Born on the 5th of February 1771 in St Thomas Street in central Winchester, John Lingard entered a world where his family name was a mark of persecution. His parents, John and Elizabeth Rennell Lingard, had migrated from Claxby in Lincolnshire to London and finally to Winchester, where Elizabeth's family had suffered for their faith and her husband had converted to Catholicism upon marriage. This background of recusancy set the stage for a life that would challenge the very foundations of English historical narrative. While the British intellectual establishment would eventually accord him no recognition, Lingard's contribution to historical method arrived at a critical juncture in British intellectual history. His status as a Catholic priest during a time of intense religious turbulence made his scholarly output all the more remarkable, as he operated from the margins of society to influence the center of historical thought.
Escaping The French Revolution
In September 1782, the young John Lingard entered the English College at Douai in France to begin his training for the priesthood, where he excelled in the humanities before turning to theology. By the end of his philosophy course, he had been retained as a professor of grammar at one of the lower schools, but the political winds were shifting violently. Narrowly escaping attacks by mobs during the French Revolution and the declaration of war between Great Britain and France, Lingard returned to England in 1793. He took charge of two brothers named Oliveira and of William, who would later become Lord Stourton. For nearly a year, he served as a tutor to the young Stourton at Baron Stourton's residence near York, a position that would eventually lead him to Tudhoe Old Hall. When Lingard learned that several of his former students from Douai had found refuge at Arthur Storey's school in Tudhoe, he requested and received permission to join them, setting the stage for his future role in the Northern mission.
The Quiet Teacher
The year 1794 marked a significant shift in Lingard's career when Bishop William Gibson asked Thomas Eyre to take charge of the Northern students who had been expelled from Douai. Eyre relocated Lingard and his students from Tudhoe to Pontop Hall, and subsequently to Crook Hall, all within a few miles of Durham. Although Lingard nominally held the chair of philosophy, he practically served as vice-president to Eyre while undertaking the duties of prefect of studies, procurator, and professor of Church history. He concluded his theological studies and was ordained at York in April 1795, dedicating the next fourteen years to the seminary at Crook Hall. When the seminary moved to St. Cuthbert's College in 1808, Lingard donated a stained glass window to the chapel. Upon Eyre's death in 1810, Lingard governed the college while teaching theology, but in 1811, he retired to take charge of the secluded mission at Hornby in Lancashire, spending the rest of his life there as a quiet and gentle man beloved by the residents.
The publication of the first three volumes of The History of England in 1819 marked the beginning of a monumental eight-volume work that would eventually cover the period from the first Roman invasion to the accession of Henry VIII. Volume I was originally intended as a textbook for schools, but the work grew into a substantial scholarly treatise that gave full treatment to the history of England. Lingard's approach was unique; he gave no indication on the title page that he was a priest, professing emphatically to write an impartial history. This impartiality became a form of Catholic apologetic, as his desire for neutrality reflected the political and intellectual situation of the Emancipation era. He argued that one of his chief duties as a historian was to weigh the value of authorities with care and to watch with jealousy the secret workings of his own personal feelings. By adopting a non-controversial and sober approach, he aimed to convince Protestants of the fundamental truths of the Catholic faith while maintaining an unbiased presentation of historical truth.
Archives and Accuracy
Lingard's historical method was groundbreaking for its time, as he was the first British historian to make extensive use of Vatican archives and French, Italian, Spanish, and English dispatches, document collections, and state papers. His religion had largely isolated him from the mainstream nationalism surrounding Protestant historians, as well as from the growing providentialist concept of history, placing him in the position of an outside observer. This peripheral nature of English Catholicism allowed him to develop a keen critical judgement and a devotion to absolute accuracy and detail. The edition that is usually seen is a ten-volume set covering the history up to the Accession of William and Mary in 1688, with an enlarged thirteen-volume set published just before his death covering the reign of William the Third. His work was so rigorous that William Cobbett used it as an unbiased reference source for his own History of the Protestant Reformation, which argued that the Reformation had disastrous consequences for the ordinary people of England.
The Gospel Translation
Lesser known than his historical works is Lingard's anonymously published translation of the Four Gospels in 1836, which bore the title page reading simply that the work was by a Catholic. He departed from usual Catholic practice by using early Greek manuscripts rather than the Latin Vulgate as the principal basis for the translation, resulting in renderings such as repent rather than do penance in Matthew 3:2. His willingness to depart from Catholic custom contrasted sharply with his contempt for the Protestant concept of private interpretation of Scripture. In a note to John 1:1, he stated that men of every persuasion find confirmation of their peculiar opinions in the sacred volumes because they affix their own meaning to the language of Scripture. The work influenced Francis P. Kenrick, who later became Roman Catholic Bishop of Philadelphia and Archbishop of Baltimore, and by 1851, Lingard felt sufficiently confident to publish a new edition of his Four Gospels in his own name.
Honors and Legacy
In 1821, Pope Pius VII honored Lingard with a triple doctorate in theology, canon law, and civil law, and a few years later, Pope Leo XII conferred upon him a gold medal generally only given to cardinals and princes. There is even strong evidence that he was made a cardinal in pectore in 1826, meaning the Pope could have announced the appointment publicly at some future time. Lingard's influence extended beyond history and theology; he authored the very popular Catholic hymn to the Virgin Mary titled Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star, which is loosely based on the medieval Latin plainchant Ave maris stella. J. Vincent Higginson described it as one of the oldest English vernacular hymns commonly found in Catholic hymnals. He built St. Mary's Church in Hornby with the proceeds from volume IV of The History of England, referring to it in jest as Henry VIII's Chapel, and the church remains a Grade II listed building today.
The Final Years
John Lingard died at Hornby on the 17th of July 1851 at the age of eighty-one, having spent the majority of his life in quiet seclusion. He was buried, at his request, in the cloister of the college cemetery at Ushaw, where he had once taught and where he had donated a stained glass window. Throughout his life, he was offered the presidency of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and of Old Hall Green, but declined both to continue his work on his writing. His death marked the end of a career that had fundamentally changed the way English history was understood, even if he was accorded no recognition by the British intellectual establishment during his lifetime. The History of England remained a text in English Catholic schools during the nineteenth century, and his influence on Catholic scholarship and historical method endured long after his passing.