IRVING, EDWARD

Founder of the catholic apostolic church; b. Annan, Scotland, Aug. 4, 1792; d. Glasgow, Dec. 7,1834. After receiving his M.A. in 1809 from Edinburgh University, he taught school at Haddington while studying Presbyterian theology part time. In 1819 he became assistant at St. John's parish, Glasgow, and in 1822 he accepted a call to London's Caledonian Chapel. His dramatic sermons filled the chapel, and later a new church was built for him in Regent Square. Several sources molded Irving's theology: the views of Samuel Taylor coleridge on the Holy Spirit and the restoration of "apostolic gifts," as well as the writings of Lacunza, a Spanish ex-Jesuit, directed him toward millenarianism, and Irving joined the Albury Circle, which stressed the signs of Christ's Second Coming. When the Presbyterian General Assembly censured his writings on Christ's human nature, Irving and his followers prayed for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which they claimed soon appeared. In 1832 Irving was dismissed by the London presbytery, but he established another congregation. The following year he was unfrocked by the Annan presbytery, but his congregation readmitted him as a deacon, lowest order in the emerging Catholic Apostolic Church. He died disillusioned with that group's hierarchy. Five volumes of his Collected Writings appeared from 1864 to 1865.

Bibliography: a. l. drummond, Edward Irving and His Circle (London 1937), t. carlyle, Reminiscences, ed. c. e. norton (New York 1932).

[e. e. beauregard]