LIDDON, HENRY PARRY. – Anglican canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and preacher, born at North Stoneham (Hampshire) on 20 August 1829, died at Weston-super-Mare on 9 September 1890. At the age of 17, in Oxford, where he had begun his university studies, he came under the influence of the Tractarian movement. In 1852 he was ordained deacon, and in 1859 he became a minister of the Anglican Church.
Despite his success in the ministry, in 1854 he was appointed vice-principal of the theological college at Cuddesdon; but his teaching, with its Romanist tendency, aroused suspicion and he was forced to resign (Easter 1859). Returning to Oxford, as vice-principal of St. Edmund’s Hall, he successfully delivered for about ten years a course of lectures on the New Testament. During this period he formed a close friendship with Pusey, who exercised considerable influence over him. In 1864 he was appointed examining chaplain by W. K. Hamilton, bishop of Salisbury, and, like Hamilton, he defended the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. The famous lectures known as the Bampton lectures, delivered in 1866 on the divinity of Jesus Christ, were also a great success. Finally, having become a canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral, he preached there brilliantly until his death. He advocated the union of the Churches and attended the Bonn Conference of 1875.
Principal works: in addition to several volumes of sermons on the Old Testament and the life of Jesus Christ: The Divinity of Lord Jesus Christ, being the Bampton Lectures for 1866 (14th ed., London 1890); Explanatory analysis of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (4th ed., London-Oxford 1893); Life of Edward Bonverie Pusey (4 vols., there 1893–97).