The late Mgr Michael Williams concurred with Ronald Knox’s view that the study of history manifested the action of God in the world. Such study, arising from the free analysis of archival holdings and careful appreciation of associated evidence, was capable of producing for man a clear understanding of the Divine Plan. Williams saw in the history of man in relation to the world a movement of growth, freedom and development that would lead ultimately to a fulfilment of Messianic perfection.
Williams viewed his own scholarly endeavour in writing, teaching and sacerdotal work (with generations of students and those training for the priesthood) as part of a moving process. It was a journey based on a knowledge of perceived truth but was not necessarily circumscribed by any particular religious affiliation; rather, it was held secure in a widespread vision of virtue and charity. As for his own creed, Williams could have been happy to endorse Ronald Knox’s view that “it’s perfectly true, and more true than many people realise, that a good many of the world’s rogues are Catholics” – though Knox added that “a Cathoic does not necessarily cease to be a Catholic because he is a rogue.” As Thomas Norris observed in A Fractured Relationship (2007), only a schizophrenic approach “separates Church from Society, Revelation from History and Faith from Reason”. In his historical presentations of the colleges in which he taught – at Rome, on the Iberian peninsula and in Leeds – Williams maintained that love, the essential Christian virtue, often permeated and motivated the lives of their leading figures.
