BRIDGETT, THOMAS EDWARD

Author; b. Derby, England, Jan. 20, 1829; d. Clapham, London, Feb. 17, 1899. He came from an Anglican family, and was educated at Tonbridge School (1845–47) and at St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1850 he left the College without graduating in order to avoid taking the required oath recognizing the royal supremacy over the Church of England. After attending John Henry Newman's lectures on "Anglican Difficulties," he was received into the Catholic Church at the London Oratory, June 12, 1850. He joined the Redemptorists a few months later. After studying theology at Wittem, Netherlands, he was ordained (1856) and spent the rest of his life in various offices of his congregation in England and Ireland, and made his name as a missioner. From 1871 until his death he was at Clapham, where for some time he was rector. Of his books, which were mainly controversial, the two most important are: Our Lady's Dowry (1875), an account, based on historical and literary sources, of devotion to the Blessed Virgin in Great Britain from the introduction of Christianity to the Reformation; and The History of the Holy Eucharist in Great Britain (1881), which studied this subject over the same period of time. Both books give evidence of Bridgett's considerable learning. He also wrote The Life of Blessed John Fisher (1888), Blunders and Forgeries (1890), and The Life of Blessed Thomas More (1891).

Bibliography: c. ryder, Life of Thomas Edward Bridgett (London 1906). a. f. pollard, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 22:267.

[l. c. sheppard]