Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
Encyclopedia
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (13 December 1815 – 18 July 1881) was an English churchman, Dean of Westminster, known as Dean Stanley. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he was the author of works on Church History
.
in Cheshire, where his father Edward Stanley
, later Bishop of Norwich
, was then rector. A brother was Owen Stanley
and his sister Mary Stanley
.
under Thomas Arnold
, and in 1834 went up to Balliol College, Oxford
. He is generally considered to be the source for the character of George Arthur in Thomas Hughes
's well-known book Tom Brown's Schooldays
which is based on Rugby. After winning the Ireland scholarship and Newdigate prize
for an English poem (The Gypsies), he was in 1839 elected a Fellow of University College
, and in the same year took holy orders. In 1840 he travelled in Greece
and Italy
, and on his return settled at Oxford
, where for ten years he was tutor of his college and an influential element in university life. His relationship with his pupils was close and affectionate, and the charm of his character won him friends on all sides. His literary reputation was early established by his Life of Arnold, published in 1844. In 1845 he was appointed select preacher, and published in 1847 a volume of Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, which not only laid the foundation of his fame as a preacher, but also marked his future position as a theologian. In university politics, which at that time wore mainly the form of theological controversy, he was a strong advocate of comprehension and toleration.
to the Regius professorship of divinity. During the long controversy which followed the publication in 1841 of Tract 90
and which ended in the withdrawal of John Henry Newman from the Anglican Church, he used all his influence to protect from formal condemnation the leaders and tenets of the "Tractarian" party.
In 1847 he resisted the movement set on foot at Oxford against Hampden's appointment to the bishopric of Hereford. Finally, in 1850, in an article published in the Edinburgh Review
in defence of the Gorham judgment he asserted two principles which he maintained to the end of his life—first, "that the so-called supremacy of the Crown in religious matters was in reality nothing else than the supremacy of law, and, secondly, that the Church of England, by the very condition of its being, was not High or Low, but Broad, and had always included and been meant to include, opposite and contradictory opinions on points even more important than those at present under discussion."
, and various steps for increasing the usefulness and influence of the professorship. Before the report was issued, Stanley was appointed to a canonry in Canterbury Cathedral
. During his residence there he published his Memoir of his father (1851), and completed his Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians (1855). In the winter and spring of 1852–1853 he made a tour in Egypt
and the Holy Land
, the result of which was his well-known volume on Sinai
and Palestine
(1856). In 1857 he travelled in Russia
, and collected much of the materials for his Lectures on the Eastern Orthodox Church
(1861). His Memorials of Canterbury (1855), displayed the full maturity of his power of dealing with historical events and characters. He was also examining chaplain to Bishop A. C. Tait
, his former tutor.
, he held till 1863. He began his treatment of the subject with "the first dawn of the history of the church," the call of Abraham
; and published the first two volumes of his History of the Jewish Church in 1863 and 1865. From 1860 to 1864 academic and clerical circles were agitated by the storm which followed the publication of Essays and Reviews, a volume to which two of his most valued friends, Benjamin Jowett
and Frederick Temple
, had been contributors. Stanley's part in this controversy may be studied in the second and third of his Essays on Church and State (1870). The result of his action was to alienate the leaders of the High Church party, who had endeavoured to procure the formal condemnation of the views advanced in Essays and Reviews. In 1836 he published a Letter to the Bishop of London, advocating a relaxation of the terms of clerical subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer
. An act amending the Act of Uniformity, and carrying out in some degree Stanley's proposals, was passed in the year 1865. In 1862, Stanley, at Queen Victoria's
wish, accompanied the Prince of Wales
on a tour in Egypt and Palestine.
In June 1863 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society as The Author of – Life of Doctor Arnold – Historical Memorials of Canterbury – Syria and Palestine in connexion with their History – Lectures on the Eastern Churches – and Lectures on the Jewish Churches
following the death of Richard Whately
in October 1863, but was rejected by the Church of Ireland
. Richard Chenevix Trench
, the Dean of Westminster, was appointed instead, and towards the close of 1863 Stanley was appointed by the Crown to the newly-vacated deanery. In December he married Lady Augusta Bruce, sister of Lord Elgin
, then governor-general of India
. His tenure of the deanery of Westminster was memorable in many ways. He recognised from the first two important disqualifications—his indifference to music and his slight knowledge of architecture. On both these subjects he availed himself largely of the aid of others, and threw himself with characteristic energy and entire success into the task of rescuing from neglect and preserving from decay the treasure of historic monuments in which Westminster Abbey
is so rich. In 1865 he published his Memorials of Westminster Abbey, a work which, despite occasional inaccuracies, is a mine of information. He was a constant preacher, and gave a great impulse to Trench
's practice of inviting distinguished preachers to the abbey pulpit, especially to the evening services in the nave. His personal influence, already unique, was much increased by his removal to London. His circle of friends included men of every denomination, every class and almost of every nation.
, another of Addresses and Sermons preached in America, and another on Christian Institutions (1881). He was continually engaged in theological controversy, and, by his advocacy of all efforts to promote the social, moral, and religious amelioration of the poorer classes and his chivalrous courage in defending those whom he held to be unjustly denounced, undoubtedly incurred much and growing odium in influential circles. Among the causes of offence might be enumerated not only his vigorous defence of one from whom he greatly differed, Bishop Colenso
, but his invitation to the Holy Communion of all the revisers of the translation of the Bible, including a Unitarian
among other Nonconformists. Still stronger was the feeling caused by his efforts to make the recital of the Athanasian Creed
optional instead of imperative in the Anglican Church. In 1874 he spent part of the winter in Russia
, where he went to take part in the marriage of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
and the Grand Duchess Marie.
, and in the following autumn visited for the last time northern Italy and Venice
. In the spring of 1881 he preached funeral sermons in the abbey on Thomas Carlyle
and Benjamin Disraeli, concluding with the latter a series of sermons preached on public occasions. In the summer he was preparing a paper on the Westminster Confession, and preaching in the abbey a course of Saturday Lectures on the Beatitudes
.
He was buried in Henry VII
's chapel, in the same grave as his wife. His pallbearers comprised representatives of literature, of science, of both Houses of Parliament
, of theology, Anglican and Nonconformist, and of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The recumbent monument placed upon the spot, and the windows (destroyed 1939–45) in the chapter-house of the abbey, one of them a gift from Queen Victoria, were a tribute to his memory from friends of every class in England and America.
Stanley was the leading liberal theologian of his time in England. His writings reveal his special views, aims and aspirations. He regarded the age in which he lived as a period of transition, to be followed either by an "eclipse of faith" or by a "revival of Christianity in a wider aspect," a "catholic, comprehensive, all-embracing Christianity" that "might yet overcome the world". He believed that the Christian Church had not yet presented "its final or its most perfect aspect to the world"; that "the belief of each successive age of Christendom had as a matter of fact varied enormously from the belief of its predecessor"; that "all confessions and similar documents are, if taken as final expressions of absolute truth, misleading"; and that "there still remained, behind all the controversies of the past, a higher Christianity which neither assailants nor defenders had fully exhausted." "The first duty of a modern theologian" he held to be "to study the Bible, not for the sake of making or defending systems out of it, but for the sake of discovering what it actually contains." To this study he looked for the best hope of such a progressive development of Christian theology as should avert the danger arising from "the apparently increasing divergence between the intelligence and the faith of our time." He enforced the duty "of placing in the background whatever was accidental, temporary or secondary, and of bringing into due prominence what was primary and essential." In the former group Stanley would have placed all questions connected with Episcopal
or Presbyterian orders, or that deal only with the outward forms or ceremonies of religion, or with the authorship or age of the books of the Old Testament
.
The foremost and highest place, that of the "essential and supernatural" elements of religion, he reserved for its moral and spiritual truths, "its chief evidence and chief essence," the truths to be drawn from the teaching and from the life of Christ, "in whose character he did not hesitate to recognise ?the greatest of all miracles."
He insisted on the essential points of union between various denominations of Christians. He was an advocate of the connection between Church and State. By this he understood: (1) "the recognition and support on the part of the state of the religious expression of the faith of the community," and (2) "that this religious expression of the faith of the community on the most sacred and most vital of all its interests should be controlled and guided by the whole community through the supremacy of law." At the same time he was in favour of making the creed of the Church as wide as possible—"not narrower than that which is even now the test of its membership, the Apostles' Creed"—and of throwing down all barriers which could be wisely dispensed with to admission to its ministry. As an immediate step he even advocated the admission under due restrictions of English Nonconformists and Scottish
Presbyterians, to preach in Anglican pulpits.
The subjects to which he looked as, the most essential of all—the universality of the divine love, the supreme importance of the moral and spiritual elements of religion, the supremacy of conscience, the sense of the central citadel of Christianity as being contained in the character, the history, the spirit of its divine Founder—have impressed themselves more and more on the teaching and the preaching in the Church.
History of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various denominations, from the first century to the present. Christianity was founded in the 1st century by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth who they believed to be the Christ or chosen one of God...
.
Life and times
Stanley was born in Alderley EdgeAlderley Edge
Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish within the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 4,409....
in Cheshire, where his father Edward Stanley
Edward Stanley (bishop)
Edward Stanley FRS was a British clergyman and Bishop of Norwich between 1837 and 1849.Born in London into a notable Cheshire family, Stanley was the second son of Sir John Stanley, 6th Baronet, and the younger brother of John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.Educated at St John's College,...
, later Bishop of Norwich
Bishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers most of the County of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The see is in the City of Norwich where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided...
, was then rector. A brother was Owen Stanley
Owen Stanley
Captain Owen Stanley FRS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor.-Life:Stanley was born in Alderley, Cheshire the son of Edward Stanley, rector of Alderley and later Bishop of Norwich...
and his sister Mary Stanley
Mary Stanley
Mary Stanley is known primarily because of her dispute in the Crimea with Florence Nightingale, whose friend she also was.She was born in Alderley, Cheshire the third child of Edward Stanley, later to be the Bishop of Norwich, and sister of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster and Owen...
.
Early life
He was educated at Rugby SchoolRugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
under Thomas Arnold
Thomas Arnold
Dr Thomas Arnold was a British educator and historian. Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement...
, and in 1834 went up to Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
. He is generally considered to be the source for the character of George Arthur in Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
's well-known book Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
which is based on Rugby. After winning the Ireland scholarship and Newdigate prize
Newdigate prize
Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize is awarded to students of the University of Oxford for Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate who has been admitted to Oxford within the previous four years. It was founded by Sir Roger Newdigate, Bt in the 18th century...
for an English poem (The Gypsies), he was in 1839 elected a Fellow of University College
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
, and in the same year took holy orders. In 1840 he travelled in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and on his return settled at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, where for ten years he was tutor of his college and an influential element in university life. His relationship with his pupils was close and affectionate, and the charm of his character won him friends on all sides. His literary reputation was early established by his Life of Arnold, published in 1844. In 1845 he was appointed select preacher, and published in 1847 a volume of Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, which not only laid the foundation of his fame as a preacher, but also marked his future position as a theologian. In university politics, which at that time wore mainly the form of theological controversy, he was a strong advocate of comprehension and toleration.
Controversies
As an undergraduate he had sympathised with Arnold in resenting the agitation led by the High Church Party in 1836 against the appointment of RD HampdenRenn Dickson Hampden
Renn Dickson Hampden , was an English Anglican clergyman whose selection as Bishop of Hereford formed a minor cause celebre in Victorian religious controversies.-Biography:...
to the Regius professorship of divinity. During the long controversy which followed the publication in 1841 of Tract 90
Tract 90
Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles, better known as Tract 90, was a theological pamphlet written by the English theologian and churchman John Henry Newman and published in 1841...
and which ended in the withdrawal of John Henry Newman from the Anglican Church, he used all his influence to protect from formal condemnation the leaders and tenets of the "Tractarian" party.
In 1847 he resisted the movement set on foot at Oxford against Hampden's appointment to the bishopric of Hereford. Finally, in 1850, in an article published in the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
in defence of the Gorham judgment he asserted two principles which he maintained to the end of his life—first, "that the so-called supremacy of the Crown in religious matters was in reality nothing else than the supremacy of law, and, secondly, that the Church of England, by the very condition of its being, was not High or Low, but Broad, and had always included and been meant to include, opposite and contradictory opinions on points even more important than those at present under discussion."
University reform
It was not only in theoretical but in academic matters that his sympathies were on the liberal side. He was greatly interested in university reform and acted as secretary to the royal commission appointed in 1850. Of the important changes in administration and education which were ultimately carried out, Stanley, who took the principal share in drafting the report printed in 1852, was a strenuous advocate. These changes included the transference of the initiative in university legislation from the sole authority of the heads of houses to an elected and representative body, the opening of college fellowships and scholarships to competition by the removal of local and other restrictions, the non-enforcement at matriculation of subscription to the Thirty-nine ArticlesThirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
, and various steps for increasing the usefulness and influence of the professorship. Before the report was issued, Stanley was appointed to a canonry in Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
. During his residence there he published his Memoir of his father (1851), and completed his Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians (1855). In the winter and spring of 1852–1853 he made a tour in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
, the result of which was his well-known volume on Sinai
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
(1856). In 1857 he travelled in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and collected much of the materials for his Lectures on the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
(1861). His Memorials of Canterbury (1855), displayed the full maturity of his power of dealing with historical events and characters. He was also examining chaplain to Bishop A. C. Tait
Archibald Campbell Tait
Archibald Campbell Tait was a priest in the Church of England and an Archbishop of Canterbury.-Life:Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Tait was educated at the Royal High School and at the Edinburgh Academy, where he was twice elected dux. His parents were Presbyterian but he early turned towards the...
, his former tutor.
Chair of ecclesiastical history
At the close of 1856 Stanley was appointed regius professor of ecclesiastical history at Oxford, a post which, with the attached canonry at Christ ChurchChrist Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, he held till 1863. He began his treatment of the subject with "the first dawn of the history of the church," the call of Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
; and published the first two volumes of his History of the Jewish Church in 1863 and 1865. From 1860 to 1864 academic and clerical circles were agitated by the storm which followed the publication of Essays and Reviews, a volume to which two of his most valued friends, Benjamin Jowett
Benjamin Jowett
Benjamin Jowett was renowned as an influential tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian and translator of Plato. He was Master of Balliol College, Oxford.-Early career:...
and Frederick Temple
Frederick Temple
Frederick Temple was an English academic, teacher, churchman and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896 until his death.-Early life:...
, had been contributors. Stanley's part in this controversy may be studied in the second and third of his Essays on Church and State (1870). The result of his action was to alienate the leaders of the High Church party, who had endeavoured to procure the formal condemnation of the views advanced in Essays and Reviews. In 1836 he published a Letter to the Bishop of London, advocating a relaxation of the terms of clerical subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
. An act amending the Act of Uniformity, and carrying out in some degree Stanley's proposals, was passed in the year 1865. In 1862, Stanley, at Queen Victoria's
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
wish, accompanied the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
on a tour in Egypt and Palestine.
In June 1863 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society as The Author of – Life of Doctor Arnold – Historical Memorials of Canterbury – Syria and Palestine in connexion with their History – Lectures on the Eastern Churches – and Lectures on the Jewish Churches
Dean of Westminster
Stanley was a candidate to succeed as Archbishop of DublinArchbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland)
The Archbishop of Dublin is the title of the senior cleric who presides over the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland...
following the death of Richard Whately
Richard Whately
Richard Whately was an English rhetorician, logician, economist, and theologian who also served as the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.-Life and times:...
in October 1863, but was rejected by the Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
. Richard Chenevix Trench
Richard Chenevix Trench
Richard Chenevix Trench was an Anglican archbishop and poet.-Life:He was born at Dublin, in Ireland, son of the Dublin writer Melesina Trench, his elder brother was Francis Chenevix Trench. He went to school at Harrow, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1829. In 1830 he visited Spain...
, the Dean of Westminster, was appointed instead, and towards the close of 1863 Stanley was appointed by the Crown to the newly-vacated deanery. In December he married Lady Augusta Bruce, sister of Lord Elgin
James Bruce
James Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.-Youth:...
, then governor-general of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. His tenure of the deanery of Westminster was memorable in many ways. He recognised from the first two important disqualifications—his indifference to music and his slight knowledge of architecture. On both these subjects he availed himself largely of the aid of others, and threw himself with characteristic energy and entire success into the task of rescuing from neglect and preserving from decay the treasure of historic monuments in which Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
is so rich. In 1865 he published his Memorials of Westminster Abbey, a work which, despite occasional inaccuracies, is a mine of information. He was a constant preacher, and gave a great impulse to Trench
Richard Chenevix Trench
Richard Chenevix Trench was an Anglican archbishop and poet.-Life:He was born at Dublin, in Ireland, son of the Dublin writer Melesina Trench, his elder brother was Francis Chenevix Trench. He went to school at Harrow, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1829. In 1830 he visited Spain...
's practice of inviting distinguished preachers to the abbey pulpit, especially to the evening services in the nave. His personal influence, already unique, was much increased by his removal to London. His circle of friends included men of every denomination, every class and almost of every nation.
Literary work
He was untiring in literary work, and, though this consisted very largely of occasional papers, lectures, articles in reviews, addresses, and sermons, it included a third volume of his History of the Jewish Church, a volume on the Church of ScotlandChurch of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
, another of Addresses and Sermons preached in America, and another on Christian Institutions (1881). He was continually engaged in theological controversy, and, by his advocacy of all efforts to promote the social, moral, and religious amelioration of the poorer classes and his chivalrous courage in defending those whom he held to be unjustly denounced, undoubtedly incurred much and growing odium in influential circles. Among the causes of offence might be enumerated not only his vigorous defence of one from whom he greatly differed, Bishop Colenso
John William Colenso
John William Colenso , first Anglican bishop of Natal, mathematician, theologian, Biblical scholar and social activist.-Biography:Colenso was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on 24 January 1814...
, but his invitation to the Holy Communion of all the revisers of the translation of the Bible, including a Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
among other Nonconformists. Still stronger was the feeling caused by his efforts to make the recital of the Athanasian Creed
Athanasian Creed
The Athanasian Creed is a Christian statement of belief, focusing on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. The Latin name of the creed, Quicumque vult, is taken from the opening words, "Whosoever wishes." The Athanasian Creed has been used by Christian churches since the sixth century...
optional instead of imperative in the Anglican Church. In 1874 he spent part of the winter in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where he went to take part in the marriage of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
and the Grand Duchess Marie.
Final years
He lost his wife in the spring of 1876, a blow from which he never entirely recovered. In 1878 he became interested by a tour in AmericaUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and in the following autumn visited for the last time northern Italy and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. In the spring of 1881 he preached funeral sermons in the abbey on Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
and Benjamin Disraeli, concluding with the latter a series of sermons preached on public occasions. In the summer he was preparing a paper on the Westminster Confession, and preaching in the abbey a course of Saturday Lectures on the Beatitudes
Beatitudes
In Christianity, the Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus that appear in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin adjective beatus which means happy, fortunate, or blissful....
.
He was buried in Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
's chapel, in the same grave as his wife. His pallbearers comprised representatives of literature, of science, of both Houses of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, of theology, Anglican and Nonconformist, and of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The recumbent monument placed upon the spot, and the windows (destroyed 1939–45) in the chapter-house of the abbey, one of them a gift from Queen Victoria, were a tribute to his memory from friends of every class in England and America.
Legacy
Episcopal polity
Episcopal polity is a form of church governance that is hierarchical in structure with the chief authority over a local Christian church resting in a bishop...
or Presbyterian orders, or that deal only with the outward forms or ceremonies of religion, or with the authorship or age of the books of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
.
The foremost and highest place, that of the "essential and supernatural" elements of religion, he reserved for its moral and spiritual truths, "its chief evidence and chief essence," the truths to be drawn from the teaching and from the life of Christ, "in whose character he did not hesitate to recognise ?the greatest of all miracles."
He insisted on the essential points of union between various denominations of Christians. He was an advocate of the connection between Church and State. By this he understood: (1) "the recognition and support on the part of the state of the religious expression of the faith of the community," and (2) "that this religious expression of the faith of the community on the most sacred and most vital of all its interests should be controlled and guided by the whole community through the supremacy of law." At the same time he was in favour of making the creed of the Church as wide as possible—"not narrower than that which is even now the test of its membership, the Apostles' Creed"—and of throwing down all barriers which could be wisely dispensed with to admission to its ministry. As an immediate step he even advocated the admission under due restrictions of English Nonconformists and Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Presbyterians, to preach in Anglican pulpits.
The subjects to which he looked as, the most essential of all—the universality of the divine love, the supreme importance of the moral and spiritual elements of religion, the supremacy of conscience, the sense of the central citadel of Christianity as being contained in the character, the history, the spirit of its divine Founder—have impressed themselves more and more on the teaching and the preaching in the Church.