St John Henry Newman to be declared a Doctor of the Church

The announcement yesterday from the Vatican that St John Henry Newman is to be declared a Doctor of the Church is very good news indeed.

St John Henry Newman by John Everett Millais, 1881

Image:sevenoaksordinariate.wordpress.com

It is all the more appropriate that just as St John Henry was made a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII at the beginning of his pontificate, so now Pope Leo XIV at the commencement of his has authorised the saint’s status as the thirty eighth Doctor of the Church. 

As an Englishman Newman will join the very select, and very distinguished, company of St Bede the Venerable, the only other Doctor born in these islands. To this pair can be added an adoptive son in St Anselm.

For Oratorians and their congregations he is the first son of St Philip to be given this honour, and Newman exemplified the Oratorian vocation.

For Oxford University he is the first Doctor of the Churxh to have been educated there and to have been for many years a significant contributor to its life and purpose,

For both Trinity College and Oriel College it is an honour, and one that for the latter that happily falls in the seven hundredth anniversary year of its existence.

St John Henry Newman pray for us.

Today’s the day…

It not often, alas, these days that one rushes to share articles from the Oxford student newspapers. Neither Cherwell nor the Oxford Student are noted for being much more than a diary of the previous week, or in the case of the Oxford Student rehashing timeworn themes from OUSU. The next generation of Oxford novelists seem to be scribbling away elsewhere. It was therefore a pleasure to come across today the following offering from the Oxford Student - the city of dreaming spires can still deliver ….

Oxford University to abolish Classics degree – The Oxford Student

Mind you, given the destructive urges of some in the Universiry hierarchy, we may be laughing too soon….

Happy April Fool’s Day to you all.

The Duke of Cambridge in Oxford

I gather from the Internet through a post on the Royal Central site that the Duke of Cambridge was in Oxford today.

The post, slightly adapted and with some of my comments and explanations added in [ ] reads as follows:

" On Wednesday, the Duke of Cambridge travelled to Oxford to open Magdalen's completed Longwall Library which has been under construction for more than two years. His Royal Highness also opened the Blavatnik School of Government [ an ugly circular  creation in glass between the Woodstock Road and Jericho ] and the Weston Library [ that is, what used to be the New Bodleian. this is an excellent resource for Library users, and for visitors, having permanent exhibition spaces, and a tea room. It has been open for use for about a year]

This library renovation was a multi-million pound project with a new wing added and the interior was gutted and tore out to make more room for reading areas and to let in more natural light. During this time, students have been using a tent they've lovingly named the “Marquee."

Renovating Longwall has been a project of hard work and long hours of dedication by many; donations from alumni and telethons held by current students and administrators to raise the £10.5 million necessary to see this project completed. The construction company contracted to work on the building put in thousands of hours as well. So with a project of this scope and magnitude, there is bound to be controversy.

There are some who don't think the Duke should be the one to open Longwall. First-year musician student from Magdalen Ted Mair is one isn't pleased with this idea.

He said: “Prince William has made it to his current position simply by being born to a certain father. This appears to me as exactly the kind of cultural elitism that Magdalene, as part of the University of Oxford, should be discouraging. As an institution trying to open its gates to students from as many walks of life as possible, this choice of guest seems like a step backwards."

Another source told Oxford Student Paper, Cherwell: “We have a great many Magdalene alumni who have achieved far more through their own endeavors than Prince William has by accident of birth. Why didn’t the college choose one of them?"

[ It always surprises me - well to some extent at least why it is that reporters bother to record such miserable little whiners on these occasions...]

There are those though, who believe it quite fitting for the Duke to have this honour. Oliver Baldwin is one such student who said: "This is an honour for the school. “I’m very excited about The Duke of Cambridge coming to open the new library. The Queen is a symbol of Britain and The Duke of Cambridge, as the future king, is a symbol of where Britain is going, always remaining relevant to each new generation."

[ Much better! ]
Sam Sherburn, the current Magdalen JCR President hopes the Duke will see the value of the building.

He said: “I’ve talked about Magdalen's New Library Project to more alumni than I care to remember across several Telethons It is a fantastic project and it is great to see it open at long last. I hope that the Duke of Cambridge will be able to see for himself the hard work and dedication of those involved in the project– and those revising for their exams, for whom the New Library is a much-needed asset!” "

The Clever Boy will add that he, and he suspects many others in Oxford, were not aware in advance of this visit. As I, and others indeed, have pointed out before, the  University does not publicise these things well. I did see some preparations at the Weston Library the other day, but there was nothing to draw attention to what was scheduled.

Sub Fusc

Last Saturday was Matriculation here in Oxford, when new students were presented to the University by their colleges and halls to be added to the roll - the matricula - of students.

As this is a University ceremony those participating are required to dress in academic dress - the gown appropriate to their status, mortar board or ladies' cap and to wear sub-fusc, that is for men a version of clerical dress as formalised in the nineteenth century ( members of the University have still, in that respect, Benefit of Clergy ) and the female equivalent designed when women were admitted.

Last year whilst watching the new students going off to the Sheldonian I was startled to see some men wearing with their dark suits and white shirts a black bow tie rather than the traditional white one.

Subsequently I discovered this was a consequence of the passage by the University of gender equality regulations regarding sub fusc - as long as it is sub-fusc anyone can wear what they like.There is another blogger's comment on the change at:  
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/oxford-university-abolishes-gender.html
OUSU periodically tries to get rid of sub-fusc, but students always vote massively to retain it.

This did not accord with my idea of tradition ( no surprise there ) and as I recall it wearing a black bow tie ( rather than the usual black ribbon tie ) was the preserve of a certain type of lesbian who ends up as a college chaplain.

The black bow tie with sub-fusc on a man looks bad, very bad. He looks as if he is wandering back after an all night black tie event ( there is nothing wrong in that of course, if that is what you have been doing ) and not as someone standing on a venerable and clear tradition.

I suspect those men, and they are a small minority, are overseas graduates to whom the customs of Oxford have not been explained in advance and who don't know better or bother to find out.

Interestingly I have not seen black bow ties on examination candidates and I have not seen them being worn at graduation ceremonies.

St Scholastica

Yesterday was  St Scholastica's day, and I think I can report that there were no riots in Oxford this year, unlike 660 years ago, for which vide  St Scholastica Day riot.

That is unless that is one counts the meeting of Convocation today in the Sheldonian to discuss the height of the flats the University has built by the Castle Mill Stream that overlook Port Meadow. I suspect we have not heard the last of that particular question.

St Scholastica, the sister of St Benedict, is remembered particularly for the following episode shortly before her death:

Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.

  One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together.

  Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother: “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”

  When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly he began to complain: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.”

  Reluctant as he was to stay of his own will, he remained against his will. So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

  It is not surprising that she was more effective than he, since as John says, God is love, it was absolutely right that she could do more, as she loved more.

  Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.

  Their minds had always been united in God; their bodies were to share a common grave.

From the books of Dialogues by Saint Gregory the Great

 Translation from the Divine Office by Universalis

John Dillon posted some medieval images of her on the Medieval Religion discussion group:

Scholastica as depicted in a twelfth-century portrait in the Cappella di Sant'Anna at the Abbey of St. Benedict, Montecassino:

http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/SODimages/009_Scholastica029.jpg

Scholastica as depicted in a late thirteenth-century fresco in the lower church of the Monastery of St. Benedict (the Sacro Speco) at Subiaco:

http://pierostradella.it/vendite/santi/s/scolastica1.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/aneuv8

Scholastica and Benedict at table during her final visit as depicted in the mid- to later fourteenth-century Breviary of King Charles V (between 1347 and 1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1052, fol. 344v):

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525491/f698.image

Scholastica and Benedict at table during her final visit as depicted in an early fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the Festes nouvelles attributed to Jean Golein (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 295v):

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f608.image.r=.langEN

Benedict's vision of Scholastica's soul ascending to heaven as depicted in an early fifteenth-century fresco in the upper church of the Monastery of St. Benedict (the Sacro Speco) at Subiaco:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/370260822/sizes/l

Scholastica as depicted by Andrea Mantegna in his later fifteenth-century St. Luke Altarpiece (commissioned, 1453) in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan:

http://tinyurl.com/ccmsdt

The ensemble:

http://tinyurl.com/2ko9t9

Scholastica and Benedict at table during her final visit as depicted by a fifteenth-century Umbrian master working in the transept of the upper church of the Monastery of St. Benedict at Subiaco:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/369885637/sizes/l/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/370258491/sizes/l

Scholastica's body being carried to Montecassino as depicted by a fifteenth-century Umbrian master in the transept of the upper church of the Monastery of St. Benedict (the Sacro Speco) at Subiaco:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/370262460/sizes/l/

Scholastica (at right) and Benedict deep in conversation as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1470) copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the Festes nouvelles attributed to Jean Golein (Mâcon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 146v):

http://tinyurl.com/agug84

Scolastica (at right, with a rosary; at left St. Benedict; at center, the BVM and Christ Child) as depicted by the workshop of the Sparapane in a remounted earlier sixteenth-century fresco (1528) in the cattedrale di Santa Maria Argentea in Norcia (PG) in Umbria:

http://tinyurl.com/ozdghwu

John Hunwicke preaching in Latin

The official language of the University of Oxford is still Latin, and each January there is a Latin Sermon preached before the University in the Church of St Mary the Virgin - Newman's church from 1828 until 1843.

Last Sunday the preacher was John Hunwicke, a former Anglican priest and member of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and for many years a teacher of Classics at Lancing College. He is not unknown to many readers of this blog I suspect. For those who have not seen it his sermon, complete with a translation, can be read by following this link: Legite plura...

With acknowledgements to the website of Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Oxford Tutorial for D.Cameron (BNC)

Dear David,
Your essay on Oxford University's admissions policy with respect to black students rather looks as if you wrote it in haste on your way to your party in Harrogate. This is not good practice for essays or for the responsibilities you have taken on in the last year.

You really should know by now to check your facts and not to rely on downloading information from the Internet.

You really should not cribb ideas from G. Brown ( Edinburgh, not even an Oxford man); he tried this argument ten years ago, and, well, look what happened to him.

Although you may cause some University breast beating by the politically correct who have taken the governmental shilling, the University has been able to point out the errors in your argument. Please remember that for future reference.

Do not be a bully (even if you are in the Bullingdon) to the university which gave you a place. you are agrown up now, so stand up against the entrenched educational establishment that is obsessed with social engineering in a way that smacks more of Big Brother than the Big Society.

One way to open up the educational chances for minorities is obvious to some of us older chaps - things called Grammar Schools. Yet I seem to recall you and your friends in your very poor essays on educational policy set your faces against such institutions. Just because you went to that large comprehensive school outside Slough does not mean that all comprehensives are as good academically (they are not) or as socially advantageous (they are not).

As his tutor once said to a friend of mine about his NT Greek essay " I would give this a Delta but you probably would n't know what it meant..."

I remain, etc...

P.S. Perhaps the problem is very Oxford - you belong to a college on the north of the High and I to one on the south...

Poor Prof. Dawkins

It really is so very sad when one reads that Richard Dawkins, along with Christopher Hitchens, is hoping to get get the Pope arrested when His Holiness pays his visit to the country in September. Poor Prof. Dawkins' comments in recent weeks are just getting a bit too embarrassing on the subject. Once upon a time one thought he was, at least, entitled to his opinion (something he clearly does not think other people are - but no matter), but of late, well, someone really ought to do something. Valle Adurni includes his website under humour, but should one mock the afflicted?

I have heard of senior academics taking colleagues, or perhaps their relatives, on one side and discreetly suggesting medical help or a rest cure. It does not have to be as dramatic as the late Sir Kenneth Dover's claim that he actively thought of murdering the late Trevor Aston because his alcoholism was embarrassing to Corpus Christi College (How we all laughed at those memoirs!). No, something tactful, a word with the Hon Mrs Dawkins (unless she is herself thinking of such action) or the family physician and the Prof could be sent off to rest. There are, I gather, discreet places which provide suitable care. It would, of course, cost money, but probably less that Prof. Dawkins and Mr Hitchens will waste in the courts trying to stop the Pope. Care in the community is clearly not working in this case. Something has to be done, if only for the good name of Oxford University.

Mind you they had better warn the medics not to wear white coats on this occasion - the sight of that might lead the poor Professor to believe that a bevy of Popes had come to get him, and one wonders if he might overreact and inflict some harm upon them or himself.