MORE AND FISHER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1935, Page 6

MORE AND FISHER

BODLEIAN EXHIBITION

The Bodleian has 'been commemorating by a comprehensive exhibition the Canonisation of Sir 'Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher., who were sent to the block on Tower Green by\Henry VIII four hundred years ago, says the "Daily Telegraph." Interesting and important loans have been made by Mr. John Burns, the Earl of Denbigh; the Abbot of Douai, Mr. T. M. Eyston, Sir! Leicester Harmsworth, Canon H. J. King, Mr. J. P.. R. Lyell, the Rector oil Oscott College, and the Rector of Stonyhurst College. Among the most important exhibits connected with Sir Tlhomas More are: A printed Book of Hours according to the Sarum Use (P.aris, 1530), annotated by More during his'" imprisonment; j ' ' ;. A fine autograph signature attached to a lease of Crosby Hall; ,; The ■first edition of; "Utopia" (1516), with the early translations in|o English, French, and Italian; a manuscript life by Nicholas Harptsfield, and vs A copy of the exceedingly rare "Devout Treatise about the Paternoster" (1530), translated from the- Latin by More's eldest daughter, 'Margaret Roper. ■ . :■•"' Fisher is represented! by his earliest printed work, "The iruytfull saynge3 • of Dauyd" (150f5); his'sermon on,the death of Henry VII and of Margaret, Countess of Richmond; and by some of his controversial works; all being of great rarity. ; "'•'■ BURNING OF LUTBIER'S BOOKS. 'There is also'a sermon preached at the burning of Luther's books at St. Paul's Cross on May 12, 1521. It "defended the supremacy ;of the Pope, and later was ordered by Henry VIII to be burnt. The- Rector o£ Stonyhurst ;has lent a manuscript life of Fisher, used by Fr. Bridgett whea writing his life. • ■'An autograph poem,'\and the earliest edition of the works of Robert Southwell, poet and martyr, are also,displayed, together with an autograph poem of Edmund Camjpion, and a copy" of his "Rationes decein" (1581). This was secretly printed in a wood., at Stonor Park, near Henley, and distributed by stealth in St. Mary's Church, Oxford. Qnly three or four copies are known to exist, although a large num- . ber of copies had been thus disposed of. , ■;■'.■ ■,•; • One interesting document which,has never before been exhibited is the roll of accounts presented ,"by Campion and James Charnock when: they were Proctors of the University. . t ■ ,-. Special prominence has been given in the exhibition to the works of English Roman Catholic educated at Oxford. The,most 'notable of these writers were Cardinal Allen, ■■•■the founder ,of the English seminary at Douay; Robert Parsons, the great controversialist; Gregory Martin, .the translator of the Doua|y version of the Bible; Augustine Baker, the authpr. of a notable book of devotion, "Saricta Sophia"; and William Gifford, who became Primate of all France. Besides Edmund Campion, the Jesuit martyrs Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Brian*' were both Oxford mere. '■