# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/King, Edward

​KING, EDWARD (1829–1910), bishop of Lincoln, born on 29 Dec. 1829 at 8 St. James's Place, Westminster, was third child and second son in a family of five boys and five girls of Walker King (1798–1859), rector of Stone, Kent, and canon and arch-deacon of Rochester, who married in 1823 Anne (d. 1883), daughter of William Heberden the younger [q. v.]. Edward King's grandfather. Walker King (1761-1827), was bishop of Rochester.
After some teaching from his father at Stone, King became a daily pupil of the curate there, John Day; and when Day became incumbent of Ellesmere, Edward went with him. He showed as a boy a strong feeling for religion, but at the same time was fond of dancing, fishing, and swimming, and was an excellent horseman. Through life his chief recreation was foreign travel, chiefly in Switzerland and Italy.
In February 1848 King matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford. Edward Hawkins [q. v.] was provost. At 'collections'—the formal review of work and conduct—at the end of King's first term, Hawkins made the characteristic comment on King's habits of life 'that even too regular attendance at chapel may degenerate into formalism.' King had been brought up in a school of old-fashioned churchmanship, but the influences of the Tractarian movement had already reached him; and at Oxford they were deepened by his intercourse with Charles Harriott [q. v.], fellow and tutor of Oriel. As an undergraduate he observed the extreme and methodical strictness in daily life and devotion, including fasting and abstinence, which Tractarianism inculcated. His punctilious rule of attending afternoon chapel at 4.30 'made boating difficult and cricket quite impossible,' but he managed to spend some time on the river.
King did not read for honours; but under the able tuition of his college he was well grounded in Plato and Aristotle. He was more an Aristotelian than a Platonist, and to the end of his life he used 'The Ethics' as a text-book on which he grounded his social and moral teaching. In early life he completely mastered Italian by reading it with an invalid sister, and Dante was the author from whom he most frequently quoted. He graduated B.A. in 1851, and in the interval between his degree and his ordination he acted as private tutor to Lord Lothian's brothers, and made a journey to Palestine.
King, who always looked forward to holy orders as his appointed sphere in life, received in 1854 the offer of a curacy from Edward Elton, vicar of Wheatley, near Cuddesdon, in Oxfordshire. He was ordained both deacon (11 June 1854) and priest (3 June 1855) by Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford. Wheatley was at that time a rough and lawless village, and King's zeal in pastoral work powerfully reinforced Elton's efforts at moral reformation. In dealing with the boy's and youths of the parish he first manifested that remarkable power of influencing young men which was the special characteristic of his later ministry.
In 1858 Bishop Wilberforce, alarmed by the outcry against alleged romanising tendencies in the theological college at Cuddesdon, which he had founded in 1853, changed the staff, and bestowed the chaplaincy on King. It was by no means a welcome change. Next spring the bishop forced the vice-principal, Henry Parry Liddon [q. v.], to resign, and begged King to succeed him. King, however, declined, and remained chaplain till, at the beginning of 1863, on the death of the Rev. H. H. Swinny, the bishop made him principal of the college and vicar of Cuddesdon. As vicar of the parish he had fuller scope for pastoral work, and as principal of the college he developed an unique power of winning the confidence and ​ moulding the character of the students, They were attracted by his profound piety, his cheerfulness, his persuasiveness, and his companionable habits. His rule, though gentle, was firm. He taught a theology which, while fundamentally catholic, was free from exotic peculiarities. He aimed at turning out men saturated with the spirit of the Prayer Book. Among his students at Cuddesdon was Stephen Edward Gladstone, son of W. E. Gladstone, whose attention was thus called to King's gifts as a trainer of young clergymen. In February 1873, on the death of Charles Atmore Ogilvie [q. v.], the first professor of pastoral theology at Oxford, Gladstone offered the chair to King. He was installed in the canonry of Christ Church (annexed to the professorship) on 24 April 1873, and took up residence at Oxford. His mother lived with him till her death ten years later.
King treated pastoral theology as the systematic inculcation, not of abstract theories, however venerable, but of lessons practically learnt in pastoral intercourse with the poor, the tempted, and the perplexed, in addition to his statutory lectures, he held every week during the term a voluntary gathering of undergraduates, who assembled in the evening in a kind of adapted wash-house in his garden, which he called his 'Bethel.' There he gave addresses of a more directly spiritual kind, and their influence was profound and permanent. He took a full though not a very conspicuous part in the social and academic life of the university ; he preached in the university pulpit, and in the parish churches of Oxford ; and, aided by his mother, exercised a genial hospitality. As Dr. Pusey (1800-1882) grew old and feeble, and Dr. Liddon (1829-1890) resided less and less in Oxford, King became the most powerful element in the religious life of the university.
In February 1885, on the resignation of Christopher Wordsworth [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, Gladstone appointed King to the vacant see. He was consecrated in St. Paul's Cathedral on St. Mark's Day, 25 April 1885, the sermon — a highly polemical discourse on the claims of the episcopal office — being preached by his friend Liddon. As soon as King became bishop of Lincoln he arranged to get rid of Riseholme, a huge and straggling house which had been since 1841 the episcopal residence ; and he restored the Old Palace at Lincoln, close to the cathedral, where he spent the rest of his life. He entered with much interest into the public life of the city. In February 1887 he prepared for death and attended on the scaffold a young murderer in Lincoln gaol; a circumstance which was felt to mark a new type of episcopal life and ministration. From that time on, the bishop always ministered to similar cases in Lincoln gaol. The form of episcopal work in which he took the keenest interest was confirming. A round of confirmations was to him a renewal of the best and happiest activities of his earlier manhood ; and, whether he was addressing the school-boys and apprentices of Lincoln, or the fisher-lads of Grimsby, or the ploughboys of the rural districts, he was equally at his ease and equally effective.
King earnestly adhered to the higher form of the Anglican tradition. He held and taught the real objective Presence and the eucharistic sacrifice, and he practised and received confession. His doctrine with regard to the cultus of the Blessed Virgin and the invocation of saints was strictly moderate ; and he discouraged all romanising forms in worship, and all unauthorised additions to the appointed services of the Prayer Book. He had no personal taste for ritualism, but he wore the cope and mitre, and also the eucharistic vestments when celebrating in his private chapel, or in churches where they were used. Some of the more fiery protestants in his diocese began to murmur against these concessions to what they abhorred, and before long the Church Association resolved to prosecute the bishop for illegal practices in divine worship. The only possible method of trying the bishop was to cite him before the archbishop of Canterbury ; but the precedents were doubtful, and the archiepiscopal court had only a nebulous authority. After much preliminary discussion, it was decided that the trial before the archbishop should go forward. It began on 12 Feb. 1889 in the library of Lambeth Palace, the archbishop having as assessors the bishops of London (Temple), Oxford (Stubbs), Rochester (Thorold), Salisbury (Wordsworth), and Hereford (Atlay). Sir Walter Phillimore was counsel for King. The charge was that, when celebrating the Holy Communion in Lincoln Cathedral on 4 Dec. 1887, and in the parish church of St. Peter-at-Gowts, Lincoln, on 18 Dec. 1887, the bishop had transgressed the law in the following points : 1. Mixing water with the sacramental wine during the service, and subsequently consecrating the 'mixed cup.' 2. Standing in the 'eastward position' during the first part ​of the communion service. 3. Standing during the prayer of oonsccration on the west aide of the holy table, in such manner that the congregation could not see the manual acts performed. 4. Causing the hymn 'Agnus Dei' to be sung after the prayer of consecration. 5. Pouring water and wine into the paten and chalice after the service, and afterwards drinking such water and wine before the congregation. 6. The use of lighted candles on the holy table, or on the re-table behind, during the communion service, when not needed for the purposes of light. 7. During the Absolution and Blessing making the sign of the cross with upraised hand, facing the congregation. These facts were not disputed, and all the archbishop had to do was to decide whether they were or were not conformable to the laws of the church.
The trial was delayed by various protests made on behalf of the bishop, and the actual hearing of the case did not begin till 4 Feb. 1890. The archbishop's judgment, delivered on 21 Nov. 1890 after due deliberation, was substantially in the bishop's favour, although each party was ordered to pay its own costs. The archbishop decided (1) that the mixture of the cup must not be performed during the service; (2) and (3) that the eastward position was lawful if so managed as not to make the manual acts invisible; (4) that the 'Agnus Dei' might be sung; (5) that the ablutions after the service were permitted; (6) that lighted candles on the holy table, if not lighted during the service, were permitted; (7) that the sign of the cross at the absolution and the blessing was an innovation which must be discontinued. Much dissatisfied by this result, the Church Association appealed to the judicial committee of the privy council; but on 2 Aug. 1892 the appeal was dismissed, and the archbishop's judgment upheld. It had no widespread effect, but was scrupulously obeyed by the bishop of Lincoln, even when celebrating in his private chapel.
The duration of these proceedings and the anxieties and distresses inseparable from them told heavily on the bishop's health and spirits. But great sympathy was evoked, and his hold on the affections of his diocese was sensibly strengthened. Henceforward he was beyond question 'the most popular man in Lincolnshire.' In January 1900, at a representative gathering of the county, his portrait, painted by public subscription, was presented to him by the lord-lieutenant. Lord Brownlow; and on his twenty-ninth birthday he received a cheque from the clergy and laity of the diocese amounting to nearly 2000l. This he devoted to the Grimsby Church Extension Fund. After, as before, the trial he was unremitting in the discharge of his episcopal duties. He played an active part in opposition to the education bills of the liberal government, and he continued to take his annual holiday abroad, but went less and less to London, though he always attended convocation and the bishops' meetings at Lambeth. On 1 June 1909 he presided, as visitor of the college, at the opening of the new buildings at Brasenose, and on 30 Nov. following he was present in the House of Lords to vote for Lord Lansdowne's amendment to the budget.
In January 1910 his health began to fail; but he took three confirmations in February. On 2 March he dictated a farewell letter to the diocese, and on the 8th he died at the Old Palace. He was buried in the Cloister Garth of Lincoln Cathedral. He was unmarried. He did not in the least condemn the marriage of the clergy, but he did not feel himself called to it.
Late in life King separated himself from the high church party as a whole by sanctioning the remarriage of the innocent party in a divorce suit. In politics he was a staunch tory: 'I have been voting against Gladstone all my life,' he said, 'and now he makes me a bishop.' Yet he favoured the franchise bill of 1884, on the ground that the agricultural labourers must be taught to be citizens of the kingdom of God by being citizens of the kingdom of England. King's character and career manifested with peculiar clearness the power of purely moral qualities. He had no commanding gifts of intellect, no great learning, and no eloquence; but his faculty of sympathy amounted to genius, and gave him an intuitive knowledge of other people's characters, and a power of entering into their difficulties, which drew them to him with no effort on his part. To this must be added the most perfect refinement of thought and bearing, a sanctified commonsense, and a delicate humour.
King published, besides sermons and charges and pamphlets on the 'Lincoln Case': 1. 'The Communicant's Manual' (edited), 1869, &c. 2. 'A Letter to the Rev. C. J. Elliott . . . being a reply to Some Strictures, &c.' by E. King, &c. 1879. 3. 'Ezra and Nehemiah,' 1874. 4. 'Meditations on the Last Seven Words of our Lord ​Jesus Christ,' 1874; translated into Kafir, S.P.C.K., 1887.
After his death there appeared: 1. 'The Love and Wisdom of God: a Collection of Sermons,' 1910. 2. 'Spiritual Letters,' 1910. 3. 'Counsels to Nurses,' 1911. 4. 'Duty and Conscience — being Retreat Addresses,' 1911. 5. 'Sermons and Addresses,' 1911.
A portrait in oils by George Richmond, R.A., now at Cuddesdon College, was engraved by Thomas Lewis Atkinson in 1877. The presentation portrait by W. W. Ouless, R.A. (1899), is at the Old Palace, Lincoln.
The bishop is commemorated by a church at Great Grimsby, which was built with money presented to him in 1908. Another church at Grimsby has been built with money subscribed to a memorial fund. A statue by Sir William Richmond, R.A., has been placed in Lincoln Minster, and a bursary has been endowed at St. Chad's Hall, Durham.
[The present author's Life of King, 1911; Cuddesdon Coll. Jubilee Record; information from the bishop's family.]
G. W. E. R.