Plummer, Alfred
PLUMMER, ALFRED
English theological and historical writer; b. He-worth, near Gateshead, England, Feb. 17, 1841; d. Bideford, England, April 17, 1926. From Lancing College he went to Exeter College, at the University of oxford, where he graduated in 1863. He was a fellow of Trinity College from 1865 to 1875 and tutor and dean there from 1867 to 1874. From 1874 to 1902 he was master of University College, Durham. He was admitted to the diaconate in 1866 by the bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberforce (d. 1873), but he never sought ordination to the priesthood.
He was a prolific writer, and his translations of dÖllinger's works introduced the latter to many English readers. His commentaries on the New Testament, noted especially for the section dealing with the Gospel of St. luke (Edinburgh 1906), and his introductions to the books of the Old Testament are scholarly and conservative. His devotion to anglicanism appears in his historical writings: Lectures on English Church History (1575–1649) (1904), The Church of England in the 18th Century (1910), The Churches in Britain before A.D. 1000 (1911). In 1887 he wrote Handbook on the Church of the Early Fathers.
Bibliography: Who's Who (London 1926) 2326. London Times (April 20, 1926) 18, obituary.
[t. c. crowley]