Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was anEnglish Catholic priest,theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated atEton andBalliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as aclassicist, Knox was ordained as a priest of theChurch of England in 1912. He was a fellow and chaplain ofTrinity College, Oxford until he resigned from those positions following his conversion toCatholicism in 1917. Knox became a Catholic priest in 1918, continuing in that capacity his scholarly and literary work.
Knox published extensively on religious, philosophical, and literary subjects. He also produced several popular works ofdetective fiction. He is remembered for his "Ten Commandments" for detective stories, which sought to codify a form of crime fiction in which the reader may participate by attempting to find a solution to the mystery before the fictional detective reveals it.
Ronald was educated atEaton House School in London[2] andSummer Fields School in Oxford.[3] In 1900 he enteredEton College as firstKing's Scholar. He enjoyed great academic and social success at Eton, where he was selected for membership in the Eton Society ("Pop") and became captain of the school. He also began to cultivate an interest inAnglo-Catholicism, which put him increasingly at odds with his own family's Evangelical tradition. At age 17, he privately vowed to remaincelibate for life.[4]
In 1904 Ronald proceeded toBalliol College, Oxford as the first classics scholar.[5] He won several other scholarships and prizes during his time there: the Hertford Scholarship in 1907; the Craven and Ireland scholarships, theGaisford Prize for Greek Verse Composition in 1908, and the Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse Composition in 1910.[6] At Oxford, Knox joinedMaurice Child's fashionable "set", which was strongly identified with Anglo-Catholicism.[citation needed]
In 1910, Knox was elected a fellow ofTrinity College, Oxford.[7] As he was not expected to begin tutorials until 1911, Knox then accepted the job of private tutor toHarold Macmillan, the brother of a friend from Eton, who was at the time preparing to apply for a scholarship to Balliol. However, Macmillan's mother soon dismissed Knox, after Knox refused to follow her instructions not to discuss religion with Harold.[8]
Knox was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointedchaplain of Trinity College. DuringWorld War I, he served in military intelligence for the British Armed Forces.[9] In 1915,Cyril Alington, the headmaster ofShrewsbury School, invited Knox to join the teaching staff. Knox was long remembered at Shrewsbury as the highly dedicated and entertaining form master of Vb.[10]
In 1917 Knox converted toCatholicism and resigned as Anglican chaplain, prompting his father to cut Knox out of his will.[11] In 1918, Knox was ordained a Catholic priest and in 1919 joined the staff ofSt Edmund's College in Ware, Hertfordshire, remaining there until 1926. Knox explained his spiritual journey inA Spiritual Aeneid, published by Longmans in 1918. Knox stated that his conversion was influenced in part byG. K. Chesterton,[12] who was a High Church Anglican at the time, but not yet a Catholic. In 1922, Chesterton converted to Catholicism and said that Knox had influenced his decision.[13]
Knox wrote and broadcast on Christianity and other subjects. Whilechaplain at theUniversity of Oxford (1926–1939) and after his elevation to amonsignor in 1936, he wrote classic detective stories. In 1929 Knox codified the rules for detective stories into a "decalogue" often commandments. He was one of the founding members of theDetection Club and wrote several works of detective fiction, including five novels and a short story featuring Miles Bredon,[14] who is employed as a private investigator by the Indescribable Insurance Company.[15]
In 1936, directed by his religious superiors, Knox started retranslating theLatin Vulgate Bible into English usingHebrew andGreek sources. His works on religious themes include:Some Loose Stones (1913),Reunion All Round (1914),A Spiritual Aeneid (1918),The Belief of Catholics (1927),Caliban in Grub Street (1930),Heaven and Charing Cross (1935),Let Dons Delight (1939) andCaptive Flames (1940). When G. K. Chesterton died in 1936, Knox delivered apanegyric for hisRequiem Mass inWestminster Cathedral.[16]
An essay in Knox'sEssays in Satire (1928), "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes", was the first of the genre of mock-serious critical writings onSherlock Holmes and mock-historical studies in whichthe existence of Holmes, Watson, et al. is assumed.[17] Another of these essays, "The Authorship ofIn Memoriam", purports to prove thatTennyson's poem was actually written byQueen Victoria. Another satirical essay, "Reunion All Round", mocked Anglican tolerance by appealing to the Anglican Church inSwiftean literary style to absorb Muslims, atheists, and even Catholics who had murdered Irish children.[18]
In 1954 Knox visitedJulian Asquith andAnne Asquith inZanzibar andJohn and Daphne Acton in Rhodesia.[19] While in Africa, Knox began his translation ofThe Imitation of Christ. After returning toMells in England, he started translating Thérèse of Lisieux'sAutobiography of a Saint. He also began a work ofapologetics intended to reach a wider audience than the student one of hisThe Belief of Catholics (1927). In 1957, Knox suffered a serious illness that curtailed all his work. At the invitation of Harold Macmillan, Knox stayed at10 Downing Street while consulting a medical specialist in London. The doctor confirmed that Knox hadterminal cancer.
In January 1926, onBBC Radio, Knox presentedBroadcasting the Barricades, a simulated live report of revolution in London.[21] The broadcast reported the lynching of several people, including a government minister. It also mixed what it called band music from theSavoy Hotel with sounds of the hotel's purported destruction by trench mortars. The broadcast also claimed that theHouses of Parliament and theClock Tower had been destroyed.
Because the broadcast occurred on a snowy weekend, newspaper delivery was unavailable to much of the United Kingdom for several days. The lack of newspapers caused a minor panic, as people believed that the broadcast events in London were to blame. In May 1926, there was considerable public disorder during theGeneral Strike, so people were previously open to the possibility of a revolution.[22]
In a 1980s interview for his biographyThis is Orson Welles (1992),Orson Welles says that the BBC broadcast gave him the idea for his own 1938CBS Radio dramatization of "The War of the Worlds", which led to a similar panic among some American listeners.[23] A 2005 BBC report also suggested that the Knox broadcast may have influenced Welles.[24]
The script of the broadcast is reprinted inEssays in Satire (1928) as "A Forgotten Interlude".
The majority of novels of Knox's era, dubbedThe Golden Age of Detective Fiction, were "whodunits" with codified rules to allow the reader to attempt to solve the mystery before the detective. According to Knox, a detective story
must have as its main interest the unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end.[25]
He expanded upon this definition by giving ten rules of writing detective fiction:
The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
Not more than one secret room orpassage is allowable.
No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
NoChinaman must figure in the story. (Note: This is a reference to the common use of heavilystereotyped Asian characters in detective fiction of the time).[26]
No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
The detective himself must not commit the crime.
The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.
The "sidekick" of the detective, theWatson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind: his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
Reunion All Round (1914). A satire on the readiness of certain Anglicans to sink doctrinal differences with theNonconformist sects in the interests of Christian good fellowship.[27]
Bread or Stone (1915). Four addresses on impetrative orpetitionary prayer.
A Spiritual Aeneid: Being an Account of a Journey to the Catholic Faith (1918)
Memories of the Future: Being Memories of the Years 1915–1972, Written in the Year of Grace 1988 by Opal, Lady Porstock (1923). Combines aparody of the current autobiographies of women of fashion with a gentle satire on current whims—educational, medical, political and theological.[27]
Sanctions: A Frivolity (1924). A fiction in which the guests at a country-house party find all their conversations turning towards the question, what are the ultimate sanctions, social, intellectual, supernatural, which determine human behaviour and destiny?[27]
Other Eyes Than Ours (1926). A satirical tale about a hoax played on a circle ofspiritualists.[27]
An Open-Air Pulpit (1926). Essays.
The Belief of Catholics (1927). His survey of Catholic belief, considered a classic ofapologetics and a Catholic equivalent toC. S. Lewis'sMere Christianity. Authorized new edition published in 2022 (Providence, RI: Cluny Media).
Essays in Satire (1928). Contains his Anglican humorous writings, with some subsequent literary essays."[27]
The Mystery of the Kingdom and Other Sermons (1928).
The Church on Earth (1929).
On Getting There (1929). Essays.
Caliban in Grub Street (1930). A satire on the religious opinions of some of the chief popular writers of the day (includingArnold Bennett and SirArthur Conan Doyle).[27]
Broadcast Minds (1932). A criticism of the religious opinions of some of the leading scientific publicists of the time (includingJulian Huxley andBertrand Russell).[27]
Difficulties: Being a Correspondence About the Catholic Religion, withArnold Lunn (1932). An exchange of letters with Lunn about the Catholic Church. Lunn later converted.
Heaven and Charing Cross: Sermons on the Holy Eucharist (1935)
Barchester Pilgrimage (1935). A sequel to theChronicles of Barsetshire written in the style ofTrollope. It follows the fortunes of the children and grandchildren of Trollope's characters up to the time of writing, with some gentle satire on the social, political and religious changes of the 20th century.[27] It was reprinted in 1990 by the Trollope Society.
Let Dons Delight (1939). One of Knox's most famous works, though currently out of print. Taking as its subject the history of Oxford from theReformation to shortly before World War II, it traces the disintegration of a common culture through the conversations of the dons of Simon Magus, a fictional college, first in 1588, and then by fifty-year intervals until 1938.
Captive Flames (1940). Twenty-one homilies on some of Knox's favourite saints, includingSt Cecilia,St Dominic, StJoan of Arc and StIgnatius of Loyola. Authorized new edition published in 2022 (Providence, RI: Cluny Media).
In Soft Garments (1942). Addresses to Oxford students on faith in the modern world.
God and the Atom (1945). An ethical and philosophical analysis of the shock of theatomic bomb, its use againstHiroshima and Nagasaki and the moral questions arising therefrom.
The Mass in Slow Motion (1948). A book of talks for schoolgirls which, with its two successors, became the most popular of all Knox's writings.[27] Authorized new edition published in 2022 (Providence, RI: Cluny Media).
The Creed in Slow Motion (1949). The second book of his talks for schoolgirls. Authorized new edition published in 2022 (Providence, RI: Cluny Media).
On Englishing the Bible (1949). Book of 8 essays about re-translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, with Hebrew/Greek sources.
The Gospel in Slow Motion (1950). The final book of his talks for schoolgirls. Authorized new edition published in 2022 (Providence, RI: Cluny Media).
St Paul's Gospel (1950). A series ofLenten sermons preached that year by Knox in Westminster Cathedral.
Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion with Special Reference to the XVII and XVIII Centuries (1950). Knox's own favourite book,[28] it is a study of the various movements of Christian men and women who have tried to live a less worldly life than other Christians, claiming the direct guidance of theHoly Spirit, and eventually splitting off into separate sects.Quietism andJansenism seemed to be the primary foci.
Stimuli (1951). A selection of his monthly contributions toThe Sunday Times.
The Hidden Stream: Mysteries of the Christian Faith (1952). Addresses to Oxford students in which Knox evaluates fundamentaldogmas and stumbling blocks of Catholicism.
Off the Record (1953). A selection of fifty-one letters addressed to individual inquirers on religious topics of general interest.
In Soft Garments: A Collection of Oxford Conferences (1953).
The Window in the Wall and Other Sermons on the Holy Eucharist (1956)
Bridegroom and Bride (1957). Wedding addresses.
Literary Distractions (1958). Essays on writers, Trollope's Barsetshire etc.
^Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich,This is Orson Welles. HarperAudio, 30 September 1992.ISBN1559946806 Audiotape 4A 6:25–6:42. Welles states, "I got the idea from a BBC show that had gone on the year before [sic], when a Catholic priest told how some Communists had seized London and a lot of people in London believed it. And I thought that'd be fun to do on a big scale, let's have it from outer space — that's how I got the idea."
^From theIntroduction toThe Best Detective Stories of 1928-29. Reprinted in Haycraft, Howard,Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story, Revised edition, New York: Biblio and Tannen, 1976.
^abcdefghiThe brief description of this book is from Waugh, Evelyn (1959).The Life of Ronald Knox. London: Chapman & Hall. (Paperback: London: Fontana Books, 1962).
Corbishley, Thomas; Speaight, Robert.Ronald Knox, the priest the writer (1965)online free
Dayras, Solange. "The Knox Version, or the Trials of a Translator: Translation or Transgression?."Translating Religious Texts, edited by David Jasper, 44-59. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1993.
Duhn, Hugo R.A Thematization and Analysis of the Spirituality in the Writings of Ronald A. Knox, 1888-1957,STD dissertation, Studies in Sacred Theology, 2nd Series, No. 284, Catholic University of America, 1981.
Marshall, George. "Two Autobiographical Narratives of Conversion: Robert Hugh Benson and Ronald Knox."British Catholic History 24.2 (1998): 237-253.
Rooney, David M.The Wine of Certitude: A Literary Biography of Ronald Knox (San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2009).
Tastard, Terry.Ronald Knox and English Catholicism (Leominster: Gracewing, 2009).
