[84]
]CHAPTER V.
THE COLLEGE CHAPEL.
The College Chapel, as it appears to-day, is described in many of the guide-books which are pressed on the casual traveller in Cambridge. I am not here concerned with the accounts of it there given, for in this paper I intend to deal with little beyond its history and traditions.
It is a matter of common knowledge that the present chapel was built under the auspices of the Tudor queens, Mary and Elizabeth, on the site of the old chapel of King’s Hall. Let me begin by tracing briefly the history of these successive buildings, and their connection with college developments.
King’s Hall owed its origin to the establishment of scholars in the University of Cambridge by Edward II in 1317, and was put on a permanent footing by Edward III in 1337. The original home of the Society was a large two-storeyed house, built of wood and thatched, bought from Robert de Croyland, and situated on the ground now occupied by the walks and grass plot in front of the chapel. No chapel or oratory was connected with it, and the [85] ]Society worshipped in All Saints’ church which then stood on the green in Trinity Street facing our present chapel.
In 1375 the College began the erection on the ground to the north and west of its house of a larger building comprising a cloister court with various extensions. The west side of this court, some hundred and twenty feet long, is still standing and faces the bowling green: the other three sides and the extensions have been destroyed. These buildings were of three storeys, built of stone, brick, or rubble, and tiled: they were finished about 1438, and the old mansion of Robert de Croyland was then pulled down. Into the inner quadrangle of this cloister court there projected from the middle of its western face a wooden erection some fifteen feet long by fifteen feet wide, built in 1419–24 over what is now the junior combination room, and containing on its upper floor an oratory which opened on to a gallery over the cloisters on that side of the court. A list of the service-books, plate, copes and other vestments, altar-cloths, curtains, gold embroidery, etc., kept in this oratory in 1479 is given in my booklet of 1917 on King’s Hall. The building was small and the Society continued to use All Saints’ church for its more important services.
The desirability of having a chapel large enough [86] ]for all college purposes was obvious, and in 1464 the Society began the erection of such a building, on ground beyond the eastern extension of the cloister court. This new chapel, which covered part of the site of our present chapel, was about a hundred feet long and thirty feet broad, that is roughly half the length of and the same breadth as the present chapel: it was built of stones, squared and supplied ready for use, which according to Caius came from the large banqueting hall of the Castle then being pulled down and probably by purchase from King’s College to whom these materials had been granted. It was wainscotted, and was fitted with stalls and carved woodwork; the high altar, like that of the older oratory, was of wood and the interior walls above the wainscotting were plastered and whitewashed; the sum spent suggests that the fittings were not elaborate. The work was finished in 1499, but probably the chapel was used from 1485 onwards: of course the plate, service-books, etc., were removed to it from the old oratory.
Trinity College, on its foundation in 1546, naturally made use of this chapel, for it was the only one available on the site[22] of the new College. [87] ]It is fairly certain that it was then fitted up with additional seats and probably redecorated
: the provision of a new organ and a new lectern happen to be specifically mentioned.
Edward VI ascended the throne in 1547, and barely had the interior of the chapel of King’s Hall been adapted to the needs of the new foundation than the College was required to remove all popish traces from it. The altar and steps were taken down, and a communion table set up, most likely in the middle of the chapel. The books, copes, vestments, and altar ornaments which had come down from old times were sold: they realized no less than £140. 8s. 8d., and the magnitude of the sum obtained in such unfavourable conditions shows that the services must have been conducted with considerable pomp. There is to-day in the library a standing censer boat, ascribed to the end of the fourteenth century or the early years of the [88] ]fifteenth century, with traces on it of its ancient gilding, but there is no record as to how or when it came to us. King’s Hall did in fact own among its chapel vessels a “ship of silver” which probably means a censer boat, and it may be that this is the vessel in question. With this possible (but doubtful) exception all our medieval chapel plate has gone.
When in 1553 Mary succeeded her brother, the Roman religion was restored, and the chapel again adapted to the old forms of worship. Perhaps remonstrance was made by the master, Bill, who had been appointed in 1551 on Redman’s death and was a strong Anglican: at any rate he was deprived of his office. The expulsion was dramatic and apparently physical, for as he was sitting in his stall in the chapel two members of the House, Mr Boys and Mr Gray, approached and “removed him ... in a rude and insolent way.” Declining any contest he retired to Bedfordshire, and was succeeded as master by Christopherson, the queen’s chaplain and confessor.