PUSEY, EDWARD BOUVERIE

Anglican theologian, leader of the oxford movement; b. Pusey, Berkshire, England, Aug. 22, 1800; d. Ascot Priory, Sept. 16, 1882. His father, Philip Bouverie, took the name Pusey in 1789. Edward was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford. Elected a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1823, he formed close friendships there with John keble and John Henry newman.

From 1825 to 1827 he attended German universities at Göttingen, Berlin, and Bonn, where he studied under Friedrich schleiermacher, Johann August Neander, and other leaders of the higher criticism. He studied also Oriental languages before returning to England, where in 1828 he was married, ordained, and appointed regius professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, offices he held until his death. In 1833 he joined Newman, Keble, and Richard Hurrell froude in their effort to revive the Catholic tradition in the Church of England. Pusey's learning and prestige helped to establish the Oxford Movement as a serious force. His essay, Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism (1835), changed the character of the Tracts for the Times from pamphlets to learned studies. He also helped to found the Library of the Fathers. Despite his somewhat awkward preaching style, his sermons were most influential in propagating the movement's ideals.

Like Newman, Pusey was treated harshly by the Oxford authorities, who in 1843 condemned his moderately Catholic sermon on the Eucharist and suspended him from preaching for two years. Unlike Newman, Pusey refused to despair of the Church of England. Assuming leadership of the faltering movement, he sought to prevent others from following Newman into the Catholic Church by emphasizing that anglicanism retained the sacraments and apostolic succession. While his treatises on the sacraments, The Real Presence in the Fathers (1855) and The Real Presence (1857), defended the High Church position, he attempted to check the spread of liberalism in the church. He tried unsuccessfully to have Benjamin Jowett, professor of Greek at Oxford, prosecuted for heresy in 1863, and he maintained the eternity of hell against the views of F. W. Farrar in 1880. Pusey believed that reunion with Rome was the most effective means of checking the spread of unbelief. His first Eirenicon (1865) asserted that the only obstacles to reunion were unofficial doctrines respecting the Blessed Mother, purgatory, and indulgences. His second Eirenicon (1869) stressed Anglican objections to the immaculate conception. Newman's discouraging reply to his appeals, however, and the definition of papal infallibility in 1870 ended his hopes.

Bibliography: Spiritual Letters of E. B. Pusey, ed. j. o. johnston and w. c. e. newbolt (London 1898). h. p. liddon, Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey, ed. j. o. johnston and r. j. wilson, 4 v. (London 1893–97), with list of his writings in v.4.

[t. s. bokenkotter]