Forbes, Alexander Penrose
FORBES, ALEXANDER PENROSE
Episcopalian bishop, leader of the oxford movement in Scotland; b. Edinburgh, June 6, 1817; d. Dundee, Oct. 8, 1875. He was educated at Edinburgh and at Haileybury College, England, before going to Madras, India, in the East India Company's service. From 1840 to 1844 he attended Oxford University, where he came under the influence of Edward B. pusey and other Tractarians. After a brief ministry, he was consecrated bishop of Brechin in the Episcopal Church (1847). As a result of his primary charge (1857) dealing with the eucharistic presence and sacrifice, he was tried in 1860 by his fellow bishops, censured, and admonished. His main theological work, inspired by Pusey and written with his assistance, was An Explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England (1867–68), an Anglo-Catholic interpretation of the thirty-nine articles. Forbes hoped for a better understanding between anglicanism and other churches, especially the Roman Catholic, and in pursuit of this goal corresponded with Father V. de Buck, SJ, the Bollandist, and with dÖllinger. He was coeditor with his brother, Rev. George Hay Forbes, of the Arbuthnott Missal, (1864), and he wrote Kalendars of Scottish Saints (1872).
Bibliography: w. perry, Alexander Penrose Forbes (London 1939).
[j. quinn]