The College Chapel, as it appears to-day, is described in many of the guide-books which are pressed on the casual traveller in Cambridge. I am not here concerned with the accounts of it there given, for in this paper I intend to deal with little beyond its history and traditions.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the present chapel was built under the auspices of the Tudor queens, Mary and Elizabeth, on the site of the old chapel of King’s Hall. Let me begin by tracing briefly the history of these successive buildings, and their connection with college developments.

King’s Hall owed its origin to the establishment of scholars in the University of Cambridge by Edward II in 1317, and was put on a permanent footing by EdwardIII in 1337. The original home of the Society was a large two-storeyed house, built of wood and thatched, bought from Robert deCroyland, and situated on the ground now occupied by the walks and grass plot in front of the chapel. No chapel or oratory was connected with it, and the [85] Society worshipped in All Saints’ church which then stood on the green in Trinity Street facing our present chapel.

In 1375 the College began the erection on the ground to the north and west of its house of a larger building comprising a cloister court with various extensions. The west side of this court, some hundred and twenty feet long, is still standing and faces the bowling green: the other three sides and the extensions have been destroyed. These buildings were of three storeys, built of stone, brick, or rubble, and tiled: they were finished about 1438, and the old mansion of Robert deCroyland was then pulled down. Into the inner quadrangle of this cloister court there projected from the middle of its western face a wooden erection some fifteen feet long by fifteen feet wide, built in 1419–24 over what is now the junior combination room, and containing on its upper floor an oratory which opened on to a gallery over the cloisters on that side of the court. A list of the service-books, plate, copes and other vestments, altar-cloths, curtains, gold embroidery, etc., kept in this oratory in 1479 is given in my booklet of 1917 on King’s Hall. The building was small and the Society continued to use All Saints’ church for its more important services.

The desirability of having a chapel large enough [86] for all college purposes was obvious, and in 1464 the Society began the erection of such a building, on ground beyond the eastern extension of the cloister court. This new chapel, which covered part of the site of our present chapel, was about a hundred feet long and thirty feet broad, that is roughly half the length of and the same breadth as the present chapel: it was built of stones, squared and supplied ready for use, which according to Caius came from the large banqueting hall of the Castle then being pulled down and probably by purchase from King’s College to whom these materials had been granted. It was wainscotted, and was fitted with stalls and carved woodwork; the high altar, like that of the older oratory, was of wood and the interior walls above the wainscotting were plastered and whitewashed; the sum spent suggests that the fittings were not elaborate. The work was finished in 1499, but probably the chapel was used from 1485 onwards: of course the plate, service-books, etc., were removed to it from the old oratory.

Trinity College, on its foundation in 1546, naturally made use of this chapel, for it was the only one available on the site²² of the new College. [87] It is fairly certain that it was then fitted up with additional seats and probably redecorated: the provision of a new organ and a new lectern happen to be specifically mentioned.

EdwardVI ascended the throne in 1547, and barely had the interior of the chapel of King’s Hall been adapted to the needs of the new foundation than the College was required to remove all popish traces from it. The altar and steps were taken down, and a communion table set up, most likely in the middle of the chapel. The books, copes, vestments, and altar ornaments which had come down from old times were sold: they realized no less than £140. 8s. 8d., and the magnitude of the sum obtained in such unfavourable conditions shows that the services must have been conducted with considerable pomp. There is to-day in the library a standing censer boat, ascribed to the end of the fourteenth century or the early years of the [88] fifteenth century, with traces on it of its ancient gilding, but there is no record as to how or when it came to us. King’s Hall did in fact own among its chapel vessels a “ship of silver” which probably means a censer boat, and it may be that this is the vessel in question. With this possible (but doubtful) exception all our medieval chapel plate has gone.

When in 1553 Mary succeeded her brother, the Roman religion was restored, and the chapel again adapted to the old forms of worship. Perhaps remonstrance was made by the master, Bill, who had been appointed in 1551 on Redman’s death and was a strong Anglican: at any rate he was deprived of his office. The expulsion was dramatic and apparently physical, for as he was sitting in his stall in the chapel two members of the House, Mr Boys and Mr Gray, approached and “removed him ... in a rude and insolent way.” Declining any contest he retired to Bedfordshire, and was succeeded as master by Christopherson, the queen’s chaplain and confessor.

Mary recognized the interest taken by her father in Trinity and, in furtherance of his design, decided to rebuild the College on a comprehensive plan. She issued orders about this on 24October 1554, and it was arranged in 1555 that the first large task undertaken in connection with it should be the erection of a new chapel. Preliminary work on this [89] was commenced in 1556 and it was then expected that the building would be finished by the end of 1557, but by October of that year the walls were only half-way up: delays ensued and ten years elapsed before the building was completed. The old chapel was unroofed in 1561, and cannot, it would seem, have been used after that date: it is possible it was shut up in the course of 1557, but early in that year it was still in use, for the royal commissioners in January 1557 complained of the absence of lights on the altar and of coals to cense the sacrament. During the years from the closing of the old chapel to 1567 it is uncertain whether the services were held in College or in one of the town churches.

It was originally intended that the new chapel should be a hundred and fifty-seven feet long and thirty-three feet broad, the east end being flush with the street frontage of the Great Gate. The roof was to be curved, open, and relieved with fretwork and oak pendants. There was to be an east window, a west window, eleven windows on the south side, and twelve on the north side from which it follows that it was to be a detached building save for its abutment on staircase E in the Great Court.

It was designed to contain two rows of stalls made after the pattern of those at King’s College, sixty-eight in the upper row with misereres, divided by [90] pillars, and with double crests above, and a lower row of stalls not so divided. Unfortunately the contractor got into money difficulties and sold much of the timber which had been bought for the intended roof and stalls, causing the work to fall into arrear.

After the accession of Elizabeth, changes in the plans of the new chapel were made, the length being increased to two hundred and five feet, thus making it project beyond the east side of the Great Court. In 1564 the walls of the building were finished and plastered, and the date 1564 cut on the east gable together with the text from the Vulgate, Matthew xxi.13, Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur, which in the authorized version runs: “My house shall be called the house of prayer” and is followed by the clause “but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Wags have sometimes continued the inscription by adding the second clause on the chapel either of Trinity or of StJohn’s as their inclinations led them. The roof, put on in 1565, is of a style earlier than this date, and Willis came to the conclusion that it is the actual roof of the old chapel of King’s Hall supplemented by additional timber to fit it for the larger building: I like to think that we still worship under the roof which sheltered our predecessors more than four centuries ago.

In the year last mentioned, 1565, the stones [91] for the pavement were brought from Croyland Abbey and maybe some are still there. In the next year the interior fittings were taken in hand, and the organ screen erected. In the following year, 1567, the windows were glazed with white glass bearing inscriptions, coats of arms, and heraldic badges such as the fleur-de-lys, portcullis, and rose: the organ (a small instrument) and the pulpit were moved from the old chapel, and the stalls put in. It would seem that the wainscotting and wall-seats in the present antechapel are of this date, and possibly came from King’s Hall. Moving from west to east in the completed building there were in succession an antechapel sixty-five feet long, an organ-screen eight feet deep, the chapel seats along some seventy feet, a space of twenty-four feet, the communion table, and a space of thirty-six feet free of encumbrances. The work was finished by Michaelmas, 1567. There is no record of the building having been consecrated.

Mary died in 1558, and on 20November, the Sunday following the proclamation of Elizabeth, Bill, the former master of the College, preached at StPaul’s Cross in London; the next Sunday, his successor Christopherson preached there. Probably the men disliked one another, and certainly took different views of the position. Some scandal was caused, an the upshot of the affair was that [92] Christopherson was sent to prison, while Bill returned to Cambridge, restored to the mastership.

Bill, a discreet courtier, was a favourite at court, and held, under Elizabeth’s favour, the provostship of Eton and the deanery of Westminster together with the mastership of Trinity; it was probably due to his influence that Elizabeth in 1560 issued a commission to procure materials and labour for completing the chapel which had been begun on her sister’s initiative. Baker praised his prudence and temper while master, and added that “if he has shown any frailties or failings here, allowances must be made for difficult times and potent courtiers that are not easily resisted.” In my opinion the services to the College of its first three masters, Redman, Bill, and Christopherson, were of the greatest value, and have hardly received that recognition from posterity which they deserve.

On Bill’s death, the crown offered the mastership to Beaumont, a calvinist whose views were more pronounced than Cecil supposed at the time of the appointment. Beaumont sympathized with the puritan party, whose numbers in the University were now rapidly increasing, but did little to guide them or to check their intolerance which constantly offended public opinion.

The description of the windows in the new chapel does not suggest that figures or catholic symbols [93] appeared thereon, but, none the less, the “malcontents” thought them objectionable and in November 1565, broke “all the windows wherein did appear superstition.” In the same term occurred the famous surplice disturbance²³. The puritans objected to the use of the surplice in chapel on Sundays, Saints’ days, and their eves, and on a certain “Sunday (in Dr Whitgift’s absence), Mr Cartwright and two of his adherents made three sermons on one day in the chapel so vehemently inveighing against the ceremonies of the church that at evening prayer all the scholars save three [together with one of the chaplains] (viz. Dr Leg, Mr West, Whitaker’s tutor, and the chaplain) cast off their surplices as an abominable relic of superstition”—a curious illustration of how little the calvinists esteemed the value of academic discipline unless they exercised it themselves. The organization of this demonstration was attributed to Cartwright, their leader in the University and a fellow of the College; it was probably due to the disapproval of his conduct in this and similar matters that shortly afterwards he went out of residence for two or more years.

Beaumont died in 1567 and at his request was buried “with no vain jangling of bells nor any other popish ceremonies” in the new chapel, his being [94] the first interment in it. He is commemorated by a carving (somewhat difficult to detect) of his face on the tenth principal in the chapel roof reckoned from the east end—it is lettered R.B.Mr. He was succeeded by Whitgift and the result of the subsequent bitter struggle between him and the puritans settled the constitution and policy of the University till the middle of the nineteenth century, but the battle was mainly fought in the senate-house and in London, and is not specially connected with our chapel.

Alterations to the organ were made in 1594, and elaborate hangings placed in the organ loft in 1604. Thenceforward repairs and reconstructions of the organ followed one another every few years. The history of the instrument has been published in pamphlet form, and I shall not again refer to its successive enlargements. The west window was blocked up about this time owing to the removal of King Edward’s Tower to its present position.

There is an account of college doings in chapel in 1635 in the following memorandum sent to Laud, and endorsed by him as embodying matter which he intended to examine during an intended visit to Cambridge in September 1636.

In Trinity College, they have been long noted to be negligent of the chapel and of prayers in it; the best come [95] but seldom, and by their example the rest make small account of service. In some tutors’ chambers (who have three or four score pupils), the private prayers are longer and louder by far at night than they are at Chapel in the evening. Some fellows are there, who scarce see the inside of the chapel thrice in a year, nor public hall, nor StMary’s Church, and (they say) impugn all.

A quire is there founded for Sundays and holydays, but the quiremen are so negligent and unskilful, that, unless it be an anthem, they often sing the hymns no otherwise than in the common psalmerie tune. And to mend the matter, they have divers dry choristers (as they call them), such as never could and never meane to sing a note, and yet enjoy, and are put in to take the benefit of those places professedly. They have a large chapel, and yet the boyes rows of pews are placed just in the middle of the chapel, before and behind the Communion-table, which some there are about to reform.

They lean, or sit, or kneele at prayers, everyone in a several posture as he pleases. At the name of Jesus few will bow, and when the creed is repeated, many of the boyes, by some men’s directions, turn towards the west door. Their surplices and song-books, and other furniture for divine service, is very mean. The cloth that lies upon the table not worth 14d. He that executes, steps over the exhortation and begins, Wherefore I pray and beseech you,&c. They use no Litany for the most part, but in Lent only, and in Lent only upon Sundays, and when they say it, it is at the Communion-table. They repeat not the Creed after the Gospel, and instead of the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, they will at pleasure (sometimes when the quiremen are present) sing the 23rd or some other riming Psalm.... They have lately taken advice, and are about mending their chapel, if it holds.

Fellows ... (when of the degree of M.A.) and fellow-commoners, [96] take themselves generally to have a privilege to miss prayers, as well as the public table of the hall. From hence it comes to pass, that so many of that ranke are to be founde at those times, either in taverns and towne-houses, or at some other pleasant imployments, where they please.

Whether all this was true or not we cannot say, but at any rate in the following year, 1636, the College spent a considerable sum on alterations and decorations in the chapel. The communion table was removed to the east end and the ground there raised, a pavement of stone and marble laid down, the walls were panelled, and rich hangings provided. CharlesI, with his son the prince of Wales, visited the chapel in March 1642, and was much pleased therewith: we read at this time of candlesticks, tapers, and a crucifix on the altar; other references show that the ritual was high.

The next year 1643 saw a great change, for the parliamentary party secured control of the town and district. The order compelling the use of the surplice on certain days was now rescinded, and under Dowsing the chapel was purged, the altar steps levelled, the altar taken away, and a wooden communion table without rails set up in the middle of the chapel; the organ and hangings were removed; and certain figures, painted on the walls at the east end whitewashed. The zealots did not think the reforms had gone far enough, but [97] no other changes were forced on the College, and a few months later the Society made a money present “to some of Major Scot’s souldiers who defended the chappell from the rudenesse of the rest.” A few years later, on 12March 1647, Sir Thomas Fairfax then in command of the district came, and was received “in great state ... in the Chapel, he was presented with a rich bible, and in the hall with a sumptuous banquet”—a pleasant combination.

At the restoration, the original altar of 1643 was recovered and replaced at the east end, a screen of rich mosaic work erected behind it, and as far as practicable the chapel restored to its former appearance. Doubtless, however, practices continued which to-day would strike us as unseemly, for I notice that in 1665 “it was agreed that Dod have the place of keeping the dogs out of the chapel.”

In the early years of the eighteenth century the condition of the fabric caused anxiety; after only a little more than a century’s wear the roof was found to be in a dangerous condition, and a portion of one of the external walls in danger of falling. It was determined to place the building, inside as well as outside, in thorough repair. Work began in 1706 and was nearly thirty years in progress. The fellows and a few friends subscribed a large part of the cost, and the rest was paid out of corporate [98] income. In the plan adopted, which is associated with the names of Bentley and Cotes, the east window was blocked, and the present stalls, baldachino, organ-screen, and wainscotting erected: the design of the latter is excellent of its kind, though not altogether suited to the architecture of the building. Some of the old stalls are said to have been removed to StMichael’s church, and the tradition may be accepted as probable. Later in the century, 1787–88, the roof was painted in white and gold.

The number of residents in College in the early half of this century was small, and probably the chapel was in regular use during most of its restoration. A trivial incident at this time afforded some amusement. Complaints had been made that Bentley—an illustrious scholar, genuinely interested in promoting learning, but as master of Trinity arrogant, unscrupulous, and dishonest—never went to chapel though required to do so by the statutes. This was true enough, and he determined to silence his critics by appearing again. But so long had he been absent that the door of his stall had got fixed and could not be opened till the lock had been wrenched off.

Prof. Hughes has called my attention to some unpublished notes²⁴ by a friendly visitor about the [99] chapel services on Saturday and Sunday evenings in the fourth decade of the eighteenth century. The writer says that interpolated in the evening prayers were elaborate musical performances sometimes involving two symphonies²⁵ and two anthems in which the choir, organ, and six violins took part; he also repeats more than once that the building was crowded [by strangers] and the noise so great that little of the service could be heard. Thus, to quote one instance, under date of 28May 1738, he writes:

This evening I was at Trinity Colledge Chapple where there was so great a crowd that nothing could be heard of the whole service, I could see the Readers lips go, but, not so much as heare the least sound of his voice, and when Dr Walker read the 2d Leason could I only heare the sound of his voice but not to distinguish one word. There was great difference in the Musick part from what used to be, for the symphony was first by the Organ and then by 6 violins in 3parts to all which the Organ was the base. After the reading the first and 2nd Lessons, 3men sang the [blank] to which the Choire was the Corus. Before the Prayer for the King there was another Symphony by the Organ, & Violins, and the Anthem was Sung by one man, to which the choir was likewise the chorus.

Throughout most of the eighteenth century, a good many of the fellows resident in Cambridge held livings in the vicinity. They were accustomed to ride out on Sunday to their cures, hold services, [100] and return home to a comfortable supper the same evening, but in general neglected their parishes during the rest of the week. Thus if a parishioner died, the funeral was deferred till the following Sunday; and if a marriage-service was to be held in the village, it had to wait for a free Sunday. In these circumstances the bride and bridegroom often settled the matter by coming into Cambridge for the ceremony, and during the first half of this century our chapel was constantly borrowed for such marriage services; after the Marriage Act of 26 GeorgeII, cap.33, this use of it became illegal unless a special license were obtained. Since that Act, it has been used only once for such a purpose, namely, for the marriage of Miss Butler on 18December 1901.

Coming to the nineteenth century, we have numerous notes about the chapel and the services. At the beginning of this period the author of Alma Mater (J.M.F.Wright, who commenced residence in 1817) gives an unfavourable account of the services, saying that they were gabbled through as fast as possible amid a great deal of talking. The first part of this statement may be correct, but as to the second probably conversation was rare, and such as took place, though not condemned by public opinion, was subdued and was held only in recesses, one of which was known as iniquity corner. In fact, [101] we may take it that the vast majority of the undergraduates acted as gentlemen though they attended chapel reluctantly and merely as a matter of discipline. Attendance was required at seven o’clock in the morning, not a convenient hour, albeit considerably later than that usual in Tudor times.

In 1831 the fabric was again thoroughly repaired, the roof redecorated, certain stalls elevated, desks at the east end constructed, and a new scheme of lighting by candelabra introduced. A few years later, in 1838, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Undergraduates concerned themselves with marking the attendance of fellows in chapel. That incident I have described elsewhere.

In 1867–75 the building was again thoroughly overhauled, the south side faced with stone, a porch, a new vestry, and a choir-room built, the organ screen moved a few feet westward, the walls and roof painted, gilding used freely on the panelling, the windows filled with stained glass, backed benches and kneeling stools introduced for undergraduates, and the building lighted with gas. During part of the time occupied by this restoration, the College used StMichael’s church as its chapel.

According to the scheme of decoration, adopted on the advice of Lightfoot and Westcott, if we proceed eastwards up the chapel we are supposed to note, in order, the frescoes on the walls (which [102] represent old testament heroes and teachers) and paintings on the roof (which illustrate the Benedicite), leading up through Jewish history to the birth of Christ, and then, returning westward, to have suggested to us, by the successive windows, the historical development of Christianity and the growth of learning particularly in the University and College. A man might worship many years in the chapel before he discovered this design.

The panels in the sacrarium are replaced by intarsia work in which all the woods used are of their natural colours. The sixteenth-century silver cross on the communion table came from Spain. The wrought-iron gas standards here and through the chapel are also worthy of note; fortunately they were allowed to remain when the electric light was introduced. All this, as well as the scheme of decoration of the antechapel, is described in guide-books with more or less accuracy.

Probably the services were never rendered more effectively than in the years following this restoration. Attendance on Sunday evening was required unless absentees could urge conscientious or other good reasons for exemption, but a large proportion of those who might have obtained exemption did, in fact, take part in the Sunday services. More benches were placed in the chapel than are there now, and the building, with every seat occupied and [103] everyone (save a few privileged visitors) in a surplice, presented a most impressive scene. Electric light was introduced in 1893, and has added much to the comfort of congregations in winter evenings.

In former days members of the Society who died in College were not infrequently buried in the chapel—a shocking thing to permit in a building in constant use, though sanctioned by the custom of many centuries. There are a good many tombstones scattered over the floor, and copies of all the inscriptions have been published. I wonder how many members of the Society know that among those here buried is one woman, bearing the strange Christian name of Elismar. The last interment in the chapel took place in October 1886, and further burials are now forbidden unless sanctioned by the Home Office.

The building has always been used for various secular purposes, such as elections to scholarships and fellowships; the admission of scholars, fellows, and officers; the affixing of the College seal to documents, and the delivery of declamations by students. Within recent years lectures in the antechapel and an oration in the chapel have been delivered. I believe the view that a church or chapel is intended only for the performance of religious services is modern and unwarranted by history: at any rate our records give no authority for it.