Charles Gore

Charles Gore (22 January 1853 – 17 January 1932) was a Church of England bishop, first of Worcester, then Birmingham, and finally of Oxford. He was one of the most influential Anglican theologians of the 19th century, helping reconcile the church to some aspects of biblical criticism and scientific discovery, while remaining Catholic in his interpretation of the faith and sacraments. Also known for his social action, Gore became an Anglican bishop and founded the monastic Community of the Resurrection as well as co-founded the Christian Social Union. He was the chaplain to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII.

Early life and career

Charles Gore was born on 22 January 1853 into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family as the third son of Hon. Charles Alexander Gore (1811–1897), grandson of Arthur Gore, 2nd Earl of Arran, and Augusta, Countess of Kerry, widow of William Petty-FitzMaurice, Earl of Kerry (née Lady Augusta Lavinia Priscilla, a daughter of John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough). His brother Spencer was the first winner of the Wimbledon Championships.

Gore was raised in a low-church Anglican family and was confirmed by the church at the age of eight years. He was attracted to the high-church sacramental tradition and ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism at a young age, later writing "I have since my childhood been what I may call a Catholic by mental constitution". Around the age of nine years, he read Grace Kennedy's anti-Catholic novel Father Clement. The book served as his introduction to the high-church tradition and, instead of having his Protestantism reinforced as the author had intended, he found himself entranced by the Catholic tradition. He would later write of it: