Denison George Anthony

Denison, George Anthony, Archdeacon of Taunton, was born at Ossington, Notts, in 1805, educated at Eton and Oxford, and appointed to the vicarage of East Brent, Somerset, in 1845. In 1853 he was charged with holding views on the Eucharist that were inconsistent with the teaching of the Anglican Church, and on his giving fuller expression to his opinions in three sermons on The Real Presence, he was, after a long inquiry before the Bishop of Bath and Wells, deprived of all ecclesiastical preferment. The Court of Arches reversed this sentence. That of Final Appeal confirmed the reversal, and the Archdeacon returned to his parish in triumph. He was a consistent opponent of every movement towards Evangelical or Latitudinarian principles, condemning school boards, secular authority in the Church, Essays and Reviews, Colenso's Biblical criticism, and Mr. Gladstone's policy. On the other hand he warmly advocated an ornate ritual, the use of the confessional, and the revival of the mediaeval authority of the Church. He died in 1896.