Connop Thirlwall

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Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall (born February 11, 1797 in Stepney , Middlesex , † July 27, 1875 in Bath ) was a British clergyman and historian whose main work is the History of Greece , published between 1835 and 1844 ("History of Greece "). From 1840 to 1874 he held the office of Bishop of St Davids .

Life

Thirlwall was born on February 11, 1797 in what is now the London borough of Stepney, the son of a clergyman, his family originally came from Northumberland in the north of England. He started reading and learning foreign languages ​​at an early age: he mastered Latin at the age of three and Greek at the age of four . In 1809, when he was eleven years old, his collected essays and poems were published by his father under the title Primitiæ ; later Thirlwall tried vehemently to prevent the spread of this work. After the Charterhouse School , a Godalminger had private school attended, to Thirlwall 1814 wrote in the Trinity College of Cambridge University , where he Jura graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1825. Even so, he decided to give up this profession and become a priest instead. Ordination followed in 1827, and a year later Thirlwall returned to Cambridge to work as a tutor at his former college .

In 1835, Thirlwall began work on his History of Greece . The work was originally planned as a purely commissioned work for the theologian Dionysius Lardner ; it was to appear as part of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia , a 133-volume universal encyclopedia, and should comprise two to three duodec-sized volumes. The scope was finally expanded to eight volumes, the last of which was published in 1844; the work continued to be so successful that it was later reprinted and appeared in further editions.

In 1840, on the recommendation of Lord Melbourne , Thirlwall was appointed bishop of the Welsh town of St Davids ; this met with resistance from both the English and the Welsh side. Thirlwall rejected the former because of his open-mindedness and tolerance in religious matters, the latter because he was neither from Wales nor could he speak Welsh. The Welsh writer and deacon David James urged him to resign in a sharply worded letter; Thirlwall took this as an incentive to learn Welsh and in 1860 offered James an archdeaconate in his diocese. During his tenure as bishop Thirlwall was never popular with the Welsh people - also because of his silence and the sarcastic manner with which he treated the people of his diocese - although some of his speeches and sermons were given and written down in Welsh.

When the bishop of the South African diocese of Natal , John William Colenso , came under fire from the Anglican Church for his religious position in the 1860s, Thirlwall, one of four bishops in the House of Lords , refused to ban him from preaching in his diocese. Furthermore, he was the only bishop who refused to sign a written request addressed to Colenso to resign from his office as bishop.

In 1869 the British Parliament passed the Irish Church Act , which resolved the separation of the Church of Ireland from the Irish state, thereby revoking its status as a state church . Thirlwall supported the decision, but with this decision he opposed the other bishops in the House of Lords.

In the last years of his tenure, Thirlwall became increasingly estranged from the clergy in his diocese and increasingly relied on his archdeacons. After he became blind and suffered a stroke , he gave up his bishopric in 1874 and retired. He died on July 27, 1875 at the age of 78 in his residence in Bath, southern England , whereupon he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Quotes

“I am not aware of having refused to others the license which I ever claimed to myself. And, if it please God, I shall never consent to the narrowing by a hair's breadth that latitude of opinion which the Church has hitherto conceded to her ministers. "

“I am not aware that I have ever forbidden others to do something that I allow myself. In addition, God willing, I will never agree to the smallest restriction of freedom of expression that the church has so far granted its members. "

- Connop Thirlwall : letter to The Spectator magazine , 1861

Works (selection)

  • Primitiæ. Or, Essays and Poems on Various Subjects, Religious, Moral and Entertaining . London 1809.
  • A History of Greece . 8 volumes. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, London 1835-1844.
  • Worship in Holy Communion and Almsgiving. Duties on the Lord's Day . In: Sermons for Sundays, Festivals and Fasts . 1845.
  • Remains, Literary and Theological, of Connop Thirlwall, Late Lord Bishop of St. David's . Ed .: JJ Stewart Perowne. 3 volumes. Daldy, Isbister & Co., London 1877–1878.
  • Letters, Literary and Theological, of Connop Thirlwall, Late Lord Bishop of St. David's . Ed .: JJ Stewart Perowne. Richard Bentley & Son, London 1881.
  • Letters to a Friend . Ed .: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley . Richard Bentley & Son, London 1881.

As translator

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b article. (PDF; 320 kB) In: New York Times , April 17, 1882
  2. ↑ Biography in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography
predecessor Office successor
John Banks Jenkinson Bishop of St. Davids
1840–1874 		William Basil Jones
personal data
SURNAME Thirlwall, Connop
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British clergyman and historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Stepney , Middlesex, England
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1875
Place of death Bath , Somerset, England