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, 13 January 2015

St Hilary and St Martin


Today is the feast of St Hilary of Poitiers, the fourth century Gaulish champion of orthodoxy in respect of the Divinity of Christ.

He also was the bishop who ordained St Martin of Tours as an acolyte. In this panel from the St Martin window in the church of St Martin in York St Martin is depicted as acolyte at a Mass celebrated by St Hilary. The window dates from circa 1442, and was the gift of the vicar Robert Semer. Originally the west window of the church it was removed in 1940 and so survived the bombing of the church in 1942. In the peculiar, and to my mind, highly dubious scheme of restoration of part of the church - once a fine moid-fifteenth century building - it is now situated in the new north wall.

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Image: Gordon Plumb on Flickr

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