Two plaques in St Mary the Virgin, the University Church

Two modern plaques in the University Church, St Mary the Virgin in the High Street.

One commemorates the Oxford lectures of Blessed John Duns Scotus, the Fransiscan philosopher best known for championing the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Explaining that the doctrine meant that God applied the graces of Christ's passion to Our Lady at the moment of her conception, he famously said 'He could do it, it is fitting, so He did do it.'

The other commemorates the 'martyrs of the Reformation', whatever that phrase might mean. The list of 22 men executed between 1539 and 1681 for broadly religious reasons includes five executed by Queen Mary Tudor and 17 executed under various Protestant governments, including the High Anglican Archbishop Laud, executed under the Puritan Commonwealth in 1645, and the 'Protestant joiner', Stephen College, enraged by Charles II's tolerance of Catholicism, executed for speaking against the King in 1681.

The rationale of the list is hard to fathom. The three 'martyrs' of 1549 died for the Catholic cause, but, unlike the other Catholics on the list, have never been beatified. The reason is that they are not martyrs at all: they were executed for their part in an armed uprising against the 1549 Prayer Book. On that basis, all the soldiers, of both sides, killed in the English Civil War ought to be included, since this conflict also had a religious character. For the full list of the names and short biographies see here.