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The Last Laugh of a Humane Faith: Dr. Alexander Geddes 1737‐1801
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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“This unaccountable, heterodox, bad priest” was the accepted verdict of Catholic scholarship on Alexander Geddes almost seventy years ago. Amid the modernist crisis that view was understandable particularly in the British Catholic Church which had struggled for respectability and acceptance during the previous half century. Geddes seemed a disturbing unmannerly radical. But today in a Church more concerned with social justice and freedom, with ecumenism and scholarly integrity, we can come to a more charitable balanced conclusion. For Geddes was undoubtedly a talented scholarly priest of liberal imagination and provocative manner. Persistent ill health especially some severe form of rheumatism, gave his wit a bitterness which he effectively employed against any species of privilege, political or religious intolerance. In his desire for conciliatory dialogue between Churches, authentic local liturgies, and a more responsible and responsive ecclesiastical authority, he was a thoroughly modem churchman.
The life of Geddes may be briefly recounted. Born into a poor Catholic family in Banffshire in 1737, educated at Scalan and in Paris, he was ordained in 1764. Following a brief chequered career in Scotland, during which he acquired an LL.D from the University of Aberdeen, he lived in London from 1780 to his death in 1801. Free from pastoral demands he was able to devote himself to the intellectual life. His cosmopolitan life and training made him very much a child of the Enlightenment. His extended visits to France, 1758-64, 1766-69 and 1783, together with his continuous reliance on aristocratic patronage ensured that result. Well acquainted with Presbyterianism and educated within the Gallican tradition in the Paris of the philosophes, Geddes was associated with several leading figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. By nature gregarious, he freely associated with all denominations; Presbyterians, Anglicans, Unitarians and Quakers.
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- Copyright © 1977 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Ward, Bernard, The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in England, 1781‐1803, 2 vols. London, 1909, ii. 247Google Scholar. On Geddes see Good, John Mason, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D, London, 1803Google Scholar; A. Geddes to Miss Howard, 12 Oct. 1792, National Library of Scotland, Mss. 10999 in which he writes of “deluging my poor stomach with laudanum.”
2 Geddes, A., Prospectus of a New Translation of the Holy Bible, Glasgow, 1786Google Scholar; General Answer to the Queries, Counselaand Criticism, London, 1790Google Scholar; Radical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, London, 1800Google Scholar; his pamphlets included Letter to Dr. Priestley, London, 1787Google Scholar and Cursory Remarks on a Late Fanatical Publication entitled a Full Detection of Popery, London, 1783Google Scholar. A brief survey is Symington, J. Lawrie, “Alexander Geddes; an early Scots Higher Critic,”Records of the Scottish Church History Society, v. 9, 1945‐47, pp. 19–36Google Scholar, Geddes described Milner as “that wrongheaded and I fear worse hearted man. Milner continues to abuse me in the most outrageous manner. God pity the poor Christian priest!” A. Geddes tp Mis Howard, n. d. National Library of Scotland, Mss. 10999. On the wider issues see Bossy, John, The English Catholic Community, 1570‐1850, London, 1975Google Scholar.
3 Radical Remarks p. v. (introduction)
4 Benjamin Kennicott, 1718‐83, b. Totnes, ed., Wadham, Oxford, F.R.S. Radcliffe librarian, 1767‐83, collated manuscripts in Rome and Paris.
Robert Louth, 1710‐87, Bishop of London, b. Winchester, ed. New College, Oxford, 1741, Professor of Poetry, Oxford, 1766, Bishop of St. David's, 1766, London, 1777. On Robertson and Reid see Chitnes, Anand, The Scottish Enlightenment, London, 1976Google Scholar. Also Geddes' Prospectus pp. 38 n. III 145.
5 Geddes, A., Letter to the Rt. Rev. John Douglass, Bishop of Centurae and Vicar apostolic in the London District, London, 1794Google Scholar, p. II.
6 A. Geddes, Radical Remarks p. vi.
7 Geddes, A., A Modest Apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, London, 1800, p. 166Google Scholar.
8 Geddes, A., A Norfolk Tale, or A Journal from London to Norwich, London, 1792, p.43Google Scholar.
9 ibid., p. 28
10 quoted in J. Mason Good, Memoirs p. 5. Letter to Rt. Rev. John Douglass, p. 1709
11 Letter to the Rt. Rev. John Douglass, p. 11
12 A Modest Apology p. 54. Also pp. 55‐71.
13 ibid., p. 58.
14 J. Mason Good, Memoirs p. 487.
15 A. Geddes, A Modest Apology p. 126
16 A. Geddes, A Letter to the Rt. Rev. John Douglass p. 17
17 A. Geddes, A Modest Apology p. 196. Also pp. 193‐4, p. 206.
18 A. Geddes, Letter to Rt. Rev. John Douglass p. 11.
19 ibid. p. 26. Most of the material contained in this passage is in this tract.
20 Geddes, A. Encyclical Letter of the Bishops of Rama, Acanthus and Centura, London, 1791, p. 27Google Scholar.
21 On this aspect see E. Duffy, “Ecclesiastical Democracy Detected” 1779‐87; ii, 1787‐96 “Recusant History, vat., pp. 193‐209, 309‐31; B. Ward, The Dawn vol 1 John Bossy, The English Catholic Community, pp. 330‐35.
22 J. Mason Good, Memoirs p. 263.
23 e.g. Geddes, A., Carmen Saeculare, London, 1790Google Scholar; Epistola Macaronica, London, 1790Google Scholar; L 'Avocat du Diable, London, 1792Google Scholar: An Apology for Slavery, London, 1792Google Scholar
24 L'Avocat du Diable, p. 15. Also see his correspondence with Miss Howard, Mss. 10999, National Library of Scotland.
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