Born Michael Clive Knowles on 29 September 1896 in
Studley, Warwickshire, England, Knowles was educated at
Downside School, run by the monks of
Downside Abbey, and
Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took a
first in both philosophy and classics.
Monk In July 1914 Knowles finished at Downside School and immediately moved into the monastery. He was clothed in the September and became a member of the monastic community, being given the religious name of
David, by which he was always known thereafter. After completing the
novitiate he was sent by the
abbot to the
Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome for his theological studies. Returning to Downside, he was
ordained a priest in 1922. His research into the early monastic history of England was assisted by the library built up at Downside by
Dom Raymund Webster. Dom David Knowles became the leader of a faction of the younger monks of the abbey who wanted to resist the growing demands of the school on the pattern of monastic life at the abbey. They advocated a more
contemplative life as the goal of their lives as monks. This effort led to a period of major conflict within the community and he was transferred to
Ealing Abbey, another teaching establishment, where he lived 1933–1940.
Academic at Cambridge In 1944 Knowles was elected into a
research fellowship in medieval studies at
Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge, where he would remain for the duration of his academic career. In 1947 he was appointed as
Professor of Medieval History and then, in 1954, he became the
Regius Professor of Modern History, a post he held until his retirement in 1963. He served as president of the
Royal Historical Society from 1957 to 1961; and was the first President of the
Ecclesiastical History Society (1961–63). While pursuing his academic life at Cambridge, Knowles was eventually, at the instigation of Abbot
Christopher Butler,
exclaustrated from Downside Abbey and finally released from his vows. Before his death on 21 November 1974 from a heart attack, however, he was readmitted to the order. Knowles is best known for his history of early English monasticism,
The Monastic Order in England: A History of Its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940–1216 (1940). His three-volume work,
The Religious Orders in England (1948–1959), is also highly regarded by scholars in English medieval ecclesiastical history. In 1962 he published a textbook,
The Evolution of Medieval Thought (2nd ed. 1988), that "dominated medieval history courses in U.S. colleges for a quarter of a century". He has been criticised for excluding nunneries from consideration in
Medieval Religious Houses on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to draw on (a lack remedied in more recent scholarship). ==Published works==