E. F. Jacob
Encyclopedia
Ernest Fraser Jacob was a British
medievalist and scholar.
, Winchester College
, and then for a period at New College, Oxford
- broken by service in World War I
. He won a fellowship to All Souls College, Oxford
, and taught there and at Christ Church
where his pupils included A. L. Rowse
.
at Manchester University from 1929 to 1944 before returning to Oxford
as Chichele Professor of Modern History
at All Souls from 1950 until 1961. He was an able academic politician, and is said to have recruited Sir Lewis Namier to Manchester by reading in his newspaper that Namier had no position, making a phone-call to invite him to take a chair, and only then walking over to tell the Vice-Chancellor of the recruitment.
, who proved unwilling or unable to write a book of its kind. Secondly, after the book was released many academics suggested that Jacobs' had plagiarised postgraduates' work and had also made a large number of factual errors. The book also lacked shape or much interpretation of the fifteenth-century political scene, out-of-date the minute it was published. It is true that at Manchester he had his postgraduate students (including Sir Maurice Oldfield, the future security chief), working on aspects of his own projects and incorporated their findings into his own, albeit usually with a general acknowledgment. He was charged with having extended this, for his general book, to drawing on the work of other scholars' students, and without acknowledgment. In response, he declared his gratitude to the many workers in the field but asserted that the conventions of the Oxford History did not allow for specific footnotes. Perhaps significantly, his actual biography of Archbishop Chichele was a slight work from a non-academic publishing house, and he generally favoured a lecture/essay approach, as he had done even in his earliest years. His knowledge of German especially allowed him to write vignettes on the Catholic Church in the period of the Great Schism and Conciliar Movement perceptively, although again there was to be no great magnum opus, and again it was muttered that his knowledge of continental scholarship was better than his knowledge of primary sources. Even J.S. Roskell, a devoted disciple, recorded decades later that he found one lecture/subsequently-published essay painfully familiar from just the basic English monograph he himself had used for an undergraduate essay. Nonetheless, Jacob's transmission of continental scholarship to an insular English academia was invaluable and influential.
, T. F. Tout and F. W. Maitland
, and the subsequent school of more socio-political medieval historiography, to which J.S.Roskell, K.B. McFarlane and C.A.J. Armstrong belonged. His professorships at Manchester and Oxford did much to make the two schools England's academic centres for medieval studies, although he was much less of a force at the latter than in his days of benevolent dictatorship in the north. The tide of 15C studies was swinging over to McFarlane, and even within church history Jacob's influence was not strong, for want of a clear overall direction, loss of touch with post-1950 developments in the field, and consequent lack of effective postgraduate pupils in his later years.
Of diminutive stature, and celibate, he was a well-liked tutor to the talented and a powerful patron of young proteges, although it was said that even his most-able female postgraduates felt a glass ceiling directing them to archival rather than academic careers. He once broke a female student's collar bone while playing musical chairs
at a Manchester University History Department Christmas party, J.S. Roskell being witness to this dramatic final round of an otherwise decorous competition. An appalling car-driver, especially when having passengers to talk to, he once missed a turn in the A1 completely en route for Scotland and plunged through a farm gateway (fortunately open) and across a ploughed field (Roskell: passenger and eyewitness) He was a devout Christian
, at least of the Anglican kind, which under-wrote his somewhat amiable interpretation of the late medieval church, and spoke French
and German
, with high competence in Latin
and Ancient Greek
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
medievalist and scholar.
Education
He was educated at Twyford SchoolTwyford School
Twyford School is a co-educational, independent, preparatory boarding and day school, located in the village of Twyford, Hampshire.-History:Twyford claims to be the oldest preparatory school in the United Kingdom....
, Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, and then for a period at New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
- broken by service in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He won a fellowship to All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
, and taught there and at Christ Church
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
where his pupils included A. L. Rowse
A. L. Rowse
Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...
.
Professor
He was then Professor of HistoryHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at Manchester University from 1929 to 1944 before returning to Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
as Chichele Professor of Modern History
Chichele Professor of Modern History
The Chichele Professorship of Modern History is one of the several Chichele Professorships established from the mid-19th century onwards at All Souls College, Oxford University. The position of Chichele Professor of Modern History was established in 1862...
at All Souls from 1950 until 1961. He was an able academic politician, and is said to have recruited Sir Lewis Namier to Manchester by reading in his newspaper that Namier had no position, making a phone-call to invite him to take a chair, and only then walking over to tell the Vice-Chancellor of the recruitment.
Controversy
Initially, he studied the thirteenth century, with perceptive 'Studies' in the period of baronial reform, but, disliking the powerful hold of Sir Maurice Powicke, he switched to the unresearched 1350-1500 period. His most important works were a four-volume edition of the register of Archbishop Henry Chichele of Canterbury, 1414-1443, founder of All Souls' and a volume in the magisterial Oxford History of England series, England in the Fifteenth Century. The first of these publications secured his reputation as a historian (although in fact his co-editor had actually transcribed the manuscript), but the latter caused considerable controversy. Firstly the book was meant to be written by K. B. McFarlaneK. B. McFarlane
Kenneth Bruce McFarlane was one of the 20th century's most influential historians of late medieval England. He was born on 18 October 1903 and was the only child of A. McFarlane, OBE. His father was a civil servant in the Admiralty and the young McFarlane's childhood was an unhappy one. This may...
, who proved unwilling or unable to write a book of its kind. Secondly, after the book was released many academics suggested that Jacobs' had plagiarised postgraduates' work and had also made a large number of factual errors. The book also lacked shape or much interpretation of the fifteenth-century political scene, out-of-date the minute it was published. It is true that at Manchester he had his postgraduate students (including Sir Maurice Oldfield, the future security chief), working on aspects of his own projects and incorporated their findings into his own, albeit usually with a general acknowledgment. He was charged with having extended this, for his general book, to drawing on the work of other scholars' students, and without acknowledgment. In response, he declared his gratitude to the many workers in the field but asserted that the conventions of the Oxford History did not allow for specific footnotes. Perhaps significantly, his actual biography of Archbishop Chichele was a slight work from a non-academic publishing house, and he generally favoured a lecture/essay approach, as he had done even in his earliest years. His knowledge of German especially allowed him to write vignettes on the Catholic Church in the period of the Great Schism and Conciliar Movement perceptively, although again there was to be no great magnum opus, and again it was muttered that his knowledge of continental scholarship was better than his knowledge of primary sources. Even J.S. Roskell, a devoted disciple, recorded decades later that he found one lecture/subsequently-published essay painfully familiar from just the basic English monograph he himself had used for an undergraduate essay. Nonetheless, Jacob's transmission of continental scholarship to an insular English academia was invaluable and influential.
link
Nevertheless he will be remembered as the link between the old school of 'structuralist' medievalists, including distinguished names such as William StubbsWilliam Stubbs
William Stubbs was an English historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in...
, T. F. Tout and F. W. Maitland
Frederic William Maitland
Frederic William Maitland was an English jurist and historian, generally regarded as the modern father of English legal history.-Biography:...
, and the subsequent school of more socio-political medieval historiography, to which J.S.Roskell, K.B. McFarlane and C.A.J. Armstrong belonged. His professorships at Manchester and Oxford did much to make the two schools England's academic centres for medieval studies, although he was much less of a force at the latter than in his days of benevolent dictatorship in the north. The tide of 15C studies was swinging over to McFarlane, and even within church history Jacob's influence was not strong, for want of a clear overall direction, loss of touch with post-1950 developments in the field, and consequent lack of effective postgraduate pupils in his later years.
Of diminutive stature, and celibate, he was a well-liked tutor to the talented and a powerful patron of young proteges, although it was said that even his most-able female postgraduates felt a glass ceiling directing them to archival rather than academic careers. He once broke a female student's collar bone while playing musical chairs
Musical chairs
Musical chairs is a game played by a group of people , often in an informal setting purely for entertainment such as a birthday party...
at a Manchester University History Department Christmas party, J.S. Roskell being witness to this dramatic final round of an otherwise decorous competition. An appalling car-driver, especially when having passengers to talk to, he once missed a turn in the A1 completely en route for Scotland and plunged through a farm gateway (fortunately open) and across a ploughed field (Roskell: passenger and eyewitness) He was a devout Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, at least of the Anglican kind, which under-wrote his somewhat amiable interpretation of the late medieval church, and spoke French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, with high competence in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
.