Samuel Wilberforce

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Samuel Wilberforce bigraphy, stories - Bishop in the Church of England

Samuel Wilberforce : biography

07 September 1805 – 19 July 1873

Samuel Wilberforce (7 September 1805 – 19 July 1873) was an English bishop in the Church of England, third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day.Natural History Museum. . Retrieved on 14 February 2008. The nickname derives from a comment by Benjamin Disraeli that the Bishop’s manner was "unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous" (slippery, evasive). He is probably best remembered today for his opposition to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution — most notably at a famous debate in 1860 during which he is said to have asked Thomas Henry Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey, and got as answer that "he would not be ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor, but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used his great gifts to obscure the truth."

Career

In 1830, Wilberforce was presented by Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester to the rectory of St. Mary’s Church, Brighstone in the Isle of Wight."Three famous men of Brighstone" Sibley,P Brighstone, Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Brighstone ISBN 0-906328-31-4 In this comparatively retired sphere he soon found scope for that manifold activity which so prominently characterized his subsequent career. In 1831 he published a tract on tithes, "to correct the prejudices of the lower order of farmers," and in the following year a collection of hymns for use in his parish, which had a large general circulation; a small volume of stories entitled the Note Book of a Country Clergyman; and a sermon, The Apostolical Ministry. At the close of 1837 he published the Letters and Journals of Henry Martyn, the Anglican missionary in India and Persia.

Although a High Churchman, Wilberforce held aloof from the Oxford movement, and in 1838 his divergence from the Tractarian writers became so marked that John Henry Newman declined further contributions from him to the British Critic, not deeming it advisable that they should longer "co-operate very closely." In 1838 Wilberforce published, with his elder brother Robert Wilberforce, the Life of his father, and two years later his father’s Correspondence. In 1839 he also published Eucharistica (from the old English divines), to which he wrote an introduction, Agathos and other Sunday Stories, and a volume of University Sermons, and in the following year Rocky Island and other Parables. In November 1839 he was installed archdeacon of Surrey, in August 1840 was collated canon of Winchester and in October he accepted the rectory of Alverstoke.

In 1841, he was chosen Bampton lecturer, and shortly afterwards made chaplain to Prince Albert, an appointment he owed to the impression produced by a speech at an anti-slavery meeting some months previously. In October 1843, he was appointed by the archbishop of York to be sub-almoner to the Queen. In 1844 his A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America appeared. In March of the following year he accepted the deanery of Westminster, and in October the bishopric of Oxford.

The bishop in 1847, upon the suggestion of John Henry Newman, became involved in the Hampden controversy, and signed the remonstrance of the thirteen bishops to Lord John Russell against Hampden’s appointment to the bishopric of Hereford. He also endeavoured to obtain satisfactory assurances from Hampden; but, though unsuccessful in this, he withdrew from the suit against him. The publication of a papal bull in 1850 establishing a Roman hierarchy in England brought the High Church party, of whom Wilberforce was the most prominent member, into temporary disrepute. The secession to the Church of Rome of his brother-in-law, afterwards Cardinal Manning, and then of his brothers, as well as his only daughter and his son-in-law, Mr and Mrs J. H. Pye, brought him under further suspicion, and his revival of the powers of Convocation lessened his influence at court; but his unfailing tact and wide sympathies, his marvellous energy in church organization, the magnetism of his personality, and his eloquence both on the platform and in the pulpit, gradually won for him recognition as without a rival on the episcopal bench. His diary reveals a tender and devout private life which has been overlooked by those who have only considered the versatile facility and persuasive expediency that marked the successful public career of the bishop, and perhaps earned him the sobriquet of "Soapy Sam", though this may have been a reference to his characteristic hand-washing gesture, so clearly captured in the Vanity Fair cartoon by ‘Ape’ (illustration, right). In the House of Lords he took a prominent part in the discussion of social and ecclesiastical questions. He has been styled the "bishop of society"; but society occupied only a fraction of his time. The great bent of his energies was ceaselessly directed to the better organization of his diocese and to the furtherance of schemes for increasing the influence and efficiency of the church.