Vivian H. H. Green

Vivian Hubert Howard Green (18 November 1915 – 18 January 2005) was a Fellow and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, a priest, author, teacher, and historian.^[1][2][3] He was also celebrated for his influence on his student John le Carré, who in 1995 acknowledged him as one of the models for his spymaster character George Smiley.

Green was born in Wembley, Middlesex, England; his parents, Hubert and Edith Green, owned confectionery shops, first in Wembley, and then on the Isle of Wight. Strongly encouraged by his mother, Green attended Bradfield College, Berkshire, then won a Goldsmith's scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1933), where he achieved a First in the Tripos. At Trinity Hall, he specialised in ecclesiastical history and became the Lightfoot Scholar. Postgraduate work was done on a Gladstone Scholarship to St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden followed by a period of lecturing on ecclesiastical history at St Augustine's College, Canterbury. When asked if he had considered sitting the exams for ordination, he noted that this would pose problems as he was responsible for marking them, but he was ordained in 1939 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang.^[4]

Green was the only Fellow of Lincoln to vote against the college accepting women,^[5] but remained in office after the vote in 1979, becoming Rector in 1983. He died in Oxfordshire and is buried in the churchyard of St. Oswalds Church, Widford, Oxfordshire.

Ecclesiastical and academic career

• 1939–48 Fellow, St Augustine's College, Canterbury
• 1939 Ordained Deacon
• 1940 Ordained Priest
• 1940–42 Chaplain, Exeter School and St Luke's College, Exeter
• 1942–51 Chaplain and Assistant Master, Sherborne School
• 1951–69 Chaplain, Lincoln College, Oxford
• 1951–83 Fellow and Tutor in History
• 1970–83 Sub-Rector
• 1972–73 Acting Rector
• 1983–87 Rector
• 1987–2005 Honorary Fellow

Published books

• Bishop Reginald Pecock: A Study in Ecclesiastical History and Thought (1945)
• The Hanoverians, 1714-1815 (1948)
• From St Augustine to William Temple (1948)
• Renaissance and Reformation (1952; second edition 1962)
• The Later Plantagenets: A survey of English history between 1307 and 1485 (1955)
• Oxford Common Room (1957)
• The Young Mr Wesley: A Study of John Wesley and Oxford (1961)
• The Swiss Alps (1961)
• John Wesley (1964)
• Luther and the Reformation, Batsford (1964), London: Methuen, (1969)
• Religion at Oxford and Cambridge (1964)
• The Universities (1969)
• Medieval civilization in Western Europe (1971)
• A History of Oxford University (1974)
• The Commonwealth of Lincoln College 1427–1977 (1979)
• Love in a Cool Climate: The Letters of Mark Pattison and Meta Bradley 1879–1884 (1985)
• The Madness of Kings (1993)
• A Question of Guilt: The Murder of Nancy Eaton (1988) — co-written with William Scoular
• A New History of Christianity (1996)

Published articles

• 'The Lisles in their letters,' History Today vol.32, issue 3, March 1982
• 'The Count-Duke of Olivares: The statesman in an age of decline', History Today, vol.36, issue 12, 1986

References