I would like to give a fairly
brief report to the Ronald Knox Society about this wonderful colloquium recently
held in London. The colloquium was sponsored by Heythrop College, University of
London, in association with Inspire (Centre of Initiatives in Spirituality and
Reconciliation) and the support of the Institute of English Studies in the
University of London and of the Tablet Trust. The Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies will
be publishing the proceedings (Ronnie
Knox: A Man for All Seasons, eds Francesca Bugliani Knox and Francesco
Montarese).
The
organizer and guiding spirit of this splendid gathering was Dr Francesca Bugliani
Knox. She is married to Dillwyn Knox, the
grandson of Ronald Knox’s brother Dillwyn; he was present, and I am happy to
report that, like his grandfather, he goes by “Dilly”. Francesca explained to us the reasons for the
title to the colloquium. As to “Ronnie”,
this was the name by which Knox was known not only by family and friends, but
even by mere acquaintances. He himself said that strangers called him “Ronnie”,
and, if anything, it was the surname that was dispensable. This familiar form of address captures
something of the spirit of a man who wore his remarkable intellectual and
spiritual gifts lightly. The “man for all seasons” conjures up, of course, the
figure of Thomas More, but the phrase in its original context also captures Knox’s
personality. Robert Whittington, a schoolteacher of More's time, said
that More was “a man of angel's wit and singular learning; I know not his
fellow. For where is the man of that
gentleness, lowliness, and affability? And as time requireth, a man of
marvellous mirth and pastimes: and sometimes of sad gravity: a man for all
seasons.”