Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

STANLEY, Arthur Penrhyn. b. Alderley, Cheshire, 13 December 1815; d. Westminster, 18 July 1881. The son of a clergyman who later became Bishop of Norwich, Stanley was educated at Rugby School under Thomas Arnold and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a brilliant undergraduate (BA 1837). He was elected a Fellow of University College, Oxford, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1839, priest 1843). In the fierce religious controversies of the Oxford of the 1830s and 1840s he was a moderating influence, condemning extremism on both sides. He was subsequently a Canon of Canterbury (1851-56), Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford (1856-64) and Dean of Westminster (1864-81). In 1863...