Michael Moore, c. 1639-1726: Provost of Trinity, Rector of Paris

Michael Moore, priest, philosopher and educationalist, was one of the most prominent Irish émigré scholars of the 17th and early 18th centuries. His education and career took him from Dublin to Nantes, Paris, Rome and Montefiascone. Moore rose to prominence when he returned to Dublin in the late 1680s and is known to Irish historians as the first Catholic provost of Trinity College. He clashed dramatically with James II over his ecclesiastical policies and was banished as a result. During a successful career in France and Italy, Moore became the only Irish rector of the University of Paris in 1701, undertook extensive reform of educational institutions in Montefiascone and Paris, and maintained close links with the Irish community abroad. He also published three works of philosophy in which he engaged with a defining intellectual battle of the period, defending Aristotle against the 'new philosophy' of Descartes and the Cartesians. This book offers a significant case study of the experience of Irish clerical and student migrants in early modern Europe. --- Liam Chambers lectures in the Department of History at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick.