Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday 7 October 2011

Lepanto 440


Today is the 440th anniversary of the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and commemorated each year by the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (originally that of Our Lady of Victory) instituted by Pope St Pius V.


The Battle of Lepanto
National Maritime Museum Greenwich

Image: Wikipedia

There is an account of the battle and surrounding events here, and if you are in rhetorical or declamatory mode you can read G.K.Chesterton's poem Lepanto, published in 1911.

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