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Cambridge Camden Society
The Cambridge Camden Society, known from 1845 (when it moved to London) as the Ecclesiological Society, was a learned society founded in 1839 to promote "the study of Gothic Architecture, and of Ecclesiastical Antiques". Its activities came to include publishing a monthly journal, The Ecclesiologist, advising church builders on their blueprints, and advocating a return to a medieval style of church architecture in England, known as Gothic Revival architecture. At its peak influence in the 1840s, the society had over 700 members, including bishops of the Church of England, deans at the University of Cambridge, and Members of Parliament. The society and its publications enjoyed wide influence over the design of English churches throughout the 19th century, and are often known as the ecclesiological movement.
During its 20-year lifespan, the Cambridge Camden Society and its journal influenced virtually every aspect of the Anglican Church and almost single-handedly reinvented the architectural design of the parish church. The group was responsible for launching some of the first earnest investigations of medieval church design and through its publications invented and shaped the "science" of ecclesiology, the theological study of the Christian church. Throughout its lifetime, all of the Society's actions had one goal: to return the Church as a whole, and the individual church buildings of England, to the religious splendour of the Middle Ages. As well as aesthetic arguments, a number of theological arguments for the unique appropriateness of the Gothic to church buildings were promoted. The Cambridge Camden Society held tremendous influence in the architectural and ecclesiastical worlds because of the success of this argument: that the corruption and ugliness of the 19th century could be escaped by the earnest attempt to recapture the piety and beauty of the Middle Ages.
The society was founded by undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge, and took its original name from that place and from the 16th-century antiquary and historian William Camden. It fell into abeyance soon after 1868, but was re-established in 1879 as the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society, before reverting to the name the Ecclesiological Society in 1937. Under that name it still exists, with its focus now on church history and historic church architecture.
The society's "ecclesiology" was an idea about both architecture and worship, inspired by the associationism of the Gothic Revival and reform movements within the Anglican Church. Beginning as far back as Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, Gothic architecture was used to associate a building with certain attractive aspects of the Middle Ages. For the early revivalists, this attractiveness was the picturesque quality of the architecture. However, the Middle Ages had always had a strong association with religious piety. The Anglican Church of the early 19th century was a languishing body, filled with corruption among the clergy and a lack of respect among the parishioners.
When, in 1833 John Henry Newman began the Oxford Movement, or Tractarianism, a renewal of theology, ecclesiology, sacraments, and liturgical practices within the Anglican Church, all of the pieces were in place for the inception of the Cambridge Camden Society. Its founders, John Mason Neale, Alexander Hope, and Benjamin Webb, formed the society with the belief that by using Church reform in conjunction with piety of Gothic architecture, England could recapture the religious perfection of the Middle Ages. Their idealism is clear in one of the society's early letters: "We know that [medieval] Catholick ethics gave rise to Catholick architecture; may we not hope that, by a kind of reversed process, association with Catholick architecture will give rise to Catholick ethics?" The Ecclesiologists earnestly believed that medieval men were "more spiritually-minded and less worldly-minded" than were those of the modern world and that it was their duty to help return England to its former piety.
The Cambridge Camden Society began in May 1839 as a club for University of Cambridge undergraduates who shared a common interest in Gothic church design. 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.
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 early English style for small chapels and the decorated or perpendicular for larger ones, but by the third edition of 1844 (29 pages only) they were unreservedly recommending the Decorated style. The two essential parts of a church were a nave, and a well-defined chancel not less than a third of the length of the nave. Aisles were recommended, because a tripartite church symbolised the Holy Trinity, but a single aisle was acceptable, if that was all funds permitted. A tower could be in any position, except over the altar, but was not essential. Stone should be used, not brick, flint being perfectly acceptable. The chancel to be was strictly for the clergy, and no laity should enter. It should be raised at least two steps above the nave, and the altar should also be raised. Chancel and nave should be separated by a roodscreen, "that most beautiful and Catholick appendage to a church". This was a radical recommendation–the pamphlet points out that not one modern church had such a screen. The author also had a liking for sedilia and aumbries. The font must be in the nave and near a door. Seating should not be in closed pews, but open benches or chairs, and galleries were inadmissible.
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. The publication began as "a periodical report of the society, primarily addressed to, and intended for the use of, the members of that body". 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).
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Cambridge Camden Society
The Cambridge Camden Society, known from 1845 (when it moved to London) as the Ecclesiological Society, was a learned society founded in 1839 to promote "the study of Gothic Architecture, and of Ecclesiastical Antiques". Its activities came to include publishing a monthly journal, The Ecclesiologist, advising church builders on their blueprints, and advocating a return to a medieval style of church architecture in England, known as Gothic Revival architecture. At its peak influence in the 1840s, the society had over 700 members, including bishops of the Church of England, deans at the University of Cambridge, and Members of Parliament. The society and its publications enjoyed wide influence over the design of English churches throughout the 19th century, and are often known as the ecclesiological movement.
During its 20-year lifespan, the Cambridge Camden Society and its journal influenced virtually every aspect of the Anglican Church and almost single-handedly reinvented the architectural design of the parish church. The group was responsible for launching some of the first earnest investigations of medieval church design and through its publications invented and shaped the "science" of ecclesiology, the theological study of the Christian church. Throughout its lifetime, all of the Society's actions had one goal: to return the Church as a whole, and the individual church buildings of England, to the religious splendour of the Middle Ages. As well as aesthetic arguments, a number of theological arguments for the unique appropriateness of the Gothic to church buildings were promoted. The Cambridge Camden Society held tremendous influence in the architectural and ecclesiastical worlds because of the success of this argument: that the corruption and ugliness of the 19th century could be escaped by the earnest attempt to recapture the piety and beauty of the Middle Ages.
The society was founded by undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge, and took its original name from that place and from the 16th-century antiquary and historian William Camden. It fell into abeyance soon after 1868, but was re-established in 1879 as the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society, before reverting to the name the Ecclesiological Society in 1937. Under that name it still exists, with its focus now on church history and historic church architecture.
The society's "ecclesiology" was an idea about both architecture and worship, inspired by the associationism of the Gothic Revival and reform movements within the Anglican Church. Beginning as far back as Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, Gothic architecture was used to associate a building with certain attractive aspects of the Middle Ages. For the early revivalists, this attractiveness was the picturesque quality of the architecture. However, the Middle Ages had always had a strong association with religious piety. The Anglican Church of the early 19th century was a languishing body, filled with corruption among the clergy and a lack of respect among the parishioners.
When, in 1833 John Henry Newman began the Oxford Movement, or Tractarianism, a renewal of theology, ecclesiology, sacraments, and liturgical practices within the Anglican Church, all of the pieces were in place for the inception of the Cambridge Camden Society. Its founders, John Mason Neale, Alexander Hope, and Benjamin Webb, formed the society with the belief that by using Church reform in conjunction with piety of Gothic architecture, England could recapture the religious perfection of the Middle Ages. Their idealism is clear in one of the society's early letters: "We know that [medieval] Catholick ethics gave rise to Catholick architecture; may we not hope that, by a kind of reversed process, association with Catholick architecture will give rise to Catholick ethics?" The Ecclesiologists earnestly believed that medieval men were "more spiritually-minded and less worldly-minded" than were those of the modern world and that it was their duty to help return England to its former piety.
The Cambridge Camden Society began in May 1839 as a club for University of Cambridge undergraduates who shared a common interest in Gothic church design. 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.
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 early English style for small chapels and the decorated or perpendicular for larger ones, but by the third edition of 1844 (29 pages only) they were unreservedly recommending the Decorated style. The two essential parts of a church were a nave, and a well-defined chancel not less than a third of the length of the nave. Aisles were recommended, because a tripartite church symbolised the Holy Trinity, but a single aisle was acceptable, if that was all funds permitted. A tower could be in any position, except over the altar, but was not essential. Stone should be used, not brick, flint being perfectly acceptable. The chancel to be was strictly for the clergy, and no laity should enter. It should be raised at least two steps above the nave, and the altar should also be raised. Chancel and nave should be separated by a roodscreen, "that most beautiful and Catholick appendage to a church". This was a radical recommendation–the pamphlet points out that not one modern church had such a screen. The author also had a liking for sedilia and aumbries. The font must be in the nave and near a door. Seating should not be in closed pews, but open benches or chairs, and galleries were inadmissible.
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. The publication began as "a periodical report of the society, primarily addressed to, and intended for the use of, the members of that body". 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).
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