Page 3, 25th October 1946

25th October 1946

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Page 3, 25th October 1946 — How Catholics Returned To Oxford
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How Catholics Returned To Oxford

By FR. MARTINDALE
CAMPION Hall, the Jesuit house '''of studies at Oxford, keeps its golden jubilee this week. What follows is not so much a panegyric as an attempt to suggest the enterprise (that then seemed so audacious) in which it co-operated.
In 1870 Oxford became open to Catholics, but our Hierarchy obtained a decree against their going there. In 1895, Leo XIII permitted them to go, on certain conditions never accurately verified. The Society of Jesus and the Benedictines decided to profit by this: but it was at once asked: May clerics go there?" Rome said " Yes," but so late as 1918 decreed that they must first have been ordained priests. This was soon seen to be inapplicable.
It was the late Fr. R. F. Clarke, S.J., once Fellow of St. John's College and the last M.A. to he expelled for becoming a Catholic, who urged on Catholic authorities that " were the Society not intimately linked with the ancient universities, popular opinion would not hesitate to declare that the Jesuits did not even claim to give the sort of education which was still recognised as best. Their schools would all of them consciously settle back into the second rank " (Fr. J. Rickaby). This was, of course, appreciated by no means only by the Jesuits; but anyhow the General of the Society vigorously urged the creation of the "Private Hall " at Oxford; Fr. Clarke was " welcomed back with open arms" by the University, and he began " Clarke's Hall " as its head, in 1896, with four students. University opinion. then, had changed; but had Catholic opinion?
The First Students Incredible the suspicion with which Oxford was viewed by almost a majority! It exhaled a miasma of corrupt philosophies; it was the home of luxury and license. Poor first students! They lived in extreme poverty and austerity—even exercise must be taken furtively—even after dark. A layman denounced our men for rowing improperly clad, i.e., in white shorts and socks. So when I arrived we slunk riverwards in black shorts and stockings so long that no inch of skin was visible! Should we not have worn Roman collars in our baths? This slowly cleared itself up. But how hard to tind a suitable house! Even racquet courts were negotiated for. Suddenly, Fr. Clarke died of over-work. But a Private Hall, considered the property of its master, died with him. Our hall, then, was no more. No Oxford M.A. was qualified by residence to take it on. The Vice Chancellor bravely nominated Fr. J. O'Fallon Pope to he " temporal y Master, and matriculated some undergraduates. Then he heard that he had acted beyond his powers. Convocation not only put this right, but revised the Statutes so that the difficulty should not recur. Fr. Pope was confirmed as head of Pope's Hall, which was instantly believed to belong to the Sovereign Pontiff, though afterwards a newspaper declared that it existed only for Jesuits and the sons of Jesuits.
Distinctions began to fall to its members, but it were idle to catalogue names of scholarships and prizes. Better to note that they were by no means only for Latin and Greek, but fur historical research, moral philosophy and metaphysics, dissertations on Indian mysticism, on astronomy, essays on comparative religion, etc. We trust that this proves that much very hard work was being done ; I remember my black despair. during the first few terms there, because of the amount to be done, and the thoroughness required.
Fr. Plater
Fr. Pope. pattern of propriety. was succeeded by the mercurial el. Plater and largely owing to him a decree was carried in 1918 that the Benedictine and Jesuit Halls should be " Permanent Private Halls," an integral part of the University, living by its life and not by that of their masters. Later still, these halls were absolved from bearing their masters' names, and became " Campion Hall" and " Benct's Hall," as they now ate. Other privileges proved that the University was more than satisfied by the purely scholastic life of these balls. But Fr. Plater had no intention of letting the hall become a mere cramming-establishment or even
provide only a series of efficient schoolmasters. The 1914-18 war providentially, though tragically, assisted him. Oxford became an enormous hospital; two battalions of cadets and innumerable R.F.C. cadets tilled half the colleges ; air camps and even prisoner-ofwar camps were not far away. Work with the wounded ; retreats for these and for cadets; service in the Catholic Club filled a 36-hour day. Work, I may say, as amusing as arduous; as happy, as holy. Fr. Plater began to exercise a real influence in the civic life of Oxford : it was " his human touch. more than anything, that healed the angry wounds inflicted in the Oxford 'bus strike " (Fr. J. Rickaby), It was his genius that lay behind the ultimate creation of the Catholic Workers' College and much more that would take us too far from our direct subject.
Fr. Plater died suddenly in 1921, but he had widened out horizons—summet schools, international reunions (like those of the C.C.I.R.), the development of the Federation of Catholic Sdcieties in our universities and also of the international Pax Romana had his full encouragement; older members of the hall began to be asked not only to speak at innumerable University societics but to lecture in one or another faculty and to act as tutors; thus the dividing walls of prejudice melted like mists and the shadows of ignorance (sometimes unbelievably dense) were illuminated. But I think that the work of consolidation, adaptation and development went on for many yeais unsensationally, which was all to the good.
The last great change occurred during the mastership of Fr. M. D'Arcy, when the hall was transferred to its present site, and was built for its actual purpose by the late Sir E. Lutyens, being (to my feeling) by far the best piece of architecture put up in Oxford for very many years.
Part of a Wide Development
I have hoped to make it clear that Campion Hall was never an isolated phenomenon but has aimed at taking its place in a combined effort to raise the standard of Catholic education in our country—Blackfriars has become a nationally radiating force; there are now also the Salesian and Franciscan houses of study, the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Holy Child, the Sacred Heart, as well as charitable or contemplative houses like Nazareth House and the Oxford Carmel. (And don't let anyone accuse me of forgetting Cambridge, nor work in younger Universities!)
But to keep to Oxford. During these 50 years there was, first, a dwindling of belief in the value of the old " classical" education, though all that could seriously be urged was the obvious fact that if it was badly given. it bad bad results or none. The ideals of H. G. Wells began to replace the old ones—a naive belief in " science " as able all by itself to construct a sane and healthy world. His books were exciting : they seemed none the worse for being revolutionary ; such was their glitter that their extreme superficiality and indeed vulgurity was noticed only by a few; his slap-dash history was accompanied by an inability to carry any philosophical argument right through to its conclusion. But a reaction has come. More and more do' men of science see that " science " must lead up to a philosophy of life, and that a materialist philosophy leads but to destruction. This is not the place to argue that. but it must be obvious that Catholic groups, even small, lay or clerical, who have never abandoned the spiritual thread and who have a firm philosophy, if but they are as competent in all " secular " fields as the best of their contemporaries. can render incomparable—in fact, unique—service to a world nearing. one would say, its death-agony. The question is, whether enough can be done, and swiftly and deeply enough, to rescue the next generation. For our educational future is being prepared almost wholly by men devoid, themselves, of cultural background, or roots, and with horizons at once limited and misty, and too often possessed of the angry determination to abolish the past, of whose products they are so bitterly envious. Let us at least make the most of our schools, while we have them.




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