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.


Saturday, 11 October 2014

Memorial Service for Peter Lewis


This afternoon I attended the memorial service for Peter Lewis, the very distinguished historian of later medieval France, about whom I posted in Peter Lewis RIP in August, at All Souls.

Photo of .

The reredos of All Souls College Chapel

Image: all-souls.ox.ac.uk

The service had the restrained quiet dignity I associate with both Peter Lewis and with All Souls. An elegant, traditional occasion in Archbishop Chichele's chapel, itself a legacy from the age in which Peter Lewis was so knowledgeable and, in many ways, so at home.

The address was given by Sir Keith Thomas, and drew out both Mr Lewis' contribution to the history of France and the period, and indeed that he was perhaps better known as a scholar and authority in France than here in England, his historical insight and skill, and also his personal qualities of restraint and courtesy, which those of us who ever encountered him retain in our memory.

A very appropriate service and place in which to pray for him.






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