I didn't know your father well; we only met on a handful of occasions,- I read his work as an undergraduate. I know he had a huge influence on our discipline, our department, and many of my colleagues. He will be much missed by us.
I hadn't realised before this morning that he only worked at Newcastle for about nine years. From the way he talked about it, it seemed a much more significant part of his life than that. (Of course, that's partly because Elizabeth is still there.)
Really sorry to hear this and thank you for your thoughts. Few of us can hope to shape a subject in the way that Bob did heresy and persecution. He was an inspiring figure.
My condolences, Richard, and thank you for sharing all this. I had the pleasure of meeting Bob many years ago. I was just a grad student at the time, but he was gracious with his time and asked lots of questions about my work. I remember him as brilliant, funny, and very kind.
I'm very sorry for your loss and deeply appreciate the thread and reminiscences. Your father's work was monumental and inspiring, it made a difference to a lot of us.
I’m not best placed to discuss his work, but he devoted his career to arguing that medieval heresy had been mischaracterised: It was less a set of breakaway religious groups and practices than a tool for demonising and subjugating minorities, used by church and state to increase their own power.
This was the subject of his 1987 book The Formation of a Persecuting Society, which, following its reissue 2007, was described by Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian as “one of the most influential and controversial books of medieval history of the last 20 years”.
After 9/11, he became interested in the similarities between the persecution of heretics in medieval Europe and the persecution of Muslims in the ‘War on Terror’. He explored this in his 2012 book The War on Heresy.
He told me once that he thought that book a failure, because it hadn’t penetrated the public imagination in the way he’d hoped. But as failures go, it was remarkably well reviewed. @holland-tom.bsky.social called it “a jaw-dropping book”, and Ian Forrest “a landmark work of history”.
As an academic, he was testament to a different era: He got his first job at Sheffield when he was 23, without a PhD, following a phone call to the chair at Oxford to see whom they might recommend. Four years later he married one of his undergraduate students (my mother).
He moved to take up a chair Newcastle in 1994. There he met his second wife, the historian of Armenia Elizabeth Redgate. He also had visiting positions at Chicago (in 1989) and Berkeley (in 2004). I joined him for the latter. Life in the California sun was a high-point of both our lives.
Please accept my deepest condolences. Patrick Collinson introduced me to your Father at Sheffield when I began my post-graduate studies (before Pat became Regius at Cambridge). Your Father was a lovely man, very engaging in our seminar meetings. My good fortune to meet him.
I am very sorry to hear the news of your father's death. I never met him in person, but this book (1st edn then) was formational for me and one of the reasons I became a medievalist. He very kindly sent me one of his later books when I was teaching heresy. May he rest in peace.
I’m very sorry to hear this and I send my sincere condolences. I remember to this day the profound effect “The Origins of European Dissent” had on me as an undergraduate. He leaves an amazing body of work for which we are all grateful.
My condolences to you and all your family. Bob was a fellow medieval historian - and a great one. Also a good friend, though we argued over politics, including on line, and over history! He always made me think, and he was kind enough to reciprocate that compliment. I greatly valued knowing him.
Heartfelt condolences, this is a very sad loss. We didn't meet often but your father's work changed the way we all think about medieval societies. I'm so sorry and send all my best.
I am so, so sorry to hear that he is gone, but glad his is no longer in pain. I have his books on my shelf, and his work has helped me think through numerous things. Thank you for letting us know, and may his memory be a blessing.
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I remember discussing his work with Euan Cameron, who spoke very warmly about him. "Not a scholar whose views mellowed with age!"