Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/257

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courts, one of the most notable modern additions to any college in Cambridge. The picturesque buildings are mostly Tudor or Jacobean, while Gilbert Scott's magnificent chapel, opened in 1869, is Early Deco- rated. In size and wealth St. John's ranks next to Trinity, and it has produced many famous scholars.

Taking the remaining colleges in alphabetical order, we have first St. Catherine's, its red brick buildings dating from the end of the seventeenth century, and its court, planted with elms, opening to the street. Many noted ecclesiastics and theologians have been educated here. Christ's College, founded (like St. John's) by the mother of Henry VII, is associated with Milton, and the mulberry-tree said to have been planted by him is still shown. The ancient buildings were all modernized in the eighteenth century. Clare is the second oldest college in the university, but the present structure is entirely of the seventeenth cen- tury, and is a very pleasing example of the Palladian style. Corpus Christi, founded in 1352 by the guilds of Corpus Christi and of the Blessed Virgin, came early to be known as Benet College, from the neighbouring church of St. Benedict, and its proper name was, curiously enough, revived only in the nineteenth cen- tury. The modern buildings are imposing from their size, and the library contains a most valuable collec- tion of books brought together by Archbishop Parker from the dissolved monasteries. Downing, the only modern college in Cambridge (founded 1800), has large grounds, but there is nothing noteworthy about its buildings. Emmanuel, on the site of a Dominican monastery, and the chosen home of the Puritans for a hundred years, has a chapel and picture-gallery de- signed by Wren. The founder of Harvard College, 1 S \.. was a member of Emmanuel. Gonville and Cains (usually known as Caius, pronounced "Keys") has some valuable medical studentships, and is the chief medical college. The stained glass in the chapel depicts the miracles of healing. The college buildings have been greatly altered and enlarged, but the three famous old gates (of Humility, of Virtue, and of Hon- our) are still preserved. Jesus (dear to Catholics as the college of the martyred Bishop Fisher of Roches- ter) occupies the site of a Benedictine convent, of which the fifteenth-century- cliapel still remains, and has been restored by Pugin. It is the only college with a complete range of cloisters. Magdalene, the only college on the north side of the river Cam, was a Benedictine foundation. Not much remains of the ancient buildings, the finest part of the college being the Pepvsian library, containing the books of the famous diarist . and many black letter volumes. Pem- broke, the college of Spenser, Gray, and Pitt, has a chapel built by Wren, but has little architectural in- terest. It has been a noted nursery of Anglican prel- ates. St. Peter's or Peterhouse, the oldest college in Cambridge (founded 1257), preserves some of its ancient buildings, has pretty gardens and a small deer-park, and a library rich in medieval theology. The chapel is Laudian Gothic, dating from 1633. Queen's College, founded by the consorts of Henry VI and Edward IV (the only college which has a president, not a master), is charmingly picturesque, its ancient buildings having suffered less than most from restoration. It boasts Erasmus, whose study is still shown, as its most famous alumnus; but the col- lege has hardly kept up its ancient reputation for learning. Sidney Sussex, with its pretty gardens, is the college of Oliver Cromwell, and possesses the best extant portrait of him. It occupies the site of a

Franciscan monastery, but almost all that was old or interesting in the buildings was destroyed by Wvatt-

ville's "restorations" about ls:',0. Trinity Hall.' also with charming gardens, lias mostly been rebuilt since a fire in 1851. It lias always been more or less the legal college, as Caius, the medical, and has also turned out many famous boating men. Selwyn Col-


lege, the hostel founded in 1S82 in memory of a well- known Anglican prelate, aims at economy, and is ex- clusively Anglican by its foundation charter. Girton and Newnham, the two colleges for female students at Cambridge, are in no sense part of the university. Apart from the beauty and interest possessed by the individual colleges, a peculiar charm common to nearly all is their picturesque position on the bank of the little river Cam, the buildings and gardens of the larger colleges extending on either side of the river, which is spanned by nine bridges. This unique com- bination of river, meadow, avenue, garden, and col- legiate buildings is known collectively as the " backs", and it would be difficult to exaggerate its charm, es- pecially on a fresh morning in the early summer.

V. Cambridge and English Catholics. — Up till about the middle of the nineteenth century, although no religious test, or subscription to the Anglican Arti- cles was (as at Oxford) required on matriculation into the University of Cambridge, it was impossible to proceed to the bachelor's (or of course to any higher) degree without first signing the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and declaring oneself a hnnn pile mem- ber of the Church of England. It was not until nearly thirty years after these disabilities and restrict ions were removed that Catholics began once again to fre- quent the universities in any numbers; not, in fact, until, in response to a petition addressed to the Con- gregation of Propaganda, through the English Bish- ops, by a representative body of English Catholics (including many Peers and university graduates), permission was formally granted by the Holy See, under certain conditions and with certain safeguards, for the Catholic youth of Great. Britain to attend the national universities. During the ten years from 1897 to 1907, considerable advantage has been taken of this concession, Catholics coming in gradually increas- ing numbers both from the principal English Catholic schools, and from other parts of the British Empire, as well as from the Continent of Europe and from the United States, to avail themselves of the peculiar ad- vantages of English university education. At the beginning of the academical year 1907-190S there were (at Cambridge) seventy-six Catholics in resi- dence at the university, including six members of the senate, two bachelors of arts, and sixty-eight under- graduates. About two-fifths of the Catholic students were from English Catholic schools (Beaumont, Downside, the Oratory, Stonyhurst, Ushaw,etc); two- fifths had been educated at non-Catholic public schools (Eton, Harrow, Wellington, St. Paul's, etc.); while the remaining fifth were foreigners, many of them young Austrians or Hungarian nobles, and others from Germany, France, Spain, or Italy, and a few from India and the United States. The largest number, as was to be expected, were members of Trinity College, the others being pretty well distrib- uted over the other colleges. The Catholic student-, small as is their number in comparison with the great mass of the undergraduates, have earned a good re] iU tation both for steadiness and industry, and a large majority of them are, as a rule, reading for honours. There is always a fair percentage of Catholics who hold college scholarships, gained in open competition.

St. Edmund's House, an institution for students pre- paring for the (secular) priesthood, occupies a house formerly known as A\ cist's Hostel, but later pur- chased for the Catholic body by the Duke of Norfolk. It is not corporately recognized by the university, as an attempt, soon after its foundation, to have it erected into a regular hostel was defeated in the senate, although the university authorities wen- not

opposed to the idea. The members of the house are.

however, all affiliated either to some college ortothe

non-collegiate body, permission being grant ed to t hem to live together under their own head or rector. Be- sides the seminarists, who belong to various English