Edward Lee Hicks (23 December 1843 – 14 August 1919) was an eminent

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest and author who served as

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of Nort ...

1910–1919.

Life and works

Born in Oxford in 1843, Hicks was educated at Magdalen College School and

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...

and

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1886. After a spell as

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

and

Tutor Tutoring is private academic help, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects. A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides assis ...

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

he was Rector of

Fenny Compton Fenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, eight miles north of Banbury. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 808. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ''Fennig Cumbtūn'' meaning "marshy farmstead in a valley". In 14 ...

before becoming

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...

of Hulme Hall in 1886. After this he was a

canon residentiary Canon () is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of ...

wason

Manchester Cathedral Manchester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, in Manchester, England, is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester, seat of the Bishop of Manchester and the c ...

, then

Rural Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective ...

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

until his elevation to the

episcopate A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

. He had not been supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the post. ‘I do not think Hicks would do for Lincoln .... ‘ The Archbishop regarded Hicks as a ‘faddist’ who threw ‘himself eagerly not to say fanatically into any cause which he espouses’. But at that time Prime Minister

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...

was the key figure in episcopal appointments and, influenced by Hicks as a ‘strong Liberal in politics’, recommended him to the Crown for the post at Lincoln. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, unlike other bishops, Hicks did not encourage recruitment to the Forces nor did he condemn Germany. He was peace-loving, and had promoted ‘an honourable neutrality of Great Britain'. He was accused of cowardice, and produced a strong reply to his critics showing prescience of what the "Great War" would involve. ‘Anyone who knows what war means - its stoppage of industry, its heaping up of debt and taxation, its unemployment, its famine, its missing at home, its paralysis of all effective work and expenditure on Social Reform, not to mention the horrible carnage of the battlefield, the agonies of the wounded, the visitations of disease and pestilence that always follow campaigns and battles - will be the last to tax me with cowardice if I confess to a loathing of war.’ During that War, he lost a son, Edwin, in 1917 and gave up part and eventually the whole of his palace, first for the use of Belgian refugees and then to the Red Cross. Novelist and biographer

Penelope Fitzgerald Penelope Mary Fitzgerald (17 December 1916 – 28 April 2000) was a Booker Prize-winning novelist, poet, essayist and biographer from Lincoln, England. In 2008 ''The Times'' listed her among "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". ''The Ob ...

was his granddaughter.

Classical scholar and epigraphist

After university, Hicks was also much in demand as a classical scholar and epigraphist, contributing to numerous articles and publications, including: Hicks, E.L. ''et al.'', ''The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum'', Printed by order of the Trustees of The British Museum, 1874; Hicks, E.L. ''et al.'', ''Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, 1888-1890'', D. Nutt, 1891; Hicks, E.L. and W.R. Paton, ''The inscriptions of Cos'', Clarendon Press, 1891; Hicks, E.L. and G.F. Hill, ''A Manual of Greek Historical Inscriptions'', Clarendon Press, 1882.

Life and works

Classical scholar and epigraphist

References

Further reading