The Cambridge College chapels.
The importance of King’s College chapel in university history since the xv century leads us to consider the rôle played in Cambridge by collegiate chapels. Every college chapel, and every church which has an historical connexion with the university, has served—as all early Christian edifices have served—other purposes than those of religious worship. What we have to remark in Cambridge is that this ancient custom continued there longer than elsewhere. The “Commencements” which took place later in the Senate House used to be held, as we have seen, in the famous church of the Greyfriars or in that of the Austinfriars. The University church—Great S. Mary’s—was used by the university for its assemblies in the xiii century and was the scene of all great civic functions; disputations were held in it on Elizabeth’s visit in 1564. The college chapels were everywhere used for the transaction of important business; the Provost of King’s and other Masters are still elected in the chapel, documents are still sealed in the chapel of King’s and Trinity, and the Thurston speech is still pronounced in the chapel of Caius. The choir of King’s was used for degree examinations as late as 1851, and declamations are even now held in the chapel at Trinity. Indeed the “exercises of learning” “used” in the chapels was the reason given by the Corpus men to Lord Bacon’s father when asking for a church to themselves; and Queen Elizabeth witnessed the Aulularia of Plautus in King’s chapel on Sunday August 6th 1564, as the abbess and her nuns had assembled for Hrostwitha’s play in the abbey church of Gandersheim six hundred years earlier. The building of colleges adjoining a parish church is a feature peculiar to Cambridge. Merton is the one exception at Oxford, and Pembroke is, as we have seen, the only early exception to this rule at Cambridge.[188]
List of pre-reformation colleges built with chapels:—
| 1. | Pembroke 1355-63 (the existing chapel is xvii c.) |
| 2. | King’s 1446-1536 (the existing chapel). |
| 3. | Queens’ 1448 (defaced at the reformation and restored. But a xix c. chapel is now used). |
| 4. | Jesus 1495 (The then existing xii c. monastic chapel was rebuilt by the founder.) |
| 5. | S. Catherine’s 1475 (the existing chapel is xvii c.) |
| 6. | Magdalene 1483 (completely restored in the middle of the xix c.) |
Existing pre-reformation chapels:—
| King’s xv c. Queens’ xv c. (restored). Jesus xv c. Trinity Hall xv c. Magdalene (restored) xv c. |
Colleges built without chapels and with (generally) post-reformation chapels:—