Keble

Keble, John (1792-1866), Anglican divine and sacred poet, was born at Fairford, Gloucestershire, his father being vicar of a neighbouring village. By him John and his brother were educated, the former being elected scholar of Corpus Christi, Oxford, in 1806. Five years later he took a double first, and was elected fellow of Oriel. In 1812 he won the. prizes for English and Latin essays, and in 1815 was ordained. He left Oxford in 1823, having been a college tutor for five years, and went to live at Southrop, where he held the cure of three small parishes. In 1825 Keble went to a curacy near Winchester, but left it to help his father. In 1831 he was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and held the chair for ten years. In 1836 he accepted the vicarage of Hursley, which had been previously offered him, and there passed the remainder of his life in the fulfilment of his parish duties and in study. Three years after his death, in 1809, Keble College, Oxford, was opened to commemorate his life and encourage his doctrines. Newman declares that Keble was "the true and primary author" of the Oxford Movement. The collection of hymns embodied in the Christian Year was published in 1827, and their popularity has seldom been exceeded. Upwards of a hundred editions of the work have been published. In 1836 he published an edition of Hooker, which, revised by Deans Church and Paget, remains the standard edition ; and he also contributed to the Library of the Fathers. Seven of the Tracts for the Times were from Keble's pen, the most notable being that On the Mysticism Attributed to the Early Fathers. His poetry lectures were published in Latin; and in 1846 Lyra Innocentium, u book of religious poems, valued by some critics more highly than the Christian Year, were written to add to the profits of the latter, which were devoted to the restoration of Hursley Church. In 1863 was published his last important work, The Life of Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, whose name is familiar to readers of Matthew Arnold.