Christ Church, Oxford Totally Explained

Everything about Christ Church Oxford totally explained

Christ Church (Latin: Ædes Christi, the temple or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The cathedral has a famous men and boys' choir, and is one of the main choral foundations in Oxford. It was founded as the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford; a house of the Augustinian canons, but was suppressed as a monastic church under Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries.
   Christ Church has traditionally been seen as the most aristocratic college in Oxford. It has produced thirteen British prime ministers (the two most recent being Anthony Eden from 1955 to 1957 and Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963–1964), which is more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college (and two short of the total number for the University of Cambridge, fifteen). However today the proportion of undergraduates from maintained and independent schools is roughly equal, which is typical of most Oxford colleges.
   The college is the setting for parts of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, as well as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. More recently it has been used in the filming of the movies of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and also the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel Northern Lights (the film bearing the title of the US edition of the book, The Golden Compass). Distinctive features of the college's architecture have been used as models by a number of other academic institutions, including the National University of Ireland, Galway, which reproduces Tom Quad. The University of Chicago and Cornell University both have reproductions of Christ Church's dining hall (in the forms of Hutchinson Hall and Risley's dining hall respectively). Christ Church Cathedral, New Zealand, after which the City of Christchurch is named, is itself named after Christ Church, Oxford.
   Christ Church is also partly responsible for creation of University College Reading, which later gained its own Royal Charter and became the University of Reading.
   As of 2006 the college has an estimated financial endowment of £229m.

Organisation

Christ Church, formally titled The Dean, Chapter and Students of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry the Eighth, is the only college in the world which is also a cathedral, the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Oxford. The Visitor of Christ Church is the reigning British Sovereign, and the Bishop of Oxford is unique among English bishops in not being the visitor of his own cathedral.
The head of the college is the Dean of Christ Church, who is a clergyman appointed by the Crown as dean of the cathedral church. There is a Senior and a Junior Censor (formally titled the Censor Moralis Philosphiæ and the Censor Naturalis Philosophiæ) the former of whom is responsible for academic matters, the latter for undergraduate discipline. A Censor Theologiæ is also appointed to act as the Dean's deputy.
The form "Christ Church College" is considered incorrect, in part because it ignores the cathedral, although it has historically been acceptable.

Governing Body

The Governing Body of Christ Church consists of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral, together with the Students of Christ Church, who are not students, but rather the equivalent of the Fellows of the other colleges. Until the nineteenth century, the Students differed from Fellows by the fact that they'd no governing powers in their own college.

History

In 1525, at the height of his power, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York, suppressed the Abbey of St Frideswide in Oxford and founded Cardinal College on its lands, using funds from the dissolution of Wallingford Priory. He planned the establishment on a magnificent scale, but fell from grace in 1529, before the college was completed.
   In 1531 the college was itself suppressed, and refounded in 1532 as King Henry VIII's College by Henry VIII, to whom Wolsey's property had escheated. Then in 1546 the King, who had broken from the Church of Rome and acquired great wealth through the dissolution of the monasteries in England, refounded the college as Christ Church as part of the re-organisation of the Church of England and made it the cathedral of the recently created diocese of Oxford.
   Christ Church's sister college in the University of Cambridge is Trinity College, Cambridge, founded the same year by Henry VIII. Since the time of Queen Elizabeth I the college has also been associated with Westminster School, which continues to supply a significant number of undergraduates to the college.
   Major additions have been made to the buildings through the centuries, and Wolsey's Great Quadrangle was crowned with the famous gate-tower designed by Sir Christopher Wren. To this day the bell in the tower, Great Tom, is rung 101 times at 9 p.m. Oxford time (9:05 p.m. GMT/BST) every night for the 100 original scholars of the college (plus one added in 1664). In former times this signalled the close of all college gates throughout Oxford. Although the clock itself now shows GMT/BST, Christ Church still follows Oxford time in the timings of services in the cathedral. King Charles I made the Deanery his palace and held his Parliament in the Great Hall during the English Civil War. In the evening of May 29, 1645, during the second siege of Oxford, a "bullet of IX lb. weight" shot from the Parliamentarians warning-piece at Marston fell against the wall of the north side of the Hall.

Student life

As well as rooms for accommodation, the buildings of Christ Church include the cathedral, one of the smallest in England, which also acts as the college chapel, a great hall, two libraries, two bars, and common rooms for dons, graduates and undergraduates. There are also gardens and a neighbouring sportsground and boat-house.
   Accommodation is usually provided for all undergraduates, and for some graduates, although some accommodation is off-site. Accommodation is generally spacious with most rooms equipped with sinks and fridges. Many undergraduate rooms comprise 'sets' of bedrooms and living areas. Members are generally expected to dine in hall, where there are two sittings every evening, one informal and one formal (where jackets, ties and gowns are worn and Latin grace is read). The buttery next to the Hall serves drinks around dinner time. There is also a college bar (known as the Undercroft), as well as a Junior Common Room (JCR) and a Graduate Common Room (GCR).
   There is a college lending library which supplements the university libraries (many of which are non-lending). Law students have the additional facility of the college law library, which has received large financial supplements from Christ Church law graduates. Most undergraduate tutorials are carried out in the college, though for some specialist subjects undergraduates may be sent to tutors in other colleges. Croquet is played in the Masters' Garden in the summer. The sports ground is mainly used for cricket, tennis, rugby and soccer. Rowing and punting is carried out by the boat-house across Christ Church Meadow. The college owns its own punts which may be borrowed by students or dons.
   The college beagle pack, which was formerly one of several undergraduate packs in Oxford, is no longer formally connected with the college or the university, but continues to be staffed and followed by undergraduates from across Oxford.
   In June 2005, for the first time in 15 years, Christ Church held a white-tie Commemoration ball.

Buildings

Christ Church has a number of architecturally significant buildings. These include:

Christ Church Library
Peckwater Quadrangle
The Great Quadrangle or Tom Quad including Tom Tower
Blue Boar Quadrangle
Canterbury Quadrangle
Christ Church Hall
The Meadow Building
Christ Church Cathedral
Christ Church Picture Gallery

Cathedral Choir

The Choir, which is unique in the world as both a Cathedral and College Choir, comprises twelve men and sixteen boys together with two organists. Six of the men are professionals (the lay clerks), and six are undergraduates (the academical clerks). The boys, whose ages range from eight to thirteen, are chosen for their musical ability and attend Christ Church Cathedral School.
Throughout its history, the Choir has attracted many distinguished composers and organists - from its first director, John Taverner, appointed by Cardinal Wolsey in 1526, to William Walton. The present director of music (known as the Organist), is Stephen Darlington. In recent years, the Choir has commissioned recorded works by contemporary composers such as John Tavener, William Mathias and Howard Goodall.
The Choir, which broadcasts regularly, has many award-winning recordings to its credit and was recently the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary, Howard Goodall's Great Dates. The film was nominated at the prestigious Montreux TV Festival in the Arts Programme category - and has since been seen throughout the world. The Choir's collaboration with Goodall has also led to their singing his TV themes for Mr Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. They appeared in Howard Goodall's Big Bangs, broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 in March 2000.

Coat of arms

The college arms, adopted (as with those of most Oxford colleges) apparently without authority, are those of Cardinal Wolsey, and are blazoned: Sable, on a cross engrailed argent, between four leopards' faces azure a lion passant gules; on a chief or between two Cornish choughs proper a rose gules barbed vert and seeded or. The arms are depicted beneath a red cardinal's hat with fifteen tassels on either side, and sometimes in front of two crossed croziers.
There are also arms in use by the cathedral, which were confirmed in a visitation of 1574. They are emblazoned: Between quarterly, 1st & 4th, France modern (azure three fleurs-de-lys or), 2nd & 3rd, England (gules in pale three lions passant guardant or), on a cross argent an open Bible proper edged and bound with seven clasps or, inscribed with the words "In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum" and imperially crowned or.

Grace

Before formal Hall each evening, an abbreviated Latin grace is recited by a scholar or exhibitioner of the House:
� Nōs miserī hominēs et egēnī, prō cibīs quōs nōbis ad corporis subsidium benignē es largītus, tibi, Deus omnipotēns, Pater cælestis, grātiās reverenter agimus; simul obsecrantēs, ut iīs sobriē, modestē atque grātē ūtāmur.

� Per Iēsum Christum Dominum nostrum.

Literally translated this means:
� We wretched and needy men, for the food which you've kindly bestowed on us for the sustenance of our bodies, to you, almightly God, heavenly father, we give thanks with reverence; at the same time we beseech thee that we consume it with sobriety, moderation and gratitude.

� Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The remainder of the grace, replacing Per Iēsum Christum, etc., is usually only read on special occasions:
� Īnsuper petimus, ut cibum angelōrum, vērum panem cælestem, verbum Deī æternum, Dominum nostrum Iēsum Christum, nōbis impertiāris; utque illō mēns nostra pascātur et per carnem et sanguinem eius fovēāmur, alāmur, et corrōborēmur..

There is also a similarly long formal grace intended for use after meals, but this is rarely heard. Instead, when High Table rises, by which time the Hall is largely empty, the senior don simply says Benedictō benedīcātur.

Christ Church references

"Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it's All Souls' Night..." — W B Yeats, All Souls' Night, Oxford (1920)
   "The wind had dropped. There was even a glimpse of the moon riding behind the clouds. And now, a solemn and plangent token of Oxford's perpetuity, the first stroke of Great Tom sounded." — Max Beerbohm, Chapter 21, Zuleika Dobson (1922)
   "I must say my thoughts wandered, but I kept turning the pages and watching the light fade, which in Peckwater, my dear, is quite an experience -- as darkness falls the stone seems positively to decay under one's eyes. I was reminded of some of those leprous facades in the vieux port at Marseille, until suddenly I was disturbed by such a bawling and caterwauling as you never heard, and there, down in the little piazza, I saw a mob of about twenty terrible young men, and do you know what they were chanting We want Blanche. We want Blanche! in a kind of litany." — Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1945)
   "Those twins / Of learning that he [Wolsey] raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue." — William Shakespeare, Henry VIII "By way of light entertainment, I should tell the Committee that it's well known that a match between an archer and a golfer can be fairly close. I spent many a happy evening in the centre of Peckwater Quadrangle at Christ Church, with a bow and arrow, trying to put an arrow over the Kilcannon building into the Mercury Pond in Tom Quad. On occasion, the golfer would win and, on occasion, I'd win. Unfortunately, that had to stop when I put an arrow through the bowler hat of the head porter. Luckily, he was unhurt and bore me no ill will. From that time on he always sent me a Christmas card which was signed 'To Robin Hood from the Ancient Briton'" — Lord Crawshaw, House of Lords Hansard, Tuesday 8 Jul 1997

Deans of Christ Church

Notable members

Listed alphabetically by surname (or peerage if best known by that). Prime Ministers

George Canning (1770—1827), Prime Minister

Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799—1869), Prime Minister

Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (1903—1995), Prime Minister

Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (1897—1977), Prime Minister

William Ewart Gladstone (1809—1898), Prime Minister

George Grenville (1712—1770), Prime Minister

William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (1759—1834), Prime Minister

Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1770—1828), Prime Minister

Sir Robert Peel (1788—1850), Prime Minister

William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738—1809), Prime Minister

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, (1847—1929), Prime Minister

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (1792—1878), Prime Minister

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830—1903), Prime Minister

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (1737—1805), Prime Minister Arts and media

Sir Harold Acton (1904—1994) writer and scholar

Sir Thomas Armstrong (1898—1994), musician

W. H. Auden (1907—1973), poet

Sir Adrian Boult (1889—1983), conductor

Kenneth Barnes (1878—1957), Director of R.A.D.A.

Robert Burton (1577—1640), writer of 'The Anatomy of Melancholy'

Lewis Carroll (1832—1898), (real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), writer, clergyman and mathematician

Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886—1959), Antarctic explorer and writer

Laurence Cummings — conductor, organist, harpsichordist

Richard Curtis (1956—), comedy writer

David Dimbleby (1938—), broadcaster

Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1938—1988), art patron

Geoffrey Faber (1889—1961), publisher

Michael Flanders (1922—1975), actor, writer and broadcaster

Peter Fleming (1907—1971), traveller and writer

Howard Goodall (1958—), composer and broadcaster

Bryan Guinness 2nd Lord Moyne (1905—1992) poet and brewer.

Desmond Guinness (1931—), conservationist and author.

Richard Hakluyt (1552—1616), writer

Anthony Howard (1934—), journalist and broadcaster

Sir Ludovic Kennedy (1919—), broadcaster and writer

Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775—1818), novelist and dramatist

Harry Lloyd (1983—), actor

S. P. B. Mais (1885—1975), author, journalist and broadcaster

Sir John Masterman (1891—1977), academic, sportsman, author and spymaster

Norman Painting (1924—), radio actor

Hugh Quarshie (1954—), actor

John Ruskin (1819—1900), critic, poet and artist

Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586), poet and soldier

Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope(1805—1875), founder of the National Portrait Gallery

J. I. M. Stewart (Michael Innes) (1906—1994), literary critic and novelist

Donald Swann (1923—1994), composer, musician and entertainer

John Taverner (1490—1545), composer

Sir William Walton (1902—1983), composer

James Twining (1972-), novelist

Peter Warlock (1894—1930), composer and critic

Auberon Waugh (1939—2001), author and journalist Politics and government

Sir Antony Acland (1930—), Head of the Diplomatic Service

Jonathan Aitken (1942—), Conservative politician

Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (1768—1854), soldier and politician

Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster (1927—), Head of the Civil Service

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928—1979), Pakistani statesman

George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (1753—1813), statesman

Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell (1886—1957), physicist and cabinet minister

Alan Clark (1928—1999), politician and diarist

Frederick Curzon, 7th Earl Howe, prominent Conservative Party statesman, was Defence Minister, Agriculture Minister, among others

Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester (1757—1829), Speaker of the House of Commons

William Dowdeswell (1721—1775), Chancellor of the Exchequer

Tom Driberg, Baron Bradwell (1905—1976), politician and writer

John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville (1690—1763), diplomat and statesman

Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (1815—1891), politician and Foreign Secretary

Quintin McGarel Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone (1907—2001), Lord Chancellor

Michael Hicks-Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn (1837—1916), Chancellor of the Exchequer

Edward (Ted) Bigelow Jolliffe (1909—1998), Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley (1826—1902), politician and Foreign Secretary

Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson (1932—), politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer

Francis Godolphin Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds (1759—1799), politician and Foreign Secretary

Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806—1863), writer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary

Edward Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford (1902—1961)

Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (1905—2001), politician and social reformer

Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons (1817—1877), diplomat

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705—1793), Lord Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Exchequer

Sir Gilbert Murray (1866—1957), classical scholar and diplomat

Edward Eliot, 3rd Earl of St Germans (1798—1877), politician

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury (1946—), Conservative politician

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801–1885), politician and philanthropist

Roger Mellor Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield (1904—1996), diplomat

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (Born 1988), Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and son of Benazir Bhutto Philosophy

Sir Alfred Ayer (1910—1989), philosopher

John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683—1744), philosopher

Sir Michael Dummett (1925—), philosopher

John Locke (1632—1704), philosopher

John Rawls, (1921—2002), philosopher

Gilbert Ryle (1900—1976), philosopher

John Searle (1932—), philosopher

Daniel Dennett (1942-), philosopher Theology

Adam Blakeman (1596—1665), preacher and American settler

Percy Dearmer (1867—1936), priest and liturgist

Trevor Huddleston (1913—1998), Archbishop of Mauritius and anti-Apartheid campaigner

Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800—1882), churchman and progenitor of the Oxford Movement

John Macquarrie (1919—2007), Christian Existentialist

Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499—1562), theologian

Eric Lionel Mascall (1905—1993), Anglo-Catholic theologian

Charles Wesley (1707—1788), Methodist preacher and hymnist

John Wesley (1703—1791), leader of the Methodist movement

Rowan Williams (1950—), Archbishop of Canterbury Viceroys and Governors General

William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst (1773—1857), Governor-General of India

George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784—1849), politician and Governor-General of India

Lord William Bentinck (1774—1839), soldier and Governor-General of India

Charles John Canning, 1st Earl Canning (1812—1862), politician and Governor-General of India

James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (1812—1860), politician and Governor-General of India

Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826—1902), Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India

James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin (1811—1863), Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India

Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (1881—1959), Foreign Secretary and Viceroy of India

Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto (1751—1814), politician and Governor-General of India

Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826—1904), Viceroy of India and First Lord of the Admiralty

Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (1760—1842), Foreign Secretary and Governor-General of India Academia

Robert Blake, Baron Blake (1916—2003), historian

Robert Burchfield (1923—2004) scholar, writer, and lexicographer

William Camden (1551—1623), antiquarian and historian

Richard Carew (1555—1620), translator and antiquary

Sir Raymond Carr (1919- ), historian

Sir William Deakin (1913—2005), historian and diplomat

Edmund Gunter (1581—1626), mathematician

Sir Roy Harrod (1900—1978), economist

Sir Michael Howard (1922—), historian

Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones (1922- ) classical scholar

Jan Morris (1926—), writer and historian

Prince Dmitriy Obolensky (1918—2001), historian

A. L. Rowse (1903—1997), historian

Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre (1914—2003), historian Science

Sir Joseph Banks (1743—1820), botanist

William Buckland (1784—1856), geologist, palaeontologist and omnivore

Sir Richard Doll (1912—2005), epidemiologist

Albert Einstein (elected to a 5-year research studentship in 1931)

John Freind (1675—1728), physician and chemist

Sir Archibald Garrod (1857—1936), physician and pioneer molecular geneticist

Robert Hooke (1635—1703), scientist and inventor

John Kidd (1775—1851), physician, chemist and geologist

Sir John Maddox (1925—), science writer

Sir Martin Ryle (1918—1984, radio astronomer

Sir Francis Simon (1893—1956), physicist

Sir Denys Wilkinson (1922—), nuclear physicist

Thomas Willis (1621—1675), physician and neurologist

Sir Martin Wood (1927—), engineer Other

John Boyd (1718-1800), art collector and sugar merchant

James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797—1868), Soldier and Commander of the Light Brigade at Balaclava

Edward VII of the United Kingdom (1841—1910), King-Emperor

William Penn (1644—1718), founder of Pennsylvania

Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford (1893—1971) Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Air Staff, Second World War See also and

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