Malcolm MacColl
Encyclopedia
Malcolm MacColl British clergyman and publicist, was the son of a poor Scottish crofter or labourer in Glenfinnan who died when his son was still a boy. Despite this difficult beginning, MacColl's intellectual exertions enabled himself - and his younger brother Hugh (see below) - to succeed in obtaining an education of sorts. MacColl claimed Jacobite descent and seems to have espoused High Anglican theological beliefs from a very early age. His native language was Scots Gaelic.
MacColl won a place at Trinity College, Glenalmond
, for the Scottish Episcopal
ministry. He was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in 1857. In May 1858 he approached William Ewart Gladstone
in a letter warning him about measures against High Church bishops in the Scottish Episcopal Church, but also alluded to his own extremely precarious financial circumstances.**
MacColl tenaciously refused to let this correspondence die and eventually managed to meet Gladstone. From this slender beginning there developed a lifelong friendship and political alliance. Throughout the rest of MacColl's life, Gladstone secured preferment, most of it fairly modest, for his protege. However MacColl never rose very high in the Anglican Church, mainly, no doubt, because of his refusal to compromise his Anglo-Catholic theological views. Gladstone's first piece of assistance was to facilitate the young MacColl's transfer from Scotland to London and the Church of England. MacColl was received as a priest of the Church of England in 1859, and then entered on a succession of curacies in the Church of England
, in London
and at Addington
, Bucks. He also served between 1864 and 1867 as the Chaplain of the British Embassy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Naples.
After his arrival in London, MacColl began to publish articles immediately, writing with increasing proficiency. His earliest writings were almost entirely on ecclesiastical and theological matters. In 1875 he published a blockbuster on disputes within his church entitled "Lawlessness
, Sacerdotalism
and Ritualism". It was an extremely skilful attack on the Protestant establishment in the Church of England and made his name.
Most of MacColl's writings centre on the question of the "Real Presence" of the Blessed Sacrament
and the related issue of Apostolic succession of clergy. Despite limited knowledge of foreign languages, he also maintained contact with continental Roman Catholic dissidents after the First Vatican Council
, such as the Croatian, Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer
of Diakova, and Dr Ignaz von Döllinger in Munich, acting as a discreet intermediary between them and Gladstone.
Both Strossmayer and Dollinger were strongly interested in the "Eastern Question" and the ending of Turkish rule in the Balkans. This, as well as similar currents of opinion in the Liberal Party, may have been responsible for MacColl's own interest in combatting Turkish political power during the last three decades of his life. From 1876 onwards, MacColl was an active defender of the Christian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire, writing a series of vitriolic attacks on Turkey and its friends in Britain in letters to newspapers, articles in reviews, and publishing several books. All of these productions were closely researched, usually relying on British "Blue Book" collections of consular despatches, though always written with an eye to making a case for the prosecution.
In August 1876, soon after the exposure of the killings of up to 15,000 Bulgarians the previous spring by Circassian irregulars in the Ottoman army, MacColl and Canon Liddon of St. Paul's travelled to Vienna
and Serbia
on a fact-finding tour. During a boatride on the River Sava, then the frontier between Serbia
and the Ottoman Empire
, the two clergymen claimed to have seen an impaled human corpse. Though their testimony could not be independently confirmed, and was challenged by the local British Consul who suggested that the object in question might have been only a bag of beans, MacColl and Liddon used this sighting as proof of the iniquity of Turkish rule in the Balkans. This fitted in with a theme in their sermons that those in Britain (such as Gladstone's arch-opponent Benjamin Disraeli) who did not actively oppose Turkish rule were themselves guilty of its sins.
In his private correspondent with Gladstone after the Bulgarian atrocities, MacColl urged the Liberal leader to denounce the Ottomans and is perhaps partly responsible for the powerful speeches Gladstone made on the issue in the last months of 1876 and early 1877.
MacColl published two major works during these years on the issue himself. "The Eastern Question: Its Facts and Fallacies" appeared in the spring of 1877 and ran through five editions. "Three Years of the Eastern Question" followed in the early autumn of 1878 immediately after the Congress of Berlin had ended.
After returning to power Gladstone rewarded MacColl with the living of St. Georges, Botolph Lane, in 1871, and with a canonry of Ripon in 1884. The latter posting aroused the active opposition of Queen Victoria who had not forgotten or forgiven MacColl's virulent campaign against the Ottoman Empire in 1876-78 after the 'Bulgarian Agitation'.
The living at Ripon was practically a sinecure. MacColl maintained a large house at Kirby Overblow, south of Harrogate, and continued to devote himself to political pamphleteering and newspaper correspondence, the result of extensive European travel, a wide acquaintance with the leading personages of the day, strong views on ecclesiastical subjects from a high-church standpoint, and particularly on the politics of the Eastern Question
, the uprising in Crete
, then still an Ottoman province, the cause of the Armenians
and Islam
.
In the first years of the twentieth century, MacColl was an active opponent of Muslim spokesmen such as Syed Ameer Ali
and the Turkish writer Halil Halid and sometimes admonished them on doctrinal points of their religion, arguing for instance that the Sultan of Turkey was not the Caliph of all Muslims. He was on close terms with the King of Greece, George I, and leaders of the Armenian movement and during the Turkish-Greek War of April 1897, he visited Athens to confer with the King, conveying the monarch's private views both to Gladstone and also to the Conservative Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury.
In 1904 MacColl married Consuelo Albinia Crompton-Stansfield. He died in London
on the 5th of April 1907. In his will, MacColl left his library to the Gladstone collection at Hawarden.
MacColl had a younger brother, Hugh MacColl
. Early on in their friendship, he had tried to persuade Gladstone to pay for Hugh to be educated at Oxford
. However this project was frustrated when Hugh refused to agree to become an Anglican priest as Gladstone insisted and so went without a university education. Despite this setback, Hugh MacColl
nevertheless became one of the most significant figures in the history of symbolic logic before Gottlob Frege
.
MacColl won a place at Trinity College, Glenalmond
Glenalmond College
Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond near the village of Methven, about west of the city of Perth. The school's motto is Floreat Glenalmond...
, for the Scottish Episcopal
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian church in Scotland, consisting of seven dioceses. Since the 17th century, it has had an identity distinct from the presbyterian Church of Scotland....
ministry. He was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in 1857. In May 1858 he approached William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
in a letter warning him about measures against High Church bishops in the Scottish Episcopal Church, but also alluded to his own extremely precarious financial circumstances.**
MacColl tenaciously refused to let this correspondence die and eventually managed to meet Gladstone. From this slender beginning there developed a lifelong friendship and political alliance. Throughout the rest of MacColl's life, Gladstone secured preferment, most of it fairly modest, for his protege. However MacColl never rose very high in the Anglican Church, mainly, no doubt, because of his refusal to compromise his Anglo-Catholic theological views. Gladstone's first piece of assistance was to facilitate the young MacColl's transfer from Scotland to London and the Church of England. MacColl was received as a priest of the Church of England in 1859, and then entered on a succession of curacies in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and at Addington
Addington, Buckinghamshire
Addington is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, about west of Winslow and south east of Buckingham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 145....
, Bucks. He also served between 1864 and 1867 as the Chaplain of the British Embassy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Naples.
After his arrival in London, MacColl began to publish articles immediately, writing with increasing proficiency. His earliest writings were almost entirely on ecclesiastical and theological matters. In 1875 he published a blockbuster on disputes within his church entitled "Lawlessness
Antinomianism
Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....
, Sacerdotalism
Sacerdotalism
Sacerdotalism is the idea that a propitiatory sacrifice for sin must be offered by the intervention of an order of men separated to the priesthood...
and Ritualism". It was an extremely skilful attack on the Protestant establishment in the Church of England and made his name.
Most of MacColl's writings centre on the question of the "Real Presence" of the Blessed Sacrament
Blessed Sacrament
The Blessed Sacrament, or the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional name used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, to refer to the Host after it has been consecrated in the sacrament of the Eucharist...
and the related issue of Apostolic succession of clergy. Despite limited knowledge of foreign languages, he also maintained contact with continental Roman Catholic dissidents after the First Vatican Council
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
, such as the Croatian, Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer
Josip Juraj Strossmayer
Josip Juraj Strossmayer was a Croatian politician, Roman Catholic bishop and benefactor.-Early life and rise as a cleric:...
of Diakova, and Dr Ignaz von Döllinger in Munich, acting as a discreet intermediary between them and Gladstone.
Both Strossmayer and Dollinger were strongly interested in the "Eastern Question" and the ending of Turkish rule in the Balkans. This, as well as similar currents of opinion in the Liberal Party, may have been responsible for MacColl's own interest in combatting Turkish political power during the last three decades of his life. From 1876 onwards, MacColl was an active defender of the Christian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire, writing a series of vitriolic attacks on Turkey and its friends in Britain in letters to newspapers, articles in reviews, and publishing several books. All of these productions were closely researched, usually relying on British "Blue Book" collections of consular despatches, though always written with an eye to making a case for the prosecution.
In August 1876, soon after the exposure of the killings of up to 15,000 Bulgarians the previous spring by Circassian irregulars in the Ottoman army, MacColl and Canon Liddon of St. Paul's travelled to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
on a fact-finding tour. During a boatride on the River Sava, then the frontier between Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, the two clergymen claimed to have seen an impaled human corpse. Though their testimony could not be independently confirmed, and was challenged by the local British Consul who suggested that the object in question might have been only a bag of beans, MacColl and Liddon used this sighting as proof of the iniquity of Turkish rule in the Balkans. This fitted in with a theme in their sermons that those in Britain (such as Gladstone's arch-opponent Benjamin Disraeli) who did not actively oppose Turkish rule were themselves guilty of its sins.
In his private correspondent with Gladstone after the Bulgarian atrocities, MacColl urged the Liberal leader to denounce the Ottomans and is perhaps partly responsible for the powerful speeches Gladstone made on the issue in the last months of 1876 and early 1877.
MacColl published two major works during these years on the issue himself. "The Eastern Question: Its Facts and Fallacies" appeared in the spring of 1877 and ran through five editions. "Three Years of the Eastern Question" followed in the early autumn of 1878 immediately after the Congress of Berlin had ended.
After returning to power Gladstone rewarded MacColl with the living of St. Georges, Botolph Lane, in 1871, and with a canonry of Ripon in 1884. The latter posting aroused the active opposition of Queen Victoria who had not forgotten or forgiven MacColl's virulent campaign against the Ottoman Empire in 1876-78 after the 'Bulgarian Agitation'.
The living at Ripon was practically a sinecure. MacColl maintained a large house at Kirby Overblow, south of Harrogate, and continued to devote himself to political pamphleteering and newspaper correspondence, the result of extensive European travel, a wide acquaintance with the leading personages of the day, strong views on ecclesiastical subjects from a high-church standpoint, and particularly on the politics of the Eastern Question
Eastern Question
The "Eastern Question", in European history, encompasses the diplomatic and political problems posed by the decay of the Ottoman Empire. The expression does not apply to any one particular problem, but instead includes a variety of issues raised during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, including...
, the uprising in Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, then still an Ottoman province, the cause of the Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
In the first years of the twentieth century, MacColl was an active opponent of Muslim spokesmen such as Syed Ameer Ali
Syed Ameer Ali
Syed Ameer Ali C.I.E. was an Indian Muslim jurist hailed from the state of Oudh from where his father shifted and settled down at Orissa...
and the Turkish writer Halil Halid and sometimes admonished them on doctrinal points of their religion, arguing for instance that the Sultan of Turkey was not the Caliph of all Muslims. He was on close terms with the King of Greece, George I, and leaders of the Armenian movement and during the Turkish-Greek War of April 1897, he visited Athens to confer with the King, conveying the monarch's private views both to Gladstone and also to the Conservative Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury.
In 1904 MacColl married Consuelo Albinia Crompton-Stansfield. He died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on the 5th of April 1907. In his will, MacColl left his library to the Gladstone collection at Hawarden.
MacColl had a younger brother, Hugh MacColl
Hugh MacColl
Hugh MacColl was a Scot who trained as a mathematician and became a logician. MacColl was the youngest son of a poor highland family which was at least in part Gaelic-speaking...
. Early on in their friendship, he had tried to persuade Gladstone to pay for Hugh to be educated 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...
. However this project was frustrated when Hugh refused to agree to become an Anglican priest as Gladstone insisted and so went without a university education. Despite this setback, Hugh MacColl
Hugh MacColl
Hugh MacColl was a Scot who trained as a mathematician and became a logician. MacColl was the youngest son of a poor highland family which was at least in part Gaelic-speaking...
nevertheless became one of the most significant figures in the history of symbolic logic before Gottlob Frege
Gottlob Frege
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was a German mathematician, logician and philosopher. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern logic, and made major contributions to the foundations of mathematics. He is generally considered to be the father of analytic philosophy, for his writings on...
.