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{{Short description|Secret society at the University of Cambridge, UK}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} |
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{{Infobox fraternity |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} |
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|founded={{start date and age|1 April 1820}} |
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|birthplace=[[University of Cambridge]] |
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|affiliation=Independent |
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|scope=Local |
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|status=Unknown |
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|country=United Kingdom |
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|city=[[Cambridge, England]] |
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|free_label=Alternative name |
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|free=Conversazione Society |
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|type=Secret society |
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|emphasis=Debate |
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|chapters=1 |
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}} |
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The '''Cambridge Apostles''' (also known as |
The '''Cambridge Apostles''' (also known as the [[Conversazione]] Society) is (or perhaps was) an intellectual [[society]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] founded in 1820 by [[George Tomlinson (bishop)|George Tomlinson]], a Cambridge student who became the first [[Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe|Bishop of Gibraltar]]. |
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== History == |
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Student [[George Tomlinson (bishop)|George Tomlinson]] founded what he called the [[Conversazione|"Conversazione]] Society" at the [[University of Cambridge]] on 1 April 1820.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Endres |first1=Nikolai |date=2014 |title=Cambridge Apostles |url=http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/cambridge_apostles_S.pdf |access-date=19 September 2021 |website=glbtq Archive}}</ref><ref name="lubenow">W. C. Lubenow, ''The Cambridge Apostles 1820-1914'', Cambridge University Press, 1999.</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Datta |first=Taneesha |date=March 31, 2023 |title=‘A hotbed of vice’: the Cambridge Apostles |url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/25279 |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=Varsity Online |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=The Apostles, up to 1930 |url=https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/the-apostles-up-to-1930 |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=King's College Cambridge |language=en}}</ref> This intellectual society soon was called the Cambridge Apostles because of its twelve original members.<ref name=":3" /> These founding members were it seems [[Tory|Tory,]] [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] students from [[St John's College, Cambridge]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> New members were invited and elected to membership by the extant membership. Membership and activity of the society is secret, but the society met regularly for at least 150 years, and it may still. |
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The Apostles was essentially formed as a [[discussion group]] to explore and debate, in a small group, questions of philosophy, politics, ethics, governance, and religion, inter alia.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Meetings were held once per week, traditionally on Saturday evenings, during which one member would give a prepared talk on a topic (or a question for debate) that was then thrown open for discussion. Members also shared poetry and dance lessons.<ref name=":2" /> In the early 20th century, the Cambridge Apostles were considered by some "as a haven for overt, full-blooded—almost aggressive—[[homosexuality]]."<ref name=":2" /> After reading her son's letters, one Apostle's mother called the group "a hotbed of vice".<ref name=":2" /> |
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==Activities and membership== |
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{{More footnotes needed|section|date=September 2020}} |
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The society is essentially a [[discussion group]]. Meetings are held once a week, traditionally on Saturday evenings, during which one member gives a prepared talk on a topic, which is later thrown open for discussion. |
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The Apostles first admitted women in the 1970s.<ref name=":2" /> As of 2023, the society's annual dinner has become "a somewhat erratic occurrence".<ref name=":2" /> Its last known members graduated from Cambridge in the 1970s, leading one writer to question whether or not the Apostles are still active.<ref name=":2" /> The Apostle's papers, through 1930, are housed at [[King's College, Cambridge]] archives.<ref name=":3" /> |
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The usual procedure was for members to meet at the rooms of those whose turn it was to present the topic. The host would provide refreshments consisting of coffee and sardines on toast, called "whales".<ref name=frances>[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeapostl00broogoog/page/n230 <!-- pg=1 --> Brookfield, Frances Mary. ''The Cambridge "Apostles"'', C. Scribner's Sons, 1907]</ref> Women first gained acceptance into the society in the 1970s. |
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==Traditions == |
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⚫ | The Apostles |
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The members would meet weekly to eat sardines on toast, called whales, and discuss an essay written by a member.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="frances">[[iarchive:cambridgeapostl00broogoog/page/n230|<!-- pg=1 --> Brookfield, Frances Mary. ''The Cambridge "Apostles"'', C. Scribner's Sons, 1907]]</ref> The debate at each meeting was called the discussion on the Hearth Rug because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking if one were present. |
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⚫ | The Apostles retained minutes of meetings, and a leather diary of their membership, the Photo Book, stretching back to its founding. These include handwritten notes about the topics on which each member had spoken.<ref name=":3" /> It was included in the so-called Ark, a cedar chest containing a collection of papers about the topics discussed and the results of the divisions in which those present voted on the proposition nominated for debate.<ref name=":3" /> It was a point of honour that the question voted upon should bear only a tangential relationship to the matter debated.<ref name=":3" /> |
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⚫ | Undergraduates being considered for membership |
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Active members were referred to as Apostles; they called each other Brethren.<ref name=":3" /> After retirement from the society, Apostles had "taken wings" and become Angels.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Undergraduates applied to become Angels after graduating or being awarded a fellowship. Every few years, amid great secrecy, all the Angels were invited to an Apostles' dinner at a Cambridge college. There used to be an annual dinner, usually held in London.<ref name="King's">{{cite web|url=https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/online-resources/online-exhibitions/a-cambridge-secret-revealed-the-apostles|title=A Cambridge secret revealed: The Apostles|publisher=King's College, Cambridge|date=January 2011|accessdate=19 May 2023}}</ref> |
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Former members have spoken of the lifelong bond they feel toward one another. [[Henry Sidgwick]], the philosopher, wrote of the Apostles in his memoirs that "the tie of attachment to this society is much the strongest corporate bond which I have known in my life." |
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== Membership == |
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⚫ | [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[G. E. Moore]] joined as students, as did [[John Maynard Keynes]], who invited [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] to join |
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There are only twelve members at any given time, and membership is secret.<ref name=":2" /> |
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⚫ | Membership consisted largely of undergraduates, but there have been graduate students and members who already have held university and college posts. The society traditionally drew most of its members from [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's]], [[St John's College, Cambridge|St John's]], [[Jesus College, Cambridge|Jesus]], [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity]] and [[King's College, Cambridge|King's]] Colleges. Although, in the 20th century, the majority of its members came from King's College and Trinity.<ref name=":3" /> Women first were elected into the society in the 1970s,<ref name=":2" /> though the question "Should we like to elect women" was put (and the division upon it apparently won) at a much earlier meeting.<ref name=":3" /> |
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⚫ | Undergraduates being considered for membership were called embryos and were invited to embryo parties, where members judged whether the student should be invited to join.<ref name=":2" /> The embryos attended these parties without knowing they were being considered for membership. Becoming an Apostle involved taking an oath of secrecy and listening to the reading of a curse, originally written by Apostle [[Fenton John Anthony Hort]], the theologian, in or around 1851.{{cn|date=July 2023}} |
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== Notable members == |
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⚫ | {{Main|List of Cambridge Apostles members}}[[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Alfred Tennyson]] joined the Apostles in 1829, probably through the invitation of his friend [[Arthur Hallam]]. [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[G. E. Moore]] joined as students, as did [[John Maynard Keynes]], who invited [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] to join. Russell had been worried that Wittgenstein would not appreciate the group's unseriousness and style of humour. He was admitted in 1912 but resigned almost immediately because he could not tolerate the level of the discussion on the Hearth Rug (the matter for debate at any given meeting, so called because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking, should such a rug be present); he also had trouble tolerating the discussions in the Moral Sciences Club. He rejoined in the 1920s when he returned to Cambridge. |
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[[Soviet]] spies [[Anthony Blunt]], [[Guy Burgess]] and [[John Cairncross]], three of the [[Cambridge Five]], and [[Michael Straight]] were all members of the Apostles in the early 1930s. |
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== References == |
== References == |
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{{reflist |
{{reflist}} |
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== Bibliography == |
== Bibliography == |
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{{refbegin}} |
{{refbegin}} |
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* {{cite book|title=The Cambridge Apostles: The Early Years|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeapostle0000alle|url-access=registration|last=Allen|first=Peter|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1978|isbn=978-0-521-21803-0}} |
* {{cite book|title=The Cambridge Apostles: The Early Years|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeapostle0000alle|url-access=registration|last=Allen|first=Peter|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1978|isbn=978-0-521-21803-0}} |
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* {{cite book|title=The Cambridge Apostles: A History of Cambridge University's Elite Intellectual Secret Society|last=Deacon|first=Richard| |
* {{cite book|title=The Cambridge Apostles: A History of Cambridge University's Elite Intellectual Secret Society|last=Deacon|first=Richard|author-link=Donald McCormick|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=1986|isbn=978-0-374-11820-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeapostle0000deac}} |
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* {{cite book|title=Moore: G. E. Moore and the Cambridge Apostles|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|last=Levy|first=Paul| |
* {{cite book|title=Moore: G. E. Moore and the Cambridge Apostles|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|last=Levy|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Levy (journalist)|year=1980|isbn=978-0-03-053616-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/moore00paul}} |
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{{refend }} |
{{refend }} |
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{{Bloomsbury Group}} |
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{{University of Cambridge}} |
{{University of Cambridge}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
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Revision as of 09:58, 15 July 2024
Cambridge Apostles | |
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Founded | 1 April 1820 University of Cambridge |
Type | Secret society |
Affiliation | Independent |
Status | Unknown |
Emphasis | Debate |
Scope | Local |
Chapters | 1 |
Alternative name | Conversazione Society |
Headquarters | Cambridge, England United Kingdom |
The Cambridge Apostles (also known as the Conversazione Society) is (or perhaps was) an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.
History
Student George Tomlinson founded what he called the "Conversazione Society" at the University of Cambridge on 1 April 1820.[1][2][3][4] This intellectual society soon was called the Cambridge Apostles because of its twelve original members.[4] These founding members were it seems Tory, evangelical Anglican students from St John's College, Cambridge.[3][4] New members were invited and elected to membership by the extant membership. Membership and activity of the society is secret, but the society met regularly for at least 150 years, and it may still.
The Apostles was essentially formed as a discussion group to explore and debate, in a small group, questions of philosophy, politics, ethics, governance, and religion, inter alia.[3][4] Meetings were held once per week, traditionally on Saturday evenings, during which one member would give a prepared talk on a topic (or a question for debate) that was then thrown open for discussion. Members also shared poetry and dance lessons.[3] In the early 20th century, the Cambridge Apostles were considered by some "as a haven for overt, full-blooded—almost aggressive—homosexuality."[3] After reading her son's letters, one Apostle's mother called the group "a hotbed of vice".[3]
The Apostles first admitted women in the 1970s.[3] As of 2023, the society's annual dinner has become "a somewhat erratic occurrence".[3] Its last known members graduated from Cambridge in the 1970s, leading one writer to question whether or not the Apostles are still active.[3] The Apostle's papers, through 1930, are housed at King's College, Cambridge archives.[4]
Traditions
The members would meet weekly to eat sardines on toast, called whales, and discuss an essay written by a member.[3][5] The debate at each meeting was called the discussion on the Hearth Rug because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking if one were present.
The Apostles retained minutes of meetings, and a leather diary of their membership, the Photo Book, stretching back to its founding. These include handwritten notes about the topics on which each member had spoken.[4] It was included in the so-called Ark, a cedar chest containing a collection of papers about the topics discussed and the results of the divisions in which those present voted on the proposition nominated for debate.[4] It was a point of honour that the question voted upon should bear only a tangential relationship to the matter debated.[4]
Active members were referred to as Apostles; they called each other Brethren.[4] After retirement from the society, Apostles had "taken wings" and become Angels.[3][4] Undergraduates applied to become Angels after graduating or being awarded a fellowship. Every few years, amid great secrecy, all the Angels were invited to an Apostles' dinner at a Cambridge college. There used to be an annual dinner, usually held in London.[6]
Membership
There are only twelve members at any given time, and membership is secret.[3]
Membership consisted largely of undergraduates, but there have been graduate students and members who already have held university and college posts. The society traditionally drew most of its members from Christ's, St John's, Jesus, Trinity and King's Colleges. Although, in the 20th century, the majority of its members came from King's College and Trinity.[4] Women first were elected into the society in the 1970s,[3] though the question "Should we like to elect women" was put (and the division upon it apparently won) at a much earlier meeting.[4]
Undergraduates being considered for membership were called embryos and were invited to embryo parties, where members judged whether the student should be invited to join.[3] The embryos attended these parties without knowing they were being considered for membership. Becoming an Apostle involved taking an oath of secrecy and listening to the reading of a curse, originally written by Apostle Fenton John Anthony Hort, the theologian, in or around 1851.[citation needed]
Notable members
Alfred Tennyson joined the Apostles in 1829, probably through the invitation of his friend Arthur Hallam. Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore joined as students, as did John Maynard Keynes, who invited Ludwig Wittgenstein to join. Russell had been worried that Wittgenstein would not appreciate the group's unseriousness and style of humour. He was admitted in 1912 but resigned almost immediately because he could not tolerate the level of the discussion on the Hearth Rug (the matter for debate at any given meeting, so called because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking, should such a rug be present); he also had trouble tolerating the discussions in the Moral Sciences Club. He rejoined in the 1920s when he returned to Cambridge.
Soviet spies Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and John Cairncross, three of the Cambridge Five, and Michael Straight were all members of the Apostles in the early 1930s.
References
- ^ Endres, Nikolai (2014). "Cambridge Apostles" (PDF). glbtq Archive. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- ^ W. C. Lubenow, The Cambridge Apostles 1820-1914, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Datta, Taneesha (31 March 2023). "'A hotbed of vice': the Cambridge Apostles". Varsity Online. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "The Apostles, up to 1930". King's College Cambridge. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ Brookfield, Frances Mary. The Cambridge "Apostles", C. Scribner's Sons, 1907
- ^ "A Cambridge secret revealed: The Apostles". King's College, Cambridge. January 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
Bibliography
- Allen, Peter (1978). The Cambridge Apostles: The Early Years. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21803-0.
- Deacon, Richard (1986). The Cambridge Apostles: A History of Cambridge University's Elite Intellectual Secret Society. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-11820-4.
- Levy, Paul (1980). Moore: G. E. Moore and the Cambridge Apostles. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-053616-8.