The Rev Georgie Moore, vicar of Cowley, Oxford, lost none of his popularity, even after being accused of adultery, bad language and ribaldry.

The allegations were made by the vicar's housekeeper, Miss Johnson, who wrote to the Bishop claiming she had been seduced.

The case before the consistory court started on a Wednesday and the rest of the week was occupied entirely by the prosecution, so that none of the defence had been heard when Sunday came.

According to The Other Oxford, a book by former Oxford Mail editor Charles Fenby, the vicar was impatient to put his case and let it be known he would answer his accusers in church.

"The result was that at 8am on the Sunday, a queue began to form outside the church and an hour later, police reinforcements were hurriedly called up to clear a way through the crowds.

"It is doubtful whether there has ever been such a congregation in an Oxfordshire village.

"Deafening applause greeted the Reverend when he came out of the vicarage, his white hair gleaming in the November light. By this time, spectators had swarmed up the trees and people were clinging to the outside of the church walls in the hope of hearing through the ventilators.

"The police had to force a way so that the Reverend could get to the pulpit and there at last he stood defiantly facing the world.

"There followed an unbridled attack on everybody who had given evidence against him in the court. As the diatribe mounted, applause broke out and rose into wave after wave of cheers."

The vicar returned to the attack with even greater venom at the evening service. Despite this highly original method of giving evidence, he was found guilty, but he took the case to the Court of Appeal, which quashed his conviction on the grounds that Miss Johnson's evidence was uncorroborated.

"When the vicar got back to Oxford, he found a crowd of admirers at the boundary of Cowley parish. A brass band struck up in his honour. He was pulled from his carriage, hoisted on to shoulders and paraded behind the band and a torchlight procession."

The vicar, who served Cowley from 1875 to his death in 1928, retained his popularity to the end.