ALFORD, HENRY. - Anglican theologian of the “Broad Church,” b. in London in 1810; from 1857 dean of Canterbury, where he d. in 1871. He distinguished himself as a preacher, poet of sacred hymns (Poetical Works, 2 vols., 1853), and exegete.
He was among the principal promoters and collaborators of the “Revised Version.” From 1849 to 1861 he published the great commentary The Greek Testament (5 vols. in 8vo, London), still valued for its textual reconstruction (based on K. Lachmann and S. P. Tregelles, revised according to C. Tischendorf), its philological apparatus, and its doctrinal balance. Learned in classical and modern literature, he was the first editor of the Contemporary Review (from 1866 to 1870), in which he published (1867) a laudatory study of the Curato d'Ara (A. was at Ara in 1866). But among his 48 volumes, one argues against union with Rome (1846).