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JOWETT, BENJAMIN (1817-1893)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 529 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOWETT, See also:BENJAMIN (1817-1893) , See also:English See also:scholar and theologian, See also:master of Balliol See also:College, See also:Oxford, was See also:born in See also:Camberwell on the 15th of See also:April 1817. His See also:father was one of a See also:Yorkshire See also:family who, for three generations, had been supporters of the Evangelical See also:movement in the See also:Church of See also:England. His See also:mother was a See also:Langhorne, in some way related to the poet and translator of See also:Plutarch. At twelve the boy was placed on the See also:foundation of St See also:Paul's School (then in St Paul's See also:Churchyard), and in his nineteenth See also:year he obtained an open scholarship at Balliol. In 1838 he gained a fellowship, and graduated with first-class honours in 1839. Brought up amongst pious Evangelicals, he came to Oxford at the height of the Tractarian movement, and through the friendship of W. G. See also:Ward was See also:drawn for a See also:time in the direction of High Anglicanism; but a stronger and more lasting See also:influence was that of the See also:Arnold school, represented by A. P. See also:Stanley. Jowett was thus led to concentrate his See also:attention on See also:theology, and in the summers of 1845 and 1846, spent in See also:Germany with Stanley, he became an eager student of See also:German See also:criticism and See also:speculation. Amongst the writings of that See also:period he was most impressed by those of F.

C. See also:

Baur. But he never ceased to exercise an See also:independent See also:judgment, and his See also:work on St Paul, which appeared in 1855, was the result of much See also:original reflection and inquiry. He was appointed to the See also:Greek See also:professor-See also:ship in the autumn of that year. He had been a See also:tutor of Balliol and a clergyman since 1842, and had devoted himself to the work of tuition with unexampled zeal. His pupils became his See also:friends for See also:life. He discerned their capabilities, studied their characters, and sought to remedy their defects by See also:frank and searching criticism. Like another See also:Socrates, he taught them to know them-selves, repressing vanity, encouraging the despondent, and attaching all alike by his unobtrusive sympathy. This work gradually made a strong impression, and those who cared for Oxford began to speak of him as " the See also:great tutor." As See also:early as 1839 Stanley had joined with See also:Tait, the future See also:archbishop, in advocating certain university reforms. From 1846 onwards Jowett threw himself into this movement, which in 1848 became See also:general amongst the younger and more thoughtful See also:fellows, until it took effect in the See also:commission of 185o and the See also:act of 1854. Another educational reform, the opening of the See also:Indian See also:civil service to competition, took See also:place at the same time, and Jowett was one of the commission. He had two See also:brothers who served and died in See also:India, and he never ceased to take a deep and See also:practical See also:interest in Indian affairs.

A great disappointment, his repulse for the mastership of Balliol, also in 1854, appears to have roused him into the completion of his See also:

book on The Epistles of St Paul. This work, described by one of his friends as " a See also:miracle of boldness," is full of originality and suggestiveness, but its publication awakened against him a See also:storm of theological See also:prejudice, which new See also:hall (1876), the See also:organ there, entirely his See also:gift (1S35), and the followed him more or less through life. Instead of yielding to See also:cricket ground (1889), remain as See also:external monuments of the this, he joined with See also:Henry Bristowe See also:Wilson and See also:Rowland master's activity. Neither business nor the many claims of See also:Williams, who had been similarly attacked, in the See also:production friendship interrupted See also:literary work. The six or seven See also:weeks of the See also:volume known as Essays and Reviews. This appeared in of the See also:long vacation, during which he had pupils with him, were 186o and gave rise to a See also:strange outbreak of fanaticism. Jowett's mainly employed in See also:writing. The See also:translation of See also:Aristotle's See also:loyalty to those who were prosecuted'on this See also:account was no less Politics, the revision of See also:Plato, and, above all, the translation of characteristic than his persistent silence while the See also:augmentation See also:Thucydides many times revised, occupied several years. The of his See also:salary as Greek professor was withheld. This See also:petty perse- edition of the See also:Republic, undertaken in 1856, remained unfinished, cution was continued until 1865, when E. A. See also:Freeman and See also:Charles but was continued with the help of Professor See also:Lewis See also:Campbell.

See also:

Elton discovered by See also:historical See also:research that a See also:breach of the See also:con- Other literary schemes of larger See also:scope' and deeper interest were ditions of the professorship had occurred, and See also:Christ Church long in contemplation, but were not destined to take effect—an raised the endowment from £40 a year to £500. Meanwhile See also:Essay on the Religions of the See also:World, a Commentary on the Gospels, jowett's influence at Oxford had steadily increased. It culmi- a Life of Christ, a volume on Moral Ideas. Such plans were nated in 1864, when the See also:country See also:clergy, provoked by the final frustrated, not only by his practical avocations, but by his acquittal of the essayists, had voted in See also:convocation against the determination to finish what he had 'begun, and the fastidious endowment of the Greek See also:chair. Jowett's pupils, who were now self-criticism which it took so long to satisfy. The book on drawn from the university at large, supported him with the Morals might, however, have been written but for the heavy See also:enthusiasm which See also:young men feel for the victim of injustice. See also:burden of the See also:vice-chancellorship, which he was induced to In the midst of other labours Jowett had been quietly exerting accept in 1882, by the See also:hope, only partially fulfilled, of securing his influence so as to conciliate all shades of liberal See also:opinion, and many improvements for the university. The vice-See also:chancellor bring them to See also:bear upon the abolition of the theological test, was ex officio a delegate of the See also:press, where he hoped to effect which was still required for the M.A. and other degrees, and for much; and a See also:plan for draining the See also:Thames Valley, which he had university and college offices. He spoke at an important See also:meeting now the See also:power of initiating, was one on which his mind had dwelt upon this question in See also:London on the loth of See also:June 1864, which laid for many years. The exhausting labours of the vice-chancellor-the ground for the University Tests Act of 1871. In connexion ship were followed by an illness (1887); and after this he relinwith the Greek professorship Jowett had undertaken a work quished the'hope of producing any great original writing. His on Plato which See also:grew into a See also:complete translation of the Dialogues, literary See also:industry was thenceforth confined to his commentary with See also:introductory essays. At this he laboured in vacation time on the Republic of Plato, and some essays on Aristotle which were for at least ten years.

But his interest in theology had not to have formed a See also:

companion volume to the translation of the See also:abated, and his thoughts found an outlet in occasional See also:preaching. Politics. The essays which should have accompanied the trans-The university See also:pulpit, indeed, was closed to him, but several lation of Thucydides were never written. Jowett, who never congregations in London delighted in his sermons, and from 1866 married, died on the 1st of See also:October 1893. The funeral was one until the year of his See also:death he preached annually in See also:Westminster of the most impressive ever seen in Oxford. The See also:pall-bearers See also:Abbey, where Stanley had become See also:dean in 1863. Three volumes were seven heads of colleges and the See also:provost of See also:Eton, all old of selected sermons have been published since his death. The pupils. years 1865–187o were occupied with assiduous labour. Amongst Theologian, tutor, university reformer, a great master of a his pupils at Balliol were men destined to high positions in the college, Jowett's best claim to the remembrance of succeeding See also:state, whose parents had thus shown their confidence in the generations was his greatness as a moral teacher. Many of the supposed heretic, and gratitude on this account was added to most prominent Englishmen of the See also:day were his pupils and owed other motives for his unsparing efforts in tuition. In 187o, by much of what they were to his See also:precept and example, his penean arrangement which he attributed to his friend See also:Robert See also:Lowe, trative sympathy, his insistent criticism, and his unwearying afterwards See also:Lord See also:Sherbrooke (at that time a member of Glad- friendship.

Seldom have ideal aims been so steadily pursued See also:

stone's See also:ministry), See also:Scott was promoted to the deanery of See also:Rochester with so clear a recognition of practical limitations. Jpwett's and Jowett was elected to the vacant mastership by the fellows theological work was transitional, and yet has an See also:element of of Balliol. From the vantage-ground of this long-coveted permanence. As has been said of another thinker, he was " one position the Plato was published in 1871. It had a great and of those deeply religious men who, when crude theological well-deserved success. While scholars criticized particular notions are being revised and called in question seek to put new renderings (and there were many small errors to be removed in life into theology by wider and more humane ideas." In earlier subsequent See also:editions), it was generally agreed that he had See also:sue- life he had been a zealous student of See also:Kant and See also:Hegel, and to the ceeded in making Plato an English classic. end he never ceased to cultivate the philosophic spirit; but he If ever there was a beneficent despotism, it was Jowett's See also:rule had little confidence in metaphysical systems, and sought rather as master. Since 1866 his authority in Balliol had been really to translate See also:philosophy into the See also:wisdom of life. As a classical See also:paramount, and various reforms in college had been due to his scholar, his scorn of littlenesses sometimes led him into the initiative. The opposing minority were now powerless, and the neglect of minutiae, but he had the higher merit of interpreting younger fellows who had been his pupils were more inclined to ideas. His place in literature rests really on the essays in his follow him than others would have been. There was no obstacle Plato. When their merits are fully recognized, it will be found to the continued exercise of his See also:firm and reasonable will.

He still that his See also:

worth, as a teacher of his countrymen, extends far knew the undergraduates individually, and watched their See also:pro- beyond his own See also:generation. gress with a vigilant See also:eye. His influence in the university was See The Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett, by E. A. See also:Abbott and less assured. The pulpit of St See also:Mary's was no longer closed to Lewis Campbell (1899); Benjamin Jowett, by. Lionel See also:Tollemache him, but the success of Balliol in the See also:schools gave rise to See also:jealousy (1895). (L. C.) in other colleges, and old prejudices did not suddenly give way; JOYEUSE, a small See also:town in the See also:department of See also:Ardeche, See also:France, while a new movement in favour of " the endowment of research " situated on the See also:Baume, a tributary of the Ardeche, is historically ran See also:counter to his immediate purposes. Meanwhile, the tutor- important as having been the seat of a See also:noble See also:French family See also:ships in other colleges, and some of the headships also, were being which derived its name from it. The lordship of Joyeuse came, filled with Balliol men, and Jowett's former pupils were promi- in the 13th See also:century, into the See also:possession of the See also:house of Chateaunent in both houses of See also:parliament and at the See also:bar. He continued neuf-Randon, and . was made into a viscountship in 1432. the practice, which he had commenced in 1848, of taking with See also:Guillaume, See also:viscount of Joyeuse, was See also:bishop of Alet, but after-him a small party of undergraduates in vacation time, and work- wards See also:left the church, and became a See also:marshal of France; he died See also:ing with them in one of his favourite haunts, at Askrigg in in 1592.

His eldest son See also:

Anne de Joyeuse (1561–1587), was one See also:Wensleydale, or See also:Tummel See also:Bridge; or later at WestMalvern. The of the favourites of Henry See also:ICI. of France, who created him See also:duke and peer (15811, See also:admiral of France (1582), and See also:governor of See also:Normandy (1586), and married him to See also:Marguerite de See also:Lorraine-Vaudemont, younger See also:sister of the See also:queen. He gained several successes against the See also:Huguenots, but was recalled by See also:court intrigues at an inopportune moment, and when he marched a second time against Henry of See also:Navarre he was defeated and killed at Coutras. Guillaume had three other sons: See also:Francois Ie Joyeuse (d. 1615), See also:cardinal and archbishop of See also:Narbonne, See also:Toulouse and See also:Rouen, who brought about the reconciliation of Henry IV. with the See also:pope; See also:Henri, See also:count of Bouchage, and later duke of Joyeuse, who first entered the See also:army, then became a Capuchin under the name of Pere Ange, left the church and became a marshal of France, and finally re-entered the church, dying in 1608; See also:Antoine Scipion, See also:grand See also:prior of Toulouse in the See also:order of the knights of See also:Malta, who was one of the leaders in the See also:League, and died in the See also:retreat of Villemur (1592). Henriette See also:Catherine de Joyeuse, daughter of Henri, married in 1611 Charles of Lorraine, duke of See also:Guise, to whom she brought the duchy of Joyeuse. On the death of her great-See also:grandson, Francois See also:Joseph de Lorraine, duke of Guise, in 1675, without issue, the duchy of Joyeuse was declared See also:extinct, but it was revived in 1714, in favour of See also:Louis de See also:Melun, See also:prince of Epinoy. (M.

End of Article: JOWETT, BENJAMIN (1817-1893)

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