Henry Melvill Gwatkin Explained

Henry Melvill Gwatkin (30 July 1844  - 14 November 1916) was an English theologian and church historian.

Gwatkin was born at Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire, the youngest son of the Rev. Richard Gwatkin,^[1] and educated at Shrewsbury and St John's College, Cambridge. In 1868, he won the university's Scholefield Prize and Hebrew Prize and began his academic career as a Fellow of St John's. In 1891, was appointed as Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Cambridge, and also transferred as a Fellow to Emmanuel College, serving in those roles until 1912.

Gwatkin died in 1916 and is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground, Cambridge,^[2] with his wife Lucy de Lisle Gwatkin.

Works

• Studies of Arianism, Chiefly Referring to the Character and Chronology of the Reaction Which Followed the Council of Nicaea (1882; second edition 1900)
• The Arian Controversy (1889)
• The Meaning of Ecclesiastical History (1891) Inaugural Lecture
• Selections from Early Writers, illustrative of Church history to the time of Constantine (1893; revised 1897)
• The Church Past and Present: a Review of its History (1900) editor
• The Eye for Spiritual Things: and Other Sermons (1906)
• The Knowledge of God and its Historical Development (1906) Gifford Lectures, two volumes: Volume 1 and Volume 2
• Early Church History to A.D. 313 (1909) two volumes: Volume 1 and Volume 2
• The Cambridge Medieval History Volume I: The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms (1911) editor with J. P. Whitney
• The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume II: The Rise Of The Saracens And The Foundation Of The Western Empire (1913) editor with J. B. Bury and J. P. Whitney
• Episcopacy I. In Scripture (1914) pamphlet
• The Confirmation Rubric: Whom does it Bind (1914) pamphlet
• Britain's Case Against Germany: A Letter to a Neutral (1917)
• Church and State in England to the Death of Queen Anne (1917)
• The Sacrifice of Thankfulness (1917) Sermons, edited by L. de L. Gwatkin

Gwatkin also wrote a few malacological studies, including:

• Gwatkin H. M., Suter H. & Pilsbry H. A. 1895. Observations on the dentition on Achatinellidae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, volume 47, 237-240.

Notes and References

1. "Gwatkin, Henry Melvill" in Alumni Cantabrigienses, Vol. 3, p. 179
2. A Cambridge Necropolis by Mark Goldie, 2000