Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/717

 where bishops existed. In the general recognition of episcopacy he saw the one hope of unity. The common feature of episcopacy drew Wordsworth to remote Eastern churches of whose orthodoxy he was willing to take the most favourable view, and towards Swedes and Moravians, episcopal brethren, though other sides of their system might seem to rank them with those who care little for the historic ministry, and though their link with the past might, as in the last case, be very dubious. He grudged no effort to remove obstacles and in the negotiation of terms of possible association. His last work, the Hale lectures, delivered at Chicago in 1910, and published in England in 1911, on the national church of Sweden, was inspired by this motive. It was composed in ill-health, but is a substantial and original contribution to history. It has been translated into Swedish, and is a recognised text-book in the Swedish colleges. In his ‘De successione Episcoporum in Ecclesia Anglicana’ (1890) and ‘De validitate ordinum Anglicanorum’ (1894) he laboriously attempted to refute the scruples of the so-called Jansenist Church of Holland. The correspondence was kept up through his life, though his hopes were never fully realised. He also made some efforts to continue the attempts of his uncle Charles to draw together the episcopal and presbyterian churches of Scotland. His elaborate history of the episcopate of Charles Wordsworth (1899), like his later researches, as in his ‘Ordination Problems’ (1909) and ‘Unity and Fellowship’ (1910), was largely devoted to precedents for the absorption of religious societies with some defect in their title into others whose pedigree was unblemished.

Wordsworth found in history an authoritative clue to present duty. His two most important practical works, ‘Holy Communion,’ originally a series of visitation addresses in 1891 (3rd edit. 1910), and his ‘Ministry of Grace,’ charges of 1901 (2nd edit. 1902) are laboriously historical in method. The last is a history of the Christian ministry which contains substantial additions to knowledge. If history revealed institutions to be accepted as authoritative, scripture was equally a succession of oracles to be interpreted, not to be criticised. Though in his later years Wordsworth ceased to share such fears as Liddon's, he was to the last very conservative in regard to criticism of the Bible.

In his preaching Wordsworth showed himself equally sure of his ground, scriptural and historical, and spoke impressively and often with originality, although he sometimes forgot that his audience did not share his interests and his knowledge. Outside his own lines of reading, the literature that interested him was such as dealt with practical questions. His appetite for information was keen; the local and natural history of his diocese, for instance, became thoroughly familiar to him, and on most concrete topics he had something to impart. Though he was an accomplished critic and writer of Latin, style in English literature did not greatly interest him; in poetry he was chiefly attracted by the grave morality of his great-uncle, William Wordsworth. He is memorable chiefly for his efforts for the reunion of Christendom, which compare with those of Archbishop Wake, and for the scholarly work which places him among the masters in historical theology. He was made hon. LL.D. of Dublin in 1890, of Cambridge in 1908, and hon. D.D. of Berne in 1892. In 1905 he was chosen a fellow of the British Academy. He wrote in this Dictionary on Charles Wordsworth [q. v.] and on John Walker [q. v. Suppl. I].

The bishop died suddenly at his palace at Salisbury on 16 Aug. 1911, and was buried at Britford, near Salisbury. He married (1) in 1870, Susan Esther (d 1894), daughter of Henry Octavius Coxe [q. v.]; (2) in 1896, Mary, daughter of Colonel Robert William, M.P., of Bridehead, Dorset, by whom he left four sons and two daughters.

His portrait was painted in duplicate in 1905 by Sir George Reid and presented to him by the diocese. One picture is in the Palace, Salisbury, the other belongs to Mrs. Wordsworth. It has been engraved. He is to be commemorated by a recumbent statue and by the erection of choir-stalls in Salisbury cathedral. 

WORMS, HENRY DE, first (1840–1903), politician. [See .]

WRIGHT, CHARLES HENRY HAMILTON (1836–1909), Hebraist and theologian, born at Dublin on 9 March 1836, was second son in a family of ten children of Edward Wright, LL.D., barrister, of Floraville,