RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Alexandria Alfred
triumph of his reign. Bohemund was forced to submit to the humiliating conditions of the treaty of Deabolis, and to hold Antioch as a fief of the empire, without the right to transmit it. The last ten years of Alexius's reign were years of struggle for the maintenance of his recovered dominion in Asia Minor, and for the consolidation of his power at home. To gain the help of the ecclesiastics, as well as to atone for the sins of his youth, he regulated the life of his court with great strictness, and did his utmost to repress the sects (Paulicians, Armenians, Monophysites, and Bogomiles) which had flourished in the anarchy of the time immediately preceding his own.
It is difficult to arrive at an unprejudiced view of Alexius's character, so much have the one-sided views of the Western historians prevailed. His success in making the weakened empire once more a power must be admired. He was a man of infinite resource, of tremendous energy, of an indefatigable readiness to avail himself of circumstances, not wanting in physical courage, but even greater in moral steadfastness. (C. Neumann.)
Bibliography : Sourees : Nicephorus Bryennius, Commentarii, in CSHB, viii., 1836; Anna Comnena, Alexiad, ibid, iii., 1878, and ed. by Reifferscheid, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1884; also ITheophylact, CSHB, lv., 1834, cf. Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 133 sqq., 463-464. Consult G. Finlay, Hist, of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, 2 vols., London, 1854; A. F. Gfrorer, Byzantinische Gesch., 3 vols., Graz, 1872-77; B. Kugler, Geschichte der Kreuzzllge, Berlin, 1880; H. E. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire, London, 1888; C. W. C. Oman, Byzantine Empire, New York, 1892 (popular but useful); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, v. 232, vi. 79, 1898; F. Harrison, Byzantine Hist, in the Early Middle Ages, London, 1900; F. Chalandon, Essai eur Alexis I. Comnenus, Paris, 1900.
ALFORD, HENRY: Dean of Canterbury; b. in London Oct. 7, 1810; d. at Canterbury Jan. 12, 1871. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1832), and was ordained deacon in 1833, priest in
1834, and elected a fellow of Trinity the same year; he became vicar of Wymeswold, Leicestershire,
1835, minister of Quebec Chapel, Marylebone, London, in 1853, and dean of Canterbury in 1857. He was a many-sided man, a good musician, a wood-carver and painter of some skill, a good preacher, and for many years a successful teacher of private pupils. His publications include sermons, lectures, essays and reviews, poems, hymns, a translation of the Odyssey in blank verse (London, 1861), an edition of the works of John Donne (6 vols., 1839), The Queen's English (1864), and even a novel, Netherton on Sea (1869), written in collaboration with his niece (Elizabeth M. Alford). He was Hulsean lecturer for 1841-42 and published his lectures under the title, The Consistency of the Divine Conduct in Revealing the Doctrines of Redemption (2 vols.). He was the first editor of the Contemporary Review (1866-70). The great work of his life, however, was his Greek Testament (4 vols., London, 1849-61 ; thoroughly revised in subsequent editions), which introduced German New Testament scholarship to English readers, and involved a vast amount of patient labor. An outcome of p,work was The New Testament for English tieadm (4 vols., 1868) and a revised English version (1869). He was one of the original members of the New Testament Revision Committee.
Near the close of his life he projected a commentary on the Old Testament, and prepared the Book of Genesis and part of Exodus, which were published posthumously (1872).
Bibliography: H. Alford, his Life, Journals, and Letters, by his widow, London, 1873; DNB, i. 282-284.
ALFRED (jELFRED) THE GREAT: King of the West Saxons 871-901; b. at Wantage (60 m. w. of London), Berkshire, 849; d. at Winchester, Hants, Oct. 28, 901. He was the youngest son of Ethelwulf and Osburga, and succeeded his brother Ethelred on the throne. His reign, with its recurring conflicts with the Danes, contained many vicissitudes; nevertheless, he succeeded in establishing his power, enlarged the borders of his realm, and advanced the spiritual and intellectual welfare of his people. He remodeled the political and ecclesiastical organization of his kingdom, rebuilt the churches, monasteries, and schools burnt by the Danes, and founded new ones. He invited learned men to his country and provided for them there, and through the intimate connection which he maintained with Rome he was able to procure books and form libraries. Of still greater import were his personal exertions to arouse among his countrymen a desire for knowledge and culture. He translated Boethius's De consolatione philosophice and the history of Orosius. Both works are treated with great freedom, much change was necessary to adapt them to the needs of the rude Saxons, and Alfred himself did not always fully understand his text. There are many omissions and additions. The work of Orosius (an attempt to write a history of the world from a Christian standpoint) is supplemented by a geographical and ethnological review of Scandinavia and the Baltic countries from the reports of Othhere and Wulfstan. Of greater importance from a religious point of view is Alfred's translation of the Liber pastoralis euro. of Pope Gregory I. (590-604), a book well adapted to influence the spirit of the Saxon clergy. A paraphrase of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum has been erroneously ascribed to Alfred; it may, however, have been prepared under his direction. Translations or paraphrases of the Dialogue of Gregory I. and of the " Soliloquies " of St. Augustine have also been ascribed to him. His millennary was celebrated at Winchester in 1901, and commemorative exercises were held in America also.
Bibliography: The Whole Works of King Alfred, with preliminary essay, were published in a Jubilee Edition," 3 vols., Oxford, 1852-53. Separate editions are: Of the Orosius, text and Latin original, ed. H. Sweet, London, 1883; of the Boethius, text and modern English, ed. W. J. Sedgefi Id, Oxford, 1899-1900; of the Gregory, text and translation, ed. H. Sweet, London, 1871-72; of the Bede, text and translation, ed. T. Miller, ib. 1890- 98, and J. Schipper, 3 parts, Leipsic, 1897-98; of the "Soliloquies " of St. Augustine, ed. H. L. Hargrove (Yale Studies in English, No. 13), New York, 1902. For Alfred's laws, consult Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ed. B. Thorpe, London, 1840. The chief sources for Alfred's life are: The De rebus gestis JElfredi of the Welsh bishop Asser, ed. W. H. Stevenson, Oxford, 1904; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. B. Thorpe (Rolls Series, No. 23), 1861, and C. Plummer, Oxford, 1892; translations of both Asser and the Chronicle by J. A. Giles in Bonn's Antiquarian Library, iv.; of Asser by A. S. Cook, Boston, 1906. Of the many modern lives of Alfred the following
Alft-ic
Alleine