Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi College names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Corpus Christi College a college of Cambridge University
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a college of Cambridge University, England, founded in 1352, when, by reason of the plague, many churches in England were left without priests. To help meet this need two guilds of Cambridge, St. Mary and Corpus Christi, united to found a college to educate clergymen. The members of this college held the services in St. Benet's church, hence the college was known as Benet College. In 1827 its official name was changed to Corpus Christi. In the reigns of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth, the master of the college was Archbishop Parker, to whom it is chiefly inde indebted for the valuable collection of monastic records in its possession which were donated to the college upon the dissolution of the monasteries. A large and interesting collection of plate is another of its valuable assets. The main building of the college stands practically the same as it did when erected in the 14th century. Among its many distinguished alumni were the dramatists Marlowe and Fletcher. The college consists of master and 33 fellows, in addition to about 100 undergraduates.
Corpus Christi College a college of Oxford University
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a college of Oxford University, England, founded in 1516, when the humanist movement in Europe was at its height. Its foundation and the provisions governing it are notable in the intellectual history of the university. Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, and Bishop Oldham, of Exeter, were the founders. It was the first college in England to break away from the old scholastic traditions and to establish an endowed chair in Greek. It also admitted all members of the university to the lectures. For these measures, as well as for the emphasis placed on the humanistic studies, it won high praise from Erasmus. Among its many distinguished graduates were Thomas Arnold, Hooker, and Nicholas Udall, the author of the first English comedy. Its present foundation provides for a president, ent. 14 fellows, 27 scholars, and a number of undergraduates. In 1913 the number of the latter was 89, but the war reduced their numbers considerably.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biggest change is one Collier's could not have imagined in 1921: both colleges, then all-male, now admit women — Oxford's Corpus from 1979 and Cambridge's from 1983 — and each now houses several hundred undergraduates and graduates rather than the "about 100" and "89" cited. Collier's note that the Cambridge main building "stands practically the same as it did when erected in the 14th century" still holds: Old Court is generally called the oldest continuously inhabited courtyard in Cambridge, and it was joined in 2008 by the Corpus Clock, or "Chronophage," unveiled by Stephen Hawking on the college's Bene't Street frontage. Archbishop Parker's manuscripts remain the college's treasure, now catalogued and digitised in the Parker Library; among them is the sixth-century St Augustine Gospels, still carried at the enthronement of Archbishops of Canterbury. At Oxford, the humanist foundation Erasmus praised is still marked by its strength in classics and philosophy.
Written for this edition, 2026.