WARD, William George, English Tracta rian leader and Roman Catholic theologian: b. London, 21 March 1812; d. Hampstead, London, 6 July 1882. Educated at Winchester College, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1830, ob tained a scholarship at Lincoln College in 1833, was graduated in 1834 and about the same timc secured election to a Fellowship at Balliol. He then took orders, and was a lecturer in mathe matics and logic. He soon became a powerful influence in Oxford life, especially on its re ligious side, among those more or less affected by him being Archbishop Tait, Benjamin Jowett, Dean Stanley and the poet Clough. He in turn was profoundly influenced by John Henry Newman, whose famous 'Tract 90' he de fended in two pamphlets. The publication, in 1843, of William Pahner's 'Narrative of Events connected with the Publication of Tracts for the Times> produced from Ward in reply his famous work 'The Ideal of a Christian Church considered in comparison with eicisting Prac tice' (1844), and the formal condemnation of this book by the university authorities precipi tated Ward's reception into the Roman Catholic Church (1845), where he was soon followed by Newman and other Tractarians. In 1851 he
became lecturer in moral philoinphy in Saint Edmund's College Ware, and in 1854 the Pope gave him the diploma of Ph.D. He resigned his lectureship in 1858, and in the Dublin Re view, which he edited 1863-78, contended vigorously on behalf of ultramontane principles. He was founder and leading member of the Metaphysical Society (1869), which included such opposites as Huxley and Martineau. In addition to the works already mentioned Ward wrote 'On Nature and Grace) (1860); (EssaYs on the Philosophy of Theism) (1884), a work of great ability; and many smaller works. Consult 'William George Ward and the Oxford Movement> (1889), and 'W. G. Ward and the Catholic Revival> (1893), both by his son. Wil frid. See Oxman MovEatErur.