Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday 23 February 2012

Pope Pius XI in Consistory


The New Liturgical Movement recently published this splendid photograph of a Consistory in the pontificate of Pope Piux XI (1922-39) from the Sacris Solemniis website, which has a post - which can be found by following the link below the photograph - about the tapestry behind the Papal throne.



Consistory in the time of Pope Pius XI

Source: Sacris Solemniis

The Sacris Solemniis site has an expandable version of the photograph.

The following note is adapted from the comments on the NLM post:

The figures sitting on the floor in front of the Cardinals are members of The Confraternity of Trainbearers (see page 77 of the online Nainfa to which I cannot make a link) and are wearing a splendid garment called a crocia.

A curiosity here is that the cardinals are in the winter cappa with the ermine hood and the assistants are wearing the summer crocia without fur. I believe that they are not actually on the floor but on the platform that holds the seats for the Cardinals. This seems to have been a common practice for servers and assistants, the bearers of book, candle, mitre and crozier to sit on the bottom step of the bishop's throne.


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