Brian Tierney (medievalist)
Brian Tierney (May 7, 1922 – November 30, 2019) was an English historian and medievalist. He taught at the Catholic University of America for eight years and then joined Cornell University in 1959. At Cornell, he became the Goldwin Smith Professor of Medieval History in 1969 and the first Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies in 1977, retiring in 1992 as Bowmar Professor Emeritus. Tierney’s work focused on medieval church history, church law, and political theory, exploring how the church and the medieval state shaped Western institutions.
His best-known books include Foundations of the Conciliar Theory (1955), which examines the authority of church councils; Origins of Papal Infallibility, 1150-1350 (1972), a controversial study of the historical roots of the doctrine; The Crisis of Church and State, 1050-1300 (1964); and Religion, Law and the Growth of Constitutional Thought, 1150-1650 (1982). He also wrote on natural law and rights in The Idea of Natural Rights (1997) and on permissive natural law in Liberty and Law: The Idea of Permissive Natural Law, 1100-1800 (2014).
Tierney was born in Scunthorpe, England. He left school at 16 to work, then served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar after many missions. After the war, he studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, earning a BA and a PhD under Walter Ullmann. He received honorary degrees from Uppsala University (1966) and Catholic University (1982) and was honored by several scholarly societies, including the American Historical Association, the American Philosophical Society, and the British Academy. He remained active in his field until his death in 2019 at the age of 97.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:27 (CET).