Michael William Hodgetts (29 March 1936 – 12 December 2022) was an English Catholic historian who became a leading expert on

priest hole A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England, Wales and Ireland during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, there were se ...

s and on

Harvington Hall Harvington Hall is a moated medieval and Elizabethan manor house in the hamlet of Harvington in the civil parish of Chaddesley Corbett, south-east of Kidderminster in the English county of Worcestershire. It is open to the public. History Har ...

Early life

Hodgetts was born in Birmingham on 29 March 1936, and was raised a Catholic. He attended

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by Edward VI of England, King Edward VI in 1552, it ...

and then studied classics at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

, as well as studying for three years as a seminarian at the

Venerable English College, Rome The Venerable English College (), commonly referred to as the English College, is a Catholic seminary in Rome, Italy, for the training of priests for England and Wales. It was founded in 1579 by William Allen on the model of the English College, ...

, before becoming a teacher at

St Thomas More Catholic School, Willenhall St Thomas More Catholic School, Willenhall is a voluntary aided comprehensive Catholic secondary school educating children aged 11–18 in the town of Willenhall, West Midlands, England. Uniform The school uniform is known to be simple with bla ...

Career

In the 1970s and 1980s, he sat on the

International Commission on English in the Liturgy The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) is a commission set up by a number of episcopal conferences of English-speaking countries for the purpose of providing English translations of the liturgical books of the Roman Rite, th ...

, alongside his work as a teacher, and his translation of the hymn

Pange lingua ''Pange lingua'' may refer to either of two Mediaeval Latin hymns of the Roman Catholic Church: one by St. Thomas Aquinas and one by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609), which extols the triumph of the Cross. He wrote it for a procession that brought a ...

is now used in the English-language Catholic liturgy for

Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...

. In 1984, he was appointed to the management committee of

, a former

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

and centre of

Recusancy Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

that had been given to the

Archdiocese of Birmingham The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham is one of the principal Latin-rite Catholic administrative divisions of England and Wales in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. The archdiocese covers an area of , encompassing Staffordshir ...

in 1923. He edited the volumes series of the

Catholic Record Society The Catholic Record Society (Registered Charity No. 313529), founded in 1904, is a scholarly society devoted to the study of Reformation and post-Reformation Catholicism in England and Wales. It has been described as "the premier Catholic histo ...

and the society's journal, ''Recusant History'' (now ''

British Catholic History ''British Catholic History'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Catholic Record Society. In its early years it was known as Biographical Studies of English Catholics, and then fro ...

''). In 1989 he retired from school-teaching and joined the staff of

Maryvale Institute Maryvale Institute is a college of further and higher education, an International Catholic Distance-Learning College for Catechesis, Theology, Philosophy and Religious Education in Old Oscott, Great Barr, Birmingham, England. It specialises in t ...

, a Catholic college of further and higher education.

Personal life

He married Barbara in 1969. They had four children. Hodgetts died on 12 December 2022, at the age of 86.

Works

Awards

* Knight of St Gregory the Great (1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgetts, Michael 1936 births 2022 deaths 20th-century English historians 21st-century English historians Historians of the Catholic Church People from Birmingham, West Midlands Knights of St. Gregory the Great