Who’s Who ‘H’

Hales, Alexander of, 1186-1245 Doctor Irrefragabilis. One of the great medieval scholastic Doctors of theology along with Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. Born art Halesowen Worcestershire, he studied Arts and Theology at Paris.  He took the fateful step of making the Sentences of Lombard rather than the Bible the basis text of university study, compiling his own Summa Theologiae.  In 1236 he took the Chair of Theology in Paris and became a Franciscan Teaching Regent aged 50.  Influences on him were Aristotle, Anselm, the Victorines and Pseudo- Dionysius the Areopagite.       

Handel George Frideric, Musician and Composer 1685-159 A German and later an English Baroque composer was born the same year as J.S. Bach and D. Scarlatti. He trained in Halle in Germany. His father was the Court Surgeon Barber at Brandenburg. Handel was patronised by Duke Johnann Adolf and instructed by Frideric Zachow the organist at Halle parish church. He graduated from Halle University in 1702 after his father’s death and met the composer Telemann. He took musical positions in Halle (Lutheran Cathedral organist) , Hamburg and travelled in Italy and began composing operas.  He came to England in 1712 having become the Kapellmeister to the Elector Hanover, the future George I. Arriving in England he was patronised by Queen Anne, George I the Earl of Burlington and Duke of Chandos. The Water Music was written in 1717. He wrote many operas including Partenope and Orlando and formed Opera Companies using the Queens Theatre at the Haymarket and then in 1733 the Covent Garden Opera Company, recruiting singers from Italy including the soprano Anna Maria Strada. In 1727 he wrote Zadok the Priest for the Coronation of George II, and much later.Working with the librettist Charles Jennens, a devout and well-read Christian, Handel composed the Messiah in 1742. The Messiah commissioned by the Duke of Devonshire (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) was written in twenty-four days and first performed In Dublin for three charities and indebted prisoners to great applause and admiration.  It was subsequently played to full houses at The Foundling Hospital, Coram Fields, London. Musical performance and charitable giving with spiritual awakening came together in a unique way in the Messiah – a profound gift to the nation and the world.

Harper, Michael Canon Church Leader, Pioneer, Author and Orthodox Priest 1931-2010 Educated inEmmanuel College, Cambridge reading Law and Theology.  Ordained 1957 and served a curacy at All Souls Langham Place. He left All Souls in 1964 to establish the Fountains Trust to facilitate renewal by the Holy Spirit especially in the Anglican Church.  Early leaders in this were Tom Smail, Vice Principal of St Johns Nottingham. The Magazine Renewal edited by Edward England was a mouthpiece of the Fountains Trust.  Harper wrote many books at this time about the work of the Spirit, the Church as the Body of Christ and renewal of ministry. His wife Jean was a musician and singwriter. In 1977 He started SOMA (Sharing of Ministry Abroad) to facilitate the transference of Renewal across the Anglican Communion sending cross cultural teams on mission.  Following dissatisfaction with the Church of England on the issue of the ordination of women, he left the Church of England becoming a Priest in the Orthodox church in Antiochian Archdiocese of the British Isles.                          

Henry VI (1421-71) Succeeded his father Henry V aged nine months in a minority. Unlike his father he was a man of peace not of war, with mental instability. He founded Eton College (1440) and King’s College Cambridge (1441). He was usurped by Edward IV and murdered in the Tower in 1471. His mother (the widow of Henry V) married Owen Tudor, grandfather of Henry VII

 Herbert George, Poet and Divine 1593-1633, Educated Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. A classicist and musician, he was appointed public Orator of Cambridge. Joined, loosely, Little Gidding Community led by Nicholas Ferrar which was opposed by the Puritans. Ordained in 1630 to Bemertion near Salisbury, near the Herberts of Wilton House his relations. He wrote skilful, luminous, devotional poetry and hymns. Most famously Love bade me welcome… and the volume of poems called The Temple was published after his death.  

Hilda St, Abbess of Whitby 614-680, descended from the Northumbrian royal line. Baptized by Paulinus in 627 in York. Abbess of Hartlepool, appointed by Aidan, then Abbess of Whitby 657. At the Synod of Whitby 664 she sided with Colman against St. Wilfrid. But loyally followed the decision.

Hilton Walter, Mystic and Writer d 1396.  Educated at Cambridge University. Became an Augustinian Canon at Thurgarton, Notts. His work Scala Perfectionis (The Ladder of Perfection) was widely read in the 15th Century. This describes the growth of the soul in two stages: firstly, in faith and then in faith and feeling, sometimes separated by a dark night pf the soul. Influenced by Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St Victor – Paris, and Aquinas. There is some affinity to the anonymous work Cloud of Unknowing

Holman Hunt William, Pre-Raphaelite artist 1827-1910 Trained in the Royal Academy of Art Schools. Formed the Pre Raphaelite art schools having rebelled against the influence of Joshua Reynolds. The Brotherhood included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everard Millais and more loosely with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. They sought to present truth through visual symbols. Hunt’s most famous pictures are The Light of the World of Jesus standing outside the door of an individual’s heart (Revelation 3:20) which hangs in Keble College and St. Paul’s Cathedral and The Scapegoat in the Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight.    

Hooker Richard, Anglican Divine and Theologian c1554-1600, supported by John Jewel and admitted to Corpus Christi where he became a fellow. 1579 he became deputy Professor of Hebrew. 1585 became Master of the Temple and then Rector of Boscombe Wilts and in 1595 of Bishopsbourne Kent.  Par excellence the apologist for the Elizabethan church. He published Books I-V in his lifetime. He was an advocate of the Church of England being in continuity with Scripture and the Church Fathers. He opposed the Puritans and their view that if something is not expressly in Scripture, it cannot be permitted. He understood Natural Law to be an expression of God’s creative wisdom. Scripture, tradition and Reason were the true guides to church life and holiness.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley Poet and Jesuit 1844-1889, educated at Balliol College where he was a pupil of Benjamin Jowett. A classical scholar, he was influenced by E B Pusey- Regius Professor of Hebrew and a Tractarian. He moved to the Catholic Wing of the Church: the real presence theology of the Eucharist and Ritual. He then joined the RC Church in 1866 and entered the Jesuit novitiate and was ordained Priest in 1877.  Not known by the public as a poet in his life, as his poems were published posthumously by his Oxford friend Robert Bridges, he is nonetheless one of the greatest of English poets, exulting in the beauty of creation- “charged with the grandeur of God”, God’s sovereignty and redemptive power. Poems such as the Wreck of the Deutschland, The Windhover, To Christ our Lord demonstrate his intensity of feeling, a freedom in rhythm, the use of the sound of words to illicit atmosphere and the expression of his own faith and doubts. He took up a post in Dublin as Professor of Greek, where he was overwhelmed by work and sometimes beset by depression. He died only aged forty-five- a poet of genius.

Hudson Taylor, James, Missionary and Founder of the China Inland Mission 1832-1905 Probably the most effective of all Victorian Missionaries. He spent 51 years in China, but frequently came home to England to raise support. The son of a Methodist Preacher, he professed faith in Christ aged 17. He worked in Kingston upon Hull as a Medical assistant and leant many principles of Christian work. Before completing his studies in London, he embarked for China in 1853. He began preaching in Shanghai in 1855. He married in 1858 his first wife Maria Dyer, a teacher in Nigbo. He started an independent Mission, and determined to dress as a Chinese. Over the next years, through many vicissitudes and losses, until 1905 he recruited missionaries and raised funds from the UK, returning seventeen times. He recruited 800 Missionaries started 125 schools and over three hundred mission stations. Although Christianity would be banned in the Communist Revolution, a church had been founded which, together with others, would not be extinguished.   

  Hugh of Avalon St Bishop of Lincoln c1140-1200. Took vows at Grande Chartreuse as a Carthusian monk in 1160. Impressed Henry II. Appointed Prior of Witham Carthusian monastery in Somerset. Appointed Bishop of Lincoln 1186. A champion of the people, renowned for his humility and love of the poor and Lepers. He resisted the demands of Richard I for money for war. Canonised in 1220, Tomb in Lincoln. Feast Day Nov 17

Hume Basil Cardinal OM 1923-1929 Abbot of Ampleforth Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster 1976-1999. His father was a Protestant Cardiac physician in Scotland, Sir William Hume, and his mother was a French Catholic. He entered the novitiate at Ampleforth aged 18. He was professed in 1945 and went to St Benet’s Hall, Oxford and then the University of Fribourg Switzerland. He returned to Ampleforth teaching modern languages and becoming Abbot in 1963. He was appointed Archbishop of Westminster in 1976, the first monk to hold this office since 1850. He was a tolerant and open-minded traditionalist. He saw himself first as a monk and then as a church leader. He condemned hunger strikes in Ireland in the 1980s, and the practise of homosexuality, although admitting the validity of love between gay people. He opposed women priests. He raised the profile of the Roman Catholic church in England especially through the visit of John Paul II in 1982. He was deeply appreciated for his humility and warmth, but he was criticised for not exposing cases of child abuse.