John McManners
FAHA | |
---|---|
Born | Ferryhill, England | 25 December 1916
Died | 4 November 2006 , England | (aged 89)
Other names | Jack McManners |
Spouse |
Sarah Errington (m. 1951) |
Children | 4, including Anglican) |
Church | Church of England |
Ordained |
|
Academic background | |
Ecclesiastical history | |
Institutions | |
Military career | |
Service | Second World War
|
John McManners
Birth and early education
McManners, known as Jack to his family and friends, was born on 25 December 1916 in Ferryhill, County Durham, to Joseph and Ann McManners. His mother was a school teacher who converted his coal miner father to the Anglican faith. His father entered the priesthood, eventually becoming the vicar of Ferryhill and subsequently a canon of Durham Cathedral. McManners attended
Military service
In September 1939 Great Britain entered the
Ordination and early teaching career
While in the military McManners decided to follow his father's vocation and become
In 1951 he married Sarah Errington[1] whom he met while studying in Durham. They had two sons, Hugh and Peter, and two daughters, Ann and Helen. Both his wife and children survived him.
In 1956 he accepted the chair of History at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. He remained for four years before moving to the University of Sydney as the chair of History from 1960 to 1965.
Return to England
He returned to England and Oxford University from 1965 to 1966 to be a senior visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Following Oxford he served as a professor in history at the University of Leicester. In 1972 McManners was appointed to the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History and returned to teach at Oxford and serve in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, until his retirement from teaching in 1984. He was invited by All Souls College to be the chaplain, and was appointed a fellow at the college in 1986. It was not until 2001, due to health concerns, that he resigned as chaplain after which he was elected to an honorary fellowship. He died on 4 November 2006.
Published works
In 1960 McManners's first book, French Ecclesiastical Society Under the Ancient Regime: A Study of Angers in the Eighteenth Century, was published helping to establish him as a respected scholar of French history. It was a detailed examination of church life on a local level in a small provincial city. The study of common society contrasted with most of the works of the time that only concentrated on the upper class.[2]
While at Leicester he published French Revolution and the Church and Church and State in France, 1870–1914.
He won the 1982 Wolfson History Prize for Death and the Enlightenment. In a 1986 review Joseph Tempesta of Ithaca College describes it as "extensively researched" and he strongly recommends it as it "brings the era to life".[3] It was also hailed by The Times as "one of the ten best non-fiction books of the year".[2]
McManners was the general editor of the Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity that was published in 1990. It was a best seller with excellent scholarly standards.[4]
The two-volume Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France published in 1998 "represents an enormous achievement" as reported by Raymond Mentzer of
In 2002 McManners published the autobiographical Fusilier: Recollections and Reflections, 1939–1945 documenting his experiences during the war.
His final book, All Souls and the Shipley Case, 1808–1810 documented an early-19th-century sex scandal at All Souls College. When doing unrelated research McManners found a sealed packet of letters that became the basis for this book.[2]
Select bibliography
- French Ecclesiastical Society Under the Ancient Regime: A Study of Angers in the Eighteenth Century (1960)
- Lectures on European History, 1789–1914 (1966)
- French Revolution and the Church (1970)
- Church and State in France, 1870–1914 (1972)
- Death and the Enlightenment: Changing Attitudes to Death Among Christians and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France (1981)
- Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity (1990) editor
- Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France (1998)
- The Oxford History of Christianity (2002)
- Fusilier: Recollections and Reflections, 1939–1945 (2002)
- All Souls and the Shipley Case, 1808–1810 (2002)
Awards and honours
- 1939 First in Modern History St Edmund Hall, Oxford
- 1970-1978 Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery
- 1972-1984 Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at University of Oxford
- 1977-1978 President of the Ecclesiastical History Society[6]
- 1978 Fellow of the British Academy (FBA)
- 1978-1982 Doctrinal Commission of the Church of England
- 1982 Wolfson History Prize for Death and the Enlightenment
- 1992 Ordre des Palmes Académiques
- 2000 Order of the British Empire (CBE)
- 2001 Ordre national du Mérite
References
Footnotes
- ^ "The Rev Prof John McManners". The Daily Telegraph. London. 8 November 2006. p. 23. Archived from the original on 4 April 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ a b c "The Rev Professor John McManners". The Times. London. 14 November 2006. p. 54. Retrieved 14 November 2006.
- ^ Tempesta 1986.
- ^ Briggs, Robin (6 November 2006). "The Rev Professor John Mcmanners". The Independent. London. p. 44. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
- ^ Mentzer 2000, p. 437.
- ^ "Past Presidents". Ecclesiastical History Society.
Works cited
- Mentzer, Raymond A. (June 2000). "Review of Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France, by John McManners". Church History. 69 (2): 434–437. JSTOR 3169607.
- Tempesta, Joseph F. (Spring 1986). "Review of Death and the Enlightenment: Changing Attitudes to Death Among Christians and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France, by John McManners". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 54 (1): 181–182. JSTOR 1464145.
Further reading
- Aston, Nigel (1997). "Introduction: John McManners, Man and Historian". In Aston, Nigel (ed.). Religious Change in Europe, 1650–1914: Essays for John McManners. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820596-8.
- ——— (14 December 2006). "John McManners: British Religious Historian and Expert on the Ancién Regime". The Guardian. London. p. 36. Retrieved 20 February 2008.