Trinity College (also known as the University of Trinity College) is a federated university in the University of Toronto, located on its St. George campus in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The institution was founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Strachan originally intended for Trinity to be a university of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of England. After five decades as an independent institution, Trinity joined the University of Toronto in 1904 as a member of its collegiate federation.
Today, Trinity College consists of a secular undergraduate Faculty of Arts and a postgraduate Faculty of Divinity, the latter of which is part of the Toronto School of Theology. Through its diploma granting authority in the field of divinity, Trinity maintains legal university status. Trinity's Faculty of Arts is one of the seven undergraduate colleges in the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science, and hosts three undergraduate programs: international relations; ethics, society and law; and immunology.
More than half of Trinity students graduate from the University of Toronto with distinction or high distinction. The university has produced 44 Rhodes Scholars as of 2026. Among the university's more notable collections are a seventeenth-century Flemish tapestry, two first-edition theses by Martin Luther, numerous original, signed works by Winston Churchill, a 1491 edition of Dante's Divine Comedy censored by the Spanish Inquisition, and Bishop Strachan's silver epergne.
Among the University of Toronto's colleges and federated universities, Trinity is notable for being the smallest by population, and for its trappings of Oxbridge heritage. Trinity manages its student government through direct democracy, and hosts a litany of clubs and societies.
History Founding
John Strachan (1778–1867) was an Anglican priest, Archdeacon of 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. In 1826, Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland commissioned Strachan to visit England and obtain a royal charter for a provincial university. Strachan was successful, and returned in 1827 with a charter from 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. 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."Watson, Andrew. Trinity, 1852–1952. Trinity University Review, 1952, p. 5.
In 1849, over strong opposition from Strachan, Robert Baldwin's Reformist government took control of the college and secularized it to become the University of Toronto. 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 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.
On April 30, 1851, now-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.Westfall, William. The Founding Moment. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002, pp. 3–6. The Provincial Parliament incorporated Trinity College as an independent university on August 2, 1851.An Act to incorporate Trinity College, Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, No. 220. 3d Session, 3d Parliament, 13 & 14 Victoria, 1850, The following year, Strachan, now in his 70s, obtained a Royal Charter for Trinity from Queen Victoria. The university opened to students on January 15, 1852. Most of the first class of students and faculty came from the Diocesan Theological Institute, an Anglican seminary in Cobourg also founded by Strachan in 1842, which dissolved itself in favour of Trinity.Westfall, William. The Founding Moment. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002, pp. 5–6.
Unlike the University of Toronto, all of Trinity's students and faculty were required to be members of the Anglican Church.Westfall, William. The Founding Moment. McGill–Queen's University Press, 2002, p. 13. 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. 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.Reed, T. A. A History of the University of Trinity College, Toronto, 1852–1952. University of Toronto Press, 1952, pp. 52–53.
At the opening of the university, 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.
Early years Designed by Kivas Tully, the original Trinity College building was constructed in 1851 on Queen Street West, in what was then an undeveloped western end outside the Toronto city bounds.Charles Barry Cleveland from Dictionary of Architects in Canada, retrieved 14 January 2015 The building featured Gothic Revival design, and was inspired by St. Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead.Graham Warwick Owen, “Projects for Trinity College, Toronto.” The Journal of Canadian Art History. (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1977), 61.
Discipline in the early years was strict. All students were subject to a rigid curfew, and daily chapel attendance was mandatory. If a student wished to leave Trinity grounds, they were required to wear a cap and gown. The university was deliberately built away from the temptations of the city proper. This was all part of Strachan's plan to counteract the University of Toronto's secularism through modelling his vision of conservative Anglican education. Strachan was supported in these efforts by George Whitaker, a clergyman from Cambridge University who served as Trinity's divinity professor and first Provost. Strachan's hatred of the secular university was so great that Trinity's student athletes were forbidden to compete against students from the University of Toronto.Watson, Andrew. Trinity, 1852–1952. Trinity University Review, 1952, p. 28. It is not well known what the general student body thought of these rules, although there are records of students having cached their formal garb in the university ravine and clandestinely visiting town in informal clothes.Watson, Andrew. Trinity, 1852–1952. Trinity University Review, 1952, pp. 11–17. Despite the rigid rules and church culture, beer consumption formed an important element of student life, and students purchased over 100 gallons of ale a year from a nearby brewery.
Bishop Benjamin Cronyn of Huron led an attack on the teaching of Trinity College in the early 1860s. Cronyn was an evangelical low church Anglican, who accused Provost Whitaker of spreading "dangerous" Romish doctrines. The College Corporation struck an investigatory committee to investigate Cronyn's claims. After the committee published its findings, Provost Whitaker received votes of confidence from the corporation, the Synod of Toronto, the Synod of Ontario, and the House of Bishops. Bishop Cronyn responded by resigning from the corporation, withdrawing all connections between the Diocese of Huron and Trinity College, and founding Huron College (today affiliated with Western University). In 1877, Evangelical Anglicans affiliated with St. James Cathedral founded Wycliffe College as a low-church alternative to Trinity within Toronto.
Bishop Strachan died on November 1, 1867 (All Saints' Day). Provost Whitaker committed to maintaining Strachan's vision for the university, and continued to run the institution in strict conformity with conservative church principles. While Whitaker slowly permitted new courses to be offered, Trinity's core subjects remained theology, classics, and mathematics. Despite the urges of the College Council and some students, Whitaker steadfastly rejected federation with the University of Toronto. To Whitaker, the benefits of joining the larger, secular University were outweighed by the "priceless benefits of such an education as can be given only on Christian principles, and under the hallowed shelter of the Church of Christ."
In 1879, Provost Whitaker lost a contentious election to become Bishop of Toronto. This was his third failure seeking the position, and after the loss he resolved to return to his home in England. Whitaker left in 1881, and in his place the College Council appointed the Reverend Charles Body, another clergyman from Cambridge. Body was thirty at the time of his appointment, and significantly reformed the curriculum and policies of Trinity College. Under Provost Body, religious entry-requirements were abolished for non-divinity students, and the first female students were admitted to study. The requirement to wear a cap and gown while leaving university grounds was dropped, although chapel attendance remained mandatory for both divinity and arts students. Body's reforms succeeded in attracting new students, and within a decade enrolment more than doubled.
The original Trinity building suffered from architectural defects. The building was cold in winter, and fireplaces filled the residence rooms with smoke. Until 1888, the university used coal for heating, which generated noxious fumes.Watson, Andrew. Trinity, 1852–1952. Trinity University Review, 1952, pp. 14–15. Over time, additional wings were added to the university grounds, such as a convocation hall added in 1877 in memory of John Strachan. A designated chapel was built in 1883; previously, chapel had been held in a room originally intended for the university's library. Enrolment grew substantially under Provosts Body and Welch, such that in 1894 the university erected an east wing devoted entirely to student residences.