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 somewhat impaired its effect. A high churchman of the old school, he was as opposed to ritualism as he was to rationalism, and every form of liberalism he abhorred. In 1869 he denounced from St. Mary's pulpit the disestablishment of the Irish church as 'the nation's formal rejection of God;' and he was even more scandalised by the appointment of Dr. Temple (now archbishop of Canterbury) to the bishopric of Exeter in the same year. In 1872 he led the opposition to the appointment of Dean Stanley as select preacher before the university, and he strenuously advocated the retention of the Athanasian creed in its entirety. He objected to the new lectionary of 1879, and so long as he lived waged war on the revised version of the New Testament. In 1871 he had published 'The last twelve Verses of the Gospel according to St. Mark vindicated' (Oxford, 8vo), and when the revisers indicated their doubts of the authority of these verses by placing them in brackets, Burgon attacked them for this and other delinquencies in the 'Quarterly Review;' his articles were republished as 'The Revision Revised' (London, 1883, 8vo). Burgon devoted much time to textual criticism, and his two posthumous works, 'The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels vindicated and established,' and 'Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text' (both edited by the Rev. Edward Miller, and published London, 1896, 8vo), are considered the most thorough exposition of ultra-conservative views on the subject.

In university politics Burgon was equally reactionary; he opposed the abolition of tests, the admission of unattached students, and attacked the lodging-house system on the ground that it afforded facilities for immorality. The university commissions of 1850-1854 and 1877-81 he denounced as irreligious; he had been nominated a commissioner on the latter body, but the conservative government was compelled to withdraw his name in face of the opposition it evoked both in the House of Lords and in the House of Commons. The election of Miss Eleanor Elizabeth Smith [see under Smith, Henry John Stephen (DNB00) ] to the first Oxford school board in 1870 was made the occasion of a sermon, in which Burgon deplored the appearance of women on public bodies, and in a sermon preached in New College chapel on 8 June 1884 he denounced the education of 'young women like young men' as 'a thing inexpedient and immodest;' the occasion was the admission of women to university examinations (29 April 1884). On the other hand, Burgon strongly urged the importance of a more systematic study of ancient and medifeval art, and successfully advocated the establishment of a school of theology in 1855.

On 1 Nov. 1875 Disraeli offered Burgon the deanery of Chichester, in succession to Walter Farquhar Hook [q. v.] He accepted it, and was installed on 19 Jan. 1876. By his retirement from Oxford Burgon lost some of his prominence, and his relations with his chapter were, largely owing to his brusquerie, often somewhat strained. He devoted himself to theological studies and literary work, and in 1888, shortly before his death, completed his most popular work, 'The Lives of Twelve Good Men' (London, 1888, 2 vols. 8vo), which has gone through many editions. Burgon died unmarried at the deanery, Chichester, on 4 Aug. 1888; his remains were conveyed to Oxford on the 10th, and buried in Holywell cemetery on the 11th (Times, 6 and 13 Aug. 1888), where also were buried his father, mother, two sisters, and a brother; besides the monument in Holywell cemetery, a memorial window to Burgon was erected in 1891 in the west window of the nave of St. Mary's, Oxford. Two portraits, reproduced from photographs, are prefixed to the two volumes of Dean Goulburn's 'Life of Dean Burgon' (London, 1892, 2 vols. 8vo).

Besides the works mentioned above, numerous single sermons, mostly of a controversial character, and contributions to Rose's 'New Biographical Dictionary,' the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' and other periodicals, Burgon was author of: 1. 'Ninety Short Sermons for Family Reading,' 1855, 8vo ; 2nd ser. 1867, 2 vols. 8vo. 2. 'Inspiration and Interpretation; seven Sermons. . . being an answer to. . . "Essays and Reviews,"' Oxford, 1861, 8vo. 3. 'Poems, 1847 to 1878,' London, 1885, 8vo. He also contributed an introduction to Sir George Gilbert Scott's 'Recollections,' 1879, and left voluminous collections on his family history which he called 'Parentalia,' journals, and sixteen volumes of indexes to the fathers, and several unfinished theological works, including a 'Harmony of the Gospels.' Many of his letters are printed in Dean Goulburn's 'Life of Burgon.