Bisse, Thomas

Bisse, Thomas, a Church of England divine, was born at Oldbury, Gloucestershire, about 1675, and was educated at Oxford, where he passed M.A. in 1698 and D.D. in 1712. In 1715 he was appointed preacher at the Rolls Chapel, and in 1716 became chancellor of Hereford and prebendary in the cathedral there. He gave great attention to the choral service of the cathedral, and advocated chanting and intoning, with great skill of argument. His writings include The Beauty of Holiness in the Common Prayer (Lond. 1728, 8vo, 8th ed.), a work highly esteemed, to this day; Sermons on Decency and Order in Worship (Lond, 1723, 8vo); Sermons on the Lord's Prayer (Oxford, 1740, 8vo). He died April 22, 1731.-Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, i, 324; Hook, Eccles. Biography, ii, -464.