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HENRY PARRY LIDDON (1829-1890)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 589 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:PARRY See also:LIDDON (1829-1890)  , See also:English divine, was the son of a See also:naval See also:captain and was See also:born at See also:North See also:Stoneham, See also:Hampshire, on the loth of See also:August 1829 . He was educated at See also:King's See also:College School, See also:London, and at See also:Christ See also:Church, See also:Oxford, where he graduated, taking a second class, in 185o . As See also:vice- See also:principal of the theological college at Cuddesdon (1854—1859) he wielded considerable See also:influence, and, on returning to Oxford as vice-principal of St See also:Edmund's See also:Hall, became a growing force among the undergraduates, exercising his influence in strong opposition to the liberal reaction against Tractarianism, which had set in after See also:Newman's See also:secession in 1845 . In 1864 the See also:bishop of See also:Salisbury (W . K . See also:Hamilton), whose examining See also:chaplain he had been, appointed him See also:prebendary of Salisbury See also:cathedral . In 1866 he delivered his See also:Bampton Lectures on the See also:doctrine of the divinity of Christ . From that See also:time his fame as a preacher, which had been steadily growing, may be considered established . In 1870 he was made See also:canon of St See also:Paul's Cathedral, London . He had before this published Some Words for See also:God, in which, with See also:great See also:power and eloquence, he combated the See also:scepticism of the See also:day . His See also:preaching at St Paul's soon attracted vast crowds . The afternoon See also:sermon, which See also:fell to the See also:lot of the canon in See also:residence, had usually been delivered in the See also:choir," but soon after See also:Liddon's See also:appointment it became necessary to preach the sermon under the See also:dome, where from 3000 to 4000 persons used to gather to hear the preacher .

Few orators belonging to the Church of See also:

England have acquired so great a reputation as Liddon . Others may have surpassed him in originality, learning or reasoning power, but for grasp of his subject, clearness of See also:language, lucidity of arrangement, felicity of See also:illustration, vividness of See also:imagination, elegance of diction, and above all, for sympathy with the intellectual position of those whom he addressed, he has hardly been rivalled . In the elaborate arrangement of his See also:matter he is thought to have imitated the great See also:French preachers of the See also:age of See also:Louis XIV . In 1870 he had also been made See also:Ireland See also:professor of exegesis at Oxford . The See also:combination of the two appointments gave him extensive influence over the Church of England . With See also:Dean Church he may be said to have restored the waning influence of the Tractarian school, and he succeeded in popularizing the opinions which, in the hands of See also:Pusey and See also:Keble, had appealed to thinkers and scholars . His forceful spirit was equally conspicuous in his opposition to the Church Discipline See also:Act of 1874, and in his denunciation of the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876 . In 1882 he resigned his professorship and utilized his thus increased leisure by travelling in See also:Palestine and See also:Egypt, and showed his See also:interest in the Old See also:Catholic See also:movement by visiting See also:Dollinger at See also:Munich . In 1886 he became See also:chancellor of St Paul's, and it is said that he declined more than one offer of a bishopric . He died on the 9th of See also:September 189o, in the full vigour of his See also:intellect and at the See also:zenith of his reputation . He had undertaken and nearly completed an elaborate See also:life of Dr Pusey, for whom his admiration was unbounded; and this See also:work was completed after his See also:death by Messrs See also:Johnston and See also:Wilson . Liddon's great influence during his life was due to his See also:personal See also:fascination and the beauty of his See also:pulpit See also:oratory rather than to any high qualities of intellect .

As a theologian his outlook was that of the 16th rather than the loth See also:

century; and, See also:reading his Bampton Lectures now, it is difficult to realize how they can ever have been hailed as a great cont rit,ution to See also:Christian See also:apologetics . To the last he maintained the narrow standpoint of Pusey and Keble, in See also:defiance of all the developments of See also:modern thought and modern scholarship; and his latter years were embittered by the consciousness that the younger See also:generation of the disciples of his school were beginning to make See also:friends of the See also:Mammon of scientific unrighteousness . The publication in 1889 of Lux Mundi, a See also:series of essays attempting to harmonize See also:Anglican Catholic doctrine with modern thought, was a severe See also:blow to him, for it showed that even at the Pusey See also:House, established as the citadel of Puseyism at Oxford, the principles of Pusey were being departed from . Liddon's importance is now mainly See also:historical . He was the last of the classical pulpit orators of the English Church, the last great popular exponent of the traditional Anglican orthodoxy . Besides the See also:works mentioned, Liddon published several volumes of Sermons, a See also:volume of See also:Lent lectures entitled Some Elements of See also:Religion (187o), and a collection of Essays and Addresses on such themes as See also:Buddhism, See also:Dante, &c . See L i f e and Letters, by J . O . Johnston (1904); G . W . E . See also:Russell, H .

P . Liddon (1903); A . B . See also:

Donaldson, Five Great Oxford Leaders (1900), from which the life of Liddon was reprinted separately in 1905 .

End of Article: HENRY PARRY LIDDON (1829-1890)
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