Henry John Cody: An Outstanding Life

John D. Blackwell is co-ordinator of information services, Arthur A.
Wishart Library, Algoma University College, Sault Ste. Marie.

Donald Masters has written a splendid biography of Henry John Cody
(1868–1951), the remarkable clergyman, politician, and educator.

Although now little known, Cody was one of the most distinguished
Canadians of his day. Born into a comfortable family in Embro, Ontario,
Cody attended Galt Collegiate and went on to excel at the University of
Toronto. He taught briefly at Ridley College, St. Catharines, and then
enrolled in divinity studies at Wycliffe College, Toronto. After
ordination, the evangelical Cody began a 40-year association with St.
Paul’s, Bloor Street, which he built into the most influential
Anglican parish in Canada. A gifted, widely read preacher with urbane
charm and an indefatigable constitution, Cody had an enormous impact as
a parish clergyman and lecturer at Wycliffe.

An ardent imperialist and loyal Conservative, Cody served briefly in
the Hearst government as Ontario minister of education (1918–1919). He
became chairman of the University of Toronto’s board of governors in
1923, and nine years later left St. Paul’s to become the
university’s president; Cody ably guided the university through the
difficult years of the Depression and World War II. In 1945, he was
appointed university chancellor, a position he held until he was forced
out by Liberal adversaries in 1947. Cody was a compelling speaker and a
congenial man who enjoyed people from all walks of life. A Maclean’s
writer once queried whether Cody was “the best clergyman in politics
or the best politician in the clergy.”

Masters’s own background, education, and experience have admirably
equipped him to tackle this formidable subject. His eloquent, engaging
prose deftly leads the reader through the maze of characters and
circumstances that configured Cody’s long, varied career. Masters
skilfully mines Cody’s diaries, correspondence, and a host of other
sources, detailing, for instance, his struggles with Frank Underhill,
George McCullagh, George Drew, and Vincent Massey, and the devastating
loss of his only son and first wife. The author effectively demonstrates
how this “ecclesiastical statesman” made such an impact in Canada
and abroad.