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THIRLWALL, CONNOP (1797-1875)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 852 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THIRLWALL, CONNOP (1797-1875) , See also:English See also:bishop and historian, was See also:born at See also:Stepney, See also:London, on the rrth of See also:January 1797. His See also:family was of Northumbrian extraction. He was a precocious boy, learning Latin at three, See also:reading See also:Greek at four, and See also:writing sermons at seven. He went to the See also:Charterhouse school, where See also:George See also:Grote and See also:Julius See also:Hare were among his schoolfellows. He went up to Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, in See also:October 1814, and gained the See also:Craven university scholarship and the See also:chancellor's classical See also:medal. In October 1818 he was elected to a fellowship, and went for a See also:year's travel on the See also:Continent. At See also:Rome he gained the friendship of See also:Baron (See also:Christian C. J.) von See also:Bunsen, which had a most important See also:influence on his See also:life. On his return, " distrust of his own re-solutions and convictions " led him to abandon for the See also:time his intention of being a clergyman, and he settled down to the study of the See also:law, " with a See also:firm determination not to suffer it to engross my time so as to prevent me from pursuing other branches of knowledge." How little his See also:heart was with it was shown by the labour he soon undertook of translating and prefacing See also:Schleiermacher's See also:essay on the See also:Gospel of St See also:Luke. He further rendered two of See also:Tieck's most See also:recent Novellen into English. In 1827 he at length made up his mind to quit the law, and was ordained See also:deacon the same year. Thirlwall now joined with Hare in translating See also:Niebuhr's See also:History of Rome; the first See also:volume appeared in 1828.

The See also:

translation was attacked in the Quarterly as favourable to See also:scepticism, and the translators jointly replied. In 1831 the See also:friends established the Philological Museum, which lived through only six See also:numbers, though among Thirlwall's contributions was his masterly See also:paper on the See also:irony of See also:Sophocles—" the most exquisite See also:criticism I ever read," says See also:Sterling. On Hare's departure from Cambridge in 1832, Thirlwall became assistant college See also:tutor, which led him to take a memorable See also:share in the See also:great controversy upon the See also:admission of Dissenters which arose in 1834. See also:Thomas See also:Turton, the regius See also:professor of divinity (afterwards See also:dean of See also:Westminster and bishop of See also:Ely), had written a pamphlet objecting to the admission, on the ground of the apprehended unsettlement of the religious opinions of See also:young churchmen. Thirlwall replied by pointing out that no See also:pro-See also:vision for theological instruction was in fact made by the colleges except compulsory attendance at See also:chapel, and that this was mischievous. This attack upon a time-hallowed piece of college discipline brought upon him a demand for the resignationof his See also:office as assistant tutor. He complied at once; his friends generally thought that he ought to have tested the See also:master's See also:power. The occurrence marked him out for promotion by a Liberal See also:Government, and in the autumn he received from See also:Lord See also:Brougham as chancellor the living of See also:Kirby-under-See also:Dale in See also:Yorkshire. Though devoted to his parochial duties, he found time to begin his See also:principal See also:work, the History of See also:Greece. This work was a See also:commission from See also:Lardner's See also:Cabinet Cyclopaedia, and was originally intended to have been condensed into two or three duodecimo volumes. The See also:scale was enlarged, but Thirlwall always See also:felt cramped. He seems a little below his subject, and a little below himself.

As compared with Grote's history it lacks See also:

enthusiasm for a definite See also:political ideal and is written entirely from the standpoint of a See also:scholar. It is in this respect See also:superior, and further shows in places a more impartial treatment of the See also:evidence, especially in respect of the aristocratic and See also:absolute governments of Greece. For these reasons its popularity was not so immediate as that of Grote's work, but within recent years its substantial merits have been more adequately recognized. A See also:noble See also:letter from Thirlwall to Grote, and Grote's generous reply, are published in the life of the latter. See also:John Sterling pronounced Thirlwall " a writer as great as See also:Thucydides and See also:Tacitus, and with far more knowledge than they." The first volume was published in 1835, the last in 1847. In 184o Thirlwall was raised to the see of St See also:David's. The promotion was entirely the See also:act of Lord See also:Melbourne, an See also:amateur in See also:theology, who had read Thirlwall's introduction to Schleiermacher, and satisfied himself of the propriety of the appoint-merit. " I See also:don't intend to make a heterodox bishop if I know it," he said. In most essential points he was a See also:model bishop, and he acquainted himself with Welsh, so as to preach and See also:con-duct service in that See also:language. He was not, greatly beloved by his See also:clergy, who felt their intellectual distance too great, and were alternately frozen by his taciturnity and appalled by his See also:sarcasm. The great See also:monument of his episcopate is the eleven famous charges in which he from time to time reviewed the position of the English See also:Church with reference to whatever might be the most pressing question of the See also:day—addresses at once judicial and statesmanlike, full of charitable See also:wisdom and massive sense. His endeavours to allay ecclesiastical panic, and to promote liberality of spirit, frequently required no See also:ordinary moral courage.

He was one of the four prelates who refused to inhibit Bishop See also:

Colenso from See also:preaching in their dioceses, and the only one who withheld his. See also:signature from the addresses calling upon Colenso to resign his see. He took the liberal See also:side in the questions of See also:Maynooth, of the admission of See also:Jews to See also:parliament, of the Gorham See also:case, and of the educational See also:conscience clause. He was the only bishop who voted for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, though a See also:scheme of con-current endowment would have been much more agreeable to him. He would have made an admirable successor to Howley in the primacy, but such was the complexion of ecclesiastical politics that the See also:elevation of the most impartial See also:prelate of his day would have been resented as a piece of party spirit. Thirlwall's private life was happy and busy. Though never married, he was fond of See also:children and of all weak things except weak-minded clergymen. He had a very judicial mind, and J. S. See also:Mill said he was the best orator he had ever heard. During his latter years he took great See also:interest in the. revision of the authorized version of the See also:Bible, and was chairman of the revisers of the Old Testament. He resigned his see in May 1874, and retired to See also:Bath, where he died on the 27th of See also:July r875. He lies in Westminster See also:Abbey in the same See also:grave as Grote.

As scholar, critic and ecclesiastical statesman Thirlwall stands very high. He was not a great See also:

original thinker; he lacked the creative See also:faculty and the creative impulse. His See also:character, with its mixture of greatness and gentleness, was thus read by' See also:Carlyle: " A right solid, honest-hearted See also:man, full of knowledge and sense; and, in spite of his See also:positive See also:temper, almost timid." Thirlwall's History of Greece remains a See also:standard See also:book. His Remains, See also:Literary and Theological, were edited by J. J. S. See also:Perowne in three volumes (1877-78), two of which are occupied by his charges. His Letters, Literary and Theological, with a connecting memoir, were edited by J. J. S. Perowne and L. See also:Stokes (1881).

His Letters to a Friend (See also:

Miss Johnes of Dolaucothy) are a splendid monument to his memory.. They were originally published by Dean See also:Stanley, and there is a revised and corrected edition. For a See also:general view of Thirlwall's life and character, see the See also:Edinburgh See also:Review, vol. cxliii.; for a picture of him in his See also:diocese, See also:Temple See also:Bar, vol. Ixxvi.

End of Article: THIRLWALL, CONNOP (1797-1875)

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