Corpus Christi College Cambridge

The religious origin of the colleges is keenly felt in the name of Corpus Christi College on Trumpington Street. The college is located in an area around the market square in the city centre that was once part of St. Bene’t Parish, which a street name remembers. Interestingly, Corpus Christi is the only college that was not founded thanks to a private endowment or state donation, but through the efforts of a few stubborn private citizens.

Only slightly bigger than Peterhouse in terms of the number of students, Corpus Christi is the eighth oldest college. Two guilds, Corpus Christi and Blessed Virgin Mary, merged in 1352 and decided to build a college to train priests who were being decimated by the plague. Edward III granted their request and construction began four years later. They controlled everything from the design to who was admitted. The Old Court and Parker Library would be the fruits of their labours by the end of the XIVth Century

As you enter through the gate, you step into the New Court. A chapel faces you inviting you in. Via a passage on the northwest corner of the New Court, you can access the Old Court, much of which goes back to 1356; a walk around will bring the past out of its shadowy recesses. St Bene’t Church that sits next door lost its role as the college chapel in 1500. In 1827, William Milkins, an alumnus of Gonville and Caius College and who would proceed to add many more buildings to other colleges, built a New Court. His design was focused around the Parker Library.

Thanks to Matthew Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 to 1575, the college is quite wealthy, but with a few strings attached. His 1574 bequest of silver and manuscripts would be forsaken if the college lost just one piece or page. The true treasures are in the Parker Library, which is globally renowned for its collection of hundreds of priceless historical documents, examples of which are the St. Augustine’s Gospels from the VIth Century, works in Old English by Saint Bede from the VIIIth Century and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.

Around the corner is the Eagle Pub, owned by the college, which was the site of some of the deliberations by Watson and Crick over the structure of DNA. One of the college’s more famous alumni was the playwright, Christopher Marlowe who graduated in 1580 but sadly died young in 1593, although Corpus Christi legend will also try to convince you that he was a spy. A few scary anecdotes, probably to be taken lightly: the ghost of Henry Butts, a master of the college who remained in his position while the plague raged outside, and the haunted Leckhampton House.

Although it is considered by students and Dons alike sacraladge, I do feel to clear the air of any confusion, I must mention to the general public, that there is in fact a college of the same name at "the other place" in Oxford.

Official Site for Corpus Christy College, Cambridge University