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GEORGE TYRRELL (1861-1909)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 551 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEORGE See also:TYRRELL (1861-1909)  , Irish divine, was See also:born in See also:Dublin on the 6th of See also:February 1861, and came of a See also:family noted for its intellectual distinction . He was educated under Dr See also:Benson at Rathmines School and entered Trinity See also:College in 1878 . He was greatly influenced by the writings of See also:Cardinal See also:Newman, and See also:early in 1879 entered the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church . In 188o he joined the Society of Jesus and passed his novitiate at See also:Manresa and other houses of the See also:order, becoming teacher of See also:philosophy at Stonyhurst . He had a keen sympathy with the difficulties experienced by the See also:ordinary See also:lay mind in trying to reconcile the conservative See also:element in Catholicism with the principle of development and growth, and in The Faith of the Millions, Hard Sayings and Nova et vetera he attempted to clear them away . His writings have been described as " apologetic in intention, meditative in method and mystical in substance," and See also:Tyrrell himself certainly combined in a wonderful way the judicial and the enthusiastic types of See also:character . Besides the See also:influence of Newman, the friendship and See also:work of See also:Robert See also:Dolling made a See also:great impression on him, and as he admitted, saved him from being contented with a merely See also:academic and ecclesiastical type of See also:religion . Tyrrell privately circulated among his See also:friends writings in which he See also:drew a clear See also:line of distinction between religion as a See also:life and See also:theology as the incomplete See also:interpretation of. that life . One of these, the See also:Letter to a See also:Professor of See also:Anthropology, was translated without his knowledge into See also:Italian, and extracts from it were published in the Corriere della Sera of See also:Milan in See also:January 1906 . For at least eight years before this he had been more or less in conflict with the authorities of his order, through his sympathy with " modernist " views, but the publication of this letter (afterwards issued by Tyrrell as A Much Abused Letter) brought about his See also:expulsion from the order in February Igoe . " The conflict," he wrote, " such as it is, is one of See also:opinion and tendencies, not of persons; it is the result of See also:mental and moral necessities created by the antitheses with which the Church is See also:wrestling in this See also:period of transition." Tyrrell found no See also:bishop to give him an ecclesiastical status and a celebret, and he never regained these privileges . In See also:July 1907 the See also:Holy See also:Office published its See also:decree condemning certain modernist propositions, and in See also:September the See also:pope issued his encyclical Pascendi Gregis .

Tyrrell's See also:

criticism of this document appeared in The Times on the 3oth of September and the 1st of See also:October, and led to his virtual See also:excommunication from the Church . In the few years that remained to him he gave himself with See also:patience and dignity to the work of his life . He had already published Lex orandi, insisting that the true interpretation of the creed is determined by its See also:prayer value, and in 1906 he wrote Lex credendi . This was followed by Through Scylla and Charybdis, in which he See also:developed his favourite view of See also:revelation as experience; Mediaevalism, a vigorous apologia in reply to a Lenten See also:pastoral of Cardinal See also:Mercier, See also:archbishop of See also:Malines, who had attacked him as the See also:chief exponent of Modernism; and See also:Christianity at the See also:Cross Roads, which emphasizes the distinction between his own position and that of the Liberal Protestants, and is of See also:special See also:interest for its treatment of the eschatological problems of the Gospels . On the 6th of July 1909 he was suddenly taken See also:ill, on the loth he received conditional See also:absolution from a See also:priest of the See also:diocese of See also:Southwark, and on the 12th extreme See also:unction from the See also:prior of Storrington . His intimate friend, the See also:Abbe Bremond, gave him the last absolution and remained with him until his See also:death on the 15th of July 1909 . Such appear to be the facts, but Tyrrell's relations with See also:Rome were such that a See also:good See also:deal of See also:mystery was made as to whether he really received the last See also:rites of his Church in any authorized manner . About his own saintly and sympathetic character, and his essential religiousness, there was no doubt . See the estimates by See also:Baron F. von Hugel and Rev . C . E . See also:Osborne in The Hibbert See also:Journal for January 191o; also the obituary in The Times (July 16, 1909), and the Life, by See also:Miss M .

D . See also:

Petre .

End of Article: GEORGE TYRRELL (1861-1909)
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