nominated by W. E. Gladstone. There his task was complicated: Restoration of the cathedral, Adjustment of the question of the cathedral revenues with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, Reorganization of a conservative cathedral staff with anomalous vested rights. Church intended on his appointment "that St Paul's should waken up from its long slumber". The first year he spent there, writes one of his friends, was one of "misery" for a man who loved study and hated pomp and business. But he worked tactfully. Though of unimpressive stature and monotonous, he had a strong influence. He was a High Churchman, but of a rational type, and with an enthusiasm for religious liberty. He said of the Church of England that there was "no more glorious church in Christendom than this inconsistent English Church". He was regarded in 1882 as a possible successor to Archbishop Tait, but his health made it out of the question. While Dean of St Paul's, he was patron of Saint Martin's League for letter carriers. Death In 1888 Church's only son, Frederick John Church (1854–1888), died. Thereafter his own health declined. He appeared for the last time in public at the funeral of Henry Parry Liddon on 9 September 1890, dying on 9 December in the same year, at Dover. He was buried at Whatley. Works The dean's chief published works are a Life of St Anselm (1870), lives of Spenser (1879) and Bacon (1884) in Macmillan's "Men of Letters" series, Dante: an Essay (1878), The Oxford Movement (1891), and many other volumes of essays and sermons. His Dante: an Essay included an English version of Dante's De monarchia, translated by his son Frederick. A collection of Church's journalistic articles was published in 1897 as Occasional Papers. His style is lucid but austere. He stated that he had never studied style as such, but had acquired it by the exercise of translation from classical languages, and that he took care in his choice of verbs rather than in his use of adjectives. Notes References Attribution Endnotes: – biography by his daughter Further reading External links Works by R.W. Church at Project Canterbury R. W. Church collection, 1877 at Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology 1815 births 1890 deaths Deans of St Paul's English Anglo-Catholics Anglo-Catholic writers Anglo-Catholic clergy 19th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford People from Lisbon Christian hagiographers 19th-century