Frederick Temple

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Archbishop Temple 1900

Frederick Temple (born November 30, 1821 in Santa Maura , Republic of the Ionian Islands , † December 23, 1902 in London ) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896 until his death .

Early years

Temple was born in Santa Maura , one of the Ionian Islands , to Major Octavius ​​Temple, who later became Vice-Governor of Sierra Leone . After his retirement, Major Temple lived in Devon and envisaged a career in agriculture for his son Frederick, which is why he gave him practical training in the field.

Temple's grandfather was Rev. William Johnson Temple, Rector of the Parish of Mamhead , Devon. In Boswell's Life of Johnson Pastor Temple is mentioned several times.

As a youth, Frederick Temple was taught at Blundell's School , Tiverton . It soon became apparent that he was suitable for a career other than agriculture. He had a warm affection for school, where he excelled in both academic and physical activities, especially hiking. Since the family was not well off, Frederick Temple knew that he would have to support himself. The first step was, even before he was seventeen years old, winning a scholarship for Balliol College of Oxford University .

The Oxford Movement had begun five years before he was enrolled, but the memorable Tract No. 90 had not yet been written. So Temple entered a university that was pulsing with intellectual and religious excitement. After much discussion and reflection, he approached the liberal movement in Oxford. In 1842 he graduated with a double-one and became a fellow at Balliol College as a lecturer in mathematics and logic . He was ordained a priest four years later . With the aim of improving the education of the poor, he took over the leadership of Kneller Hall , a college established by the government to train the leaders of workhouses and penal schools . The experiment was unsuccessful and Temple himself proposed that it be terminated in 1855. He then took the position of school inspector until he accepted an appointment as a teacher at the rugby school in 1858 . In the meantime he had gained the admiration of the Prince Consort Albert and in 1856 became chaplain-in-ordinary of Queen Victoria . In 1857 he received the distinction of "select preacher" from the University of Oxford.

rugby

After Dr. Goulburn in 1858, head of the Rugby School, Temple was appointed new head by the trustees. Also that year he had earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree and a Doctor of Divinity degree . His life in rugby was marked by great energy and courageous initiative.

Temple reinforced the school's academic reputation in the classical subjects; he founded and promoted a science laboratory. He also reformed the school's sporting activities. His own enormous workload and rough manner intimidated the students, but he quickly became popular and improved the good reputation of the school here too. His school sermons left a deep impression on the schoolboys. He was loyal, trusting, and conscientious in teaching.

Essays and Reviews

In 1860 he contributed one of the seven chapters to the volume Essays and Reviews , which was compiled by theologian Henry Bristow Wilson . Benjamin Jowett , Baden Powell , Rowland Williams, and Wilson himself were among the other authors . This collection appeared shortly after Darwin's On the Origin of Species and presented to the British public the knowledge that German biblical scholars had gained using the historical-critical method . The band sparked controversy. Williams and Wilson were convicted by a church court and then acquitted on appeal. From then on, Temple's theology was also considered suspect by many.

Politically, Temple was a supporter of Gladstone ; he also advocated the separation of the Irish Church from the state. He wrote and advocated compulsory education, the Elementary Education Act (1870) by William Edward Forster , and was an active member of the executive school board. In 1869 Gladstone offered him the Deanery of Durham , but he resigned and stayed in rugby. Later that year, when Henry Phillpotts , Bishop of Exeter died, the Prime Minister offered him the position and Temple accepted.

Dioceses

The appointment re-fueled the essays and reviews controversy . George Anthony Denison , Archdean of Taunton , Lord Shaftesbury , and others formed a protest committee, while Edward Pusey declared that the choice was the most frightful enormity ever perpetrated by a prime minister. Numerous deliberations were held prior to his official appointment and the Exeter Chapter was divided in its opinion. Gladstone, for his part, stood firmly by Temple and he was officially appointed on December 21, 1869. There was, therefore, disappointment among his clergy, who feared his harsh control. But his real kindness was soon noticed, and during the next sixteen years of his tenure, he completely overcame all prejudices against him. When, in 1885, after the death of Dr. John Jackson, who was called to be Bishop of London , no longer objected to his appointment. In 1884 Temple was a lecturer in Bampton and in 1885 he became an honorary member of Exeter College , Oxford.

As Bishop of London, Dr. Temple harder than ever. His normal working day at that time was fourteen or fifteen hours. Signs of incipient blindness were quickly observed under this load. Many members of his clergy and his employees saw him as a rather daunting role model, as he preached the enforcement of almost impossible standards in diligence, accuracy and efficiency. With his obvious devotion to his work and his zeal for the well-being of the people, he overcame this impression and gained trust. In London he was a tireless campaigner for the ban on alcohol ; nevertheless, the working class instinctively recognized him as a friend. Because of his increasing blindness, he offered to resign as bishop. Instead, however, in 1895, after the sudden death of Archbishop Benson, he was asked to take over the office of Archbishop of Canterbury at the age of sixty-seven, which he accepted.

Archbishop of Canterbury

As Archbishop he presided over the Lambeth Conference in 1897 . In the same year gave Temple and William Dalrymple Maclagan , the Archbishop of York , as a joint response to the encyclical Apostolicae curae of Pope Leo XIII. , which denied the validity of the Anglican episcopal appointments , published the letter Saepius Officio . In 1900, the two archbishops acted together again to clarify the questions regarding the use of incense in worship and the order of the elements of the worship. After hearing the arguments, they decided against the requested practices. During his tenure as Archbishop, Dr. Temple was deeply concerned by the division and weakening of the Church of England , and many of his sermons called for unity.

Painting by Sydney Prior Hall depicting the collapse of Archbishop Temple in the House of Lords during his Education Act speech , 1902.

His main concern as the Primate of the English Church in relation to these disputes was his plea for a more Catholic and charitable character of the Church; he kept coming back to this subject over the last few years of his life. He actively advocated the Anglican Mission and in his sermon at the opening of the new century he appealed that Britain's supreme obligation in this era and in world history be to evangelize all nations. In 1900 he chaired the Temperance World Congress in London; on this occasion he preached an expansion of women's education .

In 1902 his most important assignment was directing the coronation of King Edward VII , but the numerous pressures and advanced age took their toll. During a speech he gave in the House of Lords on December 2, 1902, on the Education Act of that year, he collapsed and, even though he finished his speech, he never recovered. He died on 23 December 1902 was four days later in the garden of the cloister of the Cathedral of Canterbury buried.

His second son, William Temple , was also named Archbishop of Canterbury a few years later. His grave is also in the cloister garden of Canterbury Cathedral.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Frederick Temple: An Appreciation (1907) EG Sandford , with a biographical introduction by William Temple
  • Memoirs of Archbishop Temple (1906) from Seven Friends, edited by EG Sandford
  • Peter Hinchliff: Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury: A Life . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-826386-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ SM Waddams: Law, Politics and the Church of England: The Career of Stephen Lushington 1782–1873 . Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-41371-0 , p. 311 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed September 11, 2016]).
  2. ^ SM Waddams: Law, Politics and the Church of England: The Career of Stephen Lushington 1782–1873 . Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-41371-0 , chap. 10 .
predecessor Office successor
Henry Phillpotts Bishop of Exeter
1869–1885 		Edward Henry Bickerseth
John Jackson Bishop of London
1885-1896 		Almond Creighton
Edward White Benson Archbishop of Canterbury
1896–1902 		Randall Thomas Davidson

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Temple, Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Canterbury
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Santa Maura , Ionian Islands
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1902
Place of death London