MAURICE, m6'ris, JOHN FREDERICK DENISON: Church of England theologian, metaphysician, and educator; b. at Normanston near Lowestoft (20 m. s.w. of Norwich), Suffolk, Aug. 29, 1805; d. in London Apr. 1, 1872. He entered Cambridge in 1823, but left in 1827 without taking a degree because he was unable to subscribe; but went to Oxford in 1830, and was ordained to the ministry of the Church of England in 1834. He was chaplain of Guy's Hospital, 183646; became professor of English literature and history at King's College, London, 1840; was Boyle lecturer, 1846-17, and Warburton lecturer, 1846; became chaplain of Lincoln's Inn, 1846; assisted in the founding of Queen's College, 1848, and of the College for Working Men, London, 1854, of which latter he became principal; was appointed to St. Peter's, Vere Street, London, 1860; became Knightbridge professor of casuistry, moral theology, and moral philosophy at Cambridge, 1866, retaining charge of St. Peter's till 1869; was appointed to St. Edward's, Cambridge, 1870, and was Cambridge preacher at Whitehall, 1871-72. Maurice came of Unitarian parentage, and his early career was somewhat handicapped by the scruples and limitations involved. But under the influence of the writings of Coleridge he worked his way to an Evangelical position, though the changes in his personal attitude made him ever unwilling to attach himself to any party in the Church. The result was that throughout his life the independence of his thought, sometimes expressed polemically, as well as his dissent from the extremes of the two wings in the Church, brought upon him much of discomfort through the many attacks to which he was subjected. He had a natural aptitude for metaphysics, and in the development of his theology his popularity was often

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hindered by the profundity of his statements. He was one of the men who profoundly influenced thought both in England and in America. This he did not less by the fact that he was a voluminous writer than by his sincerity and earnestness, being always ready to resign a position rather than to be deemed insincere in holding it, and by his essen tially irenic disposition. His industry was remark able, as is attested by the number of his works (cf. G. J. Gray, Bibliography of the Writings 7of F. D. Maurice, London, 1885). The most important of these are: The Kingdom of Christ, or Hints to a Quaker Respecting the Principle, Constitution, and Ordinances of the Catholic Church (3 vols., London, 1837, 3d ed., 1883); The Epistle to the Hebrews (Warburtonian Lectures; 1846); The Religions of the World and their Relations to Christianity (Boyle Lectures; Cambridge, 1847); The Old Testament, Nineteen Sermons (London, 1851; 2d ed. issued as Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, Cambridge, 1855); Theological Essays (London, 1853); The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament (Cambridge, 1853); Ecclesiastical History of the First and Second Centuries (1854); Claims of the Bible and of Science (on the Colenso controversy; 1863); The Gospel of the Kingdom. of Heaven; a Course of Lectures on the Gospel of Luke (1864); The Conscience; Lectures on Casuistry (London, 1868); Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (2 vols., 1871-72); and The Friendship of Books, and Other Lectures, ed. T. Hughes (1874). Matthew Arnold's remark that Maurice was always beating the bush bu'; never started the hare is accepted as just by many who think that Maurice has been much overrated, and that his "profundity" is frequently allied with obscurity.

Bibliography: Life of Frederick Denison Maurice, chiefly told in his own Letters, ed. by his Son, Frederick Maurice, London, 1884; C. Fox, Memories of Old Prierute, Vol. ii. passim, ib. 1882; C. G. F. Maeterman, Frederick Denison Maurica, ib. 1907; DNB, aQvii. 97-105.