Renn Hampden

Renn Dickson Hampden (1793 – 23 April 1868) was an English Anglican clergyman whose liberal tendencies led to conflict with traditionalist clergy in general and the supporters of Tractarianism during the years he taught in Oxford (1829–1846) which coincided with a period of rapid social change and heightened political tensions. His support for the campaign for the admission of non-Anglicans to Oxford and Cambridge Universities was unpopular at the time (1834) and led to serious protests when he was nominated to the Regius Professorship of Divinity two years later. His election as Bishop of Hereford became a cause celebre in Victorian religious controversies because it raised questions about the royal prerogative in the appointment of bishops and the role of the prime minister. He administered the diocese with tolerance and charity without being involved in any further controversy for nearly twenty years.

He was born in Barbados, where his father was colonel of militia, in 1793, and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford.

He took his B.A. degree in 1813 with first-class honours in both classics and mathematics and in the following year, he obtained the chancellor's prize for a Latin essay. Shortly afterwards, he was elected a fellow of Oriel College. Election to these fellowships was by special examination intended to select the best possible minds and Hampden became a member of the group known as the "Noetics" who were Whigs in politics and freely critical of traditional religious orthodoxy. He was reputedly one of the milder but most learned of them.John Keble and Thomas Arnold were also fellows during this period. He left the university in 1816 and held successively a number of curacies. In 1827 he published Essays on the Philosophical Evidence of Christianity, followed by a volume of Parochial Sermons illustrative of the Importance of the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ (1828).

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