W. H. C. Frend

William Hugh Clifford Frend (11 January 1916 – 1 August 2005) was an English ecclesiastical historian, archaeologist, and Anglican priest.

Academic career

 * Haileybury College (scholar)
 * Keble College, Oxford (scholar, BA first class in modern history 1937, MA 1951, DPhil with thesis on Donatists 1940, DD 1966)
 * Craven Scholarship to study in Berlin (with Hans Lietzmann) and North Africa
 * Research fellowship at University of Nottingham
 * Associate Director, Egypt Exploration Society, Q'asr Ibrim, Nubia 1963–64
 * Bye Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BD 1964)
 * Fellow and university lecturer in divinity. During this time Charles III, then reading archaeology and anthropology at Trinity, was one of his students.
 * Professor of Ecclesiastical History, and Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, in the University of Glasgow 1969–84 (Emeritus 1984–2005)
 * Chairman, Association of University Teachers 1976–78
 * Frend once stood for local government as Liberal Party candidate in Cambridge
 * In the 1980s he worked at Carthage with a team from the University of Michigan
 * In retirement was again elected Bye Fellow of Caius and in his last years wrote a new book about the early life of Augustine

Military career

 * Assistant Principal, War Office 1940
 * Seconded to Cabinet Office and served on Committees for Allied Supplies and the Free French
 * Liaison officer, Psychological Warfare Branch, Tunis
 * Service in Austria for 18 months
 * Italy
 * Commissioned officer, Queen's Royal Regiment 1947–67

Ministry
Frend inclined towards the low church tradition. He was a sometimes reluctant liberal who cautiously supported the ordination of women but criticised Bishop David Jenkins of Durham over his non-traditional ideas about Christmas. He was considered a good and humble pastor and an enlightening, if theologically unconventional, preacher.


 * Reader 1956–82
 * Ordained deacon in the Scottish Episcopal Church 1982
 * Non stipendiary minister, Aberfoyle 1982–84
 * Ordained priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church 1983
 * Priest-in-charge, Barnwell with Thurning and Luddington 1984–90
 * Permission to officiate in the Diocese of Ely 1990–2005
 * Until his death, he continued to take two services every month

Public recognition

 * Złoty Krzyż Zasługi z Mieczami (Gold Cross of Merit with Swords), Government of the Polish Republic in Exile
 * Territorial Efficiency Decoration 1959
 * Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London 1952
 * Fellow of the Royal Historical Society 1954
 * President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (1971–72)
 * D.D. honoris causa, University of Edinburgh 1974
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1979
 * Fellow of the British Academy 1983
 * He set up and financed the Frend Medal, awarded by the Society of Antiquaries for archaeology, history and topography of the early Christian Church. Recipients include Harold McCarter Taylor and Charles Thomas (1981), Philip Rahtz (2003), Günter P. Gehring (2000) Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle (1986), Nancy Gauthier (2002), and Samuel Turner 2004.

Family
Frend was married to Mary Grace (née Crook; 1951–2002). They had one son, Simon, and one daughter, Sally. His father was a priest of high church persuasion.

Major works

 * The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa (1951)
 * Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (1965)
 * The Rise of the Monophysite Movement (1972)
 * The Rise of Christianity (1984)

Works and publications

 * The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa, 1951
 * Early Church, 1964
 * Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, 1965
 * Saints & Sinners in the Early Church: Differing & Conflicting Traditions in the First Six Centuries, 1970
 * The Rise of the Monophysite Movement, 1972
 * Religion, Popular and Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries, 1976
 * Town and Country in the Early Christian Centuries, 1980
 * The Rise of Christianity, 1984
 * Archaeology and History in the Study of Early Christianity, 1988
 * The Archaeology of Early Christianity: A History, 1996
 * Orthodoxy, Paganism and Dissent in the Early Christian Centuries, 2002
 * From Dogma to History: How Our Understanding of the Early Church Developed, 2003

Works co-authored with J. Stevenson

 * A New Eusebius: Documents Illustrating the History of the Church to AD 337 J. Stevenson (Editor of the 1957 First Edition), William H. C. Frend (Co-Revisor for the 1987 Second Edition)
 * Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Documents Illustrating the History of the Church, AD 337–461 J. Stevenson (Editor of the 1966 First Edition), William H. C. Frend (Co-Revisor for the 1989 Second Edition)