“ Here he manifested those great gifts which ultimately raised him to high office; a powerful grasp of mental, moral and political problems, combined with eloquence of a high order, and illuminated with brilliant flashes of wit. In 1868 the question of the disestablishment of the Irish Church came to the front, and Magee threw himself into the task of its defence with his usual energy and vivacity. ”

“ MAGEE, WILLIAM CONNOR (1821–1891) , Anglican divine, archbishop of York, was born at Cork in 1821. His father was curate of the parish attached to the Protestant cathedral in that city; his grandfather was archbishop of Dublin. Young Magee entered Trinity College, Dublin, with a scholarship at thirteen. He was ordained to the curacy of St Thomas’s, Dublin, but, being threatened with consumption, went after two years to Malaga. On his return he took a curacy at Bath, and was speedily appointed to the Octagon Chapel, where his fame both as preacher and platform speaker continued to spread. ”

“ He was also a supporter of the movement for abolishing the recitation of the Athanasian Creed in the public services of the Church of England, believing, as he said, that the “presence” of the damnatory clauses, “as they stand and where they stand, is a real peril to the Church and to Christianity itself,” and that those clauses “are no essential part” of the creed. ”