View source for Edward Bouverie Pusey

{{Short description|Anglican priest and Oxford professor of Hebrew}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name            = Edward Bouverie Pusey
| image           = Edward Bouverie Pusey.jpg
| alt             = 
| caption         = Pusey aged about 75, painted by [[Rosa Corder]].
| birth_date      = {{birth date|1800|08|22|df=yes}}
| birth_place     = [[Pusey, Oxfordshire|Pusey, Berkshire]], England
| death_date      = {{death date and age|1882|09|16|1800|08|22|df=yes}}
| death_place     = 
| education       = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]<br/>[[Oriel College, Oxford]]<br/>[[University of Göttingen]]
| spouse          = {{marriage|Maria Barker|1828|1839|end=d.}}
| children        = 4, including [[Philip E. Pusey|Philip]]
| father          = [[Philip Bouverie-Pusey]]?
| relatives       = [[Philip Pusey]] (brother)<br/>[[Jacob des Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone|Jacob des Bouverie]] (grandfather)<br/>[[Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough|Robert Sherard]] (grandfather)
}}
'''Edward Bouverie Pusey''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|j|uː|z|i}}; 22 August 1800{{snd}}16 September 1882) was an English [[Anglican cleric]], for more than fifty years [[Regius Professor of Hebrew (Oxford)|Regius Professor of Hebrew]] at the [[University of Oxford]]. He was one of the leading figures in the [[Oxford Movement]], with interest in [[sacramental theology]] and [[Typology (theology)|theological typology]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Westhaver |first1=George |title=A Fresh (Re-)Vision of E. B. Pusey's Sacramental Theology |journal=Ecclesiology |date=21 June 2023 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=227–233 |doi=10.1163/17455316-19020001 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ecso/19/2/article-p227_007.xml |issn=1744-1366|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Early years==
He was born at Pusey House in the village of [[Pusey, Oxfordshire|Pusey]] in Berkshire (now administratively a part of [[Oxfordshire]]). His father, [[Philip Bouverie-Pusey]], who was born Philip Bouverie and died in 1828, was a younger son of [[Jacob des Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone]]; he adopted the name of ''Pusey'' on succeeding to the manorial estates there. His mother, Lady Lucy Pusey, the only daughter of [[Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough]], was the widow of [[Sir Thomas Cave, 7th Baronet]], MP before her marriage to his father in 1798. Among his siblings was older brother [[Philip Pusey]] and sister Charlotte married [[Richard Lynch Cotton]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Pusey, Edward Bouverie|volume=22|pages=667–668}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=6423|first=Peter B.|last=Nockles|title=Cotton, Richard Lynch}}</ref>

Pusey attended the [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] of the Rev. Richard Roberts in [[Mitcham]]. He then attended [[Eton College]], where he was taught by Thomas Carter, father of [[Thomas Thellusson Carter]]. For university admission he was tutored for a period by [[Edward Maltby]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=22910|first=Peter G.|last=Cobb|title=Pusey, Edward Bouverie}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=32314|first=Valerie|last=Bonham|title=Carter, Thomas Thellusson}}</ref>

In 1819 Pusey became a commoner of [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]], a college at the University of Oxford, where [[Thomas Vowler Short]] was his tutor. He graduated in 1822 with a [[British undergraduate degree classification|first]] in [[Literae humaniores| Greats]].
==Fellow and professor==
During 1823 Pusey was elected by competition to a fellowship at [[Oriel College, Oxford]].<ref name="ODNB"/> [[John Henry Newman]] and [[John Keble]] were already there as fellows.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Between 1825 and 1827, Pusey studied Oriental languages and German theology at the [[University of Göttingen]].<ref name="EB1911"/> A claim that, during the 1820s, only two Oxford academics knew German, one being [[Edward Cardwell]], was advanced by [[Henry Liddon]]; but was not well evidenced, given that [[Alexander Nicoll]], ignored by Liddon, corresponded in German.<ref>{{cite book|author=Denys P. Leighton|title=The Greenian Moment: T. H. Green, Religion and Political Argument in Victorian Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xVDCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT64|date=30 November 2015|publisher=Andrews UK Limited|isbn=978-1-84540-875-6|page=64 note 72}}</ref><ref name="BrockCurthoys1997">{{cite book|author1=M. G. Brock|author-link1 = Michael Brock | author2=M. C. Curthoys|title=Nineteenth-century Oxford|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3bDAWHbXgi4C&pg=PA38|date=1 November 1997|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-951016-0|pages=38 note 205}}</ref>

In 1828 Pusey took [[holy orders]], and he married soon afterwards. His opinions had been influenced by German trends in theology.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gregory P. Elder|title=Chronic Vigour: Darwin, Anglicans, Catholics, and the Development of a Doctrine of Providential Evolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjN6uTdy7hgC&pg=PA24|year=1996|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-7618-0242-6|page=24}}</ref> That year, also, the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] as Prime Minister appointed Pusey as [[Regius Professor of Hebrew (Oxford)|Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford]], with the associated [[canonry]] of Christ Church.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Oxford Movement==
[[File:Frederick Temple (when Bishop of Exeter); Edward Bouverie Pusey; Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury) by Matt Somerville Morgan.jpg|thumb|left|1869 cartoon of [[Frederick Temple]] (when [[Bishop of Exeter]]) above; Pusey and [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury]] below, by [[Matt_Morgan_(cartoonist)|Matt Somerville Morgan]].]]
{{Main|Oxford Movement}}
By the end of 1833, Pusey began sympathising with the authors of the ''[[Tracts for the Times]]''.<ref name="EB1911"/> He published Tract XVIII, on [[fasting]], at the end of 1833, adding his initials (until then the tracts had been unsigned).<ref>{{cite book|author=Brian Douglas|title=The Eucharistic Theology of Edward Bouverie Pusey: Sources, Context and Doctrine within the Oxford Movement and Beyond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNZ0CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40|date=24 July 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-30459-8|page=40}}</ref> "He was not, however, fully associated with the movement till 1835 and 1836, when he published his tract on [[baptism]] and started the ''[[Library of the Fathers]]''".<ref>Newman's ''Apologia'', p.&nbsp;136.</ref>

When [[John Henry Newman]] quit the Church of England for the Roman Catholic church around 1841, Pusey became the main promoter of Oxfordianism, with better access to religious officials than John Keble with his rural parsonage. But Pusey himself was a widower, having lost his wife in 1839, and much affected by personal grief.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chadwick|first=Owen|author-link=Owen Chadwick|title=The Victorian Church Part One 1829–1859|year=1987|publisher=SCM Press|location=London|isbn=0334024099|pages=197–8}}</ref> Oxfordianism was known popularly as ''Puseyism'' and its adherents as ''Puseyites''. Some occasions when Pusey preached at his university marked distinct stages for the High Church philosophy he promoted. The practice of confession in the Church of England practically dates from his two sermons on ''The Entire Absolution of the Penitent'', during 1846, which both revived high sacramental doctrine and advocated revival of the penitential system which medieval theologians had appended to it. The 1853 sermon on ''The Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist'', first formulated the doctrine which became largely the basis for the theology of his devotees, and transformed the practices of Anglican worship.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Controversialist==
Pusey studied the [[Church Fathers]], and the [[Caroline Divines]] who revived traditions of pre-[[English Reformation|Reformation]] teaching. His sermon at the university during May 1843, [https://archive.org/details/a605456100puseuoft/page/n2/mode/1up ''The Holy Eucharist, a Comfort to the Penitent''] caused him to be suspended for two years from preaching. The condemned sermon soon sold 18,000 copies.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1843 Pusey received the vows of [[Marian Hughes]], who was the first Anglican woman to make these since the reformation. She went on to be mother superior at an order she founded in Oxford.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Marian Hughes|date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39553 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-06-13 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39553 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref>

Pusey was involved with theological and academic controversies, occupied with articles, letters, treatises and sermons. He was involved with the [[Gorham controversy]] of 1850, with the question of Oxford reform during 1854, with the prosecution of some of the writers of ''[[Essays and Reviews]]'', especially of [[Benjamin Jowett]], during 1863, and with the question as to the reform of the marriage laws from 1849 to the end of his life.<ref name="EB1911"/>

By reviving the doctrine of the [[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist|Real Presence]], Pusey contributed to the increase of [[ritualism in the Church of England]]. ''Puseyite'', became a term for Anglican [[Ritualism_in_the_Church_of_England|Ritualists]]: ''"great in puerilities, when he bows and when he stands''", and "''half papist and half protestant''".<ref>{{cite news |title=WHAT IS A PUSEYITE? |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8773212 |access-date=15 July 2023 |work=Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas.) |date=17 Mar 1853}}</ref> He had little sympathy with ritualists, however, and protested that as part of a university sermon of 1859. He came to defend those who were accused of violating the law by their practice of ritual; but the Ritualists largely ignored the actual Puseyites.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Later life and legacy==
[[File:Edward Bouverie Pusey with his family at breakfast by Clara Pusey.jpg|thumb|Dr. Pusey with his family at breakfast, by Clara Pusey, c. 1856.]]

Pusey edited the ''[[Library of the Fathers]]'', a series of translations of the work of the Church fathers. Among the translators was his contemporary at Christ Church, Charles Dodgson. He also befriended and assisted Dodgson's son "[[Lewis Carroll]]" when he came to Christ Church. When Dodgson Sr. mourned the death of his wife (Carroll's mother), Pusey wrote to him:
{{Quote|I have often thought, since I had to think of this, how, in all adversity, what God takes away He may give us back with increase. One cannot think that any holy earthly love will cease, when we shall "be like the Angels of God in Heaven." Love here must shadow our love there, deeper because spiritual, without any alloy from our sinful nature, and in the fulness of the love of God. But as we grow here by God's grace will be our capacity for endless love.<ref>''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11483/11483-h/11483-h.htm The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll]''</ref>}}

Not a great orator, Pusey compelled attention by his earnestness. His major influence was as a preacher and spiritual adviser, for which his correspondence was enormous.<ref name="EB1911"/> In private life his habits were simple almost to austerity. He had few personal friends, and rarely mingled with general society; though harsh to opponents, he was gentle to those who knew him, and gave freely to charities. His main characteristic was a capacity for detailed work.<ref name="EB1911"/>
[[File:Edward Bouverie Pusey, Vanity Fair, 1875-01-02.jpg|thumb|''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' caricature, 1875.]]

From 1880 Pusey was seen by only a few persons. His strength gradually decreased, and he died on 16 September 1882, after a brief illness. He was buried at Oxford in the cathedral of which he had been a canon for 54 years. In his memory his friends purchased his library, and bought for it a house in Oxford, now [[Pusey House, Oxford|Pusey House]]. It was endowed with funds for librarians, who were to perpetuate in the university Pusey's principles.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Edward Bouverie Pusey is [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|remembered]] in the [[Church of England]] with a [[Commemoration (observance)|commemoration]] on [[September 16|16 September]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=2021-04-08|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref>

==Works==
Pusey's first work, ''An Historical Enquiry into the Probable Causes of the Rationalist Character Lately Predominant in the Theology of Germany'' of 1828, was an answer to [[Hugh James Rose]]'s Cambridge lectures on [[rationalism|rationalist]] tendencies in German theology. Rose's ''State of Protestantism in Germany Described'' has been called "over-simplified and polemical", and Pusey had been encouraged by German friends to reply.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Don Cupitt|title=Sea of Faith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCXcdgWck_8C&pg=PA91|date=29 July 1988|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-34420-3|page=91}}</ref><ref name="ODNB"/> Pusey showed sympathy with the [[Pietists]]; misunderstood, he was himself accused of having rationalist opinions. During 1830 he published a second part of the ''Historical Enquiry''.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Other major works by Pusey were:

*two books on the [[Eucharist]], ''The Doctrine of the Real Presence'' (1855) and ''The Real Presence ... the Doctrine of the English Church'' (1857); 
*''Daniel the Prophet'', supporting the traditional historical dating of the [[Book of Daniel]]; 
*''The Minor Prophets, with Commentary'', on the [[Twelve Minor Prophets]], his main contribution as Professor of Hebrew; 
* the ''Eirenicon'', an endeavour to find a basis of union between the [[Church of England]] and the [[Roman Catholic Church]];<ref name="EB1911"/>
*''What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment: In Reply to Dr. Farrar's Challenge in His "Eternal Hope", 1879'' (1881),  in the controversy over [[everlasting punishment]] on ''Eternal Hope'' (1878) by [[Frederic William Farrar]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Edward Bouverie Pusey|title=What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment: In Reply to Dr. Farrar's Challenge in His ʻEternal Hope,' 1879|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bBZAAAAMAAJ|year=1881|publisher=James Parker & Company}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=33088|first=Norman|last=Vance|title=Farrar, Frederic William}}</ref>

''Christus consolator'' (1883) was published after his death, edited by his godson and friend [[George Edward Jelf]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=34169|first=Peter|last=Davie|title=Jelf, George Edward}}</ref>

In addition to his original works, Pusey also published multiple translations as part of the [[Library of the Fathers]] series, including of the [[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]] by St. Augustine.<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle= Pusey, Edward Bouverie |volume= 47 |last=  Johnston |first= John Octavius |author-link= John Johnston (priest) |pages = 53-61 |short=1}}</ref>

==Family==
Pusey married during 1828 Maria Catherine Barker (1801–1839), daughter of Raymond Barker of [[Fairford Park]]; they had a son and three daughters. His son, [[Philip E. Pusey|Philip Edward]] (1830–1880), edited an edition of [[Saint Cyril of Alexandria]]'s commentary on the minor prophets.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="ODNB"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|Saints}}
*[[Consubstantiation]]
*[[Friedrich Tholuck]]
*[[Frederick Field (scholar)|Frederick Field]] (contributor to the ''Bibliotheca Patrum'')

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Strong, Rowan, and Carol Engelhardt Herringer, eds. ''Edward Bouverie Pusey and the Oxford Movement'' (Anthem Press; 2013) 164 pages {{ISBN|9780857285652}}
* Faught, C. Brad (2003). ''The Oxford Movement: A Thematic History of the Tractarians and Their Times'', University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-271-02249-9}}.
* [[James Harrison Rigg]], ''Character and Life-Work of Dr Pusey'' (1883)
* [[Bourchier Wrey Savile]], ''Dr Pusey, an Historic Sketch, with Some Account of the Oxford Movement'' (1883)
* [http://anglicanhistory.org/pusey/liddon/ ''Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey''] by [[Henry Parry Liddon]], completed by J. C. Johnston and R. J. Wilson (5 vols, 1893–1899), 
* Newman's ''Apologia'', and other literature of the Oxford Movement.
* Mark Chapman, "A Catholicism of the Word and a Catholicism of Devotion: Pusey, Newman and the first Eirenicon," ''Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte'', 14,2, 2007, 167–190.
* Geck, Albrecht, From Modern-Orthodox Protestantism to Anglo-Catholicism: An Enquiry into the Probable Causes of the Revolution of Pusey's Theology, in: Rowan Strong/Carol Engelhardt Herringer (edd.), Edward Bouverie Pusey and the Oxford Movement, London/New York/New Delhi (Anthem Press) 2012, 49–66.
* Geck, Albrecht, "Pusey, Tholuck and the Oxford Movement," in: Stewart J. Brown/Peter B. Nockles (ed.), The Oxford Movement. Europe and the Wider World 1830–1930, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press) 2012, 168–184.
* Geck, Albrecht (Hg.), Authorität und Glaube. Edward Bouverie Pusey und Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck im Briefwechsel (1825–1865). Teil 1–3: in: Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte 10 (2003), 253–317; 12 (2005), 89–155; 13 (2006), 41–124.
* Geck, Albrecht, "Edward Bouverie Pusey. Hochkirchliche Erweckung," in: Neuner, Peter/Wenz, Gunter (eds.), Theologen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Eine Einführung, Darmstadt 2002, 108–126.
* Geck, Albrecht, "Friendship in Faith. E.B. Pusey (1800–1882) und F.A.G. Tholuck (1799–1877) im Kampf gegen Rationalismus und Pantheismus – Schlaglichter auf eine englisch-deutsche Korrespondenz," ''Pietismus und Neuzeit'', 27 (2001), 91–117.
* Geck, Albrecht, "The Concept of History in E.B. Pusey’s First Enquiry into German Theology and its German Background," ''Journal of Theological Studies'', NS 38/2, 1987, 387–408.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://anglicanhistory.org/pusey/index.html Pusey's Works] from [[Project Canterbury]]
*[https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pusey?show=worksBy Works By Edward Bouverie Pusey] at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070211212655/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc09.html?term=Pusey%2C%20Edward%20Bouverie Pusey, Edward Bouverie] in [[Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge]]
* [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/f8wjw Pusey Family papers, 1836-1882] at Pitts Theology Library, [[Candler School of Theology]]
* [http://www.puseyhouse.org.uk/ Pusey House]
* [https://archive.org/details/a605627300puseuoft ''What is of faith, as to everlasting punishment, in reply to Dr Farrar's challenge in his 'Eternal Hope' (1879)''] published 1880  
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1157| name=Edward Bouverie Pusey}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11560}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edward Bouverie Pusey}}
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Pusey and Puseyism}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Regius Professors of Hebrew (Oxbridge)}}
{{University of Oxford}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pusey, Edward Bouverie}}
[[Category:1800 births]]
[[Category:1882 deaths]]
[[Category:Sherard family]]
[[Category:19th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:English Anglo-Catholics]]
[[Category:English biblical scholars]]
[[Category:British Hebraists]]
[[Category:Burials at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford]]
[[Category:English sermon writers]]
[[Category:Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People from the Vale of White Horse (district)]]
[[Category:Regius Professors of Hebrew (University of Oxford)]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:English Anglican theologians]]
[[Category:Anglo-Catholic theologians]]
[[Category:Anglo-Catholic biblical scholars]]
[[Category:18th-century Anglican theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century Anglican theologians]]