BICKELL, JOHANN WILHELM: Writer on canon law; b. at Marburg Nov. 2, 1799; d. at Cassel Jan. 23, 1848. He studied law at Marburg and Göttingen; was professor of jurisprudence at Marburg, 1824-34; president of the supreme court of Hesse-Cassel, 1841, and minister of state, 1846. He wrote Ueber die Entstehung . . . des Corpus Juris Canonici (Marburg, 1825); Ueber die Reform der protestantischen Kirchenverfassung (1831); Ueber die Verpflichtung der evangelischen Geistlichen auf die symbolischen Schriften (Cassel, 1839; 2d ed., 1840); of his Geschichte des Kirchenrechts, only one volume was completed (part i, Giessen, 1843; part ii, Frankfort, 1849).
BICKERSTETH, EDWARD: The name of three clergymen of the Church of England.
1. A leader of the Evangelicals; b. at Kirkby Lonsdale (60 m. n. of Liverpool), Westmoreland, Mar. 19, 1786; d. at Watton (21 m. w.s.w. of Norwich), Hertfordshire, Feb. 28, 1850. He was at first a lawyer and practised at Norwich, but he was always of deeply religious temperament and in 1815 received priest's orders and was sent to Africa by the Church Missionary Society to inspect the work there. Returning in Aug., 1816, he became one of the society's secretaries and for the rest of his life spent much time traveling in the service of the society; in 1830 he became rector of Watton. He was an active opponent of the Tractarian Movement, and was one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance and of the Irish Church Missions Society. His published works were numerous and many were very popular; the more important (A Help to the Study of the Scriptures, 21st edition; A Treatise on Prayer, 14th edition; A Treatise on the Lord's Supper, 13th edition; A Guide to the Prophecies, 8th edition; and others) were collected in sixteen volumes (London, 1853). He also compiled Christian Psalmody (Hereford, 1833), a much-used hymn-book, and edited the Christian's Family Library (50 vols.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. R. Birks, Memoir of E. Bickersteth, 2 vols., London, 1858 (by his son-in-law); DNB, v, 3-4.
2. Dean of Lichfield, nephew of the preceding; b. at Acton (12 m, s. by e. of Bury St. Edmund's), Suffolk, Oct. 23, 1814; d. at Leamington (80 m. n.w. of London) Oct. 7, 1892. He studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (B.A., 1836; M.A., 1839; D.D., 1864), and at Durham University; became curate of Chetton, Shropshire, 1838; at the Abbey, Shrewsbury, 1839; Penn Street, Buckinghamshire, 1849; vicar of Aylesbury and archdeacon of Buckinghamshire, 1853; honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford, 1866; dean of Lichfield, 1875; resigned in 1892. In 1864, 1866, 1869, and 1874 he was prolocutor of the lower house of convocation of Canterbury, and as such was a member of the committee of New Testament revisers. He was a High-churchman. He published Diocesan Synods in Relation to Convocation and Parliament (London, 1867); My Hereafter (1883); edited the fifth edition of R. W. Evans's Bishopric of Souls (1877), with a memoir of the author; and contributed the commentary on Mark to the Pulpit Commentary (1882).
3. Bishop of South Tokyo, Japan, eldest son of Edward Henry Bickersteth; b. at Banningham (10 m. n, of Norwich), Norfolk, June 26, 1850; d. at Chisledon (30 m. n. of Salisbury), Wiltshire, Aug. 5, 1897. He was educated at Cambridge (B.A., 1873), and was ordained priest in 1874. He was curate at Hampstead, London, 1873-75; fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1875 till 1877, when he headed the Cambridge Mission for Delhi, India. In this mission he so impaired his health that he was obliged to return
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BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Bickersteth, Life and Letters of Edward Bickersteth, Bishop of South Tokyo, London, 1905 (by his brother).
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