THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
his position. Personally unpopular, not liked as a preacher, harassed by political considerations and racial differences, he yet won his way Career as by his impartial and kindly spirit to- Archbishop. ward the Roman Catholics by vigorous efforts continued for twenty years in behalf of popular education and the higher education at Trinity College, of which he was ex officio visitor, by his services in stemming the tide toward Rome, and by his interest in and self-sacrificing labor for all that tended to make Ireland better in body and soul. As primate of Ireland he sat in the house of lords and made many speeches noticeable for their independence, advocating a revision of the liturgy and the Authorized Version of the Bible, the abrogation of the prohibition to marry a deceased wife’s sister, and the emancipation of Jews and Roman Catholics. His study of political economy led him to oppose the extension of the English system of outdoor relief to Ireland, even in the time of the potato famine, in which extremity he worked manfully to alleviate distress. He favored a gradual rather than a sudden emancipation of slaves, and in advocating the abolition of all legal punishment except such as was unmistakably deterrent in character, he showed himself in advance even of the early twentieth century. His efforts in this direction contributed much to the abolition of transportation. His theology, always more or less under suspicion of heterodoxy, has been characterized as rational supernaturalism. He started with the assumption of a special revelation which makes known what reason can not discover, and it is then the function of reason to interpret revelation. The incarnation was a fact and an extraordinary act of revelation to make divinity more intelligible and to give a pattern of human perfection. The death of Christ was sacrificial, but was not necessary, Theology though it is the only ground of our and salvation. The kingdom of Christ is Writings. a society, whose members may at the same time belong to other societies. Thus the problem of Church and State is solved. Christ has himself given the plan for the society’s government, but the execution of the plan lies with the society. The essentials of Christianity are of universal importance; the minor matters are only relatively important. There is no such thing as apostolic succession in the sense of its securing the transmission of the Holy Spirit and the efficacy of the sacraments; the true apostolic succession is the maintenance of apostolic principles. He was strongly opposed to Calvinism, and in his writings ever quietly fought against tractarianism. The Sabbath, he taught, was done away with by the abrogation of the Mosaic law, for Christ himself broke the Sabbath and left it to the Church to fix the day and its observance, precisely as in the case of other festivals. Whately wrote much, but nothing of permanent value, and little that outlived himself. His first book was Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte (London, 1819), in which he aimed to reduce to absurdity Hume’s doctrine concerning miracles. It is witty and brilliant rather than sound, and is not free from suspicion of unfairness, since Hume had expressly put outside of his general principles
cases in which greater improbability is involved in
skepticism than in belief. For once Whately had
popular prejudice on his side, and the book went through more than twelve editions during his lifetime, being reprinted as late as 1886 in Henry Mor-
ley’s Universal Library (vol. xlii., London, 1886).
The Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of
Religion (Oxford, 1822) was the Bampton lectures
for 1822. The Elements of Logic (London, 1826),
and Elements of Rhetoric (1828), originally written
as articles for the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, were for a time much used as text-books (9th ed. of the
Logic, 1850; 7th ed. of the Rhetoric, 1840). Neither
work can be called original or epoch-making, but
both were admirably arranged and expressed, and the
Logic revived the study of the discipline at Oxford.
The Oxford lectures on political economy were pub-
lished at London in 1831. Other noteworthy books
were The Errors of Romanism Traced to their Origin in Human Nature (1830; 5th ed., 1856; abridged edition by his daughter, E. J. Whately, London,
1878) and an edition of Bacon’s Hssays with notes
(1856).
BrstiocrapHy: Miss E. J. Whately, Life and Correspondence of Richard Whately, 2 vols, London, 1866, new ed., 1875; W. J. Fitzpatrick, Memoirs of Richard Whately, 2 vols., ib. 1864; E. W. Whately, Personal and Family Glimpses of Remarkable People, ib. 1889; J. H. Overton, The Church in England, ii. 311-312, ib. 1897; E. Stock, The English Church in the 19th Century, ib. 1910; DNB, lx. 423-429, where reference is made to scattering notices.
WHEDON, DANIEL DENISON: Methodist Epispal; b. at Onondaga, N. Y., Mar. 20, 1808; d. at Atlantic Highlands, N. J., June 8, 1885. He was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., 1828; studied law at Rochester and Rome, N. Y.; became a teacher in Oneida (N. Y.) Conference Seminary; a tutor in Hamilton College, 1831; professor of ancient languages and literature in Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., 1833; Methodist pastor, 1843; professor of rhetoric, logic, and history in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1845; again entered the pastorate at Jamaica, L. I., N. Y., 1855; was elected editor of The Methodist Quarterly Review, 1856, and reelected quadrennially until May, 1884, when his health, which had long been feeble, forbade his continuing in the position. He was a man of learning, literary ability, and great industry. He was the author of Public Addresses, Collegiate and Popular (Boston, 1856); The Freedom of the Will, as a Basis of Human Responsibility, Hluqdated and Maintained in its Issue with the Necessitarian Theories of Hobbes, Edwards, the Princeton Essayists, and other Leading Advocates (1864); Commentary on the New Testament (5 vols., 1860-75); Essays, Reviews and Discourses, with a Biographical Sketch (1887); Statements Theological and Critical (1887); and edited the first seven volumes of a Commentary on the Old Testament (9 vols., 1880-1907).
BiIBLIoGRAPHY: Besides the sketch in Essays, Reviews, and Discourses, ut sup., consult J. M. Buckley, in American Church History Series, v. 386, 496, 500, New York, 1896.
WHERRY, ELWOOD MORRIS: Presbyterian missionary to India; b. at South Bend, Pa., Mar. 26, 1843. He studied at Jefferson (now Washington and Jefferson) College (B.A., 1862; M.A., 1875), and Princeton Theological Seminary (graduated,