John Frederick Denison 1805 1872 Maurice

MAURICE, JOHN FREDERICK DENISON (1805 1872), English theologian, was born at Normanston, Suffolk, on Aug. 29, 1805. He was the son of a Unitarian minister, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1823, though it was then impossible for any but members of the Established Church to obtain a degree. Together with John Sterling (with whom he founded the Apostles' Club) he migrated to Trinity Hall, whence he obtained a first class in civil law in 1827; he then came to London. He edited the London Literary Chronicle until 1830, and also for a short time the Athenaeum. He presently decided to take orders, and with this end in view entered Exeter College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1834, and after a short curacy at Bubbenhall in Warwickshire was appointed chaplain of Guy's Hospital, and became thenceforward a sensible factor in the intellectual and social life of London. In 1840 he was appointed professor of English history and literature in King's College, and to this post in 1846 was added the chair of divinity. In 1845 he was Boyle lecturer and Warburton lecturer. These chairs he held till 1853. In that year he published Theological Essays, and was deprived of his professorships for alleged unorthodoxy. He was at this time chaplain of Lincoln's Inn, but when he offered to resign this the benchers refused. Nor was he assailed in the incumbency of St. Peter's, Vere Street, which he held for nine years (186o-1869). During the early years of this period he was engaged in a hot and bitter controversy with H. L. Mansel (afterwards dean of St. Paul's), arising out of the latter's Bamp ton lecture upon reason and revelation. Maurice was a "Broad" churchman, but he often offended liberal theologians by his op position to the Higher Criticism. His great influence arose less from his views than from t'he force of his personality, and the strength of his intellect, and his passionate sympathy with the oppressed.

Maurice was specially identified with two important move ments for education in London. He helped to found Queen's College for the education of women (1848), and the Working Men's College (1854), of which he was the first principal. He strongly advocated the abolition of university tests (1853), and threw himself with great energy into all that affected the social life of the people. Some attempts at co-operation among work ing men, and the movement known as Christian Socialism, were the immediate outcome of his teaching. In 1866 Maurice was appointed professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge, and from 1870 to 1872 was incumbent of St. Edward's in that city. He died on April 1, 1872. See CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

His works cover nearly 4o volumes. The following are the more important works—some of them were rewritten and in a measure recast, and the date given is not necessarily that of the first appearance of the book, but of its more complete and abiding form: Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (at first an article in the Encyclo paedia Metropolitans, 1848) ; Theological Essays (1853) ; Lectures on Ecclesiastical History (1854) ; The Doctrine of Sacrifice (1854) ; The Conscience: Lectures on Casuistry (1868) ; The Lord's Prayer, a Manual (1870) . The greater part of these works were first delivered as sermons or lectures. Maurice also contributed many prefaces and introductions to the works of friends, as to Archdeacon Hare's Charges, Kingsley's Saint's Tragedy, etc.

See Sir J. Frederick Maurice, Life of John Frederick Denison Maurice (2 vols., 1884) ; B. H. Alford, Frederick Denison Maurice (1909) and C. F. G. Masterman, F. D. Maurice (1007).