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.


Tuesday, 28 August 2012

St Augustine


Saint Augustin
This picture, thought to be of St Augustine, is in a Lateran fresco from the late 6th century, and is thought to be the earliest surviving portrait of the saint.

Inscription under the fresco:
DIVERSI DIVERSA PATRES SED HIC OMNIA DIXIT
ROMANO ELOQVIO MYSTICA SENSA TONANS
(Various Fathers spoke about various things, but this one said it all, Proclaiming forcefully in the Roman tongue the mystical senses [of the scriptures] )

Image: Fribourg University
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