W. H. C. Frend

William Hugh Clifford Frend was an English ecclesiastical historian, archaeologist, and Anglican priest.

Academic career

Haileybury College
Keble College, Oxford
Craven Scholarship to study in Berlin 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
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
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
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, Philip Rahtz, Günter P. Gehring Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, Nancy Gauthier, and Samuel Turner 2004.

Family

Frend was married to Mary Grace. 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 Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church The Rise of the Monophysite Movement

''The Rise of Christianity''

Works and publications

The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa, 1951Early Church, 1964Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, 1965Saints & Sinners in the Early Church: Differing & Conflicting Traditions in the First Six Centuries, 1970The Rise of the Monophysite Movement, 1972Religion, Popular and Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries, 1976Town and Country in the Early Christian Centuries, 1980The Rise of Christianity, 1984Archaeology and History in the Study of Early Christianity, 1988The Archaeology of Early Christianity: A History, 1996Orthodoxy, Paganism and Dissent in the Early Christian Centuries, 2002From 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, William H. C. Frend Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Documents Illustrating the History of the Church, AD 337–461
J. Stevenson, William H. C. Frend