Frederick
Denison Maurice
was born in Normanstone near Lowestoft on 29th August, 1805. His father,
Michael
Maurice, worked with Joseph Priestley,
as a Unitarian minister in Hackney in
London.
Frederick was educated by his father and was introduced to books such
as The
History of the Puritans
at an early age. Michael
Maurice also took his son to meetings of the Anti-Slavery
Society and the Bible Society. Encouraged
by his father, Frederick idolized social reformers such as Sir
Francis Burdett, Henry Brougham and
Joseph Hume.
Maurice began his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge
in 1823. While at university he edited the Metropolitan
Quarterly Magazine
where he praised the work of Lord Byron,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, William
Wordsworth, Robert Southey and Walter
Scott. Maurice also contributed to the Westminster
Review in 1827 and 1828 and joined the debating group led
by John Stuart Mill. In 1828 Maurice was
appointed editor of the highly regarded journal, Athenaeum.
In March 1831 Maurice became a member of the Church
of England. After studying at Oxford University,
he was ordained in January, 1834 and became a curate at Bubbenhall,
near Leamington. Two years later he was appointed chaplain
to Guy's
Hospital.
Influenced by the ideas of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Maurice wrote The Kingdom
of Christ (1838). In the book Maurice argued that politics
and religion are inseparable and that the church should be involved
in addressing social questions. Maurice rejected individualism, with
its competition and selfishness, and suggested a socialist alternative
to the economic principles of laissez faire.
Maurice was attracted to the socialist and educational ideas of Robert
Owen. These political views were expressed in the Educational
Magazine,
a journal he began editing in 1839. The Educational
Magazine
ceased publication when Maurice was appointed Professor of Literature
at King's College, London in 1840.
In 1848 Maurice and a small group of tutors at King's College established
Queen's College in Harley Street. The first
group of students to attend this new training school for teachers
included Dorothea Beale, Sophia
Jex-Blake and Francis Mary Buss.
Maurice was a supporter of Chartism and
after the decision by the House of Commons
to reject the recent Chartist Petition
in 1848, he joined with Charles
Kingsley and Thomas Hughes to form
the Christian Socialist movement. The
group published two journals, Politics of
the People (1848-1849) and The
Christian Socialist (1850-51) and a series of pamphlets
under the title Tracts on Christian Socialism.
In 1853 Maurice published his book, Theological
Essays. The principal of King's College was deeply shocked
by the religious views expressed in the book. He brought the issue
before the council of the college and on 27 October, 1853, it was
announced that it had been decided that Maurice's "doctrines
were dangerous" and that he been asked to resign from his post
as Professor of Theology.
Maurice now concentrated on the reform of education. In February 1854
Maurice drew up a scheme for a Working Men's
College. On 30th October 1854 Maurice delivered an inaugural address
at St. Martin's Hall and the college started with over 130 students
in a building in Red Lion Square. Maurice became principal and guest
lecturers at the college included Charles
Kingsley and Thomas Hughes.
In 1866 Maurice became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge
University. However, he continued to run the Working
Men's College in London. While at Cambridge
Maurice wrote two influential books, Social
Morality (1869) and Moral and
Metaphysical Philosophy (1871). Frederick
Denison Maurice died in 1872.
(1)
In 1848 Frederick Denison Maurice became the first head of Queen's
College in Harley Street, a new training school for women teachers.
The first group of students included Dorothea
Beale, Sophia Jex-Blake and Frances
Mary Buss. In his inaugural lecture he explained his ideas on
teaching.
The vocation of a teacher is an awful one… she will do others
unspeakable harm if she is not aware of its usefulness… How can
you give a woman self-respect, how can you win for her the respect
of others… Watch closely the first utterances of infancy, the
first dawnings of intelligence; how thoughts spring into acts, how
acts pass into habits. The study is not worth much if it is not busy
about the roots of things.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
