David Knowles, OSB

OSB

OSB may stand for:* Oracle Service Bus, a software component* Order of Saint Benedict, a monastic order* Orthodox Study Bible, an Eastern Orthodox study Bible in English, including the Septuagint* Oregon State Bar...

, FRHistS

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

(1896–1974) was an English Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 monk of Downside Abbey

Downside Abbey

The Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery and the Senior House of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is a school for children aged nine to eighteen...

 and historian. He became Regius Professor of Modern History

Regius Professor of Modern History (Cambridge)

Regius Professor of Modern History is one of the senior professorships in history at Cambridge University. It was founded in 1724 by George I. The appointment is by Royal Warrant on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of the day...

 at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 in 1954, retiring in 1963. His works on monasticism

Monasticism

Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...

 in England, through to the dissolution of the monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

, are taken as authoritative.

Life

Born as Michael Clive Knowles, he later adopted the religious name of David, by which he was always known thereafter. He was educated at Downside School

Downside School

Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent school for children aged 11 to 18, located in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Norton Radstock and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, south west England. It is attached to Downside Abbey...

, Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

, and the Collegio Sant'Anselmo, Rome

Sant'Anselmo

Sant'Anselmo, named after the Italian saint and theologian, Anselm of Canterbury, is the home of the Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, seat of the Benedictine Confederation, and also hosts an Athenaeum, including the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, and the Philosophy and Theology faculties...

. At Downside, 1923–33, he was ordained. His research into the early monastic history of England was assisted by the library built up at Downside by Raymund Webster.

He wanted to change the pattern of life at Downside. He was transferred to Ealing Abbey

Ealing Abbey

Ealing Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastic foundation in West London, England, and part of the English Benedictine Congregation.-History:...

, another teaching establishment. This he left, becoming ex-claustrated. He then became a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...

. He served as president of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

 from 1957-61.

An account of Knowles's personal life and conflicts, and an assessment of his four-volume "magnum opus" -"The Monastic Order in England"/"The Religious Orders in England" - can be found in Chapter 8 of Norman F. Cantor's book Inventing the Middle Ages - The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century (1991).

Works

• The American Civil War: A Brief Sketch (1926)
• The Monastic Order in England: a History of Its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 943-1216 (1940, 2nd ed. 1963)
• The Religious Houses of Medieval England (1940)
• The Prospects of Medieval Studies (1947)
• The Religious Orders in England (three volumes) (1948-59)
• Archbishop Thomas Becket: a character study (1949)
• Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc (1951) translator
• Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket (1951) Ford Lectures 1949
• Monastic Sites From The Air (1952) with J. S. K. St. Joseph
• Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, with R. Neville Hadcock (1953, 2nd ed. 1971)
• The Historian and Character (1954) Inaugural Lecture
• Charterhouse: The Medieval Foundation in the Light of Recent Discoveries (1954) with W. F. Grimes
• Cardinal Gasquet as an Historian (1957)
• The English Mystical Tradition (1961)
• The Evolution of Medieval Thought. (1962)
• Saints and Scholars: Twenty-Five Medieval Portraits (1962)
• The Benedictines: A Digest for Moderns (1962)
• Great Historical Enterprises; Problems in Monastic History (1963)
• The Historian and Character and Other Essays (1963) with others, presentation volume
• Lord Macaulay, 1800 – 1859 (1963)
• From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders (1966)
• The Nature of Mysticism (1966)
• What is Mysticism? (1967)
• Authority (1969)
• Christian Monasticism (1969)
• The Christian Centuries: The Middle Ages (volume 2) (1969) with Dimitri Obolensky
  Dimitri Obolensky
  Sir Dimitri Obolensky was born Prince Dmitriy Dmitrievich Obolensky to Prince Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky and Countess Maria Shuvalov . He was descended from Rurik, Igor, Svyatoslav, St Vladimir of Kiev, St Michael of Chernigov, and Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov...
  
  
• The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, 940-1216 (1972) with C. N. L. Brooke, Vera C. M. London
• Bare Ruined Choirs: The Dissolution of the English Monasteries (1976)
• Thomas Becket (1977)

Sources

• David Knowles remembered by Christopher N. L. Brooke, Roger Lovatt and David Luscombe (ISBN#??)
• David Knowles: A Memoir (1979; edited by Adrian Morey) (ISBN#??)
• Obituary, The American Historical Review, Vol. 80, No. 4 (October 1975), pgs. 1086-1090