The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal seeDearmer, Percy
History
The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal see
Dearmer, Percy
Christ Church Cathedral (Oxford, England)
"The feud between the Priory and the Jewry went on for a century more,
till it culminated in a daring act of fanaticism on Ascension Day 1268.
As the usual procession of scholars and citizens returned from St.
Frideswide's, a Jew suddenly burst from the group of his friends in front
of the synagogue, and snatching the crucifix from its bearer, trod it
underfoot. But even in presence of such an outrage, the terror of the
Crown shielded the Jewry from any burst of popular indignation. The king
condemned the Jews of Oxford to make a heavy silver crucifix for the
University to carry in the processions, and to erect a cross of marble
on the spot where the crime was committed; but even this was in part
remitted, and a less offensive place was allotted for the cross in
an open plot by Merton College." The event which had opened the feud
between the Priory and the Jews happened about 1185, when Prior Phillip
complained of a certain _Deus-eum-crescat_ (Gedaliah), son of Mossey,
who stood at his door as the procession of St. Frideswide passed by,
and mocked at her miracles, no one daring to meddle with him.
An instance of the widespread fame of the shrine of St. Frideswide, and
the veneration in which it was held even shortly before its destruction,
is given in Wood's "Annals." In 1518, "Queen Katherine being desirous to
come to Oxford, was attended in her journey by the Cardinal [Wolsey]:
and being entered within the limits, was received by the scholars
with all demonstrations of love and joy. After she had received their
curtesies, she retired to St. Frideswydd Monastery to do her devotions
to the sacred reliques of that Virgin Saint, being the chief occasion,
it seems, that brought her hither."
But the great change was rapidly approaching. It had indeed been
foreshadowed nearly a century and a half before, as when, for instance,
on Ascension Day 1382, Wyclif's disciple Nicholas Hereford, preaching
in the churchyard of St. Frideswide's, made a violent attack on the
Mendicant Friars, and boldly asserted his sympathy with Wyclif.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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