New Advent
 Home   Encyclopedia   Summa   Fathers   Bible   Library 
 A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z 
New Advent
Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > B > Henry Digby Beste

Henry Digby Beste

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...

Miscellaneous author, b. at Lincoln, England, 21 October, 1768; d. at Brighton, 28 May, 1836. He was the son of the Rev. Henry Beste, D.D., prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. His mother, Magdalen, daughter and heiress of Kenelm Digby, Esq., of North Luffenham in Rutland, claimed to be the representative of the extinct male line of the historic Sir Everard and Sir Kenelm Digby. His father dying in 1782, Henry was sent two years later by his mother to Oxford. He became a commoner of Magdalen College, where he took his B.A. degree in 1788 and his M.A. in 1781. He was afterward elected to a fellowship, which he resigned when the family estates came to him on the death of his mother. In September, 1791, he took deacon's orders in the Anglican church, and a little later retired to Lincoln, displaying great activity there as a preacher. Doubts about the spiritual authority of the Established Church sprang up in his mind, which were strengthened by intercourse with the Abbé Beaumont, then in charge of the small Catholic chapel at Lincoln. The result was that he was received into the Catholic Church by Rev. Mr. Hodgson, Vicar-General of the London district, 26 May, 1798. In 1800, he married Sarah, daughter of Edward Sealy, Esq., and was the father of the well-known author, John Richard Digby Beste. His first works were a treatise entitled "The Christian Religion briefly defended against the Philosophers and Republicans of France" (octavo, 1793), and in the same year a discourse on "Priestly Absolution" which was republished in 1874. It is interesting that this latter work anticipated some of the Tractarian arguments and met with the warm commendation of the chief members of the University of Oxford in 1794. After his conversion Beste was an occasional contributor to Catholic periodicals. He also travelled abroad and spent several years in France and Italy. Cardinal Wiseman met him at Rome in the Jubilee of 1825, and mentions him in his "Last Four Popes" (Boston, 1858), p. 245). In 1826 Best English Family's Residence there during that period, preceded by some account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic Faith" (octavo). Two years later he wrote a similar book on his stay in Italy. Ten years after his death appeared his last work, called "Poverty and the Baronet's Family, a Catholic Story" (12mo, 1846).

Sources

GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.; KENT in Dict. Nat. Biog., IV, 416.

About this page

APA citation. Spillane, E. (1907). Henry Digby Beste. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02529a.htm

MLA citation. Spillane, Edward. "Henry Digby Beste." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02529a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Anita Gorman.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

Copyright © 2023 by New Advent LLC. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT