Frederick Temple | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Canterbury | |
 | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Canterbury |
| Appointed | 1896 |
| Installed | 1896 |
| Term ended | 23 December 1902 |
| Predecessor | Edward White Benson |
| Successor | Randall Davidson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1821-11-30)30 November 1821 |
| Died | 23 December 1902(1902-12-23) (aged 81) London, England |
| Buried | Canterbury Cathedral |
| Nationality | British |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Parents | Octavius Temple & Dorcas Carveth |
| Spouse | Beatrice Blanche Lascelles |
| Children | Frederick Charles Temple William Temple |
| Signature |  |
Ordination history of Frederick Temple | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source(s):DNB1912 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frederick Temple (30 November 1821 – 23 December 1902)[2] was an English academic, teacher andchurchman, who served asBishop of Exeter (1869–1885),Bishop of London (1885–1896) andArchbishop of Canterbury (1896–1902).
Temple was born inSanta Maura, one of theIonian Islands, the son of MajorOctavius Temple, who was subsequently appointed lieutenant-governor ofSierra Leone. On his retirement, Major Temple settled inDevon and contemplated a farming life for his son Frederick, giving him a practical training to that end.[3]
Temple's grandfather wasWilliam Johnson Temple,Rector ofMamhead inDevon, who is mentioned several times inJames Boswell'sLife of Johnson.[4]
Temple was sent toBlundell's School,Tiverton, and soon showed signs of being suited to a different career. He retained a warm affection for the school, where he did well both academically and at physical activities, especially walking. The family was not wealthy, and Temple knew he would have to earn his own living. He took the first step by winning a Blundell scholarship atBalliol College, Oxford,[5] before he was seventeen.[3]
TheTractarian Movement had begun five years earlier, but the memorableTract 90 had not yet been written. In the intellectual and religious excitement, he drew closer to the camp of "the Oxford Liberal Movement." In 1842 he took adouble first and was elected fellow of Balliol, and lecturer inmathematics andlogic. Four years later he was ordained, and, with the aim of improving the education of the very poor, he accepted the headship ofKneller Hall, a college founded by the government for the training of masters ofworkhouses and penal schools. The experiment was not successful, and Temple himself advised its abandonment in 1855. He then accepted a school-inspectorship, which he held until he went to teach atRugby School in 1858. In the meantime he had attracted the admiration ofPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and in 1856 he was appointedChaplain-in-Ordinary toQueen Victoria. In 1857 he wasselect preacher at his university.[3]
At Rugby School,Thomas Arnold had died in 1842 and had been succeeded byArchibald Campbell Tait, who again was followed byEdward Meyrick Goulburn. Upon the resignation of the latter the trustees appointed Temple, who in that year (1858) had taken the degrees ofB.D. andD.D. His life at Rugby School was marked by great energy and bold initiative.[3]
Temple strengthened the school's academic reputation in the classics, but also instituted scholarships in natural science, built a laboratory, and recognised the importance of these subjects. He reformed the sporting activities, in spite of all the traditions of the playing fields. His own tremendous powers of work and rough manner intimidated the pupils, but he soon became popular, and raised the school's reputation. His school sermons made a deep impression on the boys, teaching loyalty, faith and duty.[3]
It was two years after he had taken up his work at Rugby that the volume entitledEssays and Reviews caused a controversy. The first essay in the book, "The Education of the World," was by Temple. The authors of the volume were responsible only for their respective articles, but some of these were deemed so destructive that many people banned the whole book, and a noisy demand, led bySamuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, called on the headmaster of Rugby to dissociate himself from his comrades. Temple's essay had dealt with the intellectual and spiritual growth of the race, and had pointed out the contributions made respectively by theHebrews, theEgyptians, theGreeks, theRomans, and others. Though accepted as harmless, it was blamed for being in the book. Temple refused to repudiate his associates, and it was only at a much later date (1870) that he decided to withdraw his essay. In the meantime, he printed a volume of his Rugby sermons, to show definitely what his own religious position was.[3]
In politics Temple was a follower ofWilliam Ewart Gladstone, and he approved of thedisestablishment of theChurch of Ireland. He also wrote and spoke in favour of theElementary Education Act 1870 ofWilliam Edward Forster, and was an active member of the Endowed Schools Commission.[3]
In 1869, Gladstone offered him the deanery ofDurham, but he declined because he wanted to stay at Rugby School. When later in the same year, however,Henry Phillpotts, bishop of Exeter, died, the prime minister turned again to Temple, and he accepted the bishopric of the city he knew so well.[3]
The appointment caused a fresh controversy;George Anthony Denison,Archdeacon of Taunton,Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, and others formed a strong committee of protest, whileEdward Pusey declared that "the choice was the most frightful enormity ever perpetrated by a prime minister". At the confirmation of his election, counsel was instructed by BishopWalter Trower to object to it, and in the voting the chapter was divided. Gladstone stood firm, and Temple was consecrated on 21 December 1869, byJohn Jackson,Bishop of London.[6] There were murmurings among his clergy against what they deemed his harsh control, but his real kindness soon made itself felt, and, during the sixteen years of his tenure, he overcame the prejudices against him, so that when, on the death of John Jackson in 1885, he was translated to London, the appointment gave general satisfaction. In 1884 he wasBampton Lecturer, taking for his subject "The Relations between Religion and Science." In 1885 he was elected honorary fellow ofExeter College, Oxford.[3]
Temple's tenancy of the bishopric of London saw him working harder than ever. His normal working day at this time was one of fourteen or fifteen hours, though under the strain blindness was rapidly coming on. Many of his clergy and candidates for ordination thought him a rather terrifying person, enforcing almost impossible standards of diligence, accuracy and preaching efficiency, but his manifest devotion to his work and his zeal for the good of the people won him general confidence. In London he continued as a tirelesstemperance worker, and the working class instinctively recognised him as their friend. When, in view of his growing blindness, he offered to resign the bishopric, he was urged to reconsider his proposal, and on the sudden death ofEdward White Benson in 1896, though now seventy-six years of age, he accepted the see ofCanterbury.[7] There is a memorial to him atSt Paul's Cathedral.[8]
Between 1871 and 1902 Temple was a governor ofSherborne School.[9]
As archbishop he presided in 1897 over the decennialLambeth Conference. In the same year Temple andArchbishop of YorkWilliam Maclagan issued a joint response toApostolicae curae, abull ofPope Leo XIII which denied the validity of Anglican orders. In 1899 the archbishops again acted together, when an appeal was addressed to them by the united episcopate, to rule on the use ofincense in divine service and on the carrying of lights in liturgical processions. After hearing the arguments the two archbishops decided against both practices.[10] During his archiepiscopate Temple was deeply distressed by the divisions which were weakening theChurch of England, and many of his most memorable sermons were calls for unity.[11]
His first charge as primate on "Disputes in the Church" was felt to be a most powerful plea for a more catholic and a more charitable temper, and again and again during the closing years of his life he came back to this same theme. He was zealous also in the cause of foreign missions, and in a sermon preached at the opening of the new century he urged that a supreme obligation rested upon Britain at this epoch in the world's history to seek to evangelise all nations. In 1900 he presided over the World Temperance Congress in London, and on one occasion preached in the interests of women's education.[11]
On 9 August 1902, he discharged the important duties of his office at thecoronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and two days later was received in private audience by the King and Queen to be presented with theRoyal Victorian Chain, a new decoration founded by the King in honour of his mother.[12] In early October that year he visitedSt. David's Theological College inLampeter, Wales, for its 75th anniversary.[13] The strain at his advanced age told upon his health, however. During a speech which he delivered in theHouse of Lords on 4 December 1902[14] on theEducation Bill of that year, he was taken ill, and, though he revived sufficiently to finish his speech, he never fully recovered, and died on 23 December 1902. He was interred inCanterbury Cathedral four days later, where his grave is located in the cloister garden. His second son,William Temple, became Archbishop of Canterbury thirty-nine years later and is buried close to him.[11]
Temple had a lifelong interest in therelationship between science and religion. In 1860 at the famous meeting of theBritish Association which saw the debate betweenThomas Huxley andSamuel Wilberforce, Temple preached a sermon welcoming the insights ofevolution.[15] In his Eight Bampton Lectures on the Relations between Religion and Science (1884) Temple stated clearly that "doctrine of Evolution is in no sense whatever antagonistic to the teachings of Religion".[16] These lectures also addressed the origin and nature of scientific, and of religious belief and the apparent conflicts between science and religion on free will and supernatural power.
Temple married in 1876 Beatrice Blanche Lascelles (1844–1915), youngest daughter of Right Hon.William Lascelles (1798–1851), aWhig politician and son of the2nd Earl of Harewood. Her mother was Lady Caroline Georgiana Howard (1803–1881), daughter of another Whig politicianGeorge Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle. Beatrice Lascelles had nine elder siblings, includingLady Chesham,Lady Edward Cavendish, and the diplomatSir Frank Lascelles.
They had two sons:
The Temple Reading Room and Museum at Rugby School is named after him, and contains an 1869 bust of him byThomas Woolner.There is a fine memorial in Canterbury Cathedral at the east end in the Corona depicting Temple kneeling in prayer.The West Window of Exeter Cathedral also depicts him amongst the great figures of the cathedral's history shown there.
A bust of Frederick Temple designed bySir George Frampton is located outside the Big School Room atSherborne School, where he served as governor from 1871 to 1902.[9] The bust is inside a marble niche designed bySir Reginald Blomfield which displays his coat of arms impaled with those ofExeter andCanterbury on the left and right respectively.[17]
F. D. How included Temple in the 1904 bookSix Great Schoolmasters.[18]
| Church of England titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Bishop of Exeter 1869–1885 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of London 1885–1896 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of Canterbury 1896–1902 | Succeeded by |
