John James Stewart Perowne

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John James Stewart Perowne (March 3, 1823 - November 6, 1904) was an English bishop. Born in Burdwan, Bengal, Perowne was a member of a notable clerical family, whose origins were Hugenot.

He was educated at Norwich and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, beoming a fellow in 1849. After holding a chair in King's College London, he became, in 1862, the fourth vice-principal of St Davids College, Lampeter, a college with which he was already familiar, for he had been external examiner between 1851 and 1852. The ageing Principal of the college took a backseat, and Perowne effectively 'took the reins' until his departure from Lampeter in 1872.

In 1868 he was elected Hulsean lecturer, taking as his subject Immortality. He was elected canon of Llandaff in 1869, dean of Peterborough 1878, and in 1891 succeeded Henry Philpott as bishop of Worcester. Whilst at Lampeter, Perowne had gained a great respect for the theology of his predecessor in the role of Vice-Principal, Rowland Williams, and when he became a bishop, he went to great lengths to avoid taking action against modernists in the church. Indeed, a work by one of his incumbents, which denied the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, the Divinity of Christ, the Atonement, and the concepts of the Resurrection of Christ and the Ascension was described by Perowne as 'an honest attempt to deal with great spiritual problems' .

Perowne was a respected Hebrew scholar of the traditional type and sat on the Old Testament Revision Committee. He is best remembered as the general editor of the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. His chief works were a Commentary on the Book of Psalms (2 vols., 1864-1868) and a life of Bishop Thirlwall (1877-1878). He resigned his see in 1901.

Preceded by Rowland Williams	Vice-principal of St Davids College, Lampeter 1862–1872	Succeeded by William Harrison Davey
Preceded by Henry Philpott	Bishop of Worcestor 1891–1902	Succeeded by Charles Gore

[edit] References

• D T W Price, A History of Saint David's University College, Lampeter, University of Wales Press, Cardiff. Volume One, to 1898 (ISBN 0-7083-0606-3)
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.