PUSSY, pb'zi, EDWARD BOUVERIE (1800-82). A distinguished English divine and leader of the Oxford Movement. He was born at Pusey House, in Berkshire, August 22, 1800. He was the sec ond son of the Hon. Philip Bouverie, who changed his name to Pusey as a condition of his succes sion to the Pusey estate in 1789. He was edu cated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class in classics in 1822 and won the university prize for a Latin essay in 1824. In the same year he was elected fellow of Oriel. About this time he spent two years in Germany, and his first published work was an admirable summary of the history of German theology since the Reformation. It appeared in 182S, and in the same year he was appointed to the regius professorship of Hebrew at Oxford, with the attached canonry of Christ Church, a position which he held until his death.
Owing to delays from sickness and other causes, he was not ordained to the diaconate until June 1, 1828, and his ordination to the priesthood fol lowed in November of the same year in order that he might occupy his stall as canon. His life, though profoundly influential, was singularly uneventful. His habits were simple. He lived in his books, mingling but little in general society. He had few personal friends. His chief char acteristics were accurate and extensive learning, an innate aptness for the study of languages, rigorous devotion. and dislike of luxurious living. He was deeply and unaffectedly religious, but not morose. and was bright and cheerful in the circle of his intimates.
His domestic life was one of suffering, sad dened by successive losses of parents, brothers, wife, and daughter, and finally of his only son, Philip, his companion in scholarship and research, wh6 was taken from him after many years of painful bodily affliction.
Pusey will always be remembered, as he was chiefly known, for his connection with the Oxford Movement. His sermon on the Rule of Faith in 1851 stemmed the tide of secessions to the Roman Catholic Church after the Gorham judg ment. The revival of the practice of private
confession in the English Church dates from his two sermons on "The Entire Absolution of the Penitent," in 1846. His teaching on the Real Presence in the Holy Communion became the accepted teaching of the Catholic school. He was the theologian of the new movement. His great learning, enforced as it was by tbe strict ness and purity of his life, gave it its vitality. His suspension for preaching his celebrated ser mon on the Eucharist in 1843 only enhanced his influence.
His power of sustained work was remarkable and his painstaking diligence proverbial. His correspondence as a spiritual adviser alone was enormous. His life was one of continuous con troversy. He was the editor-in-chief of the Library of the Fathers, and there was no impor tant controversy in the Church of England from the time of the publication of his tract On Baptism in 183.3 to his tilt with Farrar on everlasting punishment in 1879 in which he did not have a part.
His monument is the memorial building at Oxford which bears his name, enshrines his li brary, and perpetuates his teaching. The Pusey House with its staff of clergy, its daily worship, and devout life is a home of sacred learning and a rallying-point of Christian faith. Besides sev eral volumes of sermons, his more important works were commentaries ou Daniel ( 1864) and on the Minor Prophets (1860 sqq.) ; his discus sions of the possibility of the reunion of Chris tendom generally known by their sub-title of Eirenicon. in three parts (1865. 1869, 1870) ; and the eschatological treatise already alluded to, What is of Faith as to Ererlasting Punishment? (1880). Consult an admirable biography begun by Canon Liddon and completed after his death by J. 0. Johnston and R. Wilson (4 vols., London, IS93-96) ; a brief, more popular one by the author of the Life of Charles Lowder (ih., 1S9S) ; also Grafton, Pusey and the Church Re viral (Milwaukee, 1902) ; and many of the works referred to under OXFORD MOVEMENT.