Cambridge Camden Society
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The Cambridge Camden Society, known from 1845 (when it moved to London) as the Ecclesiological Society,
During its 20-year lifespan, the Cambridge Camden Society and its journal influenced virtually every aspect of the
The society was founded by undergraduate students at
Sources and inspiration
The society's "ecclesiology" was an idea about both architecture and worship, inspired by the associationism of the
When, in 1833
Beginnings
The Cambridge Camden Society began in May 1839 as a club for Cambridge undergraduates who shared a common interest in Gothic church design.[4] Its first activities were the collection of information about churches across the island. The amount of knowledge obtained from travellers' visits to and careful measurements of long-forgotten parish churches was immense and led to the publication of A Few Hints on the Practical Study of Ecclesiological Antiquities. This handbook contained "A Blank form for the Description of a Church", which was a checklist of medieval architectural elements one could use to examine a church. This checklist was not only a useful tool for the investigator, but served as a database of knowledge for the society, and was constantly updated with more detailed information sent from country churches. Thus the Cambridge Camden Society amassed an enormous amount of information about medieval parish churches and came to be seen as an authority on religious architecture. Nor was this attribution misplaced. The society's vigour in examining and defining every detail of the medieval church was enormous, so much so that its magazine, the Ecclesiologist published both heated debates about the usage of small slits dubbed "lychnoscopes" that were observed in some churches and an invention called an "Orientator" that allowed one to determine whether or not a church faced exactly East. The motive for these extraordinarily scrutinising investigations was the society's unshakeable belief that man could regain the piety of the Middle Ages by carefully reconstructing them.
A Few Words to Church-builders
In 1841 the society published a pamphlet entitled A Few Words to Church-builders, summarising its ideas about what a modern church should be. It consisted of 32 pages with an appendix of 22 pages. In the first edition they recommended the
The Ecclesiologist
The popularity of the Cambridge Camden Society's handbook soon led some churchwardens to seek advice on how to restore their dilapidated buildings. These solicitations were enthusiastically answered and the Cambridge Camden Society's mission changed from mere antiquarianism to architectural consultation. The society's advice soon found a forum in The Ecclesiologist, the Cambridge Camden Society's newsletter, the first issue of which was first published in October 1841.[7] The publication began as "a periodical report of the society, primarily addressed to, and intended for the use of, the members of that body".[8] Because of the authority the society wielded in architectural matters, however, it soon published architectural criticism. The newsletter reviewed over one thousand churches in its twenty-year span and never hesitated to lambast both a building and its architect for anything inconsistent with its view of the "middle pointed" (i.e. Decorated).
As often as not, the Society's verdict on an architect's work was determined as much by his personal life as his building design. Although
The Society's favourite, however, was undoubtedly William Butterfield. The architect was a man of tremendous religious conviction who refused to build for Roman Catholics. Despite his frequent infringements of the rules set out by The Ecclesiologist, Butterfield retained a special status with the Society which culminated in its high praise of All Saints, Margaret Street, around the corner from Wells Street. Despite numerous violations of its principles, such as his use of brick, expressly forbidden by The Ecclesiologist, the Society went so far as to bankroll Butterfield's church. Although the Cambridge Camden Society claimed to be solely concerned with architecture, its criticism and praise of designers was often based as much on their personal convictions as it was on Gothic correctness.
The Ecclesiologist was also the vehicle by which the Cambridge Camden Society launched its two most important campaigns, the abolition of
Piety and theology
Members of the society also published books such as the Hierugia Anglicana, which sought to prove that medieval Catholic ritual had lived on in the Anglican Church past the Reformation and was therefore a proper way to offer worship. Another important work was The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments, also known by the name of the medieval author who inspired it, Durandus. In this book, Neale and Webb sought to prove that absolutely every architectural element of the medieval church building was religiously symbolic and represented Christian piety and thought well above that of the 19th century. The work also proclaimed that church architects must "take a religious view of their profession" and that "we do protest against the merely business-like spirit of the modern profession, and demand from them a more elevated and directly religious habit of mind".[13] Although nominally scholarly, these persuasive works were quite obviously intended to further the society's own philosophical and theological viewpoints.
The theological doctrines espoused by the Cambridge Camden Society were never gentle and the society had many critics, both religious and architectural. Members of the Anglican Church detested the "popish" and "romanising" tendencies they saw in the Ecclesiologist's judgements while Catholics such as Pugin resented the idea that the Roman Church had lost its piety and vigour. Because the Society's doctrines were so closely related to the Oxford Movement, it also drew heavy criticism from the anti-Tractarianists. The Cambridge Camden Society had a clever smokescreen to avoid addressing such attacks, however. Its bylaws forbad theological debate, insisting that the Society was solely architectural in its mission. Thus although its leaders put forth a definite theological position, they could never be charged with direct meddling in Church matters. This defence worked most of the time, but it did not lessen the hatred many had for the Society's disguised theological agenda. Likewise, many architects despised the Society for its intolerance of creative freedom. Self-righteous outbursts like the Ecclesiologist's assertion that "it is no sign of weakness to be content to copy acknowledged perfection: it is rather a sign of presumption to expect to rival it in any other way" did little to win over its architectural enemies. Despite this, the Cambridge Camden Society and its Ecclesiologists never really lost a battle with its critics, aside from its forced removal from Cambridge to London in 1845 after an attack by anti-tractarianists. The society had so successfully won over the architectural community that when it disbanded in 1868, most felt that it had done everything it had set out to accomplish.
Results
In the end, the Cambridge Camden Society's accomplishments were so pervasive that they have often been taken for granted. Historian James F. White states that "even buildings built in contemporary styles, with few exceptions, use the liturgical arrangement developed over a century ago by the Cambridge Camden Society. Here, many have felt, is the 'correct' way of building churches, and thousands of parishes all over have adapted their worship to fit this variety of building." Pews bought by money have vanished entirely thanks to the Society's campaign and chancels have been a normal feature in Neo-Medieval churches since the 1860s.
Although the Society did not win the Anglican Church over so wholly
Although a society of undergraduate students could hardly be expected to change the very nature of church building and worship across the world, the Cambridge Camden Society came very near to doing so. Incubated in Architectural Associationism, Romantic notions of the Middle Ages, and the Oxford reform movement, the Society sought to return England to its medieval past, and in its quest helped to rediscover the beauty of Gothic architecture and to rejuvenate the Anglican Church.
The last issue of The Ecclesiologist in 1868 was able to claim, with some truth, that "we have the satisfaction of retiring from the field victors".
Publications of the Society
- The Ecclesiologist (1841–1869)
- A Few Words to Churchwardens on Churches and Church Ornamentation (1842)
- A Few Words to Church-builders
- Twenty-three Reasons for Getting Rid of Church Pues
References
- ^ a b History of the Society Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, Ecclesiological Society.
- ^ Neale, J. M. (1844). The Place where Prayer was Wont to be Made: the re-introduction of the system of private devotion in churches considered in a letter to the venerable the president of the Cambridge Camden Society. Rugeley: John Thomas Walters. p. 20.
- ISBN 978-0-429-57616-4.
- ISBN 0-19-280693-9.
- ISBN 0719502330.
- ^ A Few Words to Church-builders. Cambridge: University Press (for the Cambridge Camden Society). 1841. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- Archive.org.
- ^ The Ecclesiologist, vol. 1 (1841), p. 1.
- ^ Curtis, William JR (24 April 2012). "Augustus Pugin (1812-1852)". Architectural Review. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
- ^ The Ecclesiologist, vol. 7 (1847), p. 91.
- ^ Phoebe B. Stanton,The Gothic revival & American church architecture: an episode in taste, 1840, page 128.
- ^ "The History of Pues, by John Mason Neale". anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
- ^ "The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments". anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
Sources
- White, James F., The Cambridge Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
- Fontaney, Pierre (ed.), Le Renouveau Gothique en Angleterre. Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 1989.