The installation of Oxford University’s new Vice-Chancellor this week has made for a Catholic double at the top of the university, little more than a century after Catholics were first readmitted to the institution.Professor Louise Richardson was installed as Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday, making her both the first woman to hold the post and the first Catholic in modern times. Her appointment represents something of a Catholic coup: its Chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes, is also a Catholic.At the ceremony, Professor Richardson said universities were guardians of culture and foundations of democracy.After the Reformation Catholics were prohibited from joining the university until 1895. In the same year the Benedictine Order founded a house of studies in Oxford,