Martyrs` Memorial, Oxford

The Martyr’s Memorial stands proudly at the junction of St. Giles, Magdalen St. and Beaumont St.It is an easily recognised landmark and is an obvious meeting point if you are approaching from the north of the city. In summer it is often awash with foreign students eating their take-aways on its steps.

Many people are aware that this memorial commemorates the burning at the stake of three prominent protestant bishops in 1556 but ...
...in 1841.

Outwardly this gothic edifice shows statues of the three bishops: Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley and an inscription stating that they died for maintaining sacred truths "against the errors of the Church of Rome". Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury and he and the other two were unfortunate to be around when queen Mary introduced her catholic regime. The Bishops refused to convert, although Cranmer did briefly, ... more

The Martyr’s Memorial stands proudly at the junction of St. Giles, Magdalen St. and Beaumont St.It is an easily recognised landmark and is an obvious meeting point if you are approaching from the north of the city. In summer it is often awash with foreign students eating their take-aways on its steps.

Many people are aware that this memorial commemorates the burning at the stake of three prominent protestant bishops in 1556 but few are aware of the true reasons behind its erection in 1841.

Outwardly this gothic edifice shows statues of the three bishops: Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley and an inscription stating that they died for maintaining sacred truths "against the errors of the Church of Rome". Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury and he and the other two were unfortunate to be around when queen Mary introduced her catholic regime. The Bishops refused to convert, although Cranmer did briefly, and first Ridley and Latimer were burned alive for heresy and later Cranmer. The actual place of the burning is outside Balliol College in Broad St. and is marked by a brass cross in the middle of the road.

The chances are that Oxford would be largely unaware of this rather nasty event in its history were it not for another religious crisis which took place 300 years later in Oxford. On 14th July 1833 Keble preached a sermon entitled ‘National apostasy’ which kindled another kind of fire. This was the beginning of the so-called Oxford Movement which included Keble, Pusey and most famously John Henry Newman who eventually went over to Rome and became a cardinal.

The Oxford movement, born out of a general romantic revival during the period, was seen by many to be very dangerous for the Church of England. It was thought that all the Tractarians, as they were also called, were papists who had infiltrated the C of E to bring about its downfall.

In retrospect this was not the case and it was in fact more a revivalist movement which re-introduced long forgotten rituals into the church such as morning and evening prayers, weekly communion, candles on the altar and vestments for priests – none of which were practised at the time in the C of E.

So it was largely as reaction against this movement that the Martyr’s memorial was commissioned in 1840. It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott who was a leading practical architect of the mid -19th century Gothic Revival in England.

One wonders whether it really reflects a desire to burn the latest ‘heretics’ at the stake or whether it was erected as a warning of what might happen if England were once again become Catholic. Either way the memorial is not really a memorial but a religious protest and I for one am glad we now live in a more enlightened age.

I’m not sure why the Martyr’s Memorial is included as an attraction but as it is I have written about it. Sorry to give you a history lesson – but what else is there to say?

 

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