The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-11-01
(From our Special Correspondent,
Cecil Underwood.)
London. Oct. 20. 1913.


At the opening of the scholastic
year in Oxford, the Bishop of Sodor
and Mann, sometimes styled "the
Bishop of the Isles," preached the
University sermon before the stu
dents assembled from all the colleges.
The select preachers of the University
appear in the Church of st. Mary the
Virgin on Sunday evening at 8 p. m.
When Cardinal Newman and Pusey
were the select preachers, the sermon
was delivered at four p. M, but the
hour has been changed.
The Church of the Virgin.
A word ought to be said about the
Church of the Virgin before dealing
with the select preacher. "St.
Mary's" as the edifice is called
familiarly by Oxfordians is full of
historic interest. 1t serves the pur-
pose of a parish church, although it
was not so intended from the be
ginning. In fact it is singularly i'll
adapted for parish service. The spa
cious chapel is separated from the
rest of the church, and almost hidden
| from view by heavy stone screen,
surmounted by an organ. The nave
is fitted up, not for the common wor-
ship of an ordinary congregation, but
as a meeting place of the University,
where that body attends in it's cor.
porate capacity, as it has attended
for centuries, in order to hear select
preachers. Academic Oxford appears
every Sunday evening in dignified
procession. The beadles of the four
faculties OF. Art, Medicine, Law and
Divinity, lead the way, carrying thei1
gilt or silver slaves. Then in the
proper costume of his degree follows
the official head Of the University, the
e-Chancellor, accompanied by the
select preacher who is conducted tC
the pulpit. The doctors of the several
faculties walk next in order, attired in
their richly colored habits; the
Masters of Arts (and now by courtesy
the Bachelors of Arts) take proper
precedence and occupy the spacious
pews and galleries. For six hundred
and fifty years the University has
thus assembled to listen to the select
preacher A world of historic interest
attaches to st. Mary's: here Frial
Lawrence came in 1864 and demanded
recognition from the University; here
Archbishop Arundel denounced anG
crushed out the heresy of Wyclif;
here Crammer and Ridley and Lati
mer were tried, convicted and led tc
the stake. Here Keble preached the
famous sermon on National Apos
tacy" which Newman acknowledged tC
be the beginning of the Oxford move
ment. Romance as well as religion
occupies a large space in the history
of st. Mary's, for it was here that the
royal victims of Richard III took
sanctuary during the bloody Wars o1
the Roses. Underneath the chance
stones lies the body of Amy Robsart
cruelty and secretly murdered by
Queen Elizabeth in order that Ear
Dudley might be free to become the
lifelong paramour of the Virgin
Queen. When Queen Elizabeth visited
Oxford in 1892 she had the courage
to sit near the Chancel and Earl Dud
ley was scarcely an arms length from
the coffin of his murdered wife Amid
all the pomp and glamour of thai
eventful occasion, we may wonder il
his thought slipped away from his
royal mistress to the beautiful young
Amy cut off in the flower of her youth
the charming wife sacrificed to the
jealousy of the bastard Tudor.
The Select Preacher.
But we are forgetting the Bishop o.
Solar and Mann. He has been preach
ing a quarter of an hour while we
were taking our historical ramble
The Bishop stands in the old historic
pulpit immortalized by Newman and
Liddon and Keble, and faces twenty
five hundred students. He is little
man with a very bald head, small
| fringe of grey alone surviving to bear
witness to the devastating flight oi
years. Like all little men, whether
they be Bishops or not, the Select
Preacher strove to rise to the occa,
i SlOu 111S LuduU6F WdS GdTuOSk IL
the extreme; his text taken from the
] sixth chapter of st. John, 'T am the
bread of life which came down from
heaven; if any man eat of this bread
he shall possess life for ever" offered
a splendid opportunity for oratorical
effort and display. And whatever else
may be said in criticism of the
Bishop, it must be conceded that he
did rise to the occasion-he did ex.
hibit all the traits of born orator
His gestures we're frequent and effec
tive and he spoke without manuscript
or notes ('swithout book" as it is
styled at Oxford. II the Church OF
England passed a law prescribing
notes and manuscripts from the pulpit
she would increase the efficiency oi
her preaching an hundred fold
A Sermon, Not an Essay.
What / liked particularly about the
discourse was the fact that the
II Bishop preached a sermon not ar