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STANLEY, ARTHUR PENRHYN (18x5–1881)
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See also:STANLEY, See also:ARTHUR See also:PENRHYN (18x5–1881) , See also:English divine, See also:dean of See also:Westminster, was See also:born on the 13th of See also:December 1815, at Alderley in See also:Cheshire, where his See also:father, afterwards See also:bishop of See also:Norwich, was then See also:rector. He was educated at See also:Rugby under See also:Arnold, and in 1834 went up to Balliol See also:College, See also:Oxford.. After obtaining the See also:Ireland scholarship and See also:Newdigate See also:prize for an English poem (The Gypsies), he was in 1839 elected See also:fellow of University College, and in the same See also:year took orders. In 1840 he travelled in See also:Greece and See also:Italy, and on his return settled at Oxford, where for ten years he was See also:tutor of his college and an influential See also:element in university See also:life. His See also:personal relations with his pupils were of a singularly See also:close and affectionate nature, and the See also:charm of his social gifts and genial See also:character won him See also:friends on all sides. His See also:literary reputation was See also:early established by his Life of Arnold, published in 1844. In 1845 he was appointed select preacher, and published in 1847 a See also:volume of Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic See also:Age, which not only laid the See also:foundation of his fame as a preacher, but also marked his future position as a theologian. In university politics, which at that See also:time wore mainly the See also:form of theological controversy, he was a strong See also:advocate of comprehension and See also:toleration. As an undergraduate he had entirely sympathized with Arnold in resenting the agitation led by, but not confined to, the High See also: XC. and which ended in the withdrawal of J. H. See also:Newman from the See also:Anglican Church, he used all his See also:influence to protect from formal condemnation the leaders and tenets of the "Tractarian" party. In 1847 he resisted the See also:movement set on See also:foot at Oxford against Hampden's appointment to the bishopric of See also:Hereford. Finally, in 1850, in an See also:article published in the See also:Edinburgh See also:Review in See also:defence of the " Gorham See also:judgment" he asserted two principles which he maintained to the end of his life—first, " that the so-called supremacy of the See also:Crown in religious matters was in reality nothing else than the supremacy of See also:law," and, secondly, "that the Church of See also:England, by the very See also:condition of its being, was not High or See also:Low, but Broad, and had always included and been meant to include, opposite and contradictory opinions on points even more important than those at See also:present under discussion." It was not only in theoretical but in academical matters that his sympathies were on the liberal See also:side. He was greatly interested in university reform and acted as secretary to the royal See also:commission appointed in 1850. Of the important changes in See also:administration and See also:education which were ultimately carried out, Stanley, who took the See also:principal See also:share in drafting the See also:report printed in 1852, was a strenuous advocate. These changes included the transference of the initiative in university legislation from the See also:sole authority of the heads of houses to an elected and representative See also:body, the opening of college fellowships and scholarships to competition by the removal of See also:local and other restrictions the non-enforcement at matriculation of subscription to the See also:Thirty-nine Articles, and various steps for increasing the usefulness and influence of the professoriate. Before the report was issued, Stanley was appointed to a canonry in See also:Canterbury See also:Cathedral. During his See also:residence there he published his Memoir of his father (1851), and completed his Commentary on the Epistles to the See also:Corinthians (1855). In the See also:winter and See also:spring of 1852–1853 he made a tour in See also:Egypt and the See also:Holy See also:Land, the result of which was his well-known volume on See also:Sinai and See also:Palestine (1856). In 18J7 he travelled in See also:Russia, and collected much of the materials for his Lectures on the Eastern Church (1861). His Memorials of Canterbury (1855), displayed the full maturity of his See also:power of dealing with the events and characters of past See also:history. He was also examining See also:chaplain to Bishop A. C. See also:Tait, his former tutor. At the close of 1856 Stanley was appointed regius See also:professor of ecclesiastical history at Oxford, a See also:post which, with the attached canonry at See also:Christ Church, he held till 1863. He began his treatment of the subject with " the first See also:dawn of the history of the church," the See also:call of See also:Abraham; and published the first two volumes of his History of the Jewish Church in 1863 and 1865. From 186o to 1864 academical and clerical circles were agitated by the See also:storm which followed the publication of Essays and Reviews, a volume to which two of his most valued friends, See also:Benjamin See also:Jowett and See also:Frederick See also:Temple, had been contributors. Stanley's See also:part in this controversy may be studied in the second and third of his Essays on Church and See also:State (187o). The result of his See also: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 See also:Letter to the Bishop of See also:London, advocating a relaxation of the terms of clerical subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles and the See also:Prayer-See also:book. An See also: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 See also:Queen See also:Victoria's wish, accompanied the See also:prince of See also:Wales on a tour in Egypt and Palestine. Towards the close of 1863 he was appointed by the Crown to the deanery of Westminster. In December he married See also:Lady See also:Augusta See also:Bruce, See also:sister of See also:Lord See also:Elgin, then See also:governor-See also:general of See also:India. His See also:tenure of the deanery of Westminster was memorable in many ways. He recognized from the first two important disqualifications—his indifference to See also:music and his slight knowledge of See also:architecture. On both these subjects he availed himself largely of the aid of others, and threw himself with characteristic See also:energy and entire success into the task of rescuing from neglect and preserving from decay the treasure of historic monuments in which the See also:abbey is so See also:rich. In 1865 he published his Memorials of Westminster Abbey, a See also:work which, despite occasional inaccuracies, is a mine of See also:information. He was a See also:constant preacher, and gave a See also:great impulse to See also:Trench's practice of inviting distinguished preachers to the abbey See also:pulpit, especially to the evening services in the See also:nave. His personal influence, already unique, was much increased by his removal to London. His circle of friends included men of every See also:denomination, every class and almost of every nation. 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 See also:Scotland, another of Addresses and Sermons preached in See also:America, and another on See also: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 See also:Colenso, but his invitation to the Holy Communion of all the revisers of the See also:translation of the See also:Bible, including a Unitarian among other Nonconformists. Still stronger was the feeling caused by his efforts to make the See also:recital of the Athanasian Creed optional instead of imperative in the
Anglican Church. In 1874 he spent part of the winter in Russia, whither he went to take part in the See also:marriage of the See also:duke of Edinburgh and the See also:grand duchess See also:Marie. He lost his wife in the spring of 1876, a See also:blow from which he never entirely recovered. But in 1878 he was deeply interested by a tour in America, and in the following autumn visited for the last time See also:northern Italy and See also:Venice. In the spring of 1881 he preached funeral sermons in the abbey on See also: " He was never tired of asserting his belief " 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 See also:matter of fact varied enormously from the belief of its predecessor "; that " all confessions and similar documents are, if taken as final expressions of See also:absolute truth, misleading "; and that " there still remained, behind all the controversies of the past, a higher Christianity which neither assail-ants nor defenders had fully exhausted." " The first See also:duty of a See also:modern theologian " he held to be " to study the Bible, not for the See also: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 See also: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 See also:primary and essential." In the former See also:group Stanley would, without doubt or hesitation, have placed all questions connected with Episcopal or Presbyterian orders, or that See also:deal only with the outward forms or ceremonies of See also:religion, or with the authorship or age of the books of the Old Testament. Even to the question of miraculous and See also:external See also:evidence he would have been inclined to assign a secondary See also:place. The foremost and highest place, that of the " essential and super-natural " elements of religion, he would have reserved for its moral and spiritual truths, " its See also:chief evidence and chief essence," " the truths to be See also:drawn from the teaching and from the life of Christ," in whose character he did not hesitate to recognize " the greatest of all miracles." With such views it was not to be wondered at that, from first to last, as has already been indicated, he never lost an opportunity of supporting a policy of width, toleration and comprehension in the Church of England. So again he was always eager to insist on the essential points of See also:union between various denominations of Christians. He was throughout his life an unflinching advocate of the connexion between Church and State. By this he under-stood: (I) " 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 See also:con-trolled 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 See also:admission to its See also:ministry. As an immediate step he even advocated the admission under due restrictions of English Nonconformists and Scottish Presbyterians, to preach in Anglican pulpits. Apart from the great impulse which he gave to the study alike of the Bible and Church history, his influence may be said in a very true sense to See also:colour the writings of many of those who most differ from him. 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 See also: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 Thus began a series of adventures in See also:search of " copy." In the autumn of 1866 we hear of him travelling in See also:Asia See also:Minor "en route for See also:Tiflis and See also:Tibet," and as being attacked, with his twc companions, by brigands, robbed ar3 imprisoned, the See also:Porte subsequently paying through the See also:American See also:minister an See also:indemnity for the See also:outrage. In December of the same year Stanley revisited See also:Denbigh and St See also:Asaph, returning thence to America. In 1867 he joined General See also:Hancock's expedition against the Red See also:Indians, acting as correspondent for the See also:Missouri Democrat and other papers. His reports induced the New See also:York See also:Herald to send him to accompany the See also:British expedition of 1867-68 against the See also:emperor See also:Theodore of See also:Abyssinia. Succeeding in sending through the first See also:news of the fall of See also:Magdala, Stanley attracted the special See also:attention of the proprietor of the Herald, See also: He had accomplished his See also:mission, and by it he established his reputation as a See also:leader of men and an explorer of great promise. His See also:story, made public in a picturesque narrative, How I Found Livingstone (1872), was at first received in London with some incredulity, owing in part to his connexion with American journalism of a type then unfamiliar and distasteful; but the See also:journals of Living-See also: P. Stanley (1883) ; R. E. Prothero and G. G. Bradley, Life and See also:Correspondence of Dean Stanley (2 vols., 1893). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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