It remembers the “Oxford Martyrs”, three Anglican prelates burned at the stake during Mary Tudor's bid to reimpose Catholic supremacy in England in 1553-58.
The 1841 Martyrs' Memorial was built as a rebuke and warning to Oxford theologians such as John Henry Newman, as they questioned the legitimacy of the Church of England's split from Rome.
In an unscientific straw poll at the Martyrs' Memorial this week, students, tourists and even an Oxford don chaining up her bicycle (sturdy frame, wicker basket) could not say what it commemorated.