author
Bernard Ward
1857–1920
An English Catholic historian and churchman, he wrote sweeping, carefully researched accounts of English Catholic life in the years around emancipation. His work blends the patience of a scholar with the perspective of someone deeply involved in Catholic education and leadership.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1857, Bernard Nicholas Ward became an English Roman Catholic priest, educator, historian, and later Bishop of Brentwood. He was educated at St Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, and after his ordination he returned there in a series of roles that eventually included the presidency of the college.
As a writer, he is best remembered for major works on English Catholic history, especially The Eve of Catholic Emancipation and The Sequel to Catholic Emancipation. These books trace the experience of English Catholics in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and helped establish his reputation as an important historian of English Catholicism.
Ward was appointed the first Bishop of Brentwood in 1917 and remained in that post until his death in 1920. For listeners drawn to religious history, church history, or the story of Catholic life in England, his books offer a detailed view shaped by both scholarship and lived experience.