George Hickes
Encyclopedia
George Hickes was an English
divine and scholar.
, Yorkshire
, in 1642. After going to school at Thirsk he went to Northallerton Grammar School
in 1652 where he was a classmate of Thomas Rymer
.In 1659 he entered St John's College, Oxford
, whence after the Restoration he removed to Magdalen College
and then to Magdalen Hall. In 1664 he was elected fellow of Lincoln College
, and in the following year proceeded M.A. In 1673 he graduated in divinity, and in 1675 he was appointed rector of St Ebbes, Oxford. In 1676, as private chaplain, he accompanied the Duke of Lauderdale, the royal commissioner, to Scotland
, and shortly afterwards received the degree of D.D. from St Andrews
.
In 1680 he became vicar of All Hallows, Barking
, London; and after having been made chaplain to the king in 1681, he was in 1683 promoted to the deanery of Worcester. He opposed both James II
's declaration of indulgence and Monmouth
's rising, and he tried in vain to save from death his nonconformist brother John Hickes (1633-1683), one of the Sedgemoor
refugees harboured by Alice Lisle
. At the revolution of 1688
, having declined to take the oath of allegiance Hickes was first suspended and afterwards deprived of his deanery. When he heard of the appointment of a successor he affixed to the cathedral doors a protestation and claim of right.
After remaining some time in concealment in London, he was sent by Sancroft
and the other nonjurors to James II in France on matters connected with the continuance of their episcopal succession; upon his return in 1694 he was himself consecrated suffragan bishop of Thetford in the non-juring church
. His later years were largely occupied in controversies and in writing, while in 1713 he persuaded two Scottish bishops, James Gadderar
and Archibald Campbell
, to assist him in consecrating Jeremy Collier
, Samuel Hawes and Nathaniel Spinckes
as bishops among the non-juror
s.
His earliest writings, which were anonymous, were suggested by contemporary events in Scotland: the execution of James Mitchell on a charge of having attempted to murder Archbishop James Sharp, and that of John Kid and John King, Presbyterian ministers, for high treason and rebellion (Ravillac Redivivus, 1678; The Spirit of Popery speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants, 1680). In his Jovian (an answer to Samuel Johnson's
Julian the Apostate, 1682), he endeavoured to show that the Roman empire was not hereditary, and that the Christians under Julian had recognized the duty of passive obedience
.
Hickes also made contributions to Anglican theology. His two treatises, one Of the Christian Priesthood and the other Of the Dignity of the Episcopal Order, originally published in 1707, have been more than once reprinted, and form three volumes of the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology
(1847). Bishop Hoadly attacked the high-church views of Hickes in his "Preservative Against the Principles of the Nonjurors" and in his famous 1717 sermon "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ." Hickes can therefore be said to have offered the provocation that set off the Bangorian Controversy.
In 1705 and 1710 were published Collections of Controversial Letters, in 1711 a collection of Sermons, and in 1726 a volume of Posthumous Discourses. Other treatises, such as the Apologetical Vindication of the Church of England, are to be met with in Edmund Gibson
's Preservative against Popery. There is a manuscript in the Bodleian Library
which sketches his life to the year 1689, and many of his letters are extant in various collections. A posthumous publication of his The Constitution of the Catholick Church and the Nature and Consequences of Schism (1716) gave rise to the Bangorian controversy
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
divine and scholar.
Biography
Hickes was born at Newsham, near ThirskThirsk
Thirsk is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The local travel links are located a mile from the town centre to Thirsk railway station and to Durham Tees Valley Airport...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, in 1642. After going to school at Thirsk he went to Northallerton Grammar School
Northallerton College
Northallerton College, formerly known as Northallerton Grammar School, was founded in 1323. Parts of the old school building can be seen adjacent to All Saints' Church near the north end of Northallerton High Street...
in 1652 where he was a classmate of Thomas Rymer
Thomas Rymer
Thomas Rymer , English historiographer royal, was the younger son of Ralph Rymer, lord of the manor of Brafferton in Yorkshire, described by Clarendon as possessed of a good estate, who was executed for his share in the Presbyterian rising of 1663.-Early life and education:Thomas Rymer was born at...
.In 1659 he entered St John's College, Oxford
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
, whence after the Restoration he removed to Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
and then to Magdalen Hall. In 1664 he was elected fellow of Lincoln College
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
, and in the following year proceeded M.A. In 1673 he graduated in divinity, and in 1675 he was appointed rector of St Ebbes, Oxford. In 1676, as private chaplain, he accompanied the Duke of Lauderdale, the royal commissioner, to Scotland
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...
, and shortly afterwards received the degree of D.D. from St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
.
In 1680 he became vicar of All Hallows, Barking
Barking
Barking is a suburban town in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in East London, England. A retail and commercial centre situated in the west of the borough, it lies east of Charing Cross. Barking was in the historic county of Essex until it was absorbed by Greater London. The area is...
, London; and after having been made chaplain to the king in 1681, he was in 1683 promoted to the deanery of Worcester. He opposed both James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
's declaration of indulgence and Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...
's rising, and he tried in vain to save from death his nonconformist brother John Hickes (1633-1683), one of the Sedgemoor
Battle of Sedgemoor
The Battle of Sedgemoor was fought on 6 July 1685 and took place at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset, England.It was the final battle of the Monmouth Rebellion and followed a series of skirmishes around south west England between the forces of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and the...
refugees harboured by Alice Lisle
Alice Lisle
Lady Alice Lisle , commonly known as Dame Alicia Lisle or Dame Alice Lyle, was a landed lady of the English county of Hampshire, who was executed for harbouring fugitives after the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor.-Family:Dame Alice was a daughter of Sir White Beconshaw...
. At the revolution of 1688
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
, having declined to take the oath of allegiance Hickes was first suspended and afterwards deprived of his deanery. When he heard of the appointment of a successor he affixed to the cathedral doors a protestation and claim of right.
After remaining some time in concealment in London, he was sent by Sancroft
William Sancroft
William Sancroft was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury.- Life :Sancroft was born at Ufford Hall in Fressingfield, Suffolk, son of Francis Sandcroft and Margaret Sandcroft née Butcher...
and the other nonjurors to James II in France on matters connected with the continuance of their episcopal succession; upon his return in 1694 he was himself consecrated suffragan bishop of Thetford in the non-juring church
Nonjuring schism
The nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England....
. His later years were largely occupied in controversies and in writing, while in 1713 he persuaded two Scottish bishops, James Gadderar
James Gadderar
James Gadderar was a clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Previously a minister at Kilmaurs, he was consecrated a Bishop on 24 February 1712 by Bishop George Hickes, though without a diocese. In November 1721 he traveled to Aberdeen and acted as Bishop Archibald Campbell's vicar-depute...
and Archibald Campbell
Archibald Campbell (bishop)
Archibald Campbell was a clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church who served as Bishop of Aberdeen. He was the son of Lord Neill Campbell by his wife Lady Vere Ker; his grandfathers were Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, and William Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian.He was a student of the...
, to assist him in consecrating Jeremy Collier
Jeremy Collier
Jeremy Collier was an English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian.-Life:Born in Stow cum Quy, Cambridgeshire, Collier was educated at Caius College, University of Cambridge, receiving the BA and MA . A supporter of James II, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and...
, Samuel Hawes and Nathaniel Spinckes
Nathaniel Spinckes
Nathaniel Spinckes was an English nonjuring clergyman, the leader in the dispute about the 'usages' which split the nonjurors of the 'non-usagers,' , against returning to the first prayer-book of Edward VI, as the 'usagers,' led by Jeremy Collier, advocated.-Life:He was born at Castor,...
as bishops among the non-juror
Nonjuring schism
The nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England....
s.
Writings
Today Hickes is remembered chiefly for his pioneering work in linguistics and Anglo-Saxon languages. His chief writings in this vein are the Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae (1689), and the celebrated Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus (1703-1705).His earliest writings, which were anonymous, were suggested by contemporary events in Scotland: the execution of James Mitchell on a charge of having attempted to murder Archbishop James Sharp, and that of John Kid and John King, Presbyterian ministers, for high treason and rebellion (Ravillac Redivivus, 1678; The Spirit of Popery speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants, 1680). In his Jovian (an answer to Samuel Johnson's
Samuel Johnson (1649-1703)
Samuel Johnson was a political writer, sometimes called "the Whig" to distinguish him from the later acclaimed author and lexicographer of the same name. Of humble extraction, he was educated at St. Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and took orders...
Julian the Apostate, 1682), he endeavoured to show that the Roman empire was not hereditary, and that the Christians under Julian had recognized the duty of passive obedience
Passive obedience
Passive obedience is a religious and political doctrine advocating the absolute supremacy of the Crown and the treatment of any dissent as sinful and unlawful...
.
Hickes also made contributions to Anglican theology. His two treatises, one Of the Christian Priesthood and the other Of the Dignity of the Episcopal Order, originally published in 1707, have been more than once reprinted, and form three volumes of the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology
Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology
The Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology was a series of 19th-century editions of theological works by Church of England writers, devoted as the title suggests to significant Anglo-Catholic figures...
(1847). Bishop Hoadly attacked the high-church views of Hickes in his "Preservative Against the Principles of the Nonjurors" and in his famous 1717 sermon "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ." Hickes can therefore be said to have offered the provocation that set off the Bangorian Controversy.
In 1705 and 1710 were published Collections of Controversial Letters, in 1711 a collection of Sermons, and in 1726 a volume of Posthumous Discourses. Other treatises, such as the Apologetical Vindication of the Church of England, are to be met with in Edmund Gibson
Edmund Gibson
Edmund Gibson was a British divine and jurist.-Early life and career:He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford...
's Preservative against Popery. There is a manuscript in the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
which sketches his life to the year 1689, and many of his letters are extant in various collections. A posthumous publication of his The Constitution of the Catholick Church and the Nature and Consequences of Schism (1716) gave rise to the Bangorian controversy
Bangorian Controversy
The Bangorian Controversy was a theological argument within the Church of England in the early 18th century, with strong political overtones. The origins of the controversy lay in the 1716 posthumous publication of George Hickes's Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the Nature and...
.