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WILLIAM GEORGE WARD (1812-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 322 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:GEORGE See also:WARD (1812-1882)  , See also:English See also:Roman See also:Catholic theologian, was See also:born on the 21st of See also:March 1812 . His career is extremely interesting as illustrating the development of religious See also:opinion at a remarkable crisis in the See also:history of English religious thought . See also:Ward is described by his son and biographer as somewhat unequally gifted by nature . For pure See also:mathematics he had a See also:special See also:gift—almost a See also:passion . For history, applied mathematics—for anything, in fact, outside the exact sciences—he See also:felt something approaching to contempt . He was endowed with a strong sense of See also:humour and a love of See also:paradox carried to an extreme . He went up to See also:Christ See also:Church, See also:Oxford, in 183o, but his See also:father's subsequent pecuniary embarrassments compelled him in 1833 to try for a scholarship at See also:Lincoln See also:College, which he succeeded in obtaining . His examination for mathematical honours exhibited some of the peculiarities of his See also:character and See also:mental See also:powers . Four out of his five papers on applied mathematics were sent up absolutely See also:blank . Honours, however, were not refused him, and in 1834 he obtained an open fellowship at Balliol . In the previous See also:year the Tractarian See also:movement had commenced, and Ward's relations with that movement were as See also:original as the See also:rest of his See also:life . He was attracted to it by his hatred of moderation and what he called " respectability " in any shape—a characteristic of which some amusing instances have been handed down .

He was repelled from it by the conception he had formed of the character of See also:

Newman, whom he regarded as a See also:mere See also:antiquary . When, however, he was at length persuaded by a friend to go and hear Newman preach, he at once became a See also:disciple . But he had, as Newman afterwards said of him, " struck into the movement at an See also:angle." He had no See also:taste for See also:historical investigations . He treated the question at issue as one of pure See also:logic, and disliking the Reformers, the right of private See also:judgment which Protestants claimed, and the somewhat prosaic uniformity of the English Church, he flung himself into a See also:general See also:campaign against Protestantism in general and the See also:Anglican See also:form of it in particular . He nevertheless took See also:deacon's orders in 1838 and See also:priest's orders in 184o . In 1839 Ward became the editor of the See also:British Critic, the See also:organ of the Tractarian party, and he excited suspicion among the adherents of the Tractarians themselves by his violent denunciations of the Church to which he still belonged . In 1841 he urged the publication of the celebrated " See also:Tract XC.," and wrote in See also:defence of it . From that See also:period Ward and his associates worked undisguisedly for See also:union with the Church of See also:Rome, and in 1844 he published his Ideal of a See also:Christian Church, in which he openly contended that the only See also:hope for the Church of See also:England See also:lay in submission to the Church of Rome . This publication brought to a height the See also:storm which had See also:long been gathering . The university of Oxford was invited, on the 13th of See also:February 1845, to condemn " Tract XC.," to censure the Ideal, and to degrade Ward from his degrees . The two latter propositions were carried and " Tract XC." only escaped censure by the non placet of the proctors, Guillemard and Church . The condemnation precipitated an See also:exodus to Rome .

Ward See also:

left the Church of England in See also:September 1845, and was followed by many others, including Newman himself . After his reception into the Church of Rome, Ward gave himself up to See also:ethics, See also:metaphysics and moral See also:philosophy . He wrote articles on See also:free will, the philosophy of See also:theism, on See also:science, See also:prayer and miracles for the See also:Dublin See also:Review . He also dealt with the condemnation of See also:Pope See also:Honorius, carried on a controversial See also:correspondence with See also:John See also:Stuart See also:Mill, and took a leading See also:part in the discussions of the Metaphysical Society, founded by Mr See also:James See also:Knowles, of which See also:Tennyson, See also:Huxley and See also:Martineau were also prominent members . He was a vehement opponent of Liberal Catholicism . In 1851 he was made See also:professor of moral philosophy at St See also:Edmund's College, See also:Ware, and was advanced to the See also:chair of dogmatic See also:theology in 1852 . In 1868 he became editor of the Dublin Review . He gave a vigorous support to the promulgation of the See also:dogma of Papal See also:Infallibility in 187o . After his See also:admission into the Roman Catholic Church he had, rather to the dismay of his See also:friends, entered the married See also:state, and for a See also:time had to struggle with poverty . But his circumstances afterwards improved . He died on the 6th of See also:July 1882 . (J .

J . L.*) See See also:

William See also:George Ward and the Oxford Movement (1889) ; and William George Ward and the Catholic Revival (1893), by his son, See also:Wilfrid See also:Philip Ward (b . 1856),who has also written the Life and Times of See also:Cardinal See also:Wiseman; and Ten See also:Personal Studies (1903) .

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