JOHN

See also:

• JOHN BAMPTON (c. 169o-1751)

BAMPTON (c. 169o-1751)  , English divine, was a member of Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1712, and for some time canon of Salisbury . He died on the 2nd of June 1751, aged 61 . His will directs that eight lectures shall be delivered annually at Oxford in the University Church on as many Sunday mornings in full term, " between the commencement of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term, upon either of the following subjects:—to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics; upon the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures; upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church; upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost; upon the articles of the Christian faith as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds." The lecturer, who must be at least a Master of Arts of Oxford or Cambridge, was formerly chosen yearly by the heads of colleges, on the fourth Tuesday in Easter term, and no one can be chosen a second time . The series of lectures began in 178o, and is still continued, though since 1895 elections are only made in alternate years through a depreciation of the revenue of the fund . The endowment provides £120 for each lecturer, and the lectures have to be published within two months of their delivery . Among the lecturers have been Heber in 1815 (The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter); R . Whately in 1822 (Party Feeling in Religion); R . D . Hampden in 1832 (The Scholastic Philosophy in relation to Christian Theology); E . M . Goulburn in 185o (The Resurrection of the Body); H . L .

Mansel in 1858 (The Limits of Religious Thought); H . P . Liddon in 1866 (The Divinity of our Lord); E . Hatch in 188o (The Organization of the Early Christian Churches); C . Bigg in 1886 (Christian Platonists of Alexandria); C . Gore in 1891 (The Incarnation); W . Sanday in 1893 (Inspiration); J . R . Illingworth in 1894 (Personality, Human and Divine); W . R . Inge in 1899 (Christian Mysticism), &c . A complete list is given in the Oxford Historical Register .

The institution has done much to preserve a high

standard in English theology; and the lectures as a whole form a historically interesting collection of apologetic literature .