The Commonwealth of Lincoln College, 1427-1977

Lincoln College, Oxford, is in itself a small society but one which, in the varied facets of its history, may be regarded as a microcosm of the University itself. Green tells of the origins and early growth of the College, and of how, in the context of the wider scene of university and national history, it was involved in crises and problems over five centuries: in the decline of scholasticism, the impact of the Reformation, the effects of Civil War, its part in the genesis of the Methodism, and finally in university reform and revival in the 19th and 20th centuries. Much of this study is based on unpublished manuscript sources, college account books and registers, John Wesley's Oxford diaries, and the Mark Pattison papers. It is intended less as a work of pietas than as an important contribution to university and social history. Vivian Hubert Howard Green (1915 - 2005) was a Fellow and Rector of Lincoln College, a priest, author, teacher, and historian. He was also celebrated for his influence on his student John le Carré, who in 1995 acknowledged him as one of the models for George Smiley. Green was born in Middlesex; his parents owned candy stores. 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 specialized 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. Green was the only Fellow of Lincoln to vote against the college accepting women, but remained in office after the vote in 1979.