Background
Stubbs was born on June 21, 1825 at Knaresborough, the son of a solicitor, William Morley Stubbs.
bishop clergyman historian professor
Stubbs was born on June 21, 1825 at Knaresborough, the son of a solicitor, William Morley Stubbs.
Stubbs was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in Literae Humaniores and a third in mathematics.
Stubbs was elected a fellow of Trinity College, and held the college living of Navestock, Essex, from 1850 to 1866. He was librarian at Lambeth Palace, and in 1862 was an unsuccessful candidate for the Chichele Professorship of Modern History at Oxford.
In 1866, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and held the chair until 1884. His lectures were thinly attended, and he found them a distraction from his historical work. Some of his statutory lectures are published in his Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History. In 1872, he founded Oxford University's School of Modern History, allowing postclassical history to be taught as a distinct subject for the first time.
He was rector of Cholderton, Wiltshire, from 1875 to 1879, when he was appointed a canon of St Paul's Cathedral. He served on the ecclesiastical courts commission of 1881-1883, and wrote the weighty appendices to the report. On 25 April 1884 he was consecrated Bishop of Chester, and in 1889 became Bishop of Oxford.
An attack of illness in November 1900 seriously impaired his health. He was able, however, to attend the funeral of Queen Victoria on 2 February 1901, and preached a remarkable sermon before the king and the German emperor on the following day. His illness became critical on 20 April.
Stubbs was a High Churchman whose doctrines and practice were grounded on learning and a veneration for antiquity. His opinions were received with marked respect by his brother prelates, and he acted as an assessor to the archbishop in the trial of Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln. Although he disliked many of his episcopal duties, he fulfilled them, and threw his heart into the performance of those of a specially spiritual nature, such as his addresses at confirmations and to those on whom he conferred orders. As a ruler of the Church he showed wisdom and courage, and disregarded any effort to influence his policy by clamour. His wit was often used as a weapon of defence, and he did not suffer fools gladly.
Vice-President of the Chetham Society (1884), head of all English historical scholars, honorary member of the university of Kiev, and of the Prussian, Bavarian and Danish academies, member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, member of the American Antiquarian Society (1897)
In 1859 Stubbs married Catherine, daughter of John Dellar, of Navestock, and they had several children.