Lift Up Your Hearts

The picture is from an illuminated Bible owned by Ripon Cathedral. It shows Moses leading the Israelites. The horns represent the rays of light which shone from the face of Moses who, alone before the coming of Christ, "spoke with the Lord face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Since Moses did not veil his face when he spoke with God, when he came out of the Tent of Meeting the people observed that his face shone. In statues and then in pictures the rays were represented with horns. The joys of iconography!! Christians believe that in Jesus we are given the privilege of speaking with the Lord 'face to face' a point made both by S Paul and S John.

Illuminated MS from Ripon Cathedral

Since 1980 the Ripon manuscripts have been deposited rather more safely in the Leeds University Library. That is partly because of Donald Bartlett (B 1887), who was Archdeacon of Ripon and then as canon of the Cathedral responsible for the library. The editor of Bartlett's reminiscences says he was an 'unsuspicious person' and would put the key to the safe away in a cupboard without concealment. This resulted in a theft in 1964 of a Book of Hours (prayer book) and one of only six copies of a very rare Caxton printing. He remarked only that like a lady lost a pearl necklace "I may have lost my necklace, but I do not intend to lose my peace of mind." The books proved to be so rare as to be unsaleable and were returned in the post a few months later.