GEDDES, Alexander, a learned Scotch Catholic divine and eminent biblical critic, was born in the parish of Ruthven in Banffshire, in the year 1737. His parents were respectable, although not opulent. His father was a farmer, who deemed no trouble too great in order to procure for bis children as liberal an education as possible. Both father and mother were of the Catholic persuasion, and the only book of consequence which the former had in his library was an English translation of the Bible, in which young Geddes was instructed with such care and attention that he was able to give an account of the history of it before he had reached the eleventh year of his age. The first instructions he received, after those of his parents, were communicated by a school-mistress in the vicinity, by whom he was so much distinguished that it became the first mental gratification which, in his own opinion, he ever felt. He was next placed under the tuition of a young man from the city of Aberdeen, who had been engaged by a proprietor for the education of his own children; and afterwards went to a place called Scalan, in the Highlands, where those were to be trained up who designed to devote themselves to the Catholic priesthood, and to finish their education at some foreign university. Here it was, in this obscure retreat, that Geddes laid the foundation of that intimate acquaintance with the learned languages by which he was so eminently distinguished in the subsequent part of his life. He went to the Scotch university at Faris in the year 1758, and soon afterwards began the study of rhetoric in the college of

Navarre. By the strength of his genius, and his indefatigable attention, he soon reached the head of this class, although he had to contend with two veterans; and became the favourite of Vicaire, the professor, whose friendship lasted till the close of his life.

Instead of entering into the philosophical class at the usual time, Geddes studied that subject at home, in order to facilitate his theological studies, on which he entered under M Μ. Buré and de Sauvent, at the college of Navarre; whilst Lavocat at the Sorbonne was his Hebrew preceptor. His progress in the oriental languages was so great that Professor Lavocat urged him strongly to continue at Paris; but his friends prevailed with him to return to his native country in 1764. His first charge as a priest was in a Catholic chapel in the county of Angus, from which he removed to Traquair in 1765, and became chaplain to the earl of that name, where he remained for about three years. This situation was most agreeable to his literary pursuits, as he had unlimited access to an extensive library, which greatly assisted him in the prosecution of his favourite studies. He left the earl’s house in the year 1768, and returned to Paris, where he devoted his time during the following winter to the perusal of books and manuscripts in the king’s libraries, making large extracts from scarce copies, particularly such as were in the Hebrew tongue.

In the spring of 1769 he returned to his native country, and became pastor of a congregation at Auchinhalrig, in Banffshire, where he was for some time involved in pecuniary difficulties, out of which he was extricated by the liberality of the Duke of Norfolk. These were occasioned by the debts he incurred in building a new chapel for his flock, and in making the parsonage house one of the neatest and most convenient in Scotland. With the view of bettering his circumstances he commenced farmer; but as he had to borrow money to stock his farm, and as the crops failed for three successive seasons, he was under the necessity of abandoning this scheme in a much poorer condition than when he first projected it. His unwearied exertions, however, joined to the assistance of friends, again relieved him, and he was enabled to discharge in an honourable manner every claim against him of a pecuniary nature.

In the year 1779 he resigned his pastoral charge at Auchinhalrig, which was a heavy blow to the members of his congregation, as the zeal and diligence with which he discharged the duties of his ministerial function had endeared him to all. He was also justly esteemed for his attention to the instruction of youth. Next year the university of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of doctor of laws, a literary honour which had never been bestowed by that body on any Roman Catholic since the Reformation. He afterwards went to London that he might prosecute his favourite studies with greater facility, and give the world his English translation of the Old and New Testament, to which he had turned his attention for a number of years. He officiated for some months after his arrival at the imperial ambassador’s chapel in Duke Street, until the term of Easter 1782, when it was suppressed by order of the Emperor Joseph II., after which Dr Geddes seems to have declined entirely the exercise of his clerical functions.

No sooner had the design of Dr Geddes, relative to a new translation of the Bible, been made public, than he met with formidable opposition from his Catholic brethren; an event which the doctor seems with good reason to have anticipated. His own words on this occasion were, “I expect not excessive profits from excessive exertion. I trust I shall never want meat, and clothes, and fire; to a philosophical and contented mind, what more is necessary ?” He was many years employed in preparing this [7:10:376]important work for the press before he had any prospect of adequate success. In addressing the English Catholics on the subject of his translation, he says, “At any rate, I do what I think it my duty to do, and do it fairly and openly. In the following pages ye will find neither palliation nor disguise. I pour out my sentiments with the same sincerity as if I were before the tribunal of Him who is to judge the living and the dead. Mistake I may, but prevaricate I never will.” He discovered this noble spirit in every action of his life, and in all his transactions and intercourse with mankind, although he did not conciliate the regard of those who could have bestowed upon him the most effectual assistance.

After spending much of his life in biblical studies, he met with a long and cruel interruption. “I had but little hope of ever living in a situation to resume them,” says he, “when Providence threw me into the arms of such a patron as Origen himself might have been proud to boast of; a patron who, for these ten years past, has, with a dignity peculiar to himself, afforded me every convenience that my heart could desire towards the carrying on and completing of my arduous work.” It is needless to inform the public, that the patron to whom the learned doctor here alludes was Lord Petre. For this munificence, continued throughout the whole of his life, and even beyond it by his will, Christians of every denomination will feel sentiments of gratitude, if they are qualified to form a true estimate of the advantages of free and impartial inquiry. His prospectus of a new translation of the Bible in 4to was published in 1786, and a letter to the Bishop of London on the same subject appeared in 1787. His proposals were printed in 1788.

In the year 1792 the first volume of this translation was published, dedicated to his patron Lord Petre, containing the first six books of the Old Testament. Soon after this volume made its appearance, three apostolic vicars, calling themselves the Bishops of Rama, Acanthos, and Centuriae, issued a pastoral letter, addressed to their respective flocks over which they presided, warning them against the reception of Dr Geddes’ translation. In his reply to the Bishop of Centuriae we find these words: “Perhaps, my lord, you wish to have another occasion of exercising your episcopal authority, and of playing with censures as children do with a new ball. I wish your lordship much joy of the bauble; but however, my lord, beware of playing too often with it. Read St Chrysostom on ecclesiastical censures, and learn from him a little more moderation. Permit an old priest to tell you that it is a very great ornament in a young bishop. As to myself, my lord, I am not afraid of your threats, and shall laugh at your censures as long as I am conscious that I deserve them not. You cannot hinder me from praying at home; and at home I will pray, in defiance of your censure, as often as I please. The Chief Bishop of our souls is always accessible; and through him I can, at all times, have free access to the Father, who will not reject me, but for voluntary unrepented crimes. In the panoply of conscious innocence, the whole thunder of the Vatican would in vain be levelled at my head.”

The second volume of his translation, owing to a variety of interruptions, did not make its appearance till the year 1797, to which was prefixed a dedication to her royal highness the Duchess of Gloucester, as an early, spontaneous, and liberal encourager of the work. In this volume the doctor gives up, and boldly combats, the absolute inspiration of Scripture, believing that the Hebrew, like all other historians, wrote from such human documents as they could find, and were of consequence liable to similar mistakes. This latitude of thinking naturally led the doctor to give up as fabulous, and wholly unworthy of the divine benevolence, every command, precept, and injunction, which appeared unworthy even of human authority. He denied, of consequence, that the command given to destroy the Canaanites could have had God for its author.

Dr Geddes was a man of extensive literature, uncommon liberality of thinking, and the friend of all mankind; a man of integrity, honour, and benevolence; in the strictest sense of the word a genuine Catholic, one whose love of truth was so invincible, that neither hopes nor fears could induce him to conceal it.

As a controversial writer, Dr Geddes was eminently distinguished by his letter to Dr Priestley, in defence of the divinity of Jesus Christ; and by one to a member of parliament, on the expediency of a general repeal of the penal statutes which have a respect to religious opinions. In the spring of the year 1800 he published an Apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, in which he zealously defended his peculiar tenets; but displayed a commendable moderation when he mentioned the injuries to which he himself and brethren were subjected by the continuance of persecuting laws; and when he argued in behalf of abolishing all legal disabilities, he discovered the soundest logical understanding.

The principal works of Dr Geddes are, 1. Select Satires of Horace, London, 1779, 4to; 2. Prospectus of a new Translation of the Bible, ibid. 1786, 4to; 3. Letter to the Bishop of London, containing doubts, queries, &c., relative to a vernacular translation of the Holy Scriptures, ibid. 1787, 4to; 4. Letter to Dr Priestley, in which the author attempts to prove by one prescriptive argument that the divinity of Jesus Christ was a primitive tenet of Christianity, ibid. 1787, 8vo; 5. Epistola Macaronica ad fratrem de iis quae gesta sunt in nupero Dissentientium conventu, 1790, 4to; 6. Carmen Saeculare pro Gallica gente tyrannidi aristocraticaecrepta, 1790, 4to; 7. Encyclical Letter of the Bishops of Rama, Acanthos, and Centuriae (Walmsley, Gibson, and Douglas), with a continued commentary for the use of the vulgar, 1791; 8. The first book of the Iliad of Homer verbally rendered into English verse, 1792, 8vo; 9. L’Avocat du Diable, 1792, 4to; 10. Carmina Saecularia tria, pro tribus celeberrimis libertatis Gallicae epo-chis, 1793, 4to; 11. The Battle of Bangor, or the Church’s Triumph, an heroi-comic poem, 1797, 8vo; 12. Translation of the Bible, vol. i. 1792, vol. ii. 1797; 13. A Modest Apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, addressed to all moderate Protestants, 1800, 8vo; 14. Bardoma-chia, poema MacaronicoLatinum, 1800, 4to; 15. Paci feliciter reduci Ode Sapphica, 1801, 4to; not to mention a variety of fugitive pieces, and contributions to periodical publications. He had corrected and prepared his translation for the press up to the hundred and eighteenth psalm, when he was seized with an excruciating distemper, which put a period to his life on the 26th of February 1802.