BOURNE, HUGH [1772‑1852] – English born founder of the Primitive Methodist Church [see below]. Originally a Wesleyan Methodist for whom he built a chapel at his own expense, he organised from 1807 camp meetings, however he was eventually expelled from the denomination. He desired to have Methodism return to its primitive origins thus the Primitive Methodists were born. By 1852 there were 110,000 members and by 1902 there were a quarter of a million in Britain. The group joined the Methodist Church in 1932. Bourne worked as a carpenter and builder so as not to be an expense to the church.
BUCHANAN, CLAUDIUS [1766‑1815] – Scottish Anglican chaplain educated at Glasgow and Cambridge who while at Cambridge came under the influence of Charles Simeon [see 1782] and his circle. He was ordained in 1796 then went to India. He was in India for over 15 years during which he encouraged Scripture translation and native education even though being attached to the East India Company which prevented ministering to the natives. He wrote "Christian Researches in India" in 1811. On his return to England he helped to establish the first Indian bishopric.
CALVINISTIC METHODIST CONNEXION – Officially recognised as a body and regular ordinations commenced in 1811 [see Thomas Charles 1784]. In 1840 this group who until this time had supported the London Missionary Society commenced their own missionary work in France and India.
FAWCETT, JOHN [1740-1817] – English Baptist theologian who, after some time in secular occupations, he was moved by the preaching of George Whitefield and became a Baptist pastor. His ministry was spent entirely in the Halifax area of Yorkshire, where he also taught school for most of his active life. He was a vigorous preacher, zealous and much respected among his people and he might have held high office in his denomination had he been so inclined. He is known for his “Devotional Commentary on the Holy Scriptures” published in 1811.
GESENIUS, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH WILHELM [1786-1842] – German Orientalist and biblical scholar who studied at Gottingen and was professor of theology at Halle from 1811. He concentrated on problems of Semitic philology, becoming the most outstanding Hebrew expert of his generation. His work was the basis of the Hebrew lexicon of Brown, Driver and Briggs [1906]. He also produced his Hebrew Grammar in 1813.
INDONESIA [also see 1522 and 1934] – The evangelical movement in Europe transformed the picture with the first efforts to evangelise Java made separately by a planter Coolen [1770-1863], and watchmaker Emde [1774-1859] in the east of the island. Raffles, the British governor [1811-1815] was the first to instigate missionary work, and thereafter Dutch and German missionaries gave themselves to the Indies. The Dutch government prohibited working in politically sensitive areas such as Atjeh and Bali. L. Nommensen [see 1861] evangelised the animistic Bataks of Sumatra, Kam [1772 – 1833] earned by his labours in the nominally Christian eastern islands the title of “Apostle of the Moluccas”, and Bruckner [1783-1847] pioneered Central Java. These are only a few among many. Nowhere else in the world was so larger a church established in the midst of Islam. Most of the schools and hospitals were provided by the missions. The weakness however was that it was totally under missionary control and finance from Europe. Seeing this, Depok Seminary was opened in 1878 to train indigenous evangelists.
1812
ALEXANDER, ARCHIBALD [1772‑1851] – American Presbyterian who after conversion studied theology under William Graham was encouraged to preach. In 1812 he became the first professor at Princeton Theological Seminary having been minister at Pine Street Church, Philadelphia from 1807.
JUDSON, ADONIRAM [1788–1850] – American missionary, lexicographer and Bible translator who graduated from Brown University in 1807. He was a leader in the founding of the American Board of Commissions for Foreign Missions [see 1810]. In 1812 he was ordained and he and his wife embarked for Burma as Congregational missionaries. During that voyage they re-examined their views on baptism and both were baptised in Calcutta which cut off their support but this was taken over by the Baptist Triennial Convention, organised in 1814. Reaching Rangoon, Judson learned Burmese in order to preach and translate the Bible and worked on an English-Burmese dictionary. The war with England in 1824 brought him 17 months imprisonment but peace saw him work as an interpreter. He continued missionary work at Ava but by 1826 he had lost his wife and two children. His second wife died in 1845, and he remarried again. He died at sea.
MANZONI, ALESSANDRO [1785-1873] – Romantic poet and Italian novelist. He came into contact with the Jansenist circle in Paris and returned to the Christian faith and thereafter his writings show a desire to proclaim Christianity. Between 1812 and 1832 he published sacred lyrics in which he exalts great events in Christendom and their significant influence on humanity. Though Manzoni’s conversion took place in Jansenist circles it is difficult to assess to what extent he adhered to their doctrines.
RICE, LUTHER [1783-1836] – American missionary to India and promoter of missionary interest among Baptist churches. He was one of a group of students who sparked the formation of the first American foreign mission society. When the American Board appointed its first four missionary couples in 1812, Rice's name was added few days before sailing on condition that he was to secure his own support. Ordained a Congregational minister, after reaching India he experienced the same change of mind on the subject of baptism as did Adoniram Judson [see above] and became a Baptist. To stimulate missionary interest among Baptists they decided to return temporarily to the USA. He helped start the Baptist Foreign Mission Society and was so effective in gaining support for it that he never return to the Orient.
TAYLOR, NATHANIEL WILLIAM [1786-1858] – American theologian and educator who studied theology under Timothy Dwight [see 1795]. After graduating from Yale, Taylor was ordained in the pastorate in the First Church of New Haven where he served from 1812 to 1822. He was appointed the first professor of theology at Yale Divinity School and remained there for the rest of life. His main thesis concerned the problem of moral depravity, and although he taught that sin was inevitable, each person was nevertheless responsible for his own moral choice, a position consistent with revivalist preaching. His views created such controversy among Congregationalists that a more orthodox and Calvinistic seminary was formed at Hartford in 1834.
WATSON, RICHARD [1781-1833] – Wesleyan minister apprentice to a Lincoln joiner but received his first appointment as a Methodist preacher when only 16 years of age. An enquiring mind brought him under suspicion of heresy in his circuit and he resigned in 1801 becoming later a preacher with the Methodist New Connexion [see 1798] and secretary of their conference. In 1807 shattered health induced his resignation. He became editor of a Liverpool newspaper and in 1812 he returned to the Wesleyan Ministry and became, with Jabez Bunting [see 1799], one of the most outstanding figures. He was a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery and his most important written work was the first major Methodist systematic theology.
1813
CYRIL VI – Patriarch of Constantinople [1813-1818] who succeeded Jeremias IV [see 1809]. There is no additional information readily available.
ENGLISH WESLEYAN MISSION was a British Methodist missionary society that was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty. The Wesleyan Missionary Society sent out Rev. W. R. Beach and Rev. J. Cox to Guangzhou in 1852. It afterwards established itself in Hankow, and had its principal stations in that city and others of the province of Hupeh. Lay agency, under the direction of Rev. David Hill, was a prominent feature in the Mission at Hankow, and this Society also tried the experiment of giving to some of its missionaries medical training, that they might combine preaching and healing gifts in their ministry. In 1884 it resolved to open a college or high school in connection with their Central Mission, and the Rev. W. T. A. Barber was appointed principal, and arrived at Hankow early in 1885. The object of the institution was to provide a liberal Western education for the sons of official and other wealthy Chinese. Attempts to purchase land for the erection of a suitable building were unsuccessful, but in 1887 a large house was rented in the main street of Wuchang, and the work begun. A ladies auxiliary society also sent out female workers. In 1890 there were twenty-five missionaries at work.
FRY, ELIZABETH [1780-1845] – Quaker prison reformer. Daughter of a Quaker banker she married a London merchant in 1800 and had a large family. Because of her religious upbringing she was deeply concerned about social issues and founded a girl’s school at East Ham London. It was not until 1813 that she became interested in prison work and began her welfare work at Newgate Prison among the women prisoners, visiting them daily, teaching them to sew, and reading the Bible to them. In 1818 she gave evidence before a committee of the House of Commons on the subject of prisons and her views played a significant part in the design of the subsequent legislation. In 1839 realising the necessity of care and rehabilitation of discharged criminals she formed a society with that as its prime concern. She did much to the foster prison reform on the Continent by frequent visits. She sponsored the ‘Nightly Shelter for the Homeless in London’ in 1820 as well as visiting societies in Brighton and other places. She also prepared a report on social conditions in Ireland. She secured the provision of libraries at coastguard stations in certain naval hospitals.
GRELLET, STEPHEN [1773-1855] – Quaker missionary who was born in France and educated at the College of Oratorians at Lyons but became sceptical of Roman Catholic dogmas. During the French Revolution he joined the Royal Army, but was taken prisoner. Escaping to Amsterdam he sailed to Guyana in South America and in 1795 went to New York. By this time he was a disciple of Voltaire and was moved by William Penn’s book “No cross, no crown”. He joined the Friends or Quakers in 1796 and in England in 1813 he visited Newgate Prison and introduced Elizabeth Fry [see 1813] to her life's work among prisoners.
NEANDER, JOHANN AUGUST WILHELM [1789-1850] – German Protestant church historian who changed his name from David Mendel on his conversion to Christianity in 1806. He was professor of church history at Berlin for nearly four decades from 1813. There he was a determined opponent of the rationalistic views on F.C. Baur [see 1845], D.F. Strauss [see 1835] and others. Neander wrote many volumes on the history of the church including a multivolume church history [1826 -1852] concentrating on personalities rather than institutions.
ROSENMULLER, ERNST FRIEDRICH KARL [1768-1835] – German biblical scholar who was the son of an evangelical Lutheran pastor. Educated at Leipzig he taught there from 1792 becoming professor of oriental languages in 1813. He prepared in 16 parts “Scholia” for the Old Testament [1788-1817], drawing together the insights from the writings of rabbis, Church Fathers, and mediaeval and Reformation scholars, and published a handbook on the natural history of the biblical world in 1823.
SERAPHIM Patriarch of Antioch [1813-1823] see also 1792 and 1843
STRACHAN, JOHN [1778-1867] – Educator and bishop who was born in Scotland and educated there. In 1799 he migrated to Canada where he taught school at Kingston until 1803 when he was ordained in the Church of England and became curate in Cornwall. Strachan was rector of St James Church Toronto [1813-1867] during which period he also served many years as a member of both the executive council and legislative council of Upper Canada. He upheld the sole right of the Anglican Church to income from the Clergy Reserves [see 1791].
1814
AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION which is also known as the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society or American Baptist International Ministries is an international Protestant Christian missionary society founded in 1814 in the United States. The Society initially sponsored two American missionaries in Burma, Adoniram Judson [see 1812] and Ann Hasseltine Judson. The Union is the oldest Baptist missionary organization based in North America. The Society was involved in sending workers to many different countries including China during the late Qing Dynasty.
BURMA – British Baptists, including William Carey’s eldest son Felix, entered Burma first from India but the most important initial work was by the American Baptists begun in 1814 by Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann [see 1812] who were one of the first groups sent out by the American Board [see 1810]. There, in spite of intense suffering he laid the foundation of a flourishing Baptist work. Judson worked primarily with the Burmese who have never responded greatly to the gospel and it was seven years before the first converts were baptised. However when George Dana Boardman was sent to Tavoy he helped begin a great movement among the Karen tribes that soon spread to other areas. Later, other tribes such as the Chins, Kachins, and Shans were also effectively reached. After independence the Burmese government restricted missionary activity and in 1966 resulted in the exclusion of all foreign missionaries in Burma.
LAMBRUSCHINI, RAFFAELLO [1788-1873] – Italian educational, social, and religious reformer. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and because he opposed Napoleonic policies he was imprisoned and sent to Corsica. Freed in 1814 he withdrew to Florence and devoted him self to improving social conditions by means of schools, educational publications, political journals, and other treatises. He was in close touch with the leading men of Tuscan and Swiss evangelism. He opposed the temporal power of the pope and advocated reform of the Roman Catholic Church from within, based on a deepening of the spiritual life of the individual and a return to the simplicity of the Gospel.
LIANG A-FAH [1789-1855] – First ordained Chinese Protestant evangelist. When Robert Morrison could not gain access to China he established a base in 1814 among the 4000 strong Chinese community in Malacca. This is where his colleague William Milne [see 1815] set up a printing press. Among Milne’s converts and assistants was Laing A-fah who became a Bible Society colporteur and wrote a long treatise on Christianity entitled “Good Words Exhorting the Age” which he eventually distributed among the civil service examinees in Canton. One of these books fell into the hands of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan and sparked the Taiping Rebellion.
NEW ZEALAND – Christianity was found in New Zealand by 19th century European missionaries and settlers with some American influence. Anglican missions in 1814 followed by Wesleyans in 1822 and the Roman Catholics in 1838 made slow progress. Missionaries were frequently used by chiefs to further their own political aims. The King Movement inspired by W. Tamihana [1802-1866] combined Christian and Maori ideas, but aroused deep official suspicions. Bitter land wars and unjust confiscations gave the missions a severe setback and by 1900 there were few Maori clergy. The healer, T.W. Ratana [1870-1939] inspired a significant independent church combining Maori beliefs and Christianity which had by 1931 linked with the Labour Party. Numerical European dominance hampered the development of indigenous Maori Christianity although there were significant leaders. After World War II migrants from Samoa and the Cook Islands introduced a vigorous Polynesian Christianity. European Christianity was dominated by Anglicans, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and Methodists. Shortage of clergy, isolation, and egalitarianism all contributed to greater lay participation in the church than in Britain, notably among Anglicans. Apart from some notable secondary schools like Christ’s College [1851], Protestants have worked within the state system. In Dunedin and Christchurch, churchmen were active in foundation of universities but no faculty of theology emerged until 1945 at Otago. Theological colleges such as St John’s College [1844], the Theological Hall [1876], Holy Cross College [1900], and Knox College [1909] have been the main Christian contributors to tertiary education. New Zealanders such as J. Dickie, H. Ranston, J.A. Allan, and E.M. Blaiklock have been more than of local importance. Radicals have been rare.
RHENIUS, KARL [1790-1838] – Missionary in South India who attended Janicke’s [see 1800] mission school in Berlin and went to India under the Church Missionary Society in 1814. After serving briefly in Madras [Chennai] he moved to Tinnevelly where he proved to be a competent scholar, effective teacher, and outstanding organiser. He prepared a Tamil grammar and New Testament, and introduced a system linking the village church and the school where the schoolmaster had responsibility for worship and religious instruction. The work was self-supporting and self propagating and so many lower class people were converted that the British authorities feared social unrest. Having never received Anglican orders, Rhenius ordained Indian ministers himself but the Church Missionary Society forbade the practice. In 1835 he challenged this and was discharged. Because many of the Tinnevelly congregations remained loyal to him he formed a separate church and the schism was not healed until after his death.
ULTRAMONTANISM – The movement of Catholic revival, especially after the French Revolution, which rediscovered and hoped to re-implement the unity and independence of the Roman Church under the papacy. The name given was used derisively as it implied attachment to Rome i.e. “beyond the mountains”. The movement was shaped by the resistance of Pius VII to Napoleon, by the support of subsequent popes and public figures and by the re-establishment of the Jesuits in 1814 and the establishment of new orders but especially by the marked devotion of countless parish clergy and laity.
1815
BASEL MISSION was a Christian missionary society active from 1815 to 2007, when it was merged into Mission 21. Members of the society came from many different Protestant denominations. The mission was founded as the German Missionary Society in 1815. The mission later changed its name to the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society, and finally the Basel Mission. The society built a school to train Dutch and British missionaries in 1816. Since this time, the mission has worked in Russia and had ministry the Gold Coast [Ghana] since 1828, India 1834, China 1847, Cameroon 1886, Borneo 1921, Nigeria 1951, Latin America and the Sudan in 1972 and 1973. On 18 December 1828, the Basel Mission Society sent its first missionaries, Johannes Phillip Henke, Gottlieb Holzwarth, Carl Friedrich Salbach and Johannes Gottlieb Schmid, to take up work in the Danish protectorate at Christianborg, Gold Coast. On 21 March 1832, a second group of missionaries including Andreas Riis, Peter Peterson Jäger, and Christian Heinze, the first mission doctor, arrived on the Gold Coast only to discover that Henke had died four months earlier. Since World War II, the mission has operated abroad via local church congregations. As of November 2002, the major countries or regions of operation were Bolivia, Cameroon, Chile, Hong Kong, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, Singapore, Sudan, and Taiwan. A major focus for the Basel Mission was to create employment opportunities for the people of the area where each mission was located. To this end the society taught printing, tile manufacturing, and weaving, and employed people in these fields.
BIBLE CHRISTIANS – Methodist body formed in Devon stemming from the preaching of William O’Bryan. The first conference was held at Launceston in 1819. Bible Christians were sometimes called Methodist Quakers. They flourished during the 19th century before joining the United Methodist Church in 1907.
CHALMERS, THOMAS [1780-1847] – Scottish minister who was converted in 1811. In 1815 he was inducted to Glasgow’s Tron Church. The city’s social needs were staggering and he created a new parish, St John’s, with 10,000 of the poorest people in the city. He divided the parish into 25 areas each with an elder for spiritual guidance and a deacon for social needs. Day and Sunday schools were provided. This pastoral experimentation made evangelicalism a force to be reckoned with. In the 1830’s he built 216 churches and after the disruption [see 1843] became moderator of the Free Church.
HOLY ALLIANCE – The declaration in treaty form signed on 26 September 1815 in Paris by the Orthodox Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Catholic Emperor Francis I of Austria, and Protestant King Frederick William III of Prussia after the final Allied victory over Napoleon. It proclaimed that international relations would henceforth be based on “the sublime truths which the Holy Religion teaches” and that the rulers of Europe would abide by the principle that they were brothers and wherever necessary would “lend each other aid and assistance”. They would recognise no other sovereign than “God our Divine Saviour, Jesus Christ”. Only the British government, the Sultan, and the pope refused to accede to it. Although it had no practical binding power, for the liberals and revolutionaries the term “Holy Alliance” took on a sinister connotation as a conspiracy of reactionary powers to maintain the status quo in Eastern Europe.
MILNE, WILLIAM [1785-1822] – Missionary to China who studied at the London Missionary Society’s college where he was ordained in 1812. In the following year he joined Robert Morrison [see 1807] in Macao, but having been ordered out, he distributed literature in Canton and the East Indies and then made his base in Malacca where he assisted Morrison in the translation and printing of the Chinese Bible. In 1815 he cut the first fonts of Chinese type made by a European, and wrote Christian pamphlets. He ordained his convert Liang A-fah [see 1814] and became principal of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca founded by Morrison in 1818. His son later served in China.
MOHR, JOSEPH [1792-1848] – Parish priest and composer of Silent Night who was born in Salzburg and was a chorister in the cathedral there. Mohr was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1815 and held several parish posts near Salzburg. His Silent Night was composed in 1818 for a Christmas Eve service in Oberndorf near Salzburg and set for guitar accompaniment by the organist and schoolmaster Franz Gruber [1787-1863]. This carol became popular before publication when sung by wandering Tyrolese singers.
NUNCIO AND LEGATE, PAPAL – A nuncio is an official permanent papal representative from the Holy See to both the state and the church of a given area. Usually a titular bishop or archbishop, as papal envoy to the state, he has duties which are diplomatic in character not unlike an ambassador, and his ambassadorial status was recognised by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. As papal envoy to the church his duties are ecclesiastical. A legate was the papal representative during the era of the 17th century and earlier. Four types are at times distinguishable: Legate nati - the principal resident bishop who held special authority from the pope; Legate missi - sent by the pope on special purpose missions; Legate a latere - the highest rank of special papal envoy, reserved today for ceremonial functions; there was a fourth area Nuncii et collectores - who were financial officials charged with gathering papal funds. The modern nuncio gradually replaced and absorbed duties drawn from all such earlier legates as the structures and states became more distinct.
1816
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY was formed in 1816 to return freed slaves to Africa establishing the country of Liberia. Started by minister Robert Finley with government help it hoped that Christian freedmen might evangelise Africa. Even some slave holders supported the scheme. Disease almost wiped out the first group of 114 settlers during 1820-21 but a group of 53 under Jehudi Ashmun made a permanent settlement near Monrovia. By 1867 about 10,000 freedmen had been transported to the colony.
AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY founded.
EDMESTON, JAMES [1791- 1867] – Hymn Writer. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Samuel Brewer who for 50 years was the pastor of an Independent congregation at Stepney. He was an architect and surveyor from 1816 until his death in 1867. Although an Independent by descent he joined the Established Church at a comparatively early age, and subsequently held various offices, including that of churchwarden, in the Church of St. Barnabas, Homerton. His hymns number nearly 2000. The best known is “Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us”. Many of his hymns were written for children, and from their simplicity are admirably adapted to the purpose. For many years he contributed hymns to the Evangelical Magazine
ELLIS, WILLIAM [1794–1872] was an English missionary and author. He travelled through the Society Islands, Hawaiian Islands and Madagascar, and wrote several books describing his experiences. He was from a working class background and as a youth became a gardener. He was accepted by the London Missionary Society and with his wife was posted to the South Sea Islands arriving in the area in 1816. Here they joined John Orsmond and John Williams and their wives at Huahine in 1818 before going to Hawaii. Here he learnt the local language, Romanized it and set up a printing press as well as founding churches. In 1824 he returned to England due to his wife’s poor health and became Chief Foreign Secretary of the LMS. His wife died in 1835. His writings of the experiences of his ministry encouraged investors into supporting missionaries. Having remarried he went as a missionary to Madagascar where he made progress after being hindered by the French. Three years after he left Madagascar a Christian queen was enthroned there in 1868. He and his second wife died within a week of each other in 1872.
MALABAR CHRISTIANS [see also 1653] – Through the initiative of the British authorities in South India and partly because of the findings of Claudius Buchanan [see 1811] work among the Syrians was begun by the Church Missionary Society in 1816. The purpose was not to make Anglicans of the Syrians but to see the renewal of the ancient church. Unhappily after two decades the mission was unacceptable to the Syrian authorities and missionaries turned to other work in Kerala. Some of the Syrians at this point seceded and became Anglicans, the outcome causing the diocese of the churches seen today.
MARISTS [Society of Mary] – Founded in 1816 by Jean Claude Courveille and Jean Claude Marie Colin. The order held that Mary desired to aid the church through a namesake congregation. Rome approved it in 1836. Comprising priests and lay brothers the society sent missionaries to Oceania and spread rapidly to Europe, North America, and the Antipodes. Based on the Jesuit Rule, the Marists did parish work, taught school and seminary, and held home missions and chaplaincies.
MILMAN, HENRY HART [1791-1868] – Anglican historian who was educated at Oxford and ordained a priest in 1816 leading him to becoming a canon of Westminster and dean of St Paul's. He achieved acclaim as a poet and translator from the Sanskrit. A member of the Broad Church school, Milman was never as extreme as Dean Stanley [see 1839], shunned public controversy, and deplored the writings of the more radical German critics, particularly Strauss. He wrote a life of Gibbon [see 1766] whose Decline and Fall he had also edited. In 1855 he published his History of Latin Christianity. Milman wrote the hymn “Ride on, ride on, in majesty!” which is often sung on Palm Sunday.
MOFFAT, ROBERT [1795-1883] – Scottish missionary to Africa. After conversion he was accepted by the London Missionary Society for work in Africa. There he went in 1816 and in 1825 settled at Kuruman in Bechuanaland which became his headquarters for all his activities for the next 45 years. Moffat saw his work as fourfold [1] evangelism, [2] exploration, [3] literature and, [4] civilisation. Consecration, perfect disinterestedness, shrewdness, simplistic character, and unwavering faith in the power of the gospel were some of the qualities which made Moffat a man of God and an outstanding Christian leader. Failing health forced him to leave Africa in 1870. David Livingstone [see 1841] was his son-in-law who undertook a tremendous amount of exploration. When Moffat left in 1870 a whole region had been Christianised and civilised with many African Christian congregations ministered to by trained African ministers. He translated the Bible into Sechuana, composed hymns and provided the Bechuanaland Africans with a basis of education, tools for worship and study, and the beginnings of literature. He introduced irrigation and the use of natural fertilisers, forest preservation and new crops.
1817
ARNDT, ERNST MORITZ [1769-1860] – German hymn writer and historian who fled to Sweden because of his anti Napoleonic writings. After doubts caused by contemporary philosophy he adopted, from 1817, a more Christian position. Of his 83 hymns 14 have been translated into English though none are in common use today. When hope of a Catholic Protestant union foundered he became a staunch Protestant.
D’ÁUBIGNE, JEAN HENRI MERLE [1794 -1872] – Protestant historian born near Geneva who was a son of French Protestant refugees. He had initial studies in Geneva where he was influenced by Robert Haldane [see 1795] and the current evangelical awakening. Later he studied in Berlin and became a friend of J.A.W. Neander [see 1813]. He was ordained in 1817, and in 1823 appointed court preacher at Brussels, but after the revolution of 1830 he declined the post of tutor to the Prince of Orange and returned to Geneva. Here he deeply involved himself in the work of the Evangelical Society of Geneva and was appointed to the professorship in its theological school. His primary interest was church history. He was also a founder of the Evangelical Church of Switzerland.
GORRES, JOHANN JOSEPH VON [1776-1848] – German Roman Catholic publicist and lay theologian. He had an initial enthusiasm for the French Revolution but became increasingly disillusioned and moved in the direction of Catholic mysticism and German romanticism. During the Napoleonic Wars Gorres was a vocal supporter of German nationalism. In 1814 he started the first important German newspaper. Although suppressed by the Prussian government in 1816 it established his reputation as a founder of modern political journalism. He accepted a professorship at Munich University in 1817 and dominated a circle of noted scholars who promoted a Catholic renewal emphasising Romanticism and mysticism.
HALLBECK, HANS PETER [1784-1840] – Moravian missionary to South Africa. Born in Sweden, he studied theology at Lund before joining the Moravian Brethren [see 1722]. From 1817 until his death he was superintendent of their mission in the Cape Colony. This was a period of consolidation and expansion. Five new missions were established, two of them among Africans and pastoral work was extended from the closed settlements to neighbouring farms. Hallbeck laid stress upon Christian education and established a training school at Genadendal to provide indigenous helpers for the mission in 1838. After 1838 many emancipated slaves were successfully integrated into the communities.
MALAN, CESAR HENRI ABRAHAM [1787-1860] – Swiss preacher who studied theology at Geneva and was ordained into the Reformed Church. He was converted in 1817 and this brought him into conflict with the ecclesiastical power in Geneva and he was forbidden to preach on original sin, election, and related doctrines. When Malan disregarded this order he was expelled from the pulpit. After 1830 he engaged in missionary tours to other parts of Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Scotland. Although he may have never formally left the established church he gathered a group first in his own home and may have joined the Scottish Church.
MARIANISTS – Founded in 1817 in Bordeaux by William Joseph Chaminade [1761-1859] as the Society of Mary and distinguished from the Marists [see1816]. The Marianist Order introduced an original note in that the priests and lay members have equal rights and privileges, except those relating to administration of the sacraments. Members consecrate themselves irreversibly to the Blessed Virgin and wear a gold ring on the right hand as a token of fact. The order was recognised by the pope in 1865.
PECK, JOHN MASON [1789-1858] – Pioneer Baptist missionary in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. He was ordained in the Baptist Church in 1813 and ministered for several years before hearing the missionary challenge through Luther Rice [see 1812]. In 1817 he and James E. Welch were appointed by the Foreign Mission Board to start work in the Mississippi Valley. Three years later the board dropped the mission but Peck stayed on, the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society assuming partial support. He founded the Rock Spring Seminary which became Shurtleff College and helped start the American Baptist Home Mission Society and was connected with the Baptist Publication Society.
SMITH, JOHN [1790-1824] – Missionary to the West Indies who received his early education at Sunday school, and trained to be a baker, after which he applied to be a missionary. He married Jane Godden. Smith arrived in Demerara under the auspices of the London Missionary Society in March, 1817. He lived at the 'Le Resouvenir' plantation, where he preached at Bethel Chapel, primarily attended by African slaves. In the morning of 18 August 1823, in what is known as the 'Demerara rebellion of 1823', about ten to twelve thousand slaves drawn from plantations on the East Coast of the Demerara colony rebelled, under the belief that their masters were concealing news of the slaves' emancipation. Smith was subsequently charged with promoting discontent and dissatisfaction in the minds of the African slaves, exciting the slaves to rebel, and failing to notify the authorities that the slaves intended to rebel. John Smith was arraigned in court-martial and was found guilty of the principal charges, and was given the death sentence. He died in prison before the sentence could be carried out. Out of fear of stirring up slave sentiment, the colonists interred him at four a.m., without marking his grave. His death was a major step forward in the campaign to abolish slavery. News of his death was published in British newspapers, provoked enormous outrage resulting in 200 petitions to Parliament.
STALLYBRASS EDWARD [1794-1884] – Congregational Missionary to Siberia who in 1817 was sent out by the London Missionary Society [see 1795] to Russia to start a mission among the Buryat people of Siberia. The mission received the blessing of Alexander I of Russia, but was suppressed in 1840 under his successor Nicolas I of Russia following great opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church. The mission was later re-opened in 1870 with Scottish missionary James Gilmour [see 1870] but was now based in Beijing. Alongside Stallybrass worked Cornelius Rahm of Sweden, William Swan and Robert Yuille of Scotland. Arriving in Irkutsk, they soon found the area unsuitable; Stallybrass visited various places before setting up a mission station in Selenginsk in 1819. Stallybrass and his company moved their mission to Khodon in 1828, where Sarah his wife died and was buried in 1833. In 1835 Stallybrass returned to England via Denmark. In Copenhagen he married Charlotte Ellah. Afterward, they returned to Siberia, where Charlotte died in 1839. Work at the mission consisted of preaching, tract distribution, schools work and the translation of the Scriptures into the Buryat language. Stallybrass returned to England in 1841 and left the LMS and became a pastor and school headmaster.
THRELKELD, LANCELOT EDWARD [1788-1859) – Threlkeld was an English missionary who was accepted by the London Missionary Society as a missionary to the heathen in 1814. In the following year he was ordained as a missionary and sailed for Tahiti, but the illness and subsequent death of his child detained Threlkeld for a year at Rio de Janeiro, where he started a Protestant church. He arrived at Sydney in 1817 and after a short stay went to the South Sea Islands. A missionary station was formed at Raiatea and Threlkeld worked there for nearly seven years. His wife died, and being left with four children he returned to Sydney in 1824. A mission to the aborigines was founded at Lake Macquarie and Threlkeld was appointed missionary. He went to live with the aborigines on their reservation. In 1828 he came in conflict with the London Missionary Society which objected to his incurring unauthorized expenses in connection with the mission. Threlkeld in reply published a pamphlet which the treasurer of the society described as "virulent". The connection with the Missionary Society was severed and it was decided that Threlkeld should be allowed to continue his work with a salary of £150 a year from the colonial government. He was also allowed four convict servants with rations. He published a number of books to assist the Aborigines and translation of the New Testament. He had little success and in 1842 he became a Congregational minister
WESSENBERG, IGNAZ HEINRICH KARL VON [1774-1860] – Radical Roman Catholic churchman who was recruited by Bishop Dalberg for the dioceses of Constance. After Dalberg’s death in 1817 he was chosen unanimously by the cathedral chapter to fill the vacancy but the Roman Curia refused to approve it. Wessenberg served as bishop-elect for ten years before retiring to private life. A great deal of the conflict with the curia was that he wished to expand the education of priests, wanted more elementary schools, the conversion of monasteries into hospitals and schools, the suspension of clerical celibacy, permission for mixed marriage with Protestants, and the vernacular Mass. It is not surprising that he didn't receive the confidence of the Roman Curia.
WILLIAMS, JOHN [1796-1839] – Protestant missionary known as the “Apostle of Polynesia”. Williams and his wife were sent out by the London Missionary Society in 1817 to one of the Society Islands near Tahiti. In 1823 he discovered Rarotonga and founded the mission there. He later translated parts of the Bible and other books into Rarotongan and founded a training school to augment the missionary force carrying the Gospel to other islands and built a vessel “The Messenger of Peace” to be used in evangelising the South Seas Islands. By 1834 no island of importance within 2000 miles of Tahiti had been left unvisited. He returned to Britain to conduct speaking tours from 1834 to 1838 to encourage people to work in Polynesia. Returning in November 1839 he landed in the New Hebrides and was met by savages, killed and eaten in return for cruelties previously inflicted by British sailors. Thousands of converts mourned his martyrdom and a new burst of enthusiasm for missions was generated and a succession of ships bearing the name John Williams was employed to evangelise the area for many years.
1818
CURE D’ARS, THE [1786-1859] – French priest who had little formal education and was unable to be ordained due to his lack of knowledge of Latin. Dismissed from two seminaries he was eventually ordained in 1815 and commenced his famous ministry at Ars en Dombes a village with 230 inhabitants where the religious tone was transformed. He became so famous as a confessor that towards the end of his life thousands would come to the confessional where it is said he spent sixteen to eighteen hours a day.
HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH [1770-1831] – The dominant figure in German idealism, and one of the great philosopher system builders. He studied at Tubingen and after holding teaching positions at various universities including Jena and Bern was professor of philosophy at Berlin from 1818 to 1830. Hegel rejected both realism and subjective idealism because in his view they involved unavoidable contradictions. Hegel is important in any account of the development of Christian thought, with which his philosophy is fundamentally incompatible. Religion to Hegel was simply an imaginative pictorial way of representing philosophical truth. Hegel's system was the inspiration behind the destructive biblical criticism of D. F. Strauss [see 1835], and in a more complicated way Hegel influenced both Feuerbach and Karl Marx.
PROVENCHER, JOSEPH NORBERT [1787-1853] – Roman Catholic bishop in Canada who was educated in Montréal and ordained in 1811. In 1818 he was sent to Winnipeg to minister to the people of the Red River. He later became assistant to the bishop of Quebec for the Northwest. He was responsible for the Roman Catholic policy in the West and sought to weld together a new nation of Metis, French, and Germans in order to preserve the French culture and Roman Catholic religion in the West. He laboured over 30 years among the Metis, Indians, and Eskimos in the north-west. In 1847 he became bishop of the new diocese of the Northwest.
1819
AMERICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION was an American Methodist missionary society founded in 1819. The Mission was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty. In 1847, the American Methodist Episcopal Society (North) entered the field of China, and soon surpassed all others in the number of its agents and members. Its pioneer was Rev. Judson Dwight Collins, who passionately asked the society to enter China. When he was told that no money was available for the purpose, he wrote “Engage me a passage before the mast in the first vessel going to China. My own strong arm can pull me to China and can support me when I arrive there.” Such enthusiasm was irresistible, and Collins was sent to Fuzhou, where, after ten years weary preparation, a work broke out, which spread itself over six large districts, and comprised sixty stations. A printing press was kept busily employed, which, in the year 1888 alone, issued 14,000 pages of Christian literature. A large college was also in use. The mission wound along the banks of the Yangtze for three hundred miles, and had stations in Jiujiang and other large cities. Northwards it has churches in Beijing, Tianjin and Isunhua, with full accompaniments of schools and hospitals, and it extended westward to Chongqing, 1,400 miles from the sea.
GIESELER, JOHANN KARL LUDWIG [1792-1854] – German Protestant church historian who was educated at Halle and became professor of theology at the University of Bonn in 1819 where he became a colleague of K.I. Nitzsch [see 1847]. In 1831 he was appointed professor of church history and doctrine at the University of Gottingen. He was noted as a writer.
HORNE, THOMAS HARTWELL [1780-1862] – Librarian and Protestant biblical commentator. He became a clerk to a barrister undertaking literary work in his spare time. At first a Wesleyan, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1819 later joining the staff of the British Museum where he worked on the compilation of the catalogue for many years. He wrote a number of books on Christian apologetics and bibliography. He is remembered chiefly for his “Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures” in 3 volumes published in 1818 which was widely used for half a century by students.
KRUMMACHER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM [1796-1868] – German Reformed pastor educated at Halle and Jena. He became a pastor at Frankfurt in 1819 and in 1853 was appointed court chaplain at Potsdam. He was a powerful preacher who strenuously opposed rationalism and was an influential leader of the Evangelical Alliance in Germany.
RUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY – Founded in 1819.
VINET, ALEXANDRE RUDOLPHE [1797-1847] – French-speaking Swiss theologian often called the “Schleiermacher of French Protestantism” who studied theology at Lausanne and taught French at Basle for over 20 years. He returned to Lausanne as professor of practical theology. Ordained in 1819 he tended to decry traditional doctrines unless they had been confirmed by personal experience and he put great stress on a good conscience and right conduct. He advocated separation of the church and state.
1820
BUCHANITES which was the most bizarre of the Scottish Sects. It was founded by Elspeth Buchan who claimed to be the third person of the Trinity and the woman clothed with the sun in the Book of the Revelation. She led a mixed multitude including the town clerk and a popular young minister Hugh White on a weird pilgrimage to the south of Scotland where at a succession of sites over many years a steadily dwindling band of followers waited for their translation to heaven.
ELIAS, JOHN [1774-1841] – He is regarded by many as the greatest of all Welsh preachers. His only formal education was at a private school and he was ordained as a Calvinistic Methodist minister in 1811. Elias had an overwhelming conviction of the truth of the Gospel as a means of salvation, and of the inerrancy of Scripture. There was an intense seriousness in his preaching, and never a suggestion of humour. In theology he was an unreserved Calvinist and opposed with great determination that tendency to flirt with modern Calvinism still less with Arminianism. After the death of Thomas Jones [see 1783] he was the unchallenged leader of the Calvinistic Methodists. He was energetic in his promotion of moral virtue and social betterment.
UNITED SECESSION CHURCH – Formed in Scotland in 1820, it was a union of the New Light segments from Burghers [see 1733] and Anti-burghers, which latter groups were children of the 1733 secession under Ebenezer Erskine [see 1740] and his brother Ralph. In 1847 it united with the Relief Church [see 1761] to form of the United Presbyterian Church.
WEST, JOHN [1775-1845] – Anglican missionary who was educated at Oxford, ordained in 1804 and appointed chaplain to the Hudson Bay Company in 1819, and arrived at the Red River settlement in 1820. His three years under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society were filled with extensive travels on foot and by canoe. Publicity of his letters and journal established his reputation as a pioneer churchman. He again travelled between 1825 and 1827 in Nova Scotia and undertook a mission to the Mohawks. On his return to England he took up ministry at Chettle and was involved in social reform including the establishment of a school for the education and industrial training of gypsies in that town.
