Richard Chenevix Trench

Infobox Archbishop
honorific-prefix =
name = Richard Chenevix Trench
honorific-suffix =
archbishop_of = Archbishop of Dublin


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enthroned = 1864
ended = 1884
predecessor = Richard Whately
successor = William Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket
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birth_date = 9 September, 1807
birthplace = Dublin, Ireland
death_date = 28 March, 1886
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religion = Anglican
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alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge

Richard Chenevix Trench (9 September, 1807 – 28 March, 1886) was an Anglican archbishop and poet.

Life

He was born at Dublin, in Ireland, son of the Dublin writer Melasina Trench. [cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|pages=p. 429|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and MacMillan|id= ISBN 0-7171-2945-4] He went to school at Harrow, and graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1829. In 1830 he visited Spain. While incumbent of Curdridge Chapel near Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire, he published (1835) "The Story of Justin Martyr and Other Poems", which was favourably received, and was followed in 1838 by "Sabbation, Honor Neale, and other Poems", and in 1842 by "Poems from Eastern Sources". These volumes revealed the author as the most gifted of the immediate disciples of Wordsworth, with a warmer colouring and more pronounced ecclesiastical sympathies than the master, and strong affinities to Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Keble and Richard Monckton Milnes.

In 1841 he resigned his living to become curate to Samuel Wilberforce, then rector of Alverstoke, and upon Wilberforce's promotion to the deanery of Westminster in 1845 he was presented to the rectory of Itchenstoke. In 1845 and 1846 he preached the Hulsean lecture, and in the former year was made examining chaplain to Wilberforce, now Bishop of Oxford. He was shortly afterwards appointed to a theological chair at King's College London.

In 1851 he established his fame as a philologist by "The Study of Words", originally delivered as lectures to the pupils of the Diocesan Training School, Winchester. His purpose, as stated by himself, was to show that in words, even taken singly, "there are boundless stores of moral and historic truth, and no less of passion and imagination laid up"—a truth enforced by a number of most apposite illustrations. It was followed by two little volumes of similar character—"English Past and Present" (1855) and "A Select Glossary of English Words" (1859). All have gone through numerous editions and have contributed much to promote the historical study of the English tongue. Another great service to English philology was rendered by his paper, read before the Philological Society, "On some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries" (1857), which gave the first impulse to the great "Oxford English Dictionary". His advocacy of a revised translation of the New Testament (1858) helped promote another great national project. In 1856 he published a valuable essay on Calderón, with a translation of a portion of "Life is a Dream" in the original metre. In 1841 he had published his "Notes on the Parables of our Lord", and in 1846 his "Notes on the Miracles", popular works which are treasuries of erudite and acute illustration.

In 1856 Trench became Dean of Westminster, a position which suited him. Here he introduced evening nave services. In January 1864 he was advanced to the post of Archbishop of Dublin. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley had been first choice, but was rejected by the Irish Church, and, according to Bishop Wilberforce's correspondence, Trench's appointment was favoured neither by the prime minister nor the lord-lieutenant. It was, moreover, unpopular in Ireland, and a blow to English literature; yet it turned out to be fortunate. Trench could not prevent the disestablishment of the Irish Church, though he resisted with dignity. But, when the disestablished communion had to be reconstituted under the greatest difficulties, it was important that the occupant of his position should be a man of a liberal and genial spirit.

This was the work of the remainder of Trench's life; it exposed him at times to considerable abuse, but he came to be appreciated, and, when in November 1884 he resigned his archbishopric because of poor health, clergy and laity unanimously recorded their sense of his "wisdom, learning, diligence, and munificence." He had found time for "Lectures on Medieval Church History" (1878); his poetical works were rearranged and collected in two volumes (last edition, 1885). He died in London, after a lingering illness.

See his "Letters and Memorials" (2 vols., 1886).

Works by

* Christ the desire of all nations. 1846
* Poems from Eastern sources, Genoveva, and other poems. 1851
* Notes on the miracles of Our Lord. 1852
* The fitness of the Holy Scripture. 1854
* English past and present. 1855
* Synonyms of the New Testament. 1855
* Calderon, his life and genius, with specimens of his plays. 1856
* Life’s a dream. The great theatre of the world. 1856
* On some deficiencies in our English dictionaries. 1857
* On the Authorized version of the New Testament. 1858
* A select glossary of English words used formerly in senses different from their present. 1860
* Sermons preached in Westminster Abbey. 1860
* Notes on the parables of Our Lord. 1861
* Proverbs and their lessons. 1861
* A household book of English poetry. 1868
* Plutarch, his life, and his Lives and his Morals. 1873
* Sacred Latin poetry. 1874
* Studies in the Gospels. 1874
* Synonyms of the New Testament. 1880
* Brief thoughts and meditations on some passages in Holy Scripture. 1884
* Lectures on medieval church history. 1886

See also

*Parables of Jesus
*Miracles of Jesus

External links

* [http://dictionary.oed.com/archive/paper-deficiencies/ On some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p4871.htm#i48706 Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Richard Chenevix-Trench] in the Peerage
* [http://thedcl.org/christia/t/trenchrc/coetscia/coetscia.html Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia] at The DCL.

References