University Church, Oxford

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford is one of those soaring landmarks for which that ancient city is famous. I nevertheless considered its tower too broad, and its multi-pinnacled spire too complicated, giving an impression of strength rather than elegance. The insides are rather pleasant, however, with the gallery affording a good survey of the whole, below.

Yet for all its external strength and internal grace, it is a place of sorrow. This is where bishops Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer were tried for their lives and pronounced guilty, and where poor Cranmer was forced to hear a popish sermon denouncing him and justifying his burning on the morning of his painful death.

The converted John Wesley preached here in 1744 on the topic of  ‘Scriptural Christianity’. The lethargic and formalistic Georgian Church of England could not stomach his enthusiasm, and he rightly divined that he would not be asked to return. Thankfully, he took to open air preaching, the barred pulpits and the locked churches proving no barrier to his determination to preach Christ the length and breadth of the kingdom.

Thirdly, this was church of the Tractarian John Newman, one of the main forces behind the Oxford Movement, which attempted to de-protestantise the Church of England in the nineteenth century. It was he who objected to the erection of a memorial to the three martyred bishops on Broad Street, below, the scene of their deaths. It was therefore constructed elsewhere, where the parson of St Mary’s could not hinder it. In 1845, he showed his true colour by converting to Rome, receiving the reward of a cardinal's hat in 1879.

Doubtless, the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford will have witnessed many fine, biblical sermons and the extolling of Christ and His glorious gospel. Sadly, it is more famously associated with opposition to gospel truth.  

A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping, and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and forgotten the Lord their God. Jeremiah 3:21, Geneva Bible

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