Richard Mant (12 February 1776 – 2 November 1848) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

churchman who became a bishop in Ireland. He was a prolific writer, his major work being a ''History of the Church of Ireland''. s:Mant, Richard (DNB00)

Life

He was born at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, where his father Richard Mant D.D. was headmaster of the King Edward VI School. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

which he entered in 1793. His youngest sister was the writer Alicia Catherine Mant. His maternal grandfather was the scholar

Joseph Bingham Joseph Bingham (September 1668 – 17 August 1723) was an English scholar and divine, who wrote on ecclesiastical history. Life He was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire. He was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and University College, ...

. He was elected a Scholar of the College in 1794, graduated B.A. in 1797, and became a Fellow of

Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, w ...

in 1798, a position he held to 1804. Mant was ordained in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

, holding a curacy at Southampton in 1802. He was appointed to the vicarage of

Coggeshall Coggeshall ( or ) is a small town in Essex, England, between Colchester and Braintree on the Roman road Stane Street and the River Blackwater. It has almost 300 listed buildings and a market whose charter was granted in 1256 by Henry III. ...

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

in 1810 and in 1811 he became Bampton Lecturer. In 1816 he was made rector of St Botolph's, Bishopsgate, and in 1820 became

Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora The Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora was the Ordinary of the Church of Ireland diocese of Killaloe and Kilfenora in the Province of Cashel; comprising all of County Clare and the northern part of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland. The Ep ...

, in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. In 1823 he was

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

Down and Connor The Diocese of Down and Connor, ( ga, Deoise an Dúin agus Chonaire) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of th ...

, and from 1842 was the Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore when the two dioceses united. Richard Mant died in

Ballymoney Ballymoney ( ga, Baile Monaidh , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a small town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated i ...

, Ireland on 2 November 1848.

Works

In 1808 Mant published ''The Simpliciad'', a satirical poem that parodied ''

Poems, in Two Volumes ''Poems, in Two Volumes'' is a collection of poetry by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth, published in 1807. It contains many notable poems, including: * "Resolution and Independence" * "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (sometimes anthol ...

'' (1807) by

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

. He gave notes relating his parodies to the originals. The aim of the work included the other

Lake Poets The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They ...

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

and

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lak ...

, with ''

To a Young Ass ''To a Young Ass'' was composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1794. The poem describes Coleridge's sympathies for animals and the connection to nature he felt as part of his idea of Pantisocracy. It was later used by critics as a means to mock ...

'' by Coleridge used to tease the group as a whole. In 1832, Mant published ''The Gospel of Miracles, in a Series of Poetical Sketches, with Illustrative Conversations,'' an attempt to represent the miracles of the Saviour in verse. Mant's ''Ancient Hymns from the Roman Breviary'' (1837) was one of the earliest collections of translated Latin hymnody in English. He belonged to a group of revivalist translators of Latin hymns, with John Chandler (1806–1876) and Isaac Williams.

John Ellerton The Rev. John Ellerton (16 December 1826 – 15 June 1893) was a hymnodist and hymnologist. Life He was born in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England, to George Ellerton, the head of an evangelical family. He was educated at King William's College on ...

commented on his good taste, but also discerned a lack of understanding of the group of hymns he was handling. The ''Psalms in an English Metrical Version'' (1824) were influenced by

Robert Lowth Robert Lowth ( ; 27 November 1710 – 3 November 1787) was a Bishop of the Church of England, Oxford Professor of Poetry and the author of one of the most influential textbooks of English grammar. Life Lowth was born in Hampshire, England, ...

's theories of

biblical poetry The ancient Hebrews identified poetical portions in their sacred texts, as shown by their entitling as "songs" or as "chants" passages such as Exodus 15:1-19 and Numbers 21:17-20; a song or chant () is, according to the primary meaning of the ter ...

, the psalms becoming "stiff and stately odes" according to John Julian. Other works included: *A

biblical commentary Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...

written with George D'Oyly *''History of the Church of Ireland'' (1839–1841; 2 vols.).
''An Appeal to the Gospel''
(1812), Bampton Lectures.
''The Book of Common Prayer...with Notes''
(1850).
''An Explanation of the Rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer''
(1864).

Family

Mant married Elizabeth Wood (died 2 April 1846), of a Sussex family, on 22 December 1804, Their children were Walter Bishop Mant, another son, and a daughter.

References

* ''The Simpliciad'': 1808 (Revolution and Romanticism, 1789–1834) Publisher: Woodstock Books Inc.

Notes

External links

Bibliographic directory
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Mant, Richard 1776 births 1848 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Bishops of Down and Connor (Church of Ireland) Bishops of Down, Connor and Dromore Bishops of Killaloe and Kilfenora Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford People educated at Winchester College Clergy from Southampton Scholars of Trinity College Dublin