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 31 March 2023

Fr Huddleston’s Missal


What is apparently a missal which belonged to Fr John Huddleston who aided King Charles II in 1651 in his flight after the battle of Worcester and who also was the priest who received the King into the Catholic Church on his deathbed in 1685, has been sold at auction.

Earlier reports about the impending sale of the volume consistently described it as a Bible and not as a missal, which does not say much about those who so described it for the auction, let alone the acuity of the journalists who blindly followed them and continued the error in print.

 The report of the sale from the BBC News website can be seen at Prayer book of priest who converted Charles II sold

It is good to see that the missal has been acquired by a public institution and that it will presumably go on display in due course. 


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