5 July
1835 A.D. Ordination
of Richard C. Trench: Anglican Bishop, Scholar & Dean of Westminster
Graves,
Dan. “Richard C . Trench Loved Words.” Christianity.com.
Apr 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/richard-c-trench-loved-words-11630435.html. Accessed 7 May 2014.
Richard Trench loved words. His whole life was made
rich with the study of them and those studies made the clergyman famous and
have benefited generations of Bible scholars. One of his word books, New
Testament Synonyms, is still helping pastors and students around the world.
Richard was slow at finding what he wanted to be in
life. Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1807, he attended elite English schools where
he did well. At Cambridge he became one of the idealists known as the
"Apostles." Famous members have included the Christian Socialist F.
D. Maurice, Bible scholar Fenton Hort, and physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
After graduation, Richard (whose ancestry went back
to exiled Huguenots) displayed an adventurous and idealistic streak which led
him to throw his support behind Spanish exiles in an 1830 attempt to overthrow
King Ferdinand VII. The scheme ended in disaster. Richard escaped with his life
because he was at Gibralter.
Until this time, Richard had been unsure what to do
with himself. He had thought of going into law. However, there were clergymen
in the family and he was ordained as a deacon the same year that he married.
Three years later, on this day, July 5,
1835, he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England.
That same year, Richard published the first of his
books, a life of Justin Martyr in verse. A few years later he issued Notes on
the Parables of Our Lord. Other books on the Scriptures followed: on Solomon's
Proverbs, Christ's Miracles, the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospels, and John's
letters to the seven churches of Asia.
In 1852 he published a popular study of words. In
this, he showed how language is molded by character and molds character.
"[Language] is full of instruction, because it is the embodiment, the
incarnation, if I may so speak, of the feelings and thoughts and experiences of
a nation, yea, often of many nations, and of all which through long centuries
they have attained to and won." Just two years later, he published his New
Testament Synonyms which shows various shades of meanings in the Greek words.
In all of his books, he showed deep wisdom, as for instance, when he wrote:
"We must not conceive of prayer as overcoming God's reluctance, but as
laying hold of His highest willingness."
Another example: "No man can be without his
god. If he have not the true God to bless and sustain him, he will have some
false god to delude and to betray him....For every man has something in which
he hopes, on which he leans, to which he retreats and retires, with which he
fills up his thoughts in empty spaces of time, when he is alone, when he lies
sleepless on his bed, when he is not pressed with other thoughts; to which he
betakes himself in sorrow or trouble, as that from which he shall draw comfort
and strength -- his fortress, his citadel, his defense; and has not this a good
right to be called his god?"
Richard went on to become Bishop of Dublin where
his gentle character, sympathetic spirit and godly life did much to ease the
awkward transition during which his church ceased to be the state church of
Northern Ireland. He died in 1886 after a long illness, beloved by all.
Bibliography:
1. Julian, John. Dictionary of
Hymnology. 1892.
2. Trench, Melesina. Richard
Chenevix Trench Archbishop; letters and memorials. London: Kegan Paul, Trench
& co., 1888; source of portrait.
3. "Trench, Richard
Chenevix." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911.
4. "Trench, Richard
Chenevix." The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Christian Church edited by F. L.
Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
5. Trench, Richard C. On the Study
of Words. Twentieth edition, 1888.
6. Various minor web articles or
entries.
Last updated July, 2007
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