Herbert Edward John Cowdrey (1926–2009), known as H. E. J. Cowdrey or John Cowdrey, was an English historian of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

priest. He was elected priest of St Edmund Hall,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, in 1956. He resigned the chaplaincy in 1976, but continued to teach medieval history there until 1994, when he retired and was elected emeritus fellow. He was also a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # ...

. A leading expert on the Gregorian reforms, his most important work is the monograph ''Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085'', considered a masterpiece "unlikely to be surpassed".

Life and career

Born in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

on 29 November 1926, Cowdrey attended Queen Mary's School for Boys there from 1937 until 1943, when he won a scholarship to

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

. At that time, he considered himself an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. Drafted into the service because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he chose to join the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

in 1944. He served aboard HMS ''Mauritius'' in the eastern Mediterranean from 1945 to 1947. He arrived before the war was over, but saw no action. On 22 October 1946, he was in one of the magazines during the second Corfu Channel incident, when ''Mauritius'' and her flotilla passed through an unexpected minefield off

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

. After his stint in the navy, Cowdrey visited Palestine during the last year of the British mandate. Marston_OldSchool

After returning to Oxford in 1947, Cowdrey studied modern (post-1760) history and theology (under

Austin Farrer Austin Marsden Farrer (1 October 1904 – 29 December 1968) was an English Anglican philosopher, theologian, and biblical scholar. His activity in philosophy, theology, and spirituality led many to consider him one of the greatest figures of 20t ...

). He first began research into the medieval papacy and

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII ( la, Gregorius VII; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana ( it, Ildebrando di Soana), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint ...

during his theological studies. He also learned

biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of t ...

and

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

, in addition to the modern languages he already knew (English, French, German and Italian). In 1953, he took holy orders at

St Stephen's House, Oxford St Stephen's House is an Anglican theological college and one of five permanent private halls of the University of Oxford, England. It will cease to be a permanent private hall in 2023. The college has a very small proportion of undergraduate s ...

, a

high church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...

seminary, where he also taught

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

and theology until 1956, when he took up the chaplaincy at St Edmund Hall. In 1957, St Edmund Hall received new statutes, becoming a full college, and Cowdrey was thus one of the founding fellows. In 1963, Cowdrey studied the dissemination and reception of

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

's theology. In 1966–1968, he published three articles on

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

in order to illuminate the background to the Patarene movement and the Gregorian reform. In 1970, he published his first book—''The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform''—and an article on the

Peace and Truce of God The Peace and Truce of God ( lat, Pax et treuga Dei) was a movement in the Middle Ages led by the Catholic Church and one of the most influential mass peace movements in history. The goal of both the ''Pax Dei'' and the ''Treuga Dei'' was to limit ...

, which remains "the most reliable and most persuasive discussion of the Peace and Truce in English". He argued that there was a connection between the earlier Peace and Truce movements and the later

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

. He also published a paper that year arguing that from the start the purpose of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...

was the liberation of Jerusalem. This was a refutation of the thesis of

Carl Erdmann Carl Erdmann (17 November 1898 – 5 March 1945) was a German historian who specialized in medieval political and intellectual history. He is noted in particular for his study of the origins of the idea of crusading in medieval Latin Christendom ...

that the goal of the crusade at the start was the defence of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and the eastern church. The latter paper made Cowdrey an important crusades scholar. In the summer of 1977, he lectured in Israeli universities and visited crusader sites. Much of his later work on the Crusades was collected in ''The Crusades and Latin Monasticism in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'' (1999). In 1972, he published his second book, ''The Epistolae Vagantes of Pope Gregory VII'', an edited and translated collection of the unregistered letters of Gregory VII that Erdmann had been intending to do before his death. In 2002, he published ''The Register of Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085'', an English translation of Gregory's registered letters, the first since

Ephraim Emerton Ephraim Emerton (February 18, 1851 – March 3, 1935) was an American educator, author, translator, and historian prominent in his field of European medieval history. Early life and education Ephraim Emerton was born in Salem, Massachusetts, t ...

's appeared in 1932. In 1983, ''The Age of Abbot Desiderius: Montecassino, the Papacy, and the Normans in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries'', a preliminary to Cowdrey's projected book on Gregory VII, appeared. The projected book, ''Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085'', appeared in 1998 and was considered an instant masterpiece. His last book, ''Lanfranc: Scholar, Monk, and Archbishop'', was published in 2003. It is a study of

Lanfranc of Canterbury Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen in Normandy and then ...

, an Italian monk from Normandy, that seeks to show that he understood England and the needs of the English church. Cowdrey married Judith Watson Davis, a musician, in 1959. They had two daughters and a son. Judith died in 2004. Late in life, Cowdrey was diagnosed with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

. He died on 4 December 2009.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

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External links

Works of H. E. J. Cowdrey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdrey, Herbert Edward John 1926 births 2009 deaths 20th-century English Anglican priests 20th-century English historians Alumni of St Stephen's House, Oxford Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford British medievalists Church of England priests College chaplains of the University of Oxford Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Historians of Christianity Historians of the Crusades Historians of the University of Oxford People from Basingstoke People from Oxford Royal Navy personnel of World War II