuoft}}</ref> Applicants to Trinity's Faculty of Arts were required to pass exams in biblical history, Latin, Greek, arithmetic, algebra, and Euclid. Applicants for the divinity school were required to have a bachelor's degree in arts, and to pass oral exams from the Provost in the New Testament, church catechism, Latin, and Greek.<ref>Reed, T. A. ''A History of the University of Trinity College, Toronto, 1852–1952.'' University of Toronto Press, 1952, pp. 52–53.</ref>

At the opening of the college, Bishop Strachan used the metaphor of the family to describe Trinity. Per Strachan, Trinity would "constitute a great Christian household, the domestic home of all who resort to it for instruction, framing them in the Christian graces, and in all sound learning, and sanctifying their knowledge, abilities and attainments to the service of God and the welfare of their fellow-men." The usage of the family metaphor was common at the time, and reflected a common view in Upper Canada that schools were extensions of the family model.<ref>{{cite book |last= Westfall |first= William |title= The Founding Moment: Church, Society, and the Construction of Trinity College |publisher= [[McGill–Queen's University Press]] |year= 2002 |pages = 70–71 }}</ref>