BENSON, EDWARD WHITE (1829-1896), archbishop of Canterbury, was born on July 14, 1829, at Birmingham, the son of a manufacturing chemist, who came of a family of Yorkshire dalesmen. He was educated at King Edward VI.'s school, Birmingham, and Trinity college, Cambridge, graduated in 1852 as a senior optime, 8th classic and senior chancellor's medallist, and became a fellow of his college. He was ordained deacon in 1854 and priest in 1856. He was assistant master at Rugby, for the latter part of the time under Frederick Temple, who became his life-long friend, and then (1859-68) headmaster of the newly founded Wellington College. He had married in 1859 his cousin, Mary Sidgwick. He became preb endary of Lincoln and examining chaplain to the bishop in 1868, and in 1872 chancellor of the diocese. Early in 1877 he was ap pointed to the new see of Truro. The new bishop put fresh life into the organization of the church in Cornwall, and during his tenure of office Truro Cathedral was built and (1887) consecrated. On the death of Dr. Tait, Benson was nominated to the see of Canterbury, and enthroned on March 29, 1883.
Frequent communications passed between him and the heads of the Eastern churches. With their approval a bishop was again consecrated, after six years' interval (1881-8 7) , for the Anglican congregations in Jerusalem and the East; and the features which had made the plan objectionable to many English churchmen were now abolished. In 1886, after much careful investigation, he founded the "Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Chris tians," having for its object the instruction and the strengthening from within of the "Nestorian" churches. An interchange of courtesies with the Metropolitan of Kiev on the occasion of the 9ooth anniversary of the conversion of Russia (1888), led to a friendlier feeling between the English and Russian churches, but with the efforts towards a rapprochement with the Church of Rome the archbishop would have nothing to do.
With the other churches of the Anglican Communion the arch bishop's relations were cordial in the extreme. He sat on the ecclesiastical courts commission (1881-83) and the sweating com mission (1888-9o). He brought bills into parliament to reform church patronage and church discipline. The latter became law in 1892, and the former was merged in the Benefices bills, which passed in 1898, after his death. He wrote and spoke against Welsh disestablishment (1893) ; and under his guidance, the exist ing agencies for church defence were consolidated. He helped to establish the House of Laymen in the province of Canterbury (1886). The most important ecclesiastical event of his primacy was the judgment in the case of the bishop of Lincoln (see LINCOLN JUDGMENT). In 1896 the archbishop went to Ireland. He was received with enthusiasm, but the tour fatigued him. On Sunday morning Oct. 11, just after his return, he was on a visit to Mr. Gladstone, when he died in Hawarden parish church, suddenly, from heart failure.
Archbishop Benson left numerous writings, including an essay on "The Cathedral" (1878), and charges, sermons and addresses.
But his two chief works, posthumously published, are his Cyprian (1897), which had occupied him at intervals since early manhood; and The Apocalypse, an Introductory Study (1900), interesting and beautiful, but limited by the fact that the method of study is that of a Greek play, not of a Hebrew apocalypse. The arch bishop's knowledge of the past was both wide and minute, but it was that of an antiquary rather than of a historian. "I think," writes his son, "he was more interested in modern movements for their resemblance to ancient than vice versa." He wrote some hymns, including "0 Throned, 0 Crowned," and a beautiful version of Urbs Beata. His "grandeur in social function" was un equalled and his interests were very wide. But above all else he was a great ecclesiastic. He paid less attention to secular politics than Archbishop Tait; but if a man is to be judged by the effect of his work, it is Benson and not Tait who should be described as a great statesman. His biography, by his son, reveals him as a man of devout and holy life, impulsive indeed and masterful, but one who learned self-restraint by strenuous endeavour.
See A. C. Benson, Life of Archbishop Benson (1899) ; J. H. Bernard, Archbishop Benson in Ireland, ; Sir L. T. Dibden, in the Quarterly Review, Oct. 1897.
His eldest son, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON (1862-1925), was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He was a master at Eton College from 1885 to 1903. His literary capacity was early shown in the remarkable fiction of his Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton (1886) under the pseudonym of "Christopher Carr," and his Poems (1893) and Lyrics (1895) established his reputation as a writer of verse. Among his works are Fasti Etonenses (1899) ; his father's Life (1899) ; The Schoolmaster (1902 ), a commentary on the aims and methods of an assistant schoolmaster in a public school; a study of Archbishop Laud (1887) ; monographs on D. G. Rossetti 0904), Edward Fitz Gerald (1905) and Walter Pater (1906), in the "English Men of Letters" series; Lord Vyet and other Poems (1897), Peace and other Poems (1905), The Upton Letters (1905), From a College Window 0906), Beside Still Waters (1907). He collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the Correspondence of Queen Victoria (1907). Benson wrote the words of the anthem "Land of Hope and Glory." Some of these writings, and above all, From a College Window, have had an extraordinary vogue in the United States. He wrote in all some 5o books. He went to reside in Cambridge in 1904. He was elected a fellow of Magdalene Col lege, and in 1915 became its master. He entertained lavishly, and did the honours of the college with grace and dignity. He died June 17, 1 9 2 5. He never married. He left a large fortune mainly the result of his literary work. He bequeathed f 2,00o to his college "as an hospitality fund." See Selections from his Diary, edited by Percy Lubbock (1926) .
The third son, EDWARD FREDERICK BENSON (b.1867), was edu cated at Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge. He worked at Athens for the British Archaeological Society from 1892 to 1895, and subsequently in Egypt for the Hellenic Society. In 1893 his society novel, Dodo, brought him to the front among the writers of clever fiction ; and this was followed by other novels, notably The Vintage (1898) and The Capsina (1899), the subjects of which were drawn from modern Greece. Among his later works may be mentioned The Challoners (1904), David of King's (1924) and Mezzanine (1926).
The fourth son, ROBERT HUGH BENSON (1871-1914), was edu cated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After reading with Dean Vaughan at Llandaff he took orders, and in 1898 became a member of the Community of the Resurrection at Mir field. In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic, was ordained priest at Rome in the following year, and returned to Cambridge as assistant priest of the Roman Catholic church there. He achieved remarkable success as a preacher, also as a novelist, his best novels being historical romances intended to serve also as Catholic propaganda. A small volume of poems (Dec. 1914) was pub lished after his death. He became a Papal Chamberlain in 191 I. He died on Oct. 19, 1914, after a short illness at Salford, where he was conducting a mission.