HERALDRY: Oriel~ (Updated May 15, 2018)

Oriel College, Oxford
arms.

Blazon: Gules three Lions passant guardant in pale Or a bordure engrailed Argent. (A lion is passant if viewed from the side with his head facing the viewer. A lion is guardant or gardant if his front right leg is raised, although the passant lions tend to have only three feet on the ground. In pale means the lions are lined up in a column, one above the other.)

Authority: These Royal Arms of England were used by the Plantagenet kings, from Richard I ("Lionheart") to Henry III and Edwards I, II and III. We could find no evidence that the college's differencing by a bordure engrailed argent has been granted, but the arms have been used for so long that they are now "ancient".

Nominee: The College was founded in 1324 by Adam de Brome during the reign of Edward II (ruled 1307-1377). Edward is the titular founder of the college, which is why the Royal Arms are used.  The Bordure may have been informed by de Brome's coat of arms, which includes the rare bordure engrailed argent.

College History. The College was once known as King's Hall and has absorbed both St. Mary's Hall and Bedel Hall Soon after the foundation in 1326 as the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was given a property called La Oriole, on the site of the present Front Quadrangle, and gradually the college came to be called by that name. Oriel was Oxford's fifth college, and the first to be royally founded. It began with a Provost and 10 Fellows. Students could pursue Theology, Law and Medicine. Three Provosts went on to become Bishops. It was the college of Walter Raleigh and Thomas More. In the early 1500s the first undergraduates arrived. Oriel survived the turbulence of the religious Reformation. By the end of the century more space was needed. Between 1620 and 1642 the medieval buildings were replaced by the present front quadrangle, which housed some of the court of King Charles I while Oxford was briefly his capital before he was defeated and beheaded by Cromwell. In the 1700s Oriel attracted its first transatlantic students, sons of planters in Virginia, one of whom later regretted employing a young surveyor, George Washington. Oriel expanded into a second quadrangle and built its Senior Library to house a large gift of books. Oriel in the 18th century  produced famed parson-naturalist Gilbert White. From 1780 to 1830 Oriel led the way in reforming academic standards, the brilliant Noetic era and then the Oxford Movement to revitalize the Church of England. The Oriel Fellowships were opened up to competitive examination and many of those who arrived, like Dr Thomas Arnold and John Henry Newman, made their mark.

Recent History. From the 1980s on Oriel College has grown rapidly, like the rest of Oxford, as graduate professional and specialty studies flourished and women were admitted in 1985. Oriel now has about 50 Fellows, 300 undergraduates and 200 graduate students. In recent weeks Ntokozo Qwabe, a 24-year-old Rhodes scholar from South Africa, has led a campaign to remove an Oriel College plaque to Cecil Rhodes and also a statue of Rhodes. Oriel College has started a process for removing the plaque. Qwabe was reported two days ago by the British Daily Telegraph as claiming that:

• Students at Oxford endure “systemic racism, patriarchy and other oppressions” on a daily basis.
• The university’s admissions and staff recruitment systems systematically exclude certain groups of people.
• Oxford’s architecture is laid out in a “racist and violent” way. 
• The British media treat him and his supporters like “terrorists” for challenging the establishment.

Other Posts on Heraldry at Oxford etc.:  HERALDRY SUPERLINK.

HERALDRY: St Cross (Updated May 16, 2018)

St. Cross Coat of Arms (full
achievement), grant
dated 1998.

Blazon (Full Achievement): Argent a Cross Potent Purpure a Quarter counterchanged And for the Crest upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Purpure An Armillary Sphere upon a Stand Or thereon a Dove with wings elevated and displayed Argent holding in the beak a Sprig of Mulberry fructed and leaved proper mantled Purpure doubled Argent.

Authority: The Grant of Arms is signed and sealed by the three English Kings of Arms. The formal copy cited in full at the end of this post was kindly provided by St Cross College, is dated 2000.

Teutonic Cross Potent in
Use in the Crusades.

Meaning: The motto is in the full achievement of the coat of arms, Ad Quattuor Cardines Mundi ("To the four corners of the world") but not in the blazon. It is in the grant of arms. The Cross Potent is one of many variations of the Christian cross in heraldic use, many of them emerging in the 11th century at the time of the first crusades. It was one of several crosses used on their shields by the Teutonic Knights. It would surely have been seen in England as a Christian religious symbol at the time it was created, although pre-Christian examples of the use of the T-tipped cross have been found.

Nominee of Arms: The College is named, says College sources, after St Cross Road, which links South Parks Road to the north and Longwall Street to the south, where it also meets Holywell Street (formerly Holywell Lane). The road runs by the ancient Holy Cross Church, which gave the road its name. The original buildings of St Cross College were located on the grounds of the church. The arms represent the name of the road. The St Cross Latin Grace rejoices in honor of the Holy Cross.

Institutional History: St Cross was founded by the University as a graduate college. It was founded at the same time as Wolfson and for the same reason. (Kellogg College was founded by the University later for a different purpose, i.e., continuing education.) The foundation of St Cross College was entirely secular; it has no chaplain. The practical reason for a new college was the need for college affiliations for a large number of new postwar fellows and graduate students who were admitted by the University to teach and enroll in an increased number of subjects taught at the University, notably in the sciences, but also in new fields such as archaeology and social sciences that had not been part of the undergraduate curriculum. The teachers were entitled to a college assignment, with the meals, residential accommodation, stipends, and the sense of belonging that might come with it – including the feeling of functioning under a banner that is cozier than the University-wide Dominus Illuminatio Mea. The University was getting pushback from the existing colleges when they had taken on and absorbed as many fellows and graduate students after World War II as they felt able (it was postwar policy in the United States to finance the higher education of returning veterans; the British welfare program of Clement Attlee went further, broadly expanding access to health care and education). Students at the religiously originated PPHs were eager to be able to compete in more intercollegiate sports (as they do now more than they used to). The University encouraged the expansion of some of the PPHs and movement of a few of them toward college status, a major obstacle being independence, i.e., not being in the control of a religious entity. Then the University decided to take the bull by the horns and in 1965 created a brand new college for residential postgraduates, i.e., St Cross. Unsurprisingly, when St Cross was created, its graduate students wanted to compete in intercollegiate sports like any other college.

Physical History: The college was originally provided with buildings on the site of the ancient Holy Cross Church, which has since been converted to a document-storage site for historic collections  owned by Balliol College. From this site the College moved to one on the west side of St Giles  among many PPHs and unaffiliated religious institutions such as the Quaker center. The ground under it is owned by the Anglo-Catholic Pusey House, named after Edward Bouverie Pusey, the man who led the Oxford Movement after John Henry Newman decamped to become a Roman Catholic. The proximity of Pusey House creates advantages for St Cross students, as noted on the college website. St Cross students may use facilities such as the Pusey House Library and Chapel.

Intellectual and Religious History: The college's sharing of facilities with Pusey House means it  shares somewhat in the rich intellectual and religious history of Pusey House. However, its main intellectual focus since World War II is on the sciences and it makes clear that it is formally unaffiliated with any religion.

Grant of Arms (2000): TO ALL AND SINGULAR to whom these presents shall come Peter Llewellyn Gwynn-Jones Esquire Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Garter Principal King of Arms David Hubert Boothby Chesshyre Esquire Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order Clarenceux King of Arms and Thomas Woodcock Esquire Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order Norroy and Ulster King of Arms send Greeting!
WHEREAS RICHARD COOPER REPP Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Oxford Master of Saint Cross College hath represented unto the Most Noble Miles Francis Stapleton Duke of Norfolk Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the British Empire upon whom has been conferred the Decoration of the Military Cross Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal of England that on the Fifth day of October 1965 pursuant to the provisions of Title VII Section II of the Statutes of the University of Oxford there was founded and established a Society of the said University known as SAINT CROSS COLLEGE having amongst its purposes the provision of facilities for post-graduate students engaged in the study of any subject offered by the University of Oxford at post-graduate level And that the governing body of SAINT CROSS COLLEGE consists of a Master and Fellows who are desirous of having Armorial Ensigns for the College established under lawful authority and duly recorded in Her Majesty’s College of Arms And whereas he as Master of SAINT CROSS COLLEGE and on behalf of the Fellows thereof hath requested therefore the favour of His Grace’s Warrant for Our granting and assigning such Arms and Crest and in the same Patent such Device or Badge as We deem suitable to be borne and used by SAINT CROSS COLLEGE on seals or otherwise in accordance with the Laws of Arms And forasmuch as the said Earl Marshal did by Warrant under his hand and Seal bearing date the Twentieth day of May 1998 authorise and direct Us to grant and assign such Arms and Crest and in the same Patent such Device or Badge accordingly Know Ye Therefore that We the said Garter Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms in pursuance of His Grace’s Warrant and by virtue of the Letters Patent of Our several Offices granted by The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty to each of Us respectively do by these Presents grant and assign unto the said SAINT CROSS COLLEGE the Arms following that is to say Argent a Cross Potent Purpure a Quarter counterchanged And for the Crest upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Purpure An Armillary Sphere upon a Stand Or thereon a Dove with wings elevated and displayed Argent holding in the beak a Sprig of Mulberry fructed and leaved proper mantled Purpure doubled Argent And by the authority aforesaid We do further grant and assign the following Device or Badge that is to say A Cross Potent voided Or as the same are all in the margin hereof more plainly depicted to be borne and used by SAINT CROSS COLLEGE on seals or otherwise in accordance with the Laws of Arms IN WITNESS whereof We the said Garter Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms have to these Presents subscribed Our names and affixed the Seals of Our several Offices this Second day of November in the Forty-ninth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen Head of the Commonwealth Defender of the Faith and in the year of Our Lord Two Thousand.

Thanks and References

After Oxford Today published my article (OT, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 45-50) on the heraldry of the Oxford colleges, three people wrote about St Cross College to OT's editor, who  forwarded them to me:

• Anthony Weale, former Secretary of Faculties and Academic Registrar, Oxford University.
• Ella Bedrock, in the communications office, St Cross College.
• Sir Mark Jones, Master of St Cross College.

The above expanded description of the college arms and history addresses the questions in the letters. My email box (jtmarlin at post.harvard.edu) remains open for further comments or questions.

Other Oxford Coats of Arms:  Article in Oxford Today, 2015. Harris Manchester College . Linacre College . St Cross College . St Edmund Hall . Trinity College . St Regent's Park College . St Benet's Hall

BIRTHDAYS: Oxonians (Updated March 3, 2016)

Any Oxonian with a Wikipedia entry, dead or alive, belongs on the birthday list.

This post was opened March 7, 2015. It includes college and year of birth.

I have sprinkled in a few Cambridge people that I happen to have written up in relation to the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race Dinners.

If you have names to add to the list, please send them to me and I will add them in - jtmarlin@post.harvard.edu. See also Oxford Obits, by date of death.

January
03 | J.R.R. Tolkien, CBE (Exeter) 1892
27 | Charles Dodgson, "Lewis Carroll" (Ch.Ch.) 1832
February
13 | Anna Watkins (Cambridge rower)
21 | John Henry Cardinal Newman (Trinity) 1801
21 | W. H. Auden 
April
13 | Frederick Lord North (Trinity) 1732
May
10 | James Viscount Bryce (Trinity) 1838
29 | Sir Basil "Gaffer" Blackwell (Merton) 1889
June 
04 | Dan Topolski (New) 1945
05 | James Smithson (Pembroke) 1765
16 | Adam Smith (Balliol) 1723
17 | John Wesley (Ch.Ch.) 1703
July 
10 | E. Clerihew Bentley (Merton) 1875
28 | Senator Bill Bradley (Worcester) 1943
August
08 | Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (Trinity) 1605
10 | George Goodman, "Adam Smith" (BNC) 1930
16 | T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) (Jesus) 1888
September
07 | Peter Darrow (Trinity) 1950
October 
23 | Denis Woodfield (Lincoln) 1933
November
09 | Noel Godfrey Chavasse (Trinity) 1884
09 | Francis Chavasse (Trinity and St. Peter's) 1884
15 | William Pitt the Elder, Lord Chatham (Trinity) 1708
21 | Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, "Q" (Trinity) 1863
29 | C. S. Lewis (Univ.) 1898
December
18 | Charles Wesley (Ch.Ch.) 1707
22 | James Oglethorpe (Corpus), 1st Gov. of Georgia 1696

Birthdays Unknown
Euclid Tsakalotos (Queen's), Greek Minister of Finance, 1960
Leonard Calvert (Trinity), 1st Gov. of Maryland 1606
Rev. Lawrence Washington (BNC), GW's gggrandfather 1602
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (Trinity) 1579

FEAST DAY: Oct. 9 - John Henry Newman

Blessed John Henry
Cardinal Newman

Today is the Feast Day of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890). Newman's birthday was February 21 and he died in August. October 9 was the date, after two years of instruction, when Newman was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 by Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist, in Littlemore.

Oxonians brought many gifts to America, including independence, with Pitt the Elder kicking the French out of the colonies and Lord North trying to make the colonials pay for the cost of British troops, thereby precipitating the Revolution. Newman's gift was not just to Catholics in America, but to Christians everywhere, especially those speaking English.

He was born in London and at 16 years of age went up to Trinity College, Oxford. He then served as a tutor at Oriel College, which was a center of Oxford University's religious revival.

For 17 years from 1828, he was vicar of the Anglican St. Mary's (The University Church of St. Mary the Virgin) close to Oriel at the center of the University on High Street. Five years into Newman's vicarage, John Keble gave his famous sermon at St. Mary's that won over Newman to the Oxford Movement to regenerate Catholicism. The Movement went back to the early Church for inspiration.

In 1845,  based on his search for continuity in the history of Christianity and his belief in objective truth, Newman then became a Roman Catholic. He published eight volumes of Parochial and Plain Sermons as well as two novels. He is celebrated as both an Anglican and a Roman Catholic theologian. His poem, "Dream of Gerontius," was set to music by Sir Edward Elgar.

In 1847, Newman was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome and joined the Congregation of the Oratory, founded three centuries earlier by St. Philip Neri. Returning to England, Newman founded Oratory houses in Birmingham and London. In 1854 he went to Dublin to serve as rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, which he helped found. While in Dublin he wrote The Idea of a University, in which he sets out his ideas on the purpose of education. Newman promotes the idea that the lived experience of believers is a key part of formation of theology.

Newman accepted Vatican I's teaching on papal infallibility while noting its limits, which at that time few proponents of infallibility were eager to do.

Newman was named a cardinal in 1879, and he took as his cardinal's motto Cor ad cor loquitur ("Heart speaks to heart"), which he adapted from a 17th century dictum. His crest includes three hearts, which are interpreted as being the Trinity. Pope Benedict XVI used the Cor ad cor loquitur motto to headline Newman's long-awaited beatification.

Newman was buried near Birmingham but his grave was exhumed in 2008 and a new tomb was prepared at the Oratory church in Birmingham. Three years after Newman died, a Newman Club for Catholic students began at the University of Pittsburgh, and similar centers for students were set up in many universities. Newman Centers had been created earlier but until Newman himself was beatified they lacked ecclesiastical blessing.

Pope Benedict beatified Newman in September 2010, at a ceremony outside of Birmingham. The pope noted Newman's balanced emphasis on both his religious beliefs as part of civilized society and on his pastoral energy to attend to the needs of the sick, poor, bereaved or incarcerated.

Newman's views were a key reference point for Vatican II under Pope John XXIII. He was called the "absent Father" of this conference of bishops 70 years after his death, especially on issues of conscience and religious liberty, the vocation of lay people, and relations between Church and State.