• Congregation 21 June: Public Orator's speeches introducing the honorands (Latin followed by English)
  • Doctor of Civil Law
    • Mr David Holmes
  • Doctor of Letters
    • Professor Peter Brown
    • Professor Alison Lurie
    • Mr Derek Walcott
    • Professor Marina Warner
  • Doctor of Science
    • Professor Raanan Gillon
    • Sir John Houghton
    • Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell

• Encaenia
• Creweian Oration 2006

University Acts

CONGREGATION 21 June

1 Conferment of Honorary Degrees

Degree of Doctor of Civil Law

Mr David Holmes, MA

Registrar of the University of Oxford 1998–2006

Quotannis principes Vniversitatis per strata Oxoniae et in hoc Theatrum Sheldonianum pompa longa incedunt: Cancellarius per frontem, trabea aurata sole (ut ita dicam) candidius refulgens; mox post Procuratores et Vice- Cancellarium ordines doctorum, vestitu rubro insignes; deinde collegiorum custodes magistri principales inter se colloquentes; ultimum locum tenent veste nigra parumque splendida induti Orator et Registrarius. Hodie tamen agmen honorandorum ducit Registrarius, variis coloribus conspicuus; virum enim de hac Vniversitate optime meritum recte honestamus. In comitatu Lancastrensi educatus, litteris humanioribus apud Collegium de Merton studuit, cumque de Latinitate certaretur, palmam est adeptus; quare ut Vitellius in Capitolio ita hic nostris Encaeniis magnificam orationem de semet ipso promere posset, nisi modestia esset impedimento. Quot res bene gestas me memorare oportet! Hoc duce et auspice Oxonia est omnis divisa in partes quinque, permulta aedificia ad scientias chimiae ac medicinae augendas constructa sunt, schola ad artem commercii docendam condita est et in domo ampla constituta. Augustus quidem gloriatus esse dicitur urbem marmoream se relinquere quam latericiam accepisset; hunc Oxoniam lapideam acceptam vitro et chalybe ornavisse dicere fere ausim. De rebus quoque pecuniariis sapienter egit, quippe qui, ut olim Abraham, ad aram arietem duxerit quem inter vepres haerentem e sentibus liberaverat. Patriarches profecto nobis fuit, non ille barba superciliisque horribilis, sed comis et hilaris atque ad risum saepissime promptus. Non huic libris philosophorum opus est ut tranquillitatem in discrimine servet: sive iuventus tabularia occupat, sive murmurant academici, consilium illud Horatii,

Aequam memento rebus in arduis
servare mentem,

ipse sibi paravit. Hodie quidem gradu doctoris eum donamus, sed in perpetuum—id quod amictui purpureo et laudibus oratoris facile antecellit—grates nostras et amorem tribuimus.

Praesento amicum dilectum, gubernatorem sagacem, David Robertum Holmes, Collegii Divi Iohannis Baptistae socium Collegiique de Merton et alumnum et socium honoris causa adscriptum, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili.

Admission by the Chancellor

Maxime huius reipublicae litterarum propugnator, cuius prudentia sapientia Herculeus labor nobis tantopere profuerunt, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili honoris causa.

Paraphrase

Every year the University's worthies walk in procession through the streets of Oxford and into the Sheldonian Theatre: the Chancellor leads the way, shining almost more brightly than the sun in his gilded robes of state; then after the Proctors and the Vice-Chancellor come the ranks of the doctors, resplendent in their red raiment; there follow the heads of colleges, chatting amongst themselves; and the last place is taken by the Registrar and the Orator, in dull black gowns. [Cf Vitellius' entry into Rome, Tacitus Hist. 2. 89.] Today, however, a Registrar, conspicuous in colourful garb, leads the ranks of the honorands, for we are properly honouring a man who has done the University outstanding service. He was brought up in Lancashire, and read Greats at Merton, where he won the Chancellor's Prize for Latin Prose Composition; so like the Emperor Vitellius on the Capitol he would be able here at Encaenia to deliver a magniloquent oration about himself, did not modesty forbid. Many are the achievements that I ought to call to our minds. Under his auspices Oxford was, as Julius Caesar might say, divided into five parts; many buildings have gone up, among them the Chemistry Research Laboratory and important facilities for medical research; and the Saïd Business School was set up and installed in spacious premises. Augustus is said to have boasted that he found the city of Rome brick and left it marble; and I am tempted to say that our honorand found Oxford stone and diversified it with glass and steel. He has also shown his command of financial matters: like Abraham, he found the RAM caught in a thicket, freed it from its thorny entanglements, and brought it to the altar. He has indeed been a patriarch to us, not one of those with shaggy beard and eyebrows, but approachable, cheerful and with a smile never far from his lips. He has not needed the instruction of philosophers to keep calm in a crisis: whether students are occupying the University's offices or the dons are muttering, his own character has afforded him Horace's advice: 'Maintain a level head when times are hard.' Today we bestow a doctorate on him, but for the future we offer him something much more important than colourful costume or an orator's praise: our lasting gratitude and affection.

I present a well-loved friend and a sagacious administrator, David Robert Holmes, Fellow of St John's College and graduate and Honorary Fellow of Merton College, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law.

Admission by the Chancellor

Doughty champion of this republic of letters, whose judgement, wisdom and Herculean labours have brought us such great advantage, I on my own authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law.

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Degree of Doctor of Letters

Professor Peter Brown, MA, FBA, F.R.HIST.S.

Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Princeton University

Ex quo tempore Herodotus, pater historiae, bella Graecorum contra Persas exposuit, maximi inter rerum gestarum scriptores non solum doctrinam sed etiam artem delectandi atque commovendi praebuerunt. Virum viris illis magnis comparem nunc produco, cuius opera haud dubium est quin inter auctores celeberrimos sint inserenda. Oxoniae fundamenta eruditionis condidit: apud Collegium Novum Baccalaureatum in Artibus adeptus est; tum ad Collegium de Merton migravit; mox Socius Collegii Omnium Animarum electus ibi primos ex eis libris scripsit quibus lucos academicos tanta claritate illuminavit. Antea alii antiquitati alii medio aevo studebant, at hic intellexit et haec et illa saecula coniuncte inquirenda esse, ita ut antiquitas recentior notio paene ab ipso creata esse videatur. Tacitus quidem modestia scilicet parum sincera dixit laborem suum in arto esse et inglorium; huius laborem spatioso in campo versari consentiunt omnes. Ad Syriam peregrinatus est, ad Africam, ad Galliam. Inprimis explicavit quibus modis fides Christiana mores et cultum mundi Romani mutavisset; de corpore de mortuis de sanctitate de voluptatis carnalis contemptu subtiliter disseruit. Eruditioni autem eximiae ingenium poetae adiungit: si Augustinum vel Ambrosium depingit, rursus spirare et nobis loqui videntur; si loca et situs describit, nosmet ipsos adesse prope credimus. Praeceptor etiam iuventutis peritissimus, discipulos affiatu quodam divino afficit. Lucretius de Epicuro magistro suo dixit, 'Deus ille fuit, deus'; quam sententiam eisdem prope verbis, mirabile dictu, etiamnunc reddit pubes Princetoniana. Equidem memini discipulos Oxonienses eum adeo esse veneratos ut aliquando et vocem eius et gestus imitarentur nec scirent quid facerent. Huic septuagensimo anno aetatis hoc donum natalicium, signum admirationis, libenter offerimus.

Praesento alcumistam magnum, qui in catino ingenii sui leporem Hibernicum diligentiam Britannicam vigorem Americanum commiscens auream fabricatur sapientiae massam, Petrum Robertum Lamont Brown, Collegii Novi alumnum et Socium honoris causa adscriptum, Collegiique Omnium Animarum quondam Socium, Academiae Britannicae sodalem, apud Vniversitatem de Princeton Historiae Professorem, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris.

Admission by the Chancellor

Scriptor historiarum excellentissime, qui lectores doctrina instruxisti arte cepisti, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris honoris causa.

Paraphrase

Ever since the time that Herodotus, the father of history, narrated the wars fought between the Greeks and Persians, the greatest historians have not only displayed learning but have played upon their readers' emotions through their literary skill. The man whom I now present equals these great masters, and there is no doubt that his books belong in this exalted company. It was in Oxford that he laid the foundations of his scholarship: an undergraduate at New College, he then spent a short time at Merton before being elected to a fellowship at All Souls, where he wrote the first two of those books which have so brightly lit up the groves of academe. There was a time when the study of antiquity and the study of the Middle Ages were treated as separate fields; his insight was to appreciate that these periods should be treated as a single whole—to the extent that the concept 'late antiquity' can almost seem to be his invention. Tacitus was presumably being mock-modest when he said that his work was narrow in compass and inglorious; at all events, everyone agrees that our honorand's work ranges very widely. He has gone to Syria, to Africa, to Gaul. His research has been directed above all to the changes which Christianity wrought upon the culture and society of the Roman world, and he has written brilliantly about the body, about the dead, about holiness, and about sexual renunciation. To exceptional scholarship he brings also a poetic sense: if he depicts Augustine or Ambrose, they seem to breathe again and speak to us; if he describes places, we almost believe that we are there ourselves. He is also an inspired teacher, with a kind of magic touch. Lucretius said of his master Epicurus, 'He was a god, yes, a god'; but one is startled to find the Princeton student body in this day and age echoing these sentiments in nearly the same words. ['Peter Brown is a god... Take this course', 'Guide to Awesome Courses'.] I can myself remember that his Oxford pupils admired him to the extent that they would sometimes quite unconsciously mimic his gestures and tone of voice. In this year in which he will reach the age of seventy we enthusiastically offer him this birthday present as a token of our own admiration.

I present a great alchemist, who creates the gold of wisdom by fusing in the crucible of his imagination Irish charm, English empiricism and American enterprise, Peter Robert Lamont Brown, FBA, graduate and honorary Fellow of New College and quondam Fellow of All Souls, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History at Princeton University, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

Admission by the Chancellor

Superlative historian, who have taught your readers by your scholarship and enchanted them by your art, I on my own authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

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Professor Alison Lurie

Writer and Frederic J. Whiton Professor American Literature Emerita, Cornell University

Ecce femina quae omnes nostra aetate fabularum commenticiarum scriptores urbanitate artificio subtilitate superavit. Ex quo tempore librum primum prelo commisit, plerique eam cum Iohanna nostra comparaverunt, id quod ipsa haud ineptum existimare videtur; illi enim fabulae Amor et Amicitia tamquam pignus admirationis inscribitur. Satis constat hanc, ut olim illam, eas tantum res tractavisse quas ipsa experta cognoverit, ita ut verear ne in proximo libro magnificentiam cuiusdam oratoris irrideat. Quapropter, ut apud Horatium petitor, 'descendit in Campum'. Errant tamen qui eam credunt de sua ipsius vita personis tantum mutatis disseruisse; immo omnia arte sua et vi ingenii transfigurat. Errant etiam qui propter facetias ac dicacitatem eam nimis laudant; nam ut

omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
tangit,

ita haec dum lectores delectat in arcana cordis humani alte penetravit, calamumque sale melle felle tinxit. Recte igitur de ea ut de Lucretio Tullius, 'Multa lumina ingeni, multae tamen artis', adfirmare possis. Vt Lucanus poeta 'bella plus quam civilia' depinxit, haec librum De Bello Sociali exaravit, in quo discordiam coniugalem atque odia academica rebus militaribus Americanorum maxima mentis acie comparavit. In libro cui titulus Puellae Vnicae sensus nondum adultarum subtiliter repraesentat. Cum de Laura veritatem scribit, illud Horatianum 'Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo?' rogare videatur. Quae enim in hac fabula πρωταγωνιστει [protagonistei] (nomen Graece reddi potest Polymorphe), dum vitam pictricis cuiusdam scriptura notos et cognatos eius percontatur, alios aliter eius meminisse invenit. Ita docemur quam variae et mutabiles sint descriptiones hominum, quamque sit difficile veram indolem cuiusquam comprehendere. Talem artem paucis verbis explicare vix possum, neque opus est; eloquentius enim loquuntur libri ipsi. Itaque vocem quam olim Augustinus audivit audiant omnes: 'Tolle lege, tolle lege.'

Praesento scriptricem et lepidam et sapientem, pectoris humani haruspicam acutissimam, Alison Lurie, apud Vniversitatem Cornellianam litterarum Americanarum quondam professorem, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris.

Admission by the Chancellor

Fabularum inventrix peritissima, quae cum lectoribus innumerabilibus placuisti tum indolem humanam penitus es perscrutata, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris honoris causa.

Paraphrase

Here is a writer who has excelled all novelists of the present day in elegance, subtlety and technical mastery. From the time of her first published novel, critics have compared her to Jane Austen, and it seems that she herself might not baulk at the comparison, as that first book bears the title Love and Friendship in tribute. It is the general view that like Jane Austen she has kept to those areas of life that she has known from her own experience (indeed, I worry that her next novel may make fun of some pompous orator). And so, like the candidate in Horace, she has 'gone down to the Campus'. But it is a mistake to suppose that she has written autobiographical romans à clé; on the contrary, her art and imagination transform all her material. It is an equal mistake to overdo the praise of her wit and humour: Persius observes that Horace's cunning is to put his finger on his victim's every weakness while keeping him smiling; similarly, while entertaining her readers, she penetrates deeply into the inwardness of human psychology: her pen is dipped in honey, salt and gall. One may appropriately apply to her Cicero's judgement of Lucretius, that he combined many strokes of genius with brilliant craftsmanship. The poet Lucan's subject was 'Wars more than civil'; she for her part has written The War Between the Tates, in which with exceptional acuity she set marital strife and professorial backbiting against the real war being fought by the United States at that time. In Only Children she evokes childhood experience with a fine empathy. In The Truth about Lorin Jones she seems to pose Horace's question: 'Where might I find the knot to bind this Proteus' shifting form?' The heroine of this novel, Polly Alter—Polymorphe might do as a classical version of her name—finds when she interviews the friends and relations of a woman painter whose biography she is researching that they all remember her in different ways. And thus we learn how diverse and slippery are the accounts that we get of other people, and how hard it is to know anyone's true nature. I cannot easily explicate such subtle art in a few words, and luckily there is no need, for the greater eloquence is in the books themselves. So let everyone hearken to the voice which Augustine once heard: 'Just pick it up and read it.'

I present a writer who is both charming and wise, a profound analyst of the human heart, Alison Lurie, Frederic J. Whiton Professor of American Literature Emerita at Cornell University, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

Admission by the Chancellor

Most skilful novelist, who while delighting countless readers have also penetrated deeply into human nature, I on my own authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

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Mr Derek Walcott, OBE, FRSL

Poet and Playwright

Felicem eum esse qui ut olim Vlixes navigationem bene perfecerit dicit poeta Francogallus. Homerus Vlixem primum ostendit Ogygiam incolentem, insulam in Oceano remotissimo positam; nam deam Calypso, amore captam, captum eum ibi retinere narrat. Ecce poeta arte et lyrica et epica sollertissimus, qui ut Catullus multa per aequora vectus est et ut Vlixes multorum hominum urbes vidit mentemque cognovit. Civis Britannicus in loco a Britannia remoto natus est; patria est insula Sanctae Luciae, pars Indiae illius Occidentalis ubi Calypso non dea amantissima est, immo ut Musa colitur. Apud Homerum Vlixes post reditum Ithacae remanere, apud poetam Britannicum etiam in senectute peregrinari voluit: 'Praemia sunt et adhuc senibus decus.' Hic quem laudo iam senex nihil prisci vigoris amisit. Nam in libello nuper edito, cui titulus Vir Prodigus, se ut etiamnunc viatorem repraesentat. Novum Eboracum Londinium Lutetiam Mediolanum iter facit; ad Alpes Italiam Americam Australem pervenit. Attamen quamvis crepusculum illud Vergilianum admiretur (verbis ipsius utor), Europae antiquam gloriam onus factam esse existimat. Dum tabulas statuas molem aedium sacrarum spectat, dulcem domum reminiscitur; nam ut Vlixes apud Homerum nihil dulcius quam solum suum videre potest, et ut Cicero reditum in montis patrios et ad incunabula sua perpetuo desiderat.

Carmini eius celeberrimo Homerus inscribitur, qui titulus ad Graeciam ut fuit et ut nunc est spectare plane videtur. Magna scriptrix quaedam fabularum commenticiarum dixit poetas epicos et tragicos de fortunis regum atque heroum scripsisse, se gaudia ac dolores hominum mediocrium depingere maluisse; putavit enim, ut videtur, fabulas commenticias a carminibus epicis plurimum discrepare. At hic epos de hominibus obscuris fecit, obscuros epica dignitate vestivit. In versibus eius casus Achillis Hectoris Philoctetis narrantur; sunt tamen plebei, non principes. Itaque quod Vergilius de semet dixit de eo dicendum: 'In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria.'

Praesento Homerum reducem et Vlixem, Theodoricum Alton Walcott, apud Vniversitatem Bostoniensem professorem, praemio Nobeliano nobilitatum, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris.

Admission by the Chancellor

Vates egregie, qui cum amorem patriae cecinisti tum multas gentes multa saecula totum orbem terrarum versibus pulcherrimis complexus es, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris honoris causa.

Paraphrase

'Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage,' says Joachim du Bellay. When Homer introduces Ulysses to us, he is living on Ogygia, an island lying in farthest Ocean; for, as the poet tells, the goddess Calypso, herself love's captive, holds him captive in this place. Here is a master of both lyric and epic verse, who like Catullus has been 'borne o'er many seas' and like Ulysses has seen the cities of many men and known their mind. He was born a British subject in a place far indeed from Britain: his home is the island of St Lucia in the West Indies—where Calypso is a muse, not a goddess in love. Homer's Ulysses wanted to stay in Ithaca once he had got back there, but Tennyson's Ulysses yearned to explore even in old age: 'Old age hath yet his honour and his toil.' In his seventies our honorand has lost none of his old force. In his recent volume, The Prodigal, he represents himself still as a rover. He travels to New York, London, Paris, Milan; his journeys take him to the Alps, to Italy, to South America. But while he admires the 'Virgilian twilight', to borrow his own phrase, he feels that Europe's glorious past has become a burden. As he views paintings, sculptures and great cathedrals, he finds himself thinking affectionately of his Heimat; for like Homer's Ulysses he thinks that he can see no sweeter sight than his own land, and like Cicero he longs constantly to return to 'my native hills, the cradle of my being'.

He has called his most famous work Omeros, a title which surely evokes Greece both ancient and modern. The great novelist George Eliot said that whereas tragedians and epic poets had written about kings and heroes, she had chosen to depict the joys and sorrows of ordinary folk; she supposed, it seems, that the novel and the epic poem were utterly different art forms. Our honorand, however, has made an epic out of humble people, and clad these humble people in an epic nobility. His verses tell of Achille, Hector and Philoctete; but these are common people, not lords of the earth. When Virgil wrote about bees, he said that his theme was slight, but not slight the glory; and we may say the same of this poet.

I present the Homer and the Ulysses of our time, Derek Alton Walcott, Professor at Boston University, Nobel laureate, for admission to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

Admission by the Chancellor

Great poet, who while expressing your love for your homeland have at the same time brought many times and nations, indeed the whole world, within the compass of your magnificent verse, I on my own authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

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Professor Marina Warner, MA, FBA, FRSL

Writer and Critic, Professor of Literature, University of Essex

Marina profunditate multa et mirabilia celantur: latent ibi corallia, margaritae, pisces variis formis coloribusque distincti. Dicit Mercurius apud Vergilium varium et mutabile semper esse feminam; quam sententiam, licet culpam attribuere voluisset, in laudem vertere poteris, si eam quam nunc praesento examinaveris. Litteris et Francogallis et Italicis apud Aulam Dominae Margaretae studuit, sed ingenium eius capax atque ardens intra fines unius disciplinae non poterat contineri. Cum de Beata Virgine Maria adhuc iuvenis disseruisset, auctores Anglicos Francogallos Latinos Italicos protulit, tabulas statuas aedificia descripsit, mente animoque per multas gentes et multa saecula peregrinata est. Ingenium tam versatile praebet ut nesciam utrum eam historicam an fabulatricem an litterarum iudicem potissimum nominem. Plutarchus quidem dixit se non historias sed vitas scribere, scilicet ratus has et illas multum discrepare; haec tamen vitas in argumentum historiae transfigurat. In primis de feminis illustribus scripsit, praesertim de eis quas posteri variis multiplicibusque modis sunt interpretati; quare libros non solum de Virgine Maria sed etiam de Sancta Iohanna ac de Serum imperatrice quadam exaravit. Cum de Maria disseruit, cultum eius non vitam scrutata est; cum de Iohanna, virginem a minoribus in viraginem versam descripsit. Eadem calamo subtili atque acuto et fabulas commenticias et fabellas ad usum puerorum composuit. In evangelio legimus Deum parvulis revelavisse quod a sapientibus et prudentibus absconderit; ita haec in narratiunculis mythicis, quae aliis leves nimisque pueriles visae sunt, veras spei metusque humani imagines latere intellegit. Apte igitur commentariis quos nuper in unum librum collegit titulum Signa et Mirabilia dedit; nam ut pueruli aliquid mirum in eis quae in usu habemus percipit.

Praesento scriptricem doctam lepidam versatilem, Marinam Saram Warner, Aulae Dominae Margaretae et alumnam et Sociam honoris causa adscriptam, Academiae Britannicae Sodalem, apud Vniversitatem Essexensem litterarum professorem, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris

Admission by the Chancellor

Femina facunda atque ingeniosa, quae tot res coloribus tam variis et nitidis depinxisti, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris honoris causa.

Paraphrase

The depths of ocean have many wonders concealed in them: corals lie hid there, pearls, and fishes of varied forms and colours. In Virgil's Aeneid the god Mercury claims that woman is always various and mutable; this judgement was not meant as a compliment, but one can turn it into praise by applying it to the honorand whom I now present. She read French and Italian at Lady Margaret Hall, but her broad and vivid imagination could not be held within the bounds of a single discipline. In her early book on the Virgin Mary she quoted authors in English, French, Latin and Italian, described pictures, sculptures and buildings, her mind travelling through many nations and many centuries. Her talent is indeed so versatile that I am not sure whether to call her an historian, an imaginative writer, or a literary critic. Plutarch said that he was writing lives not histories, evidently reckoning the two disciplines to be wholly distinct, but our honorand takes lives and makes them into the stuff of history. Her work has taken a particular interest in remarkable women, especially those who have been subject to various and multiple interpretation through the ages; accordingly, she has published books not only on the Virgin Mary but on Joan of Arc and on an Empress of China. When she wrote about Mary, her theme was the Virgin's cult, not her actual life; when she wrote about Joan, she studied the shaping of a young woman into an image of female heroism. She has also written fine and perceptive novels and stories for children. We read in the gospels that God has revealed to babes what he has hidden from the wise and prudent; and our honorand has appreciated, for her part, that myths and fairy-tales, dismissed by some as slight and childish, conceal truths about human hopes and fears. It is fitting that she has given the title Signs and Wonders to her recent collection of essays and reviews, for like children she can see the wonder in everyday things.

I present a learned, charming and versatile writer, Marina Sarah Warner, FBA, graduate and Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Professor of Literature at the University of Essex, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

Admission by the Chancellor

Eloquent and imaginative writer, who have painted so many subjects in such various and brilliant colours, I on my own authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

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Degree of Doctor of Science

Professor Raanan Gillon, FRCP, HON. RCM

Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics, Imperial College London

Serpens in paradiso cum mulierem in tentationem induceret adfirmavit eam et coniugem si fructum ligni vetiti commederent, sicut deos fore scientes bonum et malum. Et hac aetate plerique dicunt reperta doctorum scientiam adeo auxisse ut nos quoque potestatem quasi divinam usurpare videamur; id quod metuitur ab aliis, aliis placet. Non saltem dubium est quin ars medica semper progrediens, cum morbos quosdam paene aboleverit ac dolores innumerabiles leniverit, quaestiones difficiles et perplexas nobis proponat. Quid pueris adhuc in utero latentibus debemus? Quando vitam moriturorum producamus, quando praecidamus? Licetne ea semina mutare vel eligere ex quibus infantes creabuntur? Vtilissimum igitur virum nunc produco, quia primum locum diu inter eos tenuit qui quaestionibus medicis ethicen afferunt. Hierosolymae natus, in Britannia educatus, baccalaureatum apud Vniversitatem Londiniensem est adeptus; arti medicae Oxoniae studuit, tum Londinium reversus in philosophiam incubuit. Plurimos commentarios ipse scripsit, commentarios aliorum libellis consensu omnium excellentissimis per multos annos edidit. Primus in Britannia cathedram ethices quae ad artem medicam pertinet occupavit; primus rei medicae studentibus scholarum seriem de ethice praebuit. Per eum praeter alios stat ut hodie omnes ad medicinam ituri fines bonorum et malorum in scholis examinare debeant. Et dum de officiis medicorum scribit, medicinam ipsam non neglegit; morbos enim cottidianos hominum investigare et sanare dignatus est. Existimat enim, ut videtur, non sufficere philosopho vitam umbratilem sed debere illum, qua est humanitate, homines re atque factis adiuvare. Quamobrem discipulorum non solum admirationem sed amorem est consecutus; qui comitatem eius, sermonem fusum atque incitatum, peritiam etiam artis coquendi, studiumque vini praedicant.

Praesento philosophiae et activae et contemplativae magistrum clarissimum, Raanan Evelyn Zvi Gillon, apud Collegium Imperiale Londiniensium Ethices quondam Professorem, Aedis Christi alumnum, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia.

Admission by the Chancellor

Magister et philosophiae et rei medicae sagax et humane, in quo ratio atque ardor coniuncti sunt, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia honoris causa.

Paraphrase

When the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he declared that if she and her man ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, they would become like gods, having knowledge of good and evil. In our own time there are many who say that the scientists' discoveries have advanced knowledge so far that we too might seem to have acquired a godlike power. Some people are alarmed by this, others welcome it. At all events, there is no doubt that the constant advance of medical science, while it has virtually eliminated some diseases and alleviated countless sufferings, has presented us with difficult and perplexing problems. What rights should we accord to unborn children? Should we prolong the lives of the dying, or even shorten them? Is it permissible to alter or select an embryo's genes? The honorand whom I now present is therefore a man of the highest value, for he has long been the leader among the scholars of medical ethics. He was born in Jerusalem and educated in Britain, earning his first degree at the University of London. He then did his clinical studies in Oxford, before returning to London to take a degree in philosophy. Besides writing a huge number of articles himself, he was for many years editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics, which by general consent he raised to the first place in its field. He was the first man in Britain to occupy a chair of medical ethics, and the first to produce an intensive course on ethics for medical students. It is due to him more than anyone else that those training to become doctors must now study moral issues as part of their course. While writing about the morality of medicine, he does not neglect medicine itself, willingly diagnosing and putting right everyday ailments in his work as a GP. He believes, it would seem, that the philosopher should not be content with a retired life of study, but should put his concern for his fellow men to practical effect. And so he has earned not only admiration from those whom he has taught but affection: they praise his kindliness, his flow of animated talk, his mastery as a cook, and his love of wine.

I present an eminent master of both theoretical and practical philosophy, Raanan Evelyn Zvi Gillon, Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics at Imperial College London, senior member of Christ Church, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

Admission by the Chancellor

Wise and humane master of both philosophy and medicine, in whom reason and passion are conjoined, I on my authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

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Sir John Houghton, CBE, MA, D.PHIL., FRS

Chairman of the John Ray Initiative

Maiores nostri tempora et mutationes caeli consilio deorum immortalium assignare solebant:

Caelo tonantem credidimus Iovem
regnare.

Hac tamen aetate diluvia tempestates aestus praeter solitum surgentes saepius nostrae culpae nostrae neglegentiae tribuimus. Igitur virum nunc laudo in hoc aevo utilissimum, quippe qui cum tempestatum rationes optime intellegat tum summa auctoritate saluti ipsius orbis terrarum consulat. Egregiam eius doctrinam ac sapientiam praemia multa et magna testantur; sex libros scripsit, commentariosque de radiis invisis per aethera currentibus de spectroscopia de aere paulatim tepescente exaravit. Apud plus quam decem universitates gradibus honoris causa donatus est, nos autem imprimis oportet eum honestare qui Collegii Iesu fuit et scholaris et per tres et viginti annos socius, necnon physicae atmosphaericae praelector atque professor. Tum Institutioni Meteorologicae praepositus eos gubernavit qui caelum scrutantur,

Haec ut certis possemus noscere signis
Aestusque pluviasque et agentis frigora ventos.

Ergo si tantum in scientiam naturae augendam incubuisset, satis gloriae esset consecutus; sed studium verae rationis virtutis studio coniungendum esse credit. Hunc pulcherrimum terrarum orbem intelligit nobis usui non mancipio traditam esse. Quare societatem a semet aliisque constitutam ut hic in qua versamur mundus secundum praecepta fidei Christianae custodiatur ipse hodieque dirigit. Verba enim evangelii proferre solet, 'Omni autem cui multum datum est multum quaeretur ab eo.' Vergilius dixit Lucretium quidem fuisse felicem qui causas rerum potuisset cognoscere, se etiam fortunatum qui deos agrestes novisset. O beatum illum qui et rerum naturam et Dei cognoscere nititur.

Praesento alterum Daedalum, altum aeris exploratorem, Iohannem Theodorum Houghton, equitem auratum, Societatis Regiae sodalem, Societati Collegii Iesu honoris causa adscriptum, plurimis honoribus iam cumulatum, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia.

Admission by the Chancellor

Indefesse per aethera viator, qui et res super terram intellexisti et terram ipsam defendisti, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia honoris causa.

Paraphrase

Once upon a time people used to attribute the behaviour of the weather to the actions of the gods: 'We believed' (says Horace) 'that the god's thunder manifested his reign in heaven.' Nowadays, however, we are more inclined to blame floods, hurricanes and tides surging above their usual height on our own culpable negligence. Accordingly, the subject of my praise now is a man of the highest value to this present age, as he not only has a superlative understanding of meteorology but also uses his expertise to warn of the dangers which threaten our very planet. Many prestigious awards bear witness to his exceptional distinction as a scientist; he has written six books, besides papers on atmospheric radiation, spectroscopy and climate change. More than ten universities have awarded him honorary degrees, but it is especially fitting that we should honour a man who was both a scholar of Jesus College and for twenty-three years a fellow, besides being successively Reader and Professor of Atmospheric Physics. Then he became Director-General of the Meteorological Office, where he oversaw those who study the heavens,

that by certain signs we may presage
Of heats and rains, and winds' impetuous rage.

(Virgil, Georgics, tr. Dryden)

So if he had devoted himself entirely to scientific enquiry, he would be eminent enough, but he believes that the pursuit of science has a moral dimension. He understands that we are custodians, not freeholders, of this glorious world of ours. And so along with some other scientists he set up the John Ray Initiative to promote the stewardship of the environment on Christian principles, and he remains its Chairman. He is wont to refer to the words of the gospel, 'Where a man has been given much, much will be expected of him.' Virgil wrote that whereas it was Lucretius' good fortune to have understood the causes of natural phenomena, he was himself fortunate too, for he had known the countryside's gods. But blessed indeed is he who strives to understand both God and nature.

I present a lofty explorer of the air—a second Daedalus, as it were—sir John Theodore Houghton, FRS, Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, and recipient of many other distinctions, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

Admission by the Chancellor

Tireless voyager through the atmosphere, who have understood things above the earth and have championed the cause of the earth itself, I on my authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

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Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, PH.D., D.SC., FRS, F.MED.SCI., F.I.BIOL., FRSA

MRC Professor of Physiology, University of Manchester

Credebant olim philosophi animum sapientis arcem esse inexpugnabilem: quamvis corpus angoribus cruciaretur, mentem immotam manere. Nos autem intellegimus cerebrum partem corporis esse, et ut corpus posse vulnerari. Arti medicae sane gratias agere oportet, quia vitam longius produxerit vitaeque aerumnas multis modis leniverit; tamen haud dubium est quin diuturnitas aetatis novas curas adferat. Inter senectutis dolores forsitan nullus maior sit quam timor ille ne mens morbo afficiatur; nam qui vim mentis perdit perdit et se ipsum. Haec quam nunc produco princeps inter eos habenda est qui genus humanum ab hac peste liberare conantur. Apud Vniversitatem Londiniensem baccalaureatum et gradum doctoris in scientia adepta, abhinc fere viginti annis Mancuniam transmigravit, ubi nunc plus quam viginti cerebri naturae inquisitores dirigit. Qui ea elementa quae neurones nuncupantur diligentissime perscrutati causas reperire coeperunt cur apoplexi corrumpantur vel intus putrescant. Rex Scotorum apud vatem nostrum medicum rogat num mentis morbum sanare possit, nec spem invenit. At hac duce et auspice semen minutissimum cognitum est, quod licet corpus plerumque adiuvet, tamen cum cerebrum laesum est in pestem vertitur. Sed et alterum semen quod viribus illius resistit invenerunt; hoc iam ad probationem adductum apoplecticis adhibent.

Haec si omne tempus quaestionibus medicis conferret, satis honoris mereretur, sed et plura fecit. Quamquam inter homines studiis rerum naturae deditos sunt qui inviti φροντιστηρια [phrontisteria] sua relinquunt, haec in forum descendere non recusat. Multis societatibus consilium dedit, multas etiam gubernavit. Ardet pueros et puellas suo scientiae amore incendere; quare scholas Decembres apud Institutionem Regalem abhinc septem annis habuit. Inprimis sexum femineum ad haec studia vult allicere, cui se exemplum optimum praebuit.

Praesento physiologam insignissimam, cerebri scrutatricem acutissimam, Nancy Iohannam Rothwell, Excellentissimi Ordinis Imperii Britannici Dominam Commendatricem, Societatis Regalis sodalem, apud Vniversitatem Mancunianam Physiologiae Professorem, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia.

Admission by the Chancellor

Femina doctissima, cuius labor et scientiam auxit et spem morbo cerebri affiictis porrigit, ego auctoritate mea et totius Vniversitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia honoris causa.

Paraphrase

There was a time when philosophers believed the wise man's spirit to be an impregnable citadel; whatever anguish wracked the body, the mind (they supposed) remained unmoved. We now understand, however, that the brain is part of the body and is accordingly subject to bodily shock. We owe a debt of gratitude to the art of medicine for prolonging life and relieving its distresses in all sorts of ways; nevertheless, it can hardly be denied that longer life expectancy has brought with it new problems. Among the misfortunes of old age none perhaps is worse than the fear of disease attacking the mind; for to lose one's mind is to lose one's very self. The honorand whom I now present is among the leaders of those who are working to free humanity from this scourge. She pursued both her undergraduate and doctoral studies at the University of London, but some twenty years ago she moved to Manchester, where she now oversees a group of more than twenty researchers studying the mechanisms of the brain. By means of exacting analysis of brain cells or neurones her research group has advanced the understanding of how and why they are damaged by stroke or by the processes of Alzheimer's disease. Macbeth asks the doctor whether he can minister to a mind diseased, and gets no comfort; but the research led by our honorand has detected a cytokine which is normally beneficial but in the aftermath of brain injury turns into a destructive agent. They have also identified a blocker which inhibits it, and they are currently conducting clinical trials of this on stroke victims.

If our honorand had spent her time on nothing but medical research, she would have earned distinction enough, but she has done more. Although the scientific community includes a good number of people who are reluctant to leave their laboratories, she willingly enters the public sphere. Many are the boards and councils on which she has sat, or which she has chaired. She is passionate to kindle the young with her own love of science, and in 1998 she gave the Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution. Above all, she wants to draw women to science, and she has indeed proved herself to be the perfect role-model.

I present an eminent physiologist, a penetrating analyst of the brain, Dame Nancy Jane Rothwell, DBE, FRS, Professor of Phyisology at the University of Manchester, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

Admission by the Chancellor

Most learned scientist, whose work has not only augmented knowledge but is offering hope to those suffering from impairment of the brain, I on my authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

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2 Encaenia

THE PUBLIC ORATOR delivered the following Oration 'in Commemoration of the Benefactors of the University according to the intention of the Right Honourable Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham':

THE PUBLIC ORATOR: Honoratissime Domine Cancellarie, licetne Anglice loqui?

THE CHANCELLOR: Licet.

THE PUBLIC ORATOR: Sir, from the faint susurration in this audience I deduce that our brief exchange in a learned language has been well understood, and the permission to speak in English was evidently unnecessary. A hundred years ago, indeed, the Creweian Oration, like the rest of this ceremony, was in Latin, and there was no translation. Life was tough in those days. But in the course of the twentieth century the Creweian changed to the vulgar tongue, and more recently English paraphrases were introduced for the other orations. Let no one deny that we are bold modernisers. Dr Samuel Johnson of Pembroke would not have approved of these reforms: when he composed the epitaph for Oliver Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey, his friends besought him to abandon Latin, but he replied that he would not disgrace the Abbey with an inscription in English. But then Dr Johnson of Pembroke disapproved of a lot of things. At least he would be pleased to see that the title of our celebration remains in a learned language, indeed in Greek: Encaenia, a festival of renewal. 'In my beginning is my end,' wrote Mr Eliot of Merton in his Four Quartets, and the reverse is equally true: this ending of the year is also a beginning, a Commencement. In America a public eminence from outside the university customarily gives the Commencement speech. In an uplifting address he inspires his hearers to go out, make something of their lives, and turn the world into a better place. I look around this room, and I think: too late.

So here we are again, fresh from the champagne and strawberries of Lord Crewe's Benefaction (fresh is perhaps not quite the word). The Benefaction presents the Orator with a dilemma: should he too indulge? In the view of Mr Bertie Wooster of Magdalen, 'If you want real oratory, the preliminary noggin is essential. Unless pie-eyed, you cannot hope to grip.' But Mr Wooster of Magdalen was not always a sound judge, and in the event I have preferred to follow the advice of Mr Wooster's gentleman's gentleman: 'I would not advocate it, sir.'

It may be an accident of history that this our principal ceremonial of the year has come to centre upon gratitude, but if so, it is a happy accident. For more than eight hundred years the University and its colleges have been sustained by the generosity of benefactors; they have been essential to its growth and success. And so today we commemorate our benefactors; we think upon those, known and unknown, who have sustained the University in earlier centuries, and we thank those who sustain us today. Past, present and future come together as we sense ourselves to be part of a republic of learning and teaching that unites in a continuum the dead, the living, and those who will follow us when we have gone. In celebrating our benefactors we also celebrate ourselves, for the generosity of our friends testifies to their trust and confidence in us. I hope that it also challenges us to do better what we already do well, to examine ourselves, to look for our imperfections, and do what we can to mend them.

But it must be admitted that this is at the same time a good excuse for self- congratulation. The art of self- praise is a delicate one, and requires a degree of indirectness. An Englishman, it has been said, does not boast, provided that he can make sufficiently clear what it is that he is not boasting about. The trick is to get someone else to do it for you. It was reported that when Nelson Mandela, honorary doctor of this University, was President of South Africa, he was supplied with an official praise singer, and here too it used to be the custom that once a year a senior figure would deliver a speech about the excellences of the Vice-Chancellor. I am sorry to say that the last Vice-Chancellor felt all this flattery to be distasteful, and abolished this institution—after trying it out for several years to make absolutely certain that it was as distasteful as he supposed. The leaders of this University would not dream of bragging about its excellences, but some hack might do it for them. And so here I am.

Dons could do with some good publicity, after all. Another difference that one cannot help noticing between the United States and ourselves is that in American fiction academics are glamorous and in British fiction they are drear. American films give us Professor Indiana Jones and that fellow from Harvard with the bad hair who solves the Da Vinci Code. But academics in British fiction are usually dull, disillusioned or pedantic, and Oxford dons are the worst of the lot. In A Yank at Oxford we are merely old, mouldy and more or less loveable; but from the rest of English fiction it becomes clear that we are all vain, venal, snobbish and port-sodden, and quite a few of us are murderers. If there are any murderers in the Sheldonian Theatre today, I suppose that your presence means you haven't yet been caught. But the rules are clear: you are allowed two more kills, and then Inspector Morse nabs you.

How agreeable, therefore, to turn from fiction to fact, and discover that we are remembered with affection by our old members. The Oxford memoirs of Crown Prince Naruhito, of Merton and Japan, have been translated into English, with the engaging title The Thames and I. In anthropological spirit he describes some of the weirder customs of the natives, ruefully recording his lack of success at a boot-throwing competition at a village fete. Apparently he didn't give it enough welly. It is a pleasure to see that he describes his years here as the happiest time in his life. And it is a great pleasure to record two benefactions from Japan: the Nissan Motor Company has made a further substantial donation to the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, and Mr Hiroaki Shikanai has made a generous donation for the Japanese Gallery to be built as part of the reconstruction of Ashmolean Museum. Other large gifts towards this hugely exciting and ambitious project have come from the Wolfson Foundation, from the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund for the Hans and Marit Rausing Gallery and from the Clothworkers' Foundation for the Textiles Gallery.

Mr David K. Richards has given generously to Wadham College, and the BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd has made a large donation for the BP Chair in Economics and for the foundation of OxCarre, the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource-Rich Economies. Earlier in this academic year Mr James Martin became the third recipient of the Sheldon Medal, given for benefactions to the University of a truly exceptional kind. The James Martin Twenty-first Century School is designed to help Oxford brains to shape the future; which stimulates one to ask how far we have shaped the world as it is now. Given the history of the last century, it is moot how proud one should be of having played a part in its making; but be that as it may, when the Sunday Times some years ago published its list of A Thousand Makers of the Twentieth Century, two Oxford heads of the time were among them: Professor Blumberg, Master of Balliol, and Sir Roger Bannister, Master of Pembroke. One can imagine the governing body meetings at Balliol and Pembroke. 'Any complaints, fellows?' 'Yes, Master, the coffee is lukewarm.' 'Anything else?' 'Yes, Master, the twentieth century.' 'Oh, the twentieth century. Sorry about that.'

Lord Bragg of Wadham has been arguing that a few of our alumni helped to form the modern world thanks to a very short book written in 1864: the original Rules of Association Football, put together by a small group of Oxbridge graduates. Meanwhile the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography—the dictionary that supports our lads—has selected from its pages the best England team of all time. In reality, since the first qualification for getting into the ODNB is to be dead, their performance would be even more lifeless than the second half against Paraguay. The ODNB itself, the completion of which we celebrated last year, was of course made possible by the profits generated by Oxford University Press. Another beneficiary is this very Theatre, as a transfer from the Press has made possible the restoration of Robert Streater's ceiling painting. You may recall that when it was first installed, a local poet compared it to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, to the disadvantage of the Italian person. We wait to see if the restoration of our painting is as eye-opening as the restoration of the Sistine Chapel was some years ago, but reports say that the results so far are very striking. At all event, there seems to be a fair prospect that Streater's painting will be back in its familiar place at the next Encaenia, and we will once again be able to see the University threatened, in symbolic form, by the figures of Envy, Ignorance and Malice. Absurdly out of date, I do realise.

Another transformer of the world has come under the scrutiny of Professor Bryan Sykes. A few years back Professor Sykes was in the news for demonstrating that Mrs Sykes had been consistently faithful to Mr Sykes since the fourteenth century, and he has now hit the headlines again for identifying a descendant of Genghis Khan in Miami. His name is Tom Robinson, and he is a Professor of Accountancy. Well, it makes sense. As Professor Robinson himself said, 'Obviously I haven't conquered any countries, but I have headed up accounting groups.' Professor Sykes reveals that Mr Robinson's ancestors emigrated from the Lake District, where Genghiz Khan's descendants apparently cluster thick. So if any of you are heading for the Highlands this summer, be aware that you will be passing through areas where they are keen on whippets, homing pigeons and world domination. Thanks to Professor Sykes, you have been warned.

Our own plans for world domination seem to be progressing satisfactorily. In Washington, we have long infiltrated the two houses of Congress, and some years ago we were able to place one of our operatives in the White House. Efforts are under way to restore that situation. Back home, Miss Martha Kearney of St Anne's has not only presented Woman's Hour for some time but is also the bookies' favourite to take over Desert Island Discs. If she can bring off this double, Middle England will lie at our mercy. Meanwhile the Vice-Chancellor sits in Wellington Square stroking his white cat. He murmurs, 'Your monograph on Medieval Tuscany has disappointed us, Number 4'—and another professor is fed to the piranhas.

Talking of piranhas, the medical and life sciences have received some splendid donations. The Wolfson Foundation, in addition to its gift to the Ashmolean, has donated to the Biochemistry Department. The Davys Family Trust has endowed the Michael Davys Professorship of Neuroscience. The John Templeton Foundation has made another large donation to OXSOM, the Oxford Centre for Science of the Mind. The Bellhouse Foundation has given very substantially to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development to the Department of Pharmacology and for the Cesar Milstein Chair in Molecular Cancer Biology at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. The late Mrs Evelyn B. Louwes has left a bequest for the Louwes Fund for Food and Agricultural Research. Servier International have contributed to the endowment of the Robert Turner Professorship in Diabetic Medicine and the Merck Company Foundation to the Norman Heatley Memorial Fund at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology.

World domination, like charity, best starts at home. When the present government came to power in 1997, it was noted at the time that there were only two Oxonians in the Cabinet. But our numbers have been creeping up, and are now, I believe, not far short of a third, including two of its three youngest members. It seems now to be Oxonians, Scots, and the rest. Turning to the Opposition, we find that three of the four great offices of state are currently shadowed by Oxonians. Two of the three principal parties have changed their leaders since the last Encaenia. I noted last year that no Prime Minister since the war has been a graduate of a university other than Oxford, and only one Leader of the Opposition has been a graduate of any other English university. Normal service has been resumed with the election of Mr Cameron of Brasenose to lead the Conservative Party. The Senior Proctor observed, in his speech on demitting office, that a consequence of Mr Cameron's success was that we had as Prime Minister a member of the Senior Proctor's college and as Leader of the Opposition a member of the Junior Proctor's college. I note that Brasenose's next chance to elect a Senior Proctor will come in 2015. When the Liberal Democrats were choosing their new leader, there was some speculation in the press that all three parties might end up with an Oxonian at their head, a situation which obtained, astonishingly, for two decades from the fifties to the seventies; but in the event Mr Huhne of Magdalen came a respectable second. It would be ungenerous not to acknowledge the success of other institutions in this area; so congratulations to Cambridge on having produced the leader of the British National Party. Now there is a sentiment that we can express with unfeigned pleasure. You may wonder, however, whether I have been describing the Oxonian dominance of modern British politics in a spirit of pride or apology; but in the words of another Oxford man, 'I couldn't possibly comment.'

I turn from politics to entertainment. In case anyone thinks our musty world is far removed from the glamour of show business, let us note that Oxford has just won the Tony for the best play on Broadway in the person of Mr Bennett of Exeter and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, in the person of Mr Loach of St Peter's. The University bestowed an honorary degree on Mr Loach last July: where Oxford leads, Cannes follows. We won some prizes of our own too. The Times's Good University Guide put us first among the United Kingdom's universities for the fifth year running; and we topped the Guardian's survey also. Satisfactory though it is to score these petty successes, it would of course be unwise to take them too seriously except in broad brush terms. The area in which we outdistance other universities by the largest margin is in expenditure on libraries and computing, and this must in part reflect the costs of running a library system in beautiful and historic buildings designed when the world was a different place. It is ironic to think that our great plans for a new Humanities library on the Radcliffe Infirmary site should lower our mark in these newspaper rankings in the very act of improving the service to readers. Another building destined for the Infirmary site is a new home for the Mathematics Institute, which has received a very munificent gift from Mr Landon and Mrs Lavinia Clay for that purpose.

The Times reported that we were likely to abolish subfusc for examinations, following agitation by some members of the Students' Union. But the enragés made a mistake that successful revolutionaries never make: they consulted the electorate. The student body then voted by an enormous majority for subfusc to be retained. Belonging as I do to the soi-disant revolutionary generation, I am intrigued to see the renewed taste for formality that I notice in my own pupils, and pleased that today's students have rediscovered the truth that pomp and fun are not enemies, and indeed often go happily together. Latin and robes are cool. When Her Majesty the Queen, visitor of University College, Oriel and Christ Church, celebrated her eightieth birthday in April, Brazil's Globo Television sent its Vatican correspondent to cover the event. This lady explained why she was the obvious choice: 'In today's world,' she said, 'the Pope and the Queen are both fashion statements.' Sir, as you preside over us in your gilded splendour, you can reflect that you have ascended to the highest eminence that our celebrity culture acknowledges: you too are a fashion statement.

The enormous variety of what goes on in this place is indicated to us almost weekly in the lists of theses gazetted for viva voce examination, and even more perhaps by the lecture lists. We witness the University engaged with the most urgent political and social problems of the age; we glimpse scientists at the frontiers of knowledge; we see the pursuit of pure and difficult scholarship. Some lectures entice by their mere titles; and some titles stand out because they are in one way or another witty, piquant, abstruse or puzzling. I offer you a scatter of examples from the past year. 'What makes water wet? New insights...; 'Decadence and theology'; 'The importance of size in T cell activation'; from a visiting Lord Justice of Appeal, 'Sex, libels and video-surveillance'; and from a visiting general, 'The utility of force'.

Some lectures bear curiously plaintive titles, and a few even sound like cries for help. 'Spelling rules exist, but does anyone learn them?' 'Why I think I don't understand mathematical ontology'; 'It was all so easy then. Why has language teaching got so much more complicated since I started?' 'Why publish Shakespeare's collected plays?' This year's prize for sawing off the branch you are sitting on is shared between a lecturer at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies for 'Street dwellers in Japan—who cares?' and our first Professor of Internet Governance for his inaugural lecture: 'The future of the Internet—and how to stop it'. A series of classes given at the Centre for Linguistics on Gender in Indo- European seem to tell a human interest story in fashionably minimalist style: 'Introduction', 'The Creation of the Feminine', 'Feminine morphology', 'Gender Contrast and Thematic Declension', 'Developments in Latin and Romance'.

Some titles are mysterious: 'Fish in space; 'Smectic elastomers [to be confirmed]'; 'Do be do be do: Descartes, Sartre and Sinatra'. Some sound rather jolly: 'The inter-war public house; 'Why film noir is good for the mind'. Some are rather sweet: 'Still my favourite cell—the macrophage.' Some are revisionist: 'Galileo's mistakes' (Whoops! Sun Goes Round Earth, Top Prof Reveals). Another lecture reminds one of Eeyore: 'Medieval surgery—one could do worse'. Some are for strong stomachs only: 'Vets and other actors in the artificial insemination of pigs'. And from the Music Faculty, improbably, 'Pots, privies and WCs: crapping at the opera in London before 1850.' One wonders what happened in 1851.

While much of the University's work looks toward the future, we are also concerned with conserving, studying and interpreting the relics of the past. Professor William Scott-Jackson, also through Oxford Strategic Consulting Ltd, has made a large donation for the PADMAC unit for the study of palaeolithic artefacts and associated deposits mapped as clay-with-flints, within the Department of Archaeology. The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has given the Museum of the History of Science a grant towards the cataloguing of its collection of microscopes and microscope slides. Mr Michael Palin has funded a staff position at the Pitt Rivers Museum for a year; what a nice man. And stop press news from the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments: in the last few weeks they have been given a glasschord, a Pearl River Harmonium and a plungerphone. I have no idea what these things are: even my Oxford Dictionary has not heard of the plungerphone, but the Curator of the collection reports darkly that it 'has more than musical potential'. Perhaps it clears blocked drains.

This year, like all years, has seen many comings and goings. Every March, of course, sees a change of Proctors. Shortly before leaving office, the Senior Proctor warned us of the need to watch out for plagiarism even in this place. A week later his own oration borrowed material from the Senior Proctor's Orations for 1936, 1947, 1958, 1988, 1997 and 1998. I hasten to add that he gave his references, and indeed that his speech contained much quiet wisdom. It is well worth reading. Meanwhile, the Department of Engineering has acquired an expert on non-linear disturbance propagation—though some among us have been managing that for many years without expert assistance. I am reminded of the news, some years back, that the University had recruited the inventor of the backwards-facing oscillator. We have some of those too. This autumn Sir John Hanson retires from the Wardenship of Green College; the new Warden will be Professor Colin Bundy. Mr Michael Beloff leaves the Presidency of Trinity; his successor will be our man in Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts. Sir Marrack Goulding retires as Warden of St Antony's; after a year's interregnum he will be succeeded by Professor Margaret MacMillan. The Revd Dr Peter L'Estrange succeeds Father Gerard Hughes as Master of Campion Hall, and The Revd Canon Dr Robin Ward succeeds The Revd Dr Jeremy Sheehy as Principal of St Stephen's House. Not a disturbance propagator or backwards-facing oscillator among them all, I am sure.

Professors Valerie Beral, Peter Donnelly, John Eland and Nick White have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society, while the British Academy added six of our number to its ranks: Professors Gordon Clark, Dorothy Edgington, Sandra Fredman, Christopher Gosden, Sir Brian Harrison and Gerard van Gelder. The New Year and Birthday Honours lists produced a knight and a dame each, the recipients being Professor John Ball and Professor Averil Cameron, Warden of Keble, in January, and Professors Barry Cunliffe and Carole Jordan this month. The Birthday Honours also included a CBE for Professor Tom Burns. We congratulate them all.

I end this oration, according to custom, by calling to mind those of our colleagues who have died in the past year, among whom were Mary Bennett, Principal of St Hilda's, Peter Brunt, Fellow of Brasenose, Avril Bruten, Fellow of St Hugh's, Sir Julian Bullard, Fellow of All Souls, Bryce Cottrell, Fellow of Corpus, Richard Dalitz, Fellow of All Souls, Sir Richard Doll, first Warden of Green, Robert Duthie, Fellow of Worcester, Brian Farrell, Fellow of Corpus, Michael Gearin-Tosh, Fellow of St Catherine's, Thomas Halsall, Fellow of Linacre, Oliver Impey, Fellow of Green, Nevil Johnson, Fellow of Nuffield, Philip Jones, Fellow of Brasenose, Elspeth Kennedy, Fellow of St Hilda's, Raymond Klibansky, Fellow of Wolfson, Sanjaya Lall, Fellow of Green, Frank Lepper, Fellow of Corpus, David Luke, Student of Christ Church, Christopher Makins Lord Sherfield, Fellow of All Souls, Angus McIntosh, Tutor at Christ Church, Patrick Nowell-Smith, Fellow of Trinity, Robert Pring-Mill, Fellow of St Catherine's, Andrew Sherratt, Fellow of Linacre, John Simmons, Fellow of All Souls, Sir Richard Southwood, Fellow of Merton and Vice-Chancellor, Sir Peter Strawson, Fellow of Magdalen, Roy Stuart, Fellow of Hertford, Joseph Todd, Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Kenneth Turpin, Provost of Oriel and Vice- Chancellor, Joan Turville- Petre, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow of Somerville, Celia Westropp, Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, and Donald Whitton, Fellow of Lincoln. Requiescant in pace et in aeternum luceat eis Dominus Illuminatio Mea.

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