John Wordsworth

“ The overseer and corrector of the press will be the learned Mr. John Walker of Trinity College in Cambridge; who with great accurateness has collated many MSS. at Paris for the present edition. And the issue of it, whether gain or loss, is equally to fall on him and the author.’ Walker had, in fact, collated the whole New Testament in five Latin manuscripts at Paris, and part of it in nine others, besides noting the readings of four Tours manuscripts collated by Léon Chevallier, which were given him by Sabatier. ”

“ The chapel service was much improved, partly by the efforts of John Pyke Hullah [q. v.] , who came at Wordsworth's request to teach every college boy to sing, as the statutes required that they should be able to do. Owing to his decisive and yet persuasive method of teaching, his expectation of great results, his taste in scholarship, and his camaraderie in games, Wordsworth had probably a greater ability to draw boys out into a manly way of church religion than any schoolmaster of the period. ”

“ Constantine sole emperor.—The history of the last twelve years of Constantine's reign is of a very different character from that of preceding periods. As sole emperor he loses rather than gains in our estimation. ”

“ We have sometime perceived that liberty of worship must not be denied to Christians and to all other men, but whereas in our former edict divers conditions were added, which perhaps have been the cause of the defection of many from that observance, we Constantine and Licinius, Augusti, meeting in Milan, decree that both Christians and all other men soever should have free liberty to choose that form of worship which they consider most suitable to themselves in order that the Divinity may be able to give us and our subjects His accustomed goodwill and favour. ”

“ In October 1876 Wordsworth left Perth for St. Andrews. He first resided at The Hall (hitherto a hall for episcopalian students attending the university) , which he called Bishop's Hall or Bishopshall; it is now St. Leonard's girls' school. Afterwards (1887) he removed to a smaller house on the Scores, which he called Kilrymont, the old name of St. Andrews. St. Andrews brought him opportunities of again influencing young men, and introduced him into the congenial literary society formed by the professors of the university. ”

“ She communicated to her son the success of her pilgrimage, and forwarded him certain relics, which he received with great joy. [ Helena.] The death about the same time of his sister Constantia had important consequences. She was much under the influence of Eusebius of Nicomedia, and had in her household an Arian priest, who persuaded her that Arius had been most unjustly treated. She had not courage to speak on the subject herself to her brother, but on her deathbed strongly recommended this priest to him, and he was taken into the imperial family, soon gaining influence over the emperor. ”

“ We must allow for the natural exultation of Christians over the emperor who had done so much for them and openly professed himself an instrument of Providence for the advancement of Christianity. Neither in the case of Eusebius nor of Zosimus must we push our distrust too far. The best ed. of the historical works of Eusebius is by F. A. Heinichen, repub. and enlarged (Leipz. 1868‒1870, 3 vols.) . [1] The laws issued by Constantine (after 312) in the Theodosian and Justinian Codes are very important contemporary documents. ”

“ Constantius II., son of Constantius the Great, was the second of the sons of Fausta, born at Sirmium Aug. 6, 317, and emperor 337‒361. De Broglie remarks of him (iii. pp. 7, 8) , "Of the sons of Constantine he was the one who seemed best to reproduce the qualities of his father. Although very small in stature, and rendered almost deformed by his short and crooked legs, he had the same address as his father in military exercises, the same patience under fatigue, the same sobriety in diet, the same exemplary severity in all that had regard to continence. ”

“ He published also a commentary on ‘Ecclesiasticus’ in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge edition of the ‘Apocrypha’ (1880−1) , and a ‘Life of Bishop Hall,’ prefixed to the edition of his ‘Contemplations’ issued by the same society in 1872. His edition or twelve of Shakespeare's ‘Historical Plays’ (1883, 3 vols.) deserves to be better known. During the evening of his life at St. Andrews he indulged his taste in Latin verse in a way that rendered his residence there more delightful to his friends. ”

“ In 340 Constantine invaded the dominions of Constans and penetrated into Lombardy, where he was killed in a small engagement. His dominions then went to Constans, who thus ruled the entire West. Of his character we know little or nothing. He appears to have been a staunch Catholic, but his attack upon the dominions of his brother Constans does not put his character in a favourable light. His short reign makes him very unimportant. ”

“ A selection of Walker's readings is also found in a Greek Testament in Christ Church Library, where the Wake MSS. themselves are (Wake, Arch. Gr. 35) . Altogether Walker seems to have collated some seventy-eight Greek manuscripts, containing the whole or parts of the New Testament. ”

“ His most popular contribution was a sermon on ‘Euodias and Syntyche,’ preached in 1867 (published 1869) . Wordsworth attempted to use the opportunities of changes in popular education by suggesting that episcopalians and presbyterians might unite to some extent in a common catechism, but little came of the suggestion at the time. After the Lambeth conference of 1867 he suspended his efforts for fifteen years. His part in that conference was generally on the side of Bishop Robert Gray [q. v.] ”

“ The passionate and almost eloquent law of this year, promulgated at Nicomedia, calls upon any one who feels wronged by such officials to declare their grievances freely, and promises personal vengeance on those "who up to this time have deceived us by simulated integrity"; and when Constantine felt himself wronged he did not hesitate to strike (Cod. Th. ix. 1, 4 in 325) .
After a prolonged sojourn in the East his presence was now required in Rome. He advanced thither by slow stages, arriving about July 8, in time to celebrate the completion of his 20th year of empire, July 25, 326. ”

“ On his return to Christ Church he was appointed to a public tutorship by Gaisford (dean in 1831) , and was ordained deacon by Bishop Bagot of Oxford (21 Dec. 1834) . He did not proceed to the priesthood until six years later (13 Dec. 1840) .
Meanwhile, at midsummer 1835, he was elected second master of Winchester College. The mastership had never been held except by a Wykehamist. The office brought him an opportunity for the exercise of his special faculty of teaching and a valuable experience of management, involving the inner control of the ancient college and its seventy scholars. ”

“ In relating them we have to rely on the vague and inconsistent tales of later writers, those nearest the emperor, Eutropius and Eusebius, being markedly silent. They seem to have originated with divisions, such as easily arose in a family composed of so many different elements. The half-brothers of Constantine, the sons of Constantius and Theodora, naturally took part with their mother's half-sister, Fausta, and her sons. On the other hand, Helena had reason to sympathize with her grandson Crispus, the son of Minervina. ”

“ But when he came to reside permanently in Perth, and tried to make St. Ninians his own church, a fundamental divergence between himself and Provost Fortescue and Precentor Humble showed itself. Unfortunately the eucharistic controversy was introduced in an acute form into Scotland by Alexander Penrose Forbes [q. v.] , bishop of Brechin, in his ‘primary charge,’ delivered in 1857. ”

“ They are mostly bold or ingenious conjectures, after the manner of Bentley, and show a wide range of reading. Pearce also incorporated some notes of Walker's in his edition of the ‘De Officiis’ in 1745 (see p. xiv) . While working for the New Testament he also helped Bentley with various readings of manuscripts of Suetonius and Cicero's ‘Tusculans.’ For his own part he was preparing an edition of Arnobius, and left large materials for the purpose to Dr. ”