- William George Ward
William George Ward (
March 21 ,1812 -July 6 ,1882 ) was an EnglishRoman Catholic theologian andmathematician whose career illustrates the development of religious opinion at a time of crisis in the history of English religious thought.He went up to
Christ Church, Oxford , in 1830, but his father's financial difficulties forced him in 1833 to try for a scholarship at Lincoln College, which he succeeded in obtaining. Ward had a gift forpure mathematics but forhistory ,applied mathematics or anything outside the exact sciences, he felt contempt. He was endowed with a strong sense of humour and a love ofparadox carried to an extreme. His examination for mathematical honours exhibited some of the peculiarities of his character and mental powers. Four out of his five papers on applied mathematics were sent up absolutely blank. Honours, however, were not refused him, and in 1834 he obtained an open fellowship at Balliol.In the previous year the Tractarian movement had been launched: Ward was attracted to it by his hatred of moderation and what he called "respectability". He was repelled by the conception he had formed of
John Henry Newman , whom he regarded as a mere antiquary. When, however, he was at length persuaded by a friend to go and hear Newman preach, he at once became a disciple. But he had, as Newman afterwards said of him, "struck into the movement at an angle." He had no taste for historical investigations. He treated the question at issue as one of purelogic : disliking the Reformers, the right of private judgment whichProtestant s claimed, and the somewhat prosaic uniformity of the English Church, he flung himself into a general campaign againstProtestantism in general and theAnglican form of it in particular. He nevertheless took deacon's orders in 1838 and priest's orders in 1840.In 1839 Ward became editor of the "British Critic", the organ of the Tractarian party, and he excited suspicion among the adherents of the party by his violent denunciations of the Church to which he still belonged. In 1841 he urged the publication of the celebrated "
Tract 90 ", and wrote in defence of it. From that period Ward and his associates worked undisguisedly for union with the Church of Rome, and in 1844 he published his "Ideal of a Christian Church", in which he openly contended that the only hope for theChurch of England lay in submission to the Church of Rome. This publication brought to a height the storm which had long been gathering. TheUniversity of Oxford was invited, onFebruary 13 1845 , to condemn"Tract 90 ", to censure the Ideal, and to deprive Ward from his degrees. The two latter propositions were carried with Ward being deprived of his tutorship and "Tract 90 " only escaped censure by the "non placet" of the proctors, Guillemard and Church.Ward left the Church of England in September 1845, and was followed by many others, including Newman himself. After his reception into the Church of Rome, Ward devoted himself to
ethics ,metaphysics andmoral philosophy . He wrote articles onfree will , the philosophy oftheism , on science, prayer and miracles for the "Dublin Review". He also dealt with the condemnation ofPope Honorius I , carried on a controversial correspondence withJohn Stuart Mill , and took a leading part in the discussions of theMetaphysical Society , founded byJames Knowles , of whichAlfred Lord Tennyson , T H Huxley andJames Martineau were also prominent members. He was an opponent of Liberal Catholicism and defender of papal authority.In 1851 he became professor of moral philosophy at St Edmund's College,
Ware , and the following year he was appointed to the chair of dogmatic theology. In 1868 he became editor of the Dublin Review. He supported the promulgation of thedogma ofPapal Infallibility in 1870. After his admission into the Roman Catholic Church he had married, and for a time had to struggle with poverty. But his circumstances later improved.See "William George Ward and the Oxford Movement" (1889); and "William George Ward and the Catholic Revival" (1893), by his son, Wilfrid Philip Ward (b. 1856), who has also written the "Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman"; and "Ten Personal Studies" (1908).
References
* Catholic Encyclopedia Article [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15552c.htm]
*1911
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