Alford, Michael (Griffith)

an English Jesuit, was born at London in 1582. He studied philosophy at Seville, and theology at Louvain. He was five years penitentiary at Rome, then coadjutor of the superior of the English College at Liege, and finally rector of the house of the Jesuits at Ghent. Being sent to England, he was arrested on his arrival at Dover and cast into prison, from which he was released by Henrietta, queen of France. He retired to the province of Lancaster, where he occupied himself in collecting material for his Annales Ecclesiastiques et Civiles d'Angleterre. He was called back to the Continent in 1652 by the head of the order, and died the same year at St. Omer. He is the author of three learned works, Vie de Saint Winifrid traduite du Latin de Robert prieur de Shrewsbury (1635), under the name of John Flood: — Britannia Illustrata, sive Lucii, lIelence, Constantini Patria et Fides (Antw. 1641): — Annales Ecclesiastici et Civiles Britannorum, Saxorum, etc. (Liege, 1663): Hugh Cressy made use of this- work in his Histoire 'Eglise d'Angleterre. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.