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WILLIAM CONNOR MAGEE (1821-1891)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 302 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:CONNOR See also:MAGEE (1821-1891)  , See also:Anglican divine, See also:archbishop of See also:York, was See also:born at See also:Cork in 1821 . His See also:father was See also:curate of the See also:parish attached to the See also:Protestant See also:cathedral in that See also:city; his grandfather was archbishop of See also:Dublin . See also:Young See also:Magee entered Trinity See also:College, Dublin, with a scholarship at thirteen . He was ordained to the curacy of St See also:Thomas's, Dublin, but, being threatened with See also:consumption, went after two years to See also:Malaga . On his return he took a curacy at See also:Bath, and was speedily appointed to the Octagon See also:Chapel, where his fame both as preacher and See also:platform See also:speaker continued to spread . Some years afterwards he was made See also:prebendary of See also:Wells Cathedral . In 186o the delicate See also:state of his healthcaused him to accept the living of See also:Enniskillen . In 1864 he was made See also:dean of Cork and See also:chaplain to the See also:lord See also:lieutenant . Here he manifested those See also:great gifts which ultimately raised him to high See also:office; a powerful grasp of See also:mental, moral and See also:political problems, combined with eloquence of a high See also:order, and illuminated with brilliant flashes of wit . In 1868 the question of the disestablishment of the Irish See also:Church came to the front, and Magee threw himself into the task of its See also:defence with his usual See also:energy and vivacity . The success of his orations caused Disraeli to offer him the bishopric of See also:Peterborough . He justified his See also:appointment by his magnificent speech when the Disestablishment See also:Bill reached the See also:House of Lords in 1869, and then plunged into diocesan and See also:general See also:work in See also:England .

He preached three remarkable sermons on See also:

Christian See also:Evidence in See also:Norwich Cathedral in 1871 . He took up the See also:temperance question, and declared in the House of Lords that he would rather see "England See also:free than England compulsorily sober," an utterance which the extreme See also:advocates of See also:total See also:abstinence misquoted and attacked . He was also a supporter of the See also:movement for abolishing the recitation of the Athanasian Creed in the public services of the Church of England, believing, as he said, that the " presence " of the damnatory clauses, " as they stand and where they stand, is a real peril to the Church and to See also:Christianity itself," and that those clauses " are no essential See also:part " of the' creed . The project was laid aside in consequence of the hostility of a large See also:body of the See also:clergy, reinforced by the See also:threat of Dr See also:Pusey and See also:Canon See also:Liddon to abandon their offices if it were carried . Magee took a prominent part in the See also:Ritual controversy, opposing what he conceived to be romanizing excess in ritual, as well as the endeavour of the opposite party to " put down Ritualism," as Disraeli expressed it, by the operation of the See also:civil See also:law . His incisive way of putting things earned for him the See also:title of the "Militant See also:Bishop," but, as he himself remarked in, relation to this title; his efforts were ever for See also:peace . Unfortunately for the Church, he was not elevated to the see of York until his energies were exhausted . He died on the 5th of May 1891, about four months after his appointment . Magee's manifold activities, his capability as an See also:administrator, his See also:sound See also:judgment, and his remarkable insight into the ecclesiastical problems of his See also:time, See also:rank him among the most distinguished of See also:English prelates . See See also:Life and Letters, by Canon See also:MacDonnell (2 vols .

End of Article: WILLIAM CONNOR MAGEE (1821-1891)
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