Keble, JOHN, son of the Rev. John Keble of Coln St Alwyns, Gloucestershire, and Sarah Maule, a lady of Scotch descent, was born at Fairford, near his father's living, on April 25, 1792. His father, a divine of the school of Ken, educated his son at home, and with such success that at the unusually early age of fifteen he was elected to an open scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, then a small college, but numbering among its scholars many who rose to eminence in after-life, such as Sir J. T. Coleridge and Dr Arnold of Rugby. His university career was unusually brilliant, for in 1810 he gained a first-class both in classics and mathematics; in 1811 was elected Fellow of Oriel College; and in 1812 gained both the Latin and English prize essays. In 1815 he was ordained deacon, and priest in the following year, beginning active work as the curate of East Leach, near his father's living, while still continuing to reside in Oxford, taking pupils and examining. From 1818 to 1823 he was tutor of his college; but his heart was mainly in parish work, and his mother's death was the occasion which made him leave Oxford and return to assist his father. There in the country he did a work for Oxford and the church which was of the most vital importance. Three points need specially to be singled out in this work. (1) First in time comes the influence of his poetry. In 1827 he published with much diffidence, and only in deference to the wishes of his friends, The Christian Year, or Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year. The influence of this volume was not very great at first, but its excellence was recognised by true critics, and later on, when the Tractarian movement had made its writer well known, and had stirred a deeper interest in its theme, it had an influence which can scarcely be overrated. For, though some of the poems are rather obscure and somewhat constrained and artificial, as though written to complete the series, yet the greater number have a genuine ring of inspiration in them: the love of home life and of nature, a calming, soothing sense of the ever-present love of God, a sobriety of religious feeling, and a sad undertone of grief for the moral and spiritual degeneracy of the church are its most striking characteristics. His own theory of poetry—that it is the vehicle for the expression of the poet's deepest feelings, controlled by a certain reserve—was explained in an interesting article in the British Critic in 1838 on Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott. It was worked out at length and illustrated by an examination of the chief Greek and Latin poets in his Latin lectures delivered as professor of Poetry at Oxford, an office which he held from 1831 till 1841.
(2) His intercourse with Oxford was thus kept up, and at the end of 1827 many of his friends wished to see him elected to the vacant provostship of Oriel, and he himself would willingly have accepted such a recall to Oxford. It became, however, clear that a majority was in favour of Dr Hawkins, and Mr Keble withdrew his candidature. But meanwhile a movement was in progress which was to affect Oxford to its centre. Mr Keble had gathered round him in his curacy a small knot of pupils, of whom the most striking was Hurrell Froude. In that knot was formed the impulse which generated the Tractarian movement. Starting from the desire for a moral and spiritual revival of the English church, revolting from the defects of learning and of taste which characterised the Evangelicals, and much more from the secular Erastianism of the dominant Whig party, these friends fell back upon the primitive ideal of the church, emphasising its essentially spiritual character, laying stress on the reality of the apostolical succession, of the prerogatives of the priesthood, of the grace conferred in the sacraments, and insisting on a high spiritual ideal of life. In his sermon on National Apostasy (1833) Keble gave the signal for active movement, and for the next few years was busily engaged with Newman, Pusey, I. Williams, T. Keble, and others in the issue of the Tracts for the Times, until the series was brought to an end by the publication of Tract No. 90 in 1841. Meanwhile Keble had in 1835 married Miss Charlotte Clarke, the daughter of an old friend of his father, and had removed to the living of Hursley, where he remained until his death.
(3) Keble had not only been one of the originators of the movement; he was also, with Dr Pusey, the steady influence which supported it under the shock caused by Newman's secession to Rome. For the last twenty years of his life he was the trusted correspondent and confessor of many who were in intellectual and spiritual anxiety. He was the constant champion of the church at each critical moment, taking a prominent part by his pamphlets, especially on questions connected with marriage and divorce, with the nature of Christ's presence in the eucharist, and with the independence of the church tribunals. He also contributed much to the cause of theological knowledge by his careful edition of Hooker's works, his life of Bishop Wilson, and his translation of St Irenæus. Perhaps even more than in any of his writings he has influenced the church by his character. The type of dutifulness, whether to parents or to his church, full of affection for home life and of reverence for children, generous to his friends, chivalrous and almost Quixotic in his desire to sacrifice himself for the cause of the truth, indignant against injustice or disloyalty, with an indignation tempered by severe self-restraint, and ever striving after a deep humility, he created an impression of saintliness, and won for himself a rare mixture of love and reverence. He died at Bournemonth on March 29, 1866. Besides the works mentioned, he published the Lyra Innocentium, Thoughts in Verse on Christian Children (1846), a poetical translation of the Psalter, and many theological pamphlets. Since his death have been published a most valuable volume of Letters of Spiritual Counsel, twelve volumes of parochial sermons, occasional papers, reviews, Studia Sacra, &c. A permanent memorial to him exists in Keble College, Oxford, erected by subscription after his death, and incorporated on June 6, 1870. This was founded on the lines of the report of a committee, in which he himself had been much interested, for extending the university by the building of a new college on more economical principles; and it aims at providing an academical education, at a less cost than the older colleges, for members of the Church of England.
See Memoir of Keble, by Sir J. Coleridge (1869); J. C. Shairp, Essay (1866), and his Studies in Poetry and Philosophy (1872); also a collection of memorials by J. F. Moor (1866); and a short Life by the present writer in 'English Leaders of Religion' (1893).