Cecil Richard Rutt
Encyclopedia
Cecil Richard Rutt CBE
(27 August 1925 - 27 July 2011) was an English Roman Catholic priest and a former Anglican bishop
.
Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as an Anglican missionary in South Korea, a country for which he developed a deep affection. He was perhaps the last of the line of scholar-missionaries, beginning with James Scarth Gale
, Homer B. Hulbert, George Heber Jones
and the Anglican bishop Mark Napier Trollope
who laid the foundations of what is now known as Korean studies
. Some years after he retired as an Anglican bishop, Rutt was one of several Anglicans received into the Roman Catholic Church
in 1994. He was ordained a Catholic priest the following year and spent the closing years of his life in Cornwall.
, from which he received his Master of Arts
degree.
at St George’s Cambridge he went to South Korea
as a missionary in 1954. In 1965 he was appointed Archdeacon
of West Seoul
. In June 1966 he was appointed an assistant bishop of the Diocese of Daejeon by the Archbishop of Canterbury
. In February 1968 he became Bishop of Daejeon. He was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
in 1973.
Feeling that the time had come for Koreans to take charge of their portion of the Anglican Communion, in 1973 Rutt offered his resignation as Bishop of Daejeon, intending to continue serving as a simple parish priest in the country he had come to love so much. That proved to be impossible and in January 1974 he was appointed suffragan bishop
of the Church of England
's Diocese of Truro
with the title Bishop of St Germans
. While in Cornwall he learned the Cornish language in order to celebrate weddings in Cornish. In October 1979 he was named Bishop of Leicester
.
In 1982 Rutt, who was always strongly inclined to Anglo-Catholicism
, voted against the unity covenant with the Methodist, Moravian and United Reformed churches. In July 1985 he was introduced into the House of Lords
. He retired in 1990 and went to live in Falmouth, in the Cornwall he had come to love. He died in his 87th year at Treliske Hospital, Truro.
. In 2009 he was made a Prelate of Honour, with the title of Monsignor
, by Pope Benedict XVI. He was an honorary canon of Plymouth Cathedral
.
, serving on the council, overseeing its publications and serving as its president in 1974. He published six scholarly papers in the RASKB's journal, Transactions, most of which reveal his deep knowledge of the Classical Chinese used in pre-modern Korea. His deep affection for the traditional culture of Korea, which had in fact almost ceased to exist by the time he arrived, was particularly expressed in his very popular volume, Korean Works and Days: Notes from the Diary of a Country Priest. One of his notable works of scholarship, apart from his translations, was his annotated edition (RASKB, 1972 / 1983) of the History of the Korean People by James Scarth Gale
(first published in 1927) which includes a researched biography of the author. Like Gale, Rutt was fascinated by Classical Chinese and, after his retirement, he published a new translation of a challenging ancient Chinese classic, The Book of Changes, in 1996. He later assisted the historical research of the Anglican priest Roger Tennant
as well as co-authoring the encyclopedia Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary with Keith Pratt. He was a member of both the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) founded by William E. Skillend
of SOAS and the British Association for Korean Studies (BAKS). In particular, Rutt was fascinated by traditional and formal sijo
and older forms of Korean poetry in general. He owned a large collection of books related to Korea, including some rare Korean volumes, which he donated to the Bodleian Library
at Oxford University.
(University of Southampton
). Rutt was involved with the Knitting & Crochet Guild since its inception in 1978, and was its president at the time of his death.
/WorldCat
encompasses roughly 30+ works in 70+ publications in three languages and 3,000+ library holdings
in May 1969. He was a bard of the Cornish Gorseth. His Korean name was Tae-yŏng No.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
(27 August 1925 - 27 July 2011) was an English Roman Catholic priest and a former Anglican bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
.
Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as an Anglican missionary in South Korea, a country for which he developed a deep affection. He was perhaps the last of the line of scholar-missionaries, beginning with James Scarth Gale
James Scarth Gale
James S. Gale was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, educator and Bible translator in Korea.-Life:James Scarth Gale was born 31 January 1863 in Alma, Ontario, Canada. He married twice:...
, Homer B. Hulbert, George Heber Jones
George Heber Jones
George Heber Jones was an American Christian missionary in Korea. Jones, who grew up in Utica, New York, is notable as the first Protestant missionary in Korea who took an academic approach to the research of Korean religions...
and the Anglican bishop Mark Napier Trollope
Mark Napier Trollope
Mark Napier Trollope was the third Bishop in Korea from 1911 until his death. Born on 28 March 1862 and educated at Lancing College and New College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1888. After a curacy at Great Yarmouth he spent a decade with the missionary team in Korea. Returning to England he was...
who laid the foundations of what is now known as Korean studies
Korean studies
Korean studies is an academic discipline, focusing on the study of Korea. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Korean history, Korean literature, Korean art, Korean music, Korean language, Korean sociology, Korean political science, Korean economics, Korean folklore, and Korean...
. Some years after he retired as an Anglican bishop, Rutt was one of several Anglicans received into the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in 1994. He was ordained a Catholic priest the following year and spent the closing years of his life in Cornwall.
Early life
Rutt was the son of Cecil Rutt and Mary Hare (née Turner). He was educated at Kelham Theological College and Pembroke College, CambridgePembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, from which he received his Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree.
Anglican ministry
Rutt was ordained an Anglican priest in 1952. After a curacyCurate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
at St George’s Cambridge he went to South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
as a missionary in 1954. In 1965 he was appointed Archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of West Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. In June 1966 he was appointed an assistant bishop of the Diocese of Daejeon by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. In February 1968 he became Bishop of Daejeon. He was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1973.
Feeling that the time had come for Koreans to take charge of their portion of the Anglican Communion, in 1973 Rutt offered his resignation as Bishop of Daejeon, intending to continue serving as a simple parish priest in the country he had come to love so much. That proved to be impossible and in January 1974 he was appointed suffragan bishop
Suffragan bishop
A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...
of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
's Diocese of Truro
Diocese of Truro
The Diocese of Truro is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury.-Geography and history:The diocese's area is that of the county of Cornwall including the Isles of Scilly. It was formed on 15 December 1876 from the Archdeaconry of Cornwall in the Diocese of Exeter, it is thus one...
with the title Bishop of St Germans
Bishop of St Germans
The Bishop of St Germans is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Truro, in the Province of Canterbury, England....
. While in Cornwall he learned the Cornish language in order to celebrate weddings in Cornish. In October 1979 he was named Bishop of Leicester
Bishop of Leicester
The Bishop of Leicester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Leicester in the Province of Canterbury.The first bishops of Leicester were originally prelates who administered an Anglo-Saxon diocese between the 7th and 9th centuries...
.
In 1982 Rutt, who was always strongly inclined to Anglo-Catholicism
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
, voted against the unity covenant with the Methodist, Moravian and United Reformed churches. In July 1985 he was introduced into the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. He retired in 1990 and went to live in Falmouth, in the Cornwall he had come to love. He died in his 87th year at Treliske Hospital, Truro.
Catholic ministry
In 1994 Rutt became a Catholic and in June 1995 he was ordained as a Catholic priest. He spent his last years in residence at St Mary Immaculate Parish in FalmouthFalmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
. In 2009 he was made a Prelate of Honour, with the title of Monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
, by Pope Benedict XVI. He was an honorary canon of Plymouth Cathedral
Plymouth Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Boniface in Plymouth, England is the seat of the Bishop of Plymouth and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth, which covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. The Diocese of Plymouth was created in 1850, but it has a...
.
Korean studies and writings
While in Korea, from 1954 to 1974, Rutt studied in great depth the language, culture and history of Korea, as well as Classical Chinese. He was an active member of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea BranchRoyal Asiatic Society Korea Branch
The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch is a learned society based in Seoul, South Korea. First established in 1900, it was founded to provide a platform for scholarly research on the history, culture and natural landscapes of the Korean Peninsula...
, serving on the council, overseeing its publications and serving as its president in 1974. He published six scholarly papers in the RASKB's journal, Transactions, most of which reveal his deep knowledge of the Classical Chinese used in pre-modern Korea. His deep affection for the traditional culture of Korea, which had in fact almost ceased to exist by the time he arrived, was particularly expressed in his very popular volume, Korean Works and Days: Notes from the Diary of a Country Priest. One of his notable works of scholarship, apart from his translations, was his annotated edition (RASKB, 1972 / 1983) of the History of the Korean People by James Scarth Gale
James Scarth Gale
James S. Gale was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, educator and Bible translator in Korea.-Life:James Scarth Gale was born 31 January 1863 in Alma, Ontario, Canada. He married twice:...
(first published in 1927) which includes a researched biography of the author. Like Gale, Rutt was fascinated by Classical Chinese and, after his retirement, he published a new translation of a challenging ancient Chinese classic, The Book of Changes, in 1996. He later assisted the historical research of the Anglican priest Roger Tennant
Roger Tennant
Father Charles Roger Tennant was an Anglican Priest, biographer of Joseph Conrad, and historian of Korea....
as well as co-authoring the encyclopedia Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary with Keith Pratt. He was a member of both the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) founded by William E. Skillend
William E. Skillend
William E. Skillend was the first British academic specializing in the Korean language, and the first professor of Korean at SOAS....
of SOAS and the British Association for Korean Studies (BAKS). In particular, Rutt was fascinated by traditional and formal sijo
Sijo
Sijo is a Korean poetic form. Bucolic, metaphysical and cosmological themes are often explored. The three lines average 14-16 syllables, for a total of 44-46: theme ; elaboration ; counter-theme and completion [Ibid., Rutt, pp. 10 ff]...
and older forms of Korean poetry in general. He owned a large collection of books related to Korea, including some rare Korean volumes, which he donated to the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
at Oxford University.
Knitting
Rutt developed a passionate interest in knitting and authored a history of the craft in A History of Hand Knitting (Batsford, 1987). His collection of books about knitting is now housed at the Winchester School of ArtWinchester School of Art
Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England.- Overview :...
(University of Southampton
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
). Rutt was involved with the Knitting & Crochet Guild since its inception in 1978, and was its president at the time of his death.
Selected works
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Rutt, OCLCOCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
/WorldCat
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
encompasses roughly 30+ works in 70+ publications in three languages and 3,000+ library holdings
- 2002 — Martyrs of Korea
- 1999 — Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary(with Keith L. Pratt)
- 1996 — The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document
- 1987 — A History of Hand Knitting
- 1980 — A Nine Cloud Dream by Man-jung Kim
- 1974 — Virtuous Women: Three Classic Korean Novels
- 1972 — History of the Korean People (James Scarth Gale)
- 1971 — The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo
- 1964 — Korean Works and Days: Notes from the Diary of a Country Priest
- 1958 — An Introduction to the Sijo, a Form of Short Korean Poem
- 1956 — The Church Serves Korea
Personal life
Rutt married Joan Ford (3 April 1919 - 17 September 2007) in Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
in May 1969. He was a bard of the Cornish Gorseth. His Korean name was Tae-yŏng No.